From Mr Bayley - NO buffet

[Newleno]

1 minute ago, villager70 said:

Posted Vickie Freed Statement on Buffet

 

Royal Caribbean to Cut Traditional Buffet Once Cruises Resume

Windjammer on Brilliance of the Seas

May 15, 2020

Aaron Saunders

Cruise Critic contributor

 

(12:45 p.m. EDT) – The traditional cruise ship buffet is about to go overboard when sailings resume, according to Royal Caribbean executives.

In a virtual Coffee Chat call with Royal Caribbean's senior vice president of sales and trade support & service, Vicki Freed, president and CEO Michael Bayley conceded that the hygiene changes that will go into effect because of the COVID-19 pandemic line will likely strike down the standard buffet offering, which has been a staple of cruising for decades.

"I think in the beginning, there will not be a buffet…that's how I see it," said Bayley during the session. " We will utilize the space, we will utilize the Windjammer, but in all probability, it won't be a classical buffet. It will be something more akin to a restaurant."

 

The news has generated significant buzz on Cruise Critic's message boards, with opinions from both buffet loyalist and those who are ready to move on.

"Will be very disappointed if they do away with the [Windjammer, Royal Caribbean's onboard buffet offering]," writes Ashland. "Why can't they just use servers like they do when there's a Noro outbreak onboard?"

"Oh man... that's the last plastic straw!" says Rocket3D. "What's next...no bars?"

Others, however, say they won't miss the buffet experience.

"I find the experience of eating at Windjammer restaurants and other buffets somewhat disgusting and only eat there reluctantly if there is absolutely no other choice," says LibertyBella. "Eating becomes a competition and a race instead of an experience to enjoy."

 

"My thoughts — we will all be so glad to get back to cruising that whatever Royal comes up with will be accepted," writes Lady Hudson. "I am not a big Windjammer person so would not be a big loss for me. Unintended benefit — less noro[virus]?"

While Royal Caribbean has not announced exact plans for the Windjammer buffet aboard its fleet, Bayley stated that any changes to the casual eatery would have to be made with the coronavirus pandemic in mind.

"I think the key focus on dining is making sure that our guests have plenty of choices," said Bayley. "That choice has to be put through the lens of distancing, and safety and health."

Royal Caribbean already had hand sanitizing stations on every vessel outside the Windjammer buffet, and some ships had full-service handwashing stations located at each entrance. During a sailing on Explorer of the Seas in early March, the line had employees stationed outside the Windjammer with large containers of sanitizer, making sure everyone used it before going in.

These changes, however, are also mandated in part by the "No Sail" order issued in March by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which was extended in April to last for a period of no less than 100 days [July 24] as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Other changes to Royal Caribbean's sanitation and hygiene practices have not been revealed yet. Cruise Critic will report on these, when the line releases them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

this post is like deja vu, or is it vuja de?

[JKHawaii]

Everything I've read states that Coronavirus is highly unlikely to be spread by eating food, whether in the Windjammer or main dining room or the Top of the Hyatt.

[livingonthebeach]

1 minute ago, JKHawaii said:

Everything I've read states that Coronavirus is highly unlikely to be spread by eating food, whether in the Windjammer or main dining room or the Top of the Hyatt.

 

What makes it spread is the constant touching of serving utensils, trays, drink stations, etc etc by thousands of people.  When people are served this cuts down the number of people who touch plates and other items and is by far more sanitary than buffets. 

[time4u2go]

5 minutes ago, JKHawaii said:

Everything I've read states that Coronavirus is highly unlikely to be spread by eating food, whether in the Windjammer or main dining room or the Top of the Hyatt.

Agreed.  I have not heard anything about it being spread by eating.

[SNJCruisers]

2 hours ago, livingonthebeach said:

 

The Scarlet lady has a cardio and weights gyms, a spin studio, a high-intensity training room, indoor and outdoor yoga areas, an outdoor boxing ring, and a running track around the top of the ship. And no MDR either.  That's enough for me!  

Any 7 or 8 day itineraries?

[fredflint]

No it is just the touching of stuff, that is why I like the idea of having bowls of stuff on a sliding track like the milk at a grocery store, bring back trays with a little indent to hold the bowls.  

[SNJCruisers]

Could the end of the traditional buffet also mean the end of the Coca-Cola Freestyle  machines?

