Are Vegetarians an after thought?
The world of cruising very much centres around food, let’s be honest. The first place most of us head for when we embark is the buffet dining room, then afternoon tea, then dinner, and on it goes for the duration of the cruise!
Now I am definitely not Vegetarian, but people who I’ve cruised with are, and looking at what they’ve eaten on board I’m glad I’m not. Main course always seems to be Pasta with Bolognese sauce – hardly inspiring! That’s what I’m doing for dinner tonight, purely because I’m in a rush and have to be out again by 6.30pm, so I’d be really disappointed to be presented with it for dinner on a ship!
I was reading the new menus for Sindhu on Azura earlier, you can see more about that on cruises.co.uk, and the vegetarian option is one per menu! As somebody else has commented it’s as though the menus were prepared and then somebody though ‘we better put something on there for the Veggies!’
What are your experiences – those of you who are Vegetarian? Have you found enough choice on ships? Is there always something to inspire your taste buds at dinner? Are some ships better than others?
I’m really interested to know, and then maybe we can give some feedback to the cruise lines and try to catapult them into action.
8 Comments on “Are Vegetarians an after thought?”
Leave a Reply
About Me
I've been a Cruise Consultant for a number of years now and I can honestly say that it is just the best job ever. No two days are the same. I have got to know some fantastic people through the course of my job, both in the industry and clients,…
Read more
Thank you for subscribing!
I went on Royal Car and really struggled with the food as a veggie.
Worst was the buffet restaurant – where it took me 10 mins to find out if the soup was suitable for veggies, the chef said yes, but i didn’t trust him. When pushed – it had chicken stock in it – “but only a little bit” so thats ok then?…
Going on P&O Ventura next time – have heard that its a lot better from a friend who went – fingers crossed…
My wife is a veggie and we find it difficult to get it across to chefs on cruises that there can be a good variety of tasty dishes that would be popular with non-veggies as well.
Even salads are difficult as the chefs seem to think that you can’t have a salad without some shellfish or ham or bacon in them.
Oceania weren’t too bad but also thought that veggie soups couldn’t be made without chicken or beef stock. After having a chat with the chef he promised to make soups every day specially for my wife. Although he kept his promise my wife found it embarrassing to have to tell the head waiter in whichever restaurant we were dining that the chef was making a soup for her.
Vegetarians don’t want special service. All they want is food that they can eat.
With Oceania, at their wok or pasta stations, they had separate pans and utensils for cooking vegetarian food. Well done Oceania – but it was still a challenge to find a good variety of veggie food.
On Azamara it was even harder to find veggie food whereas with Swan Hellenic there was always enough choice. MSC – forget it!
If a ship as small as Ocean Majesty can supply a separate vegetarian menu, then the big ships should have no problem. As for Sindhu – what kind of and Indian restaurant has only one veggie dish? Must try harder!
one of my worst meals was on the QM2.
It was a potato pancake – and that and an apple cut in half and scooped out and filled with apple sauce was all that was on my plate. No extra veg.
Whereas my husband had a huge steak (almost covering a large dinner plate) with nouveau veg and potato.
I think you are quite right in thinking that Veggies are the last thought. I have just come back from a cruise on Celebrity Infinity and the one item on the menu in the main dining room was tasteless and never as described on the menu. If cheese was part of the dish you had to search to find it. I ended up having a baked potato for most meals! Why anyone would make a vegetable soup and use chicken stock in it is beyond me, but most do unfortunately. Then to add bacon bits to salads etc. Are they incapable of bringing out the flavours of the veg or salad without meat flavours to enhance them! As there are a lot more people now that are vegetarian I would have thought they would have started to provide for us. Thank you for bringing this subject to their notice.
I found Oceania brilliant for non meat dishes I do eat fish so had lots of choice.
I had a chat with the chef in charge of the Terrace Restaurant where we liked to eat. I asked whether they ever have veggie curry and he said they had one the previous night. I obviously missed it. He told me there would be another for me the next night and there was. He was Sri Lankan so there were lots of non meat options.
The other restaurants were very good too but I hated the smell of all that steak and meat dishes in the Polo Grill and the main dining room. Americans love their steaks!
Another thing I thought was a great idea were the reduced sugar puds and biscuits which were always available in the Terrace.
I’m a non fish eating vegetarian and also I don’t eat eggs.I’ve found that Cunard, P&O and Fred Olsen cater very well for vegetarians. If you have advised the cruise line in advance of the cruise that you have special dietary requirements,you usually find a card in your cabin inviting you to meet the Head Chef. At the meeting you can discuss your specific requirements.Most cruise lines I’ve used, do their best to provide you with meals to suit. I find it hard to believe that a potato cake was all that was offered on the QM2, especially as Cunard have a totally separate vegetarian menu and there is always plenty of choice.P&O operate a similar system. The only downside is that you have to place your order a day in advance. I’ve always found that a polite request for something not on the menu will produce a dish to your liking. My colleague is a coeliac and she has found that Fred Olsen cruises also cater very well for a gluten free diet.
I’ve cruised several times on Thomson ships, and although I manage I’m usually glad to get home to my own veggie cooking after a week. I too have noticed staff aren’t sure if the soups are vegetarian. I’ve been told ‘of course, it’s vegetable soup!’, but on tasting have definitely detected chicken stock. Also, they don’t seem to appreciate that vegetarians need protein. All you get is salad or vegetables in many different forms accompanied with rice or pasta. Haven’t they heard of soya, quorn, tvp etc (but not tofu – can’t stand it!)?