Are passengers finally allowed to get their own soft serve ice cream again?

[logan25]

Anytime I see the soft serve machine operating very limited hours and rolled out and set up by the pool area, I expect a crew member to be staffing and serving.  In which case, the line to be served is very long and very minimal sized servings are dispensed.  Worse than the Bacon Police!

[lovelife]

Recently on Radiance class, where the machines are at the back of the Windjammer, at times you could serve yourself and other times a crew member was there to serve you. Haven't been able to serve yourself on any other ships we have sailed lately.

[Minuet888]

That's weird, Carnival is self serve

[Kbonner]

It depends on the F&B Director or Hotel Director. We have seen ships recently that are all self serve and others where the ice machine is operated by a crew member.

[TeeRick]

19 hours ago, Ashland said:

I'm fine with staff serving the soft serve. However they need to do it correctly. The round & round method isn't correct and why you see many times it falls off the cone cause it's just sitting on top.. They need to do the up/down method which fills the inside of the cone first...no spillage this way and it makes a nice serving.

 

Whatever the product that Celebrity uses tastes much better than the one RCI uses.

We were just on both cruiselines and could tell the difference in taste.

I never knew that there was a proper method to fill a cone with Soft Serve.  Thanks!

[asomante]

On 3/31/2024 at 10:39 AM, Kellie in Texas said:

We were on a cruise pre-Covid and my husband saw a kid who was 7-8 years old putting the ice cream directly into his hand. Husband said "Hey, don't do that." Of course, the parents were nowhere to be seen. 

Stop crying about kids in cruises.  For every time I see a kid doing something stupid, I see adults doing 10 things much worse.  
Don’t want to see kids, take a river cruise.  

[Kellie in Texas]

10 minutes ago, asomante said:

Stop crying about kids in cruises.  For every time I see a kid doing something stupid, I see adults doing 10 things much worse.  
Don’t want to see kids, take a river cruise.  

I was absolutely NOT crying about kids on cruise. My kids have been on several. I was offering an example of why I think it's a good idea for crew members to continue serving the ice cream. 

Edited April 1 by Kellie in Texas

[neverbeenhere]

9 hours ago, Minuet888 said:

That's weird, Carnival is self serve

Carnival cruisers have a high immunity level. Also, they aren't bothered by finger licking good ice cream cones. (Me, I'm bothered)

[asomante]

5 minutes ago, Kellie in Texas said:

I was absolutely NOT crying about kids on cruise. My kids have been on several. I was offering an example of why I think it's a good idea for crew members to continue serving the ice cream. 

I agree with you about getting served the ice cream.  
I’m just a little sensitive about so many complaints about kids on this board (not you).  In my cruising experience, most times I’ve been annoyed by passenger behavior, it has been adult behavior. 

[nelblu]

On 3/31/2024 at 8:52 AM, PhillyFan33579 said:

I couldn’t agree more with your comment. I drink a lot of water when cruising and subsequently use public bathrooms around the ship frequently every day. I would estimate only 50% of the male passengers using the bathroom wash their hands. 

Why are u picking on men. 🤣many years ago the soft ice cream machines were in the Royal Promenade on Voyager classes and there was waste all around the machine area. Also, on some the machines were outside the WJ.

 

On Anthem now and only 1 machine and lines non-stop. Only 2 person serving. 

 

 

Edited April 1 by nelblu

[RoperDK]

We were on a 4 day Mariner cruise a week ago.  Full spring break mode.  There were 2 dedicated crew members serving cones non-stop outside of Windjammer.  The lines moved quickly.  The crew were like a well-oiled machine.  I doubt that the kids and adults could have served themselves that quickly.  A big plus was there wasn't a big mess left behind.    

[deliver42]

I think it's better, and definitely faster with the crew serving.

[time4u2go]

10 hours ago, neverbeenhere said:

Carnival cruisers have a high immunity level. Also, they aren't bothered by finger licking good ice cream cones. (Me, I'm bothered)

Lol same for RC cruisers!

[NateUpNorth]

I like that it`s an employee, on the rare occasion the machines are open and working.

