CDC report - Edge:90 - lowest of any Celebrity ship!

[twodjs]

With 44 violations, and a CDC score of only 90, Edge is clearly the lowest rated Celebrity ship. 85 is a failing grade. The report is an interesting read. Some problems could be attributed to the newness of the ship, but food handing and storage violations should never occur! We are paying big bucks for you to get this right and you brought many of your best crew members from the rest of the fleet. What happened? 

Edited February 12, 2019 by twodjs
Wrong word - in instead of is

[BigAl94]

Link to report please.

[BigAl94]

Found it - many teething issues which I'm sure will be sorted.

https://wwwn.cdc.gov/inspectionquerytool/InspectionDetailReport.aspx?ColI=MTkzMDA3MDM%3d-EZ618vkZCbQ%3d

[wendychloecruiser]

How can it even be possible from a procedural point of view  that ready to eat Prosciutto can be stored or placed UNDERNEATH raw pork and beef?   

 

THAT is not a teething problem...that’s BASIC poor food handling standards.

[chengkp75]

Yes, this shows some bad management.  It appears that Celebrity did not place sufficient emphasis on the findings of the construction inspection, nor did they send an in-house compliance team to inspect prior to the USPH inspection, or they would have found many of the equipment (incorrect screws) or construction problems prior to the maiden voyage.  The operational deficiencies, from improper food storage to things like open cases of wine stored around, are indicative of a crew still trying to find the best way to utilize the ship, but it does show that onboard management has not spent enough time with the crew to find these problems and find the proper way to handle them.  Again, with a brand new class of ship, especially one that touts so many innovations as the Edge, there should have been an in-house compliance team onboard for 2-3 months to assist the supervisors in getting everything up to USPH standards, since the supervisors are having their own difficulties adapting the new ship.  This report is a condemnation of corporate management and senior shipboard management.  It will be interesting to see the corrective action report, which is where you can see how the various deficiencies were actually scored.

[cruisestitch]

Also, we need to keep in mind that the crew members all had served on other ships and should have been very familiar with the requirements -- it's hard to understand how they could have gotten so many things so wrong.

[Tourist1292]

Looking up the record in the past 10 years, there were only three score of 90 and one 89 among all Celebrity cruise ships. Vast majority of the scores were 95+. The worse would be Millennium that scored 89 and 90 several years ago.

[C 2 C]

Summit just scored a 100!

Congratulations to staff and crew onboard.

 

[vtcruising]

Very interesting to read the report, especially the provision storage issues. We did the Edge Inside Access Tour on December 3, so just 6 days prior to the inspection. We were very surprised with the Provision Dept. It looked like chaos to us, but we chalked it up to being the first commercial cruise. Stuff was stacked all over the place, with no sense of order (to us). The Provisions Manager said that there were provisions stacked everywhere because they had to start out with way more of everything than normal because, being a new ship, they didn't have pars yet on what the demand would be for each item.  I asked how they found anything and he said that the people in charge of the provisions know where everything is located.

 

Here's a picture, but it doesn't really do justice to the feeling of hallways and every nook and cranny being full of stuff. Maybe they were in compliance with everything we saw, but I'm surprised they didn't skip that part of the tour until things were more organized - it felt to us that things were not under control yet.  Thank goodness we have inspections - hopefully things are much improved.

 

 

 

[miched]

We were sailing on X when the Edge was being built and many of the crew members were temporarily leaving to compete and interview as employees on the Edge.   We were told that the best of the best would be chosen.

 

If the management is the best on the Edge than the rest of the fleet must be in really bad shape.  

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[dodger1964]

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

..., from improper food storage to things like open cases of wine stored around, ...

just curious...why would an open case of wine be a problem??

[cruisestitch]

As I read the report, I was surprised that the Children's Area has so many deficiencies -- not built to code -- that seems very odd to me.  Surely the architects would have known what the specifications were?

