Silhouette ... Vegetarian/Vegan Input/Thoughts

Hello to my fellow V/V's or friends of, who have sailed X since March '15. I will be on board Silhouette in Feb '16 and want to poll which 'grazing' places you found most accommodating, with advance notice or not, to the M d's and what you would recommend to request even if in the MDR or any of the SD's.

My spouse, who is not V/V will enjoy any and all food placed before them regardless of what it is with the exception of caviar or frogs legs... ;-)

Share your experience and requests and your thoughts of approach to the M d's upon embarkation, as this is my first group of stops before lunch. Any ship in X's fleet is fine for sharing your experience.

We are booked in a 1A balcony, so the Blu or Luminae are not currently options.

TIA - bo1953

DW and I have been fortunate to call the Silhouette home for a couple of weeks thrice in the last 3 years. DW is a vegetarian and she's never had any issues with getting some good vegetarian dishes.

The vegetarian burgers in the mast grill are excellent and a favorite. The oceanview cafe buffet has more than enough vegetarian options, especially in the Indian & Chinese Food sections.

Even in the MDR just inform your waiter and they will take care of the rest. Celebrity has much better food than Royal Caribbean and we're actually worried of going back to Royal.

There was a blog of the above name yesterday. May be worth a read. I think if I had special dietary needs I would consider looking at the suite dining...even if you do not look at upgrading this cruise.

My Oh is veggie. I would agree the MDR is fine, very accomodating with very helpful Maitre Ds. However I dont agree re most of the other venues. The buffet has lots of obvious choices, salads, vegetables etc however there is no signage to indicate if something is V/V and whilst you can ask staff weve found responses to be unconvincing especially where cheese is concerned. Asking 'is this cheese dish suitable for vegetarians?' Invariably gets the response ' its just cheese'. Whilst the chef has often been wheeled out to chat this then leads into an awkward tour of the buffet for them to point out what is suitable. Not something you want to happen everyday. They often offer to make something for the next day but my OH doesnt want that, he just wants to select from the buffet options and have confidence that the food that appears vegetarian is vegetarian. There was a quorn mince dish with cheese topped potato on our first X cruise and as Quorn is a vegetarian meat substitute we felt pretty convinced it would be ok however my OH asked, the server went away to speak to the chef and came back and said the cheese on top wasnt vegetarian. So they had made a dish to appeal to vegetarians but put a product containing meat on it. The asian section has some things that look suitable but they use the same woks and tools for everything so a tofu stirfry can be cooked in a wok previously just used to cook meat and its embarrassing to have to yell to ask them to stop and use a clean wok and tools. Also in Oceanview there is no seperation of veggie dishes so hot vegetarian dishes sit next to meat dishes and weve seen serving tongs moved from one dish to another or even a passenger take a portion of a vegetarian dish, put it on their plate but the tongs then touch the meat dish already on there. This is hard to control apart from staff having an awareness and removing utensils if they see this. Oh and the vast majority of the cake like desserts have meat gelatin in them so they are pretty much all off the menu. Weve sailed P&O many times (4 star, not 5 like X) and their buffet has every dish labelled and indicates with a V if its vegetarian.

There are veggie burgers at the Mast Grill however they are cooked on the same grill as the meat and again no seperate tools to turn them. Weve seen burger tongs used to serve the fries as well.

We had issues at Tuscan after enquiring about what dishes are suitable and it took 3 days to get a response. In the end they assured us any dish that appeared Veggie but had cheese in it could be made specially with vegetarian cheese when we visited. We did and it was lovely but was such a pain to sort out. Why not just put a V next to suitable items as happens in pretty much any land based restaurant we visit here in the UK. Qsine is totally out of the question as when we enquired they pointed out around 3 truly vegetarian options so definately not worth the cover charge.

