Norwegian Encore Review

4.5 / 5.0
426 reviews

Vegan Food Review Only

Review for Alaska Cruise on Norwegian Encore
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FlaviaOfTheMonth
10+ Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Aug 2021
Cabin: Balcony

Loved the crew and the cruise, however this review is only about the vegan food options on the cruise. There are not many! In the dining rooms, the menus do have vegetarian options marked with a V, however those tended to have a lot of cheese and other dairy and so were not suitable for a vegan. I did find out though that I could visit the dinging room a day early and pre-order a vegan option for my scheduled dinner the next day. There were basically two options, so it was not a huge selection, but both were very tasty and I did appreciate having that ability. Once I turned up at the dining room I would simply mention the "vegan pre-order" and they would already know what I had ordered. It was served along with the food my wife would order off of the menu. Personally I would much rather have one or two actual vegan option either on the daily menus or on a special menu that a guest can access at the table. Even having to order a day early would be easier if the process was just a bit more formal.

As for the buffet, it is OK but not ideal. Nothing is marked as vegan, so some items can be hard to tell. For example some of the pastas contain eggs, as do some of the breads. I stuck to the 1-2 Indian entrees that were vegetarian and hopfully vegan, as well as the various fruits and veggies, and beans and rice, that were available here and there on the buffet. Breakfast was particularly tough as essentially none of the good food is vegan and there are no substitutes. Oh and the buffet does have veggie burger they will make for you at lunch or dinner. It's just OK, it;s like an old-school veggie burger where you can see the veggies and what appears to be oatmeal inside. Also there is almond milk available, but you have to ask a server to fetch it for you, and it ran out around day four.

In summary I would love to see NCL do a much better job at making food available for vegans. The crew did a great job with what they had to work with, but there are no vegan dessert options, and only the slimmest of dinner options. Of course on our ship of 2400 or so passengers I did not run into any other vegans, so I know I am asking a lot of NCL. We are frequent cruisers though.

Cabin Review

Balcony

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