The Best & Worst Cruises For Vegans (I Tested 18 Cruise Lines)

I’ve been vegan for many years and have taken 50 cruises with almost all of the major cruise lines.

On some ships, I’ve enjoyed the most incredible gourmet meals with ever-changing five-course vegan menus. And on others, I’ve had little more than French fries, salad and bread rolls.

How well cruise lines cater for vegans can mean the difference between enjoying a fantastic cruise, and barely surviving the week.

In this guide, I’m rating every cruise line I’ve sailed with from best to worst based on their plant-based offerings. I’ll also let you know about any secret off-menu vegan items I found.

Let’s start with the creme-de-la-(soya)-creme…

SeaDream Yacht Club offers boutique yacht-style cruising on small ships with around 100 guests and a crew-to-guest ratio of 1:1. This small scale enables the cruise line to go above and beyond to accommodate everyone’s dietary needs, with plant-based people being especially well catered for.

The owner of SeaDream Yacht Club, Atle Brynestad, has been vegan since 1991 and also owns an organic vegan farm and two vegan restaurants in Norway.

Aboard SeaDream ships, I enjoyed the most delicious and healthy food I’ve ever had. Each evening, there is a five-course plant-based menu. But if there’s anything you don’t like on there, the chef will be happy to veganise any of the other dishes.

During the cruise, Chef Tomas came to find me regularly to ask how I was enjoying the food. He would discuss his plans for the next day and ask if I had any suggestions. He’s so lovely and it’s clear that he loves his craft.

I think it’s great that there’s no separate menu for vegans on SeaDream – it’s just a section highlighted on the main menu. This eliminates any hassle or embarrassment of having to ask for a special menu, and it also encourages every guest to give the plant-based options a try. Which Tomas said that they frequently do.

Raw vegan options are available for every meal too, for those who prefer food that has not been heated above 49°C.

Breakfast and lunch are always served outdoors with a combination of a set menu and a buffet loaded with the freshest fruit, salads, nuts and seeds. For breakfast, I highly recommend the tofu scramble and the hash browns.

On the buffet, nothing is labelled, but that doesn’t matter because there are so many crew members just waiting to help. They’ll greet you by name and even carry your plate from the buffet area to your table for you!

SeaDream yachts carry all the vegan alternatives you could wish for, with all of the different milks, margarine and vegan cheese readily available. I was even given a choice of different cheese for on my burger!

If you like mock meat, you’ll love Chef Tomas’ vegan burger which he handmakes with his own recipe using chickpeas and beetroot. It tastes more realistic than even a Beyond burger and I had to double check it wasn’t meat. He also cooks with ‘prawnz’, which are really nice.

When it comes to snacks, plain Pringles, pretzels and nuts are always available at the bar. But really, you can have whatever you like. Every crew member will go above and beyond to make you happy.

If you want to enjoy the very best in vegan cuisine and avoid putting on weight during your cruise too, the SeaDream Yacht Club is the best cruise line for vegans. I adored the food and would return in a heartbeat.

Read more about SeaDream Yacht Club.

2. Ambassador Cruise Line

Ambassador Cruise Line is a British cruise line offering affordable cruises departing from regional ports across the UK.

In 2024, I placed this cruise line at number 12 in the list, but they have made some huge improvements to how they cater for vegans and so I’m thrilled to be able to move them to the number 2 spot.

The food in the main dining room is excellent and everything is lablled with ‘vegan option available’ as well as symbols for all of the allergens.

There now no need to pre-order as the menu always has clearly-labelled vegan options. However, the waiter will still show you tomorrow’s menu, just in case you don’t like what’s on it so that you can work together on an alternative.

Vegan dishes are served on blue plates, which is brilliant as it means that there’s no chance of you receiving the wrong meal. I was able to take a tour of the kitchen and I can confirm that the vegan options are all prepared in a seperate area of the kitchen.

On one night of your cruise, you’ll enjoy a seven-course Gala dinner. There’s a vegan version for every course and the food is incredible. (These photos were taken last year before they introduced the blue plates)

The buffet is fairly small, but then so are Ambassador ships, so that’s to be expected. Everything is clearly labelled though and you can get plant-based butter, milk and most things that you need.

