It hasn’t been smooth sailing for Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas in the last month – the ship which was battered by a ferocious Atlantic storm just weeks ago, was forced to cut another trip short just overnight.

According to USA Today, RCCL tweeted on Saturday that the ship was suffering from a norovirus outbreak and trying to avoid a possible storm, was returning to its homeport of Bayonne, New Jersey.

The line tweeted, “#AnthemoftheSeas will head back to Cape Liberty immediately to avoid a severe storm & provide guests with a comfortable journey back home.”

The second tweet said, “We’ve been closely watching a large storm off the coast of Cape Hatteras. We want to be extra cautious when it comes to weather in the area.”

Over the weekend, the ship’s captain made an announcement saying that one passenger had been affected by the illness.

John Turell, an executive with The Associated Press, who is onboard the ship with his wife told USA Today, “Sanitation levels on the ship have been boosted,” and that ship workers “are scurrying around like ants, scrubbing down handrails, tables and any other surfaces that can be washed.”

Mr Turell also said passengers were told on the Saturday night that the cruise was being cut two days short because of the storm developing. Calls to Barbados and St Kitts were being skipped.

The storm last month, left many passengers shaken and at least four were injured. The storm forced the captain to confine passengers to their cabins overnight.

Passengers described some of the damage to one of the world’s largest ships, saying that giant waves that rocked the vessel, overturned furniture, smashed glassware and even collapsed part of a ceiling in a public corridor.