Did You See That Regatta is on the 14 Worst Cruise Ships on the CDC's Sanitary List?

This is from an article on The Street today. Regatta is near the top of the list. But at least she's ahead of Carnival Legend.

3. The Regatta

Owner: Oceania Cruises (NCLH)

Score: 84/100

Another miss, the Regatta raises another issue important to government regulation: it's best not to lie to the inspectors.

In what seems like a minor note, the Regatta's inspectors found an espresso machine on a cabinet labeled "spare parts only." The crew assured them that this machine was used only for spare parts, as the sign indicated.

The report then spends 383 words detailing all of the very obvious evidence that this machine was in current use, starting with the wet grounds in the tray and ending with "a small fly was in this area."

There are many responses to someone with a tie and clipboard. Lying may be the worst of them.

https://www.thestreet.com/slideshow/14200433/13/the-14-worst-cruise-ships-on-the-cdc-s-inspection-list.html

Interesting

Oceania ships usually have a high score with the CDC inspections

the full report is @

https://wwwn.cdc.gov/InspectionQueryTool/InspectionDetailReport.aspx?ColI=MTkzMDAyMzg%3d-GHcAQA%2fEjHM%3d

Somebody is in trouble!!!!! They don't let crap like this happen

The inspection in question is from early April. This is hardly news to anyone who is motivated to monitor such things. I read the report last month, along with the follow-up that goes through their corrective actions - in some cases with photos showing the correction. There were six separate corrective actions for the espresso machine, which is now quite shiny and clean.

I agree about lying being a bad idea always, but I have a theory about the espresso machine.

What if there was an old espresso machine that was going to be discarded? And maybe someone from the crew put it in an old spare parts cabinet for crew (or partial crew) use? Why waste a perfectly good espresso machine?

It's an odd location - "outside engine control room" seems like a strange place for an espresso machine. I'm not sure if the espresso machine was located "outside the (engine control room)" or "in the (outside engine control room)" but either way it doesn't seem like you'd have a barista or room service staff hanging out there.

Say that such a thing happens. An espresso machine is repurposed rather than discarded. But since it isn't officially there, it isn't maintained like it should be, and then the inspector notices it, and voila! The super-secret espresso machine becomes a line item on the spreadsheet of shame.

The person who was speaking to the inspector - in my hypothetical scenario - might honestly not have known about the super-secret espresso machine and truly thought that it was being used for spare parts. Since it was apparently in a cabinet labelled "spare parts" and all.

Anyway, just theorizing.

Back to the the things we know - based on the reports posted by the CDC - this is the lowest score Regatta has ever had, and the first under 90 since 2013. I'm betting that heads rolled over this, regardless of the history of the espresso machine. (Okay, that last bit was theory again, not fact.)

When you look at the reports across Oceania's fleet, as LHT28 said, the scores are usually quite high. The average of the 48 inspections that are reported when you do a cruise line search for Oceania is 93.5, with only the one failing score. Including that score, there are only four under 90 and there are 9 perfect 100 scores (six of them being older Regatta inspections).

Signed,

Sailing on Regatta in September and not in the least concerned.

I am not in a position to make excuses for O and will be most comfortable when I see top scores for all six O ships. With the expansion of the number of cruise ships industry wide, I trust management is able to place qualified staff where needed. I am a loyal O fan.

cephelapodia, you do raise some interesting points.

I suspect there is - or should be - a difference between an espresso machine in the Terrace or Horizons failing a health inspection (one that is actually being used by the cruisers) vs one failing inspection in the "spare parts" room.

Is that what happened?

That said, a score of 95 or higher would have been nicer. :)

The inspection in question is from early April. This is hardly news to anyone who is motivated to monitor such things. I read the report last month, along with the follow-up that goes through their corrective actions - in some cases with photos showing the correction. There were six separate corrective actions for the espresso machine, which is now quite shiny and clean.

 

I agree about lying being a bad idea always, but I have a theory about the espresso machine.

 

What if there was an old espresso machine that was going to be discarded? And maybe someone from the crew put it in an old spare parts cabinet for crew (or partial crew) use? Why waste a perfectly good espresso machine?

 

It's an odd location - "outside engine control room" seems like a strange place for an espresso machine. I'm not sure if the espresso machine was located "outside the (engine control room)" or "in the (outside engine control room)" but either way it doesn't seem like you'd have a barista or room service staff hanging out there.

 

Say that such a thing happens. An espresso machine is repurposed rather than discarded. But since it isn't officially there, it isn't maintained like it should be, and then the inspector notices it, and voila! The super-secret espresso machine becomes a line item on the spreadsheet of shame.

 

The person who was speaking to the inspector - in my hypothetical scenario - might honestly not have known about the super-secret espresso machine and truly thought that it was being used for spare parts. Since it was apparently in a cabinet labelled "spare parts" and all.

 

Anyway, just theorizing.

 

Back to the the things we know - based on the reports posted by the CDC - this is the lowest score Regatta has ever had, and the first under 90 since 2013. I'm betting that heads rolled over this, regardless of the history of the espresso machine. (Okay, that last bit was theory again, not fact.)

 

When you look at the reports across Oceania's fleet, as LHT28 said, the scores are usually quite high. The average of the 48 inspections that are reported when you do a cruise line search for Oceania is 93.5, with only the one failing score. Including that score, there are only four under 90 and there are 9 perfect 100 scores (six of them being older Regatta inspections).

