We had just completed a 16 night transatlantic sailing on ms Zuiderdam. My partner is vegan and we had always found food options available despite challenges along the way. Challenges more so related to staff knowledge of what constituted "vegan" as well as minimal supply issues.
Main Dining Room: See attached vegetarian / vegan dinner menu. This was the menu that you could select from for the duration of the cruise. The meals had to be pre-ordered with your MDR server either during last night's dinner or that morning's breakfast. We thought the menu could have been better with a reduction in Beyond Meat products. The daily or main MDR menu does contain a vegetarian option. Depending on what it was, it could be made vegan. So, when pre-ordering your dinner meal, they should provide you with both the vegetarian menu as well as the upcoming dinner menu that is available to all guests.
The Indian menu, that did not exist on our cruise, which was unfortunate as my partner really enjoys those flavors. We had asked servers and even the hosts/hostesses for the elusive Indian menu and was told that it was not available for our cruise. Major disappointment. I had pressed for this early on in our cruise and kept getting the same response Near the end of the cruise, I asked an individual who looked in charge. He disappeared for a while to check but did not come back. The next day, we arrived for dinner and my partner received family size (aka large) dishes of basmati rice, a potato and lentil curry and mulligatawny soup. This was in addition to her pre-ordered meal. Unfortunately, the Indian dishes were made with cream and had to be sent back (nothing new was prepared). It was moments like that which were frustrating. Knowledge, communication and/or supply issue all-in-one.
Breakfast was much better in the MDR than in Lido as an Indian breakfast, Aloo Masala with Dosa, was available. Just indicate to the server that the dish needs to be vegan. There is also a Wild Rice and Quinoa Bowl option, which can be veganized. Asian Congee may be an option if prepared with water. They offer green onion, nori strips and tofu (sometimes) to garnish. Your typical fare of oatmeal and fruits can be had as well. We inquired about coconut yogurt, but no luck. The Lido breakfast buffet does not offer the Indian breakfast, but does have congee. They do list Vegan Breakfast Sausage on their menu - this is the Beyond Sausage.
The Salad Bar at the Lido was always open for lunch and dinner. You can request a salad be made - the dressings we had used were the Balsamic Vinaigrette or the Sesame dressing.
Lido offered Asian dishes - stir fried vegetables, stir fried noodles or fried/steamed rice. Pasta was also available. Most of the time, the Lido Homestead offered a vegan stir fried or baked dish. At some of the themed lunches, we found hummus and babaganoush (no mayo).
Dive-In offered vegan Beyond burgers and sausages. We found the rice burger patty to be a nice option. The menu lists a grilled portobello mushroom burger, but we did not try this.
Room Service: A big miss on their first few attempts, but they improved. Soy milk, oatmeal, fruits are listed. We tried adding notes to request substitutions and that didn't work. For example, we ordered a muesli with oat or soymilk and it came with dairy milk. We had better luck when we called room service for substitutions (e.g., no cheese in salads or sandwiches) than with leaving the paper menu on our door for breakfast.
Desserts - You may be limited to fruits and sorbet.
Non-Daily Milks: We had oat milk, soy milk and almond milk early on in the cruise. The oat milk eventually ran out halfway through. These milks are displayed during breakfast, but they take them away after that. So, in order to find a non-dairy milk, you have to ask staff and wait 10-15 minutes for the non-dairy milk to surface.
Early in the cruise, we would have given HAL a 5 for accommodating a vegan diet. Towards the end, it did improve to a 7 or 7.5. We were always able to find options, but the consistency was not there. We did expect better from HAL and have voiced our opinions on our end of cruise survey. This won't stop us of booking HAL again though. We are sailing on Koningsdam in September so hoping to have better luck on this larger ship.
MDR-Vegetarian-Menu-2022-EN.pdf
