BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. -- For many cruise passengers, it's the gourmet restaurants and vast buffets that are among the highlights of their voyages.
But a caution to cruisers: The rating of ships' food operations, based on federal health inspections, can vary widely.
A new study released today by ProPublica compiled the ratings of every major cruise ship for food safety, as well as data for numbers of criminal incidents aboard those ships and and the number of deficiencies found during U.S. Coast Guard inspections.
The study showed that all seven cruise ships now based at Port Canaveral passed all of their health inspections since 2010. But it was a close call for two Royal Caribbean ships — Enchantment of the Seas and Freedom of the Seas — which each received 86 ratings once during that time span. A score below 86 on a 100-point scale is considered failing.
In contrast the Port Canaveral-based Disney Dream got the top possible grade of 100 on all of its nine inspections since 2010.
A Royal Caribbean spokeswoman only made a brief comment about the ProPublica findings to FLORIDA TODAY, and she did not address the two Port Canaveral-based ships specifically.
"At Royal Caribbean International, we have high health standards for all our guests and crew," said Cynthia Martinez, Royal Caribbean's director of global corporate communications. "We work very closely with the United States Public Health to immediately correct any deficiencies found aboard our ships."
Twice a year, each ship that makes port in the United States is inspected by a team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Vessel Sanitation Program.
In recent years, only a few ships have failed, according to ProPublica. But even ships that pass sometimes suffer outbreaks of illnesses, most notably of norovirus. Critics often blame contaminated food or water, but, according to the CDC there is no consensus on the causes of norovirus outbreaks. The federal inspectors checking everything from kitchen equipment to refrigerators and dishwasher temperature to water sources, and grade ships based on what they finds.
Ships can have dozens of deficiencies and still pass inspection. It all depends on the seriousness of the deficiencies.
For example, inspectors found a total of 416 deficiencies during 11 inspections of the Carnival Sunshine —an average of more than 37 deficiencies per inspection — yet the Sunshine scored between 90 and 99 on each of those inspections.
Ship crime
The incidence of crime aboard a ship can vary widely as well. During the time period studied by ProPublica — 2010 to present — the number of crimes on ships currently based at Port Canaveral ranged from four to 37.
The seriousness of the crimes on cruise ships also runs the gamut — from rape to minor thefts, for example.
Canaveral Port Authority Chairman Jerry Allender said he believes cruise ships "are extremely safe," and he has no safety concerns when he takes a cruise.
But, with thousands of passengers and crew members on each cruise, Allender said, some crimes are bound to occur.
"It's like living in a town," Allender said, while adding: "All in all, the crimes are the exception."
There are differences, though, between a small town and a cruise ship, as far as crime is concerned.
For example, ProPublica reports, instead of calling 9-1-1, crime victims on cruise ships typically alert on-board private security officers employed by the cruise line. Critics say this could potentially lead to a conflict of interest, since these security officers are responsible both for the initial response to the crime — including deciding whether and when to report the crime and preserving the crime scene — and for protecting the reputation of the cruise line.
The cruise industry insists that its first and foremost priority is to protect passengers, and that cruise lines do everything they can to respond immediately to the needs of victims and to preserve evidence so that law enforcement can carry out an investigation.
"Suggesting that there's a conflict of interest portrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of the cruise line," according to a statement to ProPublica from the Cruise Lines International Association, a trade organization of cruise lines in North America. "I think that it's insulting and absurd."
Contact Berman at 321-242-3649 and dberman@floridatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter @ByDaveBerman and on Facebook at facebook.com/dave.berman.54.
Port Canaveral ships' data
Here is data about the seven ships currently based at Port Canaveral, as compiled by ProPublica from various sources, based on the the period from 2010 to present. Some of these ships were based at other ports during part of the period studied:
Carnival Sensation
Built: 1993
Passenger capacity: 2,056
Health inspection scores: Range from 93 to 100 with the latest score being 96
Carnival Sunshine
Built: 1996
Passenger capacity: 2,642
Health inspection scores: Range from 90 to 99 with the latest score being 94
Carnival Valor
Built: 2004
Passenger capacity: 2,974
Health inspection scores: Range from 91 to 100 with the latest score being 97
Disney Dream
Built: 2010
Passenger capacity: 4,000
Health inspection scores: Range from 100 to 100 with the latest score being 100
Disney Fantasy
Built: 2012
Passenger capacity: 4,000
Health inspection scores: Range from 94 to 100 with the latest score being 100
Royal Caribbean Enchantment of the Seas
Built: 1997
Passenger capacity: 1,950
Health inspection scores: Range from 86 to 99 with the latest score being 99
Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas
Built: 2006
Passenger capacity: 3,634
Health inspection scores: Range from 86 to 100 with the latest score being 86
Source: ProPublica
To learn more
You can see more detailed information about individual cruise ships at ProPublica's website.
