Health, Safety Inspection Failures on Cruise Ships and What It Means for Consumers, Industry

The cruise industry is getting a lot of media attention this year, but not for their exciting new ships which feature onboard hair-raising water slides, go-kart tracks and smokehouse BBQ joints, but because of the increased number of failed ship inspections performed pursuant to by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Vessel Sanitation Program (CDC-VSP). In fact, during 2017 more cruise ships failed their inspection than any other year since the inception of the CDC's protocol.

Carnival Cruise Line, the world's largest cruise line—is based in Miami and had five ships fail in 2017 and several so far this year—and they are not alone. Norwegian, Royal Caribbean and others are also failing. But Carnival's problems seem the most glaring and potentially dangerous—so for this year the Liberty scored 80 on Jan. 4, the Vista scored 88 on Jan. 27 and the Ecstasy scored 87 on Feb. 11.

The CDC inspections are performed at least twice a year, randomly on ships that dock at U.S. ports and focuses on a few key safety concerns—but not every aspect of a ship's operations. The inspections are actually paid for by each cruise line depending on the size of a given ship.