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Cruising on carnival as a vegan review


cruisingfor5
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I went on my first cruise as a vegan three weeks ago on carnival. Dining room was amazing but the rest was aweful. Next to nothing to eat during the day. Staff at buffet were not very helpful. Going on RCL next year I hope they have more options. I don't need a lot but oatmeal every morning with under ripe melon for breakfast was tiring by day 5. And lunch...... forget it. I hope they start to take dairy and eggs out of items that don't need it in them.

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RCCL took great care of me in the dining room. They didn't offer much in terms of desserts, though. Breakfast in the windjammer was fruit, oatmeal, english muffins with peanut butter. By days 6 & 7, the fruit was getting a little sparse, though.

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  • 3 weeks later...

HAL has a special menu for Vegan's. They give you the menu the night in the dining room and take your order, they have it ready for your meal the next night. Meals were great. Lido for breakfast, got all the veggies from the omelet bar and did a quick fry without the oil/butter. Vegan's meals are limited, but that is to be expected on a ship.

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Best of luck, we've done two cruises as vegans on RC. First time staff were more receptive though, in MDR I mean. Whereas on my 2nd vegan RC cruise the supervisor in the Windjammer was ever so helpful.

 

What I found out was on the first RC cruise was that the MDR wouldn't serve us pasta because they said it wasn't vegan. Except that it was dry pasta with a 'may contain' warning for egg (I queried this later). On the 2nd sailing I told the Maitre D that 'may contain' warning was ok but he refused to serve it on the basis of 'we serve rice noodles for vegans'. At least in the buffet I was able to choose pasta and have veg stir fried at the pasta station.

 

Breakfast I am afraid is oatmeal with fruit, and bread with no spread as vegetable spread was either butter or veggie spread that had milk in it. The cinnamon roll pastries I discovered were vegan (much like the tinned JusRoll ones we can buy from supermarkets at home and bake ourselves).

 

Desserts were sorbet or fruit, mostly. They attempted chocolate cake one evening but all I could taste was excess baking powder... too bitter to eat.

 

In the MDR we would look at the next day's menu and veganise existing dishes - or make up something else altogether. We never went hungry and on one occasion our neighbouring tablemates were very jealous of our chickpea curry, rice & poppadoms.

 

Oceania and Costa have official vegan menus for the MRD. HAL has a new veggie & vegan one. Rest of the cruise lines improvise and there seems to be much variation depending which ship - not just the company you book with. We've had amazing vegan food on Princess, even cake and a range of desserts - because the food & bev manager looking after us had a lethal egg allergy. He knew how to cater for diets and made sure his kitchen staff would too.

 

We've found that we can get fed but for desserts we plan ahead and use apps like HappyCow to look for vegan friendly restaurants and cafes at various ports. Because ships don't always do vegan desserts. Still to try one of those vegan cruises though, like Holistic Holidays at Sea, Vegan Cruiseplanners sailings or the European river cruises :)

 

I know some RC ships have veggieburgers but never on the two I was on - so not sure if those were veggie (with egg) or vegan. UK P&O ships have been known to even serve seitan! (recent IG photos) Things are changing - when the massive European package holiday company TUI now have brand of hotels that have vegan menus (TUI Blue).

 

Let us know how you get on!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry to hear of your poor experience as a vegan cruising on Carnival. For the past 5 Carnival cruises I've been a vegan and learned quite a bit:

 

1) You can order pizza 24 hours a day with no cheese and unlimited toppings AND can bring vegan cheese on board to add to it.

2) Notifying the staff in the MDR when first arriving will allow you to plan your meals.

3) Ask for soy milk (it's available upon request) and then cereal options open up to you.

4) Bring vegan butter on-board (no problem if it's sealed) and then use it on English muffins and other breads/rolls/potatoes/veggies.

5) The tofu steak offered on the last night...or perhaps during the Captain's Dinner...can be ordered any time.

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  • 1 month later...
I went on my first cruise as a vegan three weeks ago on carnival. Dining room was amazing but the rest was aweful. Next to nothing to eat during the day. Staff at buffet were not very helpful. Going on RCL next year I hope they have more options. I don't need a lot but oatmeal every morning with under ripe melon for breakfast was tiring by day 5. And lunch...... forget it. I hope they start to take dairy and eggs out of items that don't need it in them.

 

 

I've been vegan for a little over a year now. Had booked a Carnival Vista for Nov but me & my fiance mostly will cancel because we don't want to chance it. What did you eat for dinner? How accommodating were they? Were there good substitutions?

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I've been vegan for a little over a year now. Had booked a Carnival Vista for Nov but me & my fiance mostly will cancel because we don't want to chance it. What did you eat for dinner? How accommodating were they? Were there good substitutions?

 

 

Dinner will never be much of an issue. The rest of the day is the hardest. Thankfully the first night at dinner was Indian food so they easily adjusted my meal to accommodate me and it was my favourite meal by far. Then at the end of the dinner they brought over the menu for the next day and I pre ordered what I was going to have so they could adjust it. They did that each night for the following day. Worked out pretty good. Like I said the dining room isn't that hard it is during the day that was the hardest. Besides salad and a very poor selection of fruit there was not much to eat at the buffet or the rest of the ship.

