CENTURY..Sanitation inspection score of 79

[FreesiaE]

Not only did they fail inspection, they missed it by what 7 points! Oh my gosh. It takes a real lack of caring/supervision/sanitation to score that low. I mean, most "fast food" here on land is at least in the upper 90's. Gross. Celebrity really needs to step up their game for reinspection and make sure word get out that they are doing everything they can--even if it means docking for a day or two to get this fixed! Imagine if you had someone who was immunocompromised exposed to these conditions (the very young, the elderly, those with cancers, etc)--scary!--on a side note, I am doing my thesis on cruise ship sanitation scores, so this will be a great case to look at at next inspection!

[4 cruisers]

I just went to the gov. web site and realized that there was only one other ship with a lower score than this and I'd NEVER heard of it! There were no others anywhere near as low as the Century :( If anyone hears of re-inspection, PLEASE post! I think I will call Celebrity tomorrow to hear what they have to say! We're set to go on our second trip on Celebrity in April.

[tlm]

I put up a thread with regards to Celebrity's response to an email I sent today about this isuue.

 

This is what they said:

 

"Mr. Williams forwarded your email to me for a response. As you can

appreciate, I am extremely disappointed with the results of the recent U.S.

Public Health inspection onboard Century. Those results do not represent

Celebrity's high sanitation standards, or what we seek to achieve onboard

our ships. We will take all the steps necessary to ensure this situation

does not occur again.

 

A corrective action plan has been submitted to U.S. Public Health. That

plan outlines the progress and completion of the corrective actions we have

implemented, regarding the agencies findings. Century is scheduled to be

inspected again within the next few weeks.

 

We appreciate your concern and thank you for taking the time to send us

your message. Rest assured that our corrective action plan is aggressive -

with the sole purpose of obtaining results that live up to Celebrity

Cruises' and Century's excellent standard and reputation.

 

Dietmar R. Wertanzl

Senior Vice President, Fleet Operations

Celebrity Cruises Inc."

 

 

Toni

[wieslaw]

I just went to the web site that has the whole report and it is very puzzling to me why these conditions exist ?

The people in charge of the ship, or any particular department know their ship a lot better than the people that inspect this and hundreds of other ships.

If the inspectors can find these conditions in the short amount of time when inspecting the ship......why the people in charge of the water, kitchen or whatever can not find and correct the problems on the every day basis? This is their ship too, they eat and live there. Why can't they see the obvious crawling or running insects ? They are there every day......both the people and the cockroaches......why does it take an inspector to point this out ?

It makes me wonder if the people who are responsible for their assign areas really care what should be done or do they just go through the 'motions' ?

It is a big dissapointment for me to see a report like this.

Now I will wonder about many other not so obvious things: like washing hands, preparing the food and personal hygine of the personnel ......things that are a lot harder to spot by the inspectors.

Too bad..... a big slap in the face of the name Celebrity.

 

From the report:

 

Item No.DescriptionPoints Deducted39IPM program effective; Approved pesticide application3

Site: LIDO GALLEYDeduction Status: YViolation: NUMEROUS ROACHES WERE NOTED IN THE GALLEY. BOTH ADULT AND JUVENILE ROACHES WERE NOTED IN THE GALLEY UNDER A REFRIGERATOR, UNDER THE BLAST CHILLER, AND IN THE POTWASH AREA. ROACHES IN THESE AREAS WERE CRAWLING ON THE DECK, BULKHEAD, AND DECKHEAD.Recommendation: 8.2.1.1.1 The presence of insects, rodents, and other pests shall be effectively controlled to minimize their presence in the food storage, preparation, and service areas and warewashing and utensil storage areas aboard a vessel.

Site: BUTCHER SHOPDeduction Status: YViolation: TWO LIVE COCKROACHES WERE NOTED IN THE BLADE COMPARTMENT OF THE BUTCHER SAW.Recommendation: 8.2.1.1.1 The presence of insects, rodents, and other pests shall be effectively controlled to minimize their presence in the food storage, preparation, and service areas and warewashing and utensil storage areas aboard a vessel.

 

Wes

[zurmoly]

This is such a bummer. Love the Century! Danno, if you see someone waving to you fom the Carribean Princess on the 19th, it will be me! Happy sailing!

[usha]

:eek: The whole thing is really bugging me.

[usha]

:o Danno, we're on Century b/2/b Feb. 5th and Feb. 12th. We'll just be getting off the ship (leaving them breadstickless) on Feb. 19th. And I just made my final payment!

