Caribbean Princess delayed boarding 4/8/23

[snoozecrooze]

1 hour ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

Sounds right.  Crown had the worst buffet setup of any Princes ship I've been on.

It's the whole old Horizon Court set-up that just has to go, though I'm surprised Grand was outfitted with the sinks for quite some time.

 

The problem is really with compliance as well. No one feels like they need to wash their hands so they don't and crew are essentially powerless, that is, if they even have someone staffed by the sinks.

 

[jeromep]

1 hour ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

Sounds right.  Crown had the worst buffet setup of any Princes ship I've been on.

The Horizon Court setup on the Grand class ships is generally poor.  It was ok on the Grand, Golden and Star when you only had 2600 passengers on board, but the moment the class was modified with the extra hotel deck and their numbers were closer to 3100, like the Caribbean Princess, the buffet was basically totally inadequate in terms of people flow, and service capabilities.

[trbarton]

On 4/9/2023 at 1:57 PM, Daisyloo said:

I wish they would always serve the food in the buffet.  I hate the fact that everyone touches the utensils.  You don't know if the person who touched them before you omitted washing their hands after using the bathroom, or were licking their fingers before they touched the ladles.  

Had you thought of bringing gloves to wear while in the buffet?  Then whoever touched them should be a moot issue. Perhaps the food service staff would give you some. 
 

I only suggest the gloves for as long as it’s self serve for everyone. Better than not knowing who touched them last. 
 

Tom😀

Edited April 11, 2023 by trbarton

[Daisyloo]

2 minutes ago, trbarton said:

Had you thought of bringing gloves to wear while in the buffet?  Then you whoever touched them should be a moot issue. Perhaps the food service staff would give you some. 
 

Tom😀

No.  I still would prefer that only the crew served/handled the food.  That is how Holland America does it and it works very well on their ships.

[DallasGuy75219]

24 minutes ago, snoozecrooze said:

It's the whole old Horizon Court set-up that just has to go, though I'm surprised Grand was outfitted with the sinks for quite some time.

 

15 minutes ago, jeromep said:

The Horizon Court setup on the Grand class ships is generally poor.  It was ok on the Grand, Golden and Star when you only had 2600 passengers on board, but the moment the class was modified with the extra hotel deck and their numbers were closer to 3100, like the Caribbean Princess, the buffet was basically totally inadequate in terms of people flow, and service capabilities.

Other than Royal class, I've only been on Caribbean and Crown (and Island come this June).  

 

Caribbean and Crown clearly had a similar buffet layout, but Caribbean had been upgraded to open up the service area as much as possible and improve passenger flow somewhat, given the space they were working with.  But Crown obviously still had an older (original?) design and decor.  I felt like an animal confined in a wooden pen, destined to graze in a never-ending circular buffet line.  

 

I much prefer the "station" buffet concept like on Royal Caribbean and Princess' Royal class, where one can just step up and take the one or two items they want, rather than circle the entire buffet in a cafeteria-style line.  

[jeromep]

54 minutes ago, trbarton said:

Had you thought of bringing gloves to wear while in the buffet?  Then whoever touched them should be a moot issue. Perhaps the food service staff would give you some. 

I'm an RVer.  I have to dump tanks.  Just because you wear gloves when doing the tank dump doesn't mean that when you are done you rip off your gloves with careless abandon and go on with your business.  You have to be pretty methodical in how you take off the gloves to prevent contamination, and you always have to wash up right after you get the gloves off.  No RVer in their right mind "raw dogs" their dump routine.  That isn't to say I haven't witnessed it way too many times to count.  These are the same people that are walking around at the dump station and letting their tanks rip while wearing flip flops.

 

In much the same way, if you were to wear food handlers gloves in the buffet to serve yourself, you would still have to have a routine to remove the gloves when you return to the table in such a way that you do not contaminate your hands with the outside of the gloves.  That is actually more difficult than it appears.  Note that in food service, if you are serving food, the proper procedure is to wash then put on the gloves.  Then when done you remove the gloves and wash again and move on to the next task.