The vegan sausages aren’t very nice (Ambassador, please consider changing the brand if you read this!), but they’re available. And you can also get a fake omelette made with chickpeas!

When it comes to snacks, the afternoon tea is excellent and it has a good selection of vegan sandwiches. I loved the vegan pepperoni and cheese ones with vegan mayo.

And if you get hungry you can also buy crisps from the bar. I love it when you can get crisps on a cruise!

I’m thrilled that Ambassador has upped their vegan game so much in the space of a year. Bravo to them! (Now if only they could work on those sausages.)

Read more: Why Ambassador Cruise Line Is a Dream for Cruisers With Dietary Requirements

3. Explora Journeys

Explora Journeys is an ultra-luxury cruise line that’s owned by MSC Group, who also own MSC Cruises. The vegan options are way better than you’ll find on MSC though, as is everything else!

Explora Journeys doesn’t have a main dining room, instead, each ship has four restaurants with cuisine from Asia, France and the Mediterranean, plus a steakhouse. Obviously, you’ll want to avoid the fourth one, but the other three all have fantastic vegan choices on the menu

I love how everything is clearly labelled as plant based and there’s no need to ask for a seperate menu.

Explora Journeys also offers in-suite dining, which is much fancier that just room service. The crew members set up a table on the balcony for you, which is an incredible experience.

In the buffet, you’ll find plenty of choices too. Everything is labelled with the name of the dish, but not the allergens. That’s fine though as each counter has a crew member who is happy to advise on what you can have.

If you don’t see anything you like on the menu, you can order whatever you like and they’ll make it for you – nothing is too much trouble! I asked for vegan pizza and the chef made it just for me, complete with vegan feta.

The Explora Lounge is a great place to go for snacks at any time of the day and almost everything on the menu is vegan-friendly!

My favourite dishes onboard include the sushi, (the sushi bar has has three kinds of vegan sushi and there are two more available in Sakura), and the avocado on toast which is available at breakfast.

If you’d like to know more about Explora Journeys, then be sure to take a look at my Explora Journeys review.

4. P&O Cruises

I’ve cruised on all of P&O Cruises family-friendly ships and I’ll start this section of the review by saying that some P&O ships have much more to offer for vegans than others. Arvia is the best, followed by Iona.

But, if you want a budget-friendly cruise with good vegan options, P&O Cruises is your best bet.

Every P&O ship has a vegan option on the menu in the main dining room. Sometimes you may have a choice, but it’s usually just one thing.

The food is pretty good, but I find that they can sometimes be a little low in protein, which is something to consider if you like to be mindful of that. If you’re a bigger eater, you may find the portions to be on a small side.

The main dining room is a great place to go for breakfast as you can get the most delicious avocado on toast with chillies, as well as vegan sausages and bacon to make a fantastic full English breakfast.

The buffet is always very good on P&O ships and the line does a really great job of labelling things as vegan and also labelling allergens like eggs and milk.

There’s also a section where you’ll find vegan butter, any kind of milk you would like and sometimes there’s even vegan cheese.

If you choose to cruise on one of the newer and bigger P&O ships, Arvia or Iona, you can also eat at The Quays. This venue has three different food outlets and you’ll find a changing menu of burgers, wraps, curries, noodles and the like.

Arvia also has two extra restaurants that are free to dine at – 6th Street Diner and The Olive Grove. Both of these have good vegan options on the menu.

Also unique to Arvia is Green & Co, which is the only fully vegan restaurant at sea. There’s an extra charge to eat here, but if you sail on Arvia you absolutely must. The food and service are both incredible.

Wherever you eat, be sure to look out for the vegan meringue. It’s made using aquafaba and even the omnivores say it tastes great!

Every P&O ship also has poolside dining venues where you can grab a veggie burger, just be sure to ask for no cheese. If you’re lucky, you can also get a pizza with vegan cheese. Not every ship will have this, but it’s worth asking because even if they do, it won’t be on the menu. It’s a secret menu item!

Every P&O ship also offers a variety of speciality dining restaurants that are available for an extra charge. Sindhu is a good one for vegans and the curries are lovely.

