Princess Cruises

My family and I recently got back from a 7 day cruise on the Caribbean Princess cruise ship. Now, you may be thinking, what does a vegan eat on such a boat?

Well, the first day, my meals looked like this:

 

This was not enjoyable for me. Cruise ships are supposed to be for stuffing your face full of food. While the rest of my carnivorous family was gaining weight, I was losing it (and I'm skinny enough as it is!) Luckily, after the first day I talked to the head waiter and got a bit more pushy about getting real food I could eat, so I wouldn't have to eat only salads the whole cruise!

The buffets were the most frustrating part. I was constantly bugging assorted employees as to the ingredients of soups, salad dressings, pasta salads, pastas, etc...but NOTHING was vegan. Not a single salad dressing. Not a single soup. 

The chefs, when I explained what I could not eat, were willing to help. When I wanted a peanut butter and banana sandwich, but the ones on the buffet line were covered in egg (french toast style - I know, what?), one of the chefs disappeared into the kitchen to make me a special, vegan peanut butter and banana sandwich. Of course, that meant waiting 10 minutes while my family finished up their lunch.

So as far as the buffet was concerned, it was doable, but frustrating. I think if I had been vacationing with other vegans, however, I would have felt a lot better about constantly bugging everybody about my food needs. And the food, when I did get it, was really good.

My family and I ate dinner in the Palm Dining Room, and the head waiter, Romeo, was very helpful. He gave me the menu for the coming night the night before so I could go over it with him and see if any of the vegetarian options could be made vegan. Some of them could, such as these lentil and vegetable fritters:

And this mango smoothie appetizer:

And some things on the menu just happened to be vegan already, such as:

And some nights, the menu just wasn't very vegetarian friendly. Those were the nights I asked for vegetarian burritos!

Do they actually qualify as burritos? They look more like...fajitas? But they were delicious, so I was happy.

Overall, I enjoyed myself on the cruise, and while the buffets were a hassle, I definitely did not starve. I did not eat any tofu the whole seven days...I'm not sure they even had tofu. It is definitely doable to be a vegan on this cruise, but keep in mind, if you want to have a quick breakfast, it will likely look like this:

(Getting soymilk in the morning was possible, but kind of a fiasco. Bagels are another option, I suppose. There definitely was no shortage of fruit, though!)