The CDC publishes health inspection scores for cruise ships that call on U.S. ports. The scores are public, they're free to look up, and they get summarized in roundups a few times a year.

This is how the program works, what the published scores measure, and how to pull the record for a specific ship.

One note on scope. I'm not a health inspector. A travel advisor's ship inspection covers staterooms and public spaces, not the operational areas the CDC looks at. I've been on back-of-house tours twice, and I wasn't trained to evaluate what I was seeing. So what follows is an explanation of the program, not an assessment of any ship's galley.

How the inspection works

The CDC runs the Vessel Sanitation Program, which inspects cruise ships while they're in U.S. ports. Ships under its jurisdiction are typically inspected twice a fiscal year. The inspections are unannounced, and one runs about six to eight hours depending on the size of the ship, the number of inspectors, time in port, and what turns up.

An inspection covers eight areas, including galleys, potable water systems, swimming pools and whirlpools, pest management, and recordkeeping. A ship starts at 100 and loses points for violations, weighted by public health significance. A score of 86 or higher is satisfactory. An 85 or lower is not.

If a ship sails outside the United States for an extended period, she may not be inspected twice in a year. In the CDC's words, she'll be inspected again when she returns to the U.S.

What the published lists measure

Roundups of ships with a 100 are generally drawn from the CDC's Green Sheet, which reports each ship's most recent inspection score. USA TODAY's roundup describes its list as ships that earned perfect scores "during their most recent inspections over the past year."

That makes it a snapshot of current standing scores rather than a count of inspections conducted in a given year. A ship on the list earned her score at some point in the prior 12 months.

The current numbers

As of the Apr 7, 2026 roundup, updated May 13, 32 ships held a 100 as their most recent score, across 15 cruise lines.

Royal Caribbean had six ships on the list. Celebrity had four. Holland America, Oceania, and Viking had three each. Norwegian Cruise Line had two, Norwegian Encore and Norwegian Gem. Carnival had two.

In the same period, Norwegian Dawn scored an 84 on Mar 29, 2026, below the satisfactory threshold. She was the only Norwegian Cruise Line ship to fail an inspection in 2026. The inspection documented flies in food service areas, soiled food-contact surfaces on ice machines, and refrigeration temperature failures, among roughly 50 deficiencies.

Ships are inspected individually and scored individually. A line's ships can appear at both ends of the range in the same year.

What happens after an inspection

Every inspected ship files a corrective action report, including ships that score 100. A perfect score means no violations carried a point deduction, not that inspectors documented nothing.

On Norwegian Dawn, crew members began addressing findings while inspectors were still aboard, and the line filed a 34-page corrective action report within about six weeks. It covered adjusted cleaning schedules, deep cleaning of floors and drains, disposal of rusted utensils and rewashing of dishes, tile replacement, and brighter lighting ordered for dim food preparation areas.

Her score on file remains an 84. The CDC does not verify that deficiencies have been corrected until the next inspection or reinspection, so a score stands until the ship is inspected again. Dawn's next inspection is expected when she returns to her Jacksonville homeport in November 2026.

The same mechanic applies to high scores. A score on file reflects the day of the inspection, and the interval to the next one can run several months.

Recent program context

Three developments over the past two years, stated without inference:

  • In April 2025, the Vessel Sanitation Program lost its full-time civilian staff during the HHS restructuring. Roughly a dozen U.S. Public Health Service officers continued conducting inspections.
  • Inspection volume rose from 197 ships inspected in 2024 to 273 in 2025.
  • Reported gastrointestinal outbreaks fell from roughly 20 in 2025 to four or five in the first half of 2026.

These cover one year of overlap on three separate measures, during a period when cruise volume was also rising. That's not enough data to establish a pattern or a cause, and I'm not going to assert one.

What the score does not cover

A sanitation score addresses public health systems on the day of inspection. It does not address propulsion or itinerary reliability, service, entertainment, or dining quality, or the condition and maintenance of staterooms and public spaces.

Looking up a specific ship

The CDC's inspection query tool holds the records, searchable by ship or by line.

  • Search the ship by name to pull her inspection history.
  • Check the inspection date alongside the score, since scores stand until the next inspection.
  • Open the inspection report itself. The reports list the specific violations, and the same score can come from recordkeeping violations or from temperature control findings in a galley.
  • For a ship that scored below 86, the corrective action report documents what was addressed and when.

The records are public, they cover one defined slice of ship operations, and they're one input among the itinerary, the air connections into your departure port, and the ship itself.