The 14 Worst Cruise Ships on the CDC's Sanitary Inspection List

[Griller]

Given the long history of GI trouble experienced by passengers on Crown this failure doesn't surprise us. But on our very recent transatlantic on Crown it was memorable not because many people got sick but just bad organization, poor food and entertainment crew.

We'd say it was the worst Princess ship we have ever cruised on and we have done them all except Sun and Dawn.

So now we are seeing attractively reduced pricing on the fall Westbound transatlantic this year but will not sail Crown again, it just wasn't good, from the moment we boarded everything was a struggle to get sorted out. I will say that Passenger Services did do their best to get everything fixed, having cell phone photos to display certainly helps passenger credibility when you go to their desk with a problem about something broken leaking or dirty.

While we hated being perpetually complaining passengers it was one written complaint after another on this cruise. Do they just not have enough employees now to keep everything clean and working right?

And certainly in the buffet the food was low quality, poor selection, and repetitive, it was the same items put out day after day until I guess the passengers eventually ate their way through it. The buffet staff were totally unresponsive and disinterested., which seems to be the trend on Princess ships generally now.

Then we transferred nearly back to back to Majestic and the food was wonderful, and everything worked great, not a single problem for the whole 14 days.

Edited June 29, 2017 by Griller

[sunsetbeachgal]

Whether the report was several months old or not, I find the results of this inspection completely unacceptable and very poor publicity for Princess

 

 

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[pablo222]

I agree, I have chipped paint at home.

 

Right, but ... are you expecting a surprise inspection at anytime, where the results

will be public, and your boss might fire you for a low score?

 

This is like failing a take-home test.

 

"My dog ate the internet."

[cruzrbachoua]

My husband works as a chef and is always getting surprise inspections. What he says is bad is the fact that on some of the violations it said "repeat" that means that they had been warned before of this even if it was on a passing one last time. He said it sounds like the staff was or is getting lazy and just not cleaning as they should. Whether that is because they are truly lazy, lack of moral or down people and too overworked. He says nothing will ever be perfect but many of these items would not have happened if the staff were to take the imitative and say to themselves...hey this or that is getting dirty I should wipe it down..instead they let the stuff build up like the grease on hinges and stuff. This is just what my husband said from reviewing it and his knowledge of working in a kitchen.

[Griller]

My husband works as a chef and is always getting surprise inspections. What he says is bad is the fact that on some of the violations it said "repeat" that means that they had been warned before of this even if it was on a passing one last time. He said it sounds like the staff was or is getting lazy and just not cleaning as they should. Whether that is because they are truly lazy, lack of moral or down people and too overworked. He says nothing will ever be perfect but many of these items would not have happened if the staff were to take the imitative and say to themselves...hey this or that is getting dirty I should wipe it down..instead they let the stuff build up like the grease on hinges and stuff. This is just what my husband said from reviewing it and his knowledge of working in a kitchen.

 

Certainly in the buffet the crew are not interested, I have told them for example that a passenger had dropped the serving tongs and then put them back, they didn't want to change them until I really got persistent with a manager who did it straightaway. Or someone had their hands in the food, they didn't want to change the item, just shrugged. or someone was coughing into their hand then using the serving tongs, they didn't want to change them then either.I am not sure they really don't understand enough English or they just want to not understand?

I know the lower levels of crew are trained to do a very narrowly defined job in a very particular way, and no more and no less. It seems to not work when something occurs which it seems they have not been trained to handle, like a passenger who is concerned about hygiene. They have had any using of initiative trained out of them, and are afraid to do anything outside the rigid guidelines.

The guidelines say to change the serving tongs every 30 minutes for example, or however long it is. Not when a passenger says they need changing because of some poor hygiene event occurring.

[Musky Ike]

We sailed on the crown the end of March and I am not too surprised by this inspection report. However, now that it is out, I imagine (hope) corrective steps have already been taken and she is likely one of the cleaner ships in the fleet. I would consider her again.

[broberts]

The first thought I had when I saw the thread title was "Crown Princess". That poor ship has had far too many issues.

 

One thing to consider with this article, though, is that ships don't have to report issues while in Europe, so for instance, the Celebrity cruise I just disembarked with a huge noro outbreak probably won't even be mentioned in the US, other than by Pax.

