Life Aboard: The Food

The food here is not as spectacular as one might imagine. Yeah, everyone goes on a cruise ship to eat. But you don’t work on a cruise ship to eat.

There is always a variety of food available (24 hours a day). There are the unhealthy options of cheeseburgers and fries, pizza and dessert, but there are always healthy options too. Your diet depends on what you choose.

The average passenger will gain 1-2 pounds per day of the cruise.

The thing to avoid with the food is excess. The plates they make available are twice as big as normal plates. The buffet line stretches on and on. The dessert server encourages you to take another piece of pie. The mess has entrees and buffets available.

But once you step back and realize that the food’s not going away, and you’ll see the same menu or layout in two weeks time, it’s easy to eat manageable portions.

There are a variety of dining options for the crew on board. The complicated part is remembering when you’re allowed to go to which. The crew mess is always open, the staff mess is sometimes open, the officer’s mess is occasionally open, with service at certain times. The passenger buffet is open all the time, but it’s only available at certain specific hours during sea days, and different specific hours during port days. Or not at all when it’s busy. The pizza place is usually open, except on certain port or sea days. Same with the hamburger grill. The panini shop is always not available, except to contractors on the crew, who have passenger privileges. The steakhouse and trattoria are available through reservation. And I still haven’t learned when the sushi bar is open or available.