[safein]

TATKA - You're right. I never quite understood the bad rap on RCCL's purchase of Celebrity...it seems to me Celebrity really began to position itself as a premium line AFTER RCCL got a hold of them, and RCCL itself was already a middle-line brand with a strong reputation and loyal following.

It isn't like some bargain mass-market Walmart-at-Sea brand bought them and rolled them into one big seagoing monopoly of clonification and corporate parts-bin sharing...as has happened to pretty much the rest of the cruise industry. I consider RCCL to be a stand-against-the-flow company, boldly challenging the Goliath, and saving Celebrity from an almost certain fate of Carnivalication.

 

Zackiedawg,

 

I probably have one very main distinction on the Celebrity Cruise Board.

 

I used to work for the minority shareholder of Celebrity before the line was sold by Chandris to RCCL. I can tell you first hand that I have noticed a change in management style pre-RCCL. What was found on the Century would not have been tolerated by my former employer. They would have demanded the immediate extermination and made sure that everything was 100% and then asked for a reinspection. And yes, they would have had the wherewithal and the clout to have done this as they have the largest fleet of bulk carriers in the world.

 

On the extreme case,when the Horizon had the Legionnaire's disease problem, management wanted to do very little and keep it hush hush. Our VP flew to Bermuda with a team and an open checkbook to help the passengers who were on that cruise.

 

I'm sure that heads rolled on the Century.

 

Anita

[robsvacation]

I wouldn't get too up in arms on this, most ships that fail turn around to get high scores inthe 90's next time. Failure of this test does not mean people are getting sick on the ship, it means it failed to meet the very stringent requirements the CDC has for ships. A comparison to to a resturant inspection is a mute point, these inspections are completely different and pretty much every resturant on land would fail the CDC ship inspection.

 

The roaches, while "yucky", are on all ships, get out the Raid. The too warm milk was off by 1.5 degrees, it's not like it was on a counter. The clorine in the pools and whirlpool, along with the PH in the Thelaso Pool is more troublesome: someone doesn't know what they are doing with their pool testing since pretty much all of these facilities were wrong.

 

All the backflow plumbing problems aren't unusual and the missing backflow devices likely date back to the ship's construction. CDC is only noting these for the first time now.

 

What I really think killed the ship is all the items that go back several reports that they just didn't address. I bet what happened is some inspector just got pissed at seeing the same item ignored over and over, the ship's management assuming they still pass without fixing these longer term issues. I can guess at the item that really set the inspector(s) off:

 

Site: LIDO BUFFETS

Deduction Status: Y

Violation: THE SNEEZE GUARDS DID NOT ADEQUATELY PROTECT THE FOODS PLACED BENEATH THEM. THIS WAS NOTED DURING THE LAST INSPECTION. THE STAFF STATED THAT THIS ITEM WILL BE ADDRESSED DURING THE NEXT DRY DOCK.

 

Holy Cow, if someone said to me "yeah, we know you told us this was wrong last time, but we'll get around to fixing it at the next dry docking in a few months" I'd flip and make sure they failed. This isn't $1000's to replace a major valve like is noted elsewhere in the report, this is a few $100's of plexiglass. For heaven sakes at least show that you're trying!

[dougnewmanatsea]

Welcome to the long term effects of RCI...some you see, some you don't see.

Those must be really long term effects ;) .

 

But seriously, a drop in sanitation standards doesn't take, let's see, seven years to happen. It's a short-term effect of something that obviously got screwed up on CENTURY recently. And no doubt it will be fixed.

 

RCI have an excellent record of sanitation inspections. If this was a problem with RCI then their ships wouldn't be doing so well on sanitation inspections all the time.

 

I never quite understood the bad rap on RCCL's purchase of Celebrity...it seems to me Celebrity really began to position itself as a premium line AFTER RCCL got a hold of them

Celebrity's positioning as a premium brand was done pre-RCI. Celebrity was positioned as such from Day One. My first cruise was on HORIZON in 1993 and it was definitely a premium product easily a notch above where RCI were at the time.

 

Indeed Celebrity got caught in a bit of an identity crisis after the RCI takeover (expanded too rapidly driving fares lower) which was what caused them to go through the re-branding a year or two ago in an attempt to become more premium again.

 

It takes a real lack of caring/supervision/sanitation to score that low. I mean, most "fast food" here on land is at least in the upper 90's.

