Passengers have to use saliva contaminated drink dispensers in Majestic Princess buffet.

[Bubbeh]

On 12/12/2022 at 7:58 AM, Tripmode33 said:

We never buy water in plastic - enough plastic in this world.

Absolutely too much 'disposable' plastic floating around our oceans and in land fill.

[Bubbeh]

On 12/12/2022 at 8:13 AM, marinating said:

We take our own miniature pepper and salt grinders!

Ditto, I also take my own little tube of Vegemite.  A couple of years ago (pre-COVID) a crew member in the buffet at breakfast mistook this for charcoal toothpaste!

[arxcards]

22 hours ago, lyndarra said:

I have never noticed a chlorine taste from ships' water. If you notice chlorine leave your filled water bottle uncapped overnight either in open air or fridge and chlorine will be gone by morning.

Ship water is desalinated sea water and is also filtered, usually by reverse osmosis.

It varies. They also take on town water in the larger ports. Pure water is great to have when it is dispensed, but they have to have some chlorine added to their desalinated water to prevent nasties from contaminating the tanks and pipes.

 

Sometimes I can taste a bit, Majestic dining room water tasted awesome, as if they had a filtration unit in the galley.

[arxcards]

3 hours ago, Bubbeh said:

Absolutely too much 'disposable' plastic floating around our oceans and in land fill.

That may be so, but ships have an excellent standard of recycling. 

 

I believe the same, and have had filtered tap water at home since way before it became trendy. When travelling, bottles are a more reliable source of drinking water.

[Gwendy]

On 12/12/2022 at 4:03 PM, lyndarra said:

Sounds like a lot of drivel.🤪

Or is that dribble? Lol

[TrixieBel]

On 12/12/2022 at 4:49 PM, buchhalm said:

That headline makes it sound as if people actually spat on the drinks dispensers 

They might as well have. Same outcome as what has been described… sharing of saliva from one person to the next. Very grateful for the heads up 🤢 - will be avoiding those bottle/drink dispensers! 

[buchhalm]

3 hours ago, TrixieBel said:

They might as well have. Same outcome as what has been described… sharing of saliva from one person to the next. Very grateful for the heads up 🤢 - will be avoiding those bottle/drink dispensers! 

I understand the concern,  but if THAT is the way one thinks about life,  one would never leave the house.

 

[TrixieBel]

1 hour ago, buchhalm said:

I understand the concern,  but if THAT is the way one thinks about life,  one would never leave the house.

 

I take whatever precautions are needed when I leave the house. Doing OK with that outlook on life so far 🙂 But thanks for your efforts in giving your critical opinion on the way I live my life. 

[NSWP]

Stick with the bottled water on board, safer. I pre purchase some or buy a bottle a day from the bar. 

[P&T]

Bit put off with P&O Aust policies on what may be brought on board.

 

Last time I was on Princess (pre covid) I saw people bringing on slabs of drinking water and soft drink and a couple bottles of wine which seemed to be all OK.

 

I see from details on my next cruise on P&O Aust, seems they don't allow any alcohol at all to be brought on board (unless you want it confiscated for the duration) and no liquids in a plastic container, even water.

[Aus Traveller]

26 minutes ago, P&T said:

Bit put off with P&O Aust policies on what may be brought on board.

 

Last time I was on Princess (pre covid) I saw people bringing on slabs of drinking water and soft drink and a couple bottles of wine which seemed to be all OK.

 

I see from details on my next cruise on P&O Aust, seems they don't allow any alcohol at all to be brought on board (unless you want it confiscated for the duration) and no liquids in a plastic container, even water.

For some years P&O Aust have not allowed passengers to take any alcohol or any water on board. I believe it is because too many people were smuggling alcohol in water bottles. A small number of sealed cans of softdrink are allowed.

[nnps]

35 minutes ago, P&T said:

Bit put off with P&O Aust policies on what may be brought on board.

 

Last time I was on Princess (pre covid) I saw people bringing on slabs of drinking water and soft drink and a couple bottles of wine which seemed to be all OK.

 

I see from details on my next cruise on P&O Aust, seems they don't allow any alcohol at all to be brought on board (unless you want it confiscated for the duration) and no liquids in a plastic container, even water.

You can only take a small number of canned soft drinks, no bottles. I am guessing that they feel many people would substitute alcohol for the original drinks.

[arxcards]

7 hours ago, P&T said:

Bit put off with P&O Aust policies on what may be brought on board.

 

Last time I was on Princess (pre covid) I saw people bringing on slabs of drinking water and soft drink and a couple bottles of wine which seemed to be all OK.

 

I see from details on my next cruise on P&O Aust, seems they don't allow any alcohol at all to be brought on board (unless you want it confiscated for the duration) and no liquids in a plastic container, even water.

Princess allows a couple of bottles of wine, as do most other lines other than P&O. That is the only alcoholic beverage any of them allows for - no beer, no spirits.

 

Used to be bottles of "Iced Tea" and "water" that were repurposed, so they made it harder year by year. So now it is 1/2 dozen cans per passenger, loosely packed. Been that way for several years.

