Sanitation for Food Service

[OhioScubaGirl]

Has there been any changes on Carnival's ships regarding food and drinks?  It seems like self serve drinks and buffets are an easy way to spread germs. 

[miataman19]

 

[ncovert]

32 minutes ago, OhioScubaGirl said:

Has there been any changes on Carnival's ships regarding food and drinks?  It seems like self serve drinks and buffets are an easy way to spread germs. 

on board the Inspiration right now.  The food on lido is has crew seeing.  Including the the ice cream and desert stations.  Was asked multiple times by crew to use hand sanitizer and there are a whole lot more stations for hand sanitizer.  Took longer then usual to get into the MDR, but it is a good change to insure health and safety.  The buffet is definitely different, but I am happy with the efforts Carnival is taking for our safety.

[Stick93]

They should have someone stationed in the entrance like the other companies and make if people hand sanitizers before going into a good area. 
 

also there was still self serve by the fruit and cold food from the video. All or non! - defeats the purpose if they don’t take away all the self serve. 

[bighamlin]

We just returned yesterday (Monday) on the Paradise.  You could not serve yourself at the soft serve ice cream machine.

Also, In the dining room, they didn't put the salt and pepper out until you received your entrée.  My husband asked why, as he likes to salt the butter for his bread.  We were told it was for sanitation purposes. 

[crusinpsychRN]

For sanitation purposes they don't put the salt and peeper out until you get entree...?!?! 

 

Sounds crazy.

[firefly333]

22 minutes ago, crusinpsychRN said:

For sanitation purposes they don't put the salt and peeper out until you get entree...?!?! 

 

Sounds crazy.

Vista over a year ago in the buffet hard to find salt and pepper.

 

They had a limited amount on a tray way in the back. If you got a hamburger and fries by the pool had to wal, to back buffet if you are like me and wanted salt. 

 

I hated it then and no virus.

[joeyancho]

New procedure: 

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/5257/

[Purvis1231]

On 3/10/2020 at 8:29 AM, OhioScubaGirl said:

Has there been any changes on Carnival's ships regarding food and drinks?  It seems like self serve drinks and buffets are an easy way to spread germs. 

Is there any proof that self-service food promotes the spread of COVID-19? 

[shof515]

14 minutes ago, Purvis1231 said:

Is there any proof that self-service food promotes the spread of COVID-19? 

i think the main issue is all of the people touching the utensils..either they need to wipe down after someone uses it or let a crew member only touch it

[Organized Chaos]

1 hour ago, joeyancho said:

New procedure: 

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/5257/

 

Those are just procedures being implemented by one cruise line right now. All, some, or none of the procedures could be implemented by other lines in the future. There's no way to know. Reducing the lounges to partial capacity would not go over well, especially for popular events/shows that tend to fill up on a regular basis. Then what, would they increase the number of shows to allow as many passengers to see them who normally would in a full venue? That'd be a huge pain in the rear to schedule.

[Purvis1231]

1 hour ago, shof515 said:

i think the main issue is all of the people touching the utensils..either they need to wipe down after someone uses it or let a crew member only touch it

Hey I am for the crew serving the food many years ago on Holland American they did this. but I would like to see some research that self-service food venues are a source of spreading the virus. 

Edited April 9, 2020 by Purvis1231
typo

[Organized Chaos]

We were on the Horizon's last cruise before the shut-down. I didn't mind being served by the crew at the buffet. I don't think it slowed down the process at all. I went to the buffet just about every morning for breakfast, and a couple times for dinner, and I hardly ever stood in line. Even on busy port-day mornings with bigger crowds of people having breakfast before going ashore, I never waited long to get my food. The funny thing about it, though, was that you could turn around from those lines, walk 10 feet, and the fruit stations were still self-serve. The condiments station at Guy's & Blue Iguana were still self-serve. My wife saw a woman eat some french fries, lick her fingers, then proceeded to handle the utensils at the Guy's condiments station.

 

The one thing I did miss, as minor as it was, was being able to make my own ice cream cone. Every crew member made them differently and there were times when I would've liked to have more ice cream. You can't add to it once they're done and I wasn't going back for another. Yeah, that's a bit silly, I know, but that was the one thing I wished I could've just made myself.