[gerif]

On 3/31/2024 at 10:39 AM, Kellie in Texas said:

We were on a cruise pre-Covid and my husband saw a kid who was 7-8 years old putting the ice cream directly into his hand. Husband said "Hey, don't do that." Of course, the parents were nowhere to be seen. 

I witnessed this as well except that there were three or four of them. Never a parent in sight. 

[smokeybandit]

I've seen more parents that need their own parents around to discipline them than kids who need their parents around.

[Robo1098]

On 4/1/2024 at 11:14 AM, asomante said:

I agree with you about getting served the ice cream.  
I’m just a little sensitive about so many complaints about kids on this board (not you).  In my cruising experience, most times I’ve been annoyed by passenger behavior, it has been adult behavior. 

Can't condone or do much about the adults on a cruise. Parents on the other hand should do something about their childrens manners and behavior. Use the bad behavior of adults to show them how not to act. People behaving badly is not an excuse for children to behave badly. 

 

[Ocean Boy]

On 3/31/2024 at 10:43 AM, time4u2go said:

If only it were actually soft serve ice cream instead of frozen dessert product.

 

I nice way of saying frozen chemicals.

[Ocean Boy]

On 3/31/2024 at 11:16 AM, Mum2Mercury said:

Put me in the group who prefers an employee serve the ice cream.  They serve a reasonable amount in a cone, so much less is spilled on the floor.  I like the idea of only that employee's hands touching the machine.  

And those employees wear gloves.

[Ocean Boy]

On 4/1/2024 at 10:55 AM, asomante said:

Stop crying about kids in cruises.  For every time I see a kid doing something stupid, I see adults doing 10 things much worse.  
Don’t want to see kids, take a river cruise.  

Yeah, adults should know better and they should also be parents to their kids. I was in the Solarium Bistro on Allure once when this kid picked up a piece of dessert with his hands, smelled it, then put it back. 

 

I'll complain about anyone doing such stuff and you won't be finding me on a river cruise.

[Moltar]

On 3/30/2024 at 10:23 PM, CuseJeff44 said:

I remember cruising in the early 2000s and the self serve machines were available for passengers to use themselves, basically like the buffet, coffee machines, soda machines, etc. However, for some reason, in recent years, they changed the model and now have a poor RCL staffer whose whole job is to fill ice cream cones for people. Maybe COVID related although like I said, so many other things that people can still do themselves I dont know if thats it. 

Anyway, can we actually self serve the soft serve again?

No, because you all make a mess and slop up the spot, it’s much better with the guy doing it that way nobody makes it ridiculously overloaded cone that spills all over the place

[asomante]

2 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

Yeah, adults should know better and they should also be parents to their kids. I was in the Solarium Bistro on Allure once when this kid picked up a piece of dessert with his hands, smelled it, then put it back. 

 

I'll complain about anyone doing such stuff and you won't be finding me on a river cruise.

Adults do the same.  They also pee on the hot tub, vomit on the hall way, hold pool chairs at 7am, don’t know black jack etiquette, sit on the aisle when the entire row is open, smoke in non designated areas, etc etc.
I’ll take a sweet precious child dirty hands over an adults any day.  lol 

[cruiseguy1016]

1 hour ago, asomante said:

Adults do the same.  They also pee on the hot tub, vomit on the hall way, hold pool chairs at 7am, don’t know black jack etiquette, sit on the aisle when the entire row is open, smoke in non designated areas, etc etc.
I’ll take a sweet precious child dirty hands over an adults any day.  lol 

 

I'll disagree with you on this one. I have bad knees and always sit on the aisle so I can stretch my knees. However, I will always stand up to allow you to get past me, unless you get there after the show has started. Then you're going to have to climb over me and you won't be happy with the outcome.

[Ocean Boy]

1 hour ago, asomante said:

sit on the aisle when the entire row is open, 

You would prefer that they disturb everyone when they decide to leave half way through the show?😄

[SRF]

10 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

I nice way of saying frozen chemicals.

Everything is chemicals.  Even organic things. 😄