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Hand washing on cruise ships


froggy9143
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This is why I don't eat people's potluck meals if I'm not sure about their hygiene. I see way too many women at work take the express route from the stall and bypass the sink. Ewwww. If they do it at work, I can guarantee you they are nasty at home too.

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This is why I don't eat people's potluck meals if I'm not sure about their hygiene. I see way too many women at work take the express route from the stall and bypass the sink. Ewwww. If they do it at work, I can guarantee you they are nasty at home too.
:eek: and then :(
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It 100% depends on the bathroom!

 

Sorry to all you germ-a-phones but many things like hoof and mouth (which I got as a child using a public sink and was VERY painful) are easily spread at public restroom sinks.

Ever been in a nasty gas station bathroom or a porta potty? No way am I touching anything that I don’t have to. Or what if I am wearing a bandaid due to a cut? There are tons of explanations why you might not see someone wash at that moment. And as for those nasty wet sinks, (and don’t get me started on those extremely unsanitary germ spewing air dryers they have added) I guarantee you my hips (which are the only thing touched as I can flush with my foot) are 1000% cleaner than certain bathrooms I have been in!

 

I wash my hands multiple times a day - and rarely if ever get sick - but depending on the bathroom, you may not see me do it. Nor will you see me exit the bathroom with the dirty wet sink and only drying option the germ spewer and opt for hand sanitizer.

 

Face it germaphobes- you judge and don’t really know what is happening or why. I know you won’t change your paranoia and you are not going to convince me to use a sink that I guarantee is less sanitary than I am! Happy travels!

 

 

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I'm all for personal hygiene, but if you are worried about the menus, why aren't you taking your dishes, glasses and flatware back to the cabin to wash them before being served food? What about your chair? Oh wait, the dishes come from the kitchen with food on them. The waiters handle the dishes. Oh oh. Don't mean to make fun of you but we can only go so far within reason.

 

There have been studies on what type of germs that are on the menus in restaurants and you would be surprised at to just what is on them

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Just saying .... I've always seen women washing their hands after using the "Lady's Room".

Seems almost all do. :)

Most of the women do wash there hands. I have seen some who don't. I find that on Princess the sinks are clean,and there are paper towels, so it is a easy wash.
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Just saying .... I've always seen women washing their hands after using the "Lady's Room".

Seems almost all do. :)

 

I agree with what you said women do take the time to wash their hands.

Many a time my husband has come out of the men's room and pointed to a man who came out just before him telling me that the man over there DID NOT WASH HIS HANDS

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There have been studies on what type of germs that are on the menus in restaurants and you would be surprised at to just what is on them

 

No, I probably wouldn't be surprised. Nor at the myriad of other places we all come in contact with in our daily lives.

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I wash my hands multiple times a day - and rarely if ever get sick - but depending on the bathroom, you may not see me do it. Nor will you see me exit the bathroom with the dirty wet sink and only drying option the germ spewer and opt for hand sanitizer.

 

Face it germaphobes- you judge and don’t really know what is happening or why. I know you won’t change your paranoia and you are not going to convince me to use a sink that I guarantee is less sanitary than I am! Happy travels!

 

I don't understand how a sink can be less sanitary.

 

I'm not sure about princess ships since I haven't been in a while (I'll find out soon as I'm excited to try another Princess cruise), but, on Celebrity ships, you can wash your hands without touching the sink - water and soap are sensor dependent and turn on / dispense without you needing to touch a thing....

 

Germaphobe or not - my feeling is that everyone should wash their hands - for their sake and the sake of others.

 

IMO, handwashing should be mandatory ;)

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On our recent Caribbean Princess cruise, I was disappointed to see the new hand-washing stations at the buffet instead of a crew member with a bottle of Purell. DH and I were the only ones I ever saw using the sinks, on a 12-day cruise. Halfway through, we switched to in-room dining.

 

I raised the issue in our post-cruise survey.

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I don't understand how a sink can be less sanitary.

