BEWARE: Your drinks package does NOT cover freshly squeezed OJ

[Seasick Sailor]

Fresh squeezed orange juice from the mouth of the informed: Our Gelato master Sherwin!

 

 

In the morning,  Sherwin squeezes oranges and cleans the machine. The HIA package for breakfast only, and in Lido only includes fresh orange juice. AND FYI.. the milkshakes are included in HIA. Sherwin says he only uses ice cream and milk for the milkshakes.

 

Here is sweet Sherwin and one of our favorite bartenders, John.

 

 

As far as tips, Sherwin gets to keep his tips whether cash or paper since he's the only server.

 

We have 3 more weeks on the beautiful Rotterdam! 51 days, disembarking on Jan 14th. Lovely time!

Edited December 23, 2023 by Seasick Sailor
add on

[Mike07]

2 hours ago, TiogaCruiser said:

That’s a strange place to do food prep. I wonder if that is approved by Public Health.

Are there appropriate hand washing stations nearby?

 

 

I thought cruise ships weren't subject to any health department inspection?

[OlsSalt]

18 minutes ago, Mike07 said:

 

 

I thought cruise ships weren't subject to any health department inspection?

 

Check out the CDC Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) online - they are subject to very strict requirements, and both routine and surprise inspections. They list all cruise ships by name, status of inspection and detailed list of deficiencies and corrections. 

 

https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/default.htm

 

 

 

Edited December 23, 2023 by OlsSalt

[tuolumne couple]

Hmm, fresh squeezed OJ was covered on our recent HIA cruise . You can always refer to the beverage package on your app or TV, and while there may be changes at any given time, it is spelled out very well what you can or cannot get with the various beverage packages. I guess you would have known when they asked for your keycard to charge you for the drink. If you have the drink package or not, they always take a key card, so that it would not be a surprise. Unless you were wanting them to freshly squeeze it in front of you, it will always come in a bottle. Plus, $6 seems steep. Are you sure it wasnt $3 pp?

Edited December 23, 2023 by tuolumne couple

[oldbluff]

1 hour ago, POA1 said:

Yes. There is a sink. There is also a shower if you want super hygiene.

 

At home, I always give my oranges a thorough rinse in the shower before squeezing. 😀

[cruise101]

Thanks for all the responses and feedback. Clearly HAL seems inconsistent in its policies (or their application) throughout the fleet. To clarify & answer some of the questions raised:

 

1. The Lido (at least when we tried) does not serve fresh OJ. They provide the one made from concentrate & which is freely available during breakfast.

2. We got our fresh OJ from the Gelato station.

3. Yes, we did follow up with Guest Services and were told that fresh OJ anywhere on the ship was not covered under the drinks package we had.
 

To conclude, overall, and as noted in our feedback to HAL (end of cruise survey), we were very satisfied with our cruise. The OJ issue was not a deal breaker. I posted this primarily to ensure that people are aware of HAL’s practice in this area. We weren’t and were thus disappointed.

[CruiserBruce]

2 hours ago, POA1 said:

Yes. There is a sink. There is also a shower if you want super hygiene.

 

That is not the food prep area! 😃

[Ka Honu]

40 minutes ago, oldbluff said:

At home, I always give my oranges a thorough rinse in the shower before squeezing. 😀

People will be trying to "unsee" that for quite a while.

 

Jus' sayin'...

[YourWorldWithBill]

After reading this enlightening discussion I feel as if I've already drunk a couple of glasses of fresh-squeezed orange juice! Refreshing!

[Torquer]

6 hours ago, cruise101 said:

3. Yes, we did follow up with Guest Services and were told that fresh OJ anywhere on the ship was not covered under the drinks package we had.

This is really quite shocking.  Did you ask them where this is documented in writing, so that someone who has a drink package would know this? 

 

To further complicate things, fresh OJ (i.e., not from concentrate) is served by default in the Club Orange dining room on Pinnacle Class ships and in the Pinnacle Grill for breakfast on other ships for suite guests.  I seem to remember you can request OJ from concentrate if you don't like the pulp.

[cruise101]

1 hour ago, Torquer said:

This is really quite shocking.  Did you ask them where this is documented in writing, so that someone who has a drink package would know this? 

 

To further complicate things, fresh OJ (i.e., not from concentrate) is served by default in the Club Orange dining room on Pinnacle Class ships and in the Pinnacle Grill for breakfast on other ships for suite guests.  I seem to remember you can request OJ from concentrate if you don't like the pulp.

