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Eating while getting food in the buffet 😖


bogeycruiser
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8 minutes ago, jan-n-john said:

Would it make sense to first go over to the soup area and pick up two or three soup spoons and then use those rather than the provided utensils to serve oneself?  With a bit a deft maneuvering it should be possible to get most things on one's plate that way.  Also might have the side benefit of helping one to not take so much!

Except soup .. a soup spoon would take so long to get a serving in a bowl that there would be issues with holding up the line 

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2 hours ago, jan-n-john said:

Would it make sense to first go over to the soup area and pick up two or three soup spoons and then use those rather than the provided utensils to serve oneself?  With a bit a deft maneuvering it should be possible to get most things on one's plate that way.  Also might have the side benefit of helping one to not take so much!

 

Perhaps the rest of the passengers would rather not see you use your own utensils to serve yourself.  The rest of us don't know if you have contaminated your makeshift serving devise.

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I agree. People would be eating with a utensil (soup spoon) then go up for seconds using that same utensil after eating with it. As disgusting as all of this is I feel you cant do anything about someone touching the ladle or serving utensil to serve themselves. Just use a hand sanitizer for yourself after. If you see some disgusting person plunge his finger into any food item or do not use the tongs to grab something. I agree with others to just get a crew member over and tell them what just happened. and you may want to tell the finger plunger how disgusting that it was they did that.  Maybe you will change some but not all.

I realize there is alot of bacteria everywhere with that many people in one location but if others would be a little more cautious about this bacteria thing there would be less chance something would get passed along.

I know not a perfect world..

 

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1 hour ago, cheeseheads4ever said:

I agree. People would be eating with a utensil (soup spoon) then go up for seconds using that same utensil after eating with it. As disgusting as all of this is I feel you cant do anything about someone touching the ladle or serving utensil to serve themselves. Just use a hand sanitizer for yourself after. If you see some disgusting person plunge his finger into any food item or do not use the tongs to grab something. I agree with others to just get a crew member over and tell them what just happened. and you may want to tell the finger plunger how disgusting that it was they did that.  Maybe you will change some but not all.

I realize there is alot of bacteria everywhere with that many people in one location but if others would be a little more cautious about this bacteria thing there would be less chance something would get passed along.

I know not a perfect world..

 

Good luck with telling person your opinion of disgust.  Telling a crew member and hoping they remove the food that was touched seems to me to be a more productive reaction.  I have never seen anyone ever remove a tray/pan of anything though.   I like to get to buffet early if possible or get items that are not as easy to sample with fingers.  Also, just take my chances.  My motto is sanitize as I go into buffet area and again before eating after touching serving utensils and other items in buffet area.

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I try to be a bit subtle and use a small paper napkin in my hand to pick up the serving utensils at the buffet - one never knows where other's hands have been.....  Once on an RCI ship, I observed a passenger pick up the large serving spoon and use it to taste a food, then hand the same serving spoon to her mother to try and return it to the food tray. I pointed this out to one of the buffet staff who removed the "used" spoon and replace it with another!  Not only on cruise ships, but I've seen this in supermarkets that offer serve-yourself items. I once captured a video of a woman take a BBQ wing, eat it and put the bone back into the serving tray - the store staff shrugged it off, so I stopped by our town hall and showed the video to the Board of Health people.....wing bar was moved adjacent to  a heavily staffed area a few days later.  Got to be careful on planes, too. Last year  one of the Boston TV stations did segment on sanitary conditions on planes. The level of fecal matter on arm rests and pull down trays was scary. And people give me strange looks when I use sanitary wipes on overhead bin handles, in seat entertainment, trays, etc. 

 

100+ cruises and never had noro or any food related illnesses....so far.

