Princess Cruise Line seems to be having a few bumps lately

Oh, no! My friends just got off that ship yesterday. I haven't had a chance to talk to them about it. The Diamond Princess was not really in their control, but this....

Not a good thing to be happening. Guess some jobs will be lost out of this

Yeah, I was quite shocked to hear about this. My Dad is currently on the Caribbean Princess. It went back to port early from its previous cruise for a thorough cleansing because of the noro outbreak. I am not a believer in coincidence so when you see these three things in the news all within a few weeks ... wow.

Hope they get this looked after.

That seems like a fairly stilted article - made it sound like Carnival Corporation is dangerous while other lines are safe.

Looked back through 1/1/2015 and found:

RCI failed 3 times (15, 16, 19)

Aida failed 1 time (16)

Carnival failed 8 times (16, 18, 19, 5 times in 17)

Princess failed 2 times (16, 20)

Bahamas Paradise failed 4 times (15, 17, 18, 19)

Feries Del Caribe failed 3 times (18, 2 times in 17)

Norwegian failed 2 times (17, 19)

Maritime Holdings Group (Ocean Dream) failed 2 times (17, 18)

P&O failed 1 time (16)

Oceana failed 3 times (18, 2 times in 17)

Princess failed 2 times (17, 20)

Un-Cruise failed 1 time (18)

Silversea failed 3 times (15, 18, 19)

Victory I Partners (Victory I) failed 1 time (17)

Considering fleet sizes, RCL would take a hefty lead as cleanest, but Carnival would not fare badly (These are the largest fleets). Princess (although owned by Carnival corporation) is managed seperately from Carnival, and also has a rather large fleet. I think I would be more worried about Oceana and Silversea.

Yep, I think some folks are going to be answering some very uncomfortable questions.

I must agree Rebel. Overall the cruise industry does a pretty good job of keeping things clean and sanitary. It was surprising though to see one line appear 3 times in the news with 3 different incidents in a short time span. Something like that can shake the confidence of some people. And only one of those was an inspection. The other two were illnesses.

The Corona outbreak was bad luck. But you can hold the hotel/restaurant management responsible for food safety and sanitization of the passenger areas.

If a land based restaurant/hotel had those problems, they'd be looking for new leadership (if well run). Remember "Jack in the Box" and "Chipotle" chains? This becomes a huge PR issue for cruise lines. I have many friends and family members that think we're crazy for cruising frequently (we think its a great vacation experience) because they see the press and call the ships floating "petrie dishes" which re-enforces negative impressions.

Its all about managing exposure to risk. Get your shots and wash your hands frequently.

The OP wasn't discussing confirmed illnesses from the ship, as was the case with Chipotle, et al, but failed inspections. Maybe I am a bit jaded to the topic, since about half the restaurants in my area fail annually, but for a line with 20 ships in it's fleet to have to of them fail in 5 years, it just isn't newsworthy to me. I am sure that most land-based restaurant chains have a worse record. The article is (IMO) just another case of the press bashing Carnival.

FYI: my wonderful husband was involved in public health at one time in his career, and he says the inspections on the ships are more stringent on the ships than on land. I have no reason to doubt that it is still true even though he is retired.

Cruise bashing is and always will be fun, and good copy. Often, the problems can be traced to shoddy practices (with or without the knowledge of corporate...remember CCL and "the lies" of not-so-long ago?) or passengers taking advantage of cruise lines "deep pockets." either way, it makes headlines.