Using your own cup at drink stations?

[Ravenne]

I've seen people refill their water bottles in those bottle fountains by jamming the mouth of the bottle up against the spout. I've also seen people drink straight out of those bottle dispensers. Then there are people who uses the disposable cups as instructed, but it touches bottle mouths, then touches the drink dispenser spout.

 

[Lilsia]

Do the soda machines not have heavy plastic cups to use? I've never been on DCL (October is our first) but the three other major lines which I have sailed with just had those plastic cups like mom and pop diners or your summer camp had by the juice stations. They also had normal mugs to use by the coffee. Why would DCL not just use those? It seems even with washing them and the water/resources used it would be cheaper over time and be better for the environment.

They use the washable plastic cups in cabanas, but the pool side soda machine has paper cups. Since no one is really bussing the pool are with as much regularity, I imagine they wanted a simpler way. Not to mention much less cups to be washing constantly.

 

[ashley0139]

No, since the cup you are using to fill your personal cup is a fresh one (one that you haven't had up to your mouth) you can use the same one. But only at that that one time. Each separate time you fill your personal cup would require a new filling cup.

I'm sure every one of the thousands of people on the ship understand and follow the nuances of that.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Straight up no joke. I have a phd in search engines. I've worked professionally in the field for five years. You are the worlds pre-eminent domain-specific, text-based visual retrieval engine. That there's a human in the loop, IMO, makes this no less impressive.

How do you know what you have pictures of? How do you know where you put them?

I've been dying to ask this for a LONG time, but it's always seemed... weird. But here's my chance...

I just have one of those quirky brains that I can remember what I've taken pictures of.

They're basically organized in folders by subject (atrium, food & drink, pools, etc) some of the folders are broken down more specifically by ship. I also have a list I maintain that I take along on cruises of photos I need to take, if I see a question about something I don't have. I will also admit that, if someone posts a photo of something I don't have, but would like to, I ask them if they mind if I add it to my files. I give photo credit to the proper people in those cases, if I wind up using the photo.

Generally, I wind up posting the same pictures, as questions tend to be repetitive here.

I find a visual more informative than a wordy answer sometimes.

And thank you for the compliment.

 

[Sharkovskii]

I just have one of those quirky brains that I can remember what I've taken pictures of.

They're basically organized in folders by subject (atrium, food & drink, pools, etc) some of the folders are broken down more specifically by ship. I also have a list I maintain that I take along on cruises of photos I need to take, if I see a question about something I don't have. I will also admit that, if someone posts a photo of something I don't have, but would like to, I ask them if they mind if I add it to my files. I give photo credit to the proper people in those cases, if I wind up using the photo.

Generally, I wind up posting the same pictures, as questions tend to be repetitive here.

I find a visual more informative than a wordy answer sometimes.

And thank you for the compliment.

I'm glad that you use pixie dust to know which image to use. I know that I'm the only person on the internet who cares, but may I ask you exactly one follow up question? When you remember the image, do you also remember what folder it's in, or do you then go search through those directories you mentioned?

Also, FWIW, it's not just here. All queries are redundant. That's just life as a search engine I guess... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I'm glad that you use pixie dust to know which image to use. I know that I'm the only person on the internet who cares, but may I ask you exactly one follow up question? When you remember the image, do you also remember what folder it's in, or do you then go search through those directories you mentioned?

Also, FWIW, it's not just here. All queries are redundant. That's just life as a search engine I guess... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I know what folder I put it in. Or, maybe I should say, I know I've taken a picture of X, and then I think what folder would I put that in? And look there, it's usually there. Sometimes I have to look in 2 folders if a specific thing could qualify for either one. Like if I'm looking for the photos I have of the pack N play in a room, it's in either "Rooms - Beds" or "Rooms - Misc Room Stuff"

 

[Whywouldyou]

Are you allowed to drink straight from the beverage stations if you don't put your mouth on them?

Are you actually serious?

 

[jeremy1002]

Are you actually serious?

