Oceanwide Expeditions said on Wednesday it expects to know by the end of the week whether the MV Hondius will keep to its schedule for the coming months, after a hantavirus outbreak on the Dutch-flagged cruise ship left three passengers dead and sent more than 120 people into isolation across several countries.
The company said the ship is now sailing to Rotterdam with 25 crew, two health workers and the body of one passenger who died on board. None of the people still aboard are showing symptoms, and the vessel is expected to arrive on May 17 or 18 before undergoing a thorough cleaning and disinfection process.
The outbreak was first confirmed earlier this month while the Hondius was in the Atlantic. By Wednesday, officials had counted nine confirmed cases and two suspected cases. The ship remains on Oceanwide Expeditions’ website for a cruise later in May and then a full summer program in the Arctic, including a departure on May 29 that the company said on Monday it did not foresee changing.
That schedule now hangs on the results of work in Rotterdam. The company said the specific disinfection protocols are still being finalized in cooperation with health authorities, and it said on Wednesday that it hoped for clarity on whether the vessel will sail and on the sailing schedule by the end of the week.
The Hondius was at anchor at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, in Spain’s Canary Islands, on Monday, May 11, 2026, after passengers disembarked at the airport in Tenerife and boarded a plane bound for Eindhoven. More than 120 people were evacuated from the ship in the Canary Islands on Sunday and Monday, and those passengers are now in isolation in several countries.
The crisis has left Oceanwide Expeditions trying to balance public-health steps with a summer cruise calendar that is still listed online. The company’s own statements have moved in stages — first saying there would be no changes to operations, then describing a deep cleaning in Rotterdam, and now saying the timetable should be clearer by the end of the week. For passengers waiting to learn whether the Hondius will sail again, that next answer matters more than the itinerary that was printed before the outbreak.
