
Texas Cruisers, Did You Notice the Subtle Change at the Ship’s Buffet?
Did you see what the temperature in Dallas was going to be on Sunday night? It won't be much warmer in Houston, Beaumont, or Galveston either. Maybe that's why so many fans of cruise vacations in Texas are checking their phones for the latest offerings from the cruise lines.
Look, when the National Weather Service Forecast Office out of Houston/Galveston Texas has a graphic that suggests temperatures below 24 degrees will be common early next week. It's a pretty safe bet we'll all be dreaming of palm trees, sunsets, and warm ocean breezes.
If you like to visit warm climates such as the islands in the Caribbean or the Mayan Riviera then taking a cruise out of Galveston, Texas is really a no-brainer. Many ships that serve that port offer itineraries to places like Jamaica, Cozumel, Cancun, and the Bahamas. Which will have much warmer weather than Texas next week.
Now, if we call just stay well.
Of all the travel industries, I believe the cruise industry has had to adapt to the most changes in the way they do business over the past five years. The COVID-19 pandemic all but ended cruising as a vacation alternative just a few years ago. But cruise lines changed their policies and adopted new standards and it looks as if 2025 is truly the tip of the iceberg, probably not a good analogy in a story about ships, is it, when it comes to breaking travel records?
Since the pandemic ended, I have had the pleasure of sailing on several different trips on several different cruise lines and there is one thing that I have noticed that you probably won't miss while you're onboard. Okay, you won't miss it until you go to enjoy one of the ship's restaurants and in particular the always popular buffet.
If you've been to a cruise ship buffet then you know the first two words you'll hear as you approach the entrance. If you don't know, those words are "Washy Washy". And they're usually spoken by a member of the staff holding a spray bottle.
The point of "washy washy" is to get you to clean your hands before you go to the buffet. In the past, the attendant would usually spray hand sanitizer on your hands or you might use a free-standing hand sanitizer station near the entrance to the eatery.
But that was cruising in 2022 and 2023. If you've sailed in 2024 or have plans to sail in 2025, guess what you won't see nearly as many of as you used to see? Those hand sanitizer stations. No, the cruise lines didn't give up on you having clean hands, they are making a switch to make your cruise safer. But for a lot of guests, like me, it's been a really annoying change. Until you understand why.
No longer does a staff member spritz your hands with hand sanitizer when you enter the buffet. They spray your hand with liquid soap. Guess what you have to do to get that liquid soap off of your hands? You have to interrupt your sprint to the buffet to stop at a nearby wash basin to officially wash your hands.
I am sure you have the same question as me, "What's the difference"? According to the cruise lines and the Centers for Disease Control, the difference is how soap and water work on a certain virus that is the bane of all cruise guests. You've heard of the norovirus?
The norovirus is an illness that can bring an entire cruise ship to its figurative knees. The virus symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, gastric distress, and a smell in the hallways that will make you long for a deep breath of fresh air outside. Researchers have found that soap and water do a better job of controlling norovirus than hand sanitizers do.
And while it may be very annoying for a hungry and perhaps slightly intoxicated cruise guest to slow down their buffet momentum for a good 30-second handwashing, it's a safety issue. And when you consider the alternative, I think I'd rather wash my hands with soap and water a dozen times before I have to spend my cruise vacation closed up in a cabin that smells worse than a portable toilet.
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Gallery Credit: Mike Brant
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