Living on a Cruise Ship: What in the Heck Do You Eat?!

I’ve spent 21 months of my life living on cruise ships as a performer, and an additional 3 months (and counting!) as partner on board*. All on Holland American Line ships.

* My fiancé, Jeremy himself, is an officer onboard. A perk is that I get to sail with him for free. But it comes at the cost of not seeing each other for long stretches of time.

For me, living in a floating hotel is total normal. But it’s been brought to my attention that it is in fact not…. So, I thought I’d start a series offering an insider’s perspective on what it’s like living on a cruise ship!

For the first “episode”, I’ll be covering food (naturally.)

So let’s dive into….

“What’s the food like when living on a cruise ship?”

First things first, each line and each ship will offer different dining options. Each line also has different rules as to what venues employees can dine at. Holland America Line allows all cast members to eat everywhere, but there are some lines that make cast pay for the Lido. Others that only allow that privilege to singers (because the singers always get everything… I’m not bitter…).

I am currently on the Zaandam, so I’ll give you the rundown for this specific ship.

Dining Option #1: The Lido Buffet.

“Lido” means “open air swimming pool”, and most ships will have their buffet on the Lido Deck. I’ve been on 5 different Holland America Line ships, and the food at the Lido is consistently quite good!

I’m a sucker for a good breakfast. The Lido on the Zaandam has the following breakfast stations:

• Yogurt, fruit, and granola
• Eggs Benedict station
• English breakfast station
• Two Basic Hot Lines on Either Side of the Lido: this is where you can get pancakes, oatmeal, bacon, sausage, hashbrowns, French toast, and made to order eggs. At one end, there is a toasting station with bread, bagels, and English muffins. At the other end, there are sweet breads and pastries. Somewhere in the middle there are cold cuts and cheeses.
• Omelet station
• Waffle and Crepe Station

What Do I Eat for Breakfast?

For the bulk of my time on ships, my breakfast looked the same every morning. I’d get 4 hardboiled eggs from the hot line (I’d only eat 1 or 2 of the yolks), a mix of veggies from the omelet station, and a toasted English muffin.

Now, I’m in an oatmeal phase. I get a bowl of hot oats with almonds and cinnamon, then add a scoop of protein powder along with a spoon of peanut butter.

If I’m feeling groovy, I’ll opt for an omelet. On some ships, the omelet line is nightmarishly long. The Zaandam is smaller and the Lido is hardly ever busy, making the omelet station more appealing.

For a guide to breakfast, check out my reel below!

Lunch and Dinner There Are…

• Two salad bars where you can craft a customized salad.
• Two Hot Lines with rotating mains. There’s always a carving station with some big hunk of meat. A soup of the day. Then 6 or so different dishes including proteins, carbs, and vegetables. Examples include rice pilaf, tuna steak, roasted vegetables, steamed broccoli, fried chicken, sautéed zucchini.
• Two sandwich stations with both pre made and custom made sandwiches
• An Asian Station: there’s a selection of basic sushi rolls as well as various curries and Asian-styled dishes.
• A pasta station.
• A Mexican station.
• A dessert station

Lunch and dinner have the same general set up, but the Asian station and hot line will have different options.

What Do I Eat for Lunch and Dinner?

Whether at land or at sea, I tend to eat every meal out of a bowl… thus… I’ve developed something called “The Bowl Method.”  I go to the salad station and get a bowl of whatever looks good. Then I circle the Lido like a shark, eyeing off my options. I go in for the kill at either the hot line or Asian station where I source rice, another protein, and some sort of vegetable number.  I dump the plate into the bowl. Voila! The bowl method!

Here are some examples of what my meals look like pre mixing them all together!

Salad with chicken, egg, peppers, and cucumbers with rice, kofta and an asian veggie stir fry.

Salad with chicken, egg, beets, cucumbers, and peppers and a plate with fish, snow peas, rice, and mixed veggies.

Salad with chicken, chick peas, beats, peppers and cucumbers and a plate with rice, eggplant massaman, veggies, and tuna.

Dining Option #2: The Dining Room

If buffets aren’t your jam, The Dining Room is the place to go for a serviced sit-down meal. Whether it be breakfast, lunch, or dinner, you’ll get a menu that you proceed to order from. The norm is to get 1 or 2 apps, a main, and a dessert. The Dining Room comes at no extra charge, so you can order as much or as little as you want! 

Dining Option #3: Specialty Dining Restaurants (for an extra charge)

Each ship will have additional restaurants onboard that you can enjoy… for an added cost of course. Every Holland American Line ship has two staples: Canaletto, which is an Italian restaurant, and Pinnacle, which is a Steak House.

Below are 3 entrees from Canaletto: a braised short rib gnocchi, Branzino, and a pasta dish.

Some Holland ships have Tamarind, an Asian fusion spot. And the newest ones have a seafood restaurant as well as an immersive restaurant where you watch the food being made.

Other lines have FAR MORE specialty dining options than quaint little Holland America Line.  For example….. Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Sea has over 10 specialty restaurants.

Dining Option #4: Dive In

Each Holland America Line ship has pool side burger and hot dog spot called Dive-In. You can get all types of burgers and fries. (I’ll never forget the drama that ensued when they changed up the fries mid-contract when I was on the Eurodam….)

Bigger ships will also have a pool side pizza spot called New York Pizza.

Dining Option #5: Room Service!!!!

Don’t feel like leaving your room? No problem! Order room service! The menu has been the same since my first contract in 2016. My go-tos have always been the roasted chicken plate, the club sandwich, and the quesadilla.

But Not All Crew Can Enjoy All These Options….

Only certain departments are allowed to eat in the Lido and dine at the specialty restaurants. And usually the privilege is restricted to “striped officers.”  (There is a lot of inequity on ships… perhaps I’ll be bold enough to dive into that in a later post…)

There you have it!  A run down of what the food is like when living on a cruise ship!