The parent company of Carnival Cruise Line, Carnival Corporation, is one of the world’s biggest cruise companies and is no stranger to the media. Earlier this year, Carnival Corporation made news after settling a $2.4 million “cruise from hell” lawsuit that saw passengers bunkered in their cabins. Meanwhile, Carnival Cruise Line itself just slashed loyalty benefits on the Carnival Miracle, leading many long-time fans to wonder if more cuts are on the way.
However, one of the latest fiascos from the Carnival Corporation brand doesn’t involve Carnival Cruise Line directly. Carnival Corporation owns a number of other popular cruise lines, including Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, P&O Cruises, and Costa Cruises, among others.
The latter, Costa Cruises, is an Italian cruise line. Notably, it made international headlines for the Costa Concordia disaster on January 13, 2012. The ship carrying more than 4,000 passengers and crew struck rocks and capsized off the coast of Giglio Island in the Tyrrhenian Sea in Tuscany, Italy. 32 people died, and the captain was later sentenced to 16 years in prison after being found guilty of manslaughter, shipwreck, and abandoning ship.
Fast-forward to May 2025, and Costa Cruises’ most recent drama involves something entirely different. The Carnival Corporation-owned cruise line came under fire for putting local residents and businesses in Scotland’s Shetland Islands at risk of a potential public health crisis.
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Costa Cruises Allowed Potentially Contagious Passengers To Crowd A Small Town
Carnival Corporation-owned Costa Cruises recently sparked outrage among local citizens and businesses in Scotland’s remote Shetland Islands for allowing passengers to disembark for shore excursions, despite a sickness outbreak on board. Thousands of passengers exposed to a stomach bug, suspected to be gastroenteritis, were permitted to disembark the 290-meter-long Costa Favolosa, which docked in Lerwick, the Shetland Islands’ capital.
The Costa Favolosa was on a seven-day Northern European voyage from Hamburg, Germany, before arriving in Lerwick, Shetland, on May 20. Passengers had reported “mild gastrointestinal illness” symptoms, and while some on board were being treated, others were still allowed to leave the ship for shore excursions in Shetland even though they had potentially been exposed.
Costa Favolosa passengers were permitted to leave the ship in Lerwick for shore excursions to see the archipelago’s famous prehistoric and Norse attractions (Shetland is globally famed for its Neolithic and Viking history and archaeological sites, as well as its annual Up Helly Aa Viking festival). But local operators were quick to cancel tours and activities when they noticed something wasn’t right.
Bus tour companies had lined up by the dock to receive passengers for island tours, the majority of whom were from continental Europe, but then refused to transport the guests after they witnessed some of them vomiting profusely.
Cruise passengers were already sitting on tour buses when operators, J & DS Halcrow and R. Robertson and Son, were told about quarantines aboard the Costa Favolosa. Sonia Robertson, managing director of R. Robertson and Son bus company, said that a guest left a tour bus to be “violently sick three times”. Ms Robertson said it was “ridiculous” that the tour bus companies were warned about the outbreak only once passengers were already on their buses.
“Something like this could have crippled the whole company and affect a lot of our staff and services,” she added, as reported by The Times
Upon witnessing the cruisers’ symptoms, all island tours were canceled for fear of contagion.
Costa Favolosa Ship Information
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Length: |
951.5 feet / 290 meters |
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Weight: |
114,500 gross tons |
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Capacity: |
3,800 passengers |
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No. of Cabins: |
1,506 |
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Home Port: |
Genoa, Italy |
Lerwick Residents And Business Owners Felt A “Complete Disregard For The Local Community’s Safety”
With shore excursions canceled, almost 3,000 illness-exposed cruise passengers were then allowed to wander around Lerwick town center, home to a population of around 7,500 people.
At first, residents and business owners weren’t aware of the outbreak on the Costa Favolosa; businesses in the town only learned that passengers had been taken ill with suspected gastroenteritis after they had already been permitted off the ship to explore the town in the wake of the canceled excursions.
Residents and business owners became worried about the potential for a major public health crisis. Celia Smith, owner of Blyde Welcome, a coffee shop in Lerwick, told The Shetland Times that locals had “absolutely no warning” of the breakout on board the Costa Favolosa. She also expressed her frustration over the “complete disregard for the local community’s safety” after passengers had descended upon Lerwick’s shops, as Shetland News reported.
“The front part of our shop is really quite small and it was really busy and quite cramped. We were all in close proximity so we’re worried somebody might catch it – then you’ll see the ripple effect through the community”, Ms Smith explained.
“We could’ve been better prepared, we could’ve had more sanitizers and some businesses had face masks”, she added
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Shetland Authorities Claim Costa Cruises Didn’t Report The Outbreak, But It Denies Any Wrongdoing
The Italian-registered cruise line was slammed for allegedly failing to notify authorities of the vessel’s health emergency; both the Lerwick Port Authority and NHS Shetland claimed they were not informed of any public health issues before the cruise ship’s arrival on May 20.
The Lerwick Port Authority expressed that “vessels calling at the harbor are required to declare any concerns relating to passenger health”, but Costa Cruises allegedly failed to do so.
“[The authority] was not notified of any passenger ill-health on board the cruise ship Costa Favolosa” — The Lerwick Port Authority
Initially, NHS Shetland said that its Health Protection and Environmental Health Teams had not been informed of any illness on board the cruise ship prior to its arrival in Lerwick. The Director of Public Health at NHS Shetland, Dr Susan Laidlaw, explained that the body did later receive an alert of sickness on board the Costa Favolosa “through the Port Health route late in the afternoon of Tuesday 20 May” — rather too late, it would seem.
“However, we now understand that a small number of passengers with symptoms of gastroenteritis were being appropriately managed by the medical team on board the vessel,” Dr Laidlaw added.
Still, Costa Cruises insisted it had been permitted to dock in Lerwick and denied any wrongdoing. Although unconfirmed, Shetland News speculated the cruise line might have mistakenly contacted a health board in a different area for clearance before the Costa Favolosa arrived in Lerwick, which could explain why it claimed to have been allowed to dock.
In response to the incident, a Costa Cruises spokesperson said: “At Costa, the health and wellbeing of our guests and crew is our top priority. Across our fleet, we maintain comprehensive sanitation and hygiene protocols developed in partnership with global health authorities.”
The cruise line also explained in its statement that it took action to control the outbreak:
“During the May 15-22 cruise on Costa Favolosa, some guests reported mild gastrointestinal symptoms to the ship’s medical centre. As a precaution, we immediately implemented enhanced disinfection and sanitation measures.” — Costa Cruises
Following the event, the Lerwick Port Authority told Shetland News it would improve its protocols to avoid any similar incidents in the future.
“The Authority has contacted parties involved, and agreed measures which will tighten up procedures ensuring documentation is completed correctly and timeously prior to a port call, to prevent recurrence.”
Furthermore, the recent incident in the Shetlands is not this Costa Cruises vessel’s first involving an outbreak of illness. In the spring of 2020, a bout of COVID-19 hit the Costa Favolosa, resulting in the deaths of four Belgian tourists and one crew member, who was an Indian citizen.
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The Shetlands, along with Scotland’s Orkney Islands further south, are popular cruise destinations, with several major cruise lines including the archipelagos on their Northern Europe and Scandinavia itineraries. Around 130,000 cruise ship passengers come to Shetland alone annually, significantly contributing to the islands’ economy.
