Vegetarian in MDR

[passy]

Hi all.

 

I'm a vegetarian although I do eat a limited amount of fish.

 

On previous princess cruises I have been disappointed by having only one veggie option on the MDR dinner menu and if I didn't like it then it was fish or nothing.

 

I now understand that if I speak to the Maitre D there may be more options available to me?

 

But I wonder how this works? Next cruise I'm CC anytime dining so won't have the same table or waiter every night.

 

Has anyone any experience of making special veggie requests please?

 

PS I'm your typical Brit and don't like to be "demanding" so find it very awkward to make special requests!!

 

Thank you

 

 

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[floridalover5623]

I'm not a vegetarian but the selections do seem limited in the DR. You might want to talk to the head waiter & arrange for special meals.

[JF - retired RRT]

From what has been posted here about Club Class it's not quite the same as regular ATD. The area is smaller, fewer waiters and you can have the same wait staff all the time. That should make it a little easier for the waiters to know what you want...sort of like Traditional Dining Lite.:)

[diane.in.ny]

We just sailed with someone who had special dietary needs and the process was easy.

 

Speak with the head waiter first time into the dining room. At dinner, you will be given the menus for the next day's lunch and dinner. He will discuss with you what, if anything, can be made vegetarian for you.

 

If there is nothing that appeals, you can ask for a special dish. Do you want a special salad? Our friend had that every night: romaine, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, pickled beets. Anything that you see on the buffet can be added to your special salad. Want pasta with a vodka sauce? No problem. A dinner platter of grilled vegetables? Just ask.

 

Our friend is gluten free and they made gluten free bread for her AND gluten free banana bread to have at breakfast. Very accommodating. You just need to ask and discuss your next day meals one day ahead.

[medsed]

If you go to Princess.com and log in to manage your booking you will find there is a section for accessibility and special dietary requests, if you click on that and scroll down you will see vegetarian diet is listed. You should go ahead and check that box and you will receive a reply from princess with instructions on exactly what to do while on board.

[Coral]

A friend in gluten intolerant and vegetarian. She really has no problems on her cruises. She speaks to the Head Waiter and asks what she likes and doesn't like and is really impressed with what they offer. The Head Waiter just checks with her the night before.

[Jersey42]

My daughter is a vegetarian. No fish either. In the past, she used to pick and choose from what was on the menu. The last time she cruised with us, she spoke with the head waiter who was wonderful. Every night before we left dinner, he reviewed the next night’s dinner menu with her. Sometimes she just went with the vegetarian choice on the menu. Most of the time he suggested something else or several options. It might have been a vegetarian version of something on the menu, or it might have been something special for her. I still remember the great mushroom risotto she had one evening. Needless to say, she was very happy and he got a nice tip.

[lolane1]

A friend in gluten intolerant and vegetarian. She really has no problems on her cruises. She speaks to the Head Waiter and asks what she likes and doesn't like and is really impressed with what they offer. The Head Waiter just checks with her the night before.

 

Last summer, I sailed gluten free, and vegan due to an immune disorder, which oddly seems to be rectifying itself. Wonder if diet really has/had something to do with it?? Anyway, that aside, I registered my dietary needs online and the head waiter sought me out every night. So definitely register you needs online.

 

Granted, I was TD which made it easier for them. But they will find you or just ask to see the head waiter when you are seated. We went over the next night's menu which wasn't all that helpful but it was a start. Every night they prepared a custom meal for me. Fortunately, I love Indian food, so several times I just said "surprise me" with an Indian dish. And voila! I had enormous quantities of curries,etc, delivered to the table with only one miss. I did find that the buffet had choices that were very tasty. Good for a back up plan if you didn't care for dinner.

 

They also have gluten free pasta and served me a gluten free dessert every night. Salads and some soups were OK but I absolutely missed the great food my table mates were eating. (sigh) You definitely won't starve.

 

Now that my lab tests are coming is great, I am almost scared to revert to a normal-ish diet. So, not so sure what to do about the coming cruise. They were very serious about my gluten involvement (suspect in disorder) and I had a hard time getting the french onion soup which had bread in it. (No chance of easily cheating, LOL)

Edited March 19, 2017 by lolane1
spelling

[toescat]

My little granddaughter is vegetarian and when I booked the cruise I let princess know and they had a special menu for her each nite. It was pretty good to her and this one would rather eat dessert first then if she was still hungry she would eat dinner. We would laugh and tell her dinner first.

