[KayakerNC]

Originally Posted by PennBF

Every once in a while you stumble on a good thing when crusing. We found one on our last cruise. We were eating in the general buffet for dinner and the guy who was a main entertainer on the ship sat down at the next table from us. What he did next we have never seen on all of our cruises and it was good enough to send out. He had filled 2 water glasses with very hot water which is normally used for tea and placed his and his companion's knife, fork and spoon upside down in the water to further sterize them. He was a main part of the "show people" and obviously cruised quite a bit. Maybe a lot have seen this before but it was new to us and a great sanitary method. We always put napkin place mat down to protect against the utensil laying on the table where chemicals are used by the staff and people put things down on the table but never saw this technique and it was quite simple and easy.

15 minutes in boiling water (212F-100C) will sterilize. A few minutes in "hot" water for tea...not so much.