As well seasoned cruisers, we have been on a total of 14 cruises between the two of us but this was our first time cruising as vegans. Although we were apprehensive about the food, the destination, Alaska, was a big check off of our bucket list. Our main objective of this trip was to see Alaska and no one on the ship knew what our second motive was – documenting our dining experience. We did not want our reflections to be fabricated so here is the raw, unedited truth.
For the record, we traveled on Princess Cruise line 10 –day Alaska/British Columbia trip on the Grand Princess ship out of the port of San Francisco, California.
Here are our top 5 tips through our personal trials and tribulations. Enjoy!
We are on the left side!
#1. Contact the Cruise line directly – This step is very important because you first want to make sure that the cruise line you are interested in is able and willing to accommodate your diet. Once that is confirmed, you will receive instructions from the cruise line on what to do next. In our situation with Princess, we were told to email the dietary department and notify them on our vegan status. The dietary department said they were more than able to accommodate us and instructed us to contact the maître de hotel when we first boarded. We did just that.
Interesting Fact: The only “classified” vegans sailing included the two of us and one other passenger. So that is 3 out of 1700 guests.
#2. Choose a set dining time and not “anytime” dining – Regrettably, we chose “anytime dining” which caused confusion and resulted in a repeated explanation of our vegan situation to different cruise staff. We still received great tasting meals but it was a bit uncomfortable the first few minutes of our dining experience. If you choose a set time, which we highly recommend, you are able to initially establish a relationship with your headwaiter and are guaranteed to have consistency. Towards the second half of our trip, we finally established a good rapport with a particular headwaiter. Although we showed up at different times, he did not act as if this was a problem. We also want to mention that we unexpectedly felt like VIP. We were solely taken care of by the headwaiter and people around us were wondering who we were to receive that type of attention. We also took pictures of every meal so that definitely created a buzz as well. The staff really went above and beyond to make sure we left full and satisfied. Our headwaiter also gave us a preview of the following days breakfast/lunch/dinner menus to see if anything was appealing to us. This was very helpful to both them and us and we suggest that you ask for the following days menus if they are not already provided to you.
#3. Buffets are for the basics – The safe items at the 24-hour buffet are salad, fruit and oatmeal. Everything else is questionable and the dining staff members at the buffet area are not knowledgeable on each item. This was also made known to us prior to sailing. This is a good place to go if you want to grab a quick salad or guacamole and tortilla chips but if you want a custom meal, this is not the place to go.
Fine dining every night with a full table of food. Featuring dahl and chana Masala!
#4. Have it your way and “personalized” to your taste – Don’t be afraid to speak up and tell the headwaiter what type of food you like. The chef is here to please you and quite frankly, you paid for this type of service. Your suggestions are important in order to make you happy and it’s easier on the chef. For example, we both love Mexican burritos and we were served those in many different variations with a big bowl of guacamole and pico de gallo.
Here were some of our meals:
#5. Coffee Bar (International Café) – When traveling/sailing your way to and from foreign times zones, there is no other thing that is more important to an international traveler than caffeine. The names of these mini Café spot within your cruise line may change but all use the same concept and platform.
We bought a basic coffee package which consisted of 15 drinks for $40 with gratuity. In our situation, this was definitely worth it. They had dairy free options including soy milk and rice milk – both were excellent. We had drinks like blended chai tea lattes, banoffee blend, iced cappuccinos, and refreshing iced green tea.
If you do not purchase this card, you are left with their complimentary coffee, which is instant coffee. Some prefer instant coffee but we do not.
Conclusion
Through our non-scientific measures, the ratio that we have anchored down is 20:1. So for every 20 regular diet prepared food items, there was 1 non-animal protein meal. Again, this was an “accidentally” vegan dish in which we had to ask if it had dairy in it. On most cruise lines there will be 2-3 “V’s” on the menu which signifies vegetarian not vegan so don’t get duped.
In conclusion, we think that traveling vegan on a cruise ship is still the best way to see the world and the food was excellent. We suggest that the cruise line include designated “vegan” options on their menu to accommodate us and appeal to more vegans. We hope that this post inspires you to cruise vegan, and not be afraid of the unknown. We promise that we went to bed full every night!
A big thanks to Giovanni – our headwaiter on Deck 5 Michelangelo Hall!
I’m actually kind of disappointed in this article! I was expecting actual tips and/or ideas of what kind of food there would be. As a long time vegan I already know to call ahead (especially if I were to be stuck somewhere for 10 days!!). You took pictures of every meal but where are those pics??
We are very frequent cruisers on Princess. We have had many delicious vegan meals and a number of uninspired meals of pasta with marinara, steamed veggies and salad. Asking for what you want is very important but sometimes a head waiter will not be as talented or helpful as we would hope. I have written to Princess upper management every couple of years recently encouraging them to consult with one of the very talented vegan chefs in Los Angeles, near their Santa Clarita headquarters. Their “sister” cruise line, Holland America, has a dedicated menu with 6 or 7 vegan and 6 or 7 vegetarian options available every evening. From some pictures posted elsewhere, I see that Princess has begun to better label dishes on the buffet.
Hi Jim, This is great insight and we will definitely factor it in to our future cruising. That’s great to learn that Holland America has dedicated vegan options on their menu, we had no idea! We have also sent an email and letter to Princess and have not heard anything back as of yet. I think the more demand and requests will eventually force them to abide but it may be a while as I don’t think many vegans choose to cruise. Thank you so much for your comment and we look forward to possibly sailing with Holland America!
Wow! Apparently, I did it all wrong when I went to Alaska on Princess 13 months ago. I was told by Princess that all I needed to do was to tell my waiter I wanted a vegan option. All I was ever offered was vegetarian. I mostly ate at the buffet. The one night I was “forced” to eat in the dining room I gave in to a pasta with Alfredo sauce. I was so sick the next day I missed going on our tour. If I ever cruise again I’ll be more adamant about my needs. Thanks for the tips.
Hi Erin, So sorry to hear that you had a bad food experience! Our first head waiter wasn’t the greatest the first night so we went to the other dining room and the head waiter there was excellent. I think it definitely helped that we were very adamant about our vegan food haha! We recently learned that Princess’s sister cruise line, Holland America, is extremely vegan friendly so we will be checking that out next time around. Thank you for your comment!