Oh yes it can be way less sanitary!

One of the hospitals I worked in did a culture of the sinks in one of the ICUs and found Pseudomonas Aeruginosa on every tap where the water comes out, in the sink, in the drain and splashed on the walls around the sinks. P. Aeruginosa causes a really nasty pneumonia.

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I do not consider myself a germaphobe but always wash my hands before leaving the restroom but get aggravated when they only have the air dryers and not paper towels. First, I think paper towels are more sanitary than the warm air. Second, I like to use a paper towel to grab the handle of the door to open it. If they do have paper towels I always hope they have a trash can near the door.

I have always thought that restroom doors should have automatic openers so I don’t have to touch the door handle after someone just left without washing their hands. My other solution would be to have the restroom doors sit back a bit and then open out instead of in. This way you touch the handle before using the RR and can just push the door open when leaving.

 

 

 

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On our recent Caribbean Princess cruise, I was disappointed to see the new hand-washing stations at the buffet instead of a crew member with a bottle of Purell. DH and I were the only ones I ever saw using the sinks, on a 12-day cruise. Halfway through, we switched to in-room dining.

 

I raised the issue in our post-cruise survey.

I was pleasantly surprised on Royal Princess to not only see the handwashing stations, but to see the crew member enforcing that people use them.

 

While Purell is nice, all medical personnel agree that hand washing is much, much more effective.

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I've always wondered when/if the staff cleans the menus in the MDR. My guess is "no".

I carry a small hand sanitizer bottle when on board and after we finish with the menu, we clean our hands with it. You never know where that menu has been.:cool:

 

Your guess was wrong. All the major cruise lines have a standard menu cleaning protocol. Are the menus absolutely sterile? Probably not, but they are far cleaner than many other things you are touching on the ship.

 

Let me guess where you carry that small hand sanitizer bottle; pocket or purse?

Pockets and purses are two of the dirtiest places on the ship.

 

So let's see now;

1. You remove the bottle from a contaminated pocket or purse, and squirt the sanitizer on your hands.

2. Now your hands are relatively clean.

3. You pick up the contaminated bottle to pass it to someone else or to put it back into your contaminated pocket or purse, thereby contaminating your hands all over again........................

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So let's see now;

1. You remove the bottle from a contaminated pocket or purse, and squirt the sanitizer on your hands.

2. Now your hands are relatively clean.

3. You pick up the contaminated bottle to pass it to someone else or to put it back into your contaminated pocket or purse, thereby contaminating your hands all over again........................

 

I prefer to use this method which avoids recontamination:

1. Unzip handbag compartment with right hand, remove sanitizer and squirt onto left hand.

2. Replace sanitizer in handbag and close zip with right hand.

3. Rub sanitiser into both hands which (hopefully) leaves them relatively clean.

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I've always wondered when/if the staff cleans the menus in the MDR. My guess is "no".

I carry a small hand sanitizer bottle when on board and after we finish with the menu, we clean our hands with it. You never know where that menu has been.:cool:

Any purse I purchase for cruise must accommodate my little bottle of sanitizer! Great minds think alike!!!!!!

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I was pleasantly surprised on Royal Princess to not only see the handwashing stations, but to see the crew member enforcing that people use them.

 

While Purell is nice, all medical personnel agree that hand washing is much, much more effective.

It's more like encouraging, not enforcing.

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On our recent Caribbean Princess cruise, I was disappointed to see the new hand-washing stations at the buffet instead of a crew member with a bottle of Purell. DH and I were the only ones I ever saw using the sinks, on a 12-day cruise. Halfway through, we switched to in-room dining.

 

I raised the issue in our post-cruise survey.

 

You might be aware that Purell is nearly useless against Norovirus....while hand washing with soap and water is very effective. We once met a CDC expert (lecturing the crew on a ship) who told us that his major problem with hand sanitizers is that they give the user a false sense of protection. Few folks will wash their hands with soap and water if there is a convenient hand sanitzer nearby.

