HAL & Bananas?

[aardvark2300]

Watched one of the youTube bloggers (think it was Tony) that had a story about a woman complaining about the quality of her banana she got on HAL. She claimed it was rotten - the picture displayed on the video looked like a banana that had been frozen and thawed, not necessarily rotten, but it does bring to attention an issue I have had on the last couple of HAL cruises I have been on. They almost never had any bananas available on the ships - even if I specifically asked for them in the Lido or checked them on my room service menu I was consistently told on two different cruises they were "out".  Just finished a Celebrity cruise and they had nice looking bananas available every day.  Now - I realize this is not an earth-shattering problem, but I wonder if HAL has just decided not to make them available. Bananas are after all pretty doggone cheap to buy. 

 

Any recent banana-eaters have a comment to share on this problem?

[Florida_gal_50]

I can’t eat bananas but they would bring you fruit in the cabanas if you wanted it.  I always took apples, pears and sometimes grapes back to my cabin.  There sat the oranges and banana in the basket.  The bananas were over ripe to me.

[CruiserBruce]

Had bananas for most of a 18 day cruise this summer. As we had no replenishment stop, eventually they ran out of bananas. 

 

Normally they keep them very cold in order to make them last longer. 

[iflyrc5]

18 minutes ago, aardvark2300 said:

Watched one of the youTube bloggers (think it was Tony) that had a story about a woman complaining about the quality of her banana she got on HAL. She claimed it was rotten - the picture displayed on the video looked like a banana that had been frozen and thawed, not necessarily rotten, but it does bring to attention an issue I have had on the last couple of HAL cruises I have been on. They almost never had any bananas available on the ships - even if I specifically asked for them in the Lido or checked them on my room service menu I was consistently told on two different cruises they were "out".  Just finished a Celebrity cruise and they had nice looking bananas available every day.  Now - I realize this is not an earth-shattering problem, but I wonder if HAL has just decided not to make them available. Bananas are after all pretty doggone cheap to buy. 

 

Any recent banana-eaters have a comment to share on this problem?

They had bananas on the NA the last month.  I only remember seeing them in the mornings.  I think it is a supply chain issue.  At a chat with the Executive Chef he said they have to order food 6 weeks before needed and then they don't get about 20% of what they order so it can make preparing some of the meals a challenge.

[robotpony]

We had bananas on the NS last month too. I ate one daily (and had more grapes than I've had in years). The fresh fruit was appreciated!

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

I eat one every day.

[sewgood]

They had them on the Westerdam last week every morning at breakfast in the Lido.

They had brown/black markings on the skin but they were perfectly fine when you took the peel off.

[cunnorl]

I have been on the Noordam since 10/8 and have one everyday. No issues. 

[chengkp75]

8 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

Normally they keep them very cold in order to make them last longer.

They actually rely far more on ozone generators in the walk-in boxes, as this controls the CO2 levels and ethylene (the gas given off by ripening fruit) levels.

[Mary229]

I imagine there are one or two rotten pieces of fruit that accidentally make it out to the public, the woman should have asked for another.   Geez,….

Edited December 9, 2022 by Mary229

[albingirl]

I don't believe any supply chain issues regarding bananas.  When you are visiting Half Moon, there are stacks and stacks of bananas for your luncheon pleasure.  

[Heartgrove]

Could it actually have been a plantain? To use those with meals when ripe they should be almost black.

[FlaMariner]

I ate bananas onboard the Nieuw Statendam several times during our two weeks 11/19 - 12/3/22.

 

The bananas were fine.  When you get one in the MDR for breakfast, it's already cut up. 

 

[CruiserBruce]

2 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

They actually rely far more on ozone generators in the walk-in boxes, as this controls the CO2 levels and ethylene (the gas given off by ripening fruit) levels.

I knew there are a couple of other tricks for slowing ripening, but couldn't explain them. But the some of the bananas I have eaten on board are extremely cold.

[aardvark2300]

LOL, thanks for the replies!

It appears there is, in fact, not a banana supply issue currently in effect on HAL and YouTubers may be spreading conspiracy theories for clickbate, I was just unlucky I suppose. It seemed ironic to me that one of the cruises I was on that had no bananas was a Panama Canal cruise. It's enough to drive me bananas (sorry, couldn't resist that).

On a related note - wonder if refrigeration of bananas kills those little teeny flies that like them. We had a very persistent invasion of them recently that I am convinced came from grocery store bananas. Do the cruise lines use irradiation on their produce to keep that problem controlled? Not trying to start another conspiracy theory here, just curious. 

Edited December 9, 2022 by aardvark2300
Incomplete posting

[lindaler]

I had a sliced banana with my breakfast almost every day. I think I was told by my server that they were too ripe one day and I just had strawberries and blue berries but 9 out of 10 days I had bananas. 