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I find it hard to believe the buffet would've been that bad... don't Carnival have a design-your-own chinese/pasta dish station in the buffet where you can pick veg etc and staff member prepares your meal for you? On Royal, I was always able to have pasta in tomato sauce and I would pick all kinds of veg from the buffet to have with it..

 

Chinese stir fry station noodles had egg in them, so for soy sauce veg stir fry I would need to have something else - quite often could find boiled rice elsewhere...or potatos. Always loads of salad and roast veg. Bread too. Most days there would be a veggie soup that was accidentally vegan (no cream swirl).

 

I sailed on Italian MSC end of last year (three-night taster) and even though their MDR was poor when it came to vegan food, their buffet was amazing! I find it hard to be hungry on a ship, desserts however, that is another thing altogether... not a lot of ships can do vegan desserts am afraid :(

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I find it hard to believe the buffet would've been that bad... don't Carnival have a design-your-own chinese/pasta dish station in the buffet where you can pick veg etc and staff member prepares your meal for you? On Royal, I was always able to have pasta in tomato sauce and I would pick all kinds of veg from the buffet to have with it..

 

Chinese stir fry station noodles had egg in them, so for soy sauce veg stir fry I would need to have something else - quite often could find boiled rice elsewhere...or potatos. Always loads of salad and roast veg. Bread too. Most days there would be a veggie soup that was accidentally vegan (no cream swirl).

 

I sailed on Italian MSC end of last year (three-night taster) and even though their MDR was poor when it came to vegan food, their buffet was amazing! I find it hard to be hungry on a ship, desserts however, that is another thing altogether... not a lot of ships can do vegan desserts am afraid :(

 

 

All pasta had egg in it. Most of the Chinese food had egg or fish sauce in it. Rice at the buffet had butter on it. Roasted veggies usual are coated in butter. I had a hard time getting answers at the buffet also. I would ask a question and no body would know the answer. No bread was vegan on carnival but the English muffin if they had them. Ever cruise and cruise line is different from what I can tell. Going on RCL for the first time next year so we will see what happens.

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All pasta had egg in it. Most of the Chinese food had egg or fish sauce in it. Rice at the buffet had butter on it. Roasted veggies usual are coated in butter. I had a hard time getting answers at the buffet also. I would ask a question and no body would know the answer. No bread was vegan on carnival but the English muffin if they had them. Ever cruise and cruise line is different from what I can tell. Going on RCL for the first time next year so we will see what happens.

 

Oh my goodness, that sounds awful if they indeed were sticking butter into everything.

 

I find that if I ask to speak to the buffet manager or the chef on duty, I can get better responses than general staff at the servery/stations. On my last three cruises was told unless otherwise marked, roasted vegetables were done in oil - no butter.

 

If staff behind the counter don't know, stand your ground and ask to speak to the chef or duty manager. Each dish cooked in the galley has an ingredient card (what items from the dry/cool store are needed to cook it) so they can trace back to original packaging to say what is in dishes and the chef should know how it was made.

 

How come they had no vegan bread? Sounds unreal they would use butter, egg or milk in bread.. so much for allergen-awareness :( Why did they say only the English muffins were ok and rest not? I've got a Carnival cruise booked so I need to prepare ;)

 

Royal Caribbean first said pasta wasn't suitable but I queried this with the buffet supervisor and it was because the packaging said 'may contain egg' - it wasn't actual egg pasta. They had egg-free rice noodles too, but those I had only in the MDR one evening.

 

Ready made chinese sauces were no good for fish sauce etc - but the buffet make-your-own station I was able to have vegetables stir-fried with plain soy sauce.

 

See my Can you Cruise Vegan on Royal Caribbean blog post for photos ;)

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Thanks I will check it out. The breads had egg in them or brushed with butter they said. Trying to find out if the sorrento pizza crust is vegan or not on RCL but have heard both answers and when I emailed them they said I had to ask on the cruise which was weird and frustrating that they can't just tell me.

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You may need to find out when you get onboard, I can't imagine ships using same suppliers all over the world so customer service probably can't commit unless they got a reply from the ship for you.

 

Am really hoping Carnival don't stick butter into everything when I sail with them - I better get prepared and start writing to the customer service team about this.

 

Oh, and for anyone else interested in vegan experience on Carnival, I found this http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2016/10/eating-vegan-on-a-carnival-cruise.html

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Vegan shrimp? I have had all kinds of Asian mock meats in restaurants on land but never on cruise ships. Carnival has had mock shrimp?!

 

Yeah they leave out the egg based ingredients in the sauce, I think the shrimp is just the normally prepared shrimp, they don't add egg or dairy in the normal preparation as far as i know.

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Yeah they leave out the egg based ingredients in the sauce, I think the shrimp is just the normally prepared shrimp, they don't add egg or dairy in the normal preparation as far as i know.

