Cruise Ship Report Card: What It Actually Means (and Where to Find Your Ship’s Grade)
“Cruise ship report card” means two different things, and the internet loves to blur them like a Lido-deck sunscreen application. One is a sanitation score from the U.S. CDC. The other is an environmental grade from the advocacy group Friends of the Earth. They measure different things, so a ship can ace one and flunk the other. Yes, that’s allowed. No, it isn’t fair.
| CDC Vessel Sanitation Program | Friends of the Earth Cruise Ship Report Card | |
|---|---|---|
| What it grades | Hygiene and sanitation on individual ships | Cruise lines‘ environmental performance |
| Scale | 0–100 points | Letter grades |
| Pass mark | 86 or higher; 85 or below is unsatisfactory | No pass mark, just grades |
| Frequency | Ships are inspected twice a year, unannounced, per the CDC (fewer if a ship spends an extended period outside U.S. waters) | Periodic editions; the latest we found is 2024 |
The sanitation report card (the one that affects your stomach)
The CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program, established in 1975, inspects ships sailing into U.S. ports. Score 86 or above and you pass. Score 85 or below and you’re “not satisfactory,” which is the cruise-inspection equivalent of a note home to your parents.
Where to find your ship’s grade: the CDC publishes every score, plus the violations and how each ship fixed them, in its Vessel Sanitation Program inspection lookup. You can search by ship, by cruise line or by inspection date, and filter for scores of 86 or higher or 85 or lower. The tool also links to a “Ship Scored 100” page, covering perfect scores from the last 365 days, and a “Green Sheet” report of the most recent scores. Ten minutes of scrolling there beats any rumour in a Facebook group.
Here are the seven lowest-scoring ships of 2026 as of the August 2026 roundups. Treat this as a snapshot, because ships keep getting inspected and the CDC lookup is where you’ll find anything newer:
- Norwegian Dawn (Norwegian Cruise Line): 84 (March 29), the only one of the seven below the pass mark
- Carnival Breeze (Carnival Cruise Line): 86 (May 14), a pass by exactly one point, after a perfect 100 in January
- Kydon: 86 (March 30). This is a passenger ferry run by Ferries del Caribe between Santo Domingo and San Juan, not a cruise ship, but it sails under the same CDC scrutiny
- National Geographic Sea Lion (Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic): 86 (June 21), a small expedition ship carrying 62 guests
- Sun Princess (Princess Cruises), MSC Meraviglia (MSC Cruises) and Amadea (German line Phoenix Reisen): 89 each (February 15, March 10 and February 10)
That Breeze result is the real lesson, and honestly the plot twist of the whole list. A score is a snapshot of one day, not a lifetime verdict. As of mid-August 2026, Cruise Mummy reported that dozens of ships had hit a perfect 100 during the year, including Icon of the Seas, Carnival Celebration, Celebrity Apex, Disney Dream, Norwegian Viva and Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth. Meanwhile the Breeze, which Cruise Hive reports scored 100 on an inspection in January 2026, scored 86 on May 14. That’s a 14-point tumble in four months, and still, technically, a pass. If you’re sailing her, our Carnival Breeze autumn 2026 guide has the itinerary side of the story.
The environmental report card (the one that makes headlines)
Friends of the Earth’s 2024 edition graded 21 cruise lines and 243 ships on four things: sewage treatment, air pollution reduction, water quality and scrubber use, and transparency. Each line also gets one overall grade. The full report is on the Friends of the Earth website at foe.org/cruise-report-card.
- Best: Hurtigruten and Hurtigruten Expeditions, each with a B+
- Worst: five Carnival Corporation lines received failing grades, and eight other lines got D’s
- Transparency: lines that withheld information, including all Carnival brands, got F’s in that category
One caveat, because I’m nothing if not fair: Friends of the Earth says its grades draw on internet, government, cruise-industry and other public sources. It’s an advocacy group’s scorecard, so treat it as a pressure tool, not a lab result.
Want one grade per ship?
Our own cruise ship report card rolls the CDC score, a food-safety sub-score, an environmental rating, crew treatment and outbreak history into a single A+ to F letter grade. If your real worry is a sick cabin neighbour, check the cruise ship outbreak tracker before you book.