Joe's & Julia's Adventures: Cruise

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Cruise - Food, Food, Food

Food, Food, Food

I've always wondered how people cope with the total abundance and availability of food on a cruise. It was a major luxury to have food preparation and cleanup taken care of for a whole week. This ship had so many food options that a person could have eaten all day, every day - and it was all "free" (included in the price of the cruise) Soft drinks and alcohol cost additional as did milkshakes and a few others items. But with all that was available "free" there wasn't much need, or desire, to spend the extra money.

Dining with a view - beautiful view to go with the great food

We usually had breakfast and lunch in one of the two buffet areas.

The selections reflected the global nature of the crew and passengers -

scrambled eggs with salmon - must be an acquired taste

Other options included a grill near one of the pools. Hot dogs, veggie burgers, hamburgers, and French fries were available all day and late into the evening. The International Cafe was open 24 hours a day. There you could get a selection of light meal choices such as sandwiches, salads, croissants, pastries, quiches - and great chocolate chip cookies. Pizza and ice cream - available all day and late into the night

There were several dining rooms available for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if you wanted to order off a menu, be served, and eat with silver and off china. The servers were wonderful. Over the week we became acquainted with some of them and enjoyed learning more about them and their countries. See more about the staff in the post about the ship.

from cruiseastute.com - "All three main dining rooms tend to offer the same four course dinner menu with set choices on one side of the menu and nightly changing themed selections on the other side. The option of an 'always available menu' is also provided including steaks, chicken breast and salmon. Examples of evening meals include poached seafood and avocado, vegetarian spring rolls or blue crab cake quiche for starters, grilled vegetables on lettuce salad or tortellini and spinach soup, New York strip with peppercorn sauce, lobster or spaghetti carbonara for mains and pistachio ice cream, chocolate cake or fresh fruits for dessert. Vegetarian options such as aubergine lasagne and fettuccine alfredo are also available along with Lotus Spa healthy options." We did have lobster one evening and King crab legs another.

Our group had some adventurous souls who often tried unusual foods. We freely shared our multi-course meals. Fortunately the portions were reasonable and the dessert sizes were small.

I've left the best for last - the desserts. A different sorbet was available each evening. Sometimes we had it to "cleanse our palates" between courses. Sometimes for a dessert. Sometimes both times.