Last week we published an article that Silversea supervisors forced crew members aboard the Silver Shadow to hide trolleys of food in the crew quarters to avoid detection by USPH inspectors: Silver Shadow Fails Sanitation Inspection After Caught Hiding Filthy Conditions from Health Inspectors
Today the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) published its report.
It’s damning to Silver Shadow’s sanitation practices. Quite frankly, it’s worse than I expected. The final score is 82 (it was initially 84). Here’s a portion of the report:
Site: Other-Galley Crew Cabins
Violation: An organized effort was made to physically remove over 15 full trolleys of dry foods, spices, canned foods, cooked foods, milk, raw meats, pasteurized eggs, cheeses of all types, baking goods, raw fruits, raw vegetables, and a variety of both hand held and counter model food equipment, pans, dishware and utensils to over 10 individual cabins shared by two or three galley crew members in order to avoid inspection by VSP staff. All the out of temperature potentially hazardous foods were discarded along with most other foods that were not canned or in original containers. The lead VSP inspector poured concentrated chlorine liquid over all the discarded foods as they were dumped into garbage bags to ensure they would not be used again
The report contains no photos, but you can see some of the photos we posted last week on our Facebook page.
We also asked crew members from other cruise lines whether cruise ships playing "hide and seek" from the USPH is a common practice in the cruise industry. Its not a scientific poll, but around 90% of crew members said "yes." Take a look here.
On Wednesday, Senator Rockefeller oversees another Senate hearing into whether cruise passengers need greater protection from the cruise industry’s bad consumer practices. I’m sure this issue will come up. I look forward to hearing the cruise industry’s response.