How do you know? These inspections apply only to cruise ships. The only comparison I've ever heard is from a VSP inspector who previously worked as a sanitary inspector on land. He said that he had never seen a restaurant on land that would have come close to passing a VSP inspection.

 

The standards for landside public health inspections are nowhere near as stringent. If they were as strict as the shipboard inspections, most of us might never eat out again in our lives ;) .

 

That's not to say that this is not an unacceptable score, but I think we think what we eat is much cleaner than it really is.

 

I just went to the gov. web site and realized that there was only one other ship with a lower score than this and I'd NEVER heard of it!

That is, only one other ship where the ship got a lower score on its most recent inspection. Look at the long-term picture and things are very, very different.

 

The lowest score ever was a 33 on VISTAMAR (a small German-market ship) in 2000.

 

Well-known ships that have had low scores in relatively recent years include a 76 on SEVEN SEAS NAVIGATOR in 1999, 78 on DAWN PRINCESS in 1998, an 81 on CARNIVAL DESTINY in 1999, an 81 on CRYSTAL HARMONY in 2000, an 82 on NOORDAM in 2002, an 83 on CARNIVAL VICTORY in 2001, an 83 on SEVEN SEAS MARINER in 2001, an 83 on FANTASY just this month, an 85 on QE2 in 2003 (failed three times since 1997), and an 85 on MSC LIRICA in 2004. Note that high-end ships are not immune: Seabourn, SeaDream, RSSC, Cunard, and Windstar all have had ships fail. This is the first failing inspection for any RCI or Celebrity ship since 1997.

 

So this is not a completely uncommon occurrence or a huge blemish on the RCI/Celebrity record. It's a problem, now, but hopefully it will be fixed and that will be the end of it. There's no cause for concern unless more failing inspections start popping up in the future.

 

I used to work for the minority shareholder of Celebrity before the line was sold by Chandris to RCCL. I can tell you first hand that I have noticed a change in management style pre-RCCL. What was found on the Century would not have been tolerated by my former employer.

I agree with you that this would not have been tolerated under Chandris/OSG ownership, but I don't think one can say that RCI are tolerating it either. I doubt they are.

[pjsugg]

I agree, here in NM I have never seen sooooo many roaches in my life. They are big black water ones, but they make me sick. We spend hundreds of $$ to keep them out of the house, but once in awhile I find them while wondering in the night after turning on a light. Hopefully, this will be corrected quickly, which I am surprised Celebrity did not do!!! It should have been taken care of before it got to this point. Let us hope they can fix this old ship that needs some work before they shut it down. What a shame that would be....since this is our sixth cruise, but our first X.

As Toni said, we will follow up on this, but I promise, we will still have a great time on the ship....just look before we eat. LOL We must all understand that nothing in life is perfect....but I save for this wonderful time and expect some accountability on the cruiseline.

 

Patti

[Moeve]

I remember a time when pax boarding were only allowed onboard at 15:30 and old pax were off by 10:30 so the crew had time to do the kinds of work without pax in the way. This is just no longer possible when turn over times are reduced to a minimum. A cabin steward has 20 min to clean an embarkation cabin!?! See what you can do in 20 min (it is not much!!)

 

Older ships also get caught by amended requirements - some things are not just a 1/2 hour job!! I can just imagine ALL of us bitching and complaining if some restaurant or service was closed for let us say 1/2 of your cruise. (forget the noise & dirt that comes with such work) Some things can really only be done in drydock - if they are to be done properly!!!

 

Lets face it all cruise ships visiting US ports are better tested & checked than ANY restaurant ashore anywhere in the world - the US included! But that is also good because it does keep everyone on their toes and when problems come up they are delt with. Failure to do so means a ship ultimately losses the right to enter a US port.

 

Roaches are unfortunatly a problem that cannot be avoided altogether. These d--- insects can get into the smallest cavity. & hide Those of you who live along the warmer coastal areas will also have lots of work keeping those critters at bay.

 

Lets see the next score I bet the crew got grilled by the Capt. & Hotel Manager the same day of the inspection with that score.

[Rat]

Even with these violations, I'll bet that the Century is a lot cleaner than most stateside restaurants. Now that's a scary thought!

[zackiedawg]

Celebrity's positioning as a premium brand was done pre-RCI. Celebrity was positioned as such from Day One. My first cruise was on HORIZON in 1993 and it was definitely a premium product easily a notch above where RCI were at the time.

