Avalon Food Trays?

This is our first river cruise coming up in a few weeks. Our last cruise was an Ocean cruise to Alaska on Holland America. We had access to the Neptune Lounge where they had a coffee machine and other goodies. I read a suggestion about packing a food tray in your luggage. It does not take much space. So we did and it was a great suggestion. You could get room service but it was so easy and convinient to walk down, grab stuff, walk back. The ship did not offer trays to its guest.

We like eating with other people but sometimes it great just to be by ourselves.....

So now we have the river boat. I would love the option of bringing food back to the room. Does the boat offer use of food trays or Should I pack ours?

Not sure exactly where you would get the food to put on your tray to take back to the room. I suppose you could load your tray at the breakfast or lunch buffet but I never saw anyone leave the dining room with food. It's not like an ocean ship buffet or the Neptune lounge on HAL I think you might not find taking food out of the dining areas to be appropriate. But that might just be me.

This is our first river cruise coming up in a few weeks. Our last cruise was an Ocean cruise to Alaska on Holland America. We had access to the Neptune Lounge where they had a coffee machine and other goodies. I read a suggestion about packing a food tray in your luggage. It does not take much space. So we did and it was a great suggestion. You could get room service but it was so easy and convinient to walk down, grab stuff, walk back. The ship did not offer trays to its guest.

 

We like eating with other people but sometimes it great just to be by ourselves.....

 

So now we have the river boat. I would love the option of bringing food back to the room. Does the boat offer use of food trays or Should I pack ours?

River cruising is VERY different from ocean cruising. There is no Neptune buffet to choose from. Food is served in the main dining room, although a few lines now have "specialty" dining. All meals will be open seating in the main dining room. Breakfast will be a buffet with a wide variety of fruits, cheeses, breads, cereals and cooked to order eggs, french toast/pancakes and breakfast meats. Lunch is also a large buffet with a wide variety of meats, cheeses, veggies, breads, desserts and a hot station with usually 2 or 3 choices of serve yourself hot dishes. Sometimes they will also have a special entree that you can order from the menu. Dinner is fully served from appetizer to dessert. Seating is always open and you will not have to wander around looking for open seats. If you have a full suite you might have room service (depends on the line) but I think most of them discourage you bringing in a tray and walking out with meals to eat in your room. Again, unless you have a suite, the table you'll be eating at will resemble the tables for two in an ice-cream parlor. If you want to bring back a couple of pieces of fruit and danish that's one thing, but I think bringing back a full meal will be frowned upon....although I don't think they would stop you. I would leave the tray at home but that's just my opinion.

The river cruise ships on which I have cruised have made coffee/tea and perhaps some cookies and croissants available before the dining room opens for breakfast, so perhaps a tray might be useful to bring these back to your cabin. Similarly, hot beverages and small sandwiches are often served in a lounge in the afternoon for tea, and I imagine you could take these to your cabin.

However, as others have pointed out, the dining room is only open during regular meal times and I have never seen people taking a tray of food from there to their cabin. As the others have said, I do think that taking anything other than a piece of fruit and the like would be frowned on. Call room service if you really want a meal in your stateroom.

I have never seen people taking a tray of food from there to their cabin..

Nor I. Other than a cookie or a piece of fruit it would be highly inappropriate IMO.

Thanks of the responses. WE were not thinking about dinner. But for sure coffee and treats during the day. Probably a few breakfasts. We are are not too concerned about what other people think we should do. Time permitting we will be eating off the ship and may also being back some treats. So it sounds like no trays are on the ship...... so packing one is an option.

Sounds like a great idea. I'm the early riser in our marriage and end up juggling cups of coffee etc to carry back to the room.

You can get a light weight one on Amazon 10" x 14" for $3. They fit in luggage like they Are not there. Two Lattes, a couple of croisannts, maybe something sweet. They all fit. We also will use it for cutting cheese or sausage or fruit.

On our two Avalon cruises, I would always go to the lounge on the top deck at the aft of the ship, for coffees from the cappuccino machine, they always had cookies or breakfast items depending on the time of the day. We kept a few bread items in our cabin for when we were docked and the swans would come along. I don't think a tray from that area would be a big deal, and could make it easier to get back to the room without making a mess. That said, I never had an accident.

JC

I wouldn't judge tray users too harshly, we did it ourselves once on the Viking China cruise when we had a day of scenic cruising on the Yangtze.

The views were particularly spectacular around lunch time so together with one of the other couples we collected a good variety of bits and pieces from the lunch buffet and had a picnic on the top deck, a much better way to enjoy the scenery than sitting in the dining room...

The crew were happy to provide us with trays in that case.

Why is taking food back to your cabin inappropriate?

Roz

Why is taking food back to your cabin inappropriate?

 

Roz

I'm not sure why you would want to. If you want to enjoy the outdoors do it on deck. I' m sure housekeeping prefers not to have to clean up food crumbs (or spills).

If I remember correctly on my Uniworld Vienna to Basel cruise after getting through the buffet line (breakfast or lunch I think) you could ask a crew member to bring your tray up to the forward deck and eat outdoors.

I don't know what grade cabin you have, but if you have one of the cheaper ones there is limited room in the cabin. You would need to set on the bed to eat from your tray.

