Just off the Fantasy- Crew still handling drinks & ice cream

DIS_MIKE

DCL Commodore
Joined
Feb 2, 2015
Just wanted to provide a little update as I sailed on the Fantasy from 5/11-5/18. It was a great cruise and we had perfect weather and calm seas.

I noticed the crew was still keeping guests from serving themselves around the soda and ice cream dispensers. I'm not sure if this is just an isolated event following the 4/27 cruise where many became ill or if they will continue this moving forward.



Can anyone confirm that this is happening on other the other ships as well? The CMs were all super nice. They were also filling up personal mugs as well which was great!

One thing I did notice was that at Cabanas there were no CMs at the drink machines- so it was still self-service. I found that a bit odd and counterproductive.
 
My guess would be that you can serve yourself in Cabanas bc everyone washes their before entering. At the poolside locations, not many people will take the time to wash up before serving themself. Curious if this is a permanent change.
 
Just wanted to provide a little update as I sailed on the Fantasy from 5/11-5/18. It was a great cruise and we had perfect weather and calm seas.

I noticed the crew was still keeping guests from serving themselves around the soda and ice cream dispensers. I'm not sure if this is just an isolated event following the 4/27 cruise where many became ill or if they will continue this moving forward.



Can anyone confirm that this is happening on other the other ships as well? The CMs were all super nice. They were also filling up personal mugs as well which was great!

One thing I did notice was that at Cabanas there were no CMs at the drink machines- so it was still self-service. I found that a bit odd and counterproductive.

Can’t answer your question. But I was on a Panama Canal cruise that only had the restriction for 6 days. It was the first cruise after a noro virus that a lot of people got sick on. They never had enough cast members working the soda area. Always a long line.
 


It seems bizarre to me that they are in essence punishing the following cruisers for illness that happened on an earlier cruise - unless there is a huge number of B2B cruisers who were ill on the one with the sickness, it is all different - and presumably not exposed - people.
 
It sounds like the same protocol as on the 5/4 sailing; I personally don't mind them making my ice cream and soft drinks for me on deck.
 


It sounds like the same protocol as on the 5/4 sailing; I personally don't mind them making my ice cream and soft drinks for me on deck.

Yeah...I didn't mind it at all, but they did get busy at times. They had two people doing ice cream and usually 2 at the drink stations but sometimes they only had one guy going from the tea/coffee area and back to the soda area so the line did get quite long. They have two soda machines/dispensers so there should be 2 CMs manning those machines. And can Disney please bring Powerade to DCL? It's available at WDW and Castaway Cay but not on the ships.

My guess would be that you can serve yourself in Cabanas bc everyone washes their before entering. At the poolside locations, not many people will take the time to wash up before serving themself. Curious if this is a permanent change.
That definitely makes sense. I have a feeling it will only be temporary but time will tell.
 
It seems bizarre to me that they are in essence punishing the following cruisers for illness that happened on an earlier cruise - unless there is a huge number of B2B cruisers who were ill on the one with the sickness, it is all different - and presumably not exposed - people.

If by punishing you mean trying to prevent people from getting sick and having it spread through the whole ship again, I guess that’s the case.

I can’t imagine ever feeling punished by people trying to keep me safe and well.

Norovirus can live on some surfaces for a long time. They need to be very cautious on cruises following an outbreak for that reason.
 
If by punishing you mean trying to prevent people from getting sick and having it spread through the whole ship again, I guess that’s the case.

I can’t imagine ever feeling punished by people trying to keep me safe and well.

Norovirus can live on some surfaces for a long time. They need to be very cautious on cruises following an outbreak for that reason.

But those crew members who are doing the serving WERE on the ship the week before with the virus. Other than a very limited number (if any) of Back to Back cruisers, the people coming on board would not have been exposed on the ship. So no, it does not make sense.
 
But those crew members who are doing the serving WERE on the ship the week before with the virus. Other than a very limited number (if any) of Back to Back cruisers, the people coming on board would not have been exposed on the ship. So no, it does not make sense.


I agree. Perhaps having someone there handing out sanitizer would be a better option?
 
