P&O Cruises ship stomach bug issue not new, passengers say

On 20 April, Marie, from Nottinghamshire, boarded Ventura with her husband for a 10-day cruise around Spain, Portugal and France.

“For the first few days, the buffet was not self service and staff were serving you all your food,” the 70-year-old said.

She said a crew member told her there had been an outbreak of a stomach bug on a previous cruise.

Restrictions were lifted after three days, she told the BBC.

But after a day in Santander, Spain, Marie said she began to feel unwell with sickness, diarrhoea and was passing out.

She said the ship’s medical centre told her she was too ill to stay on board and she was taken to a hospital in Lisbon where she was told she had “acute gastroenteritis”.

Her condition worsened and she developed sepsis and kidney failure, she said, adding: “I nearly didn’t make it. They told my husband I was very, very ill.”

Marie spent six days in hospital on antibiotics before flying home on 3 May.

She said she believed she had “definitely” picked up the bug on the ship but that P&O would not acknowledge it.