This was our return voyage on the Celebrity Solstice Auckland to Sydney, as we were on the same ship Sydney to Auckland, back-to-back cruise. We were in the same stateroom on our return journey, which was convenient, not having to unpack and repack. This was a completely different cruise on the way back to Australia, as we were advised by a delivered letter to our stateroom on 12 December by Captain Yannis Berdos, that an outbreak of the gastrointestinal illness thought to be Norovirus, had occurred on the ship. From thence on, stringent precautions were taken with the cleaning of the ship and handwashing procedures. All books from the library were taken away, the Ocean View Café on deck 14 had no self-service available and all food and drinks were served to guests by staff. All equipment on tables in all eating areas, including specialty restaurants, were taken away (salt and pepper was provided in paper sachets and there were no jams, butters etc. put on tables for self service). Hence, our return journey was slightly soured by this occurrence. We believe that this outbreak was brought on to the ship by new passengers embarking in Auckland as the journey from Sydney to Auckland was "virus free". As for all other aspects of our cruise, staff and quality of meals in Blu Restaurant were all outstanding, as previously discussed in our review of the Sydney-Auckland leg. The only disappointment was having the virus on board the ship for the outstanding days left on the cruise which was 10 days. We noted on our departure off the cruise in Sydney, that a whole sanitizing program was going to be performed for the incoming guests and because of this, embarkment was set back for them. Even though it was sometimes inconvenient, we were impressed by the extent of the cleaning measures taken by the staff to prevent more people being infected by the virus. Luckily, we were not infected with the virus.