It will all depend on Covid. Maybe cruising won't be for us. Strange that Covid is unlikely to be passed on surfaces, yet washing hands, Lysol wipes, no buffets or self serve etc etc still being toted as very important. Like I said, I have my Mom to think about. We took her out of a care home to protect her. We'll just wait and see how things play out. I'm not really sure why anyone would care if I used my own utensils, but I did ask for your opinions, I've never cruised before. Like everyone walking around with masks on isn't a little weird. LOL We live in hope.
While aerosol transmission of covid is an important route of transmission, it is not the only route, so the surface cleaning and other protocols still matter, especially in the particular environment of a cruise ship, where a infectious disease outbreak, once it starts, has the demonstrated potential to spread easily. Those measures also have the added benefit of significantly reducing the likelihood of there being a gastrointestinal disease outbreak, which would be problematic on its own, but would also confound the situation, since its symptoms can overlap with that of some of the symptoms of covid infection, making it challening to distinguish in the early stages. Makes everyone's lives much easier if it is less likely they're going to have norovirus show up too !
Since you are concerned in particular about cutlery, you may find it of benefit to read the following, which addresses the issue of commerical dishwashers and covid, as well as the NSF/ANSI standards for commercial food equipment [some consumer/home dishwashers also have a "sanitize" cycle that meets the NSF standard]; the articles are aimed at the commericial food industry/commercial kitchens:
"Can my dishwasher kill coronavirus"
https://www.wasserstrom.com/blog/2020/06/02/can-my-dishwasher-kill-coronavirus/
"Sanitization & Clean Kitchens: Your Dishmachine & the Coronavirus"
https://blog.hobartcorp.com/blog/sanitization-clean-kitchens-your-dishmachine-the-coronavirus
(from NSF) "Food equipment standards in a COVID-19 world"
https://www.nafem.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/FE_Standards_COVID19_World.pdf
Per the Hobart article: "Sanitizing is defined as reducing the number of microorganisms to a safe level." And "Sanitization is a multi-step process that includes cleaning off food and scraps, rinsing to remove detergent and remaining soil, and applying a chemical sanitizing agent or reaching the minimum defined temperatures in the wash and rinse cycles. A commercial dishwasher automates these steps."
And a couple videos about dishwashing on board cruise ships:
From
DCL, "
Disney Cruise Line: Galley Steward"
"How to do Dish washing of Crew Mess dishes on Cruise Ship"
You will see a similar style of machine that is shown in the DCL video where they are loading plates; the machine in this video is a Hobart machine, which is the company who made one of the articles above. Just after 2:40 they show how they do cutlery. This may not be the exact model but is similar-looking; this video is a training video of it, probably way more info than you ever wanted to know:
, but that's a pretty low COVID risk.
