Are cruise ship restrooms dirty -- and do you use them?

[BroncosFan2010]

I have always found the restrooms on the RCCL ships to be amazingly clean. I imagine that public restrooms are much worse . I am not at all worried about using those restrooms. I wash my hands frequently and use hand sanitizer and I have a great immune system!

[okbookgirl]

I was going to put I only ever used the cabin bathroom, but I did use a bathroom once on the Ecstasy. I kind of stumbled on it, as there were no signs (over by the bar (starlight?) and it was around a corner by the stairs sort of. I was about to take the stairs down to my cabin and it was there so I used it (single sitter no stalls just a toliet and sink) but I washed up really well. I don't like public bathrooms anyway so I always avoid them (I completly lysol the ones in hotel/cabins as soon as I arrive) but if I need to I do use a public one and I scrub up really well, never touch a surface with clean hands, use papertowels to open the doors and turn off faucets, etc. So I'll just be continuing with what I was already doing.

[flamomo]

I have never seen a dirty, or even untidy public bathroom on any of the Princess ships I have sailed on.

 

I do hate that some females are "hoverers" and don't have the courtesy to dry the toilet seat before they leave the stall. It's offensive to have to wipe a urine sprinkled toilet seat before I can put a paper seat cover on it to use it myself. Others should not have to clean up after you.

 

To quote a cute reminder I saw in a ladies restroom a few years ago"

 

If you sprinkle when you hover to tinkle.

Be a Sweetie and wipe the seatie."

[gillianrose]

The biggest problem reported seems to be things like baby diaper changing stations being filthy. I don't think I have ever seen one of those stations on any ship I have cruised.

 

I never touch door handles in public restrooms directly with my hands. I do my best to be hygienic, and I have never come down with norovirus. I think that the public restrooms do need more attention, especially to handles used, though, and a lot more frequently than just daily cleaning.

[Ed Gibbons]

If cruise ships are the major cause of Nov (Norwalk like virus)., Then why is it that hospitals have as many cases as they do? I think that the virus spread on cruise ships is so prevalent is because there are so many areas with large gatherings of people. ie dining rooms, cafeterias and theaters. The best advice is to WASH YOUR HANDS!!! frequently.

[Monkeythyme]

I recently attended a convention, at the Sommet center in Nashville, of an organization populated almost entirely by upper-middle to upper class people, financially speaking. On my only trip to a restroom, I entered a stall that had feces smeared on the walls, and blobs of toilet paper stuck with the same material in various places.

My point is that daily, or even three times daily cleaning of restrooms cannot prevent their being trashed as long as there are such pigs among us. The only effective means of preventing viral or bacterial infections is to wash your hands thoroughly and use the tissue dispenser at the door to avoid direct contact with the handle as you exit. Wouldn't hurt to bump open swinging doors with your elbows rather than your hands, too.:eek:

[JayBS]

I make a little bit of an effort to use my stateroom loo when ever possible, but I'm not paranoid about it. This information doesn't change anything I plan to do on my next cruise. If anything it makes me feel BETTER about the public restrooms.

 

BETTER? Huh? What did you say? :confused:

 

The one thing I think they did right was not naming any ships or lines. IMHO the better lines are all going to look at this and use it to improve their public restroom cleaning procedures. Anything they can do to keep an outbreak from occuring they will do because of 1) how much an outbreak costs (in all of its various forms) and 2) the negative publicity. Simply put, they can easily improve their bottom line with this information without it costing much.

 

What do you think about that?

[BIG_Steve]

The rest room could be sterile, and you wash with hot water. Then you sit down to eat and pick up the salt shaker covered in bacteria. You have to pay attention, but also realize you can't escape germs. If not the salt shaker, then something else......

[BroncosFan2010]

The rest room could be sterile, and you wash with hot water. Then you sit down to eat and pick up the salt shaker covered in bacteria. You have to pay attention, but also realize you can't escape germs. If not the salt shaker, then something else......

 

 

Excellent point!

[pg.]

The rest room could be sterile, and you wash with hot water. Then you sit down to eat and pick up the salt shaker covered in bacteria. You have to pay attention, but also realize you can't escape germs. If not the salt shaker, then something else......