 

Instances of Noro on cruises would go down and stay down if buffets were no longer self service.  During the "sick" time of the year, typically fall, winter and early spring, the cruise lines could probably prevent full on outbreaks if they moved to served buffets before the sick season started and before somebody that is sick and has poor hygiene gets on board and spreads it around.

[Guest ldtr]

3 hours ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

Sounds right.  Crown had the worst buffet setup of any Princes ship I've been on.

Pretty much the same as the other Grand Class ships.

[DavidsNana]

My family of 3 were on the Caribbean Princess cruise 4/1-4/8 that had the noro breakout towards the end of the cruise.  None of us got it but we are hand washers.  I have to say that I noticed early on in this cruise how many people were just passing by the hand washing stations and not washing their hands.  And yes, I agree about being served in the buffet.  I would much prefer it so as to hopefully avoid these noro outbreaks or the increased threat of them possibly occurring.  When my son and I took our first cruise after the start up, it was also on the Caribbean Princess and it was nice having the crew serve everything.  Of course, we only had 1400 passengers on that sailing.  I would imagine it would take a lot more crew to serve 3200 + in the buffet.  But they seemed to be doing it pretty well last week after the noro cases were breaking out.  Sometimes people just don't have a clue as even 2 days after they started serving in the buffet, I saw a lady picking up tongs to serve herself when the server standing there was busy with another passenger.  And people still passing the washing station even though there was a crew member there telling them to wash their hands.

[SargassoPirate]

And while we are on the subject, those ubiquitous plastic gloves that you see on food staff are more theater. They only serve to keep the wearer's hands clean and are excellent cross-cross-contamination vectors especially when worn for hours at a time and touching multiple surfaces.

 

Think about it.  Better yet, sit and watch food workers to see how many surfaces those gloves touch.

[rwilk1129]

We are boarding on Sat. 4/15. Anybody with update onboard now?

 

[Cinerama]

IMPORTANT NOTICES

DELAYED EMBARKATION

Please be advised that embarkation for your Caribbean Princess cruise has been delayed. During the current cruise there was a slight increase in cases of gastrointestinal illness among guests. A comprehensive sanitation program was launched in response, and Caribbean Princess will undergo a prolonged disinfection in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, April 15, 2023. Check-in for your cruise will be delayed until 12:30 PM and your stateroom will be available shortly thereafter. Please do not arrive before 12:30 PM as the terminal will be closed for sanitation. Guests with Princess hotels or transfers will have their check-in times provided at the hotel or airport. All guests must be on board by 3:30 PM. Please refer to the Princess MedallionClass app for your assigned boarding group and see below for your revised arrival group time:   GROUP A (12:30-1:00 PM) - GROUP B (1:00-1:30 PM) - GROUP C (1:30-2:00 PM) - GROUP D & E (2:00-2:30 PM) - GROUP F & G (2:30-3:00 PM)

[Jadn13]

10 hours ago, Cinerama said:

IMPORTANT NOTICES

DELAYED EMBARKATION

Please be advised that embarkation for your Caribbean Princess cruise has been delayed. During the current cruise there was a slight increase in cases of gastrointestinal illness among guests. A comprehensive sanitation program was launched in response, and Caribbean Princess will undergo a prolonged disinfection in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, April 15, 2023. Check-in for your cruise will be delayed until 12:30 PM and your stateroom will be available shortly thereafter. Please do not arrive before 12:30 PM as the terminal will be closed for sanitation. Guests with Princess hotels or transfers will have their check-in times provided at the hotel or airport. All guests must be on board by 3:30 PM. Please refer to the Princess MedallionClass app for your assigned boarding group and see below for your revised arrival group time:   GROUP A (12:30-1:00 PM) - GROUP B (1:00-1:30 PM) - GROUP C (1:30-2:00 PM) - GROUP D & E (2:00-2:30 PM) - GROUP F & G (2:30-3:00 PM)

Thanks tor sharing! We board on Saturday and are driving over so I’ll plan for a later arrival. 

[Boatingmom]

Delayed boarding on CP was happening back on February. 

[DallasGuy75219]

15 minutes ago, Boatingmom said:

Delayed boarding on CP was happening back on February. 

CP = Sea Princess

CB = Caribbean Princess

KP = Crown Princess

CO = Coral Princess