 

 

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I'm going to also take this article with a grain of salt, based on the part where they have an Oceania ship at the number 2 spot.....

 

CDC inspection scores are based on physical inspections. The number of noro outbreaks and where ships have sailed has nothing to do with these scores.

 

The Regatta report can be found at https://wwwn.cdc.gov/InspectionQueryTool/InspectionDetailReport.aspx?ColI=MTkzMDAyMzg%3d-GHcAQA%2fEjHM%3d. The inspectors obviously found problems and likely took issue with the changing explanations presented by crew.

 

CDC inspection reports should not be viewed in isolation. Vessels are able to provide Corrective Reports which are also posted by the CDC. When present, they provide an understanding of how the ship responded to the findings and the corrective actions taken.

 

Even inspections that result in a perfect (100) score often find issues.

[richsea]

4 months is recent!?

 

Its not 4 months, its 3 months. Regardless, it is the most recent.

[kaliterri]

What concerned me on a recent cruise on the newly remodeled Caribbean Princess is that hand sanatizer not available at buffet at Horizon Court and only new hand washing stations which almost no one used at all. They say this is new CDC recommendations and many passengers asked if both could be in place but the food and beverage manager said it is not the new recommendations. Judging from use of sink, I think they need both.

[jb008]

Tough part about hand sanitizer is that it's not very effective against certain infectious agents, so it may be providing a false sense of security in some situations. On the other hand (;p), most people don't properly wash their hands either.

 

Fun observation, on a recent trip something like 7 or 9 men exiting the men's bathroom didn't bother to wash after they toileted. I hate self-service food options.

[Colo Cruiser]

Tough part about hand sanitizer is that it's not very effective against certain infectious agents, so it may be providing a false sense of security in some situations. On the other hand (;p), most people don't properly wash their hands either.

 

Fun observation, on a recent trip something like 7 or 9 men exiting the men's bathroom didn't bother to wash after they toileted. I hate self-service food options.

 

 

And then picked up shrimp with their fingers in the buffet over and over again.

[upwarduk]

I am sure Princess doesn't appreciate the negative publicity. Since I will be on the Crown in the Fall, I am going to think positively.

 

 

 

We sailed Crown 13-27/05/17, from Southampton.

 

At no time were we prevented from serving ourselves in the Horizon buffet, which doesn't happen when there is a Noro outbreak.

 

They were certainly renewing carpets in the lift areas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our steward kept our cabin spotless.I saw nothing 'dirty.'

 

 

 

However, there was a problem with flushing of 2 of the toilets near the stairs down to the Bottechelli restaurant. This was never put right.

[tkline]

Can't believe with all those Germ Factories, I mean kids aboard, the Disney ships got 100%

[srpilo]

With all due respect, it sounds like Princess lied to you. I'd certainly say the 4/8/17 report qualifies as a "recent bad inspection".

 

I thought the same thing when I read his/her's post ...

 

 

But then again I wouldn't call any company's public relations department and not expect spin of some sort

Srpilo

[Colo Cruiser]

Can't believe with all those Germ Factories, I mean kids aboard, the Disney ships got 100%

 

 

 

Kids are part of the CDC inspection?

[broberts]

Kids are part of the CDC inspection?

 

Perhaps parents are docked points if their kids have not brushed their teeth or washed behind their ears. :D

[Colo Cruiser]

Perhaps parents are docked points if their kids have not brushed their teeth or washed behind their ears. :D

 

 

Thank god they don't check the adults. :o

[dickinson]

We were on the Royal Princess April/May. They have hand washing stations at the Horizon Court. Two years ago when we were on her there was always an attendant standing there to point to the sinks. They also had hand sanitizer station just before you picked up your plate. Fast forward to this April/May.... no attendant other than the first day or maybe two. NO ONE that we saw used the sinks. They had the hand sanitizer station but there was no attendant there either. I was surprised at this. Most people used it.