 

Darcy

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2 hours ago, WatchHill said:

I try to be a bit subtle and use a small paper napkin in my hand to pick up the serving utensils at the buffet - one never knows where other's hands have been.....  Once on an RCI ship, I observed a passenger pick up the large serving spoon and use it to taste a food, then hand the same serving spoon to her mother to try and return it to the food tray. I pointed this out to one of the buffet staff who removed the "used" spoon and replace it with another!  Not only on cruise ships, but I've seen this in supermarkets that offer serve-yourself items. I once captured a video of a woman take a BBQ wing, eat it and put the bone back into the serving tray - the store staff shrugged it off, so I stopped by our town hall and showed the video to the Board of Health people.....wing bar was moved adjacent to  a heavily staffed area a few days later.  Got to be careful on planes, too. Last year  one of the Boston TV stations did segment on sanitary conditions on planes. The level of fecal matter on arm rests and pull down trays was scary. And people give me strange looks when I use sanitary wipes on overhead bin handles, in seat entertainment, trays, etc. 

 

100+ cruises and never had noro or any food related illnesses....so far.

 

Darcy

First,  congrats on being able to sail so much.  Secondly,  you have a system down that works for you.  Guess you could get a paper napkin at the bar location within buffet area.  

 

You yourself saw first hand that cruise crew did NOT respond as fully as they could/should of with just the removal of the spoon.  Not sure who these people are that do NOT think of what they are doing, especially using the provided utensil to sample the food and not replacing the utensil. We all do things at times, so I cannot cast the first stone...

 

Maybe, a few more crew staff observing and signage reminding patrons to not taste the food till seated.  Maybe signs at both ends of each buffet line section I have tasted a bite of food myself once on my plate and standing waiting for the line to nudge forward.  My justification (IMHO 🙂  ) was to see if I wanted more of the item vs taking a larger portion and not eating.  Again, we all can have justifications, validations of what we do even when not fully logical as even in my example above.

 

Buffet is just one area of ship too, thus frequent hand washing and not touching eyes, nose, mouth till I have washed my hands has so far provided me some protection.

 

Just read where men's beards harbor lots of bacteria, so........

 

 

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2 hours ago, shipshape sam said:

 

 

Just read where men's beards harbor lots of bacteria, so........

and here I go again...    we all have hair and lose hair every where.. but....   wearing a shirt in the oceanview café should mean buttoning the shirt!!!!!  keep your hairy gut away from the food.. and your hairy man boobs... !!!!

 

 

 

Quote

 

 

 

Edited by gold1953
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1 hour ago, gold1953 said:

and here I go again...    we all have hair and lose hair every where.. but....   wearing a shirt in the oceanview café should mean buttoning the shirt!!!!!  keep your hairy gut away from the food.. and your hairy man boobs... !!!!

 

Thank You...

My day needed a little laughter  --  as I was picturing your description!!!!

Ewwww...  But the picture in my brain is so Funny!

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6 hours ago, shipshape sam said:

Good luck with telling person your opinion of disgust.  Telling a crew member and hoping they remove the food that was touched seems to me to be a more productive reaction.  I have never seen anyone ever remove a tray/pan of anything though.   I like to get to buffet early if possible or get items that are not as easy to sample with fingers.  Also, just take my chances.  My motto is sanitize as I go into buffet area and again before eating after touching serving utensils and other items in buffet area.

 

Almost bet that they put it aside for a few minutes and then put it back.

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On 4/15/2019 at 8:07 AM, TeaBag said:

They used to do this and it was wonderful.  You got served also and the cover charge was $2.  We heard the servers were trainees.  Too bad they stopped it.

 

Yes, that was wonderful but just for those who weren't around then , it was not the buffet food, it was off a menu that was different from the MDR.

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On 4/15/2019 at 10:51 AM, DebInAntigua said:


We use ZooNo sanitizer every day before leaving our cabin, and most of the time once again before going to dinner. ZooNo lasts up to 24 hours and only loses effectiveness due to the natural exfoliation of the skin.

So while we may look like those careless people refusing to use hand sanitizer offered by the crew, but it's only because we already have our own (much better) hand sanitizer in place. We don't want to hasten the exfoliation by drying out our hands with alcohol-laden sanitizers that only work until you touch the next contaminated surface.

