P&O Cruises N223 Ventura 3rd -13th September 2022
This was my 39th cruise with P&O, 37th as a vegan, first since Covid and second time on Ventura. I appreciate the pandemic has affected the cruise industry, who are getting back on their feet and this was most noticeable in the MDR (main dining room). The menus have been drastically reduced, whether a cost cutting exercise or supply chain issue, it is certainly a bone of contention on cruise forums. I hope P&O listen to customer feedback, because dining is a huge part of the cruise experience.
Ventura Docked In Lisbon
In our cabin we had a welcome aboard dietary letter which sounded promising, yet in some areas did not live up to expectation and will elaborate on this later. As usual the box of chocolates in the cabin were not vegan friendly, although the champagne was after checking Google, more by luck I guess though. I asked to swap the chocolates, but apparently nothing was suitable onboard, I find this hard to believe as P&O know people's dietary requirements well in advance.
There is a room service menu in the cabin, never ordered from it and unlikely to, as there are no vegan options. Vegans like everyone else like convenience or late snacks if they cannot be bothered to go to the buffet and just a couple of options would be most welcome and it would be easy to tweak a couple of the dishes already on the menu.
The biggest improvements are seen in the buffet, which in the past was diabolical, but what a turnaround, with clearly labelled vegan options and even better allergen information on all dishes.
There was a good selection of plant milks in the diet section, rice, oat, soya and almond, Flora margarine, two kinds of Violife cheese, soya yogurt and chocolate orange tarts. I was pleased to see single use plastic sachets and containers have been dispensed with and replaced with reusable pots.
I never saw any bacon or sausage at breakfast, yet a staff member said they were available and vegan, but I was wary recalling comments by vegans who ate them and found out they contained egg and dairy. I would beware and ask to the see the ingredients to be on the safe side, but if P&O offered vegan bacon and sausages, it would cater for more people.
We enjoyed our cruise and although we did not go hungry, P&O have a way to go still, the buffet has seen major progress for the better, the MDR has gone backwards and some things have just stayed the same. I know the pandemic has caused a huge problem, but we're through it now and P&O need to pick up the pace and listen to customers feedback, or they will jump ship.
At lunch there was always a hot vegan dish like risotto, Quorn stir fry, chilli, curry or spiced Quorn fajita wraps, sometimes not on display but ask staff who will get it for you. A daily vegan salad was available like tabbouleh, cos lettuce, beansprout, tofu and nigella seeds or baby gem, rice, date and pistachio. The best thing was one usually two vegan cakes or desserts like cherry cheesecake, poppy seed cake, strawberry chickpea meringue and almond rice pudding on display. This is a big change and not just some token gesture either and a far cry from the old options of fruit or fruit salad. The vegan cakes and desserts were popular too, as they covered gluten free and other dietary requirements too.
One puzzle was why plant milks were hidden away after breakfast, so at lunch or tea you had to ask staff for them. I asked why this was the case and one chef in a tall hat with glasses was quite dismissive and said "that's the way we do it madam" giving no clue as to the reason why. Steven and I on numerous occasions asked for oat milk and could not believe the time wasted, as staff could not even find a glass to put some oat milk in, whilst you stand in the buffet looking like a spare part.
We had a brilliant team of waiters in the MDR Baytree restaurant on second sitting, senior waiter Warren had worked for P&O for thirty years, as did his father and grandfather and Colin who only joined in April and it was a pleasure having them look after us.
The onboard procedures have changed since my last cruise with no vegan and vegetarian menus. Our Head Waiter gave me dinner and lunch menus each evening for the following day to preorder as I have allergies. If you are just vegan you choose off that evenings dinner menu with its very limited choice and trust me you will be fed up pretty soon, so speak to the Head Waiter to pre order like Steven did after two days. I also notice menus are now only on a seven day rotation and on a ten day cruise it got boring, so on longer cruises must be very monotonous for all passengers. If you do not like the choices ask to have something bespoke made by the diet chef like I did.
