Large cruise ships are legally required to maintain full medical infrastructure on board — including isolation wards, minor operating theatres, and in some cases a morgue — to handle disease outbreaks among thousands of passengers living in close quarters for days at a time. Former cruise captain Bart Gonnissen, who sailed routes through Alaska and the Caribbean, told Belgian broadcaster VRT that his ship kept space to store up to 12 bodies, and that norovirus or similar illnesses circulated roughly once or twice a month. The remarks follow a hantavirus (a rodent-borne respiratory virus) outbreak on the Dutch expedition vessel MV Hondius, which carries around 150 passengers and 200 crew in polar waters, highlighting how compliance risks rise sharply on larger ships where controlling hygiene across thousands of passengers, food pallets, and mooring lines becomes far more difficult.