[lenquixote66]

14 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

Everybody has their own idea of total satisfaction.  For some it will be waited on and served in the MDR or a similar setting.  For others it will be to graze the buffet and pick and choose what they wish to eat at a quicker pace than a sit down option.   Neither option is wrong, it all comes down to a matter of preference, and the mass market cruise lines all operate this way.  Until Virgin starts up with their everything's included, no buffet option in the near future.

That is acceptable to me.

[lenquixote66]

8 hours ago, zekekelso said:

 

My point isn’t that the service in the MDR is bad. But even with excellent service, the waiter isn’t 100% dedicated to what I need at that exact moment. So if I want some more water or bread, I’m going to have to wait first for the waiter to be free to hear my request, then for them to be free to fill it. As opposed to a buffet whee I can just go get it. 

Every waiter has always been attentive to our needs.

[LeeRB]

On 5/13/2020 at 4:46 PM, Ashland said:

Will be very disappointed if they do away with the WJ.....Why can't they just use servers like they do when there's a Noro outbreak onboard ?

I normally eat breakfast and lunch in the buffet; and about a third of the dinners there as well unless we are in port. Depending on the POC and times we are there, like many cruisers, I have my favorites eating places ashore that I prefer over the ships food. The only specialty restaurants I frequent are Chop’s on RCI and the Crab Shack (I think is what they called it) on Princess. It is a pop up specialty restaurant in the Buffet area that was sectioned off a couple nights a cruise exclusively for a dining experience. I do not feel the food is all that great in the other, for fee, specialty restaurants I have tried, to justify the money they want for them. That applies to all three of lines I sail not just RCI. In the last 8-10 years (maybe longer now) I have found the quality and variety in the MDR has deteriorated across all the lines to the point, the Buffet often has, IMHO,  a better selection than the MDR much of the time. Long gone are the days of the semi ‘exotic’ foods most people have heard of but rarely seen was part of the lure of what’s for dinner in the MDR tonight and cruising in general. Servers would probably be a good idea; at least it would reduce the possibility of cross contamination between different food items and eliminate fingers vs. tongs being used to get things off the buffet.

 

D+

[livingonthebeach]

29 minutes ago, SNJCruisers said:

Could the end of the traditional buffet also mean the end of the Coca-Cola Freestyle  machines?

 

It appears that way:

https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/latest-news/2020/05/public-soda-fountains-buffets-could-be-thing-of-t.html?page=all

[LXA350]

1 hour ago, time4u2go said:

Agreed.  I have not heard anything about it being spread by eating.

 

Is it so difficult to understand. The hygiene standards at RCL for instance make the food at Windjammer perfectly safe and the likelyhood to catch a virus is very unlikely. But as soon as the Windjammer environment has people touching the utensils cuaghing etc a virus can be spread very quickly. Therefore the curent Buffet concept will not continue to exist as seen before this will also reduce the number of Virus outbreaks on it's vesels.

 

If we would be living in a ideal world and everyone of us would comply 100% to their own personal Hygine the concept as is would work, but as we will never achieve this it's far over due to have the current concept overboard, letting it sink to the bottom of the ocean and have it rest in peace forever there.

[time4u2go]

1 minute ago, LXA350 said:

 

Is it so difficult to understand. The hygiene standards at RCL for instance make the food at Windjammer perfectly safe and the likelyhood to catch a virus is very unlikely. But as soon as the Windjammer environment has people touching the utensils cuaghing etc a virus can be spread very quickly. Therefore the curent Buffet concept will not continue to exist as seen before this will also reduce the number of Virus outbreaks on it's vesels.

 

If we would be living in a ideal world and everyone of us would comply 100% to their own personal Hygine the concept as is would work, but as we will never achieve this it's far over due to have the current concept overboard, letting it sink to the bottom of the ocean and have it rest in peace forever there.

There's many things on a cruise ship that people touch after coughing.

[Candocruises]

The CDC, a misnomer if I ever saw one, will never approve of the return or large ship cruising anytime in the near future.  The abuse of power of this bureaucratic governmental agency will be continued as long as they can find enough media to report the hysteria.  Cruising has been a target for quite some time with front page headlines anytime a ship has an infectious outbreak. Cruising will be a thing of the past except for the wealthy who can afford the fare that will have to be charged in order to make a profit on ships sailing at 50% capacity.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[livingonthebeach]

1 hour ago, SNJCruisers said:

Any 7 or 8 day itineraries?