I hope you at least have a French balcony room.

Why is taking food back to your cabin inappropriate?

 

Roz

I don't think it's inappropriate as much as inconvenient. Taking food from the buffet upstairs for a picnic lunch is one thing...there's tables and chairs and if it's a scenic area and a beautiful day...it's a wonderful idea...but I think taking dinner back to your room on a tray would be really difficult since dinner is usually served course by course and most cabins don't have a big enough table to set up for a dinner unless you have a suite, in which case you'd probably order room service.....

Donray: French balcony would be of no use for eating because the table in front of it would easily hold two cups of coffee and a small plate with donuts on it but nothing much more :D

I don't think the OP every said they were taking dinner courses back to their cabin. More like things you would find at breakfast and lunch - fruit, pastries, cheese, coffee, etc. Passengers do this all the time on ocean cruises, why is a river cruise any different?

Roz

I don't think the OP every said they were taking dinner courses back to their cabin. More like things you would find at breakfast and lunch - fruit, pastries, cheese, coffee, etc. Passengers do this all the time on ocean cruises, why is a river cruise any different?

 

Roz

I didn't take it that way quite honestly....I took it to mean that sometimes they liked to eat by themselves. We often bring back fruit, pastries or cheese from the lunch buffet but you don't really need a tray for that, you can put them on a plate. I was thinking that OP might have been thinking that river cruises had a buffet like ocean cruises and they don't. I've also been on ocean cruises and the table on the balcony is usually big enough to eat a light meal or the coffee table in the cabin if you don't mind bending over from the couch, but river cruise rooms generally don't have that kind of table in them. The table you'll find in a river cruise cabin (the ones I've been on anyway) are usually tables for 2 and primarily meant for coffee or wine.

I didn't take it that way quite honestly....I took it to mean that sometimes they liked to eat by themselves. We often bring back fruit, pastries or cheese from the lunch buffet but you don't really need a tray for that, you can put them on a plate. I was thinking that OP might have been thinking that river cruises had a buffet like ocean cruises and they don't. I've also been on ocean cruises and the table on the balcony is usually big enough to eat a light meal or the coffee table in the cabin if you don't mind bending over from the couch, but river cruise rooms generally don't have that kind of table in them. The table you'll find in a river cruise cabin (the ones I've been on anyway) are usually tables for 2 and primarily meant for coffee or wine.

I read it the same way and agree with you.

We have outside balconies when we travel with AMA and the tables are fine for wine or coffee but not much else.

Good to see you posting, Caviargal....how bad was it where you are? We're gearing up for Sunday and Monday. This is one weird storm. :D

Good to see you posting, Caviargal....how bad was it where you are? We're gearing up for Sunday and Monday. This is one weird storm. :D

Lots of rain for the past few days, which we badly needed. We had some winds yesterday with the usual downed trees, etc., but nothing major at all in our portion of the state. Hope it goes easy on you.

I'm bummed - we needed rain too and only got a quarter of an inch (of course, 45 miles away was 4"+, so.....Our forecasts had been all over the place since it depends so much on the exact track...) Odd storm indeed!

On the river trip I just returned from I took sandwiches and cold cuts up on deck or back to my cabin to eat lunch on the balcony most every day. I don't like hour long lunches and enjoyed the solitude for that hour.

I'm bummed - we needed rain too and only got a quarter of an inch (of course, 45 miles away was 4"+, so.....Our forecasts had been all over the place since it depends so much on the exact track...) Odd storm indeed!

Believe it or not we're in a severe draught as well...right now it's just cloudy....very cloudy...but no rain yet..not supposed to actually effect us until tomorrow but bad news is the northern weather pattern is dropping down and will prevent Hermine from moving for a while....I really feel badly for the people sailing out of Cape Liberty and/or NYC tomorrow on the Fall cruises (I go in Oct.) going to be rough off our coast...seas already 5-7'.

Believe it or not we're in a severe draught as well...right now it's just cloudy....very cloudy...but no rain yet..not supposed to actually effect us until tomorrow but bad news is the northern weather pattern is dropping down and will prevent Hermine from moving for a while....I really feel badly for the people sailing out of Cape Liberty and/or NYC tomorrow on the Fall cruises (I go in Oct.) going to be rough off our coast...seas already 5-7'.

Tell me about drought. We're in year 5 of exceptional drought (D4 intensity) here in southern CA. We're not even getting the "just cloudy" stuff.

We finally gave in and took our our lawn last fall. Now we have a rock "lawn".

Tell me about drought. We're in year 5 of exceptional drought (D4 intensity) here in southern CA. We're not even getting the "just cloudy" stuff.

 

We finally gave in and took our our lawn last fall. Now we have a rock "lawn".

You guys are in a class all by yourselves...and that's not a good thing. We have friends in Southern CA and have been following the fires...it's just tragic and terrible and our drought is nothing in comparison. :(

Can't wait to find out about taking food back to your cabin on our Avalon Paris-Normandy cruise next May. We had a wonderful Danube cruise a few months ago on Scenic and we ordered room service one night and it was delivered by the head butler and restaurant manager--totally surprised us. No added charge and we were not in a 'penthouse" cabin either. Just an indication of the top-quality service on Scenic.