Food poisoning

Have you ever noticed how many hours the condiment bottles (mayonnaise! mustard and ketchup) sit out on the tables at the pool grill on the Navigator? Well I did....why? Well, earlier this week when my husband and I were planning on snorkeling in Grand Cayman, DH was quarantined in our cabin and I had nothing better to do than wander around the ship, noting different sanitary infractions.

The quarantine was put into place after he became sick 3 hours after eating a suspicious cajun rubbed flank steak salad in the main dining room. After reporting his food poisoning, instead of receiving an apology from the hotel manager, Michael Coghlan, DH was treated like one of the characters from the film Outbreak for 24 hours. By the way, my husband is an award winning chef and is well versed in food safety.

The answer to the mayonnaise question, on the day that I checked, they were on the tables from 10am to 3:30pm and it was especially hot and humid. I also noticed a few modifications before arriving in US ports.

So the moral to this story is pack plenty of immodium with you, and if you do get sick after eating something that made you think twice.....

amen

Regret learning of your husband's illness, Les Picantins. Was this that Navigator cruise that disembarked today in Miami? Jim and I were on that cruise.

"ConsumerReports" checked chickens last year and found about 75 percent were contaminated with salmonella (not the lounge singer) but the toxin!

I never eat chicken ever!

Yes it was. We didn't meet as we kept pretty much to ourselves on this cruise.

Sounds like some line needs a refresher in safe food handling laws.

It is funny (well, actually it is not), that you bring up the topic of food safety. For a number of reasons, I have to be especially careful with my diet, I will go hungry for days rather than risk the possibility of getting sick. There have been a number of occasions where I have come across a situation on a ship that was less than sanitary and the response from Regent personnel was less than satisfactory. On our Dubai to Sydney cruise in 2013 so many people on the ship were sick with GI problems and when people started to complain, we were told it was due to passengers eating bad food in Bali. The people who did go to the doctor were complaining of outrageous medical fees and the quarantine of the cabin, which resulted in many people not going to the doctor at all - this went on for days. Many of the crew were also getting sick. This was in addition to a respiratory ailment going around the ship. Finally, ONLY after the captain got sick, was there an announcement that anyone who had any GI issues would be treated free by medical services. Also, the entire atmosphere on the ship changed - ALL the holiday decorations were removed and the ship was scrubbed from top to bottom, many times over. Food service changed - passengers could touch nothing, everything was served with personnel wearing gloves, including the distribution of plates. However, it my opinion, it took Regent much too long to respond and they were refusing to acknowledge that there was a problem on board. During this time - I was more than extra careful and skipped many, many meals. On another cruise (before the refurbishment) my nephews observed a gentlemen trying to grab a hotdog off the grill with his fingers and not being very successful. Being the good Boy Scouts that they are, they tried to report it to someone, but no one would pay attention. They came and told me and we all walked together to report it, which I did. When I inquired as to why he chose to ignore the boys when they reported the same incident, the response was "you know children, you never know when they are telling the truth - they are probably the ones who were touching the hot dogs". I was furious for a number of reasons, including the fact that we don't eat non-Kosher hot dogs, but no one at Regent seemed the bit concerned about the entire incident. And no, I do not know if they removed the hot dogs in questions.

gnomie :)

I never eat away from the ship - I trust the ship to be more sanitary than any eatery on shore - anywhere!

"ConsumerReports" checked chickens last year and found about 75 percent were contaminated with salmonella (not the lounge singer) but the toxin!

 

I never eat chicken ever!

Your post is going to send me into nightmares again. There were a lot of reports on chicken and salmonella a few years ago. It was sickening! I didn't care that cooking a chicken well killed the salmonella -- just the fact that it had it in the first place was enough to make me gag. I gave up chicken for several months. When I tried it again, it made me sick (not an usual response to eating something that you haven't eaten in a long time).

Think I'm going to close my eyes and pretend that I didn't read your post :o Do agree with your last post....... food on the ship is safer than just about anywhere. If I am going to eat chicken anywhere, it will probably be on Regent.

I never eat away from the ship - I trust the ship to be more sanitary than any eatery on shore - anywhere!