I agree. Perhaps having someone there handing out sanitizer would be a better option?

That I would agree with. Royal has sanitizer stations as you enter the dining room and buffet areas. Would not be hard to put them at the drink and soft serve stations on deck.
 
I was on the sailing that just got back yesterday and I have to say I was happy having them serve the drinks and ice cream on the pool deck. I actually once saw a kid lick the ice cream machine where he saw the little bit that was dripping from the dispenser. Ick. I know it seems inconsistent having it on the pool deck and not everywhere else but I do think that is where people are the least disciplined with hand washing. You have kids running around at the pools not always having parents there to make sure they have clean hands and just the more casual setting I think causes people to sometimes put their guard down. But just a tip- the first set of drink dispensers in Cabanas coming from the pool deck on the starboard side was open 24/7 and you could serve yourself. When we were getting drinks just coming up from our room or somewhere else that’s where we went.
 
It seems bizarre to me that they are in essence punishing the following cruisers for illness that happened on an earlier cruise - unless there is a huge number of B2B cruisers who were ill on the one with the sickness, it is all different - and presumably not exposed - people.
I was on the 4/20 sailing. There were no extra precautions on that sailing, minus some extra sanitization happening, and I attributed that to the nasty cough that seemed to be going around; I heard nothing about a stomach bug until after I got off the ship. However, MANY reported on facebook that they got sick (GI bug) on the trip home, the day of debarkation, which means they got it on the ship. And I guarantee they didn't report this to Disney. That means all of those staterooms didn't get sanitized to norovirus standards. Then that ship sailed, and that was the cruise with the large amount of reported illness. Norovirus can live on surfaces for days. I've seen it in my house. We thought I was out of the woods years ago; it had been days since my husband had been sick. WRONG. I'm guessing Disney is still feeling like they need to do damage control, and, as others have already mentioned, those unsupervised ice cream and soda dispensers are at highest risk for being a point of transmission. Having been on the 2016 confirmed norovirus cruise on the Wonder, I don't see this as a punishment; I see it as them doing their best to eliminate the risk for other cruisers, especially since they may be scratching their heads about how things escalated so quickly on that 4/27 cruise.
 
I was on the 4/27 cruise, had my dad get sick who is 83 and my husband. It was not fun and I would not wish that on anyone. I was thrilled to see staff handling drinks and such. If they had done that at the beginning of cruise and my 2 guys did not get sick I would have been more than understanding....
 
I was on the Fantasy for the 5/11 sailing as well. I actually love that they had a person at the drink station and the ice cream station. We often sit on the deck in the evenings and we always see unattended children making a huge mess at the ice cream station. If they are too little to reach, they climb up on the counter and put their hands and feet on everything. The same with soda, they often bring their same cup to refill and climb up to reach. I really hardly saw a line except on a busy sea day. If it keeps the germs from spreading I am all for it. I actually would prefer they have someone serve those items all the time.
 
Punishing?!? IMHO that is a very negative attitude. They are trying to prevent the spread of a very contagious virus.

Again, it makes sense on the cruise where the outbreak happened. NOT on the new cruise with people who were not exposed - especially when the crew ALL of whom WERE exposed are the people doing the handing out.
 
I agree. Perhaps having someone there handing out sanitizer would be a better option?

That I would agree with. Royal has sanitizer stations as you enter the dining room and buffet areas. Would not be hard to put them at the drink and soft serve stations on deck.

There are always hand wipes available at the drink stations as well as a sign asking guests to use one before using the drink station. The container for the wipes is visible in Mike's photo in the first post. Perhaps too many guests don't use them?

Again, it makes sense on the cruise where the outbreak happened. NOT on the new cruise with people who were not exposed - especially when the crew ALL of whom WERE exposed are the people doing the handing out.

I trust DCL to have a good handle on the best protocol to prevent a reoccurrence of the outbreak on the 4/27 cruise.

It was no inconvenience at all to be served on the 5/4 cruise. The nice young man who manned one side (starboard?) in the early morning even knew my order by the third morning or so....three teas (knew the varieties I like) and an unusual combo of decaf/cream and hot water. It was awesome frankly.
 

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