Picture Steve Harvey asking the following question on Family Feud: “what sets Celebrity apart from other cruise lines?” Followed by, “the SURVEY SAYS: free champagne at embarkation.” But for me and my family, Celebrity is more about milk than champagne. Although I’ll admit to burping my way through muster drill after disembarking and re-embarking six times in six different hats: “welcome aboard, ma’am. Complimentary champagne?” “Yes, thank you! Burp.”
No, for me, having non-dairy milk readily available on the buffet saved having to track down the appropriate crew member, wait sometimes 10-15 minutes for them to emerge from the back with a tiny glass of soy or almond milk and then repeat the process when my 7 year-old inevitably spilled it or needed more for his 6th bowl of sugary vacation cereal.
While, “out of a survey of 100 cruisers,” maybe 1 lonely vegan would mention soy milk, this makes a huge positive difference in my cruising experience and is one reason I consider Celebrity a top vegetarian and vegan friendly cruise line (at least based on my experience having sailed many times on all the popular lines). Which brings me to my first tip for eating vegetarian or vegan on a Celebrity cruise:
On my last cruise aboard the Millennium, it was located near the yogurt. If you can’t find it, ask a member of the buffet dining staff.
After ordering from the limited selection of vegetarian items on the regular menu (pictured above) on my first night in the MDR aboard the Millennium, my head waiter, perceptive as he was kind, inquired as to whether I might be a vegetarian. And when I answered in the affirmative, “yes, both myself and my son,” he provided us with the vegetarian menu each night. I was thrilled with a wider selection of choices. And my 7 year-old can be a picky eater (shocker, I know), so I especially appreciated having additional options available for him. Here were the menus and some food pics from each night:
With so many guests sailing with food allergies and restrictions and special diets, I’m baffled as to why more lines don’t provide clear labels on buffet dishes. It’s such a simple thing to do and saves both passengers and staff a tremendous amount of hassle, time, and confusion. While some items are obviously vegetarian/vegan or not, with many items it’s not clear – especially soups, sauces, pasta, rice, and bean dishes.
I was delighted to see clear labels on my first Celebrity cruise, with items being identified as gluten free, vegetarian, no sugar added, and lactose free. If you are a strict vegan or have severe food allergies, I would advise double checking with buffet staff, but these labels will at least offer you a place to start.
Buffets on Celebrity ships feature several “made-to-order” stations. There’s generally a pasta station available every day along with a rotating station offering stir-fry, soup, and other items. These are great for both vegans and vegetarians as items can be customized to fit a person’s particular dietary needs and tastes. However, make sure to follow tip 5 and 6 to ensure your dishes are prepared vegetarian/vegan.
Be sure to ask for vegetable broth for stir fry and soup. There will be a small note indicating it’s available near the meat-based broths, but you do need to request it.
Woks and pans are generally not cleaned between orders (this is true at the pasta station too). If you want to avoid your dish being contaminated with meat or broth from a prior order, be sure to explain that you are a vegetarian/vegan and ask for a clean wok/pan. They will happily accommodate (although it may take a few extra minutes if they have to wash one).
The Spa…Cafe is one of my favorite features of Celebrity and is a can’t miss spot for vegetarians and vegans. Dishes are mostly served buffet style with a few customizable items and a few made-to-order options. All food is complimentary (fresh pressed juices and smoothies are extra).
Here’s the menu:
Most of the coffee drinks available on the Cafe Al Bacio menu (available here) can be prepared with non-dairy milk. As perhaps the only Seattle resident who drinks nothing but instant decaf coffee at home (don’t tell anyone, they may ban me from the city), I felt very fancy ordering soy caramel macchiatos and tia cappuccinos (pictured above) and didn’t sleep for the duration of my cruise and for several months after. Oops. It’s back to instant decaf for me! But before you judge me as hopelessly unsophisticated, you’ll note that I drink it from this mug:
Not only is Celebrity one of the only non-luxury lines still offering complimentary hot room service items, it’s one of the only lines to offer a vegetarian lunch/dinner entree. Be sure to specify that you’d like the penne primavera prepared without cheese if you’re vegan (it’s just sprinkled on top and can easily be left off). A fruit plate and a salad are available as sides/appetizers. Soy milk is also offered on the menu for vegans.
Here’s the menu:
If there are certain vegan staples that you simply can’t live without for the duration of your sailing, bring them with you. However, make sure they are in their original containers and sealed.
While it’s much easier to eat out as a vegetarian or even vegan now days, especially in urban areas – I can feast on vegan fare mimicking approximately 3,000 different meat preparations from every culture on earth as well as freeze-dried vegan ice cream suitable for space travel within a block of my apartment in downtown Seattle – the cruise industry is still lagging behind in terms of being vegetarian and vegan friendly.
And while I encourage my fellow vegetarians and vegans to continue to advocate for more and better options and fill out comment cards and surveys, as I always do, expressing specific needs and areas for improvement (“label buffet items as vegetarian”), there are realities that make catering to particular dietary requirements challenging on cruise ships.
It’s hard enough to feed a family of four composed of a weekday vegan, a vegetarian six-year-old limited to one color (orange), an omnivore amateur weight lifter who obsessively counts grams of protein like a teacher tracking his preschoolers on a field trip to the aquarium, “1,2,3,4…OMG Jessica is submerged up to her knees in the middle of the touch pool!” and a dog so elderly he can’t get into the bed unassisted but manages a five foot vertical leap when it’s time for his carnivorous kibble.
