vegan at HAL

[Liskap]

I'm a vegan and I soon will be cruising with HAL.I'm trying too figure out some food-options and some help would be great.

 

I saw a three-bean chili on the room-service menu.

Does anyone know if the chili itself is vegan?

And do they adjust on request, like substitute the cheddar and cornbread for guac and sourdough?

 

Also I saw on a vlog vegans eating room-service sausages for breakfast,but on the menu's I saw morningstar vegilinks and they are only vegetarian as far as I know. Doe anyone know if they serve vegan sausages too?

 

I read that Dive-Inn has beyond-options. Do they also have vegan mayo?

 

Anymore tips for vegans (besides the special menu in the MDT for vegans/vegetarians)?

[Haljo1935]

@Liskap room service will make substitutions so long as what you want is available. 

You might reach out to the accessibility department and see if they can answer your questions. 

Enjoy your cruise!

[YourWorldWithBill]

5 hours ago, Liskap said:

I'm a vegan and I soon will be cruising with HAL.I'm trying too figure out some food-options and some help would be great.

 

Anymore tips for vegans (besides the special menu in the MDT for vegans/vegetarians)?

As a vegetarian, I've been on a couple of HAL cruises. As you said, the Dive-In is a good choice, as they will use Beyond Meat in any of their burgers or hot dogs. I used Catsup, so I'm not sure if they have vegan mayo. If you are on one of the newer, pinnacle class ships (this is a much better choice for a vegan), the NY Deli and Pizza will make any of their pizzas with vegan cheese and a vegan crust, and they're very good.

 

I found that, although the staff in the MDR, Club Orange, or the specialty restaurants will try hard to accommodate a vegan, they are limited by the cooks. This was especially frustrating for me, as you would expect something a cut above in one of the specialty restaurants. I hoped for something better than ordinary spaghetti in the Italian restaurant. And although they have - as you mentioned - a special veg menu in the MDR, the items offered weren't very appealing to me. I've tried most of them.

 

Ask for the MDR menu the night before, because it changes daily and if there's something vegetarian that looks good, ask and they can usually make it vegan if not already, if they know the day before. There's also an Indian menu, but it has only one vegetarian dish each day. Any special order (i.e. vegetarian) is supposed to be made the day before. They will find a way to accommodate you on the first day.

 

One another note: I'm switching to Oceania, because in addition to their reputation for having the best food at sea, they make a genuine effort to have amazing vegan dishes, maybe better than you might expect in an expensive vegan restaurant in a major city. It's more a expensive line, but lots is include in the booking.

 

My last cruise a couple of weeks ago was from Amsterdam on the Rotterdam, by the way. I had great Indonesian and Thai dinners in Amsterdam.

Good luck!

[Liskap]

1 hour ago, Haljo1935 said:

@Liskap room service will make substitutions so long as what you want is available. 

You might reach out to the accessibility department and see if they can answer your questions. 

Enjoy your cruise!

Thanx!

[Liskap]

10 minutes ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

As a vegetarian, I've been on a couple of HAL cruises. As you said, the Dive-In is a good choice, as they will use Beyond Meat in any of their burgers or hot dogs. I used Catsup, so I'm not sure if they have vegan mayo. If you are on one of the newer, pinnacle class ships (this is a much better choice for a vegan), the NY Deli and Pizza will make any of their pizzas with vegan cheese and a vegan crust, and they're very good.

 

I found that, although the staff in the MDR, Club Orange, or the specialty restaurants will try hard to accommodate a vegan, they are limited by the cooks. This was especially frustrating for me, as you would expect something a cut above in one of the specialty restaurants. I hoped for something better than ordinary spaghetti in the Italian restaurant. And although they have - as you mentioned - a special veg menu in the MDR, the items offered weren't very appealing to me. I've tried most of them.

 

Ask for the MDR menu the night before, because it changes daily and if there's something vegetarian that looks good, ask and they can usually make it vegan if not already, if they know the day before. There's also an Indian menu, but it has only one vegetarian dish each day. Any special order (i.e. vegetarian) is supposed to be made the day before. They will find a way to accommodate you on the first day.