 

Signed,

Sailing on Regatta in September and not in the least concerned.

OMG, you check the CDC for sanitation ratings regularly???? :eek:

The way I read the report, it appeared there was an espresso machine that was moved out of the public service and labeled as spare parts. However some crew member found it and probably moved it outside the engine control room to set up as a clandestine coffee stop. I suspect probably for the guys working in the engine control room. They really didn't care about the cleanliness; thus it's condition. Oops. they got caught..

For your record, I have two Regatta cruises booked next year and I'm not the least bit concerned as well. Now if I worked in the engine control room, I'd be upset about losing my machine.

Agree, however are no excuse for this...period.

Paulchili

Oh, don't get me wrong. I think all the espresso machines should be maintained properly. And based on the pictures, maybe it's still there? I suppose it would be gauche to ask when I'm onboard.

ChucktownSteve

RE OMG, you check the CDC for sanitation ratings regularly????

Well, I only started when I booked a cruise, but yep. I also found all the listings for Alaska ports for all cruises that are scheduled for this year and cross-referenced them against town maps for each port on my cruise, so that I could see where exactly we are supposed to dock in each place. I haven't yet dug up the last five years' worth of weather for coastal Alaska in September, but there's a long weekend coming up.

I do a lot of analytic work in my job, and it's hard to leave those tendencies at the office door. I started doing cost per square foot analysis on stateroom pricing for another thread but realized that I lacked too much data to do it effectively and then lost interest.

(Also haven't figured out the quoting feature, so apologies for the low-tech workaround.)

Well at least they were not hiding food in hallways or cabins like SS

I agree I think the crew just repurposed the machine so they did not have to go to the crew galley when they wanted a coffee

In case anyone's interested, here is the actual inspection report......

https://wwwn.cdc.gov/InspectionQueryTool/InspectionDetailReport.aspx?ColI=MTkzMDAyMzg%3d-GHcAQA%2fEjHM%3d

In case anyone's interested, here is the actual inspection report......

In case you missed it see post #2 :rolleyes:

I'm not concerned and being a former food service manager I have been impressed by Oceania's cleanliness.

(Also haven't figured out the quoting feature, so apologies for the low-tech workaround.)

Every post has a light blue band above and below it. Within the lower blue band is a rectangle with the word "quote". Hover your cursor over that box and you'll notice a link develops. Click on it, and you'll bring up a reply box containing the post you want to respond to. There will be blank space below the quote to accept your response.

You'll notice that I deleted some of your post and kept only the portion about quoting. Anyone can edit a quoted post as long as you keep the information in the first square bracket and the final square bracket.

OTOH, your work around strategy had the virtue of letting you quote from two different posters.

 

(Also haven't figured out the quoting feature, so apologies for the low-tech workaround.)

You'll notice that I deleted some of your post and kept only the portion about quoting. Anyone can edit a quoted post as long as you keep the information in the first square bracket and the final square bracket.

 

OTOH, your work around strategy had the virtue of letting you quote from two different posters.

Or you can use the multi quote feature right next to the quote box.

We just got off that ship 2 weeks ago after sailing for 18 days. I never saw a ship so clean! Been on many cruises, on many lines & commented to my husband how they were always cleaning. From door jams to stairways & elevators. The restaurants were spotless!:rolleyes:

I saw a variant of the alleged behavior on another cruiseline. It was the day before we returned to Miami and the ship was scheduled for a CDC inspection the day of debarkation. Kitchen equipment (from the aft buffet restaurant was being rolled into the pool area storage, covered with plastic wrap and labeled with some kind of preprinted, adhesive labels.

The wet coffee maker is not unusual. We have been out of town for several weeks and forgot to empty the coffee grinds from our coffee maker. Would you believe they remain wet? Some zealous inspector probably made a mark for themselves.

I worry more about Noro on ships and being food poisoned by a local reataurant.

If you go to the CDC you will see the ship had another inspection in May and scored 99.

The original post was old news. Was posted on another thread months ago

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The original post was old news. Was posted on another thread months ago

 

 

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Yup.

And the score before that inspection was 100.

In fact, if you look at the scores going back to 2003 most of the scores were high 90s to 100.

This is my favorite sentence from the corrective action report: "The fecal accident plan did not note the response to public vomit incidences."

I wish people would be more careful when posting. That’s how false rumors start. Some people read only the thread title and regatta gets trashed

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I wish people would be more careful when posting. That’s how false rumors start. Some people read only the thread title and regatta gets trashed

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I think most people would be interested in how it got such a bad review and read the report on rectification of the problems identified.

If people hang around to read the entire thread Unless they post and subscribe all they get is the misleading headline.

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If people hang around to read the entire thread Unless they post and subscribe all they get is the misleading headline.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I only read the report not the entire thread.

I went onto the Cruise Ships Inspection scores - link provided earlier in this thread. I was VERY impressed that the lowest score given to any of the Oceania ships was 95 (Sirena) and that after the kerfuffle referred to by the TS, Regatta in mid May got 99.

Normally I don't consider the US to be the cleanest place in the world and I am impressed with the detail these inspectors go into. Impressed and re-assured I have to say.