It would save a cup plus help the line move faster because I would only get as much as my mouth could hold and then move on.

 

[scgustafson]

I work for a large hospitality company and banning straws is purely a cost saving move (that happens to be good for the environment). In our case it saves a little over a million dollars per year.

It is much more of a money savings thing than a good for the environment impact:

 

[Sharkovskii]

I know what folder I put it in. Or, maybe I should say, I know I've taken a picture of X, and then I think what folder would I put that in? And look there, it's usually there. Sometimes I have to look in 2 folders if a specific thing could qualify for either one. Like if I'm looking for the photos I have of the pack N play in a room, it's in either "Rooms - Beds" or "Rooms - Misc Room Stuff"

You have all of your images laid out in folders of depth 2 or 3 and you can find an arbitrary image in two or three tries, usually only one. I stand by my assertion that you are the best domain-specific, query-based image retrieval system known to man.

And with that, I will let the internet get back to cruising. (60 days to my repositioning cruise on the Wonder!)

 

[apathetic]

No, since the cup you are using to fill your personal cup is a fresh one (one that you haven't had up to your mouth) you can use the same one. But only at that that one time. Each separate time you fill your personal cup would require a new filling cup.

Nope. If you put the DCL cup next to your personal container to fill, it is now in close proximity to where you presumably had your mouth. Now putting that DCL cup back on the drink machine is the same as putting your personal container on the drink machine. So you must change the cup every fill.

Of course, most of the time there is a lid on the personal container and putting that cup (without lid) on the drink machine is no different than the DCL cups, but that argument seems to be dead.

 

[wombat_5606]

It is much more of a money savings thing than a good for the environment impact:

View attachment 421686

I like to think that it's being a good steward to the environment that they base their business on. It's a drop in the bucket, but it's a start.

I am glad that they are interested enough, whether you or others believe it is financial or environmental, to help clean up our oceans.

Why is being able to sip out of a plastic straw more important than that?

Interesting read:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/06/plastic-planet-waste-pollution-trash-crisis/

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Nope. If you put the DCL cup next to your personal container to fill, it is now in close proximity to where you presumably had your mouth. Now putting that DCL cup back on the drink machine is the same as putting your personal container on the drink machine. So you must change the cup every fill.

Of course, most of the time there is a lid on the personal container and putting that cup (without lid) on the drink machine is no different than the DCL cups, but that argument seems to be dead.

If you put a cup up to your lips to take a drink, besides your mouth touching the rim of the cup, you've now contaminated the contents of the cup. So that, when putting that same cup up to the spigot to refill it, any germs (let's say) in the cup could splash back onto the spigot during the refill process.

If you use a cup to fill a bottle, or another cup, in most cases, the rim of the cup/bottle being filled touches the outside of the filling cup, and not the contents of the filling cup to contaminate the cup. Using that same (refill) cup doesn't have the same risk of splashing contaminated contents on the spigot.

Not to mention, that the rim of the personal cup, or bottle, usually has a lid on it, so you're not actually touching the rim of the personal cup/bottle with your mouth during drinking.

 

[HubbDave]

Meh...some germs are fine. We tend to oversanitize. I get it that on a ship you don’t want a norovirus outbreak etc. At resorts, refillable mugs at soda/coffee stations are the norm. No paper cup transfer involved People drink out of the warm, Florida water fountains at WDW...

Anyway, if you add enough alcohol, it is all germ free anyhow! Lol

 

[PrincessShmoo]

People drink out of the warm, Florida water fountains at WDW...

I've always avoided water fountains as much as possible, since I was young. It always seemed so unsanitary to me.

 

[shafke]

Unless you have a really tall cup there is no reason for the cup to ever tough the dispenser. You are probably getting more germs from pressing the button on the dispenser.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

there is no reason for the cup to ever tough the dispenser

Quite true, but people do put their cups directly all the way up against the dispenser. I've seen it. Then they fill the cup til it overflows.