between the Virus spread, “Terrible smelland plumbing problemscruise ships in 2024 appeared to be plagued by accidents that resulted in months of delays and in some cases sudden cancellations.
every year, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) releases a list of its Vessel Sanitation Program to help “the cruise industry prevent and control public health problems” with inspection scores and reviews.
Ships are assigned scores out of 100. Anything below 85 is “not satisfactory.” Pools, hot tubs, and play areas are inspected, along with the number of handwashing stations and food storage conditions. Finding bugs and roaches is likely to result in more deductions than if a ship had fewer hand-washing stations.
According to the 2024 reportthe average score out of 151 inspections was 95.9. Of these, 23 ships were inspected a second time.
The nine dirtiest ships received scores between 86 and 89. Meanwhile, one ship initially received an exceptional score of 62 before being reassessed the following month and given an 89.
The nine ships that failed to achieve a CDC score of 90 were:
- Hanseatic Inspiration by Hapag-Lloyd Cruises (originally made 62 runs in September before she made 89 runs in October)
- Carnival Elation by Carnival Cruise Line (89 runs in March)
- Adventure of the Seas by Royal Caribbean International (89 runs in January)
- National Geographic Seabirds by Lindblad Expeditions (scored 88 in July)
- Carnival Miracle by Carnival Cruise Line (88 runs in April)
- MSC Magnifica by MSC Cruises (scored 86 in May)
- Evrima by Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection (Scored 86 in February)
- Carnival Breeze by Carnival Cruise Line (86 runs in March)
- Caribbean Princess by Princess Cruises (March 86)
Addressing. Business Insider After the first inspection of the Hanseatic Inspirations, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises said: “We have been consistently meeting the strictest hygiene requirements around the world for many years with exemplary results.”
That said, Hapag-Lloyd described receiving a score of 62 for one of its ships as a “very unfortunate event”.
The CDC reported 15 virus and disease outbreaks in the past 12 months among all cruise liners.. The most common “causative agent” was norovirus.
According to Cleveland Clinicnorovirus is “a group of viruses that cause severe vomiting and diarrhea” and is most common during cold weather. Norovirus is also highly contagious and is the leading cause of foodborne illness in the United States.
Other agents included Salmonella, E. coli, and two labeled “unknown.”
An outbreak is only reported if more than 3 percent of passengers or crew members show symptoms.
The most notable norovirus outbreak occurred on a cruise ship this year Coral Princess’ A one-month charter from Singapore to Los Angeles, with stops in Thailand, Japan and Hawaii.
The first few reports of illness were confirmed on November 9 from the Princess Cruises ship, which was carrying 1,822 paying passengers and 907 crew members. In total, 55 passengers and 15 cruise ship employees fell ill during the outbreak.