Hot Tub Cleanliness

[grapau27]

3 hours ago, island lady said:

Public hot tubs and pools?  Bacteria soup...not on my diet...no thanks.  

They are usually full of people and bacteria so we always avoid them.

[nanowerx]

This forum is bi-polar. Biggest gripe I see here constantly is a lack of chairs available right next to the pools, yet (reading this thread) apparently none of yall even use the pools. So Im not sure why everybody complains about no front row seats at the splash areas of the 'people stew' 😄

[BND]

7 minutes ago, nanowerx said:

This forum is bi-polar. Biggest gripe I see here constantly is a lack of chairs available right next to the pools, yet (reading this thread) apparently none of yall even use the pools. So Im not sure why everybody complains about no front row seats at the splash areas of the 'people stew' 😄

Everybody?  You know what they say about assuming, right?  Some of us never complain about lack of chairs next to the pool, but we do like a lounger in the shade.

[island lady]

48 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

They are usually full of people and bacteria so we always avoid them.

 

Good call.  I just could not imagine you and Pauline in one of those anyway.  😉  

[island lady]

42 minutes ago, nanowerx said:

This forum is bi-polar. Biggest gripe I see here constantly is a lack of chairs available right next to the pools, yet (reading this thread) apparently none of yall even use the pools. So Im not sure why everybody complains about no front row seats at the splash areas of the 'people stew' 😄

 

I have never complained about lack of chairs.  Never use the pool/hot tub...don't use the pool deck chairs.  One more chair available for the hogs to fight over!  😉 I always have a quiet reserved chair available outside...with a great view of the sea...it's on my balcony.  

Edited April 25, 2019 by island lady

[grapau27]

Just now, island lady said:

 

Good call.  I just could not imagine you and Pauline in one of those anyway.  😉  

Thank you.

We would never get into a hot tub.

I'm sure yourself and Bucky are very much like us.

[grapau27]

2 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

I have never complained about lack of chairs.  Never use the pool/hot tub...don't use the pool deck chairs.  One more chair available for the hogs to fight over!  😉 I always have a quiet reserved chair available outside...with a great view of the sea...it's on my balcony.  

We  rarely sit on deck and prefer somewhere in the shade and I agree the view of the sea from our balcony is the best view of all with a beer or glass of sparkling wine makes it feel like heaven.

[island lady]

Just now, grapau27 said:

Thank you.

We would never get into a hot tub.

I'm sure yourself and Bucky are very much like us.

 

Before we sold the previous house, we had a really nice pool in the backyard that we built in.  We used it quite a bit, and Bucky used it almost every day.  Public pool?....ummm...no.  Of all the cruises we have been on, have never used the pool even once.  Just not our thing.  No pool with the current house, thus no worries about maintaining it when we are gone so much now...huge relief.  🙂 

[island lady]

1 minute ago, grapau27 said:

We  rarely sit on deck and prefer somewhere in the shade and I agree the view of the sea from our balcony is the best view of all with a beer or glass of sparkling wine makes it feel like heaven.

 

Total thumbs up on that one...ahhh...perfect!  🍷  The true luxury life of a Royal DS.  🤗

[grapau27]

1 minute ago, island lady said:

 

Total thumbs up on that one...ahhh...perfect!  🍷  The true luxury life of a Royal DS.  🤗

We DS think alike.😎

[grapau27]

6 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

Before we sold the previous house, we had a really nice pool in the backyard that we built in.  We used it quite a bit, and Bucky used it almost every day.  Public pool?....ummm...no.  Of all the cruises we have been on, have never used the pool even once.  Just not our thing.  No pool with the current house, thus no worries about maintaining it when we are gone so much now...huge relief.  🙂 

The weather in North East England is so unpredictable so very few homes have outside pools although we have a large patio for outdoor dining.

Having your own pool in Sunny Florida sounds perfect.

Pauline's cousin lives in Australia and they have their own pool which they love but say it is a lot of work looking after their pool.

[katiel53]

1 hour ago, island lady said:

 

I have never complained about lack of chairs.  Never use the pool/hot tub...don't use the pool deck chairs.  One more chair available for the hogs to fight over!  😉 I always have a quiet reserved chair available outside...with a great view of the sea...it's on my balcony.  

I totally agree.  I won't use the pools onboard as I have seen too many spend too long in the pool with no bathroom time.  I have seen kids in diapers in the pool until someone told the parent to take the kid out.  I have seen sex in the hot tub from my balcony.

 

I enjoy the quiet on my balcony as opposed to the loud noise on the pool deck.  That's one of the reasons we book a balcony.  If I need to use the bathroom, it' s just a couple of steps inside as opposed to walking across a slippery, wet deck to get to the public ones.  Works for me every time.