Hi Torquer: just to clarify we were neither Club Orange or in a Suite, so that would not have applied to us. As one of the previous posters has noted, they were Club Orange and served fresh OJ at no cost.

[POA1]

On 12/23/2023 at 12:39 PM, oldbluff said:

At home, I always give my oranges a thorough rinse in the shower before squeezing. 😀

I hope you use a loofah. It gives you the cleanest citrus.

[REOVA]

On 12/23/2023 at 7:05 PM, Torquer said:

 

To further complicate things, fresh OJ (i.e., not from concentrate) is served by default in the Club Orange dining room on Pinnacle Class ships and in the Pinnacle Grill for breakfast on other ships for suite guests.  I seem to remember you can request OJ from concentrate if you don't like the pulp.

Yes I got fresh squeezed last year on Rotterdam for breakfast and had to send it back. It was a thick glass of pulp, very little juice. They asked if I wanted concentrate and I said no, but juice would be appreciated.🤦‍♂️

[mawvkysc]

Fresh off the website, notice the asterisk 

Edited December 25, 2023 by mawvkysc

[POA1]

1 hour ago, mawvkysc said:

Fresh off the website, notice the asterisk 

Shouldn't there be an asterisk attached to something? There's just an asterisk about Gelato juice - hanging out all by its lonesome self.

[mawvkysc]

3 minutes ago, POA1 said:

Shouldn't there be an asterisk attached to something? There's just an asterisk about Gelato juice - hanging out all by its lonesome self.

True, there should be an asterisk by the word juice in the chart. 

[Caribbean Chris]

I’m sure some other CC people will remember when HAL had a large orange-juicing machine against a wall in the Lido where stewards made fresh juice throughout breakfast. It was fun to watch halved oranges go into one side of the contraption, and squeezed hulls exit from the other.

[Blackduck59]

3 hours ago, Caribbean Chris said:

I’m sure some other CC people will remember when HAL had a large orange-juicing machine against a wall in the Lido where stewards made fresh juice throughout breakfast. It was fun to watch halved oranges go into one side of the contraption, and squeezed hulls exit from the other.

I never saw one of those at sea but one of our local grocery stores had one. It was fascinating to watch, with that one the oranges went in whole and came out the back mushed. The resulting juice was bottled and displayed on a bed of crushed ice.

As I mentioned it an earlier post I tried the "fresh squeezed" orange juice once and didn't really like it so that was that.

[Toofarfromthesea]

10 hours ago, POA1 said:

Shouldn't there be an asterisk attached to something? There's just an asterisk about Gelato juice - hanging out all by its lonesome self.

 

It's like the company Christmas party for the self-employed guy.😉

[Torquer]

14 hours ago, mawvkysc said:

Fresh off the website, notice the asterisk 

And more importantly, the asterisk says "not included from Gelato Juice bar."  As we now learned from this thread, fresh orange juice is also not included with breakfast in the MDR.  That seems so wrong to me that they are not clearly stating this.

[Hlitner]

8 hours ago, Caribbean Chris said:

I’m sure some other CC people will remember when HAL had a large orange-juicing machine against a wall in the Lido where stewards made fresh juice throughout breakfast. It was fun to watch halved oranges go into one side of the contraption, and squeezed hulls exit from the other.

Remember those machines well, and there was no question about getting real fresh OJ.  Interestingly, Seabourn has a slightly different design machine in their Colonnade (Lido) which is self-serve.  A great idea but drives the staff crazy if the oranges are the wrong size and they must constantly clear jams.

 

Hank

[terrydtx]

Last month on the Kongingsdam we had fresh squeezed OJ with room service every morning with the classic HIA package. We also got it in the CO dining room for breakfast. I know the difference as we have an orange tree in our back yard and make fresh squeezed OJ during the fruit season. I think the OP was misinformed

Edited December 25, 2023 by terrydtx

[VMax1700]

3 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

fresh squeezed OJ with room service every morning with the classic HIA package.

That only confuses more, as room service drinks are not covered by HIA  😂

 

[terrydtx]

28 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

That only confuses more, as room service drinks are not covered by HIA  😂

 

We  had CO and the expanded CO room service menu included fresh OJ as an option. We also got it in CO dining room and once in the MDR for breakfast at NC.

Edited December 25, 2023 by terrydtx

[oaktreerb]

29 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

That only confuses more, as room service drinks are not covered by HIA  😂

 

He got the fresh OJ from room service as part of the Orange Club room service upgrade menu, not HIA.