Vegan Cruise Holistic Holiday at Sea

Vegan Cruise Holistic Holiday at Sea

Vegan Cruise Holistic Holiday at Sea was a blast! This adventure is more than a cruise, its an experience that every vegan and those curious or leaning into a vegan lifestyle would benefit to be part of at least once!

Ok let’s go back a few years to the start of the story. My husband, Brent and I, go a a big holiday every year. Its wonderful. For years – literally – I was looking for a vegan holiday. I was looking specifically for something that was all inclusive so we could enjoy vegan food without the usual, walking for miles looking for food, or cooking our own. A real holiday from the day to day chores of life.

You can imagine how excited I was when I found a vegan cruise called Holistic Holiday at Sea, I was ecstatic and we started planning our way onto that boat over the next two years. If was officially on our list of must do vacations.

When we were looking at the Vegan Cruise Holistic Holiday at Sea, we could not find a lot of information on the internet. We like to research quite a bit, so that is why I am writing this blog for you. I’ll let you know a bit about the ship, the education and experience, the top 10 things I learned, the ports and of course the food.

Come find out more about the Vegan Cruise Holistic Holiday at Sea ……

Vegan Cruise Holistic Holiday at Sea

The Vegan Cruise Holistic Holiday at Sea all starts with the ship. One of the reasons people love to cruise is the food, for vegans this is especially important; eating out can be quite a challenge for a vegan. So when we found a cruise that was vegan friendly, had an educational component with some outstanding speakers, had yoga, and you could meet lots of other like minded individuals, fantastic ports of call…who wouldn’t want to go, especially a vegan.

This was only our second cruise, so we are not cruise experts by any means. On most cruises, a vegan could manage, the options would be somewhat limited in comparison to the expansive options in the non vegan area of the boat. This is true for the “for everyone area” known as the buffet, most people can get food most of the day and into the night. You are seldom hungry on a cruise. Not true for a vegan, most of the selections, other than the salads (not all), veggies (not all) are not vegan friendly.

Let’s come back to the actual food on our cruise a bit later, I want to share a bit more about the boat first.

This was the 15th anniversary of the Vegan Cruise Holistic Holiday at Sea and we cruised on the MSC Divina, an Italian owned cruise line. Their second boat in Miami launched shortly after we got back; it can hold 5000 people. Our ship help 3000 passengers, about 2000 of them were with our group, the others were just regular passengers. Some of the regular passengers were a bit surprised to be with a group of 2000 group attendees, who took up much of the extra spaces and got the first sitting in the dining room. We ate our vegan meal at 6:30; they ate at 8:30. Mostly it worked well, there were some challenges on both sides.

We met people from all over the world, who were on the boat for a variety of reasons. Some just for vacation, some were vegans, some came with vegans, lots of people with health issues, all friendly and taking advantage of what the Vegan Cruise Holistic Holiday at Sea had to offer.

The Boat and Shore Days

We spent 4 days of the 10 days at sea, landed in 5 ports of call, they change every year. This year, due to the hurricane damage our original itinerary had to be adjusted. We went to 5 beautiful, unique and interesting stops including the US Virgin Islands, Barbados, St Kitts, Martinique, Guadeloupe.

Every day there was a wide variety of options to take part on the boat from yoga, Pilates, meditation, cooking classes, presentations, keynotes and entertainment.

Entertainment ranged from lounge singers, to opera, to a show based on Michael Jackson’s music and moves. There was endless entertainment, the bookstore was always busy with book signings, the cruise shops, the pools, spa, walking/running track, bowling, sipping wine at one of the many bars and a casino.

The boat is beautiful, lots to explore and many sets of stairs so you can really get your exercise in! There was also a big theatre and lots of smaller spaces to relax.

The Best of the Best – Vegan and Plant based Rock Stars

What was most outstanding about the Vegan Cruise Holistic Holiday at Sea, in my humble opinion, was the quality and variety of the speakers, presenters, workshops and private consultations – the educational component of the cruise. I did not know how much I did not know! We had speakers including Dr. Colin Campbell (The China Study) https://nutritionstudies.org/the-china-study/, Dr. Neal Barnard, Chair Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) http://www.pcrm.org/

Dr. Michael Greger – Author of How Not to Die, a brand new Cookbook and the founder of https://nutritionfacts.org/ added a lot of humour to the event. Dr Klapper talked about the dreaded 3 – fat, sugar and salt. Gene Baur of the Farm Sanctuary, Rip Esselstyn Engine 2 Diet, James Aspey, Animal Rights Activist, Julieanna Hever, The Rainbow Diet….soooo many great people, the rockstars of the vegan and plantbased world.

Interestingly, my husband said he was not going to go to any of the talks, maybe one. I said fine, I was going to go and even though I would like him to come, it was his choice. Anyway, he loves science and the first person to speak was Dr. Barnard and he was hooked. Dr Barnard is such a wonderful speaker, calm, funny, knowledgeable and easy to understand. The second time we heard him speak about “The Cheese Addiction”, that was the talk that moved my husband that last .09% from vegetarian to 100% vegan. Awesome!

