The Costa Atlantica, scored full marks (100) in a recent inspection conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States. The inspection was held on March 25 during a stopover in Miami, the home port of the Costa Atlantica transatlantic 19-day cruise to Italy, which will end on 13 April in Venice.

The CDC inspections are part of the Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP), which was introduced in the early 1970s and involves all ships that stop in a US port. They are unannounced events and are carried out by officials from the USPHS (United States Public Health Service) twice a year. The score, on a scale from 1 to 100, is assigned on the basis of a checklist with some 48 areas of assessment encompassing hygiene and sanitation of food (from storage to preparation), water, shipboard personnel and the ship as a whole.

This is the 8th time that the Costa Cruises fleet has received maximum marks from the CDC inspectors. The first vessel to obtain the perfect 100 was actually the Costa Atlantica herself in 2001, 2005, 2009 and 2010; meanwhile the sister ship of the Costa Atlantica, Costa Mediterranea, obtained the top score in 2004, 2005 and 2006.