Explorer of the Seas: Sanitation Record & Health Report

Explorer of the Seas has been sailing since 2000, which in cruise ship years makes it basically a vintage sedan that somehow still passes emissions — except here the emissions test is a CDC inspection, and this ship just aced it. A latest score of 100 is about as good as it gets, and it arrived via a genuinely improving trend: this Voyager-class veteran jumped from a 92 in November 2025 to a perfect 100 in April 2026. That's only two inspections in the file, so we're working with a small sample, but going from "fine" to "flawless" in one cycle is the kind of glow-up that makes you wonder what the galley staff did differently. Compared to the fleet-wide latest-score average of 96.7 and median of 98 across the 162 ships we track, a 100 puts Explorer comfortably above the pack.

The lowest score on record is 92, which is still solidly in passing territory (86+ clears the bar), so even this ship's "bad" inspection wasn't actually bad — it just wasn't a 100. The all-time and 5-year averages both sit at 96, basically matching the fleet median, which tells you this isn't a ship coasting on one lucky walkthrough; it's been consistently competent for years, and the 2015 refurbishment seems to have kept a 25-plus-year-old hull feeling less like a museum piece and more like a well-maintained workhorse. We don't have outbreak data available for this one — the CDC's outbreak records are currently unreachable — so we can't vouch for a clean sheet there one way or the other, only that the sanitation inspections themselves are trending in exactly the right direction.

Who it's for: itinerary hunters who want flexibility, since Explorer splits its schedule across Port Canaveral, Ravenna, and Barcelona, meaning you can chase Caribbean sun or Mediterranean history without switching cruise lines. It's also a solid pick for anyone who wants a Royal Caribbean ship with real pedigree — 15 decks, over 3,100 passengers, and a crew of nearly 1,200 keeping things running — without needing the newest, shiniest mega-ship on the market. Who should skip it: travelers who obsessively research CDC history and get spooked by any score under 95, since the 92 is sitting right there in the record even though it's perfectly passing. If a two-inspection sample size makes you nervous, or you're the type who wants outbreak transparency before booking, keep an eye on this one rather than booking blind — the sanitation trend is excellent, but the data trail is still thin.