Cruise-ship passengers on a luxury two-week voyage around the South Pacific 'struck down by gastro'

People have been sick on the cruise, the paper reported, with passenger Ray McNamara saying there had been "a really bad case of gastro". Photo / iStock

A luxury cruise ship sailing around the South Pacific has reportedly seen an outbreak of a stomach bug.

The Golden Princess South Pacific left Melbourne for the South Pacific on March 8 and is expected to dock back at the Australian port on Tuesday, according to the Herald Sun.

People have been sick on the cruise, the paper reported, with passenger Ray McNamara saying there had been "a really bad case of gastro".

Golden Princess will arrive in New Zealand this week.

According to the Ports of Auckland cruise ship schedule it will dock at Queens Wharf, in downtown Auckland, on Saturday morning.

The ship will sail to Tauranga in the evening.

The latest reported outbreak comes after gastro struck down passengers on a 12-day Princess cruise from Sydney in early February.

The cruise to New Zealand had around 4000 guests on board and more than 150 passengers came down with the bug in the final days of the cruise.

Norovirus affects people in confined environments and people can be infected by food, by touching food and by not properly handling the foods, clinical academic gastroenterologist Dr Vincent Ho told Daily Mail Australia recently.

'Norovirus, although the initial source is likely from food, it might be from people joining the ship, for example, people coming onto the ship or people touching one another,' he said.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Princess Cruises for comment.

- Daily Mail