We also heard a very interesting lecture by Dr. Debra Kimless on Medical Cannabis, she is having incredible success using medical cannabis with cancer patients. She showed us one set of scans showing a brain tumor of an 11 year old girl, before and after treatment on medical cannabis (she uses a tincture that does not make you high). Miraculous really. She works pro bono with all her patients and they must commit to a plant-based life if they want to work with her.

They had panels of the experts and sometimes all the experts did not agree with each other. One thing they all did agree upon though was that a well rounded whole foods plant-based diet can reverse or eliminate many of the leading diseases that kill most people. Many doctors were on the cruise and they were receiving continuing education credits for many of the lectures. We had the best of the best on the boat.

We did not have time to see them all. I thought it was important to have some chill time too, otherwise you could be doing something all day, every day. Pool time was awesome and we were sailing through some of the most beautiful waters and weather in the world.

A Special Viewing – The Game Changers

The Game Changers is a brand new to be soon released movie about living the plant-based life with an emphasis on professional athletes. The movie is focused on exploring the question, “is meat necessary for protein, strength and optimal health” James Cameron was the director and Rip Esselstyn, who is in the movie was able to get us a special viewing of the entire movie….a must see for everyone! Funny, informative and a bit surprising too!

Meeting People

Let’s talk a bit more about the people on the Vegan Cruise Holistic Holiday at Sea. Many had come every year for the past 15 years. Many like us were there for the first time. All ages, all body types, from carnivores to vegans, including a lot of macrobiotic folks (some of them started the whole event 15 years ago), from all over the world.

My second favourite part of the cruise was dinner. Not so much because of the food, it was the people we met each night. Every night we sat with a different group of people for dinner, people from every walk of life, a wide age span, vegan, non vegan, some in the middle. It was wonderful to hear their stories and what brought them on this vegan journey into the Caribbean.

One person that gets a special mention is Kathleen from Tuscan. We met Kathleen and her lovely friend Roberta on the night before our first shore day in St Thomas, Virgin Islands. The evening was fun and we chatted about a zillion things. The next day we ran into Kathleen and she decided to join us for our venture to find a taxi and go to Coki beach. Kathleen took part in a few other activities with us and gave us quite a few laughs along the way. We always meet someone special on each holiday and Kathleen was our special person on the cruise.

Many people book excursions, we did not. We did a lot of research prior to going on the cruise and choose where we wanted to go and just walked off the boat, out of the cruise ship area and hired a local cab. You can arrange for them to pick you up when you are ready to go back to the ship. We always left early so we could explore the town/downtown a bit before we headed back to the ship with lots of time to board before sailing. You don’t want to miss the ship!

The Food

I know, you were probably wondering if I was ever going to talk about the food.

The vegan food was one of the main reasons that we went on the cruise. These will become more popular and the norm in the future. I knew I would pick up some great ideas for cooking and I wanted to relax and have some time out of the kitchen. And just that happened. How wonderful when you know you are getting food that is 100% vegan, that is such a treat. We ate first in the evening dining hall and had our own vegan buffet for breakfast and lunch, they did this to reduce the chance of cross contamination with the other food on the ship. Awesome!

There was lots to choose from at the buffets and for dinner, we all usually ate the whole menu. Whatever they offered, the whole table would get and sometimes ask for seconds. At the beginning of the cruise there was a bit of challenge around timing of the meals and they quickly worked that out.

Anyone who travels for work or pleasure and is vegan, knows what a great experience it is to let go and let others cook for you. Knowing that the food you are eating is healthy, vegan, no animals were harmed in the making….that is the best. Vegans you know what I mean.

There were moments of brilliance and some best not to mention for the food. I can imagine how challenging it would be to feeding 2000 vegans all at once. There was an emphasis on oil-free and gluten options too, just to confuse the dining room staff a little more. My favourite meal was lunch where we went to the vegan portion of the buffet. There were fresh veggies to make a salad, the options were always great and we had lots to eat. Breakfast was pretty good too, fresh fruit, miso based soup with sea vegetables every morning (another macrobiotic influence). I loved the soup first thing in the morning. Light and satisfying.

Next year the vegan group will get a way bigger portion of the overall buffet (breakfast, lunch and snacks) and the options will be expanded. My tip…when you go to the dining room at night, try to grab an alcove, it really helped with being able to hear everyone at the table and we had some wonderful conversations with some wonderful people from around the world. I loved the experience every evening and having time to sit and chat with people, hear their stories and maybe share a bit of your too.

Top Ten Things I learned?

I learned a lot. Way too much to add to this post. Check out my blog to let you my key takeaways that I want to pass on to you. Good stuff.

Would I go back?

Would I go back? Yes I would go back for another Vegan Cruise Holistic Holiday at Sea. I would go back in 3 years, I think that would be perfect. In 3 years we will know even more about plant-based foods, we will have more research, new presentations, more excitement about being vegan…. I bet it won’t be long till they book the entire ship for the Holistic Holiday. You really gotta go, at least once in your life! Check them out at their website. http://www.atasteofhealth.org/  Save some money if you book early, they are taking bookings right now as your read this. Have fun, any questions, please ask.