Dining on a River Cruise

What's a typical evening onboard a river cruise like? 

When we last left our exploration of a river cruise, in River Cruise Anatomy - Safety First,  we'd had our safety briefing, welcome cocktail party, and port talk from the Cruise Director.  It's now time for our first meal onboard the vessel.  We'll use our Avalon Waterways Rhine & Moselle river cruise for real examples throughout this mini-series.

click images to enlarge - more pics in albums

Dining on a River Cruise

Dining on a river cruise is very similar to the large cruise ship experience, but on a smaller scale.  

Each evening the menu will offer starters, appetizers, main courses, and desserts that are unique, as well as selections that are always available.

On Avalon, several wine and beer selections are also offered - some for free, and others at reduced pricing. Most other lines are similar.

Our Dinner Selections

• Lamb's Lettuce with Potato-Bacon Dressing
• "Zuricher Geschnetzeltes" Pan fried strips of Veal Loin in Creamy Mushroom Sauce served with Rosti Potatoes
• Classic Vanilla Custard with Berries
• Freshly Sliced Fruit

View the rest of the menu in our photo album: Artistry 2 - Embarkation Dinner

Dining Room with a View

Dining on an Avalon river cruise is open seating.  There were several different size tables for you to select from.   Pictured here was a typical table for six. 

You'll notice the large picture windows in the background.   We had a front row seat for all the action as our ship entered one of the 35 locks we'd traverse during the cruise.  If you look at the rest of the pictures in our photo album, you'll see that we were lowered quite a few feet before our ship exited the lock.  Also, the sun was setting making for an enjoyable backdrop.

The evening isn't over - stay tuned to see what's next.

 

Click the banner above for the latest cruise promotions

 

Cruise lines are offering special promotions and pricing on popular cruises to encourage consumers to plan their next cruise vacation now. We'll be featuring promotions on our website and social media.

Choose Cruise Month (click for mini-series)

Follow Us On

       

Sign-up for Exclusive Email Offers

Where have you explored? 

Gather your travel and food pics and join us every Wednesday night for the latest installment of #FoodTravelChat 

Star Princess Main Dining Room

Star Princess

Amalfi Dining Room

 In our last post about our Star Princess 12-Night Greek Isles and Mediterranean Cruise, we were preparing to sail away form Civitavecchia, Italy.  

As usual, my husband was taking pictures somewhere on the open decks before we sailed.   I had no idea where he'd gone and decided to return to the cabin and get ready for dinner.   Hoping that he'd gone to the dining room, I headed there and found him at our assigned table already engaged in conversation with two of our table mates from England. We had a table set for 8, but ended up with only 6 of us since their friends had to cancel due to illness.

At the advice of our waiter, Jigger, we ordered the spring rolls for our appetizer and the tenderloin of beef for our main course.   We've learned that you won't go wrong if you follow the advice of the wait staff. 

We've posted several more photos on our Facebook Fan Page and will be adding more as we continue to bring you the story of our cruise vacation. 

For those not familiar with dinners on a cruise ship, you select one or more appetizers, soups & salads, and the main course.  Following dinner the waiter will describe the desserts from which you can select one or more of those.   Some nights there may be a special appetizer or dessert prepared  such as a special pasta for an appetizer or cherries jubilee for dessert.

The food quality was very good.   We only had one meal that we didn't enjoy and that was the veal scaloppini which was too cold when it was served.  Our waiter notified the head waiter who came over to apologize and got the meals replaced.   Those were very hot.  We suspect the others had been left out too long.

Overall the dining experience in the Amalfi Dining Room was very enjoyable.  Our waiter and assistant were excellent.   After the first night, we never had to ask for ice tea again as they would bring it to us when we sat down. The only issue we had in the 12 nights was the one meal that must have been sitting   at the serving station too long before being server to us.  

Additional photos can be found on our Facebook Albums.




Click on the image to the left for more Blog posts about this trip.

Connect With Us On

        

Sign-up for Exclusive Email Offers


Where have you explored? 

Gather your travel and food pics and join us every Wednesday night for the latest installment of #FoodTravelChat