 

Hank

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I'm all for personal hygiene, but if you are worried about the menus, why aren't you taking your dishes, glasses and flatware back to the cabin to wash them before being served food? What about your chair? Oh wait, the dishes come from the kitchen with food on them. The waiters handle the dishes. Oh oh. Don't mean to make fun of you but we can only go so far within reason.

 

its fun to watch the waitresses in restaurants wait in customers, serve food, wrap the silverware, take money etc etc all without washing their hands

 

heck in the old days my fav sub shop took your order and made subs and took your money with no thought about it.

 

also wondering how many people here touch escalator handrails or do you use the back of your hand to steady yourself :)

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You might be aware that Purell is nearly useless against Norovirus....while hand washing with soap and water is very effective. We once met a CDC expert (lecturing the crew on a ship) who told us that his major problem with hand sanitizers is that they give the user a false sense of protection. Few folks will wash their hands with soap and water if there is a convenient hand sanitzer nearby.

 

Hank

So right about the sanitizers. No mention in this thread about RINSING! All the soap does is "loosen and float' the germs off the skin, but its a good 20 second rinse that carries them away. Soap with a brief rinse is not as effective.

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I have always wondered why some people don't wash after using the restroom. I usually say something like you forgot to wash to those I see not washing and almost always get ignored. A couple of times people have turned around and washed. The only times I haven't washed my hands is when the water itself is dirty. Then I use a wipe or hand sanitizer.

 

Only 2 people have said why they don't wash. When I saw this post I was hoping we would hear from more. I have heard the old excuse of I didn't touch anything so my hands aren't dirty.

 

I had never considered that the sink might be dirty. But then I don't touch the sink bowl, my hands are washed after turning the water on and I turn it off using a paper towel or my elbow. So I don't understand how a dirty sink is an issue.

 

 

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Reading this thread gave me some food for thought about how and why people do things. I wash my hands fro two reasons.

1. To keep me from getting sick

2. to keep others from getting sick.

Like others I try not to touch to many surfaces in the public Princess bathrooms. I so have a question, how does any one flush a Princess toilet with their foot?

A. You must put the lid down. Can't not react the flush button with it up.

B. The button gets press (as I recall ) and it seem to get pressed below the surface that it is on. I would really like to learn this trick.

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I have to ask, especially to the assumed male who "shakes dry".

So if you just shake dry I take it you didn't touch your package therfore you didn't aim and likely sprayed urine all over. How is this more sanitary? Gross..the reason men's restrooms are known to be dirtier than women's.

Another thought to consider is people go to the bathroom, male or female, typically have used their hands and touched their genitals to wipe or shake. Then they go to the sink and turn on the water so now that is on the faucets of the sink. That would be why I would agree the sink could be dirty. .. and why I turn the water on with a paper towel. Rise hands then get soap, then rinse again.

 

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Reading this thread gave me some food for thought about how and why people do things. I wash my hands fro two reasons.

1. To keep me from getting sick

2. to keep others from getting sick.

Like others I try not to touch to many surfaces in the public Princess bathrooms. I so have a question, how does any one flush a Princess toilet with their foot?

A. You must put the lid down. Can't not react the flush button with it up.

B. The button gets press (as I recall ) and it seem to get pressed below the surface that it is on. I would really like to learn this trick.

 

 

I have to ask, especially to the assumed male who "shakes dry".

So if you just shake dry I take it you didn't touch your package therfore you didn't aim and likely sprayed urine all over. How is this more sanitary? Gross..the reason men's restrooms are known to be dirtier than women's.

Another thought to consider is people go to the bathroom, male or female, typically have used their hands and touched their genitals to wipe or shake. Then they go to the sink and turn on the water so now that is on the faucets of the sink. That would be why I would agree the sink could be dirty. .. and why I turn the water on with a paper towel. Rise hands then get soap, then rinse again.

 

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Princess has automatic flushers & water control systems.

No touching involved.

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