Soul Searching Traveler

My husband Jeff and I went on an Alaskan cruise for our anniversary. We look for a few things in a trip: 1. animal encounters; 2. nature experiences; 3. peaceful quiet moments; 4. local food and drinks; 5. trains, planes, or ships 6. new ways of doing life; 7. unique fashion, art, and architecture. When it comes to dining, number four, local food and drinks are best, but on a cruise ship, I try to be mindful by enjoying new flavors and trying foods I’ve never had before. See what you think about our choices!

Aquaclass cabins are assigned to Blu for breakfast and dinner, which features clean cooking! This makes me so happy because I try to be mindful of my food choices and eat whole foods. I love to try new things, so it was nice to feel good about my choices in this dining room. I will caution others that the food was not allergy friendly. I am usually a very mindful eater – gluten, dairy, chemical free – and after reviewing the menus for 8 days, I can say this food may have been chemical free but not gluten/dairy free. The servers were great about communicating this and asked if anyone had food allergies every time they took an order. I do not have allergies and had decided before the cruise that I would enjoy some foods I don’t normally eat this week.

So, here is a run down of all the food we ate on the ship. I didn’t take as many photos as I should have. The food was so good, I tucked in and then many times realized I forgot the picture! Also, when we ate food in Alaskan ports instead of on the ship, I wrote about that on a separate post for the port.

Day 1: We boarded the ship in the afternoon but had not yet eaten lunch, (the Voodoo donuts felt like a lifetime ago) so we tried to find some food at Oceanview Cafe, the buffet. Jeff didn’t see anything he liked, but I had some fajita style chicken and bell peppers with guacamole. It was delicious. He headed over to the Mast Grill for a hamburger and fries.

For dinner, I enjoyed veal and cherries jubilee for dessert. Jeff was unsure of the clean menu, thinking it might not taste as good, so he ordered a steak from the main dining room menu. It’s great that Blu will let you choose from a different menu, but Blu was absolutely wonderful, so I encourage you to try new things and enjoy the food. My meal was much better than his, by his own admission.

Day 2: The day we ate the most food ever.

A day at sea meant breakfast and dinner in Blu today. Breakfast was pretty basic with bacon and eggs; I had the vegetable omelet with no cheese; Jeff had Eggs Benedict. One of the neat thing about breakfast in Blu is that they offer smoothies, which are normally a paid add-on, so I enjoyed Blu Berry Blast. At lunch we had to go to the main dining room because Blu doesn’t serve lunch. At 2:00 there was a wine and food pairing that I wrote about on the ships to do page, but here’s a picture to just enhance the amount of food I consumed on this day.

Then there was the tea party! After lunch and the wine food pairing, Jeff went down for a nap and I sneaked up to the Oceanview Cafe to see what the afternoon tea look like. At home, I watch my diet like a hawk, but we were on vacation and those tea sandwiches and scones looked so good! I had to fix a plate or two with a cup of darjeeling to take back to the room. Jeff said, “What have you done?!” and then proceeded to eat one of everything. It was so good! I do want to note that this was not the paid version of High Tea – it was just tea time in the Oceanview Cafe. Whether you do the paid or included version, don’t skip tea!!

By the time we went to dinner, we were not hungry at all, but we felt obligated to see what was on the menu. Who skips dinner?

Day 3: A mid-day port stop meant that we were on the ship for breakfast and lunch. We enjoyed some dessert with lunch, but I only ate half of mine hoping to save a few calories.

Finally, dinner in Blu – I didn’t take enough pictures, but here’s my starter and both desserts!

Day 4: An early start in Skagway so we had room service deliver eggs and bacon and coffee. I’ll tell you all about our lunch in the post on Skagway because we ate off the ship today.

We had lunch in Skagway, but returned to the ship for dinner. Tonight we ate in the specialty restaurant, Tuscan Grille. It was incredible.

Day 5: Happy Anniversary to us!! As it turns out, I took no food pictures today. We woke up late and had to have breakfast at the buffet. One nice thing about that is they had a real coffee machine at the oceanview bar, so I was able to enjoy a cappuccino with my breakfast. I stopped at the spa cafe to grab an avocado toast and took it with me to the buffet, so Jeff could get something hardier. We had to grab lunch at Mast Grille because we were in a hurry after a helipad party (I wrote about it on the Ship post) and needed to head into Juneau for our helicopter/dogsledding adventure. I really enjoyed my hot dog, which was huge and tasted more like a sausage. I added kraut and mustard. Jeff had his with ketchup. Dinner was in Blue, but I cannot remember what we ate. I do remember a late night snack of pizza!! How much food could we possibly get in our bodies?

Day 6: We had a late start in Ketchikan so we were able to have breakfast in Blu.

Lunch in the main dining room because we were arriving in Ketchikan at 1:30 p.m. This was a fantastic meal, very filling for an afternoon of walking and shopping.

We had a snack at Annabelle’s in Ketchikan, so I’ll post that on a separate post for our time in port.

Finally dinner in the main dining room, and I can’t believe it, but I didn’t get a photo of my oven roasted lobster. It was so delicious and came with a beurre blanc sauce instead of just butter – melt in your mouth goodness! The server removed the shell very quickly as she served it, so that may be why I didn’t snap a picture.

Day 7: Our last day at sea. We were pretty relaxed today. We had breakfast in Blu and lunch in the main dining room, but I don’t remember what we ate. I did capture some of our last dinner in Blu.

Day 8: Debarking the ship meant breakfast was the only provided meal. I had a Blu Parfait and was thankful for coffee because Jeff was unable to get a diet coke due to all the bars being closed – something that might be good to know about the last day, if you plan to sail Celebrity.

We definitely recommend eating in the dining room compared to the oceanview buffet. There were times we had to eat there because of the schedule, but it’s much easier to sit down and have a meal served, and our belief is that the foods use better ingredients and are of better quality.

Read about our port meals in the posts about each port!