This is only a partial review and covers a cruise while Covid restrictions were in place but even so, should provide some ideas about eating vegan on Costa Firenze.
The buffet was pretty much no go for breakfast so we ended up going to the MDR and using their area for special dietary requirements. During the week we were the only people that used this area and it did allow Nicole after some negotiation to have a reasonable breakfast. There wasn’t any menu available but she was able to order porridge made with water with some raisins. There was also a plate of berries to accompany this. One morning she had what she described as a deconstructed Spanish omelette of sorts on sourdough, mushrooms, peppers, onions etc but minus the egg of course.
We also made use of our drinks package and were able to get a soy cappuccino for Nicole plus an Americano for me. I was able to have anything from the breakfast menu and it did mean we could eat together.
The evening meal in the MDR was much the same as our experience on Costa Mediterranea where Nicole had a vegan menu to select from. It was highlighted on the system and the waiters were quick to pick this up and respond, the amusing part of all this was a very self-important Maître D’ came over after Nicole had actually made her selection for the evening and told us there wasn’t a vegan menu. Really? What have we just ordered from then? He went storming off only to return and apologise. It did provide both us and our waiters with a good chuckle once he had disappeared from sight.
We are guilty of not recording any of the menus or dishes during this cruise simply because we were enjoying the experience and completely forgot about doing it.
For the first time ever on a cruise, we were able to eat together in one of the speciality restaurants. Costa has a new restaurant called Hot Pot which is basically a Chinese Fondue where you cook your own food.
Each table has a heated 2 part pot in the centre. Each part is filled with a broth of your choice, there are 4 options to choose from, meat, fish, vegetable & Asian consommé. Nicole selected the vegetarian option while I chose the Asian. You then select what you want to cook in your broth, options are mixed meat platter, fish & seafood platter and mixed vegetable platter. Your broth is brought to your table in a hot flask and poured into your section of the pot which then has the heat turned on underneath.
It is then up to you to cook your platter. Recommended cooking times were 4 minutes for meat and 3 minutes for vegetables. When cooked you take them out of the pot and can either put them in a bowl as a soup using the broth as well or onto the plate and add some hot sauces and toppings. It was very tasty and a fun thing to do and Nicole thoroughly enjoyed hers.
Another of the speciality restaurants on the ship is called Sushino (the name itself should give you a clue what it serves). For €10 you can get a 12 piece box of assorted sushi (Nicole’s being a vegan selection) and what we ended up doing was taking it to the buffet for lunch where we could eat together.
The choices in the buffet weren’t great for Nicole so this was a very good way to get around this problem. I’m hoping that the buffet selection was a Covid restrictions thing and that there will be more variation and options when things return to normal.
I think with the exception of the buffet, you can eat vegan reasonably well on Costa, you just need to communicate with the staff and use a bit of common sense.