[cheeseclan]

I am lactose intolerant and do not eat meat as well. We always do anytime dining. I place a note in my cruise personalizer. Then once on board i meet with the head waiter of the dining room. I look at next nights menu and get it all worked out.

Once at dinner the servers will talk to the head waiter to find out about my meal. Never a problem.

 

Enjoy.

[Floridapenny]

Thanks for posting your inquiry. I learned a lot about my own situation in preparation for my first cruise (since 1973) in May to Alaska. I am a flexitarian (that loves salmon), who is allergic to garlic. I have already informed Princess of my allergy, and now I know to inform the Head Waiter of same. I am looking to eating lots of salmon (without garlic).

[easyboy]

I guess being on CC dining, you will get more attention and options for your dietary needs.

 

 

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[Hlitner]

Gonna get flamed, but am going to be a little contrarian. Vegetarians are "picky" diners who have made a decision (for various reasons) to follow a specific type of diet. There are at least 7 types of vegetarians (such as Vegan, Ovo Vegetarian, Lacto, etc) and all have different criteria to what they will or will not eat. There are also many other picky eaters (some for very important health reasons) such as gluten free, peanut free, etc etc. If a cruise line were to try and accommodate each type of preference, their menus would run to many pages.

 

We think that most cruise lines try very hard to accommodate special diets and preferences, but it is going to be impossible to please everyone on a general menu. One wonders what would happen if 2,000 passengers on the Oasis of the Seas....all asked for Special menus or items.

 

We do have a constructive suggestion for mass market cruise lines. Somebody should routinely run Vegetarian cruises. We should note that Hapag-Lloyd does offer a Vegan cruise in 2017, but we are talking about something more accessible and affordable to those who are Vegetarians or who might like to try that different type of diet.

 

Hank

[duck addict]

I had an Indian tablemate on one cruise. Since many of the crew were from India some vegetarians. He was able to get the dishes prepared for the crew.

[GUT2407]

Hi all.

 

I'm a vegetarian although I do eat a limited amount of fish.

 

On previous princess cruises I have been disappointed by having only one veggie option on the MDR dinner menu and if I didn't like it then it was fish or nothing.

 

I now understand that if I speak to the Maitre D there may be more options available to me?

 

But I wonder how this works? Next cruise I'm CC anytime dining so won't have the same table or waiter every night.

 

Has anyone any experience of making special veggie requests please?

 

PS I'm your typical Brit and don't like to be "demanding" so find it very awkward to make special requests!!

 

Thank you

 

 

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My wife is a vegan, (will lower to vegetarian if she has too) we did 35 days last year, never had an issue, never spoke to Maitre'd though F&B manager did ask her if she needed assistance, if there was nothing that suited, I think twice in the month, she asked our waiter, never had a problem getting something.

[riclop]

Go to the buffet on the Regal/Royal it has lots of choices and it's much better then the MDR.

[Cruisemagpie]

We have been vegetarian for 40 years and cruise regularly. Cunard was the only cruise line that knew anything about vegetarian food as they had lots of Indian chefs when we sailed with them. Princess has fallen far behind in vegetarian offerings with some days on recent cruises we did not see any vegetarian food other than greasy vegetables. We get tired of being offered macaroni and cheese lunch and dinner as a pretend vego meal. The vego meals in the dining room border on dull to boring with occasional days where something nutritious and tasty is made available. The problem is that the chefs do not appear to be aware of modern vego healthy possibilities and are not really trained in that area. We did have special vego meals offered to us in the buffet on the Caribbean and Sun Princess and we found what was presented almost inedible. The Regal P was a more recent cruise and that was fabulous and it is a mystery why other ships cannot prepare fresh vego food as well as the Regal P. Also some Princess ships have fallen in vego standards from a few years ago to now in our experience, for example the Sun Princess had very good vego food a few years ago but not in January this year.

[SoCalTraveler]

Two points: We've traveled with vegetarians. Speak to the headwaiter and tell him/her. They will make you off-menu choices.

 

On the other hand, one headwaiter told my son that the Caesar dressing was vegetarian. When a waiter at lunch told us it contained anchovies, the headwaiter materialized, and said in his country anchovies are vegetarian. (They are not. And they are not in his country.)

