Get rid of the buffets already!...

[AF-1]

as a child I ate at automats in NYC.  Now I just order my food with a app.  Almost all the places in Cincy have apps.  Order on app and by the time I get to restaurant my food is ready.  

[Hlitner]

5 hours ago, getting older slowly said:

Please puréed food is normally,  food eaten in pieces turned into something indescribable.

for Babies, some older people and people in hospital......

 

I have this shocking vision in my brain box of steak, chips and salad all being puréed 

 

Soup is soup  Yes I enjoy my homemade pea and ham soup...

what next...... people will be talking about fish milk shakes......

 

This Automat you talk of.... it this a similar idea to early Motels with a breakfast hatch... where food was magically delivered by an unknown person to your room  via a cupboard with two doors.............   and the prize is behind which door    LOL

 

Cheers Don

 

 

Automat's only existed in a handful of US cities.  There would be one or more large walls lined with rows of small glass-fronted display boxes.  The customer would look for what they wanted (everything was plated inside the box), put their coins in the device, and the front glass door would pop open and you would take your item.  The kitchen was behind the wall and the staff would periodically refill the boxes from the back.   Here is a link to some pictures:

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=picture+of+automat&id=73C3F432DDDBCACFB7DD2CF07FECEBE84D1AF4E8&form=IQFRBA&first=1&cw=1519&ch=754

 

The concept eventually disappeared (not sure why).

 

Hank

 

[cruisemom42]

I remember visiting NYC with my parents when I was in second grade. My mother thought it was great fun taking my sister and I to eat lunch at one of the automats. 

 

At the time, I just assumed that was how busy office workers and big city folks ate lunch. LOL.

[ilikeanswers]

7 hours ago, getting older slowly said:

 people will be talking about fish milk shakes

 

Not milk shakes but in Asia you get delicious fish cakes made from blended up fish meat😛.

[lenquixote66]

4 hours ago, AF-1 said:

as a child I ate at automats in NYC.  Now I just order my food with a app.  Almost all the places in Cincy have apps.  Order on app and by the time I get to restaurant my food is ready.  

Did you ever go to a Sodamat ? 

[ldubs]

2 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

Did you ever go to a Sodamat ? 

 

I've heard of the automats and probably seen pic's but never had the opportunity to actually visit one.   A sodamat is new to me.  Just for beverages I presume.  

 

 

[lenquixote66]

54 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

I've heard of the automats and probably seen pic's but never had the opportunity to actually visit one.   A sodamat is new to me.  Just for beverages I presume.  

 

 

In Coney Island ,Brooklyn for five cents you could get 28 different sodas.That was a thrill for kids .Sodamat was inside an arcade.You could play pinball machines and then drink soda.I still have coupons for the soda that I saved.

[ldubs]

1 minute ago, lenquixote66 said:

In Coney Island ,Brooklyn for five cents you could get 28 different sodas.That was a thrill for kids .Sodamat was inside an arcade.You could play pinball machines and then drink soda.I still have coupons for the soda that I saved.

 

That is pretty cool.  Coney Island is another place I've never been.   Don't know why, but I always think of it as being similar to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk here in Northern California.  

[lenquixote66]

Just now, ldubs said:

 

That is pretty cool.  Coney Island is another place I've never been.   Don't know why, but I always think of it as being similar to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk here in Northern California.  

I have never been to Santa Cruz but it is similiar to boardwalks with arcades in Southern California.My wife grew up in Coney Island.

[ldubs]

Just now, lenquixote66 said:

I have never been to Santa Cruz but it is similiar to boardwalks with arcades in Southern California.My wife grew up in Coney Island.

 

Yep, it is.  Big wooden roller coaster, arcades, and corn dog type food all on a beach boardwalk.  I haven't been for probably 10 years even though it isn't all that far.  We would probably do day trips there but they don't allow dogs, which is probably a good thing considering.   Anyway, for day trips we typically go to dog friendly places.  

