Bring your own saltines?

[janmcn]

On the Zaandam and not a cracker to be had. Rough seas usually saw baskets of crackers and green apples out everywhere on HAL. Not today. I’m not seasick but many, including me, often can stave off seasickness by keeping crackers in our stomachs…so word to the wise…bring your own.

[VMax1700]

And if you like crackers with your cheese...........bring crackers! 😉

[StLouisCruisers]

I am puzzled why HAL doesn't have individually wrapped crackers anymore, because Princess had them last month.  I'd hate to bring my own crackers on a HAL cruise!  We also had the little packets of artificial sweeteners.  

[rkacruiser]

No saltines?  Such an inexpensive item?  I don't believe that there not some aboard.  

 

1 hour ago, VMax1700 said:

And if you like crackers with your cheese...........bring crackers! 😉

 

Sorry, I don't believe this.  What do they serve with a cheese plate?  If crackers/saltines are not being served, it's time to make a visit with the Guest Relations Manager, the Food/Beverage Manager,, and maybe the Hotel Director.  I'd bet there are packages of crackers in some storeroom that someone on the ship is too lazy to locate.  

[oakridger]

Yes, @StLouisCruisers, at this point it really just seems like poor planning on HAL's part rather than a "supply chain" issue.  Sheesh!

 

~Nancy

[Wakepatrol]

7 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

No saltines?  Such an inexpensive item?  I don't believe that there not some aboard.  

 

 

Sorry, I don't believe this.  What do they serve with a cheese plate?  If crackers/saltines are not being served, it's time to make a visit with the Guest Relations Manager, the Food/Beverage Manager,, and maybe the Hotel Director.  I'd bet there are packages of crackers in some storeroom that someone on the ship is too lazy to locate.  

Meeting with all these staff members over saltines 

Now that’s funny 😂

[Florida_gal_50]

15 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

No saltines?  Such an inexpensive item?  I don't believe that there not some aboard.  

 

 

Sorry, I don't believe this.  What do they serve with a cheese plate?  If crackers/saltines are not being served, it's time to make a visit with the Guest Relations Manager, the Food/Beverage Manager,, and maybe the Hotel Director.  I'd bet there are packages of crackers in some storeroom that someone on the ship is too lazy to locate.  

Their excuse is getting rid of all that extra packaging 🙄.  It’s been going on for over a year.  They got rid of the sugar/sugar alternative packages too.  Don’t know if they returned. I guess they haven’t heard of the new fangled boxes of crackers.  This is a choice not the often used “supply chain issues”.

[rkacruiser]

13 minutes ago, Wakepatrol said:

Meeting with all these staff members over saltines 

Now that’s funny 😂

 

No, it's not funny.  If there is a lapse in the service that a guest expects and the guest cannot individually resolve it, then, why should that guest not meet with the Guest Relations Manager?  Why is that person employed if it is not to resolve even minor issues for a guest?  

 

4 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

Their excuse is getting rid of all that extra packaging 🙄

 

I support the CCL's brands of "going green".  Their responsibility is to then provide an acceptable substitute for the item eliminated because of it's packaging.  The lack of crackers on a cheese plate is a good example of this.  What can be substituted?  There are options:  boxes of Melba Toast and Dutch Rusks are available as examples.   

[wdw1972]

I like my cheese with crackers (as opposed to no crackers), but saltines???  No, that's what I would crumble up in tomato soup.  Cheese deserves decent crackers, which sadly have never been found on HAL.  Since I tend to pick up some cheese to stash in my stateroom fridge for a snack while sipping wine I bring a small tupperware-type container that holds decent crackers I bring from home.  Someone here once mentioned CrunchMaster crackers, which I tried & really like (thank you whoever you are), and you can fit a LOT of them in a very small container.

 

Sue/WDW1972

[Florida_gal_50]

6 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

No, it's not funny.  If there is a lapse in the service that a guest expects and the guest cannot individually resolve it, then, why should that guest not meet with the Guest Relations Manager?  Why is that person employed if it is not to resolve even minor issues for a guest?  

 

 

I support the CCL's brands of "going green".  Their responsibility is to then provide an acceptable substitute for the item eliminated because of it's packaging.  The lack of crackers on a cheese plate is a good example of this.  What can be substituted?  There are options:  boxes of Melba Toast and Dutch Rusks are available as examples.   

You can buy a box a crackers just the same as melba.  Last time I bought melba it was wrapped in cellophane (?) so no different.  Canada is ridiculous about going green and us doing this will do nothing in the world of large polluters.  If they want to do something they need to stop dumping illegally in the ocean.  Let’s be realistic here.

[lstrong]

I like my cheese and crackers in our cabin and have been bringing my own last few cruises. Seems silly, but it is what it is….

[kazu]

2 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

No saltines?  Such an inexpensive item?  I don't believe that there not some aboard.  

 

 

Sorry, I don't believe this.  What do they serve with a cheese plate?  If crackers/saltines are not being served, it's time to make a visit with the Guest Relations Manager, the Food/Beverage Manager,, and maybe the Hotel Director.  I'd bet there are packages of crackers in some storeroom that someone on the ship is too lazy to locate.  