 

One another note: I'm switching to Oceania, because in addition to their reputation for having the best food at sea, they make a genuine effort to have amazing vegan dishes, maybe better than you might expect in an expensive vegan restaurant in a major city. It's more a expensive line, but lots is include in the booking.

 

My last cruise a couple of weeks ago was from Amsterdam on the Rotterdam, by the way. I had great Indonesian and Thai dinners in Amsterdam.

Good luck!

Great tips, thank you!

[slidergirl]

On the buffet there was a very small section labeled vegetarian or vegan (short term memory).  I ate things from there frequently, mostly the faro or quinoa salads.  Then I would get an entree salad made at the salad station.  I can’t answer for breakfast as I’m an egg or yogurt or muesli person.  This was the Eurodam at the end of April.

[YourWorldWithBill]

An additional note: soy milk or almond milk is always available. For example, I often had oatmeal with almond milk for breakfast.

[PoppyBanks]

On 6/2/2023 at 4:34 AM, Liskap said:

I'm a vegan and I soon will be cruising with HAL.I'm trying too figure out some food-options and some help would be great.

 

I saw a three-bean chili on the room-service menu.

Does anyone know if the chili itself is vegan?

And do they adjust on request, like substitute the cheddar and cornbread for guac and sourdough?

 

Also I saw on a vlog vegans eating room-service sausages for breakfast,but on the menu's I saw morningstar vegilinks and they are only vegetarian as far as I know. Doe anyone know if they serve vegan sausages too?

 

I read that Dive-Inn has beyond-options. Do they also have vegan mayo?

 

Anymore tips for vegans (besides the special menu in the MDT for vegans/vegetarians)?

I’ve sailed HAL several times as a vegan including recently. In my experience, Pinnacle class ships have more options. The ice cream section of Lido had vegan dark chocolate ice cream, cream cheese and a few other items available if requested. Larger selector non-dairy milks on display. Smaller class ships I have had to ask. They have a huge variety of Beyond meat analogs if you care for them, I do not. The NY Deli has non-dairy cheese (ask, they may be out). Room service is easy. Fruit & oats, other cereals, bagels. I have not seen mayo or Morningstar anywhere on my last sailings. I strongly recommend fixed dining time and table. I like having consistent wait staff and my dinners have been excellent. Always options in Lido but the servers aren’t able to consistently answer questions as they are serving, they’re not the chefs. Please ask me anything…..!

[SnowbirdsinTraining]

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

[ExpatBride]

4 minutes ago, SnowbirdsinTraining said:

 

Main Dining Room: See attached vegetarian / vegan dinner menu. This was the menu that you could select from for the duration of the cruise. 

 

MDR-Vegetarian-Menu-2022-EN.pdf 72.14 kB · 0 downloads

 

Thanks for posting this, even though it's disappointing. I last sailed on HAL in 2016 on Zuiderdam and veg*n menu was much better than the "current" one I was able to find online, but this one is even worse than the one I found online.

They're really pushing the Beyond Meat products! Both the meatball sandwich and veggie burger look like snack bar/buffet options, not something I'd want to eat for dinner in the MDR. Same goes for the pizza.

[OlsSalt]

For a mainline cruise line to accommodate personal dietary demands is quite formidable.  It requires a little give and take, or a pricier cruise line that can accommodate the multiple dietary demands that have become common today:  low-salt, low-cholesterol, low fat, sugar-free  high fiber, gluten free, no nuts, no shellfish, vegetarian, vegan..........

 

I am surprised HAL does as well as it does, knowing one must deal with storage, supply, display space and exclusive-preparation issues.  

 

"Traditional" diet passengers had to give up some of their own favored items in order to provide more space for the emerging specialty diet demands.  But is also has given the more "traditional" diet passengers the opportunity to explore more novel items.

 

Giving up freshly made bread was my own biggest loss. But the "gluten contamination" of from-scratch bread baking onboard ended that favored offering, to be replaced with only pre-made frozen dough products. Which are still often very good, but just not over the top good like the former in-house produced bread items.

 

In the past, HAL was far more a "meat and potatoes" cruise ship -more routine midwestern menu choices. Vegetarian did not go much beyond steamed vegetables in those days. The introduction of all the various new dining stations to accommodate new passenger dietary demands is relatively recent. And now critical to the future of cruising.