I counted seven risottos as the vegan option on dinner and lunch menus on our ten night cruise, two mushroom, beetroot, sweetcorn (the last two were options twice) and butternut squash. Either P&O have a lot of arborio rice to get rid of or the chefs ran out of ideas, but they need to address this. I like risotto and the ones I ordered were extremely tasty, but I was sick to death of them.
Vegan starters were dreadful, cold salads day after day and grim to say the least, doubling as the gluten free option, they were basic, uncreative, boring, bland and thoughtless. What appalling choices for those two dietary groups and a far cry from starters of old, no hot dishes, no variety just lettuce leaves with a few bits thrown on, it was very disappointing.
I was shocked by such woeful starters and the tomato and tofu salad was probably the worst, just look at the plate, a five year old could do better.
I stuck with the vegan options on the menu until the caramelised apple salad came back round again, so ordered pan fried asparagus with broad beans, mint and olive oil, by tweaking a vegetarian dish, it was the best starter by far in the MDR.
One main course was cold quinoa and artichoke salad, who on earth wants cold salad followed by cold salad, I never spotted a cold salad main on the menu for any other dietary group. This was a far cry from the mouth watering moments, fantastic flavours and alternative menus the dietary letter led us to believe we would be getting. The best starter Steven had was futomaki rolls off one of the lunch menus, which he loved. Its like being on a P&O roller coaster, when its bad its seriously bad and when its good its fantastic.
I ordered soups in the MDR, such as tomato, mushroom, butternut squash and cauliflower and they were fabulous, hearty and satisfying.
Main courses were generally very good, although some like this miso aubergine needed a sauce and Steven ordered sides to bulk it out.
The main courses I had were delicious, yet many of the excellent vegan main courses have been removed no pasta, no gnocchi, no stir fry noodles, no pastry dishes but lots of rice based dishes including those risottos.
Desserts in the MDR were excellent and a far cry from those salads, it was bizarre, you could have the worst starter ever and end with the best of desserts, all in the same meal. It did not make sense at all.
Two of the alternative dining venues (The Glasshouse and Epicurean) were closed, Sindhu the Indian inspired restaurant was open, but non of them have vegan options. We went to The Beach House, a Tex Mex inspired venue one night, after liaising with chef about our dietary requirements. There are two menus, one has dishes that can be veganised, the other which we chose from did not, so we tweaked dishes to suit. We had garlic stir fried spinach and mushrooms and cheesy nachos to start, followed by vegetable and chickpea sizzling plates, rice, guacamole, salsa and tortillas and it was gorgeous.
Head Chef Glen came out to check on us and have a chat and was pleased to hear how wonderful the food was. We tend to avoid alternate dining venues, as it can be a faff organising for special diets and feel we will get ripped off with the cover charge and what food we will be served. However the Beach House exceeded our expectations, it was a great experience, so in future we will be more open to trying the alternative dining venues.
The coffee shop as on previous cruises had no vegan options, although there were gluten free snacks, so its a good job I took Pulsin and Nakd bars with me. Everyone is used to popping into Costa, Caffe Nero and Starbucks and P&O seem unable to grasp stocking products which appeal to all. They have We Love Cake chocolate orange tarts in the buffet, why not offer their other vegan friendly products like lemon or salted caramel tarts, cranberry flapjacks, salted caramel bars to give variety, covering vegetarian, vegan, gluten, lactose, dairy, egg free and coeliac diets. The products are frozen so easy to store and once defrosted have a long shelf life, thus avoiding wastage, which all makes business sense.
P&O are slowly making head way on the environmental front, with new ships running off LNG (liquified natural gas). I know cruising is a contentious issue and was berated by some on Twitter before I came away, but cruising is not going away so changes like this have to be embraced. As well as seeing single use plastic being ditched, other changes were noticeable, like a paper pen in the cabin, recycling bins on deck, water in cans not bottles. I was also pleased to see vegan toiletries and sun cream in the shop, as well a vegan book, now that is definitely a first.
I write this review with four more cruises booked for 2023 and 2024 and wonder what those cruises will bring on the vegan dining front.
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