Queen Mary 2" largest cruise in world gets title of "ship" dirty

Sanitation inspectors have branded the world's biggest cruise liner Queen Mary 2   Sanitation inspectors have branded the world's biggest cruise liner Queen Mary 2 "filthy" five times in a report.Cunard's luxury cruise ship was inspected earlier this month by the U.S. government's Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention's Vessel Sanitation Program.
On board inspectors discovered a series of sanitation failings and gave the ship an "unsatisfactory" score of 84. Anything higher than 86 is deemed "satisfactory" but 85 or lower is "not satisfactory".
In a report following the June 10 visit, when the ship was docked in New York, inspectors used the word 'filthy' five times to describe aspects of the ship's cleanliness.
As well as "extremely dirty" water and floor tiling in the splash pool, they found a human hair in the ice machine, discovered chemicals were being stored near napkins as well as paper cups and utensils, and spotted food residue on many surfaces which should have been wiped away.
Inspectors also discovered four live fruit flies and four adults cockroaches on board the ship in a storage locker, according to cruise review website Cruise Critic.
The CDC conducts surprise cleanliness reviews twice a year.
Operator Cunard Line said the score was "an uncharacteristically low score" and said the line normally scored more than 95 and had scored 100 on three occasions.
In July last year, it scored 98.
Cunard spokesman Jackie Chase said she was confident the failings would not happen again.
In a statement she said: 'The poor assessment on 10 June resulted largely from one small area of the ship's overall operation. All the issues raised in the report were immediately addressed and have now been corrected.'
She said managers had reviewed certain roles and responsibilities and improved the training schedule.
According to Cruise Critic it is rare for large ships to fail the inspections. Since January, 16 ships have been awarded the top score.
The Norwegian Epic came close in May with 89 but there have been no failings since Albatross, a private vessel, scored 69 in February 2010.
Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor in chief of CruiseCritic.com, told CNN: 'The kind of violations found on board the Queen Mary 2 are unacceptable, especially the dirty pool water.'
She said she had been logging CDC scores for 14 years and this was "unusually bad".
She added: 'What really bothered me was the use of the word 'filthy' five times.'
Britain's Queen Mary 2 first set sail in 2004 and is the biggest and most expensive cruise liner ever built.
At 147 feet longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall, the ship cost £550 million to build and weighs 150,000 tonnes.
It has 1,310 cabins, including four royal suites and six penthouses and can carry 1,620 passengers and is capable of speeds up to 34mph. It stands 234ft high from keel to funnel.