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| Photo by Susan J. Young |
Most cruise lines have, at some point, been cited by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for failing an unannounced Vessel Sanitation Inspection.
This week, it's Carnival Cruise Lines' (www.goccl.com) Carnival Fascination, which failed its inspection on Feb. 21 with a score of 84. The ship sails year-round cruises from Jacksonville, FL.
Scores from 85-100 constitute a passing grade. The complete Vessel Sanitation Report for Carnival Fascination is here.
More than four dozen deficiencies were cited in the report. Some were easily correctible, such as no paper towels at a hand washing station or hand sanitizer being stored in the same area as liquor bottles.
Others were more onerous, such as flies and a roach nymph near the drain below a juice dispenser and a large fly around uncovered hamburger patties.
Carnival has already filed a "corrective action" report with the CDC; it details how these issues have been resolved or tackled: http://wwwn.cdc.gov/InspectionQueryTool/InspectionCorrectiveActionReport.aspx
Carnival Fascination isn't alone in failing an inspection this year. Celebrity Cruises' (www.cruisingpower.com) Celebrity Century (with a failing score of 78) and four other cruise ships also have failed a Vessel Sanitation Inspection this year.
A handful of ships do achieve a perfect 100 score each year, including two of Carnival's ships in the past few months. Carnival Breeze, for example, achieved that score during an inspection on Dec. 2, 2012, as did Carnival Sensation on Feb. 3, 2013.
Other ships too have been "perfect" this year, including Holland America's Eurodam on Jan. 15, 2013 and Royal Caribbean International's Oasis of the Seas on Jan. 22, 2013.
But while two Carnival ships did have perfect 100 scores recently, what are the results for its other ships? Here's a look at other CDC Vessel Sanitation Inspection results for Carnival from December 2012 to present:
Carnival Fantasy (Passed with a score of 98 - Feb. 23, 2013);
Carnival Freedom (Passed with a score of 99 - Dec. 18, 2012);
Carnival Glory (Passed with a score of 98 - Jan. 17, 2013;
Carnival Inspiration (Passed with a score of 94 - Dec. 7, 2012);
Carnival Pride (Passed with a score of 98 - Jan. 23, 2013).
So - in tallying these recent results since December - one ship, Carnival Fascination, fell one point short of passing the inspection, while two of Carnival's ships had perfect scores of 100 and five others had passing scores of 94 to 99.
Still, given recent news stories related to Carnival's operations, it's likely this failed inspection will become fodder once again for late night talk-show hosts.