food hygiene Crown Princess Burger grill

Just got off the Crown Princess yesterday after an excellent Baltic cruise. However I did witness one of the worst issues of poor practice with regard to food handling I have witnessed. Location burger grill open deck 15. The man in question handled raw chicken which was dripping with moisture or juice for want of a better word. He had taken a whole batch of it from the fridge and was placing it on the grill. His disposable gloves were soaking wet from handling the chicken . He then proceeded to handle my burger bun without changing his gloves passing on all the various germs to my plate and burger bun. I was shocked by this and immediately went downstairs to reception level 5 and report it. They were less than interested. Simply asked me to fill in a feedback form and that as it. I gave accurate details of time etc but I felt they did not realize this was unacceptable . On reflection I wish I had went back up and told people in line not to eat from the grill.I hope nobody got ill from this.

Just got off the Crown Princess yesterday after an excellent Baltic cruise. However I did witness one of the worst issues of poor practice with regard to food handling I have witnessed. Location burger grill open deck 15. The man in question handled raw chicken which was dripping with moisture or juice for want of a better word. He had taken a whole batch of it from the fridge and was placing it on the grill. His disposable gloves were soaking wet from handling the chicken . He then proceeded to handle my burger bun without changing his gloves passing on all the various germs to my plate and burger bun. I was shocked by this and immediately went downstairs to reception level 5 and report it. They were less than interested. Simply asked me to fill in a feedback form and that as it. I gave accurate details of time etc but I felt they did not realize this was unacceptable . On reflection I wish I had went back up and told people in line not to eat from the grill.I hope nobody got ill from this.

Thats terrible.

I would have tracked down the deck hw/supervisor who oversees him and his crew.

I would think he would have very interested in that information.

Even the MD would need to know this as well.

Wow, that is disgusting.

I would have looked for one of the menus to show to the Food supervisor. Princess always seems to have a warning at the bottom about under cooked food, meat, sea food, etc. on all of the menus. Seems as though the people cooking should respect the warning.

Yuk ... I wouldn't have been able to eat there after that. I know that some of staff ... and this is certainly not limited to cruise ships, just don't have a clue. The CDC Vessel Safety Inspection Program would have a field day with this. Training is key, even if it doesn't seem like one of the more prestigious jobs onboard. I find, for the most part, the staff does a great job ... your example was certainly not one of them, though.

Hope you reported this employee who should have known better because it's not the normal practice. Usually, one deals with the cooking and another who has never touched anything raw actually serves the cooked food.

What did you say to the offender?

Surprising. We use the grill a lot and they always change gloves. In fact we normally see them wash hands as well. Same is true even when they are working with partially precooked meats - they normally throw them on the grill and change out the gloves. Must have been an untrained employee because procedures seem to be the same on all the ships we have been on. No excuse, of course.

Well it can't be any worse than people eating food while going down the buffet line, licking their fingers then handling the serving spoons. Or watching people at their dining tables licking their fingers and returning to the buffet line. What the OP witnessed was disgusting, if one looks hard enough there's enough to make you want to hurl. I did suggest that the french fries be put at the opposite end of the buffet and not at the beginning just for that reason.

Having been on Crown Princess recently this does not surprise me.

Many of the crew just don't care about hygiene.

And no one at managerial level seems to care about any issues on there.

We had our worst Princess cruise ever - out of 67 - on Crown this spring.

But there will be vociferous members on here who had wonderful cruises on Crown, many however not recently, and others will rally round as they are cheerleaders for Princess.

But I live in the real world.

And Crown Princess is the Noro and GI chief culprit out of the whole Princess fleet by a long way.

CDC records do not lie even though they are government statistics.

Cruised on the Sun Princess earlier this year just after they had a huge noro problem. Staff in the buffet were emptying cold leftovers into the new trays of supposedly hot food and mixing it in.

Cruised on the Sun Princess earlier this year just after they had a huge noro problem. Staff in the buffet were emptying cold leftovers into the new trays of supposedly hot food and mixing it in.

Are you sure it wasn't leftovers from the buffet line (which should have been keep warm) being added to the fresh trays of replacements.

This always done to save on food waste and is acceptable.

Pity I did not have recorded evidence of what I saw and put it on youtube. The incident actually had me taken by surprise as it was disgusting. Never seen anything like that before.

We've just got off the Crown too on Saturday.

I was unimpressed with the Grill also. One guy had no gloves on and the burgers were always luke warm. Only when I asked for a double cheese burger was it hot.

What really got my back up wasn't the staff, but passengers entering the Horizon buffet through the exits and therefore bypassing the hand gel dispenser at the designated entrance.

We've just got off the Crown too on Saturday.

 

I was unimpressed with the Grill also. One guy had no gloves on and the burgers were always luke warm. Only when I asked for a double cheese burger was it hot.

