While I’m not picky when it comes to cruise food (serve me up a giant pile of mashed potatoes and some mediocre German chocolate cake and I’m happy), I think Holland America has some of the best food at sea, including in the main dining rooms and other complimentary (or included with your cruise fare, for the hair splitters among us) restaurants. Here’s what you can expect to find on your next HAL cruise (with slight variations depending on your specific ship and itinerary – not all ships will have every venue and the order of the main dining room dinner menus may differ).
I’m a huge fan of Holland America’s breakfast menu in the MDR. I especially love the international and Kristen Kish selections. Also the banana bread french toast! And three different kinds of pancakes! And all the vegetarian options! Even though I had 10 days to try everything on my latest HAL cruise, I still found myself ordering 3+ items each morning. It was impossible to choose just one! Or two! Hit up my Instagram page if you want to see pics of all the breakfast items (@profcruise). Here are a few to get you drooling…
Living just a block from Pike Place Market in Seattle, I’m not sure how much I appreciate the inclusion of Beecher’s mac & cheese on Holland America’s lunch menu. Not because it’s not delicious and indulgent, but because it reminds me of home. And that home isn’t on a cruise ship. That’s a me problem though – you should totally try it!
The dinner menus may vary some depending on your particular itinerary, but these should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect, especially on a 7-night sailing. On my last HAL cruise, a 10-night over Christmas and New Years, we had these 7 menus, plus special menus for Christmas Eve, Christmas day, and New Year’s Eve. You can see those three menus if you click HERE.
Holland America has always offered a (mostly) full-service buffet. It’s like they saw Covid coming and figured they’d save themselves a step. That just means the crew hears me say this, A LOT: “One more scoop, please. And make it a Prof. Cruise-sized one!”
In addition to large portions, I also don’t care to see my creamed spinach mate with my mac ‘n cheese and my chana masala. And this whole mess left my garlic roll wondering who the heck her daddy was:
After this, I started asking for separate plates and my fellow diners scored a bonus circus act as I tried balancing en route to my table!
Here are sample buffet menus for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (it’s basically the same menu every day with some individual but similar items swapped in and out). Where are the mashed potatoes though (don’t worry, they did have mashed potatoes on some days)?
As a vegetarian, Dive In is my favorite burger stand at sea. So many more veggie options have been added over the past few years in addition to the original “Freestyle” portabella mushroom burger! My family and friends report that the non-veggie options (or as they would say, the “real” burgers and dogs) are pretty great too!
Not all HAL ships will have this venue, but if yours does, you’re in for a treat. I recommend a pie with white sauce, arugula, mushrooms, tomato, artichokes, red onion, and red peppers for a snack or second lunch. And one or two of each dessert of course! I’ve never tried the salads, because I find it blasphemous to order salad on a cruise.
I haven’t tried this yet. If you have, let us know in the comments what you’d recommend.
One of the many things I love about Holland America is that they are one of the few non-luxury lines that still offer complimentary room service (with the exception of a few items noted on the menu). Go HERE if you want to learn 20 other things I love about HAL!
You can hang this room service card on your door at night to have breakfast delivered the next morning at a time of your choice.
If you’ve cruise Holland America before leave a comment with your favorite complimentary food items. If you haven’t cruised HAL before, you really should! It’s one of my favorite lines and the food is high on my list of reasons why. And with that…
Class Dismissed.
Homework (10 points): Learn the 20 Things I Love about Holland America, read my reviews of the HAL ships I’ve sailed on, and don’t forget to subscribe to the blog to receive new Cruising 101 content direct to your e-mail (scroll up to the top right if on a computer or keep scrolling down if on a mobile device) and follow Prof. Cruise on social media:
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