[chengkp75]

6 hours ago, twangster said:

Too many people don't shower before using pools and hot tubs. There is a reason why that is a public health requirement yet very few shower or rinse before entering.  

 

Hot tubs are basically a petri dish of human soup at a simmer.  Depending on the numbers present free chlorine can be fully consumed. 

 

If you can find one right after it's been cleaned and sanitized that's great.  If you find an empty hot tub you have no idea how many people have used it or where it is the cycle of newly sanitized to desperately needs to be sanitized.  

 

Same with land resorts and public pools.  

Actually, the reason for showering before entering a pool or hot tub is to remove sunscreen.  The oils in the sunscreen can form a film on the water surface which restricts the chlorine from adequately sanitizing the biologicals that people deposit in the pool/hot tub.

 

Unlike a home hot tub, the water in a ship's hot tub is constantly monitored for chlorine level, and chlorine is injected continually, to maintain the required level (6-8ppm), so the chlorine is never "completely consumed".  There is a chart recorder that shows the residual chlorine level and the pH of the water at all times.

 

Ship's hot tubs are required to be drained and cleaned daily, including a super-chlorination to 100ppm to kill any bacteria or viruses that can live in the biofilm layer on the insides of the piping and systems.

 

Having said that, and knowing the sanitation protocols required, I have no desire to essentially bathe with a bunch of strangers, so hot tubs hold no interest for me.

Edited April 25, 2019 by chengkp75

[grapau27]

15 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Actually, the reason for showering before entering a pool or hot tub is to remove sunscreen.  The oils in the sunscreen can form a film on the water surface which restricts the chlorine from adequately sanitizing the biologicals that people deposit in the pool/hot tub.

 

Unlike a home hot tub, the water in a ship's hot tub is constantly monitored for chlorine level, and chlorine is injected continually, to maintain the required level (6-8ppm), so the chlorine is never "completely consumed".  There is a chart recorder that shows the residual chlorine level and the pH of the water at all times.

 

Ship's hot tubs are required to be drained and cleaned daily, including a super-chlorination to 100ppm to kill any bacteria or viruses that can live in the biofilm layer on the insides of the piping and systems.

 

Having said that, and knowing the sanitation protocols required, I have no desire to essentially bathe with a bunch of strangers, so hot tubs hold no interest for me.

Thank you chengkp75, your advice and understanding of ships workings is always appreciated and I learn from all your posts.

[AmazedByCruising]

 

51 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Actually, the reason for showering before entering a pool or hot tub is to remove sunscreen.  The oils in the sunscreen can form a film on the water surface which restricts the chlorine from adequately sanitizing the biologicals that people deposit in the pool/hot tub.

 

I've never been to a pool on a ship, but on land the general idea seems to be a polite "I did shower for 10 seconds and now I'm all wet. Ready to go!" How much (water repellent) sunscreen can be removed in 30 seconds, which is long when others are waiting, without any scrubbing or soap, compared to 30 minutes in a hot tub?

 

[Mikew0805]

Wow... I am usually picky, but hot tubs and pools do not bother me. I personally do not like being in the hot tub while others are in there, but that is more of an anti social thing than anything. 

 

With the random sample of people on CC, you would think the pools and hot tubs would be empty... yet I have to wait until late night/early morning to be able to use the hot tub by myself. 😳

 

[SilkySal]

4 hours ago, island lady said:

 

Total thumbs up on that one...ahhh...perfect!  🍷  The true luxury life of a Royal DS.  🤗

OK, you and grapau27 need to cruise with us sometime and invite Tom and I to your suite with a private hot tub on the balcony😉! We promise to shower before entering the hot tub and not to P in it!!😲 We're not DS just yet (and probably never will be) but we can suck up as well as anybody!!😘 Oh, and all drinks on us!!🍹

[brillohead]

5 hours ago, Mikew0805 said:

Wow... I am usually picky, but hot tubs and pools do not bother me. I personally do not like being in the hot tub while others are in there, but that is more of an anti social thing than anything. 

 

With the random sample of people on CC, you would think the pools and hot tubs would be empty... yet I have to wait until late night/early morning to be able to use the hot tub by myself. 😳

 

Another RN here, and also have no problem with the pools and hot tubs.

I'm a pretty big germophobe, and I see up-close-and-personal what happens when viruses and bacteria enter the body, and yet I still am fine with public pools and hot tubs.  

Why?  

For starters, as our resident chief engineer has pointed out, the chemical levels are under CONSTANT surveillance and correction -- hotels, resorts, and backyard pools and hot tubs, not so much!  For people who don't go in a ship's pool or hot tub, do you go in the ocean?  PLENTY of germs in that water, without the benefit of high levels of chlorine!