[P&T]

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

Princess allows a couple of bottles of wine, as do most other lines other than P&O. That is the only alcoholic beverage any of them allows for - no beer, no spirits.

 

Used to be bottles of "Iced Tea" and "water" that were repurposed, so they made it harder year by year. So now it is 1/2 dozen cans per passenger, loosely packed. Been that way for several years.

Thanks - I haven't been on P&O Aust for a few years. Have two with them this coming year.

[Gwendy]

3 hours ago, arxcards said:

Princess allows a couple of bottles of wine, as do most other lines other than P&O. That is the only alcoholic beverage any of them allows for - no beer, no spirits.

 

Used to be bottles of "Iced Tea" and "water" that were repurposed, so they made it harder year by year. So now it is 1/2 dozen cans per passenger, loosely packed. Been that way for several years.

P&O allow 12 cans of soft drink per passenger.  Embarked 13 Dec 2022, no issues 

[OzKiwiJJ]

19 hours ago, arxcards said:

Princess allows a couple of bottles of wine, as do most other lines other than P&O. That is the only alcoholic beverage any of them allows for - no beer, no spirits.

 

Used to be bottles of "Iced Tea" and "water" that were repurposed, so they made it harder year by year. So now it is 1/2 dozen cans per passenger, loosely packed. Been that way for several years.

 

I'm sure Princess still allows factory-packed and sealed bottles of water to be brought onboard. We certainly did that in 2019 as we wanted small bottles for port stops on the Hawaii/Tahiti cruise. I just bought a pack at Woollies, stuck a baggage tag on it and it arrived at our cabin with the rest of our luggage.

[Aus Traveller]

10 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

 

I'm sure Princess still allows factory-packed and sealed bottles of water to be brought onboard. We certainly did that in 2019 as we wanted small bottles for port stops on the Hawaii/Tahiti cruise. I just bought a pack at Woollies, stuck a baggage tag on it and it arrived at our cabin with the rest of our luggage.

On Princess, there is no problem taking bottles of water on board, even if they aren't factory-packed and sealed. We don't bother because we haven't had problems drinking the water on Princess ships. In our cruises pre-COVID on P&O we didn't have a problem either, but our recent cruises on Pacific Encounter have been a different story.

[MMDown Under]

6 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

On Princess, there is no problem taking bottles of water on board, even if they aren't factory-packed and sealed. We don't bother because we haven't had problems drinking the water on Princess ships. In our cruises pre-COVID on P&O we didn't have a problem either, but our recent cruises on Pacific Encounter have been a different story.

In the past, I have bought alcohol as souvenirs, such as rum from Tahiti and the Caribbean, which I put vanilla beans in and wine from NZ etc.  Is this still allowed as long as it is not consumed on the ship?  

There was no wine for sale on my 7 night cruise to GBR on 4/12.

[Aus Traveller]

1 minute ago, MMDown Under said:

In the past, I have bought alcohol as souvenirs, such as rum from Tahiti and the Caribbean, which I put vanilla beans in and wine from NZ etc.  Is this still allowed as long as it is not consumed on the ship?  

There was no wine for sale on my 7 night cruise to GBR on 4/12.

In my experience with Princess, there is an alcohol collection desk when passengers re-board the ship in ports of call. All alcohol is supposed to be surrendered and held until the end of the cruise when it will form part of the passenger's duty free allowance for importation into Aust. However, in practice, sometimes wine can be taken aboard at a port of call and treated the same as wine taken aboard at the start of the cruise. Rum would be regarded as spirits and held for you at the end of the cruise.

[MMDown Under]

14 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

In my experience with Princess, there is an alcohol collection desk when passengers re-board the ship in ports of call. All alcohol is supposed to be surrendered and held until the end of the cruise when it will form part of the passenger's duty free allowance for importation into Aust. However, in practice, sometimes wine can be taken aboard at a port of call and treated the same as wine taken aboard at the start of the cruise. Rum would be regarded as spirits and held for you at the end of the cruise.

It used to be held until disembarkation, unless there was an exception.  

[GUT2407]

On 12/14/2022 at 1:04 PM, NSWP said:

Stick with the bottled water on board, safer. I pre purchase some or buy a bottle a day from the bar. 

Or skip the water and drink something enjoyable. Scotch for uncle Les, Diet Coke for me,  

[buchhalm]

5 minutes ago, GUT2407 said:

Or skip the water and drink something enjoyable. Scotch for uncle Les, Diet Coke for me,  

As my Scottish grandpa neighbour used to tell me :

never drink the water. Fish (ahem...) "make love " in it.

[arxcards]

On 12/16/2022 at 11:43 AM, Aus Traveller said:

On Princess, there is no problem taking bottles of water on board, even if they aren't factory-packed and sealed. We don't bother because we haven't had problems drinking the water on Princess ships. In our cruises pre-COVID on P&O we didn't have a problem either, but our recent cruises on Pacific Encounter have been a different story.

As far back as 2015, P&O were confiscating water & making people empty drink bottles at security. Even then, their policy was for loose cans only - no bottles of anything.

 

Correct, Princess doesn't have these restrictions. The answer was in response to a P&O question on a Majestic Princess thread which is a pretty normal occurrence here. 😁