All meals except the final dinner are served buffet style. Having a casual buffet works out well, since guests can drift in anytime during the hour's serving time, making for short (or non-existent) lines. The ship has 17 different flours onboard, along with a wide variety of spices and seasonings, so the three chefs onboard can be creative. Special diets and allergies (even gluten free) are accommodated.
Coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and hot apple cider are available 24 hours a day from a coffee bar and machine in the dining room. The first "fresh" coffee of the day is brewed by 5 am. Specialty coffees are $2 each from a machine. Some guests complained about the small coffee cups and wished they had brought along their own large mug. Others liked the small cups since the coffee didn't get cold and they were never far from the coffee machine and a refill. The information we received from Un-Cruise Adventures suggested we bring along a water bottle; however, everyone had two in their cabins. So, I suggest you bring along a large insulated coffee mug instead if you like to sip hot coffee all morning.
Each day starts with an early-riser breakfast at 6:30, which included fresh fruit and the daily delicious pastry, coffee cake, or scone. Regular breakfast ran from 7:30 until about 8:30, and included scrambled eggs, bacon or sausage, Greek yogurt, a large selection of hot and cold cereals, and more fruit and pastries. Some early risers like me managed to have two breakfasts each day! Any leftover scones or coffee cakes were left on the bar for those who wanted a mid-morning snack.
Lunch always featured a fresh salad, along with soups or other hot dishes like meat loaf, lasagna, and red beans/rice/sausage. Dessert was homemade cookies, with the variety changing daily. Any leftover cookies were put out on the bar for an afternoon snack.
The main course dinner meats are the same each week, but the preparation and accompanying dishes vary. Since many travelers do back-to-back adventures, this means they don't have an exact repeat each week. On our seven-night cruise, we had one main course each evening--halibut, roast beef, chicken, salmon, lamb chops, cod, and steak. A vegetarian option was also always available, and those who didn't eat fish could have grilled chicken. The vegetables were fresh and delicious, and we all managed to save room for dessert. Having the dinner available buffet style made for faster dining, although many of us lingered after dinner, enjoying the wine and companionship. We also had a meeting after dinner to discuss the next day's schedule and to sign up for the activities we were interested in. The daily schedule board was usually full and very complicated looking when we were finished.
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