MDR dining once operations resume

[loge23]

9 hours ago, pris993 said:

We are like you we have breakfast in our cabin, have been doing this for years now.  We do not go the MDR any more... once menu became less interesting we have split our main day meal between buffet and the Crown Grill.   Some days we simply do Room Service for our main day meal.   I would like Princess to expand the menu for breakfast to include eggs options (HAL has done it for years), plus expand the all day Room Service menu as well.  I could see us doing more Room Service in the future with more choices.  We only eat 2 meals a day.   Some times we have purchased food items in port and brought on board and enjoyed on our balcony.  We always book a mini suite.  Think cruise lines might encourage more in room dining and add tables/chair to make easier in other cabins beside mini suite. 

If you call in your breakfast order, you can order a plain or cheese omelet, hard or soft boiled egg(s), or a fried egg. Of course, this was all before March. 

[Cruise Raider]

12 minutes ago, loge23 said:

If you call in your breakfast order, you can order a plain or cheese omelet, hard or soft boiled egg(s), or a fried egg. Of course, this was all before March. 

 

I never knew this before!  We hardly ever order room service but, when I have a balcony, I love to eat out there.  

I will have to check into this when we return ... see if it is still possible.  

[pris993]

36 minutes ago, loge23 said:

If you call in your breakfast order, you can order a plain or cheese omelet, hard or soft boiled egg(s), or a fried egg. Of course, this was all before March. 

I use to write in an egg order on the breakfast menu and generally it was delivered.  Found in the past year, we were on both the Coral and Grand and neither would honor a write in.  I have also found trying to get thru to Room Service is not that easy in the morning but will try to do it next time.  

[jagoffee]

I cannot seriously envision a cruise where social distance can be maintained all the time or even most  of the time.

People will need to be willing to accept some level of risk, perhaps forever.  If one is not willing to accept some level of risk, you may need to only vacation when there are not a lot of people.  

Some of the mentioned suggestions  will not eliminate the potential spread of any infectious disease IMO, but they might make some people “feel” safer.  Six feet apart during shows, at bars, at the pool, while arriving or departing the ship does not seem practical to me.  
 

Frequent washing of hands, not shaking hands, and frequent sanitizing are no brainer activities.

 

Testing and health checks during boarding and randomly with contract tracing during the cruise would likely have the most impact,  IMO.  But of course it will not eliminate any possibility of getting infected.  On board testing capability with plenty of testing supplies should be a requirement.  

 

 

[Paula_MacFan]

10 hours ago, pris993 said:

We are like you we have breakfast in our cabin, have been doing this for years now.  We do not go the MDR any more... once menu became less interesting we have split our main day meal between buffet and the Crown Grill.   Some days we simply do Room Service for our main day meal.   I would like Princess to expand the menu for breakfast to include eggs options (HAL has done it for years), plus expand the all day Room Service menu as well.  I could see us doing more Room Service in the future with more choices.  We only eat 2 meals a day.   Some times we have purchased food items in port and brought on board and enjoyed on our balcony.  We always book a mini suite.  Think cruise lines might encourage more in room dining and add tables/chair to make easier in other cabins beside mini suite. 

 

We are pretty much the same as you -- we didn't go to the MDR at all on our last 2 cruises.  HC, specialty dining, & room service on balcony was just fine for us.   I expect when/if we ever cruise again we will follow the same model. 

[Tedferg]

16 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

I cannot seriously envision a cruise where social distance can be maintained all the time or even most  of the time.

People will need to be willing to accept some level of risk, perhaps forever.  If one is not willing to accept some level of risk, you may need to only vacation when there are not a lot of people.  

Some of the mentioned suggestions  will not eliminate the potential spread of any infectious disease IMO, but they might make some people “feel” safer.  Six feet apart during shows, at bars, at the pool, while arriving or departing the ship does not seem practical to me.  
 

Frequent washing of hands, not shaking hands, and frequent sanitizing are no brainer activities.

 

Testing and health checks during boarding and randomly with contract tracing during the cruise would likely have the most impact,  IMO.  But of course it will not eliminate any possibility of getting infected.  On board testing capability with plenty of testing supplies should be a requirement.  

