Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) inspections are rarely boring, but they’re often predictable. You expect to see flies, unclean food facilities, or backflow prevention devices in questionable working order. If you’ve read our ‘Annual Review of VSP Cruise Ship Inspections 2024’, none of this will come as a surprise. These are the headline acts year after year, and for good reason.
But every now and then, something a little less ordinary shows up. The outliers. The curveballs. The violations that don’t appear in every inspection but still reveal how health risks can emerge—or hide—in plain sight. While these findings may seem rare or random, they often point to deeper issues in training, oversight, or how procedures are interpreted on board.
In this article, we spotlight five such moments: violations that catch even seasoned Public Health Officers off guard. Because sometimes, the strangest findings are the ones that speak the loudest.
Table of Contents
1. The Numbers Weren’t Adding Up
Item Category: (01) Disease Reporting
Point Value: 4
Violation: Since January 2025, the total number of passengers and crew members on 24-and 4-hour AGE reports listed the actual number of passengers and crew members on the voyage at the time of report submission and not the embarking totals.
Ship: Enchanted Princess – 20 March 2025
It’s hard to track trends when the data doesn’t mean what you think it does. That’s what happened during several inspections this year when AGE (acute gastroenteritis) reports were found to be using the wrong shipboard population figures.
Instead of listing the total number of passengers and crew embarked at the beginning of the voyage—as required—some ships reported the number of people on board at the time of report submission. It’s a subtle difference that has the potential to significantly distort illness rates.
AGE surveillance data supports real-time risk assessments, outbreak response, and consumer reporting. If population figures are off, it affects how data is interpreted by on board teams, shoreside departments, and the VSP itself.
Section 4.1.2.1.3 of the VSP 2018 Operations Manual outlines the required AGE log details, including:
- Vessel name
- Voyage number
- Date from
- Date to
- Total number of passengers*
- Reportable total number of passengers ill
- Total number of crew*
- Reportable total number of crew ill
*Total number of passengers and total number of crew must be the totals at the beginning of the voyage (i.e., totals on “date from”).
However, Section 4.2.1.2, which covers 24- and 4-hour report contents, lacks this asterisk clarification. It simply refers to the “total number of passengers and crew members on the cruise” which may explain how the confusion arose.
2. The Hygiene Step Skipped
Item Category: (12) Hands Washed; Hygienic Practices
Point Value: 4
Violation: The technician opening the ice machine did not wash their hands between a glove change.
Ship: Carnival Spirit – 30 March 2025
Disposable gloves are useful in food operations, but they can create a false sense of security. Gloves reduce direct contact with food, but they don’t eliminate the need for hand hygiene. In fact, as discussed in our article ‘Common Hand Hygiene Myths,’ improper glove use can actually contribute to a higher incidence of cross-contamination.
During one inspection, an engineer—likely assisting inspectors by opening the technical compartment of an ice machine—was observed changing gloves without washing hands in between. A small oversight, but one that violates a key VSP requirement: food employees must wash hands before putting on gloves and between glove changes when working with food or clean equipment.
Opening an ice machine in a galley qualifies the technician as a “food employee” under VSP definitions. The term applies to anyone handling unpackaged food, food equipment, utensils, linens, or food-contact surfaces, regardless of their primary job function.
3. Not Just a Fish Tale
Item Category: (15) Food Source, Sound Condition; Food Reservice
Point Value: 5
Violation: During the 4 January to 10 January 2025 voyage (#2501), a crew member caught a barracuda fish while on shore that was not from a commercial or approved source. This crew member reportedly brought the fish onboard, stored the fish in a walk-in refrigeration unit, then cooked and served the fish for consumption at the crew buffet. Approximately 28 crew reported AGE symptoms after consuming the fish. Management was unaware of the actions of this crew member.
Ship: Sea Cloud Spirit – 26 March 2025
Sea Cloud Cruises promotes menus that feature fresh, local seafood. But one crew member took this concept a step too far by bypassing the supply chain entirely.
They caught, cooked, and served a reef fish, which resulted in nearly one-third of the crew falling ill from suspected ciguatera fish poisoning. Ciguatera is caused by toxins that accumulate in reef fish and cannot be destroyed by cooking.
This wasn’t a fish tale. It happened. And it highlights why sourcing controls exist.
According to Section 7.3.2.1.7 of the VSP Ops Manual, all fish served must be “commercially and legally caught or harvested or otherwise approved for service by VSP through an approved variance.”
When food bypasses the approved supply chain, it also bypasses the safeguards that protect against foodborne illness.
4. Hidden in the Dark
Item Category: (17) Temperature Practices; Thawing
Point Value: 2
Violation: The time control plan was posted in the corridor where it could not be read. The light intensity reached 20-22 lux in this area. Crew immediately began corrective action.
Ship: Carnival Dream – 13 April 2025
Time control plans are essential for managing potentially hazardous foods held out of temperature control. But even the best plan is useless if it can’t be read.
For context:
- 1 lux ≈ moonlight on a clear night
- 220 lux = minimum required for food prep areas
The posted plan was in a corridor barely brighter than the pool deck on a clear night.
Section 7.3.5.3.6 requires that time control plans be “posted and accessible to all crew” in each outlet using time control. That means more than just having it physically present: it must be legible and usable.
Even though VSP doesn’t specify a minimum lux level for “accessibility,” it’s hard to argue that a dim corridor meets the intent. Visibility is a basic prerequisite for compliance.
5. Turned Off and Left Behind
Item Category: (42) Child Activity Centers
Point Value: 1
Violation: No water dispensed out of the children’s handwashing station. Staff stated they keep the water shut off at this sink to prevent children from playing with the sink. The sink was turned back on.
Ship: Disney Wonder – 21 March 2025
At first glance, this may seem like a minor issue: a tap turned off to keep toddlers from splashing. But disabling a handwashing station has real health consequences.
First, a handwashing station without running water defeats its core purpose. This handwashing station wasn’t for the children. It was for the staff working in the child activity center. Turning off the water eliminated a basic infection control measure in a high-contact environment.
Second, deactivating a plumbing fixture introduces a water safety risk. Stagnant water can allow Legionella bacteria to grow, especially in infrequently used plumbing.
VSP guidelines (Section 10.2.1 Employee Handwashing) require at least one functional staff handwashing station, separate from toilet rooms, in child activity areas. Turning off a tap, even temporarily, undermines the intent behind the regulation.
Sometimes the smallest actions, like closing a valve, can open the door to much bigger risks.
Why the Strange Ones Matter
These unusual findings aren’t just anomalies: they’re reminders. They show how fragile public health can be when small gaps go unnoticed, misunderstood, or misapplied.
Cruise ship public health is a system of interlocking safeguards. Each regulation is written from experience. Each procedure exists because someone, somewhere, got sick. And sometimes it’s the strangest violations—the ones that don’t show up in every inspection—that reveal where blind spots exist.
If we want to raise the standard, we have to pay attention to the outliers. Because in public health, what seems rare can be a warning of what’s next.