People love lists, but the titles given to lists can sometimes be very deceiving.
"The 10 ugliest A-list movie stars" has a very different group of people than the "10 ugliest actors working in Hollywood."
Both of those lists, by the way, are pretty mean, but they show that context matters. In mid-October, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released its annual list of the 10 dirtiest cruise ships.
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That makes for some great headlines, but there's a real lack of context. That's something that popular YouTube personality Tony Barnette tried to add on his popular La Lido Loca show.
"Look, let's face it. There's a lot of stuff that happens in cruising that gains the atten ion of the public, the cruising public, and the non-cruising public. And one of those things that really gets a lot of attention, especially from the media, is people getting sick on cruise ships," he shared,
That has been a long-standing topic of media interest since well before the Covid-19 pandemic.
"It used to be about a different sickness a few years ago, but now it's really about gastrointestinal illness, the norovirus, or other stomach bugs which causes problems for cruisers. And we know that the root of many of those stomach bugs are cleanliness, hygiene of the passengers, and cleanliness of cruise ships. And so, not surprisingly, the Centers for Disease Control, they're happy to put out a list of the 10 dirtiest cruise ships," he shared.
The problem is that "10 dirtiest" does not tell the full story.
What exactly is a dirty cruise ship?
When restaurants fail an inspection, that tends to make the local newspaper. That makes sense because the public has a right to know when a local eatery does not pass a health and safety inspection.
If every restaurant passed, however, would it be fair for a newspaper or website to do a list of "The 10 local restaurants with the lowest health and safety scores?" That's essentially what the CDC has done.
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"This is the Crystal Serenity. It scored an 89 on its last CDC inspection. And, well, the passing score for the CDC is an 85. This inspection happened all the way back in February. So is it fair to call the Crystal Serenity a dirty cruise ship? She passed her inspection, but she holds a spot right here at number 10 on the list of the 10 dirtiest cruise ships," Barnette shared.
In fact, nine of the 10 ships on the CDC's "dirties ship" list scored passing grades. So while a number of Carnival ships, one MSC Cruises ship, and one Royal Caribbean ship made the list, all of them scored an 86 or higher.
The one failed ship, Hanseatic Inspiration, a Hapag-Lloyd cruise ship was clearly at the bottom with a 62.
Every list has a last-place finisher
In many ways, the CDC list is relative, It's kind of a "These are the slowest Olympic sprinters" negative take on the situation.
Barnette made it clear that it's reasonable to call out a ship that gets a 62. That's a decidedly failing grade.
As for the rest of the list, he asks a very fair question.
"Is it fair to call these dirty cruise ships?"
He also shared how you can check to see how your next ship scored.
"If you go to the CDC website for Vessel Services Sanitation Program, you can actually look for your cruise ship," he added.
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Barnette also noted that a large amount of ships got a perfect score from the CDC.
"We have the Carnival Spirit, the Celebrity Ascent, Celebrity Equinox, the Disney Fantasy, the Holland America Zyderdam, MSC Cruises Explorer 1, MSC Cruises Meraviglia. We also have the MSC Seashore, the NCL Bliss, the NCL Breakaway, the NCL Escape, the NCL Gem, the NCL Jewel, the NCL Sky. We have Oceana's Regatta, Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas, Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas, Seabourn Cruise Lines' Odyssey, Viking Expeditions' Viking Polaris, and Viking Ocean Cruises' Viking Orion. Those are the cruise ships that have had scores of 100 on their CDC inspection this year," he shared.
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