[navybankerteacher]

9 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Automat's only existed in a handful of US cities.  There would be one or more large walls lined with rows of small glass-fronted display boxes.  The customer would look for what they wanted (everything was plated inside the box), put their coins in the device, and the front glass door would pop open and you would take your item.  The kitchen was behind the wall and the staff would periodically refill the boxes from the back.   Here is a link to some pictures:

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=picture+of+automat&id=73C3F432DDDBCACFB7DD2CF07FECEBE84D1AF4E8&form=IQFRBA&first=1&cw=1519&ch=754

 

The concept eventually disappeared (not sure why).

 

Hank

 

One of the problems the Automats had was the tendency of many people who had lots of free time to indefinitely occupy tables (sort of like what happens in the Lido on cruise ships) while occasionally getting a coffee - or just making free “Automat Soup” - using a dozen or do free ketchup packs with the no- charge hot water available for those who bought tea bags.

[neverbeenhere]

Hobo tomato soup: as many ketchup packets as one can obtain, one sugar packet, hot water and of course. pepper and salt packets to taste. 
 

best served with saltines, if they are available for free. 

Edited June 6, 2020 by neverbeenhere

[Hlitner]

2 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

One of the problems the Automats had was the tendency of many people who had lots of free time to indefinitely occupy tables (sort of like what happens in the Lido on cruise ships) while occasionally getting a coffee - or just making free “Automat Soup” - using a dozen or do free ketchup packs with the no- charge hot water available for those who bought tea bags.

In another post (not sure what thread) I posted a suggesting that cruise ships will need to get folks to leave the Lido when they are not actually eating.  On some of our longer cruises (HAL, Princess, etc) there are passengers who will grab a Lido table early in the morning and stay there for the entire day.  They use that table for their knitting (sometimes a knitting group), card games, and just socialization.  As a result, there is a shortage of tables/chairs for those who simply want to go into the Lido for breakfast or lunch.  My post got some immediate push back from another poster who made it clear that she liked to stay in the Lido and would not tolerate anyone telling her to move.  She mentioned that she would sit there for hours just having coffee.  My response was that there were plenty of other places on the ship where she could enjoy coffee...but that fell on deaf ears.

 

We have cruised on more then 70 different ships and many have the issue of too few tables available in the Lido.  It is always the same with some folks finding the Lido the perfect place to hang out on a sea day.   If we are going to have any kind of social distancing in the Lido the cruise lines are going to need to find a way to move these folks out of Lido.  On one of our cruises they actually has small signs on the tables asking folks to vacate tables if not eating.  Or course nobody paid any attention to those signs, and as is typical of cruise ships nobody in the crew attempted to enforce or even mention those signs.  On one HAL cruise DW and I actually had a lady ask us to move (while we were in the middle of eating breakfast) because "she needed our table for her knitting club" which always used the same few tables in the Lido.  

 

Imagine a ship where they remove 1/3 of the deck loungers (to create some space) and promote the old policy of no saving of chairs/loungers.  You can bet that most of those loungers will be "reserved" by 7am and will still be empty at 10am.  And like on most ships there will not be any attempt at enforcement by the crew.  or  Perhaps this COVID-19 will result in some real changes on ships and the crew will actually start to enforce published policies.  

 

Hank

 

Hank

[jperry2011]

.

[lenquixote66]

3 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

Yep, it is.  Big wooden roller coaster, arcades, and corn dog type food all on a beach boardwalk.  I haven't been for probably 10 years even though it isn't all that far.  We would probably do day trips there but they don't allow dogs, which is probably a good thing considering.   Anyway, for day trips we typically go to dog friendly places.  

We have toured California from LA to SF several times but not since 2002.

[AF-1]

lenquixote66;  not been to sodamat.  Been to Coney Island many times;  hung out at Nathans on the corner; love their fries.  Plust there are some great pizza joints in Coney Island.  

[ldubs]

14 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

We have toured California from LA to SF several times but not since 2002.

 

Even though I'm a native Californian there are still areas I haven't visited.  Even more so for Mrs Ldubs who is an immigrant.  Because of travel issues we will be spending more time seeing more places here in our state.  I don't like why it is happening of course, but kind of look forward to doing more local travel.     