 

So true,, and all we can do is wash our hands,, and not touch our faces after touching items that may be dirty.

 

I use the public washrooms, I think getting paranoid is silly. Wash hands, use elbows after washing hands to turn off taps and open door. Thats all I do,, and I seemed to have survived just fine.

 

Ever see a highway restroom in Italy or France,, well, you would know real fear there if you think cruise ship washrooms are bad,, LOL

[RetireeWannabee]

I do hate that some females are "hoverers" and don't have the courtesy to dry the toilet seat before they leave the stall. It's offensive to have to wipe a urine sprinkled toilet seat before I can put a paper seat cover on it to use it myself. Others should not have to clean up after you.

 

To quote a cute reminder I saw in a ladies restroom a few years ago"

 

If you sprinkle when you hover to tinkle.

Be a Sweetie and wipe the seatie."

 

"Seat Pee'ers" have been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. the widespread availability of seat covers doesn't seem to have changed things. blech. ew. grrrrr

 

Just plain gross and inconsiderate.

[Plant]

If you want to know more about how clean your ship is, go to the CDC site:

 

http://wwwn.cdc.gov/InspectionQueryTool/Forms/InspectionSearch.aspx

 

 

Personally, I think "hovering", good handwashing and not touching the door handle on the way out of the restroom is the best I can do.

 

I'm concerned that younger people's immune systems aren't going to be a strong as ours from all the anti-bacterial used everywhere, not just onboard ships. JMO.

[Happy ks]

The restrooms on the ship are cleaner than 99.9999% of the ones at work or in shopping malls at home. And I am a hand washer --- don't believe in hand sanitizer, but I do wash my hands well and use a towel to open doors, turn off taps, etc.

 

I'd be more interested if the researchers put the swab to the utensils in the buffet. THAT's what freaks me out. All those people rubbing their nose then grabbing the salad bar tongs.

 

 

I've felt that way for a very long time.

 

I try to avoid using public bathrooms anywhere, not just on a cruise ship. But there are times when it cannot be avoided. I just do the best I can to stay clean and wash up afterwards. I always use a clean paper towel to turn off the faucet and open the door, but I agree we can't avoid all germs.

 

I find it interesting that the media focuses on cruise ships, when Noro is a virus that hits anywhere there are people. I suppose it's because they can focus on a concentrated population, whereas they can't almost anywhere else.

 

I've actually had people wha have never been on a ship before make the comment to me that everyone always gets Noro-virus from cruising. That's the media for you :rolleyes:

[Boozebabe]

I can't answer, on our last cruise I never used a ship's restroom, and I don't believe that I did on the one before it. However I never heard any complaints.

 

john

 

I hope you meant the restrooms in public areas!!! Or did you just use the stellar restrooms on the islands you visited??? LOL Otherwise you must have been hurtin' by the time you got back home.

[grandmato4]

The findings of this study will have no effect on which loo we choose to use while sailing. It's simply a reminder to touch as little as possible with our hands while using the public loo and wash our hands thoroughly often which we should all be doing every single day anyways no matter where we are.

[jocap]

Having just recovered from the local loos in Monte Carlo, Livorno and Gibraltar, the ones on board ship are a dream!- jocap.

[Cruzaholic41]

What's new to be learned here? A public restroom is where people go to expel bodily fluids, empty their bowels, fart, wash themselves, etc. Of course they aren't the cleanest places on Earth. Just be careful what you touch, and wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water. Then, use your butt to open the door. If the door opens in, either use your butt to hit the handicap button to open the door mechanically, or use a paper towel to open the door.

 

That being said, I have always found cruise ship restrooms to be very well kept.

[sjcruiser]

The restrooms on the ships I have been on have been as clean as can be expected with the number of people on board. The staff is always cleaning the restrooms, but what is disturbing is the number of people who don't wash their hands. With Norvirus, the Flu, Swine N1H1, and all the other little nasty germs and bacteria floating around, you would think people would take more precautions. This is not only on cruise ships, but any and everywhere restrooms are. I use paper towels to flush the toilet, turn the faucets on and off and open the doors upon exiting. I also carry pocket size hand sanitizer. my precautions came several years ago at the advice of my physician who said he had been doing it for years!