Some surprises are fun, like when you’re greeted by an entire room full of people who want to buy you birthday drinks and tell you your hair smells nice. Others, like a surprise inspection by the Centers for Disease Control when you’ve been doing something you shouldn’t aren’t so nice, if you’re a cruise ship like the Silver Shadow, perhaps. Like moving meat to crew cabin sinks and storing trays of food in the corridors outside those cabins.

According to CNN, the CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program gave the Silver Shadow (owned by Silversea Cruises) a failing grade and the ship was cited for using an “organized effort” to take 15 trolleys of food from the galley to individual crew cabins to “avoid inspection.” Gulp.

The apparent food shenanigans happened on June 17 after an anonymous crew member tipped off the CDC with photographs showing the food hanging out where it wasn’t supposed to be. A crew member on the ship said that his superiors forced him and others to sleep with the food in their cabins.

A promo video for Silversea Cruises paints a picture of luxury, low-backed dresses and tuxedos and dancing on the deck. A “world class” culinary experience is also touted on the line that charges passengers $5,000 a week to sail on average.

A spokeswoman emailed a statement to CNN before the CDC score was published, saying the company is “deeply disappointed” in the outcome of the inspection. She said the grade the ship received was an 84, when it turned out to be 82. Anything less than 84 is deemed “less than satisfactory” by the CDC. 

Silversea did point to its higher grades in the past, which show to be sometimes in the high 90s and at least one 100.

Because the CDC can’t actually make the cruise ship correct any of the problems, it could only get a promise to do so. The owners weren’t fined and the ship continued on its scheduled trip. Well, after CDC inspectors poured chlorine liquid on the food they found so it couldn’t be served.

Luxury cruise fails surprise health inspection [CNN]

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