Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Seas Returns to Cape Liberty, New Jersey

Explorer of the Seas is on track to return home from its 10-day cruise at 2 p.m. Wednesday. The number of reported new cases of gastrointestinal illness has dropped sharply after a spike in the first days of the cruise, and most guests who fell ill are up and about.

After returning today a thorough “barrier” sanitization program will be performed on the entire ship to make certain that any remaining traces of the illness are eliminated. It will be the third aggressive sanitizing procedure the ship has undertaken since we became aware of the issue, and will additionally provide a window of more than 24 hours where there are no persons aboard the ship, which is a significant help. Royal Caribbean has said that guests scheduled for the next cruise on Explorer of the Seas can be confident that all possible measures will have been taken to prevent further problems.