Zuiderdam: Sanitation Record & Health Report

Let's talk about the Zuiderdam, the ship that refuses to be anything less than a straight-A student. A single CDC inspection on February 27, 2026 handed back a score of 91, and that's the only data point on record — so we can't tell you if it's trending up, down, or sideways, because with one inspection there's nothing to trend against. What we can tell you is that 91 clears the passing bar of 86 with room to spare, and the food safety side is even more show-offy: a 100.0 score and a "Spotless Galley" grade, which is the kind of report card that makes other ships in the fleet start sweating. For context, fleet average sits around 95, so the Zuiderdam is running a shade below the pack on the CDC side — solid, not showboating, but nowhere near the danger zone.

Here's the twist that makes this one interesting: the Zuiderdam was built in 2002, which in cruise-ship years is basically "seasoned veteran with a knee that acts up in cold weather," but it got a full refurbishment in 2025. That's the ship equivalent of a 23-year-old getting a total glow-up right before prom, and the inspection results suggest the work stuck — a spotless galley and a passing hull-to-stern score is not what you'd expect from a ship pushing a quarter-century old without serious reinvestment. We'd love to tell you how it compares historically or whether it's ever had an off month, but with only one inspection on the books, that story hasn't been written yet. As for outbreaks, the CDC's outbreak data is currently unreachable, so we're not going to pretend we know the ship's track record there — we simply don't have the receipts either way, and we're not in the business of guessing.

Who it's for: anyone who wants a mid-sized Vista-class ship (82,820 tons, just under 2,000 passengers) with the reassurance of a fresh 2025 refurb and a genuinely strong food safety report, and who isn't spooked by a hull with 2002 on its birth certificate. Who should skip it: the data completists among you — if you need a long inspection history and outbreak transparency before you'll set foot on a ship, the Zuiderdam's file is too thin right now to give you that comfort, even though nothing in it is currently a red flag.