What about the buffets

[rhsjr]

Just curious.  With Covid-19, what is Princess doing with the buffets?

[Lady Arwen]

I don’t think anyone knows for sure, yet.  I would hope that Princess will adopt the same procedure that HAL has been doing for years with some added precautions.   Passengers will not be allowed to serve themselves.  You will ask for what you’d like at a station and your plate will be passed on by servers.  I would not be surprised if an attendant takes your plate to your seat along with your cutlery. Beverages would also be served table side.  I guess we’ll just have to see what happens with the initial sailings this summer.

[dog]

They serve you. Social distancing. Hand wash, sanitize as you enter. No food exposed where you can pick up yourself. Cutlery , drinks brought to your table. Limited numbers. All my speculation 

[jennybenny]

I might actually go to a buffet now! Until they revert back to allowing dirty hands and people eating with their fingers as they pick up their next food item 🤢

[dides]

Princess UK have recently been promoting the Princess Cruises CruiseHealth video made last November. This includes the following about buffets:

 

Edited April 7, 2021 by dides

[satxdiver]

I am all for the buffet as HAL has it.  Pax are served food by the food staff as they pass through the buffet only being able to touch their own plate.  I would indeed welcome the inability of pax to touch the serving spoons/forks/tongs much less the food out on display.  HAL has had a lot less problems with noro because of this policy. 

[kiwimum]

More than likely the same as they have done in the past with large Norovirus outbreaks.  No self service of foods, utensils given to you once seated at a freshly sanitized table.  Mandatory hand washing upon entering the buffet, sanitizer  when entering food service area and limited number in the food service area at one time.  Princess needs to follow HAL’s best practices.

[rbtan]

1 hour ago, rhsjr said:

Just curious.  With Covid-19, what is Princess doing with the buffets?

I'll base this on our experiences on both Oceania & Princess: With both, you wash your hands upon entering. On the Star Hawaiian cruise last Feb(2020)It was very easy to "touch" food & contaminate it for everyone else. On Oceania, the buffet was behind glass. You pointed out what you would like & how much. The staff person would then hand it to you on a plate "outside" the glass enclosure. At  dinner they would bring it to your table. This was a MUCH better way to handle food than what we've seen on Cunard/Celebrity or Princess. Though it was not perfect, we thought Oceania did a much better job of contactless food handling. I feel that the days of pax coming into contact with the food, either by handling of utensils, or much worse touching it, will be going by the wayside. I mean, who hasn't seen a person grab a roll or apple or a slice or 2 of bread with their hands? Or even worse like peeling off a piece of Turkey skin etc. I've seen it all.

[neverbeenhere]

Perhaps the buffets become choice of;  cheese and crackers with the red plastic stick spreader and a can of vienna sausages OR can of sloppy joe mix with a day-old hamburger bun?  

In this case I'm with dog. 

 

[Redwing55]

I'm good with buffets being "served" to us.  But I just have to ask why?  I understand what the lines do with Noro outbreaks, but then, there is no vaccine AND Noro spreads by contact.  Supposedly, Covid spreads through the air.  So, how does being served vs self serve change this?  AND, I'm no expert, but does anyone know if ingesting the covid virus is a route to get infected? Serious question.  I think I've read so many times that it come in through lungs and eyes.  Frankly, with all the attention this virus has had, I'm not clear if the experts have every determined the routes of transmission.  Remember when covid just started spreading,  we wouldn't bring in deliveries right away?  Or when we brought home groceries, we may have left them out for a bit?  Does anyone do that anymore?

Again, I'm good with being served at the buffet, but this beast is different, no?

Edited April 8, 2021 by Redwing55

[cruzsnooze]

As stated above covid is NOT a contact virus it's airborne IE respiratory, so why the concern about touch. In the beginning of the pandemic it wasn't known what has been learned in the past year. It was an err on the side of caution washing down everything with disinfectant.  Touch anything I am going to touch and I wouldn't care half as much as your standing too close to me breathing!

