Off reeking cruise ship in NJ, passengers recall nightmare trip

By Victoria Cavaliere BAYONNE, New Jersey (Reuters) – Passengers staggered off a Royal Caribbean ship reeking of vomit and diarrhea at its home port on Wednesday after their cruise was cut short by an apparent stomach bug that felled nearly 700 vacationers and crew. Cheers erupted from the Explorer of the Seas as the vessel pulled into Bayonne, New Jersey, in New York Harbor. Passengers disembarking soon afterward recalled the nightmare of falling ill during the Caribbean cruise, being quarantined in their rooms, and putting everything they touched into biohazard bags. "I had three days of sickness and quarantine," recalled Susan Rogutski of Catawissa, Pennsylvania, who came down with gastrointestinal symptoms so severe the first day of the trip that she had to be physically dragged to the sick bay.