 

Go back and read a couple of the LIVE posts like @VMax1700  he even posted pics.  No crackers.  I like nice crackers with my cheese and bread sticks or melba toast don’t cut it.

 

I plan to buy some in Barcelona although I won’t have the same choices as here.  The odds of crackers making it across the pond without being broken are slim to none 😉 

[Florida_gal_50]

56 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

I have not read that.  I agree with your thinking.  I am concerned about climate change.  But, the "nibbling around the edges" of the problem is not going to solve the problem and the public would never politically accept what would be viewed as a radical solution to the problem.  (Although, those who live in places such as Miami and discover that their 30th floor condo is now "oceanfront" property might make a phone call or two to their elected representatives to Congress.)

People would like you believe that’s going to happen.  It’s fear mongering.  Hal not having crackers doesn’t even touch a speck on the earth.  The problem can’t be solved on this side of the earth.  I’m not saying nothing should change, but c’mon crackers and sweeteners?

[Crew News]

During my Nieuw Statendam Club Orange kitchen tour in 2019, the Environmental Officer told us that HAL was eliminating individually packaged items to save packaging materials polluting the oceans.  He then told us that the ship does not release non-biodegradable stuff into the ocean but recycles all packaging materials.  I just scratched my head.

 

The most important thing I learned from the Environmental Officer was that all recycled stuff was sold and the income went into the Crew Fund.

 

I was not shocked when I returned to cruising in 2021and found that, with the exception of artificial sweeteners, HAL stuck to it's goals.

[Wakepatrol]

This thread has gone from saltines to lithium mining to Melba toast crackers.

Wanting to meet with the guest relations manager, food and beverage manager, and hotel director?

 

These are all middleman. Go straight to the captain and make him pull into the first port and load on 28 pallets of crackers.

in the last 20 years so many things have been eliminated , but let’s have a mutiny over some crackers

Edited July 17, 2022 by Wakepatrol

[Seasick Sailor]

December 2021 and January 2022 on Rotterdam. No crackers, even with cheese plate. There were packets of sweeteners all over the ship. 

[ShipWalker]

I will be on the Eurodam at the end of this month.

 

I plan to smuggle on board a Costco size box of crackers and go into black market crackerteering. Might even make enough to pay for the next cruise.

[Blackduck59]

I'm getting tired of the lame excuses for cutting simple things, Butter pats, packaged sugar and sweetener, now crackers. All in the name of reducing plastic packaging. Am I the only one that remembers that all these things were once found in paper packaging? Butter pats and crackers used to be packaged in waxed paper and the sugar and sweeteners were and are in paper packages. These people are running a floating hotel, penny pinching under the guise of being "Green". I don't really use saltines except in my soup, fine cheeses deserve something more than the little square crackers found in the red box (here in Canada). HAL is a big enough company that they could order up a special batch of saltines in paper packaging complete with the HAL logo probably for less than 10 cents per unit. Even at that low price it would add up to thousands of dollars a week to keep the world wide fleet in crackers. I had take out Chinese food the other day for my lunch they haven't been able to get the small soya sauce packages for months.

[janmcn]

Yup…front desk said it was the plastic that caused them to eliminate it…no plastic wrappings if they can help it. So if you’re nauseated from seasickness or Noro or anything else…good luck.  No saltines, no graham crackers, nada! Love going green..,😫

[Navybikermom]

I think I’m bringing a box of cereal AND a box of triscuits on my next cruise. The tasteless cereal in the “hotel” dispensers just doesn’t appeal to me, and I do love a good cracker with cheese. I really missed that on my last cruise. 

[tuolumne couple]

18 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

And if you like crackers with your cheese...........bring crackers! 😉

Well. you can order the cheese plate in the MDR. It comes with a selection of cheeses and crackers. You can request additional crackers. I love that with  my wine, and always order it before dinner, but honestly, crackers and cheese are not a game changer for me. I have enough options on board, and am not there for the food necessarily. 

[Florida_gal_50]

11 minutes ago, tuolumne couple said:

Well. you can order the cheese plate in the MDR. It comes with a selection of cheeses and crackers. You can request additional crackers. I love that with  my wine, and always order it before dinner, but honestly, crackers and cheese are not a game changer for me. I have enough options on board, and am not there for the food necessarily. 

It might be on the menu but that doesn’t mean you get crackers.  It’s been posted too many times to think it’s a fluke.  I can’t remember the last time I had crackers on board but I’m also not going to put others down that do enjoy it.  I wouldn’t care if they got rid of burgers and fries on board either because there is enough other things but I can see others enjoy that so again, it’s not all about me.

[tuolumne couple]

6 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

It might be on the menu but that doesn’t mean you get crackers.  

well, I got crackers on my cruise three months ago.... just sayin'

[jakers]

On our last cruise on the Koningsdam my DW sent me up to the Lido for saltines. After a fruitless search, I found only cheese. I was told that saltines were only available if ordered through room service.

[janmcn]

15 minutes ago, jakers said:

On our last cruise on the Koningsdam my DW sent me up to the Lido for saltines. After a fruitless search, I found only cheese. I was told that saltines were only available if ordered through room service.

None from room service or anywhere!