This was a bucket list cruise for us, and some prior experience and recent research showed that on Princess Cruises, Nicole could potentially eat very well onboard. My findings had shown that the MDR had 7 different vegan menus, so we were prepared to visit each one several times during the cruise.
As we had booked cabin grade M1, a Reserve Collection Mini-Suite, we were able to dine in the Reserve area of the dining room and have the same waiting team every night. This worked extremely well, and they quickly understood and implemented Nicole’s vegan requirements.
Breakfast
We used the MDR on the first morning but found it hard work to get an idea of what was actually available while getting a substantial portion of things to have. Only having the standard menu as a guide pretty much made it a non-starter.
So, day two saw us in the Horizon Court (buffet) around 7:00am before the masses arrived. Nicole was able to select a good healthy plate of food and because of this, we followed this routine for the rest of the cruise. A few examples are shown in the photos below.
Lunch
On a few occasions, we visited the MDR where the lunch menu was “one size fits all” and pretty much the same every day so our waiters had to improvise to accommodate Nicole. As a non-vegan myself, the choices became a bit tedious, however on a couple of occasions the restaurant manager had a small cooking area set up and made some amazing fresh pasta dishes and was able to make these vegan for Nicole a couple of times.
On a handful of sea days, Nicole braved Horizon Court to get a plate of what was available and we both ate lunch back in the cabin. This proved to be a very effective method of getting a decent-sized lunch without having to fight for a seat.
Evening Meal
The evening meal in the MDR was a huge success and Nicole was able to select dishes and get a very balanced diet. There were more protein options with Princess than on any of the other cruise lines that have provided a vegan menu.
The following images are of each of the menus accompanied by the dishes that were chosen from it. There are quite a few gaps as not everything appealed or we forgot to take a photo.
The dishes were nicely presented and there was a good mix of options.
Please click on the photo to expand it for a larger view.
The keen-eyed will note that there wasn’t a dessert option on the menu, but this was taken care of with a different vegan cake or mouse every evening. Always on offer to accompany it was vegan ice cream, which came in several flavours.
Sabatini’s Italian Trattoria
We ate in the MDR just about every evening except for one when we went to Sabatini’s Italian Trattoria. We spoke with the manager beforehand and they were able to veganise some of the dishes. It was a nice change but hardly worth the additional charge. The restaurant wasn’t busy and given the dishes are cooked to order, the outcome was very disappointing. We both thought that the MDR food was certainly the better option.
The Salty Dog Gastropub
Now a grumble, as part of the Princess Plus Package you get two included meals at no cost in the ship’s casual restaurants, on Princess these include Vines, Salty Dog Pub, O’Malleys, Ocean Terrace, Planks, Steamers, Alfredo’s, and GiGi’s. Now on Crown Princess, all we have is Vines Wine Bar (I’m not sure it’s applicable) and The Salty Dog Gastropub which is inside The Wheelhouse Bar. The gastro pub has on their menu a Beyond Burger which is vegan so we thought that’s great, we will use our included meals one lunchtime on one of the sea days. A good idea in principle if it was open at lunchtime. It turns out that the opening hours are from 5:30 – 9:30 so the only way we can give it a go would have been to let gluttony lead us astray and have both a meal there and in the MDR or forfeit the latter. It’s not an extensive enough menu to become an evening meal but it would make a great pub lunch.
Other Areas
Starting from Deck Five and up, in the Piazza there is the International Cafe which never had anything vegan on offer but we did use it on a few occasions to stock up on fruit for the cabin. The selection there was better than Horizon Court but not always available.
The Crown Grille on Deck 7 also had zero vegan options.
Deck 15, there was the Trident Grill which listed the Beyond Burger but we weren’t confident it was being cooked on a separate grille. I tried the odd thing there but wasn’t impressed with what I was served, it was very mediocre. We never spotted a vegan pizza either at Slice ( pizzeria) while the adjacent Coffee & Cones catered well for our coffee addiction, the cone’s side of thing only ever offered dairy ice cream.
So, that’s pretty much it for this account. Nicole managed to eat well but it did require a bit of improvisation at times. I’m sure the bigger ships in the fleet will provide more/better options but that’s going to be for another day.