The Cleanest (And Most Disgusting) Cruise Ships of 2024, According to the CDC

Cruise ships are floating petri dishes. Germs spread like wildfire thanks to endless buffets, tons of people, and confined spaces. That’s why sanitation on a cruise ship is so important to avoid major gastrointestinal outbreaks from infections like norovirus.

To reduce the number of outbreaks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention created the Vessel Sanitation Program in 1990. The program monitors GI illnesses on cruises, it trains cruise ship supervisors on sanitation practices, and it inspects cruise ships to determine how well they’re keeping up with sanitation. After inspection, each cruise ship gets a score, with 100 being the best, and anything 85 or below considered a failing grade.  

The CDC’s cruise ship inspection scores database is public, and we took a look. Here are all 18 perfect inspections so far in 2024 — along with the two ships that failed.

Celebrity Ascent 

Date of Inspection: Jan. 7 

Celebrity Equinox 

Date of Inspection: Feb. 15 

Celebrity had two ships with a 100 sanitation score, both near the beginning of the year. The Ascent is the line’s newest ship, and it has two brothers as co-captains.  

Disney Fantasy 

Date of Inspection: Jan. 24 

Because Disney Cruises are so popular for families and kids, cleanliness is extra important. This year, the Disney Fantasy got a perfect sanitation score. 

Explora I 

Date of Inspection: Jan. 25 

MSC Seashore 

Date of Inspection: May 26 

MSC Meraviglia 

Date of Inspection: July 9  

MSC is usually seen as a more luxury cruise line, and this year it’s had three different perfect sanitation scores on three different ships. The MSC Seashore even has an air sanitation system designed to eliminate viruses and bacteria from the air.  

Norwegian Escape 

Date of Inspection: Jan. 27 

Norwegian Sky 

Date of Inspection: May 23 

Norwegian Bliss 

Date of Inspection: June 22 

Norwegian Jewel: 

Date of Inspection: July 24 

Norwegian is the cruise line with the most perfect sanitation scores so far this year. Four ships have earned 100 points, including the Escape, which holds the most passengers of any NCL ship at 4,218. 

Viking Polaris 

Date of Inspection: April 2 

Viking Orion 

Date of Inspection: Aug. 18 

Viking had two perfect sanitation scores, both on ships much smaller than most on this list. The Polaris, for example, holds only 378 passengers, and sails unusual routes like the Great Lakes and Antarctica.  

Brilliance of the Seas 

Date of Inspection: May 16

Radiance of the Seas 

Date of Inspection: July 21 

Royal Caribbean had two 100 sanitation scores this year. One was on the Brilliance of the Seas, which sails the Greek Isles and the Caribbean, and the other was on the Radiance of the Seas, which has Alaskan and Caribbean itineraries.  

Oceania Regatta 

Date of Inspection: July 22 

The only Oceania Cruises perfect sanitation score came on the Regatta. It’s a small ship with a guest capacity of 670 that will be sailing in Asia, the South Pacific, and Australia in 2025. 

Seabourn Odyssey 

Date of Inspection: Aug. 16 

Seabourn has one perfect inspection this year. Interestingly, it’s on the Odyssey, a ship that was sold to a different cruise company a little over a month after the inspection in September.  

Zuiderdam 

Date of Inspection: Aug. 24 

Holland America’s Zuideram received a perfect score in August. It’s now the ship that the cruise line uses for its Grand World Voyage cruises, which can be as long as 124 days and cost over $22,000 per person.  

Carnival Spirit 

Date of Inspection: Sept. 3 

Carnival has a reputation of being a low-cost party ship, and this year it only received one perfect sanitation score. It usually sails from Mobile, Alabama to the Caribbean. 

Margaritaville at Sea Paradise 

Date of Inspection: May 1 

Score: 83 

Chances are if you’ve heard about Margaritaville at Sea, it’s because it’s made the news for being a bit of a disaster. It’s really cheap, guests complain that it’s dirty and run down, and it feels like the punchline of a joke. Is it surprising that it received a failing grade for multiple things like broken refrigerators and above-capacity whirlpools? Not really. Thankfully, the ship has since scored a 92. 

Hanseatic Inspiration  

Date of Inspection: Sept. 29 

Score: 62 

The lowest sanitation score of the year belongs to Hapag-Lloyd’s Hanseatic Inspiration. It’s a German cruise line that operates three ships in Europe, with destinations all over the world. 

According to the CDC report on the inspection, “Supervisors were inadequately monitoring critical and high-risk food processes, permitting unsafe practices to continue in food preparation areas” including improper food holding and storage.  

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