Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship Fails Health Inspection

As cruise ship injury lawyers, we try to draw attention to unsafe conditions on cruise ships, so that passengers can make informed decisions. Last month, a cruise vessel operated by Royal Caribbean Cruises failed a health inspection by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Inspectors from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention boarded the Royal Caribbean’s Monarch of the Seas cruise ship last month. After the inspection, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention failed the vessel. Generally, the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention considers a grade below 86 as a failure. In this case, the Royal Caribbean Monarch of the Seas scored 85. According to the agency’s report, the vessel failed a number of markers, including unhygienic food preparation, and poorly maintained food preparation and serving areas.

It is relatively rare for cruise ships to fail an inspection like this outright. Over the past three years, only one other cruise vessel has failed the agency’s surprise inspection. That was the Cunard’s Queen Mary 2. Royal Caribbean Cruises has already moved in for damage control, saying that the failure is a surprise not just for the vessel, but also for the line.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention inspection was part of its Vessel Sanitation Program. The agency conducts spot surprise inspections of cruise vessels, in order to gauge sanitation and hygiene conditions on the ship.

In fact, these surprise inspections and the fact that the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention takes strong actions after these inspections, has been part of the reason why the cruise ship industry has been increasing sanitation and hygiene efforts on vessels.