 

Indeed Celebrity got caught in a bit of an identity crisis after the RCI takeover (expanded too rapidly driving fares lower) which was what caused them to go through the re-branding a year or two ago in an attempt to become more premium again.

Thanks Doug. I wasn't sure, having never traveled on Celebrity previously. I just always thought of Celebrity as an alternative competitor to the middle lines like RCI and Princess until a few years ago when much press was made about their 'upscale' positioning. I still think being taken over by Royal Caribbean was a better fate than being absorbed by Carnival...Many people still seem to feel Celebrity is a premium brand and still meets high standards for new and repeat customers alike, while a significant number of previous Holland America and Princess customers have commented about the changes in service, design, and feel since Carnival took over.

 

I agree with you that this would not have been tolerated under Chandris/OSG ownership, but I don't think one can say that RCI are tolerating it either. I doubt they are.

Exactly. Though the previous ownership wouldn't have tolerated a bad score, it still could have happened...it can happen to any ship any time. It only takes a few employees cutting corners, a manager not doing his job, a few slackers or a few mistakes just when the inspector shows up. Chandris/OSG could only take action to fix the problems and ensure they never happen again, which it seems likely RCI will do (Given that the last time any of their ships ever failed inspection, back in 1997, was the LAST time...obviously they didn't tolerate it and solved the issues quickly).

 

Celebrity's reaction and solution to the problem, and the speed at which they handle it, will demonstrate their concern and attest to their record. If the ship fails again during the next few inspections, then one can rightfully say that the ownership isn't properly addressing an issue.

 

By the way, Century's past inspections have all been a pass: 6/14/04=94, 12/16/03= 97,5/3/03= 97,11/16/02= 96,5/6/02= 94,12/18/01= 97,7/14/01= 96,10/20/00= 93,5/27/00= 94,11/6/99= 94,4/24/99= 95,11/7/98= 96,5/9/98= 95,11/22/97= 93,1/21/97= 95,7/6/96= 90,1/13/96=100.

[ldrabek]

I won't lie and say it doesn't upset me... it does. We're cruising in January on the Century, with my in-laws, and it'll be their first cruise. I'm NOT mentioning this article to them. :) I think the thing that bothers me the most is that these CDC inspections are pretty much like clockwork, every 6 months. So they knew one was coming up, and still failed it, as well as didn't fix the items that they should have from the LAST inspection. :(

 

That being said, I'm going to be keeping my eyes peeled for the next inspection in the coming weeks. I hope they get a near-perfect score. If that inspection comes back bad... well, we know there's a real serious problem then. I'm betting though that we'll be sailing on a squeaky-clean ship in January though....

[hdawson]

I doubt that many posters have examined Century's previous 17 sanitation inspections. They range from 93 to a perfect score of 100. One inspection does not establish a pattern. Those 17 inspections DO IN FACT establish a pattern. Personally, I would not be concerned at all. Even the Queen Elizabeth 2 has failed a couple of times.

[4 cruisers]

Personally, the fact that the QEII has failed twice doesn't give me any comfort. We sailed her from Hong Kong to Los Angeles and our shower curtains had black mold and our beds had dust bunnies under them that could pass as stuffed animals!!!! :eek: Just no excuse for many of these issues.

Glad to hear from host Doug! It's true, many lower scores in the past, but numbers even in the 80's just aren't as disturbing as when you hit the 70's!!!! Not to mention when it is on our currently FAVORITE ship !

By the way, the RCI''s Splendour of the Seas this past Sept. was very close to being on par with Celebrity (RCI) Century (pre poor CDC score that is!). We personally found Splendour's crew to be one of the best and the food in the dining room very close in quality to Century. The only differecnce being no butler or concierge in the mini suites. To us, RCI has a great product and in our experience, a very happy crew. Hoping they really jump on this so we don't have to worry anymore!

[albertiger]

these inspections are NOT announced. they are random. i have been aboard ships when they happened and if you think roaches scurry, you should see a crew when they see the inspectors on the dock!!! :eek:

[dougnewmanatsea]

[quote name='4 cruisers']Personally, the fact that the QEII has failed twice doesn't give me any comfort.[/QUOTE]She's failed three times since 1992 (which are the oldest entries in the database). The first entry from 1992 says "reinspection" which implies that she failed a previous inspection but I don't think the current inspection program had started before then (I could be wrong) so I'm not sure how that's possible.

