Cruise: The Kitchens

The Video Experience

(2019) Netflix has a series called Mega Foods and episode 6 features the “World’s Biggest Cruise Ship” detail on how they manage to serve so many people consistently good quality food. My kitchen tours and experience on board Harmony of the Seas syncs well with this particular video story. We took our trip Fall 2019, and although the Netflix show was made in 2013, the story they tell still holds true (even to the kerchief colors).

Our Ship

Mid-October 2019, my spouse and I experienced an 8-day Royal Caribbean cruise that left from Port Canaveral, Florida sailing to three islands: CocoCay, St. Thomas, and St. Martin. Personally, I had two very different types of opportunities to experience food. The first was what we experienced on a tour of the kitchens on the ship Harmony Of The Seas. This post is about that experience.

The second, to be posted next week was my experience touring and eating on the islands we visited. I will talk about these topics over the next two posts, and along the way will share some recipes that were shared with me.

Getting Ready

To get ready, we reviewed what vaccinations were needed, updated our passports, ordered sea sickness patches for me (and yes they worked), and packed. We flew to Florida to board the ship, and from the moment we started to board, we had people around us very attentive to our every need. (I could very easily get used to that on the one hand, and on the other it was sort of weird too.).

Beyond the price of the flight, and the cruise, there were lots of “add ons” to the cost that made this an expensive trip. We preordered bottles of water, that it turned out we did not need. Ordered internet so we could text each other when on this very large ship, which we did need. We declined the drink packages: one a soda grouping, the other an alcohol grouping. We signed up for some food-related excursions and all the “free” events we wanted to attend on ship. We took every opportunity to enjoy what was offered.

Living on board for 8 days was like being in a small, highly dense city with people and activities around every corner and on every floor. The logistics of getting all these people around on the ship was amazing and naturally lent itself to traffic standstills at elevators.

• ShipTechnology: Harmony of the Seas features 2,747 staterooms carrying 5,479 guests at double occupancy. 

Sanitation

The first day we were greeted at one of the larger buffet areas with a staff person repeating a sing-song phrase of, “washy-washy.” My first hint that they take sanitation very seriously. At the entrances to all the food places, there were either sinks with soap and paper towels, or anti-bacterial liquid stations.

Later, during a “behind the scenes” kitchen tour, we learned that if one person gets sick and touches all the things we touch during a regular day, that person could exponentially infect hundreds of people on the ship. So every dining place has an anti-bacterial cleansing station. Further, all kitchen staff are monitored to make sure hands are washed frequently. They also hose down and scrub the various kitchen areas (including the ceiling) every day. This attention to sanitation is critical for reducing on-board illnesses.

Laundry

Our dinners were a white linen tablecloth affair. We were told that the tablecloths and napkins are washed each night, if they look clean or not. They are separated by hand as a way to pull out significantly stained items for treatment, but also to make sure nothing else was wrapped or caught in the linen.

Dish Washing + Recycling

During the kitchen tour, we were advised that this particular galley had four dishwashers running. Each washer was for a different type of cleaning requirement. For instance, they do not run glasses through the dishwasher used for cleaning greasy things. Makes sense, because any greasy residue will streak the glasses.

The cruise also recycles glass, metal and plastic. I am not sure whether they compost food scraps.

Buffet Service

While there were restaurants we could pay for, the Cruise price included food at the main formal dining places, and various other informal buffet locations throughout the ship. I imagine everyone gains weight during these cruises for there is unlimited food available. (Of course this is countered by the number of miles we walked each day getting from one end of the ship to the other!)

The buffet service had multiple stands: a self serve drink station, then one for breads, one for fruit and yogurt, another featured meats and cheese, and another salads, and finally a hot area with meat, pasta, and other such dishes. Some buffets were fancy, some were more utilitarian. All were very clean and well maintained.

Food Waste

I saw a lot of people overfilling their plates, and subsequently saw a lot of food waste. Given what happened in this area recently (the storm devastation of several islands) it seemed weird that people would throw away food while the needy were nearby. I made a point of only getting what I knew I could eat, which is what I do anyway. (I tried really hard not to, but I did judge others on the amounts of food people placed on their plates.)

Drinks + Alcohol

Additionally, if you bought a Drink Package, there were choices of unlimited soda or unlimited alcoholic drinks. We chose not to participate in those options. First, I am not a soda drinker, and second, we are not capable of drinking enough alcohol to cover the cost of the unlimited passes. So we had the standard access to unlimited water, iced tea, coffee, lemonade, fruit juice, and hot tea. Perfect for us.

There were several bars featuring live music in the evenings, one moving bar (up and down between floor levels), and one robotic bar, but all strategically placed all over the ship. Many of our group had soda or alcohol packages and one was never far away from some drink place. Personally, I liked the critically placed self-serve, soft ice cream cone places.

We did drink alcohol on board, and found most of them were done well no matter what we ordered. Only complaint is that the Sangria was not good and just tasted like wine with fruit added. However, this one complaint was not a problem since the wine was in fact good enough by itself.

Kitchen + Wait Staff

It was clear that all the staff were determined to provide us with good service. Without a doubt we were well cared for and any issue that was brought up, the staff were empowered to solve.

