Carnival cruise ship fails health inspection
The Carnival Cruise Lines’ ‘Fascination’ is docked at the Port of Miami Dec. 02, 2002.
The Carnival Fascination failed a health inspection in February after Center for Disease Control and Prevention inspectors found live flies, roach nymphs, dried food waste, and many other violations throughout the cruise ship.
This latest public relations headache is accompanied by unusually low discounted rates on Carnival cruises.
Anyone looking for a vacation on the cheap can sail the Caribbean on the Carnival Imagination for just $43 a night later this month, according to NBC.
Jay Caulk, general manager of The Travel Experts, told NBC that Carnival was "desperate," and "They have a lot to do to get rid of the black eye."
The health inspection report, released this week, revealed the wide variety of "deficiencies" that earned the ship a score of 84 out of 100. Anything below 86 is failing.
Some of deficiencies were mundane, like no paper towels in some of the rest rooms, and lights not as bright as required.
Others were more serious, including the storage of toner cartridges, Purell hand sanitizer, and liquor in the same room.
Some were gross: Flies and roach nymphs were found in a drain below a juice dispenser, in a pantry, in a room service area, and in an undercounter compartment in a kitchen.
The report also notes, "there was a large fly around the uncovered raw hamburger patties."
The Fascination, which sails in the Caribbean, last failed an inspection in June 1997. It has received grades mostly above 90 since then.
The failing score caps off a string of terrible news for Carnival, which began in February when the Triumph was stranded in the Gulf of Mexico for five days after an engine room fire.
Since then, two other cruises have been cut short due to technical problems, and the Triumph broke loose from port in Mobile, Alabama, where it was being repaired.
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