Low Sodium Diet

[gemz]

Hi! My mother has high blood pressure and should be on a low sodium diet. How accommodating is it on Ruby Princess to obtain meals with less salt? Is there low sodium soup? I'm sure we can ask for sauce on the side of roast beef but could we request other dishes to have low or no salt?

 

Thank you!

[Pam in CA]

Hi! My mother has high blood pressure and should be on a low sodium diet. How accommodating is it on Ruby Princess to obtain meals with less salt? Is there low sodium soup? I'm sure we can ask for sauce on the side of roast beef but could we request other dishes to have low or no salt?

This is easy to do in the dining room, harder in the buffet. Make sure your mother notes in her Personalizer that she requires a low-sodium diet. The first night, talk to the Maitre d' and he will bring all of the menus for the next day, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Your mother will be able to order modified dishes or if she doesn't find something she likes, something special. The Maitre d' will take her order(s). The next day, when she gets to the dining room, she just needs to let the waitstaff know her name and cabin # and they will look up what was ordered and serve it to her.

[cr8tiv1]

I did a low sodium diet for personal preference and not because of a health restriction on my last voyage to Hawaii. I was disappointed that the swelling in my ankles and feet were still a problem. I only restricted my dinners in hopes that, by doing so, I would have less problems.

 

The Head Waiter brought me a menu each evening and noted my order. He would suggest things and nix others. These are my observations.

 

I did not get any potatoes and had to request even a baked potato

Most of my meals came on a bed of vegetables (lima beans, green beans, asparagus, etc). The meal was hot and the vegetables were very nicely cooked.

My friend gave up on her orders since she wanted her meat medium well and it would come out like shoe leather AND no gravy

 

I tried to stay away from the hot soups since they are laden with salt. Seafood also had its share of natural sodium. The fruit soups were outstanding.

 

They are very accommodating.

 

Renee

[caribill]

This is easy to do in the dining room, harder in the buffet. Make sure your mother notes in her Personalizer that she requires a low-sodium diet. The first night, talk to the Maitre d' and he will bring all of the menus for the next day, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Your mother will be able to order modified dishes or if she doesn't find something she likes, something special. The Maitre d' will take her order(s). The next day, when she gets to the dining room, she just needs to let the waitstaff know her name and cabin # and they will look up what was ordered and serve it to her.

 

And each night speak with the headwater to plan the next next day's meals.

 

If you want to eat in a specialty restaurant, go their the evening before and speak with the headwaiter there.

 

Even items which are normally salty such as onion soup can be prepared without any added salt if you request this in advance.

[gemz]

Thank you for all your great ideas. Now I remember cruising with someone a few years ago that had a few allergies and she did select some meals the night before.

 

Thanks again.

[TERESAh]

Thank you for all your great ideas. Now I remember cruising with someone a few years ago that had a few allergies and she did select some meals the night before.

 

Thanks again.

 

This might work ok if you have a set dining table, but we had anytime dining. The head waiter would show us the menu for the next night and we would order then. This meant you had to come to the same dining room the next night. The first night we asked for the low sodium and waited almost one hour for our meal which meant everyone at our table had to wait so you don't want to do this.

[caribill]

This might work ok if you have a set dining table, but we had anytime dining. The head waiter would show us the menu for the next night and we would order then. This meant you had to come to the same dining room the next night. The first night we asked for the low sodium and waited almost one hour for our meal which meant everyone at our table had to wait so you don't want to do this.

 

The Ruby has two anytime dining rooms. If the OP has anytime dining, it is not much of a problem to use the same one each evening.

 

However, if you want to go to the other anytime dining room, the selected meal can be retrieved with no problem as it is kept by cabin number, not by the dining room it was selected.

 

The only problem with using the other dining room is that it means you need a different headwaiter to work with to select the following night's meals.

[garet]

I used to have issues on cruises with swollen ankles and feet..I think I might have tried to blame it on the salty air:confused: several cruises ago, my husband and I went gluten- free and surprise, surprise..no more ankle swelling. I was a huge bread lover..and of course what goes with the bread but salty butter which didn't help the matter. You might want to try it:)

[DebnDan]

I feet and ankles get very swollen on cruises but that's the only time. I'm going to try a low sodium diet next cruise and if that doesn't work I will try the low gleuten diet. I was also wondering if the ships water had sodium in it because of the filtering process. I had heard something about this before. Does anyone know?

[janzhitty]

Is there any way to find out the sodium content of the tap water on the ship? We stay at a resort in Mexico that uses de-salinated water and I contacted the resort manager and he told me the sodium content of the de-salinated water there. Someone on the ship or Princess office should be able to tell us that information.

[baggal]

You have to be very vigilant to maintain a low-sodium or no-sodium diet on a cruise. Besides the water (and therefore the coffee and the ice cubes), there is so much hidden sodium in the food that you have to assume that if it is in anyway processed or cooked, there is salt in it.

 

I was particularly disappointed in the low-sodium options available on my recent Caribbean Princess cruise - my first cruise on Princess. Every dish that I ordered came out with the same presentation: meat, fish, or chicken (depending on what I ordered) without sauce (I think that was the low-sodium accommodation) with the same mixed vegetables (broccoli, carrots, snap peas - not my favorites). By the second night I asked the waitress for a side order of asparagus and a baked potato. Unfortunately, the asparagus is cooked in SALTED WATER. So while they chef may not sprinkle salt on the asparagus, it has already absorbed more sodium than I could tolerate. I was quite unhappy, but it didn't seem that a real NO SODIUM option was really available in the MDR.

 

On the other hand, on my past two cruises on RCI, they were much more accommodating. For example, I could order vegetables cooked in non-salted water, as well as a truly salt-free pasta dish (no salt in the cooking water as well as the sauce). Boring and bland yes - but the truth is in the ankles. After a 12 day cruise on RCI I had normal looking ankles. It took about 3 days at home for me to be able to see my ankles after my 7 day CB cruise.

[westcliffo]

We just finished a cruise on the Star Princess. The advice above is excellent and the Star princess wa excellent.