Food on a Cruise

Happy New Year! 

This is my first post for 2017, and rather than sharing a recipe, I thought, instead, I would share the food I enjoyed during a recent cruise to the Caribbean. Hence the title of this post – Food on a Cruise.

This was my first cruise, leaving from Cape Liberty, New Jersey, sailing with Royal Caribbean for 10 days and stopping at Haiti, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas and St. Martin. My mother is about to celebrate her 80th birthday, so I took her on a cruise, a first for her too, to her favorite destination, the Caribbean.

My mother and I didn’t really know what to expect as neither one of us had been on a cruise before, but we managed to work out what we needed to do to make reservations for dinner, and where to go for breakfast and lunch. It was a little complicated due to the many options available to us. Here’s a list of the restaurants we visited:

1. Windjammer Marketplace (buffet)
2. Solarium Bistro (healthy options)
3. Chops Grille (steakhouse)
4. Wonderland (experimental)
5. Cafe Two70 (deli – salads and sandwiches)
6. Silk and American Icon (dining rooms for Dinner)
7. Grande (dining room for lunch)
8. Michaels Genuine Pub (pub grub)
9. Cafe Promenade (coffee shop)

There were other options that we did not visit:

1. Jamie’s Italian Kitchen
2. Coastal Kitchen 
3. Chef’s Table
4. Izumi Japanese Cuisine
5. Sorrento’s Pizza
6. Johnny Rockets
7. Seaplex Doghouse

Amazing – right? Royal Caribbean do a really good job of providing food on a cruise.

We had some great meals during our trip, so many meals and drinks were consumed. Here’s a few pics to salivate over.

Practically every meal was a great meal. Admittedly, sometimes we were served an overcooked fish dish, or our waiter was less than attentive, but those issues were due the enormous number of people being served at one time.

The staff do a really good job of providing very good service, but they can only do what is possible, if 50 people order the mahi mahi dish at the same time, it’s only to be expected that some guests are going to get the last few that were kept under a heat lamp.

Food off the ship was great too. Although, we didn’t spend much time eating when we were ashore. We had already paid to eat on the ship, so we avoided spending more money on food, it just didn’t make sense.

The only exception to that decision occurred in St. Martin. Food in St. Martin is the best I’ve eaten in the Caribbean, and this visit did not change my mind on that.

The ship arrived in St. Martin at 8am, and we went ashore at 8:30am.  We skipped past the tour operators and found ourselves a cab to take us to my favorite beach bar and restaurant – Dreams.

We started with breakfast as soon as we arrived, they served us a continental breakfast with fresh baked bread and croissants and a really extensive selection of teas. As soon as we had enough food in our stomachs, we moved to our beach beds which were reserved for us by the wonderful staff at Dreams. Oh what a view we had!

As you can see rain was coming. Regardless, it was a fantastic view.

We experienced two showers that day, and each time, I indulged in a tasty cup of coffee and a side of honey bourbon.

I as mentioned the food did not disappoint. We also had some great snacks, but I completely forgot to capture them except for this wonderful dish – chicken spring roll sushi. A truly innovative snack and really well presented, as everything was that day.

I’m so glad my mother and I experienced a cruise for the first time. We were told by quite a few experienced cruisers, that your first cruise should be with Royal Caribbean. We certainly had no complaints, so I guess they were right.

I plan on going on a cruise again, but maybe in 2018, as I have a lot of travel already planned for this year. I will never forget that wonderful feeling of being on the water, sitting on my balcony, sipping champagne. A serene feeling would come over me. I felt at peace, and very grateful.

Finally, I leave you with my favorite song of the moment, a song that was played by the band in Boleros Latin bar every night. What’s strange about my favorite song is, that I have no idea what is being said. I don’t speak Spanish! Regardless, this song has the best beat, and I find it impossible to keep still when I hear it. The band played it every night at the end of their set.

I would make sure I was at Boleros at around 1am every night/morning to dance and fake sing, smiling with the rest of the crowd who clearly understood what was being said.

So take my advice, if you haven’t been on a cruise before, give it a try. I found it to be a lot of fun, hopefully you will too.