Photo: Getty

On Sunday, the Carnival Adonia docked back in Miami, ending the first cruise from the United States to Cuba in over 50 years and days of vomit- and diarrhea-soaked Hell for 14 passengers suffering from “stomach-related symptoms.”

The Miami Herald reports that the history-making vessel will get “a thorough scrubbing” after the suspected outbreak of norovirus, a painful illness which causes vomiting and diarrhea and is often spread through fecal contamination.

According to a ProPublica report from 2015, hundreds of passengers and crew members contract diseases like norovirus on cruise ships each year:

Last year over 1,700 passengers and crew members fell sick from gastrointestinal illnesses like norovirus. Since 2012 at least seven children have drowned or nearly drowned in cruise ship pools that rarely have full-time lifeguards. This year, a 21-year-old college student fell overboard and was never found—one of at least two dozen incidents in the last two years in which cruise passengers or crew have gone overboard, according to media reports.

Given that cruise ships are believed to serve over 20 million passengers annually, the chances of disaster (fecal or otherwise) still seem fairly slim. And why stay home when you can become a part of Cold War shitstory?