Self-serve returning to Cabanas

[CaptainAmerica]

I had to go to one of the MDRs to get eggs benedict in February. The MDR breakfasts were 10 times better than Cabanas and we were always ate at Cabanas on our previous cruises.

I had eggs Benedict every morning at Cabanas on the Magic in December.

The MDR breakfasts were better, but WAY too slow for me, plus they opened late.

 

[mommy2allyandaveri]

I might be making this up, but one year, Cookies was super-crowded, and we asked a CM what dining options were simultaneously available on the ship. Pretty sure they mentioned Cabanas and an MDR (maybe EG).

One of my favorite memories is going back on the ship at CC and watching the movie that was on, in the empty pool. We had a quiet lunch on a deserted deck. It was fantastic.

 

[TestingH2O]

I just saw a CM post on Instagram that there is no more lining up for the pool.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I just saw a CM post on Instagram that there is no more lining up for the pool.

Hallelujer. I didn't mine the line but those stupid belt stanchions looked SO bad.

 

[mousefan73]

Putting aside the judginess of these comments... why do you think having employees serve makes any difference at all to how much people eat? It's still a buffet; if people want more, they can and will return as many times as they want.

Also, as many have pointed out, having someone else serve is at least as likely to mean that you're given more food than you wanted than the opposite. I've had this happen myself many times.

Because it is simple restaurant business fact that self-serve buffets guests put more food on their plates and waste more food vs other types of service. I used to work in the hospitality business and have friends that still do and they have even commented since they changed to cafeteria service ( covid reason ) there is much less food waste. The problem is depending on what market you are in human costs are more than food costs. So it’s cheaper to waste food versus higher staff. Some markets food is more expensive ( 5 star hotel in Asia that has to import quality western food) vs staff.

Edit: I vaguely remember a study that dealt on this topic during school. I believe in the buffet they had like five different types of pizza slices. Self-serve people will take three or four different slices because they were thinking to themselves oh I can try and see which one I like best and then get more. If they had to ask for what pizza they wanted they reduced the number of choices. I believe the study wasn’t really focusing on portion sizes or how much people eat but more on how a consumer deals with choices . Self service is considered “free “meaning I can take all and what I want. And having someone serve it to you it’s more like asking not taking.

 

[dreamer17555]

I just saw a CM post on Instagram that there is no more lining up for the pool.

Back to kid soup.

 

[lovingeire]

Not that I don't appreciate how clean Disney keeps the ships, but this cruise line was created for families with little kids, and little kids are inherently gross. I've just made my peace with it.

As an elementary school teacher and a parent to an 8-year-old boy who constantly needs to be reminded to wash his hands, I've never really loved buffets. My husband loves them, but I'm not a volume eater so in most cases they defeat the point for me. I'll just carry sanitizer with me.

I have no fear of getting Covid, but at least with an upper respiratory infection you can be identified and isolated. People (esp little kiddos) can come down with noro or roto virus and no one knows you have diarrhea and didnt wash your hands as well as you could have. There's no vaccine for it and the incubation for noro is 1 or 2 days. I loved the WDW buffets in the past but I may or may not eat at Cabanas. I have a different mental tolerance to viruses than I did on my last visit to Disney in February 2020

Yup. Earlier on in the pandemic, one of the arguments I heard A LOT for why we should't lock down was that our immune systems wouldn't work properly after being confined because they weren't being "used" and that our immune responses for ALL things would be poor after a period of lockdown because the immune system needs to be consistently "activated" and exposed to colds and flu and such in order to work properly. That's what I thought you meant.

The thing about colds, though, there are tons of them and they are constantly mutating and changing (as we've started to see with the variants of our current coronavirus, cousin to the cold) so odd are pretty good you really hadn't ever had that particular iteration of the virus that made you sick.

I have heard of a sort of nasty thing going around. I had it a few weeks ago. Sore throat, cough, the works. I ended up with a secondary infection and needed antibiotics. My whole family had it. I would have thought it Covid, but it started in my daughter a couple of weeks after she had Covid (so the odds were pretty slim she was infected again after just a couple of weeks) and then it made it's way through the whole family, all of us testing negative multiple times. I had one friend with it and landed in the hospital, but she also tested negative on a rapid antigen and PCR. Docs there told her it's going around and they are seeing it regularly. Just a really nasty virus. She also ended up with a secondary infection. My daughter's pediatrician said it's turning into walking pneumonia for a lot of folks.

