Do you love to eat? Would you be happy to have access to well-prepared food twenty-four hours per day? Yes? Then a cruise is your dream vacation.
I love food. Good food can be as comforting as cozy sweats on a chilly day.
I especially like food prepared by someone else. It’s doubly delightful when I don’t have to clean the kitchen before, during or after preparation.
A cruise is the closest I’ve been to food heaven.
Good News
Gluten free, sugar free, low calorie, fried, roasted, broiled and breaded. You name it, you could find it in the Windjammer Cafe.
This was the place for buffet eats on Freedom of the Seas. It was on the eleventh floor (or would that be deck eleven?). The first day, we climbed the stairs because the elevators were worse than an obese person’s clogged arteries.
Think of all the extra calories we burned. That meant an extra helping of French fries or gravy or dessert.
And it never happened again. (Climbing the stairs not the extra helpings.)
Thai, Chinese, Cajun, American. The major food ethnicities were represented. At every meal. Even breakfast.
Egg fried rice this morning? Yes, I think I will.
A few staples were there at every meal – order up an omelet at breakfast and make your own salad at lunch. I can’t speak intelligently about dinner in the cafe because we ate our meal in the official dining room each night.
Why not? They had a menu of amazing, highbrow choices served to you at the same table by the same friendly people every night. A two-hour dining experience is worth every bite.
I was seriously ready to take the chef, maitre d and servers home with me.
Bad News
Day or night, you could find something to eat.
All-you-can eat pizza was available free of charge (included in the price of your cruise) on the promenade deck around the clock.
They would even deliver anything you wanted straight to your cabin. Any time, day or night.
A midnight snack? No problem. You don’t even have to get up to raid the refrigerator.
Not good for the waistline.
All this food is no big hindrance, is it? If you do get up and walk the wind blown track every morning. Or run on the treadmills in the fitness center. Or show up for circuit training or fab abs classes.
Maybe not if you have gargantuan willpower.
You have to resist the call of free ice cream on the pool deck. Just say no to the friendly servers offering you warm-from-the-oven cookies. Ignore the sensual aroma of cheesy pizza when you walk down the prom.
And every time one of these temptations presents itself in a flowing robe of delectability, your brain will say, “You’re on vacation.”
After all, regular life will reinsert itself soon enough. There will be Shakeology for breakfast and berries and yogurt for lunch. Carrot sticks or apple slices for mid-morning or afternoon snacks.
Did I mention you should pack your Incredible Hulk-sized willpower on your next cruise?
In the end, I’m happy to be back home where my own lackadaisical attitude toward cooking for two people will bring the same-old dinners. Low calorie meals with lean protein and double the vegetables.
There won’t be anyone to take my order, bring out the next course or recommend a culinary masterpiece.
I should be able to fit into my clothes again in a week or two. I guess that’s the best news of all.
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