 

So definitions matter.

[LokiPoki]

Veg (with no egg and very limited dairy) and gf here...

 

I found on our last cruise that whoever designs the menu has precisely zero concept of what constitutes "vegetarian" ... I know some vegetarians eat fish - technically that's not vegetarian in my book, but I'll leave that point be - so I'm never overly surprised if something like a vegetarian stir fry (talking about dishes actually designated vegetarian here, not just a vegetable dish) contains oyster or fish sauce, or Worcestershire sauce or similar... but I was served a vegetarian vegetable & bean soup that on tasting was clearly made with beef broth...and on checking the ingredients of a vegetarian terrine with our head waiter, found it was made with beef gelatine. Have no issue with them including such in a vegetable dish, but no way to my mind should they be calling them vegetarian... Think there were usually 3-4 vegetarian options each night (between entree & main) but didn't investigate the majority as they tended to be full of cream or cheese which I can't eat, or were not GF.

 

That said, I couldn't fault the food I did get...things like freshly baked or char-grilled vegetables, fresh made salads (usual salad greens, plus tomato, capsicum, avocado, walnuts, cannelli beans) ... had to request those the night before via our head waiter, who checked in with us sometime during each meal to help me figure out the following night...but they were very good.

[caribill]

Most of the time he suggested something else or several options. It might have been a vegetarian version of something on the menu, or it might have been something special.

 

As an example, the French onion soup is made with beef broth.

 

But when you work with your headwaiter the night before, they will make some for you that uses vegetable broth instead.

 

And although you must work with your headwaiter for these arrangements, be sure to let your waitstaff know you are vegetarian so they do not accidentally bring you food that you would not want.

 

If you want to eat at a specialty restaurant, see the headwaiter there a day in advance to work with him on your menu needs.

[passy]

Gonna get flamed, but am going to be a little contrarian. Vegetarians are "picky" diners who have made a decision (for various reasons) to follow a specific type of diet. There are at least 7 types of vegetarians (such as Vegan, Ovo Vegetarian, Lacto, etc) and all have different criteria to what they will or will not eat. There are also many other picky eaters (some for very important health reasons) such as gluten free, peanut free, etc etc. If a cruise line were to try and accommodate each type of preference, their menus would run to many pages.

 

We think that most cruise lines try very hard to accommodate special diets and preferences, but it is going to be impossible to please everyone on a general menu. One wonders what would happen if 2,000 passengers on the Oasis of the Seas....all asked for Special menus or items.

 

We do have a constructive suggestion for mass market cruise lines. Somebody should routinely run Vegetarian cruises. We should note that Hapag-Lloyd does offer a Vegan cruise in 2017, but we are talking about something more accessible and affordable to those who are Vegetarians or who might like to try that different type of diet.

 

Hank

 

 

Just out of curiosity, in what way was this intended to be helpful in relation to my query?

 

 

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[passy]

Thank you to all who took the time to send constructive advice - it's appreciated!

 

 

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[PrettyGirl01]

As a vegetarian for almost 30 years I can understand the frustrations. Yet I have known many meat-eaters who are picker than me!

We have been cruising for 15 years and for the past number of years we go to the buffet for meals as I find it has more options. Especially now, as for health reasons I have eliminated starches as well.

My father is a strict vegan and was apprehensive of cruising but once he tried and saw the abundance of fresh fruits and veg, tofu and other vegan options including soy beverage he was a convert. All he had to do was ask!

Plan ahead!

[passy]

Thanks prettygirl. One of the highlights of a cruise for me is dinner in the dining room. I enjoy the buffet for lunch but much prefer a formal dinner. Think I need to stop being so British and just speak to the head waiter on the first day!

 

I had my fingers burned on my last cruise when one night I asked for the salmon with a different sauce (I don't like lemon) and was met with a curt "no" from the waiter who told me it was the menu as it stood or nothing....kinda put me off requesting an entirely different meal!

 

 

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[cruisey444]

There is nothing to worry about. We are British too and husband is veggie (no meat or fish). On the main MDR menu there are always options (have a look at some online that people have put up) and they also have an additional separate menu each night - just choose for the following night.

 

It is easy - inform them before you go though.