Around Christmas, my middle son and I both had a horrible virus (tested negative for COVID and flu) and it really hung around. My kids actually had to push back their second dose of the vaccine for it. (My youngest son had it first and kindly shared it...) Then the youngest got norovirus and it went through our whole family. (Well, I think it went through the entire elementary and middle school campuses in our district.) My middle son and husband had the same virus it seemed that we had in December a few weeks ago. It's been a rough year for us being sick. And I'm an obsessive hand-washer, even prior to COVID...comes with the profession.

 

[mab2012]

Because it is simple restaurant business fact that self-serve buffets guests put more food on their plates and waste more food vs other types of service. I used to work in the hospitality business and have friends that still do and they have even commented since they changed to cafeteria service ( covid reason ) there is much less food waste. The problem is depending on what market you are in human costs are more than food costs. So it’s cheaper to waste food versus higher staff. Some markets food is more expensive ( 5 star hotel in Asia that has to import quality western food) vs staff.

Edit: I vaguely remember a study that dealt on this topic during school. I believe in the buffet they had like five different types of pizza slices. Self-serve people will take three or four different slices because they were thinking to themselves oh I can try and see which one I like best and then get more. If they had to ask for what pizza they wanted they reduced the number of choices. I believe the study wasn’t really focusing on portion sizes or how much people eat but more on how a consumer deals with choices . Self service is considered “free “meaning I can take all and what I want. And having someone serve it to you it’s more like asking not taking.

I just spent a bit of time looking through studies that have been done around buffet food waste (simple Google search). These were my main take-aways:

• It does not appear that the issue has really been widely studied. Most of what I found pointed to the same small handful of studies.
• The studies that have been done found that buffet plate waste can be reduced by reducing the size of the plates, messaging encouraging frequent returns rather than taking a lot of food at once, and allowing for "tasting" before serving.
• Portion size is mentioned in some of the studies, but not necessarily related to who serves. eg. In your pizza example, smaller slices would be better, since then people could several types without throwing half of it away.
• There are occasional "recommendations" that staffing buffets might reduce waste, but if there have been actual studies that confirm this, I haven't found them (not saying they don't exist).
• One study did specifically find that children tend to over-serve themselves (no surprise) and that adult supervision, parental or otherwise, could mitigate this.
• The issue of waste at buffets is more complicated than plate waste alone; production and volume management in serving trays is likely at least as significant, or more.

In any event, the issue of waste is separate from the issue of over-eating, which is really what I was taking issue with. Waste might be reduced by staffing buffets (I'm not sure this has really been conclusively shown), but I'm not sure there's any reason to believe that staffing buffets has any impact on how much people eat at a buffet.

 

[Dug720]

The studies that have been done found that buffet plate waste can be reduced by reducing the size of the plates

That's also an easier way to self-monitor what you're taking. I almost always get a smaller salad plate for my food - even if not making a salad. I don't like heaping piles on a plate, so starting with a smaller one makes it easier to eat, then think if I really do want more. It's a solid WW tip.

 

[squirk]

That is what I thought.

Then I must be thinking of something else. I would have bet my left hand the CM told me EG was open on CC day.

 

[mullysisters]

As an elementary school teacher and a parent to an 8-year-old boy who constantly needs to be reminded to wash his hands, I've never really loved buffets. My husband loves them, but I'm not a volume eater so in most cases they defeat the point for me. I'll just carry sanitizer with me.



Around Christmas, my middle son and I both had a horrible virus (tested negative for COVID and flu) and it really hung around. My kids actually had to push back their second dose of the vaccine for it. (My youngest son had it first and kindly shared it...) Then the youngest got norovirus and it went through our whole family. (Well, I think it went through the entire elementary and middle school campuses in our district.) My middle son and husband had the same virus it seemed that we had in December a few weeks ago. It's been a rough year for us being sick. And I'm an obsessive hand-washer, even prior to COVID...comes with the profession.

