Whether it's the fire on the Carnival Splendor, or the sinking of the Costa Concordia, bad news about cruise ships takes on a life of its own. Like the remains of a seafood dinner, its smell lingers and lingers until it becomes a stench.
The ship, meanwhile, is forever infected. Its 15 minutes of fame becomes headline news on CNN. Even when there is good news about such a tarnished vessel, it gets buried…or sunk.
And there is good news about the Splendor.
In the first quarter of 2012, the Splendor had unscheduled visitors from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These inspectors board ships in ports, unannounced, to evaluate them in many areas of cleanliness. The much-maligned Splendor, which was stranded for a couple of days in waters off San Diego after an engine-room fire, scored 100.
It gets better for this star-crossed ship from the party-party fleet.
The four-year-old Splendor has received that perfect score SIX times. In two other surprise inspections, it scored 99 and 98.
Funny, none of that was on CNN, was it?
Celebrity Reflection
14 nights
October 21, 2012
Barcelona, Toulon, Cannes, Livorno, Rome, Naples, Catania, Ephesus, Rhodes, Mykonos, Koper, Venice
Inside: $999
Cost per day: $71
www.celebritycruises.com