[wandrr]

As a somewhat related war story, we were on a very long cruise some time ago. The ship had to resupply several times. One one resupply, they brought on new oranges. The oranges were totally green coloured. Really deep emerald green, perfect for St Patrick's Day. Needless to say, that brought outrage and major complaints from the orange eaters. They pretty much mutinied until the Executive Chef sent around a letter about orange ripening. Apparently, the "green oranges" were tropical (or some such thing) and would never become orange. He certified that they were ripe. He even set up an orange demo station in the Lido where he personally cut up green oranges and gave a quarter to anyone who wanted to try it. Even though I am not an orange fanatic, I did. The oranges tasted wonderful, and the doubters completely shut up. In fact, there was a significant run on the green oranges to the point that the ship ran out again!

 

Sometimes an orange is not orange!

[Fairhope504]

Then, there is the historical superstition of bad luck with bananas on board vessels....

[lindaler]

2 minutes ago, Fairhope504 said:

Then, there is the historical superstition of bad luck with bananas on board vessels....

 

I have not heard that one. Do tell more.

 

Is that because of the black widow spiders that like to live in bunches of bananas?

Edited December 9, 2022 by lindaler

[CruiserBruce]

1 minute ago, lindaler said:

 

I have not heard that one. Do tell more.

 

Is that because of the black widow spiders that like to live in bunches of bananas?

I don't think its black widows...not native to typical banana growing areas, but some other bigger, scary threatening species.

 

On that front, bananas are usually shipped to the western world in intermodal containers, filled with nitrogen or other inert gases, to delay ripening. They are also fumigated to kill anything. Then, when they arrive near their destination, they are purged of their inert gases, and either allowed room air, or occasionally exposed to other gases to accelerate ripening, to make them appealing on the store shelf. Cruise lines may buy them in bulk, still in the green state, and rotate them into use as they ripen.

 

Better living through modern chemistry. 

[Fairhope504]

Multiple reasons.  Internet searching can glean lots of background around its origins.  To me, I've been raised to keep bananas off of ships/boats due to bad luck.  Especially with fishing.... 

 

Here's one quote: "Why are Bananas Bad Luck on a boat, is an unusual nautical superstition that began in the 1700’s that is still persistent today. When trade ships sailing from the Caribbean & Spain started to disappear, legend has it that only the curved yellow fruits would be found floating amongst the wreckages. Seafarers believed the bananas had caused the ship to sink. Which leads to many rumors back at dock and throughout the seas."

[chengkp75]

1 hour ago, CruiserBruce said:

I don't think its black widows...not native to typical banana growing areas, but some other bigger, scary threatening species.

 

On that front, bananas are usually shipped to the western world in intermodal containers, filled with nitrogen or other inert gases, to delay ripening. They are also fumigated to kill anything. Then, when they arrive near their destination, they are purged of their inert gases, and either allowed room air, or occasionally exposed to other gases to accelerate ripening, to make them appealing on the store shelf. Cruise lines may buy them in bulk, still in the green state, and rotate them into use as they ripen.

 

Better living through modern chemistry. 

Having transported bananas off and on for 30+ years, from when we loaded full stalks of bananas onto hooks in refrigerated holds, to today's container shipping, I'll add some insight.  In the old days, we had to enter the holds to take CO2 readings and take the bananas temperature, so for the first few days, you always armed yourself with a CO2 fire extinguisher, to gas the Banana Spiders (up to about 2" long body), that would be congregated at the door, trying to escape the cold.  Nasty.

 

Today's bananas are transported in refrigerated containers, and the CO2 content is still monitored, though without entering, to determine how much fresh air is needed to keep the CO2 levels down.  When we were carrying bananas from Venezuela to Florida, if a refrigerated box stopped working, we were told not to worry, those bananas would be perfectly ripe for the Miami market, while the refrigerated ones could be shipped onwards.  The profit margin on bananas is incredible, well into the 80% range, even given ocean shipping.

 

In the old days, when a hurricane knocked down a banana plantation, the banana company would have their ships converge there, to pick up as many as possible, to keep them in storage sailing around the ocean.  But, if the price for bananas plummeted, I have known of ships that were instructed to dump an entire cargo in the ocean to keep prices up.

 

In my experience, the "trans-fresh" process of inerting the container with nitrogen, which inhibits ripening completely, is so expensive that it is saved for the pricier things like "stone" fruits (mango, peach, apricot).  About 20 years ago, this process cost $40k per container.

[Florida_gal_50]

6 hours ago, albingirl said:

I don't believe any supply chain issues regarding bananas.  When you are visiting Half Moon, there are stacks and stacks of bananas for your luncheon pleasure.  

Let's all drink the next time we hear supply chain ;).  I'll be hammered before I leave work.

[Jldevlin]

It baffles me that you can go on a cruise ( that most people around the world cannot afford ) and if your banana is not perfect you take the time to take a picture and  post it on social media to complain about it. It is a banana... go get another one.

[Wakepatrol]

This post is driving me bananas