Hygiene on board.

First time on a cruise boat. Carnival Legend Alaska. How to avoid tummy upsets especially when eating buffet style?

Wash hands often. Avoid touching your face, mouth, eyes. Do not shake hands with people..

Try to get to the buffet early.

Keith

As well as washing your hands frequently, carry your own small bottle of hand sanitiser. Use it after getting your food but before eating. Even better, avoid the buffet ;)

WASH your hands.

We avoid the buffets as much as possible.

We go for the hot items where the crew actually plate everything for you.

And of course -- wash your hands!!

As others have said:

1. Wash hands frequently

2. Avoid touching your face

3. Avoid eating anything with your fingers, cut up that burger with a knife and fork

4. Use your knuckle on elevator buttons

5. Use a paper towel to open bathroom door

6. Try to use handrails as little as possible

7. Take same precautions on airplane going to cruise

8. Use hand sanitizer if you want, but don't rely on it as a substitute for frequent hand washing

Most ships have hand sanitizing stations located around the ship, particularly at the entrance to the dining venues. Use them! For example with RCI, it is mandatory to use them every time you enter a dining venue and often there will be a crew member assigned to apply it to your hands for you should you fail to do it yourself.

Part of the daily maintenance on board by the crew includes cleaning all common handrails on the staircases and other frequently touched areas. IMO, in general the cruise lines do a very good job at prevention with noro, etc., and for the most part - relative to the actual number of illnesses to the total number of passengers on board - are very successful in their efforts.

As in nearly every instance noro is brought on board by affected passengers, beyond this there is little more that the cruise lines can do. To help, you just need to take the appropriate steps and use common sense, but more importantly, enjoy your cruise!

Just ensure that you live your life as cleanly as you do at home. If you can scratch your nose or eat a sandwich when you're at home, without getting a tummy bug, you'll be able to do it on board ship. Apart from the hand gel, which is compulsory, I never take any special precautions and I never catch anything.

I would disagree with the idea of trying to use handrails as little as possible. When using a staircase on a moving vehicle, always use the handrails. You recover a lot faster from tummy bugs than you do from broken necks.

Unless there's an outbreak on board, the risk is tiny anyway.

I've seen people sneeze right on the food at the buffet! Ugh! As said above, I avoid the buffet![emoji16]

I've seen people sneeze right on the food at the buffet! Ugh! As said above, I avoid the buffet![emoji16]

I have never caught a tummy bug. Wash hands often and thoroughly and follow all the advice given here, but I caught colds on ships. From table mates sneezing all over the dining table to coughing right in my face in the hallway, I have seen it all! I am seriously considering face masks for our next cruise and maybe eating at a table for 2 or at least getting up immediately and leaving after a table covering sneeze. I know the droplets are in the air, but the less exposure the better.

We aren't fans of the buffet, either, but not so much for the "sanitation" reason, but for the food itself!

Unless there is an outbreak of noro on your ship, you should be ok...assuming you are ok in your daily home life. There is really no more incidences of illness on ships than on land...it's just that on ships it has to be reported, so people learn that others have been ill...on land, no one knows!

The CDC recently reported,

"Infected food workers are frequently the source of the outbreaks, often by touching ready-to-eat foods, such as raw fruits and vegetables, with their bare hands before serving them. However, any food served raw or handled after being cooked can get contaminated with norovirus."

Avoid ready to eat foods. If you simply must have a banana or orange, I suggest you reach for it with a clean napkin and wash it before you eat it. Be careful of foods like bread rolls which can easily be contaminated from the kitchen to the table.

Others have posted great tips above. Keep in mind that there are other bacteria that you should also be wary of. Salmonella and e-coli are examples. You may want to make sure that foods are served at the correct temperatures. Hot food must be served hot, or send it back. Same with cold food - make sure it is cold or send it back.

I also suggest that at the buffet, eat those items that are in high demand and turn over quickly. Scan areas for possible cross-contamination and avoid those areas.

Also, practice patience. It is very frustrating to see other cruisers committing cruise ship buffet no-nos, such as not using the appropriate serving tool, changing their minds and placing food back, filling up their glass at the beverage station, taking a sip and then refilling, using personal cutlery instead of serving tongs, eating things off their plate while still in the serving line, constantly touching their faces......it takes a lot of willpower to not appoint yourself as a food cop :)

Avoid buffets when possible. ;)

Avoid buffets.

In fact, avoid food.

Better yet, avoid cruising.

It won't stop you catching norovirus, but it might help stop you worrying about it.

More seriously, it seems that cruise ships carry a high proportion of people very prone to tummy bugs. If you're not one of them, you should be all right. But compare it to say Disneyworld, which as far as I know doesn't have the norovirus reputation that cruise ships have, and yet they give you a refillable mug which doesn't get washed all week which you refill by pushing it against the taps - the obvious conclusion is that people who go to Disneyworld are more capable of dealing with the germs than people who cruise. On average, of course.

