How we read the CDC data

Where the data comes from

Every score and finding on this site comes from the CDC Vessel Sanitation Program Inspection Query Tool, read on October 31, 2026:

• the Green Sheet, which shows “the most recent inspection score for each ship in VSP jurisdiction” (205 ships; latest inspection on October 17, 2026);
• the inspection search, which lists 325 ships and 71 cruise lines; for each ship we ask for “All Dates” and record every inspection with its date, score and cruise line (4,109 inspections, the oldest from 1992);
• the inspection report and summary of the last 3 inspections of each ship on this site (615 reports): the findings (item, place on the ship, violation) and the points deducted for each item.

The explanations of how inspections work quote the CDC’s FAQ and VSP pages; the outbreak list comes from the CDC’s outbreak pages. CDC data is a work of the U.S. government and in the public domain.

Which ships have a page

• Every ship on the Green Sheet (205 ships), the CDC’s list of ships in its jurisdiction. A few of them have not been inspected for more than a year (for example because they sailed outside the United States); their pages say so.
• Archived ships (12 ships): ships that are still in the CDC search but no longer on the Green Sheet, only if their last inspection was on or after January 1, 2023 and they have at least 3 inspections. Older archived ships are left out: their records are years old and a page would say little that is useful. They still count in the yearly totals and in the list of failed inspections.

Rankings and comparisons

• Cleanest cruise lines: the plain average of every CDC inspection score of each line in the 12 months that end with the most recent published inspection (from October 18, 2025 to October 17, 2026 at this update). Only lines with at least 5 inspections get a place; lines with the same average to one decimal share it. The CDC itself does not rank cruise lines.
• Cruise line pages rank ships by their latest score on the Green Sheet and add a year-by-year table of every inspection under the line’s CDC names.
• Year over year: averages, perfect scores and failures of each calendar year from 2023; the current year is compared as it stands, before it is over. Cruise lines need at least 3 inspections in both years.
• Inspections are assigned to the cruise line written in the CDC record at the time of the inspection.

Pass and fail

The CDC says that “cruise ships fail inspections when they score 85 or below” (CDC FAQ), and its Green Sheet says that scores of 85 or lower “are NOT satisfactory”. So we show 86 or more as Passed and 85 or lower as Failed. The color bands (100, 95–99, 90–94, 86–89) are ours, to make lists easier to scan.

How we check our reading

• For every report we check that 100 minus the points in the CDC summary equals the score, and that the date and score match the ship’s inspection history and the Green Sheet.
• Before each update is published, an automatic check reloads the CDC pages of 15 ships picked at random and compares them with this site.

Changes we make to the CDC text

• In the CDC database many apostrophes and degree signs have turned into question marks (“manufacturer?s”, “128?F”). We restore them only where the meaning is obvious.
• We do not publish names of people. If a finding contains what looks like a personal name, we replace it with “[name removed]”.
• We group findings by the area written at the start of the CDC “site” field (for example “Galley”, “Potable Water”, “Recreational Water Facilities”) and give some areas a plainer name.
• We leave out the CDC’s recommendation for each finding (it repeats the text of the standard) and the corrective action statements; both are in the CDC reports.
• Cruise line names are shortened (for example “Carnival Cruise Lines, Inc.” becomes “Carnival Cruise Line”), and companies the CDC lists under more than one name (such as the three Viking companies) share one page. Each cruise line page shows the CDC names.

Limits

• A score is not a safety rating. It shows how a ship met the CDC’s sanitation standards on the day of the inspection. It says nothing about fire safety, navigation or security, and it cannot tell you whether you will get sick.
• Older years are incomplete. The CDC tool only keeps the history of ships still in its list; ships that left the U.S. market for good are not searchable, so yearly totals before 2023 undercount.
• Delays. Inspections appear here only after the CDC publishes them, and the CDC does not say how long that takes. On October 31, 2026 the most recent inspection in the CDC records was from October 17, 2026, so recent inspections may be missing. We check the CDC every week; a newly published inspection appears here within about a week.
• Errors. We read the CDC pages automatically. If something looks wrong, the CDC record is the official one: tell us and we will fix it.

Updates

Data checked on October 31, 2026; pages built on October 31, 2026. We check the Green Sheet every week and download the new reports.