Shore excursion vegetarian meal requests

[momof5js]

My husband is a vegetarian. We are doing the Volcano & Rainbow Falls Deluxe, Kona Bay Beach Blast, Sunset Cocktail Cruise and Luau Kalamaku which all include meals or snacks. Does anyone know who I contact to see if a vegetarian meal can be offered? We booked our cruise thru yahoo, but booked the excursions online with ncl.

 

We sail on POH on July 23rd.

 

Thank you in advance for your help.

[crew mom]

I would go to the Shore Excursion desk after boarding and check with them. I'm sure they will be able to provide veggie meals for your DH.

[beachchick]

The tours you have booked are run by third-party operators. The NCL Shore Excursion desk/department would need to arrange it with them in advance. These are almost never box lunches or snacks provided by or prepared on the ship. You might want to contact the Shore Excursion department now so that they can either give you any necessary contact information or contact the tour operators themselves. Because you booked with a TA, NCL may tell you that they can't discuss your booking with you and that you'll need to contact Yahoo because for most aspects of your booking, your TA (online or otherwise) is considered the "owner" of it. However, you were able to book your excursions directly, so you may have no problem contacting the Shore Excursion department on your own. I would be politely persistent if necessary; that has worked well for me when dealing with the various cruise lines

 

I may be able to put your mind at ease at least a little. For the VNP/Waterfall tour, lunch is reportedly at the Volcano House buffet, so that is unlikely to be a problem. Volcano House is the only hotel inside VNP. My DH and I stayed there a couple of years ago and had the buffet breakfast included. It had a pretty good selection and good variety. We did not eat there for lunch, but I'm going to guess that the selection will be decent. The Kauai luau is a commercial luau and should have tons of options available. Although luau fare is pretty carnivore intensive, there will be fruits, vegetables, various kinds of starches, and possibly even a tofu selection. (I don't know this luau, so I have no first-hand knowledge.) The sunset cruise will be through a regular excursion company, which will provide the cocktails and snacks; likely they will have non-meat munchies. I don't know where lunch is for the Kona Bay Beach Blast, but I'm guessing that it's either picnic style and provided by the tour operator or arranged at a restaurant or such that's near the beach. I think that tour goes to Anaehoomalu Bay, but I'm not positive.

 

I guess I should have asked if he is lacto-ovo or vegan? Lacto-ovo is much more likely to be easily accomodated, but in many ways the Hawaiian diet lends itself easily to vegetarian eating. There's always lots of fruit, veggies, and grains. There is a significant Asian population, and tofu is not hard to find. (I should add that I've never found a tofu I liked, so I'm just going by what I've seen throughout the islands, rather than actual experience.) My DH and I are not vegetarians by any means, but we find ourselves leaning heavily toward the fresh produce and legumes/grains, as well as seafood and chicken. We've never had a problem finding satisfying meals, even when we've felt like having a non-meat meal. For us, the climate makes the lighter foods very appealing.

 

Have a wonderful time and I hope you both have wonderful food and drink throughout your trip.

 

beachchick

[momof5js]

Thank you for your responses. I will start with Yahoo later & see what they tell me.

 

Beachchick, thank you for putting my mind at ease. My husband is a "Weird" vegetarian. He won't eat squash, zucchinni, egg plant or any type of casserole. He mainly eats pasta dishes & lots of soy products (such as soy crumbles, soy burgers, soy ribs, etc). He will eat tofu, but I've never had much luck cooking it.

 

I'm hopeng finding him something to eat isn't a big deal.

[familyof6ny]

Hi there,

 

We did the Kona beach blast last August while on POH. We requested vegetarian meals and had no problem. We just had to identify ourselves at the beach. I would ask again at the shore excursion desk on board just to make sure.

 

Good luck!

[momof5js]

Family of 6,

 

Did you request the vegetarian meals ahead of time? If so, who did you contact?

 

Thanks for your information.

[familyof6ny]

We requested the meals when we got on board. We made sure it was taken care of at the shore excursion desk. You can also request the special meals in advance with NCL and then reconfirm when you get on board.

 

Hope this helps.