The CDC recently reported,

 

"Infected food workers are frequently the source of the outbreaks, often by touching ready-to-eat foods, such as raw fruits and vegetables, with their bare hands before serving them. However, any food served raw or handled after being cooked can get contaminated with norovirus."

 

Avoid ready to eat foods. If you simply must have a banana or orange, I suggest you reach for it with a clean napkin and wash it before you eat it. Be careful of foods like bread rolls which can easily be contaminated from the kitchen to the table.

 

Others have posted great tips above. Keep in mind that there are other bacteria that you should also be wary of. Salmonella and e-coli are examples. You may want to make sure that foods are served at the correct temperatures. Hot food must be served hot, or send it back. Same with cold food - make sure it is cold or send it back.

While this is very true in general, the USPH requirements aboard ship will result in far fewer incidents of ungloved hands touching ready to eat food. The galley/wait staff on ships change gloves more times than most shore servers have tops to serve.

Also, the USPH has strict time/temperature rules. Whenever something that is "potentially hazardous foodstuff", whether hot or cold is placed in an environment where the temperature cannot be controlled and monitored, such as the buffet line, or even the "assembly" line in the galley, the food must go on time control, meaning that after 4 hours, it gets tossed.

Salmonella and e-coli are nearly a thing of the past on cruise ships, given the USPH requirements, which are far stricter than shoreside "food safe" practices.

We have never been ill on a cruise, thank the Lord. In addition to many of the above suggestions, I do not avoid the buffet but I do not eat anything with my bare hands. Yes, I have touched all the serving utensils and such, but I don't eat buns or pizza or sandwiches; etc. I choose foods that I can eat with my cutlery. This may seem silly to some of you, but to me it makes perfect sense. Yes, I know we can never live in a germ-free world and that despite our best efforts, the plates, cutlery and chair that you pull out from the table may all be "contaminated". But that's my advice. :)

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I've seen people sneeze right on the food at the buffet! Ugh! As said above, I avoid the buffet![emoji16]

Better cruise lines have staff serving you from the buffet tables (which also have glass sneeze guards).

Stomach upsets are not always caused by bacteria and viruses.

Over-indulging is a big problem on ships.

Just becuase you do not have to pay more for more food does not mean you need to eat yourself sick.

On a typical cruise itinerary, passengers eat nearly twice as much food on the first three days of a cruise. Then they all realize at the same time that if they continue at this pace, they are going to be in trouble. On the following days, food consumption drops considerably.

Remember:

Never eat anything bigger than your head.

Humans can survive for several minutes between large meals - with very few ill effects.

As others said good sanitation, and hopefully you aren't a germaphobe so you got lots of exposure that built a healthy immune system.

I also suggest that at the buffet, eat those items that are in high demand and turn over quickly. Scan areas for possible cross-contamination and avoid those areas.

 

Also, practice patience. It is very frustrating to see other cruisers committing cruise ship buffet no-nos, such as not using the appropriate serving tool, changing their minds and placing food back, filling up their glass at the beverage station, taking a sip and then refilling, using personal cutlery instead of serving tongs, eating things off their plate while still in the serving line, constantly touching their faces......it takes a lot of willpower to not appoint yourself as a food cop :)

I have never gotten a tummy disorder on a cruise ship. Only times I felt ill were from ports that were burning trash (twice this has happened to me in Puerta Vallerta) or from plant life that I'm apparently allergic to.

But my major concern is from cross contamination from serving utensils that passengers are not careful to return to the proper bin, as I'm severely allergic to shell fish.

On a typical cruise itinerary, passengers eat nearly twice as much food on the first three days of a cruise. Then they all realize at the same time that if they continue at this pace, they are going to be in trouble. On the following days, food consumption drops considerably.

 

 

I so fit this description!! :rolleyes: Though I have cruised enough now that I pretty much limit my eating starting with day one.

While this is very true in general, the USPH requirements aboard ship will result in far fewer incidents of ungloved hands touching ready to eat food. The galley/wait staff on ships change gloves more times than most shore servers have tops to serve.

 

Also, the USPH has strict time/temperature rules. Whenever something that is "potentially hazardous foodstuff", whether hot or cold is placed in an environment where the temperature cannot be controlled and monitored, such as the buffet line, or even the "assembly" line in the galley, the food must go on time control, meaning that after 4 hours, it gets tossed.

 

Salmonella and e-coli are nearly a thing of the past on cruise ships, given the USPH requirements, which are far stricter than shoreside "food safe" practices.

Some great points. While the USPH has strict time/temperature rules, we don't know whether these rules are always being followed. I have, unfortunately, been served, on numerous time, foods that were not at the correct temperature. Of course, as a passenger, I have no idea whether the food is safe to eat. But why take the chance? Send it back. An efficient rule is not always an indication of an efficient practice.

I have noted that according to the CDC website, since 1994 there have been 2 incidents of salmonella outbreaks on cruise ships, 2 of shigella (closely related to salmonella) and 10 cases of e-coli.

As well as washing your hands frequently, carry your own small bottle of hand sanitiser. Use it after getting your food but before eating. Even better, avoid the buffet ;)