[dog]

1 hour ago, cruzsnooze said:

As stated above covid is NOT a contact virus it's airborne IE respiratory, so why the concern about touch. In the beginning of the pandemic it wasn't known what has been learned in the past year. It was an err on the side of caution washing down everything with disinfectant.  Touch anything I am going to touch and I wouldn't care half as much as your standing too close to me breathing!

this virus & varients are too New for me to take the risk in buffets, as I understand your point. 
I prefer to take precautions to avoid the spread of All disease to others, as well as, to myself. 
I will be eating in the dining room. 
 

by the way, I have been on other cruise lines that had Very limited buffet hours. We have been spoiled on Princess in my opinion. 

[dog]

1 hour ago, Redwing55 said:

I'm good with buffets being "served" to us.  But I just have to ask why?  I understand what the lines do with Noro outbreaks, but then, there is no vaccine AND Noro spreads by contact.  Supposedly, Covid spreads through the air.  So, how does being served vs self serve change this?  AND, I'm no expert, but does anyone know if ingesting the covid virus is a route to get infected? Serious question.  I think I've read so many times that it come in through lungs and eyes.  Frankly, with all the attention this virus has had, I'm not clear if the experts have every determined the routes of transmission.  Remember when covid just started spreading,  we wouldn't bring in deliveries right away?  Or when we brought home groceries, we may have left them out for a bit?  Does anyone do that anymore?

Again, I'm good with being served at the buffet, but this beast is different, no?

you have answered your questions here. 

should we go back to these early precautions?  In Ontario we are entering a 

Stay At Home order for 4 weeks again. The Lockdown order announced last week did not seem to keep crowds away from malls, street parties in Toronto. 
 

many of our schools have had to close recently and mobility across the province is noted as a factor. 
 

 

our borders are staying closed for the time being and I hope this is enforced. 

[waltd]

I'm all for having someone serve me at the buffet.   Don't over think it.  If we can get away from others eating while standing in line, licking their fingers then touching the next serving spoon then serve away.

[KruzPrincess]

This is the conclusion of a CDC report this week regarding Covid transmission from surfaces. Covid transmission is via air particles. Yes, it is possible from surfaces, but the likelihood is very low. I’ve been saying this for months now. Long lines waiting to be served, with people talking, asking questions and yelling out their orders, is far more likely to spread the virus through the air than having people go and grab their food. There is no proof that Covid is transferred in food. Hand washing has always been good. Wear gloves if you like. Sanitize your hands when you get to your table. Serving food does help with norovirus, not Covid. Self service buffets and salad bars are opening up across the country. You’re more likely to catch Covid eating at your table than getting food at the buffet. You’re more likely to catch it in an elevator. If the cruise line requires vaccinations, and follows guidelines on changing serving utensils, etc. serving food is really not going to make that big a difference. 

 

 

[pris993]

I never had a problem with the buffet.  Whatever they do will be fine I am sure.  If it returns to the way it was in the past it will not bother me one bit.  I have cruised on HAL, if I recall only the hot dishes were serviced, salads, bread non hot items were on a self serve basis.  Seemed to work there.   We will have to check out how this is being handled on our next cruise which is not till Jan  2022. 

[caribill]

3 hours ago, cruzsnooze said:

As stated above covid is NOT a contact virus it's airborne IE respiratory, so why the concern about touch. In the beginning of the pandemic it wasn't known what has been learned in the past year. It was an err on the side of caution washing down everything with disinfectant.  Touch anything I am going to touch and I wouldn't care half as much as your standing too close to me breathing!

 

Exactly, but the public now expects traditional self-service buffets to be a source of the corona virus spread and it would hard to dispell that notion in the near future.

 

But, as others point out, eliminating self-service can be a major factor in reducing the potential for noro outbreaks.