I cannot possibly imagine spending two weeks in the Mediterranean and not eating in Italy or France. Why on earth travel halfway across the world to eat only on the ship where one is served upscale US-based institutional food? I am not saying I do not enjoy the food on Regent because I rather like it; however, I would never pass up a wood-fired Sicilian pizza in order to make it back to the ship in time for lunch in Compass Rose.

I grew up on a chicken and beef farm. I can tell you, all chicken (and turkey and any other poultry for that matter) is potentially contaminated with salmonella. That is why you should never eat it less than completely cooked. Cooking kills the bacteria, but if it is not completely cooked, you are at risk.

I cannot possibly imagine spending two weeks in the Mediterranean and not eating in Italy or France. Why on earth travel halfway across the world to eat only on the ship where one is served upscale US-based institutional food? I am not saying I do not enjoy the food on Regent because I rather like it; however, I would never pass up a wood-fired Sicilian pizza in order to make it back to the ship in time for lunch in Compass Rose.

I've eaten in all those places and more while living in Europe for a few years.

And since I am from Europe and live IN Europe I would be a very very thin person if I did not eat food here... and shockingly I also drink the tap water (unless labelled undrinkable of course...)

The main reason I don't eat of the ship is the same as the excursion debate, on a smaller scale -- I already paid for the food on the ship, and I don't want to pay twice! :p

The main reason I don't eat of the ship is the same as the excursion debate, on a smaller scale -- I already paid for the food on the ship, and I don't want to pay twice! :p

That too, Don!

Les Picantins, I am sorry to learn of your husband's food poisoning and even sorrier to hear of Regent's handling of the situation. I realize that they initially they may have been concerned re: norovirus but at some point the symptoms and recovery are usually quite different. I used to greatly admire M Coghlan but not as much recently. I have heard of his threatening to disembark other pax from 'his ship' . I don't know whether this was situational & derved or a product of poor temper or Regent policy. It usually sounds a bit graceless, at best.

I agree with your observations re: the condiments left on the tables for the entire service period. Additionally, the buffet table where the salads [many mayonnaise based] sit for h-o-u-r-s is not chilled so that they also are sitting out in the air.

This combined with Regent not enforcing its own rules re: no pampers in the pool or whirlpool makes me think that Regent needs a few USPH inspections to 'inspire' changes. Certainly one questions whether R could be within code.

Paula

And we pay thousands of dollars for the "opportunity or privilage" of being sickened by food that's not prepared, stored, or served correctly?! :eek: How nice!

I think I've just decided not to eat at the pool grill ever again (at least not a "high-noon"). Now that I think about it, I don't believe I've ever seen the condiments or salads (potato, cole slaw, tuna, etc.) sitting in beds of ice out there on the deck. I just "assumed" (apparently foolishly) that the outrageous prices we we've been paying were somehow "insulating" or protecting us from substandard and dangerous food handling practices.

Let's not blow this out of proportion. While not trying to diminish the OPS experience, how many times have we heard of someone getting food poisoning on Regent over the past 10 years? Unlike restaurants on land, cruise lines serve food to their passengers 24/7 - 365 days a year. It is for this reason that I agreed with Ted about the safety of food on Regent ships. Having said that, we still eat off of the ship and enjoy food in many countries in the world.

Let's not blow this out of proportion. While not trying to diminish the OPS experience, how many times have we heard of someone getting food poisoning on Regent over the past 10 years? Unlike restaurants on land, cruise lines serve food to their passengers 24/7 - 365 days a year. It is for this reason that I agreed with Ted about the safety of food on Regent ships. Having said that, we still eat off of the ship and enjoy food in many countries in the world.

Lets not forget the Silversea incident. Don't think that ships don't cut corners when the regulators aren't looking. That'd be quite naïve.

Lets not forget the Silversea incident. Don't think that ships don't cut corners when the regulators aren't looking. That'd be quite naïve.

Agree. And, the Navigator also had a problem a few months after the Shadow and Crystal has had Norovirus issues. Still, out off the thousands of Regent posts that I have read over the past 10 or so years, food poisoning rarely comes up.