[pris993]

17 hours ago, Hlitner said:

In another post (not sure what thread) I posted a suggesting that cruise ships will need to get folks to leave the Lido when they are not actually eating.  On some of our longer cruises (HAL, Princess, etc) there are passengers who will grab a Lido table early in the morning and stay there for the entire day.  They use that table for their knitting (sometimes a knitting group), card games, and just socialization.  As a result, there is a shortage of tables/chairs for those who simply want to go into the Lido for breakfast or lunch.  My post got some immediate push back from another poster who made it clear that she liked to stay in the Lido and would not tolerate anyone telling her to move.  She mentioned that she would sit there for hours just having coffee.  My response was that there were plenty of other places on the ship where she could enjoy coffee...but that fell on deaf ears.

 

We have cruised on more then 70 different ships and many have the issue of too few tables available in the Lido.  It is always the same with some folks finding the Lido the perfect place to hang out on a sea day.   If we are going to have any kind of social distancing in the Lido the cruise lines are going to need to find a way to move these folks out of Lido.  On one of our cruises they actually has small signs on the tables asking folks to vacate tables if not eating.  Or course nobody paid any attention to those signs, and as is typical of cruise ships nobody in the crew attempted to enforce or even mention those signs.  On one HAL cruise DW and I actually had a lady ask us to move (while we were in the middle of eating breakfast) because "she needed our table for her knitting club" which always used the same few tables in the Lido.  

 

Imagine a ship where they remove 1/3 of the deck loungers (to create some space) and promote the old policy of no saving of chairs/loungers.  You can bet that most of those loungers will be "reserved" by 7am and will still be empty at 10am.  And like on most ships there will not be any attempt at enforcement by the crew.  or  Perhaps this COVID-19 will result in some real changes on ships and the crew will actually start to enforce published policies.  

 

Hank

 

Hank

Like you we have many cruises, well over 60 have lost count on 9 different lines... more recently Princess, HAL, Cunard, Celebrity.... while I don't camp out in the Lido all day, I do go up their and have coffee sometimes usually during off hours...if it was busy I would most likely leave because then too noisy for me.

 

I take a difference approach though then you, I don't expect anyone else to move to enable me to enjoy my cruise experience.  If something is not working for me, I figure out to enjoy what I want in a different way.   I rarely have eaten at the Lido when busy.  I either go during slow times or get what I want and take it back to my cabin or another location where I can comfortably enjoy myself.    For me if something is not working for me,  it works better to change what I am doing vs expect the cruise to something that suits me.  For example, sometimes when in the past 10 years, forget how long ago, we decided we no longer enjoyed meals in the MDR.  First time, we were on a Celebrity ship in the Mediterranean... on 11 day cruise after 5 nights in the MDR, we decided the MDR was too crowded, noisy, could hardly read menu due to lighting... food was so, so.... we decided to skip it.  For the remainder of the cruise we did a late lunch at the buffet and room service and never missed the MDR at all.  From that point on, we started limiting how often we went to the MDR, now we don't go at all.  So many more options on board, then we are free to go to any show because we are not trying to deal with MDR time.  It is a very freeing approach. 

[Hlitner]

8 minutes ago, pris993 said:

Like you we have many cruises, well over 60 have lost count on 9 different lines... more recently Princess, HAL, Cunard, Celebrity.... while I don't camp out in the Lido all day, I do go up their and have coffee sometimes usually during off hours...if it was busy I would most likely leave because then too noisy for me.

 

I take a difference approach though then you, I don't expect anyone else to move to enable me to enjoy my cruise experience.  If something is not working for me, I figure out to enjoy what I want in a different way.   I rarely have eaten at the Lido when busy.  I either go during slow times or get what I want and take it back to my cabin or another location where I can comfortably enjoy myself.    For me if something is not working for me,  it works better to change what I am doing vs expect the cruise to something that suits me.  For example, sometimes when in the past 10 years, forget how long ago, we decided we no longer enjoyed meals in the MDR.  First time, we were on a Celebrity ship in the Mediterranean... on 11 day cruise after 5 nights in the MDR, we decided the MDR was too crowded, noisy, could hardly read menu due to lighting... food was so, so.... we decided to skip it.  For the remainder of the cruise we did a late lunch at the buffet and room service and never missed the MDR at all.  From that point on, we started limiting how often we went to the MDR, now we don't go at all.  So many more options on board, then we are free to go to any show because we are not trying to deal with MDR time.  It is a very freeing approach. 