[caribill]

27 minutes ago, pris993 said:

 I have cruised on HAL, if I recall only the hot dishes were serviced, salads, bread non hot items were on a self serve basis.  Seemed to work there.   We will have to check out how this is being handled on our next cruise which is not till Jan  2022. 

 

On HAL the salads (at least in 2019) were not self-serve. Passengers stood in a line for the salad bar and told the service what they wanted in their salad bowl.

 

In the HAL concept, each station had its own little line in about a six-foot area. If you wanted foods from four areas, you stood in four lines to get the food put onto your plate.

 

But not all HAL buffet items pre-pandemic were sereved to you. Items such as apples, oranges and bananas were in self-service bowls. Pre-made sandwiches were on the counter for passengers to access. Desserts such as pies and cakes were pre-sliced and on plates that the passengers reached for themselves. At breakfast, milk cartons are there for passengers to take.

 

But even with HAL type service stations in the buffet, there is a problem if six-foot separation between passengers is required. If there are 10 people in line for the salad bar, that would mean a line 54 feet long where the counter is probably no longer than 15 feet. For the individual stations that are all in a row and are about six feet wide, there is no room for a line of more than one person at each station.

[SinbadThePorter]

Just speculation, but I wonder if this could be done with OceanMedallion and the onboard app?

 

Put up a menu on the app, select some items, have them delivered directly to you at your table. No queueing. Maybe only allowing orders to be made by people inside the Horizon Court or Marketplace.

 

I seem to recall MSC or someone similar doing this for their MDR.

 

 

Edited April 8, 2021 by SinbadThePorter

[caribill]

24 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

Just speculation, but I wonder if this could be done with OceanMedallion and the onboard app?

 

Put up a menu on the app, select some items, have them delivered directly to you at your table. No queueing. Maybe only allowing orders to be made by people inside the Horizon Court or Marketplace.

 

 

 

 

 

That might work for some, but not for me.

 

a) I do not have a cell phone and will not lug a laptop computer to the buffet to be able to order the food.

 

b) In a buffet, knowing what the food looks like (not just its menu name) is important to me. Pointing to what I want on a plate works for me.

[antsp]

So in the past, Princess has put profit above passengers health when it came to staff levels and running a buffet

[dog]

3 hours ago, pris993 said:

I never had a problem with the buffet.  Whatever they do will be fine I am sure.  If it returns to the way it was in the past it will not bother me one bit.  I have cruised on HAL, if I recall only the hot dishes were serviced, salads, bread non hot items were on a self serve basis.  Seemed to work there.   We will have to check out how this is being handled on our next cruise which is not till Jan  2022. 

I have seen a few too many things that have turned me off. 
 

- not using wash basins, sanitizer as they enter after holding railings etc 

- picking up items & putting them back ie: dinner rolls, fruit, cutlery

- coughing in close proximity to others and towards food without covering mouth

- knowing someone on-board with noro virus  at beginning of cruise, was sending his spouse to buffet to get him food— he was posting on here telling us how he got around ship’s rules. — spouse had been told not to do this.  She ended up in cabin and missed her tour of Egypt. 

 

 

- 

[dog]

1 hour ago, antsp said:

So in the past, Princess has put profit above passengers health when it came to staff levels and running a buffet

Princess will need more staff to serve, deliver food or adjust and have less staff in dining rooms. 
I expect prices to go up and charges for room service items that may have been included in the past.   Profit is important for a business and they will be hurting for atleast a couple of years. After 2 plus years of restrictions people are willing to pay more for vacations, in my opinion. 

[PRNole47]

Hopefully they will prevent passengers from feeding themselves, as if in a feeding trough, by having staff serve them instead.

 

[susancruzs]

I'm not a fan of buffets, don't think there's much they could do to convince me otherwise.  I can be on a ship 30 days, never use the buffet area.   I've never cared for the way people serve themselves, you can understand why there's Noro outbreaks.  Princess can make changes, but I'm skeptical.