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Alaska cruise - fresh salmon?


suec12
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We are cruising in mid-July - will there be fresh salmon opportunities on board? We have done one other Alaska cruise, not Princess, and the one day, maybe for lunch, there was a salmon b-b-que of sorts outside on the deck. Would love a repeat of that!

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There may be salmon, the odds are it won't be fresh (there have been reports of it happening, but the logistics are challenging). Even the onboard BBQs etc while they may be Alaskan salmon, most likely will be made with frozen product loaded on embarkation.

 

We are cruising in mid-July - will there be fresh salmon opportunities on board? We have done one other Alaska cruise, not Princess, and the one day, maybe for lunch, there was a salmon b-b-que of sorts outside on the deck. Would love a repeat of that!
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We were offered salmon, halibut and the reindeer chili. Can't say if it was fresh or frozen. Frankly, when it comes to seafood, "frozen" or "previously frozen" should not be treated as a downgrade. When a fishing boat is out to sea for weeks at a time, you had better darn well pray that they are cleaning and freezing the catch on board. Who wants fish that has been sitting in a hold for 2 weeks? And when you are sailing on a 7 or 10 day cruise, who wants fish on day 7 that was loaded up on day one and has never been frozen?

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Don't believe July is salmon season, so it will not be fresh. Then we need to talk about the quantity required....making "fresh" even more challenging.

 

While on a Norwegian cruise a number of years ago in July, saw 500 lbs of frozen salmon brought on board in Bergen.

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Frankly, when it comes to seafood, "frozen" or "previously frozen" should not be treated as a downgrade. When a fishing boat is out to sea for weeks at a time, you had better darn well pray that they are cleaning and freezing the catch on board. Who wants fish that has been sitting in a hold for 2 weeks? And when you are sailing on a 7 or 10 day cruise, who wants fish on day 7 that was loaded up on day one and has never been frozen?

 

I worked commercial fishing in the North Pacific for years. Almost no salmon is frozen at sea. The longest it is kept 'on ice' in the hold before offload is seven days. So, 'fresh' salmon served on day seven of a 7-day cruise would have been on ice from an absolute minimum of eight days (assuming it was caught on the last day of a fishing trip, and allowing only one day for: offload, sale, transportation and onload to the cruise ship) to fifteen days plus.

 

Being served fresh salmon is not going to happen.

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Princess claims it is fresh. My wife always orders it. Last year on Alaska cruise the salmon had a glazed nut like coating with a sesoning. She didnt care for it. Wanted to order just plain and was told it was not available. That tells me probably not fresh. Last year the made a big deal about buying it fresh when in port.

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Wow, a lot of opinion here, some of it good, some not so accurate. First off, let us talk Alaska Salmon, as the OP suggests, and in the summer for all five species. Not Bering Sea cod or anything else, or boats on the Bering Sea for months at a time.

First off, the first commercial salmon season begins near Prince William Sound in Alaska every year on the Copper River Delta for Reds and Kings, using drift gill nets, about mid May. Today, most of those fish caught are very soon delivered to a "tender" and immediately placed into brine refrigeration. Some of the very first are sometimes placed in ice and flown almost directly by turbojet aircraft to high price cuisine markets and restaurants in the lower 48, for the first day or so, then the price drops precipitously and that practice stops.

A few weeks after that, on Prince William Sound, the seine season begins for Pinks and Chums, which are caught in great quantities and placed into brine on the fishing vessel immediately, then delivered to a "reefer" tender which also has an elaborate brine system. These fish are then delivered to a processor. The processor may freeze the product for long term or move it directly to market, at great expense, flash frozen in chilled bags. Later, comes Silver Salmon (coho). Some salmon goes into cans, very good, I might add, but you won't get expensive canned salmon on a cruise ship like you do tuna.

Pretty much the same holds true for all the Alaska coast salmon fishery. The commercial salmon season lasts from mid May until late August in Alaska depending on the specie and the area. Cruise Lines do buy the product absolutely fresh, sometimes, as well as recently frozen, it is true that a freeze for a limited short period has no effect on quality.

The only exception to this for salmon would be during the mid winter in Alaska where there is a very limited market involving troll caught Kings, which have to be gutted on the boat then put on ice and brine, due they are immature and still feeding, so in order to prevent enzyme action as well as resulting bacteria action they must be immediately chilled down.

Hope this helps, but probably not. Anyway, eat salmon and lots of it, good for you.

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We are cruising in mid-July - will there be fresh salmon opportunities on board? We have done one other Alaska cruise, not Princess, and the one day, maybe for lunch, there was a salmon b-b-que of sorts outside on the deck. Would love a repeat of that!

 

On Ruby they had a "North to Alaska" menu in Crown Gill.

It was fresh alaska seafood -- we saw it being loaded on board.

I had Copper River salmon.

 

It was all so good that we went back a second night during the cruise.

 

I don't know if Princess still does it, but here is the link:

 

http://www.princess.com/news/news_releases/2015/01/Princess-Unveils-North-To-Alaska-Cruise-Offerings.html

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If the line wants to go to the expense, they can load fresh salmon in ports in Alaska, provided the source (the fisherman, vendor, etc) is certified with the state, and there is a temperature control record from the time of catch. The only problem with salmon is if you want to serve it in sushi or ceviche (raw), then by US law, it must have been flash frozen to -4* to kill the parasites in the fish.

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Hi,one of my favourites on the Coral in Alaska were the king crab legs in the MDR and the buffet,They seemed fresh to me,cheers,Brian.

 

Sorry, but fresh king crab is almost impossible to come by in SE Alaska in the summer.

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Sorry, but fresh king crab is almost impossible to come by in SE Alaska in the summer.
This was mid september and they tasted fresh to me.Maybe its because im a Londoner,lol.
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