[we3peas]

I would agree with Griller that the Crown will be a ship we never sail on again. We've had very nice cruises on 8 other ships but our Scandinavian trip this year out of Southampton on May 27th was the worst one ever across 5 cruise lines. The crew DON'T CARE. Our daughter ended up getting sick and we physically showed the cleanup crew where it happened and they never cleaned it up. I mean deep clean the carpets, wipe off the lamps, and table tops as well as the walls (she was really sick). I feel sorry for the future passengers in that cabin. And now that I've seen that I will never walk barefoot in a cabin again and I WILL be bringing clorox cloths to wipe everything down before we touch a thing.

[dickinson]

I would agree with Griller that the Crown will be a ship we never sail on again. We've had very nice cruises on 8 other ships but our Scandinavian trip this year out of Southampton on May 27th was the worst one ever across 5 cruise lines. The crew DON'T CARE. Our daughter ended up getting sick and we physically showed the cleanup crew where it happened and they never cleaned it up. I mean deep clean the carpets, wipe off the lamps, and table tops as well as the walls (she was really sick). I feel sorry for the future passengers in that cabin. And now that I've seen that I will never walk barefoot in a cabin again and I WILL be bringing clorox cloths to wipe everything down before we touch a thing.

 

Sorry your daughter was so sick. I am very disturbed that they never cleaned up. We were on the Crown this past Oct/Nov for 28 days. The only issue we had was that the toilet kept getting clogged. We always had to call Passenger services for help. Once no one showed up so we had to call again. We are going on her again for 10 days this November. I hope all the bad crew is gone and replaced with better people.

[caribill]

Can't believe with all those Germ Factories, I mean kids aboard, the Disney ships got 100%

 

The kids are not in the kitchens or behind the buffet counters.

 

Kids do not control the meat temperatures.

 

 

Kids do not control slime in the ice machine.

[Griller]

I was on a Regal transatlantic last year and at breakfast time when we had come into the first US port and were probably going to get an inspection the buffet staff hung "not in service notices" on ALL the coffee machines in there and put them on a cleaning cycle which is normally done overnight when the buffet is closed., They served coffee to passengers who wanted it from jugs.

I asked one of those guys in the light green jackets why, I had chatted to him the whole 25 days of the cruise so he opened up to me about it, and he said the machines couldn't be inspected if they were on a cleaning cycle. Devious.

[richsea]

I would agree with Griller that the Crown will be a ship we never sail on again. We've had very nice cruises on 8 other ships but our Scandinavian trip this year out of Southampton on May 27th was the worst one ever across 5 cruise lines. The crew DON'T CARE. Our daughter ended up getting sick and we physically showed the cleanup crew where it happened and they never cleaned it up. I mean deep clean the carpets, wipe off the lamps, and table tops as well as the walls (she was really sick). I feel sorry for the future passengers in that cabin. And now that I've seen that I will never walk barefoot in a cabin again and I WILL be bringing clorox cloths to wipe everything down before we touch a thing.

 

Are you saying that they left vomit on the floor of your room for the balance of your cruise? Did you advise guest relations about this?

[1emerald1]

I would agree with Griller that the Crown will be a ship we never sail on again. We've had very nice cruises on 8 other ships but our Scandinavian trip this year out of Southampton on May 27th was the worst one ever across 5 cruise lines. The crew DON'T CARE. Our daughter ended up getting sick and we physically showed the cleanup crew where it happened and they never cleaned it up. I mean deep clean the carpets, wipe off the lamps, and table tops as well as the walls (she was really sick). I feel sorry for the future passengers in that cabin. And now that I've seen that I will never walk barefoot in a cabin again and I WILL be bringing clorox cloths to wipe everything down before we touch a thing.

I was on the Crown April 2016 and was one of 80 that got the norovirus, despite deep cleaning my cabin upon boarding. Once I reported my illness to the front desk my regular steward was replace and I was assigned the "hazmet crew" until I was done being quarantined. I was also given a bucket with plastic liners to use as needed, so my cabin itself was hardly affected. And once the outbreak was announced by the Captain the crew cleaned all lounges, public areas etc for the rest of the crew and delayed boarding for the next cruise so that they could sanitize the port as well. Turns out the culprit was someone who through up in a lounge the first day during muster drill.

[upwarduk]

Turns out the culprit was someone who through up in a lounge the first day during muster drill.

 

 

Sounds like they didn't fill out their Health card truthfully!