[ano]

If we look at the Diamond Princess, its pretty clear that cruise passengers quarantined in their room likely got the virus, but how. In this simple case, it was either the food delivery or the air. Cruise ships recirculate some indoor air and that has to stop. Not a trivial change, but it can happen. As for food, lets say someone in the kitchen is infected, its not so much food thats a problem, but the common handling of plates, silverware, etc. I think this can be fixed, but it will take effort. 

 

Oceania and a few others serve food at buffets. Large cruise don't like this because it takes more crew, and they never want to pay for more crew. But it would be optional anymore. 

 

But I do think these and many other changes will need to be made, or countries will no longer allow cruise ship passengers to enter their ports. At this moment, some have a pretty bad taste from cruises.

 

Will all this be figured out in May? LOL July? more LOL. Maybe October, maybe December, but if it was 2021, that wouldn't surprise me. 

[chengkp75]

8 hours ago, ano said:

If we look at the Diamond Princess, its pretty clear that cruise passengers quarantined in their room likely got the virus, but how. In this simple case, it was either the food delivery or the air. Cruise ships recirculate some indoor air and that has to stop. Not a trivial change, but it can happen. As for food, lets say someone in the kitchen is infected, its not so much food thats a problem, but the common handling of plates, silverware, etc. I think this can be fixed, but it will take effort. 

 

Oceania and a few others serve food at buffets. Large cruise don't like this because it takes more crew, and they never want to pay for more crew. But it would be optional anymore. 

 

But I do think these and many other changes will need to be made, or countries will no longer allow cruise ship passengers to enter their ports. At this moment, some have a pretty bad taste from cruises.

 

Will all this be figured out in May? LOL July? more LOL. Maybe October, maybe December, but if it was 2021, that wouldn't surprise me. 

Please direct me to evidence that Covid was spread via the AC system.  If recirculation of air conditioned air is the cause for spread of the disease, then every single building in the world and every single hotel would have been a source for spread of the disease, and would have to redesign their AC systems.

 

I think it's pretty clear, and has been discussed by experts, that using untrained crew, with inadequate testing, monitoring, and PPE to serve people in quarantine is not a good idea.  Yes, the spread on the Diamond Princess was caused by infected crew, some who were symptomatic, and likely some who were asymptomatic, handling the food prep and delivery.

[ano]

4 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

Please direct me to evidence that Covid was spread via the AC system.  If recirculation of air conditioned air is the cause for spread of the disease, then every single building in the world and every single hotel would have been a source for spread of the disease, and would have to redesign their AC systems.

 

I think it's pretty clear, and has been discussed by experts, that using untrained crew, with inadequate testing, monitoring, and PPE to serve people in quarantine is not a good idea.  Yes, the spread on the Diamond Princess was caused by infected crew, some who were symptomatic, and likely some who were asymptomatic, handling the food prep and delivery.

Many are looking at this. Here is one from Early Feb. 

Cruise Ship AC Systems

[chengkp75]

4 minutes ago, ano said:

Many are looking at this. Here is one from Early Feb. 

Cruise Ship AC Systems

Yes, I've seen that, but I'm afraid that he, or the person interviewing him, don't really know how cruise ship AC systems work.  While he is correct that in public spaces, there is a mixture of fresh air, recirculated air, and exhaust air, so does every building built with central AC in the last 50 years.  What is important, and what is not mentioned in this article, is that while cabins also mix fresh air with recirculated air, the recirculation of air is only within that cabin.  In other words, the individual cabins on cruise ships are essentially fitted with a system just like your window AC unit at home.  It takes air from the room, cools it, and returns it to that room.  There is no intermingling of air between cabins.

[LuckyStar]

On 3/10/2020 at 8:27 AM, Stick93 said:

They should have someone stationed in the entrance like the other companies and make if people hand sanitizers before going into a good area. 
 

also there was still self serve by the fruit and cold food from the video. All or non! - defeats the purpose if they don’t take away all the self serve. 

We took an NCL cruise to Alaska a while ago and there was always someone at each entrance giving sanitizer.  At the time, I found it annoying but didn't express it.  In hindsight, it was brilliant.  I have never gotten sick during or after a cruise, because I feel that I used precautions but looking back, maybe I was just lucky because I know that not everyone follows the cleanliness guidelines.,