QE2 is an old ship which makes it much harder. The newer ships are designed to the latest standards; older ones have to be upgraded and this is not easy. But QE2 does not have a great record, that's for sure.

With a few isolated exceptions, the ships that have failed in the past few years are either old or were not designed to sail from US ports, and were just calling here as regular port calls - most notably Japanese cruises ships calling on their world cruises routinely fail inspections for no reason other than that they're designed to the Japanese public health standards which are different than the American ones! The story of NIPPON MARU, one of the premier Japanese cruise ships, exemplifies this. Her record is fascinating - she got a 48 in 1995, then sunk lower in 1998 with a 36 (the second lowest score ever), and then seemingly miraculously managed scores of 98, 99, 99, 99, 96, 98, and 96 on her inspections from 1999 on. This always perplexed me until a friend from Asia told the whole story. Her first two miserable failures were basically because everything was done the opposite of how the USPH wanted - that is, she was run in accordance with the entirely different Japanese standards. In a drydock between the 1998 and 1999 inspections, she was reconfigured to meet [i]both[/i] standards (quite a challenge when they're contradictory!) and has done very well ever since.

Of course, none of this applies to CENTURY, but it's an interesting aside.

[quote name='4 cruisers']Glad to hear from host Doug! It's true, many lower scores in the past, but numbers even in the 80's just aren't as disturbing as when you hit the 70's!!!![/QUOTE]Yes, a score of 79 is a head-turner. And I'm sure heads have turned - and maybe some will roll - at Celebrity. In Richard Branson style, I'm so confident that today we're booking a cruise on CENTURY. (Well, actually, we're not booking because of the low sanitaton score, but it [i]sounds[/i] like a bold move, no ;) ?)

[4 cruisers]

Hurray Doug!!!! When are you going??? I would love to finally meet you! As you prob. noticed, we are going on April 16th simply because I got the best price on that sailing for the room we were spoiled by last time! LOL! Hey with all this "great" publicity, maybe you will really snag a fantastic deal!!!

Interesting about the Japanese standards being so different! Makes sense...not necessarily better or worse, simply "different!" Makes me think about NCL now being Star...and Japanese...hm-m-m-m! Wonder if James Deering is still with NCL? Do you happen to know? We sadly lost touch with him post POA. :(

[hdawson]

Star is not Japanese. It's Malaysian or Indonesian. Not sure which.

[FreesiaE]

Hi again! I would have to disagree with those whose basic feelings are that a 79 is still pretty darn clean. I would take a look at the overall scores of the ships and see how many had failing scores in the past year--not many. So, we can assume that these ships are 100% sterilized. Absoutley not. However, they lack the significant critical violations that Century had. Please note, the VSP gave the Century improvement ideas on certain areas, but did not dock them any points. These were for minor areas-not a big deal. However, those items that were seen as a big deal were those with the potential to make passengers ill-bad temperatures, poor chlorination, poor vector control, etc. Passengers do not have to actually get ill, but items such as these increase the overall risk of ilness. Bad scores such as these are bad for Celebrity-bad for PR, bad for morale of staff--just bad. I feel that Century will have their act together for reinspection, but they have been inspected many times before--what happened between last time and this time to cause such a score descrepancy? Now, before anyone thinks I am "bashing" Celebrity or Century, I am not. I only think that a low score should not be "brushed off" by cruisers with a "if I personally don't see violations, they don't exist" attitude. They should be watching to see if scores improve read the VSP website to see how the Century is responding and implementing new sanitation methods. That's it for me :) I really am a nice person--I promise!

[4 cruisers]

Hdawson, I'm quite sure that Star is a Japanese company...owns Orient Lines and NCL as well as the "Super Star" fleet. Do let me know if I've got this wrong, though! :o As I near 50, my memory is certainly failing :cool:

[4 cruisers]

Freesia, I don't see who was saying that 79 wasn't a bad thing?!!! Oh my gosh, we are all pretty disturbed about it for sure! You must remember that many of us are booked on her at this point and DO love the ship itself...just NOT the score or the causes of that score for sure!!! :eek: We truly won't be jumping ship...too much involved to cancel for one! I don 't think anyone on this thread hasn't found it disturbing!!!! I've loved every cruise we've had the good fortune to go on...no complaints here.

[tidelover]

yuck. I know not to drink the milk or water.
I'll keep my eye out and report back what I find.
Hopefully nothing moving. I alsmost wish I would have not seen this page.