Cruise ship due back in NJ port after illness sickens hundreds on board

BAYONNE, N.J. – A cruise ship on which hundreds of passengers and crew members have fallen ill is due back in the New Jersey port it departed from last week.

A spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says the Explorer of the Seas is due to dock this afternoon in Bayonne.

The Royal Caribbean ship had to cut short a 10-day cruise after more than 600 passengers and crew members fell ill with vomiting and diarrhea.

Officials from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention boarded the ship during its U.S. Virgin Islands port call to investigate the illness.

But tests have not yet confirmed the cause.

The ship’s medical team has said the symptoms were consistent with norovirus.

The ship left Bayonne Jan. 21.