Self-service in Cabanas

[squirk]

Maybe it's more about safety than being cheaper.

That was kind of my point. Cafeteria-style has always been safer in terms of flu/noro, right? So why haven't they been cafeteria-style from the beginning? I can only guess it was due to cost.

 

[Girl of the South]

Maybe it's timing? With 4,000 passengers (max) and what - 2 hours of opening? Even if only half the people eat at the buffet, then that's 1000 an hour. 16 people a minute. And little kids are very slow if it's a full cafeteria LINE. (No, not blaming them) I certainly don't really wait in line at the buffet. I get the salad . . then over to the bread . . then maybe some fruit. I mean, we sort of all go to the 'stations' where we want something, right? They have to figure out how to feed that many people in a short amount of time. Maybe drinks need to be pre-poured? I never found the food around the pool to be very good - the hamburgers and the pizza. Maybe those could be upgraded to lessen the number of people at the buffet? The place with the wraps was decent. Of all the items in the buffet I probably only ate 1/10th of the offerings?

 

[CamColt]

I agree! While definitely not a deal breaker, I do prefer to serve myself. For a time there, Palo was doing that for the buffet portion of brunch, and it drove me nuts. I'm one of those people who doesn't like my food touching so everything gets a separate spot on the plate. If sauces/juices are dripping I will angle the plate so that it doesnt mix into other food, and sometimes I just want a certain amount or a certain piece of whatever. It's much easier to just grab it.

As a side note, from someone who works in a school kitchen it is very hard to hear what the kids are ordering under these masks. I can imagine there will be lots of misunderstandings.

 

[squirk]

I agree! While definitely not a deal breaker, I do prefer to serve myself. For a time there, Palo was doing that for the buffet portion of brunch, and it drove me nuts. I'm one of those people who doesn't like my food touching so everything gets a separate spot on the plate. If sauces/juices are dripping I will angle the plate so that it doesnt mix into other food, and sometimes I just want a certain amount or a certain piece of whatever. It's much easier to just grab it.

As a side note, from someone who works in a school kitchen it is very hard to hear what the kids are ordering under these masks. I can imagine there will be lots of misunderstandings.

The first time I ever did Palo brunch, it was on the Fantasy.

Apparently, there must have been a noro issue during the cruise because they had CMs falling over themselves to make sure you didn’t serve yourself when you went into that little side room where the food is.

But the weird part was that there was nothing or nobody telling you why the CMs were hovering over you, rushing to, like, grab a set of tongs and serve you before you picked the tongs up.

I understand that they may not want to broadcast that there was a noro issue on-board, but saying nothing at all - meaning this weird behavior on the part of the CMs was in a vacuum - just made the whole experience awkward.

If I’d known what was going on at the time, I would have acquiesced. As it was, I wound up straight-up (nicely) asking the CMs to please stop following me around, and let me serve myself. And they did!

 

[CamColt]

The first time I ever did Palo brunch, it was on the Fantasy.

Apparently, there must have been a noro issue during the cruise because they had CMs falling over themselves to make sure you didn’t serve yourself when you went into that little side room where the food is.

But the weird part was that there was nothing or nobody telling you why the CMs were hovering over you, rushing to, like, grab a set of tongs and serve you before you picked the tongs up.

I understand that they may not want to broadcast that there was a noro issue on-board, but saying nothing at all - meaning this weird behavior on the part of the CMs was in a vacuum - just made the whole experience awkward.

If I’d known what was going on at the time, I would have acquiesced. As it was, I wound up straight-up (nicely) asking the CMs to please stop following me around, and let me serve myself. And they did!

That's exactly how I remember it...awkward and uncomfortable. At times I felt like I was ordering them around too, like I was standing there and could easily grab whatever, yet I had to ask them to get it for me. I felt like I was treating them as servants and I didn't like that. In fact I was so flustered coming back from dessert and I was saying something to DH, that my heel caught on the upper step where the tables away from the windows are, and I ended up falling, shattered plate and desert went everywhere. I wanted to die!

 

[I_am_Groot]

Several years ago I was on a RCL ship with a severe Norovirus outbreak, so I will welcome this change and hope it is permanent in a post-COVID world. It is gross thinking about how many people touch the same utensils and all of the people, especially kids, who grab food and then put it back. You should still be able to get as much or as little food as you like. The downside is that this will probably slow things down.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

I kinda like the idea of picking out what I want and the CM serving it on my plate. Hopefully, this will eliminate people and kids cutting the lines - in both directions - just to grab an item I am standing in front of at that moment.

