Hand Sanitizer

[SailAwayWendy]

I know you all love the hand sanitizers they put on the ships these days and I agree, good idea. I am a big advocate of washing your hands very often. However, if I use the ship's sanitizer I get a mild rash along with a bad case of the itches. It's nothing major but annoying to be allergic to this stuff. If you skip sanitizing, you get GLARES from other passengers...if you sanitize with their stuff, you get a rash. What would you do ???

[Jahla Jahla]

"if you sanitize with their stuff, you get a rash. What would you do ???"

 

I would take my own, and let them know you are using your own for medical reasons.

[KLcruiser]

Please bring your own...Or just wash your hands before and after serving your food. (before because you don't want to add any other bacteria to the serving spoons - for that one person who just refuses to wash or sanitize :eek: , and after so that you won't ingest any of the bacteria you picked up from the serving spoons).

[ddoll]

If you're worried about what the other people think about you passing by the dispenser, then make a fake swipe at it, rub your hands, and then go use your own. :D

[Krazy Kruizers]

Explain this to your doctor and see if he can prescribe a cream for the rash.

[AmberMarie]

Where are the hand sanitizers located? Not by a sink?

[blindrid]

By the entrance when you enter a restaurant.

[Sekhmet]

On a number of ships, staff at the restaurant entrances administer the sanitiser to each person on entering. This makes an earlier poster's suggestion of a "fake swipe" a bit difficult.

I would get your own, and make a show of using it to prevent the glarers making false assumptions about your hygiene standards.

[mancunian]

This is a question that is worrying me as well. I have psoriasis on the front, back and sides of my hands. The alcohol in Purell hurts badly when applied as hands have many cracks, my hands go red and gradually my psoriasis worsens. I take NewGenn hospital quality non-alcoholic wash for use in the cabin, and have the wipes equivalent - same make to carry round. It is however, difficult to keep explaining - at the gangplank particularly. I had thought of asking the GP or hospital consultant to give me a sick note stating that I could not use any product with alcohol, plasticising it and carrying it round to show. Not sure however, if this will work in practice - again particularly at the gangplank where different people seem to be on each day.

[jlp20]

This board is for the exchange of information concerning cruising for those new to the experience. The whole hand sanitizer discussion has been going on for years among cruisers.

 

In a nutshell; pax X (passenger X) doesn’t feel well but goes on cruise anyway. Hours later, he is empting his body’s contents, from both ends, in his cabin. However, pax X is also a pig and a filthy human being. He’s not too careful when wiping his rear end and doesn’t believe in washing his hands. He has walked about the ship, pushing buttons, holding handrails and grabbed serving spoons on the Lido deck. Each time, leaving a few hundred Noro virus organisms for the next person. That person, you, gets on the elevator a few minutes after pax X gets off. You press the same button and then rub your eye, pick your teeth or dig in your nose, what ever. In about 36 hours you, and quite a few other pax are going to be puking your guts up. By the way, one or two of those people will be spreading the virus around the ship until they are to ill to get around the boat. Within the week, hundreds are ill and CDC is called in and the next cruise is delayed while the ship is “debugged”

 

The cruise industry, not wanting to scare pax away, comes up with hand sanitizers to make the pax feel good and make the appearance that the cruise line has the condition under control.

 

One big problem, the hand sanitizers in use today are alcohol based. It has been proven that the Noro virus has to be SUBMERGED in at least a 70% concentration of alcohol for 5 MINUTES for it to START killing the virus.

 

Hand sanitizers will kill most bacteria, which are single celled organisms. A virus is multi celled and is much tougher to kill.

 

In the case of the Noro, bleach is the most common agent used to really sanitize objects.

 

If you have Noro on your hands and then use an alcohol-based sanitizer, all you have done is move the virus from one spot on your hands to another.

 

PLEASE DON’T BELIEVE ME. Do your own research by first going to the CDC website for a start. It won’t take long to learn the “buzz words companies use, like kills 99.9% of germs. You do your reading and find millions of bacteria strains are affected, but a short list of nine or ten viruses are killed by their product.

