Cruise ship sanitation scores

1. Failing an inspection is rare. Since January 2023, 5 of 823 inspections (0.6%) scored below the passing mark of 86. Across the full record back to 1990, 75 of 4,088 failed (1.8%).
2. The big lines sit within 3.8 points of each other. Among the 11 cruise lines with at least 20 inspections since 2023, Oceania Cruises averaged the highest (98.7) and Princess Cruises the lowest (94.9). Every one of them averages well above passing.
3. Only 2 failing scores came from those major lines. Since 2023 the failures at major lines were MSC Seaside (MSC Cruises + Explora Journeys, 67 in Apr 2023) and Norwegian Dawn (Norwegian Cruise Line, 84 in Mar 2026). The rest came from small operators.
4. CDC posted 23 outbreaks for 2025 sailings. That is the most in any year since 2007. The count covers voyages where at least 3% of passengers or crew reported gastrointestinal illness.
5. Holland America Line and Princess Cruises account for 36.2% of posted outbreaks. 155 of the 428 outbreaks CDC lists since 1993. 4 of the 11 major lines (Carnival Cruise Line, Disney Cruise Line, MSC Cruises + Explora Journeys, Norwegian Cruise Line) have none posted for 2023-or-later sailings. CDC's list is not adjusted for the number of voyages or passengers, and long voyages have more days in which to cross the 3% threshold, so this is a count, not a risk rate.

These are descriptive numbers. Lines run different numbers of ships on different itineraries, and each ship is inspected roughly twice a year, so a few points of difference in an average is not proof that one line is cleaner than another. Nothing here shows what causes an outbreak.

30 other operators had fewer than 20 inspections in this period and are left out of the line comparison; their ships still appear in the latest-score table below.

Routine inspections stopped when cruising shut down in March 2020. CDC posted no inspections for 2021 and 28 for 2022, which is why the line comparison above starts in 2023.

A failing ship is re-inspected; CDC's site has each inspection report and the corrective-action statement.

Read these as counts, not risk. CDC posts an outbreak only when a ship under its jurisdiction has 3% or more of passengers or crew report gastrointestinal illness on one voyage. The list is not adjusted for how many ships, voyages or passengers a line carries, and long voyages have more days to reach 3%. 71.7% of posted outbreaks were norovirus.

Lines with at least 5 outbreaks overall or any since 2023. CDC's summary tables stop listing case counts after 2024 (the linked outbreak pages still describe each one), so this page counts outbreaks rather than comparing how many people fell ill.

The Green Sheet is CDC's list of the most recent score for each ship currently in the program. 48 ships scored 100 on their latest inspection and 2 are below 86. 191 ships link to their live CruiseKick tracker page.