A month-long cruise to Hawaii and Tahiti is turning into a nightmare for passengers of a Princess Cruises ship after the luxury vessel was forced to dock in San Pedro, California, on Sunday morning. So far, 172 passengers and crew exhibited signs of gastrointestinal ailment as the liner suffered its second norovirus outbreak this year.

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The sick travelers represent about 4 percent of the total 3,007 guests and 1,100 crew members aboard the luxury cruise liner.

The ship was just several days into its luxury journey when people aboard complained of loose bowel movement, feeling dizzy and throwing up. Since norovirus is highly contagious and transmitted through several ways, the virus, also known as stomach flu, has downed 158 passengers and 11 ship staff, reports the LA Times.

The virus could be transferred or shared by an infected person through contaminated food or water or touching contaminated surfaces. To prevent the further spread of the virus, the ship's crew cleaned and disinfected the vessel as well as encouraged passengers to report if they have the symptoms, so the medical staff could collect specimen for testing.

In April, the same luxury liner had to dock in San Diego Bay after 94 travelers and 23 crew members became sick of stomach flu. This second hit affected a larger population since those infected by the norovirus in April represented less than 3 percent of the total 3,161 passengers and 1,176 crew members at that time.

Since the start of 2014, almost 700 people were infected by the norovirus aboard the Royal Caribbean cruise liner, while across the U.S., 20 million people are infected annually, mostly transmitted in public dining establishments, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The 700 include people aboard Princess Cruises' Caribbean Princess and Explorer of the Seas.

Officials of CDC are expected to go aboard the vessels and investigate the outbreak as well as look into the action taken by the ship's crew. They will also collect specimen and send it to a CDC laboratory for further testing.

Citing an earlier Harris Poll, LA Times noted that passenger trust in the cruise industry went down 12 percent and plans to book plummeted 13 percent due to the health concerns caused by the norovirus outbreaks.

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