[ecslady]

24 minutes ago, vtcruising said:

...The Provisions Manager said that there were provisions stacked everywhere because they had to start out with way more of everything than normal because, being a new ship, they didn't have pars yet on what the demand would be for each item....

 

Very interesting report. Sounds like a lot of this should have been fixed before the ship sailed. 

 

I know it is a new ship, but why wouldn't the provisions stock be based on what other X ships normally use in a 7 day cruise?   Ships restock all the time and yes it can vary from week to week, but were they expecting a completely different demographic that was going to eat and drink way different than the X normal?  I think X could have done a better job. 

 

Since there were were so many violations, when will another inspection be done?

[wendychloecruiser]

It’s to bad the priority was on infinite veranda rather than infinite safety...

[chengkp75]

1 hour ago, dodger1964 said:

just curious...why would an open case of wine be a problem??

Things can drip on the necks of the wine bottles, and then this substance can get into the wine during the uncorking or pouring of the wine.

[chengkp75]

1 hour ago, cruisestitch said:

As I read the report, I was surprised that the Children's Area has so many deficiencies -- not built to code -- that seems very odd to me.  Surely the architects would have known what the specifications were?

The VSP Construction Manual was revised in 2018, and I'm not sure when it came out, or what the specific changes were for the children's areas from the previous 2011 manual, but it sounds like the kid's area was built to the 2011 standards, not the 2018 standards.

 

1 hour ago, vtcruising said:

Very interesting to read the report, especially the provision storage issues. We did the Edge Inside Access Tour on December 3, so just 6 days prior to the inspection. We were very surprised with the Provision Dept. It looked like chaos to us, but we chalked it up to being the first commercial cruise. Stuff was stacked all over the place, with no sense of order (to us). The Provisions Manager said that there were provisions stacked everywhere because they had to start out with way more of everything than normal because, being a new ship, they didn't have pars yet on what the demand would be for each item.  I asked how they found anything and he said that the people in charge of the provisions know where everything is located.

 

Here's a picture, but it doesn't really do justice to the feeling of hallways and every nook and cranny being full of stuff. Maybe they were in compliance with everything we saw, but I'm surprised they didn't skip that part of the tour until things were more organized - it felt to us that things were not under control yet.  Thank goodness we have inspections - hopefully things are much improved.

 

 

 

This is certainly not in compliance with SOLAS, but it appears that they may have over-ordered their liquor supply, and not have gotten the liquor lockers squared away yet.  If this was the first or second cruise, then they probably still hadn't figured out the choreography of stocking the lockers and provisions rooms.  Was this early in the cruise?

[vtcruising]

32 minutes ago, ecslady said:

 

Very interesting report. Sounds like a lot of this should have been fixed before the ship sailed. 

 

I know it is a new ship, but why wouldn't the provisions stock be based on what other X ships normally use in a 7 day cruise?   Ships restock all the time and yes it can vary from week to week, but were they expecting a completely different demographic that was going to eat and drink way different than the X normal?  I think X could have done a better job. 

 

Since there were were so many violations, when will another inspection be done?

As far as basing provisions on other X ships, he led me to believe that was the starting point, but there were differences with this ship (I'm guessing things like new restaurants, different types of bar set ups, maybe more people who have never sailed X so likely a bit different demographic and wants). I'm not sure of the percentage, but he said they stocked more of many items. One nice thing was that they didn't run out of our favorite wines on any of our cruises, which seems to happen on some cruises. 🙂

 

Also, I just realized that they had just done 3 Press and Trade cruises, with an open bar throughout and had one more after our Dec 1 cruises, which included many execs/VIPs for the naming ceremony.

Edited February 12, 2019 by vtcruising

[TeeRick]

No excuse for any cruise ship to get a 90.  Not even a new ship with growing pains.  Just not what should be expected.  Celebrity should be embarrassed. 

[vtcruising]

7 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

The VSP Construction Manual was revised in 2018, and I'm not sure when it came out, or what the specific changes were for the children's areas from the previous 2011 manual, but it sounds like the kid's area was built to the 2011 standards, not the 2018 standards.