LOL we hear you when it comes to the Celebrity MDR's.  But our approach was a bit different because we do not cruise to eat dinner buffets.  So we simply stopped booking Celebrity :).  I would add that we used to put up with Celebrity MDRs because we thought their food was among the best of all the mass market lines.  But when Celebrity cut-back on the quality of their cuisine we cut back on the quantity of bookings.  

 

I agree with you about avoiding the crush times at Lidos and we follow a similar practice as you.  But on some ships, if you go into the Lido for a late breakfast you  can struggle to find a seat because they are taken by folks who are doing everything but eating.  Most of time it works out and eventually we find seats.  But with new social distancing issues it is likely that seating will be reduced (more space between tables) and this could create some major problems.   The mass market ships are not designed for social distancing.

 

Hank

[clo]

2 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

Even though I'm a native Californian there are still areas I haven't visited.  Even more so for Mrs Ldubs who is an immigrant.  Because of travel issues we will be spending more time seeing more places here in our state.  I don't like why it is happening of course, but kind of look forward to doing more local travel.     

I moved to SF in '76 and visited Yosemite for the very first time at New Year's. Hangs head in shame. We've done a fair amount of eastern CA in the last six months or so.

[lenquixote66]

2 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

Even though I'm a native Californian there are still areas I haven't visited.  Even more so for Mrs Ldubs who is an immigrant.  Because of travel issues we will be spending more time seeing more places here in our state.  I don't like why it is happening of course, but kind of look forward to doing more local travel.     

Earlier today my wife and I were reminiscing about our vacations in California 1970,1999.2002 .We loved Sausalito ,SF ,Berkeley as well as some parts of Southern California.

[pris993]

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

LOL we hear you when it comes to the Celebrity MDR's.  But our approach was a bit different because we do not cruise to eat dinner buffets.  So we simply stopped booking Celebrity :).  I would add that we used to put up with Celebrity MDRs because we thought their food was among the best of all the mass market lines.  But when Celebrity cut-back on the quality of their cuisine we cut back on the quantity of bookings.  

 

I agree with you about avoiding the crush times at Lidos and we follow a similar practice as you.  But on some ships, if you go into the Lido for a late breakfast you  can struggle to find a seat because they are taken by folks who are doing everything but eating.  Most of time it works out and eventually we find seats.  But with new social distancing issues it is likely that seating will be reduced (more space between tables) and this could create some major problems.   The mass market ships are not designed for social distancing.

 

Hank

 

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

LOL we hear you when it comes to the Celebrity MDR's.  But our approach was a bit different because we do not cruise to eat dinner buffets.  So we simply stopped booking Celebrity :).  I would add that we used to put up with Celebrity MDRs because we thought their food was among the best of all the mass market lines.  But when Celebrity cut-back on the quality of their cuisine we cut back on the quantity of bookings.  

 

I agree with you about avoiding the crush times at Lidos and we follow a similar practice as you.  But on some ships, if you go into the Lido for a late breakfast you  can struggle to find a seat because they are taken by folks who are doing everything but eating.  Most of time it works out and eventually we find seats.  But with new social distancing issues it is likely that seating will be reduced (more space between tables) and this could create some major problems.   The mass market ships are not designed for social distancing.