 

WASH YOURS HANDS WITH SOAP AND WATER OFTEN. KEEP YOUR HANDS AWAY FROM YOUR EYES, NOSE AND MOUTH. Train yourself to have a healthy and safe hygiene while on the ship. Hit that button with a knuckle, use a fork when eating anything and consider public bathrooms on the ship the “black hole of Calcutta”.

[caitlyn20]

As the above poster noted, I've also read that the hand sanitzier is mostly for making us feel better and not for actually keeping us from catching anything.

 

I never pay attention to who uses it and who doesn't and have never wondered about who isn't using it in line around me. I just wash my hands often.

[AmberMarie]

Hand Sanitizer is pretty useless without washing your hands first. So do both.

[ddoll]

This board is for the exchange of information concerning cruising for those new to the experience. The whole hand sanitizer discussion has been going on for years among cruisers.

 

In a nutshell; pax X (passenger X) doesn’t feel well but goes on cruise anyway. Hours later, he is empting his body’s contents, from both ends, in his cabin. However, pax X is also a pig and a filthy human being. He’s not too careful when wiping his rear end and doesn’t believe in washing his hands. He has walked about the ship, pushing buttons, holding handrails and grabbed serving spoons on the Lido deck. Each time, leaving a few hundred Noro virus organisms for the next person. That person, you, gets on the elevator a few minutes after pax X gets off. You press the same button and then rub your eye, pick your teeth or dig in your nose, what ever. In about 36 hours you, and quite a few other pax are going to be puking your guts up. By the way, one or two of those people will be spreading the virus around the ship until they are to ill to get around the boat. Within the week, hundreds are ill and CDC is called in and the next cruise is delayed while the ship is “debugged”

 

The cruise industry, not wanting to scare pax away, comes up with hand sanitizers to make the pax feel good and make the appearance that the cruise line has the condition under control.

 

One big problem, the hand sanitizers in use today are alcohol based. It has been proven that the Noro virus has to be SUBMERGED in at least a 70% concentration of alcohol for 5 MINUTES for it to START killing the virus.

 

Hand sanitizers will kill most bacteria, which are single celled organisms. A virus is multi celled and is much tougher to kill.

 

In the case of the Noro, bleach is the most common agent used to really sanitize objects.

 

If you have Noro on your hands and then use an alcohol-based sanitizer, all you have done is move the virus from one spot on your hands to another.

 

PLEASE DON’T BELIEVE ME. Do your own research by first going to the CDC website for a start. It won’t take long to learn the “buzz words companies use, like kills 99.9% of germs. You do your reading and find millions of bacteria strains are affected, but a short list of nine or ten viruses are killed by their product.

 

WASH YOURS HANDS WITH SOAP AND WATER OFTEN. KEEP YOUR HANDS AWAY FROM YOUR EYES, NOSE AND MOUTH. Train yourself to have a healthy and safe hygiene while on the ship. Hit that button with a knuckle, use a fork when eating anything and consider public bathrooms on the ship the “black hole of Calcutta”.

 

 

hahahaha!!! That was a very effective, humorous summation of the whole process. Very nice!! :D

[SailAwayWendy]

This is a question that is worrying me as well. I have psoriasis on the front, back and sides of my hands. The alcohol in Purell hurts badly when applied as hands have many cracks, my hands go red and gradually my psoriasis worsens. I take NewGenn hospital quality non-alcoholic wash for use in the cabin, and have the wipes equivalent - same make to carry round. It is however, difficult to keep explaining - at the gangplank particularly. I had thought of asking the GP or hospital consultant to give me a sick note stating that I could not use any product with alcohol, plasticising it and carrying it round to show. Not sure however, if this will work in practice - again particularly at the gangplank where different people seem to be on each day.

 

While I do not have psoriasis, I do have extremely sensitive skin and the sanitizers do a number on my skin. I can imagine the pain that alcohol based products must give you. I certainly would not expect anyone to go through pain for the sake of the sanitizer.

 

Again, a good reminder to everyone to wash, wash, wash those hands and be wary of how and where you are using your hands !! A small side note, on my last cruise, the ship ran out of the heavily based alcohol sanitizers in the stands and they were giving out a squirt of regular budget-priced sanitizer that you can get at any discount store for $2 a bottle.

