The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) awarded Costa Cruises its fifth perfect Sanitation Score with the inspection of Costa Atlantica on March 25, prior to her departure on a 19-day trans-Atlantic cruise culminating on April 13 in Venice, Italy. Previously, the ship won a 100 percent in 2011 and again in 2005, 2009 and 2010, while her sister ship, Costa Mediterranea, received top marks in 2004, 2005 and 2006.
The Vessel Sanitation Program, which the CDC inspections are part of, is required for all ships that call at a U.S. port. Each year, the United States Public Health Service conducts two announced inspections on each ship, based 48 areas of assessment, including hygiene and sanitation of food (from storage to preparation), water, shipboard personnel and the ship as a whole.
This spring, Costa Atlantica will sail a series of seven-day eastern Mediterranean cruises departing Venice for Bari, Italy; Olympia, Greece; Turkey's Izmir and Istanbul, and Croatia's Dubrovnik. Later, this summer, the 2,680-passenger vessel will embark on a trip seven-day cruises from Copenhagen, Denmark, to the Norwegian fjords and Baltic capitals.
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