 

This is certainly not in compliance with SOLAS, but it appears that they may have over-ordered their liquor supply, and not have gotten the liquor lockers squared away yet.  If this was the first or second cruise, then they probably still hadn't figured out the choreography of stocking the lockers and provisions rooms.  Was this early in the cruise?

This was the first commercial cruise on Dec 1, a 3- day preview cruise. The tour was on day 3 of the cruise. Yes, there was wine, beer, liquor stacked everywhere.

 

 

 

[chengkp75]

1 hour ago, ecslady said:

 

Very interesting report. Sounds like a lot of this should have been fixed before the ship sailed. 

 

I know it is a new ship, but why wouldn't the provisions stock be based on what other X ships normally use in a 7 day cruise?   Ships restock all the time and yes it can vary from week to week, but were they expecting a completely different demographic that was going to eat and drink way different than the X normal?  I think X could have done a better job. 

 

Since there were were so many violations, when will another inspection be done?

There were a lot of deficiencies, but many were repeats of deficiencies that affect two or more areas of the inspection protocol, so are listed twice or more.  As I said, the only way to know how seriously the inspectors felt the deficiencies were is to see the corrective action report, which will give the point deductions for each deficiency.  The score is made when all deficiencies are grouped by section of the inspection protocol (food safety, potable water, pools, etc), and each area has a maximum point deduction (2-5 points), and the inspectors will "scale" the points deducted from an area based on the number and severity of the deficiencies in that area.  In other words, something like the wine storage, which is in a 3 point area (working off my memory), could be scaled to a 1 point, or even 0 points if they don't feel it is serious enough.

 

Since this was a passing score, there won't be another inspection for most likely 6 months.  They try to do every ship twice a year (which is why I say the ship "knows" when an inspection is likely), but scheduling and federal budget sometimes gets in the way of doing twice yearly.

[chengkp75]

1 hour ago, cruisestitch said:

As I read the report, I was surprised that the Children's Area has so many deficiencies -- not built to code -- that seems very odd to me.  Surely the architects would have known what the specifications were?

I just looked at the VSP Construction manual, and it came out in June 2018, and applies to all ships that are started after that date, or were majorly modified after that date.  As was noted in the inspection report, the kid's area was not completed at the time of the construction inspection, and it appears that Celebrity felt the 2011 requirements held, but USPH feels that the 2018 requirements held.  Plan review and construction inspections are voluntary, and the line pays a fee for the inspection.  It would have been cheap insurance for Celebrity to submit the plans for review since the area was not completed at the time of the construction inspection, since plan review does not cost a penny.

[cruisefam38]

1 hour ago, wendychloecruiser said:

It’s to bad the priority was on infinite veranda rather than infinite safety.

 

On the one hand, some Celebrity cruise ships earned fine scores on the CDC reports.  On the other hand, the highly touted and brand new Edge received the lowest scores =X= has earned in the last five years. 

 

The buck stops ..... here?

 

(PS - thank you for your always informative perspective chengkp75)

Edited February 12, 2019 by cruisefam38

[jagoffee]

Tough crowd.  Imagine if they had not passed the inspection.  There is a pass/fail criteria/designation for a reason.

 

anyone want to bet that the next inspection will reflect a very signiicant improvement?

 

I am left wondering what the typical score is for a ship, especially a new class of ship, that has only been operating for a couple of months.  (I have no idea)

 

I did notice that over the years that the Equinox has had a couple of 92 scores, the a Reflection a 90, and the Silhouette a 92.

Edited February 12, 2019 by jagoffee

[helen haywood]

When would the corrective action report be released?

[cruisefam38]

good question jagoffee.

a quick search through the above posted links for ships newly launched in 2018

 

Nieuw Amsterdam  96

Symphony of the Seas   97

Carnival Horizon   91

Norwegian Bliss  95

 

 

Edited February 12, 2019 by cruisefam38