Carnival Pride: Sanitation Record & Health Report

Carnival Pride is a 2001-built Spirit-class ship that just wrapped a 2026 refurbishment, and whatever they did in dry dock, it's working. The ship's latest CDC score is 93, up from an 86 back in July 2025 — that's an improving trend across its only two logged inspections, and the kind of jump that suggests someone actually addressed whatever tripped up that first score instead of just crossing their fingers for the next one. Two inspections is a thin sample size, so we're not ready to crown it, but a Smooth Sailing rating on the strength of a real improvement beats a Smooth Sailing rating that's just riding one lucky visit.

Context matters here: across the 162 ships we track, the average latest CDC score is 96.7 and the median is 98, so Pride's 93 puts it solidly in passing territory but still trailing the pack rather than leading it. For a 25-year-old vessel that's been hauling 2,124 guests out of Baltimore on 49 sailings, that's a respectable showing — old bones, freshly refurbished, and sanitation numbers heading in the right direction rather than the other. We don't have outbreak data available for this one, so we're not going to pretend it's some spotless unicorn — we just can't speak to that part of the record either way.

Who it's for: East Coast cruisers who want a mid-size, no-frills sailing out of Baltimore without flying anywhere first, and anyone who likes rooting for the underdog getting its act together post-refurb. Who should skip it: score purists chasing a 98-or-nothing sanitation record, or anyone who wants a mega-ship with all the bells and whistles — at 85,920 tons and 13 decks, Pride is comparatively cozy, not a floating amusement park. If the recent numbers hold on the next inspection, this could be a real comeback story; for now, it's a ship trending up that hasn't quite proven it yet.