 

Shrimp it self is not vegan.

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Yes it is? Not sure where you're getting your information but even the ecoterrorist dude from Whale Wars considers shrimp and mollusks vegan.

 

 

No it is not! I have no clue who this person is that you are talking about but they obviously have never educated themselves on a vegan diet. Vegans only eat plants or things that are made out of things the come from a plant. Last I check those are not a plant. Shrimp have eyes, veins and poop.

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Shrimp aren't vegan, am afraid. They're a living thing, with a face, they poop :)

 

Vegan (ethical standpoint) or plant-based (diet) is what it says...choosing plant based alternatives to exclude where possible all exploitation & cruelty to animails.

 

Now, what your random example person claims (no idea who this dude is) is that eating bivalves like mussels and oysters is fine. People like him say these beings lack sentience (that animals have) and lack a central nervous system. And that makes them ok to eat. These people get called ostro-vegans. I do not know a single vegan and no vegan body/society that I know of would support the eating of these animals.

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You folks are way off on this I'm really sorry to say. So you completely sterilize your food before consumption? How is that even edible? You realize you would be killing the bacteria, amoeba etc in the process and their bodies are still on the food. What about the accidental critters that get introduced into the production of food? Bacteria "poops" as you say. My point is, there are lots of definitions of vegan and a lot of people (myself included) consider shrimp vegan.

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My point is, there are lots of definitions of vegan and a lot of people (myself included) consider shrimp vegan.

 

Ok, so I did make the jokey-y comment about the definition of animals trying to keep this lighthearted. As for bacteria, they are not sentient animals so that isn't relevant our discussion.

 

So there are people who think consuming bivalves and prawns is vegan - I already made that point. But for the majority of vegans (and organisations that represent us in the UK), prawns wouldn't be considered vegan. Much like backyard eggs.

 

Even the vegetarian society says prawns aren't vegetarian as they're shellfish.

https://www.vegsoc.org/definitions

 

 

Maybe it is a UK vs US thing - but for over here vegan equals plant based.

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As for bacteria, they are not sentient animals so that isn't relevant our discussion.

 

Neither are mollusks or shrimp though so I just don't understand how your definitions or any British definition for vegan is even possible unless a person is eating in a sterile environment and only eating amino acids, fats and carbohydrates that are manufactured in a sterile lab using sterile "plant based" inputs. I just always thought most people who were vegan were doing it for ethical reasons.

 

I certainly don't do it for the "health of it", I have been strictly adhering to a vegan diet for a long time and my doctor begs me to quit because of my anemia and sugar diabetes, but he just doesn't get it. I'm not going to sacrifice a bunch of innocent animals and make them have hard lives and painful deaths in order to MAYBE feel a little better and take fewer meds. NO THANK YOU DOCTOR! Sorry for the rant.

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You folks are way off on this I'm really sorry to say. So you completely sterilize your food before consumption? How is that even edible? You realize you would be killing the bacteria, amoeba etc in the process and their bodies are still on the food. What about the accidental critters that get introduced into the production of food? Bacteria "poops" as you say. My point is, there are lots of definitions of vegan and a lot of people (myself included) consider shrimp vegan.

 

I never said anything about bacteria. I said Shrimp actually poop. And vegans don't eat anything that poops, has eyes or veins. You really need to research the true definition of a vegan because if you eat shrimp you are not even vegetarian. Or would be called a pescetarian. Here is that definition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pescetarianism

I am from Canada and you would not be considered a vegan. There are lots of variations of a vegan but consuming shrimp or fish is not part of the variations here. I have never met or known a vegan in real life or online that consumes these things.

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I never said anything about bacteria. I said Shrimp actually poop. And vegans don't eat anything that poops, has eyes or veins. You really need to research the true definition of a vegan because if you eat shrimp you are not even vegetarian. Or would be called a pescetarian. Here is that definition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pescetarianism

I am from Canada and you would not be considered a vegan. There are lots of variations of a vegan but consuming shrimp or fish is not part of the variations here. I have never met or known a vegan in real life or online that consumes these things.

 

I've never heard a person in America say vegans don't eat anything that poops, has veins or eyes. I think you guys are like a lot of my vegan friends.

 

I'll start off by saying that I'm glad they are vegans because they are helping to end pain and suffering in the world. However they get into being a vegan for misguided reasons or don't fully understand what it means to be a vegan. I've actully got a "vegan" friend who sees nothing wrong with having leather seats! Another friend BOUGHT a designer dog. Another friend had her daughter's birthday party at a freaking zoo! I mean they are real looney tunes, but they don't eat anything with a nervous system which can react to external stimuli and command mobility and thus they are vegan.

 

Bacteria poop and so do shrimp. Shrimp aren't fish. I eat bacteria and shrimp, but don't eat fish. I'm a vegan.

 

Let me be clear also, I'm not trying to come off as some high and mighty person who you all should aspire to as some guru or role model. I could definitely live a more sustainable lifestyle. But I do think I'm a pretty good role model for how to live vegan and reduce suffering.

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