I was a Vet Tech for 40 years so quite used to washing my hands frequently. Unfortunately I also bite my nails(told by my doctor that it is a OCD condition?) I've been trying not to for more than 50 years but it is what it is..... I'm bringing alcohol wipes to use frequently. Rather Covid than Noro any day.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

Once pirate music is blaring through the halls and we have the pirate Mickey show it will truly be back!

 

[Cheburashka]

having someone else serve is at least as likely to mean that you're given more food than you wanted than the opposite.

Absolutely. I sailed recently and tried to ask them for "just a little bit", but no. Big portions dumped on my plate regardless, so I couldn't really try many different dishes.

 

[mullysisters]

Yes, I caught a nasty & persistent cold last month, too. I Covid tested 5 times throughout the 2 weeks I had symptoms (I'm a teacher), so I know it wasn't Covid.

My nephew is an infectious disease specialist and he says its seasonal flu. There are vaxx but they may not be specific to any one virus. It's always been around and most people are okay but thousands die each year from flu world wide. Surprisingly the numbers are way down in the past couple of years, possibly due to social distancing and hand washing.

 

[Vacodd]

What about popcorn and drinks in the theater?

On Fantasy now. Drinks and popcorn allowed.

 

[Bibbidi_Boo]

Because it is simple restaurant business fact that self-serve buffets guests put more food on their plates and waste more food vs other types of service. I used to work in the hospitality business and have friends that still do and they have even commented since they changed to cafeteria service ( covid reason ) there is much less food waste. The problem is depending on what market you are in human costs are more than food costs. So it’s cheaper to waste food versus higher staff. Some markets food is more expensive ( 5 star hotel in Asia that has to import quality western food) vs staff.

Edit: I vaguely remember a study that dealt on this topic during school. I believe in the buffet they had like five different types of pizza slices. Self-serve people will take three or four different slices because they were thinking to themselves oh I can try and see which one I like best and then get more. If they had to ask for what pizza they wanted they reduced the number of choices. I believe the study wasn’t really focusing on portion sizes or how much people eat but more on how a consumer deals with choices . Self service is considered “free “meaning I can take all and what I want. And having someone serve it to you it’s more like asking not taking.

When we did the character meal in Disneyland that is buffet but even precovid they workers served you the hot stuff, they put so much food on it was crazy. One plate could have fed like 3 people. Pretty much anywhere I have gone that servers put food on plate is way more than I would do and often involves something touching other items that I don't want mixed.

 

[FLPrincessMom]

We were on the Dream last month and went to the buffet right after getting on board. No idea how it happened but my husband ended up with someone else's plate! The last things added were his but all the other stuff wasn't. He said when they handed it to him he just took it because they couldn't take it back. The good side is that he liked their choices - stuff he wouldn't have normally tried.

 

[wideeyedwonder]

Putting aside the judginess of these comments... why do you think having employees serve makes any difference at all to how much people eat? It's still a buffet; if people want more, they can and will return as many times as they want.

Two of my "young adult" daughters have a bit of social anxiety, and although they CAN get by asking people for what they want, they PREFER to get it for themselves, and they will sometimes forego asking for something (even a food item) if they think that they will be inconveniencing someone. So it's a more relaxing experience for them if they are free to serve themselves. They probably got this from me, and even to this day, I prefer to serve myself.

 

[mab2012]

Two of my "young adult" daughters have a bit of social anxiety, and although they CAN get by asking people for what they want, they PREFER to get it for themselves, and they will sometimes forego asking for something (even a food item) if they think that they will be inconveniencing someone. So it's a more relaxing experience for them if they are free to serve themselves. They probably got this from me, and even to this day, I prefer to serve myself.

I'm not sure if you really meant to quote me in your response, but just to be clear, I am wholeheartedly on Team Self-Serve. Enjoy your (self-serve) buffet!

 

[soniam]

I get the comments about the Thunderdome that can be the buffet, especially at embarkation lunch. I don't like when people are pushy at the buffet or sneak up behind/between people to grab the last of an item, when one was probably politely waiting for the line to move to the dish. I know it's just part and parcel though and generally prefer self-serve. I probably didn't need that last piece of cake anyway