• RoyalCaribbean: There are 2,100 crew members onboard Harmony of the Seas who hail from all over the globe, and their jobs are as varied as the nations they represent. In addition to wait staff, room attendants, entertainers, the cruise director and of course the captain himself, there is one ice skate sharpener, a face painter, seven high divers, and two tight rope walkers—not to mention two robots who staff the Bionic Bar.

We learned that the wait staff contracts are for 7 months at a time onboard some ship, and 2 months home. A woman waiter told us her mother is watching her daughter while she worked, and how hard it was when she returns and her young daughter does not know who she is. It brought tears to her eyes. But at the same time, she was so grateful for her job and the money she made which will allow her daughter to have more educational opportunities than she had growing up.

• RoyalCaribbean: If you thought hosting a dinner party was hard work, try feeding nearly 7,000 people. On a typical seven-night cruise, Harmony will go through 350 tons of ice cubes (approximately 110,000 pounds are made each day), 5,000 dozen fresh whole eggs, 100 gallons of chocolate ice cream, 2,100 pounds of lobster tail and 2,500 pounds of fresh salmon. Good thing the food & beverage team, with 1,056 members, accounts for almost a half of the entire crew.

Pastry

OMG the amount of available pastries was enough to provide pastry desserts for every person at every meal several times over. Custard, pies, ice cream, tarts, mousse, cheesecake, chocolate cake, fudge smothered cookies, fruit and macaroons, danish, donuts, fruit and cheese platters, and so on. They were pretty to look at and tasty to eat. Luckily I am not much of a dessert person, so I could do with just one; but there were times I was definitely tempted.

Coconut fried shrimp with coleslaw (l) and Blackened salmon with asparagus (r). Photo by PattyCooks.

Fish

There was sushi, but the two pieces I ate featured cooked fish and veggies. This is great, as it lowered the risk of illnesses. Seafood dinners that were served to us included mustard crusted salmon, blackened salmon, grilled tilapia, lobster tail, lobster bisque, and shrimp cooked various ways. Every night there seemed to be a fish option for dinner.

Meat/Fowl

One night, I had duck in an orange glaze (yum!). But it was hard not to order the thyme gravy over chicken breast. Another night one of us had lamb shank, I ate a cordon blue.

The pictures we took do not give justice to the food, the lighting is a bit dim. But wow, everything tasted excellent and was properly dished.

The interesting thing was that the serving sizes for dinner were actual, proper proportions. Our meat and fish servings ranged from 3 to 6 ounces depending upon what else was served. This nightly evening dinner we shared with our whole family and it was just the right amount of together time to review the day we all had. Consistently, the dining room, the served food, and the drink and food service were great.

Formal Dinner

Dinner was always set formally, as you can tell from the above picture. Often we arrived still in shorts and shirts since the weather was warm and humid. But, there were 2 days where we had to dress in our finest for dinner. People arrived in tuxedos and gowns, to suits and dresses; but few shorts and t-shirts.

The menu changed each night. We chose from ~6 options for the appetizer, main dish, and desert. There was always a vegetarian option as well as meat and fish options. The food was well prepared, nicely laid out, and tasted good. I never had to add salt or pepper or any condiment to any dish.

I was impressed with the consistency of the dishes. The variations of options to meet every dietary needs were great. Food was clearly labeled so you knew what you were getting. Everything looked and tasted fresh. Service was “old-world” polite and attentive.

To tell the truth, I felt a bit embarassed at the attention given to my dining experience. It made me feel like I should dress up every night we ate at the formal dining room. (Next trip I am bringing two sets of nice clothes, not just shorts and shirts!)

Would I Cruise Again?

Heck yes. But I would choose a different excursion that more meets my interests. I am not a “lay in the sun and relax” type of vacationer. I would love to take one of those European River Cruises with lots of excursions to try the foods in each country. Now that would be great fun.

–Patty

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Tip: I try real hard not to follow food trends. I have already written of the good + bad aspects of these trends, and rarely do they actually live up to what the claims are. Good organic fresh food, as close to natural as possible is the basic way to go. I also like to keep with traditional ethnic foods firmly rooted in the lands and peoples who created the cuisine. This authentic, basic food is nutritious, vitalizing, and has meaning.

NewAtlas: Celiac update (1/2020) For people with celiac disease, going gluten-free isn’t just a trendy diet fad – it’s a necessary way of life. This autoimmune disorder is thought to result largely from genetic predisposition, but environmental factors also play a part. Now, researchers have found evidence that exposure to certain bacteria may be one of these external factors. Generally, there are two main genes associated with celiac disease, but only a few people with one or both of those genes goes on to develop the disease. It seems that other environmental factors are needed to tip predisposed people over the edge. Past studies have suggested reovirus infection in the intestine, at a specific stage of development, could trigger the immune system overreaction to gluten. And now a new study has found evidence of another related environmental factor. The researchers found that a particular type of bacteria could be priming the immune system in a similar way. 

HuffPost: The current EPA is poised to approve 4 more varieties of PFAS chemicals, please see my PFAS post for more details. They report, [m]ost PFAS — and other toxic chemicals — that the industry sends to the EPA for consideration are ultimately approved with few or no restrictions. The EPA, approved at least 15 new PFAS compounds in the last three years, and at least 600 between 2006 and 2016.