Secondly, I don't go in the water if I have an open wound that would be susceptible to infection -- I keep that wound appropriately bandaged and safe from harm.

Thirdly, I know that the number one way to prevent the spread of infection is to WASH YOUR HANDS, PEOPLE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WASH YOUR HANDS!!!!  Even if there was a bunch of fecal matter floating around in the pool, I'm going to wash my hands with soap and water before I eat anything, and I'm going to wash my entire body with soap and water when I get back to my room.  

Without an open wound, my skin is safe from infection.  And washing my hands keeps my gastrointestinal tract safe from infection.  

 

 

[chengkp75]

9 hours ago, AmazedByCruising said:

 

 

I've never been to a pool on a ship, but on land the general idea seems to be a polite "I did shower for 10 seconds and now I'm all wet. Ready to go!" How much (water repellent) sunscreen can be removed in 30 seconds, which is long when others are waiting, without any scrubbing or soap, compared to 30 minutes in a hot tub?

 

Well, right there you've captured the problem.  Just letting the water run over you will do little, it is the friction of scrubbing, even without soap, that will remove stuff from skin.  And given the swirling action in hot tubs and the relative time difference you mention, much more will be removed in the tub than the shower, if no scrubbing action takes place.

[Mikew0805]

6 hours ago, brillohead said:

Another RN here, and also have no problem with the pools and hot tubs.

I'm a pretty big germophobe, and I see up-close-and-personal what happens when viruses and bacteria enter the body, and yet I still am fine with public pools and hot tubs.  

Why?  

For starters, as our resident chief engineer has pointed out, the chemical levels are under CONSTANT surveillance and correction -- hotels, resorts, and backyard pools and hot tubs, not so much!  For people who don't go in a ship's pool or hot tub, do you go in the ocean?  PLENTY of germs in that water, without the benefit of high levels of chlorine!

Secondly, I don't go in the water if I have an open wound that would be susceptible to infection -- I keep that wound appropriately bandaged and safe from harm.

Thirdly, I know that the number one way to prevent the spread of infection is to WASH YOUR HANDS, PEOPLE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WASH YOUR HANDS!!!!  Even if there was a bunch of fecal matter floating around in the pool, I'm going to wash my hands with soap and water before I eat anything, and I'm going to wash my entire body with soap and water when I get back to my room.  

Without an open wound, my skin is safe from infection.  And washing my hands keeps my gastrointestinal tract safe from infection.  

 

 

Yep, our skin is an amazing organ. 👍 

 

Dang it.. I hit play, and now the song is stuck in my head again. I knew better, and yet.. I still hit play! 🙄

[blueridgemama]

I 'm also an RN and used to have no qualms about pools and hot tubs. However several years ago, after using several hot tubs in a hotel, I endured  a nasty UTI and a 5 day stay in a hospital for pyelonephritis and now I stay far away from most pools and especially hot tubs. And yes I did shower and wash my hands after using them.

[The sea calls my name]

21 hours ago, BonTexasNY said:

My husband, daughter and I were on the infamous Legionnaire Disease Celebrity Cruise (Horizon?) to Bermuda approx. 20 years ago which was attributed to the hot tub.  One person died, many fell ill.  Luckily, we never used the hot tub.  Since then, NO to public hot tubs. 

Wow, we were on that cruise or a similar one with a group of eight and one of my friends who had been i n the hot tub got sick. Luckily  she is a nurse and recognized her symptoms immediately, but that was a horrible flight home for her.

I have never been in one and after that incidence. never plan on getting in one.

[island lady]

13 hours ago, SilkySal said:

OK, you and grapau27 need to cruise with us sometime and invite Tom and I to your suite with a private hot tub on the balcony😉! We promise to shower before entering the hot tub and not to P in it!!😲 We're not DS just yet (and probably never will be) but we can suck up as well as anybody!!😘 Oh, and all drinks on us!!🍹

 

Hahaha!  That's the beauty of being a Royal DS...you already are one...and maybe just did not know it.  😉 

[bouhunter]

17 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

I have no desire to essentially bathe with a bunch of strangers, so hot tubs hold no interest for me.

I think that sums it up quite well.

[chengkp75]

23 hours ago, BonTexasNY said:

My husband, daughter and I were on the infamous Legionnaire Disease Celebrity Cruise (Horizon?) to Bermuda approx. 20 years ago which was attributed to the hot tub.  One person died, many fell ill.  Luckily, we never used the hot tub.  Since then, NO to public hot tubs. 

Major reason the air jets on the hot tubs have been disconnected.  The hot tubs are kept at the prime breeding temperature for legionella, and then you aerosolize the water that an inhaled virus is in?  Yup, air jets gone.