Another cruise ship fails health inspection

This item was written by Fran Golden, a cruise expert and Trip Coach for Budget Travel magazine. Golden is serving as Guest Editor of The Cruise Log while USA TODAY Cruise Editor Gene Sloan is away.

A second cruise ship in a month has failed to pass an unannounced health inspection by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In giving the 96-passenger Grande Mariner a failing grade of 75, CDC inspectors cite a long list of violations including moldy ice cube machines, food stored at potentially hazardous temperatures, malfunctioning dishwashers, dirty shelves, open food containers and dried food debris on cooking equipment.

The CDC report says poor lighting in the galley may have contributed to some of the cleaning problems.

It's rare for a cruise ship to fail a CDC Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) inspection, but just last month Holland America's 1,350-passenger Veendam also failed, with a grade of 77.

Inspectors use a 100-point scale, with a score below 86 considered failing.

Blount Small Ship Adventures, which operates the Grande Mariner, issued a statement saying the ship's failing score "was below an acceptable level to both the program and our company standards."

The line said the majority of the issues were corrected during the inspection on Sept. 18.

"The crew has been reeducated on items related to procedural issues and proper procedures will be followed going forward. Items related to the construction of the vessel will be addressed in upcoming shipyard periods. Blount Small Ship Adventures makes every effort to keep its ships in top sanitary condition at all times and generally meets the guidelines established in the Vessel Sanitation Program," the statement says.

Built in 1998, the Grande Mariner is currently cruising the East Coast.

As part of its VSP program, the CDC conducts unannounced inspections of passenger ships docking in U.S. ports twice a year.