Sorry to disagree with some of you but for me one of the greatest pleasures of visiting foreign countries is to try their food which is a great part of any culture. I always try to eat lunch off the ship. I uses common sense in choosing where I eat just as I would in any city in the U. S. And frankly, from the OP's description of what goes on on the Navigator it's riskier to eat on the ship.

I'm just surprised a container of mayonnaise or any mayo-based salad would be allowed to sit out anywhere other than in a chilled case on the pool deck or elsewhere. Everybody knows chicken has to be cooked well, that's a red herring.

TC - I don't believe anyone is "blowing [this] out of proportion". If it [food sickness] happened to you or DH on a cruise, I'm sure you would not be too pleased about it, either. But I'm also absolutely certain that if it happened to you on Regent - the rest of us would never be reading about it on CC!

Are you actually saying that you think it is "okay" [for Regent] to leave mayonnaise (and other risky food items) unrefrigerated and out on a pool deck buffet for 4-5 hours at a time simply because -

".....cruise lines serve food to their passengers 24/7 - 365 days a year"!!??

That's what you said. Is this simply another (countless) time that you have ostensibly been "misinterpreted"?. If for no other reason than that (the volume and extended hours of service), cruise ships should be extra careful on how they store and serve these items.

Is this really your position (the volume and times that food is served) of why buffet items such as chicken salad and mayonnaise should not have to be sitting in ice or in a refrigerated section of a buffet table during set-up and serving hours? I would expect these type of food items to be kept cold (and handled properly) even at a church picnic or at a family reunion - and certainly on a multi-million dollar cruise ship (or at a McDonalds or a Subway, for that matter)!

I'm even (now) wondering if the same container of mayonnaise which might have sat out unrefrigerated for 5 hours on a Monday buffet....is the same container of mayonnaise which again is put out the next day on the pool deck buffet on Tuesday. :eek:

Food inspectors (for jurisdictional and cost reasons) probably do not travel on a cruise ship during the course of an actual cruise to observe what is "happening" on an ongoing basis. They just do a spot check when the ship happens to be in their port. For that (inspection) day, ship's can be on their "best behavior". I'm not singling out Regent here. But this happens to be the Regent Board and the OP's experience (along with other observations re the pool deck) occurred on a Regent cruise, so that's the focus of this particular discussion.

The fact that "it can happen anywhere" is of no relevance, excuse, or consolation to one of us if we happen to be on a Regent cruise at the time (and paid the huge fare to be there) and we get sick, are confined to our stateroom, and are then threatened with being "de-boarded"; particularly when it is not the passenger's fault and is totally preventable through use of proper food refrigeration and handling protocols by the cruise line and staff.

Oh my goodness...... we were sick on Regent and I've discussed it many times (our "cruise from Hell").

Sorry but, IMO, your post is not representative of what I have said so there is really no appropriate response. Can't really recommend Silversea or Crystal for reasons stated earlier. Perhaps you should try Seabourn?

Lets not forget the Silversea incident. Don't think that ships don't cut corners when the regulators aren't looking. That'd be quite naïve.

__________________

Host Dan

Dan are you suggesting that Regent's restaurants, chef's, cooks, waiter,etc. cut corners regarding food handling, safety or cleanliness regulations? That is a serious allegation. Regent has always passed all there US health inspections with high marks.

I have sailed over 450 nites and 33 voyages with Regent/Radisson and my experience is the exact opposite, the staff go to exceptional lengths regarding restaurant and kitchen cleanliness and food safety. Every food items that is put out on on the buffet has a date and time and pull time sticker on it. I see crew constantly monitoring the food temperature and serve times.

As far as to OP and others posting here about mayo being left out unrefrigerated being a food safety issue, this is mostly a myth. As long as it is not mixed with another food, mayo really doesn't need to be refrigerated. Commercially prepackaged mayo has a ph that is far to low to allow bacterial growth. Actually adding mayo to other foods will act as a preservative and extend it's serving life.

Norovirus and other common GI illnesses are almost always due to poor hygiene and not food. For this you can usually blame your fellow passenger, not the ship's crew.

J