 

Thanks all for the replies. I'll definitely be taking my own sanitizing product on our upcoming cruise.

[QueensChick]

This board is for the exchange of information concerning cruising for those new to the experience. The whole hand sanitizer discussion has been going on for years among cruisers.

 

In a nutshell; pax X (passenger X) doesn’t feel well but goes on cruise anyway. Hours later, he is empting his body’s contents, from both ends, in his cabin. However, pax X is also a pig and a filthy human being. He’s not too careful when wiping his rear end and doesn’t believe in washing his hands. He has walked about the ship, pushing buttons, holding handrails and grabbed serving spoons on the Lido deck. Each time, leaving a few hundred Noro virus organisms for the next person. That person, you, gets on the elevator a few minutes after pax X gets off. You press the same button and then rub your eye, pick your teeth or dig in your nose, what ever. In about 36 hours you, and quite a few other pax are going to be puking your guts up. By the way, one or two of those people will be spreading the virus around the ship until they are to ill to get around the boat. Within the week, hundreds are ill and CDC is called in and the next cruise is delayed while the ship is “debugged”

 

The cruise industry, not wanting to scare pax away, comes up with hand sanitizers to make the pax feel good and make the appearance that the cruise line has the condition under control.

 

One big problem, the hand sanitizers in use today are alcohol based. It has been proven that the Noro virus has to be SUBMERGED in at least a 70% concentration of alcohol for 5 MINUTES for it to START killing the virus.

 

Hand sanitizers will kill most bacteria, which are single celled organisms. A virus is multi celled and is much tougher to kill.

 

In the case of the Noro, bleach is the most common agent used to really sanitize objects.

 

If you have Noro on your hands and then use an alcohol-based sanitizer, all you have done is move the virus from one spot on your hands to another.

 

PLEASE DON’T BELIEVE ME. Do your own research by first going to the CDC website for a start. It won’t take long to learn the “buzz words companies use, like kills 99.9% of germs. You do your reading and find millions of bacteria strains are affected, but a short list of nine or ten viruses are killed by their product.

 

WASH YOURS HANDS WITH SOAP AND WATER OFTEN. KEEP YOUR HANDS AWAY FROM YOUR EYES, NOSE AND MOUTH. Train yourself to have a healthy and safe hygiene while on the ship. Hit that button with a knuckle, use a fork when eating anything and consider public bathrooms on the ship the “black hole of Calcutta”.

 

Well said!

Nothing beats frequent, proper hand washing and good personal hygiene habits.

 

Haooy cruising! :)

[Stoneyard]

We were on the Carnival Victory last week and they were nowhere to be found.

[lovemylab]

I never pay attention to who uses it and who doesn't and have never wondered about who isn't using it in line around me. I just wash my hands often.

 

This is me as well. If someone did have the nerve to make a comment to me about not using the sanitizers on the ship I would simply tell them to mind their own business.

[hockeymom97]

We were on the Carnival Victory last week and they were nowhere to be found.

 

uggg well that doesn't make me feel very good - on our last cruise you couldn't walk 20 feet without seeing either a dispenser or an actual person with the sanitizer. I understand that the best thing to do is to wash your hands frequently and practice good hygiene but I definitely think the the hand sanitizer helps the spread of germs - I'm really surprised that Carnival overlooked this :eek:

[The Screwball]

Where are the hand sanitizers located? Not by a sink?

 

When we sailed HAL had them at each floor at each elevator station, every stair case landing. I even noticed them on the docks at the bottom AND top of the gangway onport days. as well as the entrances to all restaraunts.

[Bebet]

I just got off the Rhapsody and can't remember seeing one hand santitizer anywhere. Maybe I just wasn't looking.

[blindrid]

This is me as well. If someone did have the nerve to make a comment to me about not using the sanitizers on the ship I would simply tell them to mind their own business.

 

The cruises I've been on they've always had employees stationed at the entrances of the restaurants and/or coming back on the ship politely asking you to use them. I have never taken offense to them reminding me. Unless you are talking about a fellow passneger, then I'm with you.

[QueensChick]

Haooy cruising!

Happy Cruising!

 

This was supposed to say Happy Cruising. Please forgive the typo. :o