 

Hank

Actually I did not go into further details but we too no longer book Celebrity.   Once we realized we no longer missed the MDR it was easy to skip it on all lines.   You have a point about less tables in the buffet.  We avoid the buffet for breakfast, do Room Service.     Some cruises on Princess we do the Crown Grill every night, feel the menu there has plenty of choices,  love the SEA BASS, overall menu more like what cruising use to be when we first started.  Sure we pay more but we tip less, i.e., no more extra tips for all the staff in the MDR.   Some cruises we alternative between CG, buffet, we go early before buffet gets crowded for dinner.  WE also like the Fish and Chips lunch, so if we do that lunch we skip dinner.  We only do two meals a day.   When we get Fish and Chips, we take back to our cabin... again do not like all the noisy in the Crown Grill when they do the special lunch.   We avoid crowds already.... will see what we do when we return.  I actually anticipate we will not return til 2022.   Will wait to see how it goes, at this point we really only want to do round trips out of San Francisco to Mexico.  At 73/88 my husband and I have seen most of the places we wanted to see, so we are lucky.  Now all we like is an easy escape, with a mini suite we spend a lot of time on our balcony any way... our form of social distancing.  LOL   Happy cruising to you, hope we all can enjoy it again soon. 

[Hlitner]

16 minutes ago, pris993 said:

 

Actually I did not go into further details but we too no longer book Celebrity.   Once we realized we no longer missed the MDR it was easy to skip it on all lines.   You have a point about less tables in the buffet.  We avoid the buffet for breakfast, do Room Service.     Some cruises on Princess we do the Crown Grill every night, feel the menu there has plenty of choices,  love the SEA BASS, overall menu more like what cruising use to be when we first started.  Sure we pay more but we tip less, i.e., no more extra tips for all the staff in the MDR.   Some cruises we alternative between CG, buffet, we go early before buffet gets crowded for dinner.  WE also like the Fish and Chips lunch, so if we do that lunch we skip dinner.  We only do two meals a day.   When we get Fish and Chips, we take back to our cabin... again do not like all the noisy in the Crown Grill when they do the special lunch.   We avoid crowds already.... will see what we do when we return.  I actually anticipate we will not return til 2022.   Will wait to see how it goes, at this point we really only want to do round trips out of San Francisco to Mexico.  At 73/88 my husband and I have seen most of the places we wanted to see, so we are lucky.  Now all we like is an easy escape, with a mini suite we spend a lot of time on our balcony any way... our form of social distancing.  LOL   Happy cruising to you, hope we all can enjoy it again soon. 

Funny you mention Princess since we still have a 28 day cruise booked on that line for this coming October (questionable if this cruise will happen).   We share your enjoyment of the Fish and Chips (Pub) lunch and wonder if that will be continued post COVID-19.  The Crown Grill is OK but we have never felt the desire to go more then once or twice on a cruise.   We are also Seniors but have still not lost the cruise/travel bug or our spirit of adventure.  We have talked to others in our age group who tell us they are bored with cruising and/or travel.  But I think it is partially because DW and I still "do our own thing" and avoid structured group tours/excursions that our interest in travel is a great as ever.  I suspect we will continue to do a lot of travel (and hopefully cruising) as long as our health and fitness permit.

 

Hank

[ldubs]

47 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

Earlier today my wife and I were reminiscing about our vacations in California 1970,1999.2002 .We loved Sausalito ,SF ,Berkeley as well as some parts of Southern California.

 

We are in Southern CA pretty regularly to visit our daughter.  They live in a very nice area which is great for taking a walk with our newest grandson.  I have to admit I hate driving the freeways down there.   Sausalito is a great place.  We still go there and surrounding areas just for the fun of it.  I worked in SF for 36 years.  Sadly, for me it has gone downhill to the point it has lost any allure for a visit.  The good news is there are many terrific places nearby.  

 

BTW, our oldest son got his Phd from Buffalo.  

[lenquixote66]

6 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

We are in Southern CA pretty regularly to visit our daughter.  They live in a very nice area which is great for taking a walk with our newest grandson.  I have to admit I hate driving the freeways down there.   Sausalito is a great place.  We still go there and surrounding areas just for the fun of it.  I worked in SF for 36 years.  Sadly, for me it has gone downhill to the point it has lost any allure for a visit.  The good news is there are many terrific places nearby.  

 

BTW, our oldest son got his Phd from Buffalo.  

I have a cousin who I grew up with in NY who moved to Simi Valley about 45 years ago and is still there.When we were in Calif in 1999 and 2002 we were here to visit her and family and then toured the state. 

I assume your son went to Buffalo for a particular specialization .