Who slept in your cruise cabin before you? You'll never know
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Your cabin might have a scary past you don't know about.
Cruise cabins undergo thorough cleaning and sprucing up between sailings. But with ships having a typical lifespan of 30 years, there’s a good chance many other passengers have sailed in a guest’s stateroom before them.
While passengers can research various aspects of their trips before departing, information about specific cruise cabins may be limited. Cruise Lines International Association, the industry’s leading trade organization, told USA TODAY it “is not aware of any publicly available database that provides a comprehensive history of a specific cruise cabin.”
“There is publicly available information about ships more broadly,” CLIA said in an emailed statement. “The CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program publishes inspection scores and reports that are searchable by ship and cruise line. Cruise lines may also publish information about ship refurbishments, dry docks, accommodation categories, and updated deck plans. However, these resources do not constitute a cabin-by-cabin historical record.”
That doesn’t mean travelers are out of luck, though. Here’s what to know.
Sheri Griffiths, founder of CruiseTipsTV, said travelers’ best bet for intel on a given stateroom may be other guests’ accounts of their stays.
The only way that you could research (the history of) a specific cabin is to literally do an open-ended search on that cabin, and then you can hope that somebody created a YouTube video or a short piece of social content about that particular cabin, or that they wrote about it on Cruise Critic or Cruiseline.com on, like, the forums.
Travelers can also post in a forum or other online spaces, such as Facebook groups, asking for feedback from passengers who have stayed in the cabin they’re considering.
Cruise line websites often list the “basic amenities” a cabin category will include, such as a TV, phone and the kinds of outlets available, and online deck plans can show the location of a particular room, according to Edward Cicinato, a travel adviser and Dream Vacations franchise owner. Travel agents can also walk clients through those details.
Cruise lines may also note when a ship was last refurbished on their websites.
“When they refurbish a ship, they'll always refurbish the duvets, the linens, the carpet,” Cicinato said. “Depending on the age of the ship, they'll also redo the dressers, you know, the case goods. Sometimes they'll refurbish the closets, particularly if it's an older ship and it's a smaller closet, as a lot of them tend to be.”
He noted cruise lines tend to update “soft goods” every six to seven years – replacing them more often as needed – and do a more extensive “hard renovation” every 10 years or so. Griffiths added that cruise companies often issue news releases when ships undergo that process, so travelers can search for those announcements online as well.
Cruise line customer service agents may be able to share some general information, such as how many people a room can accommodate or whether it has a shower, bathtub or both. However, Griffiths said they typically only have the “same type of information that will be provided to someone when they are booking a hotel.”
The VSP typically inspects cruise ships in its jurisdiction twice each year while they’re in U.S. ports, according to the CDC’s website. “If a ship sails outside of the United States for an extended period, it may not be inspected twice a year, but it will be inspected again when it returns to the United States,” the health agency said.
The inspections cover a variety of onboard operations and facilities, including housekeeping, pest and insect management and HVAC systems.
Sanitation inspection reports are available in an online database. Scores reflect a ship’s overall condition, though individual violations on board are noted. The CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it maintains cabin-specific records travelers can access.
“The global cruise industry maintains comprehensive health, sanitation, and medical protocols designed to protect the health and well-being of passengers and crew, and CLIA-member cruise lines are required to adhere to policies that go well beyond regulatory requirements,” the trade organization said.
CLIA's member lines “operate under strict requirements that include advanced cleaning and disinfection procedures, continuous monitoring for illness, and rapid response measures when health concerns arise,” the statement continued. “These protocols are informed by international public health guidance and are regularly reviewed and updated.”
When it comes to details about a particular cabin, though, Griffiths said those are most likely to come from digital word of mouth. “Unfortunately, there's nothing formal,” she said.
Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at ndiller@usatoday.com.