 

Not sure but think they will mostly do 3-5 days at least for the Caribbean.  

[ONECRUISER]

1 hour ago, SNJCruisers said:

Could the end of the traditional buffet also mean the end of the Coca-Cola Freestyle  machines?

Last 7yrs I've only Royal ships without Freestyle Machines so no biggie. Know sucks people like the selection but can see only filling cups by Crew and possible not use refillable cups... With WJ, no biggie. As said before years ago Royal always had servers at stations during day, then for Dinner WJ had table cloths, Waiters and Menus. For while it will have servers and will still be place for the usual food

Edited May 16, 2020 by ONECRUISER

[livingonthebeach]

16 minutes ago, time4u2go said:

There's many things on a cruise ship that people touch after coughing.

 

Like in the casino — not sure if they can still be profitable and close the casinos.  Casinos and bars will likely be the last to open on land and those two areas provide lots of onboard revenue for the cruise line.  Should be interesting how they do it.  

[chipmaster]

2 hours ago, JKHawaii said:

Everything I've read states that Coronavirus is highly unlikely to be spread by eating food, whether in the Windjammer or main dining room or the Top of the Hyatt.

 

Take a look and enjoy, what happens is a buffet has hundreds of people touching things that you touch, then you touch your mouth face with likely napkin etc. etc.

 

Pretty much takes one person who sanitizes his hands, coughs into his hands and viola every utensil he touches could be harboring SARs-CoV-2 awaiting introduction from tongs to your hands to hour napkin to your nose, viola you have COVID19

 

 

[LeeRB]

22 hours ago, Iamcruzin said:

If you select traditional dining, which is the same table same tablemates each night you will eat at the pace of the slowest person or the person who orders extra appetizers, entres or desserts. My time dining you don't have to share the table with others and you can go at your own pace. We have been in and out in 30 minutes when we wanted to make it to a show. You just have to let the waiters know that you are in a hurry. Otherwise it was anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour depending on your pace.

You also spend a lot of time eating by yourself doing my time dining. Believe me, I know, I became a solo cruiser, when also became a widower in 2013. I normally asked if there was sharing table available before. Some ships usually had or opened a sharing table; others never seemed to have any. I expect to find few if any of them for several years if my time dining even exists anymore. So I guess it is stay home or eat by myself for the foreseeable future.  

 

D+

[LXA350]

34 minutes ago, livingonthebeach said:

 

Like in the casino — not sure if they can still be profitable and close the casinos.  Casinos and bars will likely be the last to open on land and those two areas provide lots of onboard revenue for the cruise line.  Should be interesting how they do it.  

 

What makes it different there, you don't eat the play chips or drink the beer with your hand 😉

[davekathy]

5 minutes ago, LXA350 said:

 

What makes it different there, you don't eat the play chips or drink the beer with your hand 😉

Some touch their face or take a drink from the same straw they continuously stir their mixed drink with and then handle  their cards and poker chips or dice. 

[seaman11]

No buffet? 

 

[LeeRB]

20 hours ago, Goodtime Cruizin said:

 

The future is unknown. Whatever he says today most likely will change by the time his first ship pulls up anchor. It's too early to hold him to the fire yet. Too many unknowns. 

I didn’t see anyone holding his feet to the fire over the fiasco of that last system upgrade to their booking/reservation system which went on for several months a year or two ago. I was days away from cancelling the RCI cruises I had booked and going elsewhere when they got the system fixed to where I could actually login, get to my bookings and make a partial payment on the cruises I currently had booked. At that time booking another cruise RCI was not even being considered. I still do not like the idea that we must have the same login credentials for all of the RCCL cruise family; that is just a poor security practice.

 

D+

 

[time4u2go]

21 minutes ago, LXA350 said:

 

What makes it different there, you don't eat the play chips or drink the beer with your hand 😉

I didn't think Covid-19 could be contracted by eating/drinking, but may be I'm wrong.  Have you heard otherwise?

[LXA350]

7 minutes ago, time4u2go said:

I didn't think Covid-19 could be contracted by eating/drinking, but may be I'm wrong.  Have you heard otherwise?

 

If you touch your mouth or face while at the Casino it's in your hands to do it or not. At the Windjammer food is involved and if someome spits, caughs onto the food or touches tongs etc and has COVID-19 or any other virus you are at risk to get it as well. That's why the whole buffet concept will be a thing of yesterday and will not reapaer as we know it from before.