Scale under the floor of a cruise ship cabin to reduce buffet consumption?

by philg

The biggest and best helicopter tour operators have scales hidden underneath the floor at the customer service counter. Thus they’re able to quickly capture passenger weights, oftentimes without the customers being aware.

What about the same technology for cruise ship cabins? Put a scale near the door and a display so that the passenger can see his or her current weight. This could reduce costs since a passenger who realized that he or she was gaining 0.5 lbs. per day could cut back at the buffet.

(On our recent Northwest Passage cruise on Hurtigruten, there was no scale in the room and also none in the (small) gym. Due to the challenges of resupplying in the High Arctic combined presumably with people pigging out, the ship ran out of a bunch of items prior to the end of the trip. The poor crew had to go 10 days without fresh fruit. The Germans were not happy that the yogurt had run out.)

Some of our food temptations:

(The French chef, Julien, cannot be held responsible for the poutine. I was the one who pointed out that we needed to celebrate Canada’s greatest culinary achievement and the kitchen crew raided a supermarket in Nunavut for cheese curds.)

3 thoughts on “Scale under the floor of a cruise ship cabin to reduce buffet consumption?”

  1. Dining on board ship during a long voyage has two remarkable qualities: the steady dwindling of varieties of cuisine as the food stock shrinks, and the difficulties of continued civility with a fixed set of dining companions.

    Better to have amiable companions than indifferent fare, but even the relish of the sweetest companions may turn sour with continued exposure.

    Both Patrick O’Brien’s Aubrey/Maturin books, and C.S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower series are set aboard English war ships during the Napoleonic wars. Both narratives concern themselves as much with the restrained drama of dining as they do with the outrageous violence of naval battle.

    also, first comment.

  3. School dorms used the same trick of lowballing the menu, late in the semester. The cost of food apparently is still significant, compared to the cost of labor. Those fries look real soggy. Can imagine eating ancient, soggy fries with hypocritical socialist banter gets irritating.

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