 

[cmash95]

supposedly the cdc has upgraded it's advice again and it had something about self service food on a cruiseship I wouldn't worry too much because guidelines are litterally changeing hourly. and as more are vaccinated restrictions are loosening. i am morer concerned with right now no meet and greets than i am about the buffet. at least they have loosened the mask rules so am sure the rest will be gone by the end of the summer

 

[squirk]

supposedly the cdc has upgraded it's advice again and it had something about self service food on a cruiseship I wouldn't worry too much because guidelines are litterally changeing hourly. and as more are vaccinated restrictions are loosening. i am morer concerned with right now no meet and greets than i am about the buffet. at least they have loosened the mask rules so am sure the rest will be gone by the end of the summer

I believe they said self-service could come back if either a.) the ship was 95/95 vaccinated; or b.) the self-service area is limited to only fully vaccinated customers and staff.

The first option would require most kids to be vaccinated, even the young ones who are not yet eligible for a vaccine. But there’s rumblings that we’ll see at least one of the vaccines open up for all kids in June.

The second option is not something I would think Disney wants to touch with a 10-foot pole - two classes of passengers, one of which has more liberties, and can do more stuff and go more places on the ship than the other? No way they’re going to go down that road if they can help it.

 

[DisneYE]

I believe they said self-service could come back if either a.) the ship was 95/95 vaccinated; or b.) the self-service area is limited to only fully vaccinated customers and staff.

The first option would require most kids to be vaccinated, even the young ones who are not yet eligible for a vaccine. But there’s rumblings that we’ll see at least one of the vaccines open up for all kids in June.

The second option is not something I would think Disney wants to touch with a 10-foot pole - two classes of passengers, one of which has more liberties, and can do more stuff and go more places on the ship than the other? No way they’re going to go down that road if they can help it.

I think all buffets will be back as soon as it's established that vaccinated ppl aren't vulnerable or spreading.
That and the pfizer anti-covid pill scheduled to come out by the end of the year can spell the end of this nightmare.
if that happens, and the pandemic doesn't resurrect, buffets all over (not only ships) will come back in full in 2023.

 

[PezRuth]

I actually would prefer if buffets completely went away. I have never liked them so truthfully this would not bother me at all.

 

[cmash95]

all vegas buffets are open and self serving and i believe the cdc has okayed self service buffets or at least changed the requirement to a recommendation.

 

[Sakura1017]

Im all for that having a cast member plate the food for me. I know when new food comes out on a dish people grab other utensils to grab at that. Also its better for desserts because sometimes u grab one but then decide to put it back.

 

[otten]

We were on the Wonder when the pandemic was declared and everything abruptly switched to not serve yourself. For me it was barely noticeable in Cabanas and Palo but I definitely felt it at the ice cream and soda stations. There was forever a line for those from then on.

 

[squirk]

We were on the Wonder when the pandemic was declared and everything abruptly switched to not serve yourself. For me it was barely noticeable in Cabanas and Palo but I definitely felt it at the ice cream and soda stations. There was forever a line for those from then on.

I was on the Wonder last Feb., right before your PC cruise. I guess my cruise was the last hurrah, because while they were making everybody wash hands outside Cabanas, it was still self-serve.

Soda stations were still self-serve as well, but Eye Scream was not. I guess because they couldn’t put washing stations right there, and it would have been a lot of people touching the same handles on the ice cream dispensers over and over. It’s not like they could rotate in fresh handles like they could rotate in fresh utensils in Cabanas.

 

[Dug720]

They were making everybody wash hands outside Cabanas

That was standard even before COVID.

 

[squirk]

That was standard even before COVID.

First time I’d experienced it, so I assumed the washing stations were a recent install.

 

[Dug720]

First time I’d experienced it, so I assumed the washing stations were a recent install.

Nope - they've always required it. At least I always remember having to wash my hands. Maybe at times they did the nasty wipes being handed out to move people through, but still.

 

[squirk]

Nope - they've always required it. At least I always remember having to wash my hands. Maybe at times they did the nasty wipes being handed out to move people through, but still.

It was my first time on a classic ship. They've always had those washing stations right outside Cabanas?

Up until that cruise, I'd only been on the Dream/Fantasy, and (at least through 2017) those ships never had washing stations - just CMs handing out wipes.

Not sure where they would put washing stations with the Dream-class layout.....

 

[rere101399]

It was my first time on a classic ship. They've always had those washing stations right outside Cabanas?

Up until that cruise, I'd only been on the Dream/Fantasy, and (at least through 2017) those ships never had washing stations - just CMs handing out wipes.

Not sure where they would put washing stations with the Dream-class layout.....

We were on the Fantasy in 2019 and 2020 and they definitely had hand washing stations already on both of those sailings, and you were highly encouraged to stop there on your way in, but not forced to.