No Buffets!

Unpopular opinions by Lost Ashore should really become a full-time feature on this blog because I’m back with another one! Many people’s favorite place on a ship is in the buffet. But I will gladly ignore it for an entire sailing and these are the reasons why…

It’s really, well, gross! Don’t get me wrong cruise ships generally are the cleanliest places on earth. But there is one thing cruise lines can’t control and that is their passengers. Your fellow passengers happen to be pretty damn disgusting. There are serial soap dodgers who avoid washy washy happy happy, unless the staff are foisting it upon them. There are the weird food fondler’s who grope everything and put it back. Or worse, some people are both of those things…

It is always so busy that it verges on being a mad house. Call me insane but entering into a scrum for my food is not exactly my idea of a fun holiday – Not to mention that after you have made your food conquest you probably won’t be able to find a table…Because no matter how big the buffet is, every seat is always occupied. It does make me wonder if some passengers sleep there so that they never have to be more than a few feet from food.

Everyone who cruises loves food, everyone who cruises eats too much food whilst they are at sea. But the buffet is a whole other level of gluttony. The food mountains people make only to then waste make me feel sick. A buffet on a cruise ship serves fancy food there is no denying that. But alas it is still far from classy.

Then there are the reasons that are probably pure Victoria-isms, quirks of my weird and wonderful personality. I like to be served, maybe there is something snobby about that. But cruises for me are about quality time with the people you are travelling with. That quality time can easily be had around a table in the dining room, an experience that takes at least an hour. Yet, an experience that is impossible in the buffet with everyone getting up and going back and forth. Plus, I have had some amazing waiters in the dining rooms whom I remember very fondly; I never would have met them if I was always in the buffet.

I don’t like my food to touch! This is definitely just me being an odd bod. But I cannot even stand to look at the odd concoctions people put on their plates. Emma recently said she goes in to get a banana, a pork pie and a doughnut. That makes my skin crawl! I need the order that comes with courses in the dining room. Non of this strange touching malarkey.

I’m not saying you will never find me in a buffet because you will spot me in there maybe twice a voyage. What I’m saying is I definitely don’t understand the hype around them. I’m quite firmly a waiter service/main dining room kinda girl. And if I want to snack between meals there are plenty of other places on-board where I can satisfy my growling stomach.

So are you a dining room person or a buffet person? Or does it depend on the time of the day? I know for me, time of day is a factor. My Mum loves a fancy breakfast; where I think I got up approximately ten minutes ago, the last thing I want is silver service.

 

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