The new online tool from ProPublica and the USA Today Network allows pssangers and crew to search the health and safety records for more than 300 cruise ships, as well as their current position, schedules, deck plans and more. For more than 22 million passengers each year, a cruise is a dream vacation, an all-inclusive journey of fun and luxury, a chance to simply relax.

But for hundreds of people, the reality is far from the dream. Last year over 1,700 passengers and crew members fell sick from gastrointestinal illnesses like norovirus. Since 2012 at least seven children have drowned or nearly drowned in cruise ship pools that rarely have full-time lifeguards. This year, a 21-year-old college student fell overboard and was never found -- one of at least two dozen incidents in the last two years in which cruise passengers or crew have gone overboard, according to media reports.

The dangers aboard cruises range from the exotic to the familiar: Crime, though less common than on shore, does happen. Victims sometimes find themselves without much recourse as private security staff juggle the competing priorities of responding to and reporting wrongdoing and protecting the interests of their employers. Only a fraction of crimes aboard cruise ships are publicly reported, and many less serious crimes, like petty theft, may never be reported at all. According to Coast Guard crime statistics, at least 94 people have been sexually assaulted on cruise ships since 2010.

Thanks to laws that allow cruise lines to register their ships outside the U.S., crew members work with little U.S. labor protection and often work long hours for low pay, even as the cruise industry reaps over $40 billion in revenue every year in the U.S. alone.

“These cruise ships are like floating cities with their own set of laws,” said Spencer Aronfeld, a Miami-based attorney who specializes in cruise ship injury cases.

The vast majority of cruise passengers travel safely and return refreshed. Still, what follows is a tour of the health and safety risks that every passenger should know about before heading on a cruise, as well as detailed records about the hundreds of ships that set sail every week. Whether you’re planning a family vacation or just want to know more about a ship, this is your one-stop shop for data on cruises.1

Use the blue search box to search our database of over 300 ships that make port in the U.S. You'll be able to see their health and safety records going back as far as 2010, as well as their current position and deck plans.

For more infrmation visit: http://projects.propublica.org/cruises