 

However, we have no problem washing our hands again if there is a wash station at the entrance - always a good idea!

 

I just looked this up because of your recommendation. Sounds like a  really great, cost effective way to protect yourself.  If you wash your hands with soap and water,  do you reapply? I'd love to find a good alcohol free sanitizer. While not allergic, alcohol dries out my skin. So thank you.

 

I have no reason to doubt DJK is allergic and you may have found a better sanitizer, but I believe that most of the people who rudely admonish the crew and refuse to 'washy-washy' are just being inconsiderate slobs. 

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We just returned from an RCL cruise and one evening at the buffet (RCL buffet is another rant for another time) the guy next to me drops the tongs ON THE FLOOR! Now at this buffet line people were acting like they had not seen food in days, shoving and pushing their way in. So this guy drops the tongs on the floor, then bends down picks them up and tries to put them back in the food! I actually said something to him (a bit loudly) about how they were just on the floor. The man behind the counter was quick to take the tongs and replace them with clean ones. 

 

I guess that pax had a three second rule about food or utensils on the floor... It was gross! 

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2 hours ago, Marelaine said:

 

I just looked this up because of your recommendation. Sounds like a  really great, cost effective way to protect yourself.  If you wash your hands with soap and water,  do you reapply? I'd love to find a good alcohol free sanitizer. While not allergic, alcohol dries out my skin. So thank you.


ZooNo permanently bonds with your skin, so only once you naturally shed skin cells do you lose the protection. Alcohol can dry the skin and make that process happen faster, so applying alcohol-based sanitizer on top of ZooNo protected hands actually shortens how long ZooNo's protection lasts.

 

Regular hand-washing several times a day isn't a problem according to their FAQ. We do apply it after a shower though, because washing your hair and all of that exfoliates a lot more skin from your hands than just washing after using the bathroom.

While ZooNo can last up to 24 hours we've felt most comfortable using it in the morning after a shower before leaving the cabin, then again before dinner. During a cruise with thousands of other people around, we'd rather apply it more often.

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How about the woman who travels on Silhouette with her dog and who carries the dog through the buffet line with a plate?  I guess the dog has to sample the food to make sure it is safe to eat...

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56 minutes ago, keesar said:

How about the woman who travels on Silhouette with her dog and who carries the dog through the buffet line with a plate?  I guess the dog has to sample the food to make sure it is safe to eat...

Ya never can be to safe. 

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I was on the Carnival Fantasy in January (this is in my review). There were two women, I'm guessing in their 60s, that were chatting near the salad bar. As I was rounding the bar (it's in the middle of the buffet in a circle) there were cheese cubes, fruit, etc. at one "end". I watched as one of the women leaned over and took a few cubes with her hands. She then put the cheese into her mouth. At first I couldn't believe it. Then I saw her do it again!  At this point, I went to the closest buffet worker and as I was explaining....she did it again!! GROSS. Luckily, I watched as two of the employees removed the trays (yes plural) of cheese.

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19 hours ago, Locksmth said:

ZooNo looks interesting, but their website doesn't reference any clinical trials.  In fact, no science references at all.  I'd be skeptical of their claims.


They share a lot here, including which labs have tested their products - https://zoono.com/pages/our-technology

 

But if you want access to their actual lab data, you have to contact them for permission.

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On 4/16/2019 at 4:15 PM, dkjretired said:

 

Almost bet that they put it aside for a few minutes and then put it back.

 

When you don't finish the bread basket in the MDR, do you really think they throw the partial basket of bread away?   I'll bet they just refill and put it out for the next guy.  I'm sorry they did away with the assistant waiter delivering the rolls from a tray.

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2 hours ago, DebInAntigua said:


They share a lot here, including which labs have tested their products - https://zoono.com/pages/our-technology

 

But if you want access to their actual lab data, you have to contact them for permission.

I'm the suspicious kind of guy.  They make a lot of claims, but really don't provide any data to back it up.  24 hours is an awfully long time for any anti-bacterial agent to remain effective.  Just saying...

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