When in port, do you try a local restaurant or eat on ship for lunch?

[edmusic]

When you seasoned cruisers are in port, do you go back or stay on the ship for lunch or do you like to sample the local flavor of the restaurants in that port?

[Assateague Island Princes]

ALWAYS out and about on shore when in port, and we don't waste time going back to the ship. Besides, we like discovering those hole in the wall, out of the way, wonderful local restaurants and try their signature dishes!

[Sea42]

We, too, almost always eat our lunches while in port. I can only think of twice when we have done otherwise. Both times we had gone to the beach in the morning, came back to the ship to shower and change before heading out for an afternoon tour. It was just easier in those cases to get something onboard

[innlady1]

We most often eat lunch in port. :)

[beacha]

We enjoyed snacks from local restaurants while in port.

[Randyk47]

Absolutely! We've even eaten dinner off the ship if departure time and circumstances permitted.

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

On occasion, we do eat off the ship. We like to try different restaurants and if a longer cruise, have something other than ship food once in awhile.

[mllewis48]

I agree with most comments about having lunch off the ship but last year when we were in Bermuda I noticed several folks leaving for a dinner in Bermuda which I found surprising since they have alraedy paid for 5 star dining on the ship. I heard from others that dinner in Bermuda at a reasonably priced restaurant can cost as much as $100+? We had a couple drinks with lunch and it was over $50.

 

Too each their own I guess

[kakalina]

We also like to try new places to eat in port. You can find some fabulous dishes this way. One of my favorites was a sweet salsa served warm in Costa Rica. Oh my!

 

Every time we walk through the Grande Marche ( the huge marketplace in Papeete) we wish we could walk through with a great big soup pot and fill it with all the strange and wonderful looking veggies we see there.

[CathyK2]

So much of travel for us is the local flavor and that includes the food. We always eat at the place we are visiting unless it's someplace that we've been to many times before. Since we tend to always try to pick new parts of the world, we do always seem to be eating a meal in each port. We also try to focus on a place that is more geared towards the locals vs going to a tourist spot. But that's just us. Enjoy!

 

Cathy

[ncgolferette]

DH and I will eat out with every chance we get. For us that is part of experiencing a new port or country.

[Himself]

I usually choose to eat on ship.

[Boytjie]

Eat locally. :)

 

Often that means getting back to the ship after scuba diving, showering and going ashore for lunch.

[crusinbanjo]

ALWAYS out and about on shore when in port, and we don't waste time going back to the ship. Besides, we like discovering those hole in the wall, out of the way, wonderful local restaurants and try their signature dishes!

 

Same here, Mrs Banjo & I just love finding those hidden gems!

[hensghan]

Let's be honest here. Some of the places to eat locally aren't really all that sanitary. DW and I have both paid the price internally for going a bit too native. You have to be careful. Indigenous food can be great tasting but the shipboard food is pretty much always safer. Once burned, twice learned, so to speak.

[localady]

Love trying the local fare while in port! Looking forward to many different types of food in the Mediterranean this fall, it's a big part of the charm of travel. Mezes, tapas, we love trying them all, at least once. :D

We use tripadvisor.com and try to get recommendations for most ports. Usually we get very wonderful food that has never done us wrong health wise so far!!

[3rdGenCunarder]

We usually have a good breakfast on board, so we're just looking for a snack lunch. We look for a bar that has a local brew and that's lunch.

[PathfinderEss]

We love eating off the ship. We have found some of the best restaurants in some of our ports. I'm always looking for good food.

[sail7seas]

Indeed,

 

We have lots of lunches off the ship in port.... and dinner as welll whenlate departure.

[hvsteve1]

I paid for that cruise and am going to eat every single morsal of food I can get out of them. ;)

[Copper10-8]

Wouldn't wanna miss an opportunity to grab a Broodje Kroket in Kralendijk, Bonaire and/or a Sate dinner on Willemstad, Curacao;)

[bob brown]

It all depends, for me. If I was on an all day tour, or was otherwise far from the ship, I would not waste time returning to the ship just for the 'free lunch'. But if I was in the immediate ship area, say in a smaller port, and there wasn't any special local food attraction to tempt me, then yes, I probably would reboard and have lunch on board before doing further exploriing of the port....

[ellieanne]

It depends on the port. In some ports, I will eat ashore, and others, I feel better heading back to the ship.

[MMDown Under]

We eat a good breakfast, then don't eat a meal again until early dinner, as we are usually too busy discovering the port to take time out to eat a sit down lunch. However, we will buy a snack, on the run, such as a gelato in Italy.

[kazu]

We enjoy sampling the food of different countries. So, lunch is usually off the ship. Quite often (especially the Med and Europe) going back to the ship is not even an option. Nothing like the flavor of the food to get a flavor of the country you are visiting:)