 

What really got my back up wasn't the staff, but passengers entering the Horizon buffet through the exits and therefore bypassing the hand gel dispenser at the designated entrance.

The chicken incident is one thing but....

What difference does it really make when no one forces and one to use the sanitizer at the buffet line anyway? After a week or so using the nasty stuff my skin begins to crack.

I just resort to washing my hands and never had any problems.

Hand sanitizer is not the answer - ask any doctor - it is mostly alcohol. A thorough washing of hands as often as possible will do much more than the hand sanitizer

Having been on Crown Princess recently this does not surprise me.

Many of the crew just don't care about hygiene.

And no one at managerial level seems to care about any issues on there.

We had our worst Princess cruise ever - out of 67 - on Crown this spring.

But there will be vociferous members on here who had wonderful cruises on Crown, many however not recently, and others will rally round as they are cheerleaders for Princess.

But I live in the real world.

And Crown Princess is the Noro and GI chief culprit out of the whole Princess fleet by a long way.

CDC records do not lie even though they are government statistics.

I had the same feeling after our recent Crown cruise. I believe you are correct that this and maintenance problems are ship management issues. Princess needs to fix this now. It continues to tarnish the excellent Princess fleet image. I have hope that they will and she will soon again be a crown jewel.

The days of the Crown being the jewel of the fleet are long past.

The chicken incident is one thing but....

What difference does it really make when no one forces and one to use the sanitizer at the buffet line anyway? After a week or so using the nasty stuff my skin begins to crack.

I just resort to washing my hands and never had any problems.

Skin cracking! That's a new one.

I hope you didn't leave any excess dried flaky skin in the salad bowls then.

Skin cracking! That's a new one.

 

I hope you didn't leave any excess dried flaky skin in the salad bowls then.

Many people have the same problem after using that stuff repeatedly meal after meal.

It's better to just keep your hands clean with soap & water since it hardly does much good to use sanitizer anyway.

Hand sanitizer is not the answer - ask any doctor - it is mostly alcohol. A thorough washing of hands as often as possible will do much more than the hand sanitizer

Let me ask this. In the past few years failing health has caused both of my wife's parents to be hospitalized multiple times. In every patient's room there is a sanitizer station. Every doctor, nurse, and staff member would sanitize their hands when entering the room. Did they not get the memo?

I won't disagree that washing your hands with soap and water is an effective method--maybe the most effective method--to prevent the spread of infection, but, I just really doubt that, when a passenger drops by the buffet mid-afternoon to "just grab a snack," the handwashing that he/she did an hour ago is still effective.

Yes, I have read all the comments, here on Cruise Critic, that the sanitizer is not effective against the Norovirus. I have also read the comments that the sanitizer used on cruise ships is, in fact, efective against the Norovirus. However, I also know that there are hundreds (at least) of pathogens that can cause gastro-intestinal or respiratory distress. If the sanitizer is effective on, say, only 90% of them, then I say it should be used.

To the OP, I agree with your disappointment in the actions of the grill person. It shows a failure in the training process. Management is completely responsible. The disinterest that you saw when you reported the incident is completely unacceptable.

One of the reason that I love Regal/Royal buffet is that they have sinks for PAX to wash their hand in before entering. I love them. I use them before and after I eat in the buffet.

One of the reason that I love Regal/Royal buffet is that they have sinks for PAX to wash their hand in before entering. I love them. I use them before and after I eat in the buffet.

Ditto. Sadly, not all however use them.

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I won't disagree that washing your hands with soap and water is an effective method--maybe the most effective method--to prevent the spread of infection, but, I just really doubt that, when a passenger drops by the buffet mid-afternoon to "just grab a snack," the handwashing that he/she did an hour ago is still effective.

This is why the buffet entrances on the Royal and Regal have handwashing stations

Captain Tony Yeoman told me the same thing

One of the reason that I love Regal/Royal buffet is that they have sinks for PAX to wash their hand in before entering. I love them. I use them before and after I eat in the buffet.

I wash in my room before I get to the buffet and only use the sinks during my meal.

I hate eating with greasy hands. :D

We were on the Crown in October 28 day Hawaii/Tahiti. We had the same issue at the grill except with hamburger meat. He used the same gloves that had hamburger blood on them to garnish the roll with lettuce and tomato. The future cruise consultant was next to us on line and we asked him who we could talk to about this. Why the heck are you asking me was his response.

We asked one of the crew clearing the tables to get his boss. He came to talk to us and said he would get the sous chef since he is in charge of the grill. He was too busy to talk to us but they gave him our name and cabin number. Never heard a word. We went to the reception desk, filled out a form for the suggestion box, filled out the survey and wrote a letter to Princess. No one cared. They only wanted to get rid of us which they did. We went to Oceania and MSC.