Now imagine having to cook for and serve 2-4 thousand cruisers three (or six to eight if they’re Prof. Cruise) vacation-worthy meals a day with limited provisions in tight kitchens and dining rooms swaying and bobbing and sometimes jerking violently about. With each guest having different standards and tastes and expectations. It’s a challenge! And they don’t always get it right, even for those without dietary restrictions.
Don’t forget that cruise lines are giant corporations in the business of maximizing profits for their owners and shareholders. No corporate Celebrity employee is tasked with figuring out how they can better my individual cruise experience, they’re looking for ways to fill ships, cut expenses, and separate passengers from more of their dollars.
And because vegetarians, and especially vegans, make up such a small percentage of cruisers, our needs are not a high priority. Which is not to say that cruise lines don’t make an effort, they do, but they don’t have to be great in order to remain profitable like a small, land-based restaurant does.
Very few cruise ship employees are native English speakers. This is one of the things I love about cruising – meeting and getting to know people from all over the world. And, despite now having a Ph.D., I almost didn’t graduate from college due to a pesky language requirement. So I know firsthand that learning another language as an adult is HARD and I have tremendous respect and admiration for those who work grueling jobs at sea, far away from home, in a second language, in order to provide for their families.
But language and cultural differences can make it harder to communicate your questions and needs as a vegetarian or vegan. A word for “vegetarian” doesn’t even exist in some languages.
My travels to China, where you’re more likely to see chicken feet on a menu than salad, have taught me to be very specific about my dietary needs. When you tell people who aren’t very familiar with vegetarianism or veganism or may not have even heard those words in English before that you “don’t eat meat” or that you “don’t eat animal products” they may read the title of a menu item that doesn’t sound like it has meat and tell you it’s fine, when it’s actually made with chicken or beef or fish stock or flavored with other meat products. This has happened to me many times on cruises, especially with soups and sauces. They aren’t trying to mislead you, they just don’t fully understand what you’re asking. Which brings me to my top tips for eating vegetarian or vegan on a cruise.
Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus and vegetarians are from Neptune because it’s “far out” as in “rad” to fellow vegetarians, but “far out” as in furthest away and most alien to non vegetarians. That’s okay, we can still lose our money in the casino together and attend an art auction for the free champagne and gaze out at the water and mistaken every bloody seagull for something more interesting: “I see a whale spout at 4 o’clock! Oh wait, it’s another darn seagull diving for fish.”
And, like a relationship, when it comes to getting your dietary needs met on a cruise, communication is key. And also much harder than a simple platitude would suggest. Here are my tips:
Don’t expect it to make much of a difference, but do it anyway. Normally there’s a place in your online reservation where you can do this. If you can’t find it, call the cruise line or your travel agent. This will become part of your reservation and will be communicated to the ship. Although know that you will still need to alert and meet with the appropriate ship staff when you board. The ship may also stock more soy milk and such if they know in advance there are going to be vegan passengers.
I’ve found it helpful to make a detailed list of ingredients I can’t eat and another list of suitable substitutes and things I enjoy (keep them simple and present them as ideas not requirements) for my initial conversation with the head waiter in the main dining room (this is more relevant for vegans – vegetarians can usually order off the regular menu).
Instead of asking “is this soup vegetarian?” ask “can you tell me what kind of broth this soup is prepared with?” Then you can follow up with, “I’m a vegetarian and don’t eat any meat, chicken, fish or beef/chicken broth.”
Because you read this post in advance, you know that eating vegetarian or vegan on a cruise ship is going to require a bit of extra effort. Be patient with staff and know they are doing their best to help you. While I haven’t always had my question answered by the first person I asked or have had to wait for a time for a special request, I’ve found cruise ship staff exceedingly gracious, kind, and patient with me. So the least I can do is be patient with them, knowing they are doing the best they can considering the circumstances – most of which are out of their control.
I would use that old adage “you catch more flies with honey than vinegar” here, but vegetarians generally frown upon killing other sentient beings and vegans don’t eat honey. But, you get the picture.
This is not going to be the best food you’ve had. That’s true even for those without diet restrictions. But approach it with an attitude of good enough. And don’t get me wrong, I’ve always found a number of things I’ve LOVED on every cruise I’ve been on. Never have I returned home weighing anything less than 5 pounds over what I weighed at embarkation. #goals
Thankfully, if your entree in the main dining room contained olives or rotten grapes (who deceptively go by the name “raisins” to mislead the public), there are other options. Hit the buffet or a specialty restaurant. With a little flexibility, no one, no matter how limiting their diet is, should ever go hungry on a cruise! And remember, cruise calories don’t count! I mean, it says so on this shirt (available from Amazon here), so it must be true!
And with that…
Class Dismissed.
Homework: Go here to view my other guides to eating vegetarian or vegan on various cruise lines and here to preview Celebrity food and beverage menus. And don’t forget to subscribe to the blog to receive new Cruising 101 content straight to your e-mail (scroll up to the top right if on a computer or keep scrolling if on a mobile device) and follow me on social media:
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