The virus, which causes vomiting and diarrhoea, is highly contagious and those infected were quarantined during the doomed voyage.

The ship, carrying around 828 passengers and 348 crew, was greeted by NHS staff and ambulance crews when it docked in Greenock, Scotland last night.

‘There were two nurses wandering around all the time visiting people, most of them elderly.

‘Half the facilities were shut down and we were even told not to swap quiz sheets to stop the bug spreading.

‘Passengers were offered £150 discounts on their next cruise. We don’t know anyone who accepted.

 ‘People had spent up to £2000 on the cruise and their holidays have been ruined.’

The 53-year-old woman said a woman in her 80s, who suffered a heart attack, was winched off by a helicopter rescue crew after a stop in Madeira.

It is not known if her condition was linked to the outbreak.

The Boudicca, owned by Fred Olsen, underwent an intensive fumigation yesterday before leaving for a cruise to the Adriatic 90 minutes later than scheduled.

The deep cleaning process was supervised by experts from Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS.

The Boudicca has been ravaged by viruses before - with some passengers even calling it 'cursed'

It was hit by three sickness outbreak in as many weeks in 2010 and forced to cut short its voyage and return to port on one of those occasions.

A spokeswoman for Fred Olsen said the latest bug was a viral infection which caused mild gastroenteritis symptoms.

The spokeswoman said: ‘During this cruise, the highest number of guests needing to be kept in isolation at any one time was 35, out of a total number of people on board of 1,176, comprising 828 guests and 348 crew.

‘The total number of cases reported during the 13-night cruise was 170.

‘Boudicca returned to Greenock yesterday, and departed on a 21-night 'Adriatic with Croatia' cruise D1210 last night.

‘She departed at 6pm, instead of the original scheduled time of 4.30pm, in order for a complete and intensive fumigation process to take place, details and timings of which were notified to all guests prior to the cruise’s departure. The cleaning procedure went ahead, and also included the Cruise Terminal.

‘The Port Health team spent 30 minutes examining the ship and she was given the necessary clearance to sail from the Port.