 

 

Agree with your points, the question is what happens if a passenger shows positive for Corona during sailing. Is the whole ship on 14 day quarantine - confined to cabin ??? I would be prepared to take sensible risk and hand wash etc. to lessen the chances of my contacting Corona but would be fearful that one passenger could quarantine everyone.

[voljeep]

we've gone back and forth about going to the mdr - we do like the sit down service, and generally are not in any hurry, but certainly don't want a 2 hour dinner, so we ALWAYS get a two-top ...

 

not to hijack, but on our next 'scheduled' cruise, we have a balcony on the SKY … big enough to have a UBD ( ultimate balcony dinner ) ?? we've never done it before, so ...

[pris993]

4 minutes ago, Tedferg said:

Agree with your points, the question is what happens if a passenger shows positive for Corona during sailing. Is the whole ship on 14 day quarantine - confined to cabin ??? I would be prepared to take sensible risk and hand wash etc. to lessen the chances of my contacting Corona but would be fearful that one passenger could quarantine everyone.

We are planning on not returning to cruising til 2022, by then I suspect issue will be resolved.   We are retired, so if we ended up quarantined. no big deal... I think we could survive in a mini suite okay. 

[mnocket]

2 hours ago, jagoffee said:

I cannot seriously envision a cruise where social distance can be maintained all the time or even most  of the time.

 

I couldn't agree more.

[darknightsdespiser]

On 6/6/2020 at 3:35 AM, HUNKY said:

I believe we will see no anytime dining, and three traditional dining times.  4PM, 6PM and 8PM.  In addition, the main dining room, nor the buffet, will be available to everyone every night.  For example, a seven night cruise would require dining in the MDR four nights and three at the buffet or a specialty restaurant.  This would probably require specialty restaurants to be included in the cruise fare.  Availability for the specialty restaurants would be based on Captain's Club level and cabin level.  Reservations for your three buffet or specialty restaurant nights would be made online prior to sailing.

So, those of us with existing bookings for anytime? Its a holiday, who wants to watch the clock?

[memoak]

I really do not believe that cruising will be viable until we have a vaccine. Holding my breathe that we get one in time for our Hawaii cruise in April 2021. Pretty sure I will be canceling our coastal in December 2020

[Baystate]

Personally, I am far from anti-vaccine.  In fact, I get a flu vaccine most every year and all of my other vaccines are up to date, but I won't be running to get a corona vaccine until it's been around at least year or two.  If that means I can't cruise, then so be it.  I'll miss it, but I'll just vacation in other ways.

[memoak]

27 minutes ago, Baystate said:

Personally, I am far from anti-vaccine.  In fact, I get a flu vaccine most every year and all of my other vaccines are up to date, but I won't be running to get a corona vaccine until it's been around at least year or two.  If that means I can't cruise, then so be it.  I'll miss it, but I'll just vacation in other ways.

My goodness when I was a child my parents and everyone else we knew ran to get the Salk Vaccine as soon as it was approved 

[Baystate]

43 minutes ago, Baystate said:

Personally, I am far from anti-vaccine.  In fact, I get a flu vaccine most every year and all of my other vaccines are up to date, but I won't be running to get a corona vaccine until it's been around at least year or two.  If that means I can't cruise, then so be it.  I'll miss it, but I'll just vacation in other ways.

 

15 minutes ago, memoak said:

My goodness when I was a child my parents and everyone else we knew ran to get the Salk Vaccine as soon as it was approved 

Again, I am far from anti-vaccine, but I feel like I need to make sure that they're aren't any crazy side effects that show up.  My choice.  I love this country because we all have the freedom to make our own decisions.  To each his own 🙂🙃

[geoherb]

I was quarantined for an upper respiratory infection on the Caribbean Princess. I had to have three consecutive good temperature checks before being released. I was allowed out just to go from my cabin to the medical center, and I had to wear a mask both ways.

 

As for tables for two, the current configuration places many of them so close together that they'd be useless for avoiding germs. The only advantage is that a good waiter can time your dinner to your wishes when you have one. (Bad waiters, though, don't always do that.)

[caribill]

4 hours ago, memoak said:

My goodness when I was a child my parents and everyone else we knew ran to get the Salk Vaccine as soon as it was approved 

 

It took Salk five years from when he had an early version of his vaccine until it was first available to the public.

 

This allowed proper time for testing for effectiveness and safety.