I know this sounds picky but a true vegetarian never wants to eat meat or meat based products and X havnt got it quite right when it comes to knowledge of staff, cross contamination, animal rennet in cheeses, animal gelatin in desserts and ensuring their menus/signage helps vegetarians make choices.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

In main dining, simply ask for a vegetarian menu. There is a separate one in a smaller folio. They've been happy to bring it out for me every night on all our X cruises. I've been known to request "a veggie Indian dish" if in the mood for the next night and they've always been happy to accommodate.

Following is seven days worth. Obviously subject to change at any time but hopefully it might give you a good gauge when planning.

X Vegetarian Menu - 7 night

Menu 1

Appetizers: blue cheese souffle; mille feuille of wild mushrooms

Soup: vegetarian tomato; Japanese vegetable consommé

Salad: baby spinach; mixed lettuce Daikon radish

Entrée: Orrechiette pasta, porcini mushrooms; vegetable korma

Menu 2

Appetizers: wild mushroom napolean; ambrosia of fresh fruit cocktail

Soup: cream of asparagus; vegetable consommé with root vegetables

Salad: jicama with cucumbers, watermelon & mint; seasonal greens

Entrée: fried marsala potatoes; grilled vegetable tart

Menu 3

Appetizers: heirloom tomato stuffed endives; grenadine scented pineapple

Soup: tomato and cucumber gazpacho; vegetable consomme

Salad: shaved pear salad breakfast radish; crisp romaine lettuce

Entrée: vegetable paella; Imam Bayadi (eggplant stuffed with ratatouille)

Menu 4

Appetizers: marinated grilled eggplant; citrus delight

Soup: cream of mushroom; vegetable broth

Salad: green leaf and iceberg lettuce; radicchio and watercress

Entrée: toasted Israeli couscous cake; vegetable prima vera lasagna

Menu 5

Appetizers: vegetable summer rolls; feta and fresh fruit

Soup: cream of broccoli; watercress and orange

Salad: Boston lettuce and gorgonzola; market fresh

Entrée: spinach and ricotta ravioli; vegetable cassoulet

Menu 6

Appetizers: supreme of chilled melon Midori; spinach turnover

Soup: market vegetable minestrome; roasted plantain and corn

Salad: sliced tomato and red onion; green leaf and radicchio lettuce

Entrée: Asian tofu stir fry; vegetable spaghetti with marinara sauce

Menu 7

Appetizers: marinated bell peppers and Portobello mushroom terrine; fresh papaya. mango and kiwi cocktail

Soup: oven roasted tomato and garlic; creamy chilled Haas avacado

Salad: Asian; crisp garden green

Entrée: stuffed portobello mushroom; vegetable turnover

Thank you for posting your week's worth of vegetarian meals. I did not realize that I was supposed to inform Celebrity of my vegetarian preference well before our cruise. The deadline passed, but I am happy to know that there is a Vegetarian menu available for the asking. We are scheduled to travel on the 3rd of October to the Mediterranean.

Thank you all for your input, experience and ideas on this...

bon voyage... bo1953

Thank you for posting your week's worth of vegetarian meals. I did not realize that I was supposed to inform Celebrity of my vegetarian preference well before our cruise. The deadline passed, but I am happy to know that there is a Vegetarian menu available for the asking. We are scheduled to travel on the 3rd of October to the Mediterranean.

Spice Duo you don't need to inform before the cruise. The MDR has veg menus for anyone who would like them. In fixed dining ask the first night and I suspect you'll get it every night. Select might require a small request for the menu given the different waiters.

Sent from my Lenovo A7000-a using Tapatalk

I always make sure to email special services before sailing. They don't appear to do anything but on our last cruise the head waiter knew we had a veggie in the group. If you can't find anything on the menu they will always be willing to do noodles and sauce for you. Just ask.

The main DR and Blu both have separate vegetarian menus....just ask for them. You reallyl don't need to call special services...there are lots of vegetarians on every cruise these days.

Bottom line to me is that a passenger following a strictly vegan lifestyle would probably not be comfortable with any food provided by the ship just as a passenger who keeps kosher would also not be comfortable with food prepared there. And of course there are those vegetarians who refrain from meat or chicken or fish but still eat dairy products. Too much opportunity for cross-contamination.