If you’re on a budget then P&O Cruises is definitely one to consider. The best ship is Arvia as it has the biggest choice of dining venues, but you’ll be well catered for on any of their ships.

For more info, take a look at the P&O Cruises menus here.

5. Celebrity Cruises

Celebrity Cruises is another cruise line that has a fantastic offering for vegans. When I cruised on Celebrity Apex I ate so much food!

In the main dining rooms, you’ll find a separate vegan menu with a choice of delicious options. Make sure you ask your waiter for it.

If you can’t decide what dish to order, I recommend you order both. The waiter won’t bat an eyelid and the food is so delicious that you’ll have no problem finishing it.

Celebrity Cruises ships have the best buffets I’ve ever experienced as a vegan. There’s always a fantastic vegan corner that changes every day. It has some really interesting and exotic options such as steamed yucca.

The rest of the buffet is huge and everything is clearly labelled making it really easy to know what you can have.

I recommend that you walk around and take a look before making your choices. Even then, everything is so good that I always ended up with a plate that looks like this… (haha)

In the buffet, you’ll also find a pizza station. Vegan cheese is available on request, and the pizza is incredible.

Celebrity Cruises’ ships also have a variety of speciality restaurants that you can enjoy for an extra charge.

If you sail on one of the Edge-class ships, I recommend that you try the seven-course plant-based tasting menu. It’s pricey at $110, but the food is incredible so it’s worth the splurge.

Celebrity Cruises does a fantastic job of catering for vegans. Even the chocolates on your pillow are vegan-friendly!

If you’re considering a cruise with Celebrity, I have lots more guides here for you. Enjoy!

6. Princess Cruises

I’ve cruised with Princess Cruises a few times and each time I do, I bump them further up this list! You see, Princess Cruises keep making changes to their vegan offering, and things are getting better and better.

On my lastest cruise on Sum Princess in summer 2025, they had removed the requirement for pre-ordering in the main dining room and instead have an ‘always available’ vegan selection. This is SO much better, as Sun Princess has a lot of restaurants, and you don’t always know where you’ll be eating the next day.

On our latest cruise, we opted for the Premier Package, which gave us access to all of the speciality restaurants. I was really impressed by the vegan choices here. Obviously, you’ll want to avoid the steakhouse, but all of the other restaurants either had vegan choices on the menu, or would make something for me.

I highly recommend the Teppanyaki restaurant. We sat around the table and watched the skilled chefs prepare our food. They made mine first so there was no chance of cross-contamination.

I also love Princess Cruises’ buffet, which is so good that I would happily eat there for every meal. The buffet is huge and everything has labels. There’s even a vegan pasta station with a choice of sauces on Sun Princess!

I particularly loved the buffet at breakfast time. You can have avocado, hash browns, and lots of delicious fresh fruit including things like strawberries and raspberries which you don’t often see on a ship.

The buffet has some great options for lunch and dinner too with cuisine from around the world. Outside the buffet and up on the pool deck there are stalls with vegan hot dogs, burgers, tacos, nachos and other dishes. The choice is incredible.

If you purchase the Princess Plus or Princess Premier package, you can also dine in some extra venues. I loved Alfredos on Sun Princess. You don’t need to book, just turn up. They have vegan cheese and the pizzas are lovely.

On the whole, Princess Cruises is pretty good for vegans. Since they sorted out the main dining room menu, things have gotten a lot better and I’m really excited to cruise with this line again.

Suggested read: 7 Reasons Princess Cruises Are Great For Families

7. Holland America Line

Holland America Line is a cruise line with a Dutch heritage that’s now part of the Carnival group along with P&O Cruises and Princess Cruises, and just like its sister brands, HAL has some great options for vegans.

In the main dining room, be sure to ask for the vegan and vegetarian menu. It’s something of a secret that this exists, but it has the most amazing options, with no need to pre-order.

I also ate in the main dining room at breakfast. The menu said that there are vegan sausages (called Vegelinks) and plant-based cream cheese. However, these were both sadly out of stock on my sailing.

The buffet is great at breakfast and lunch, and you’ll find lots of things to choose from. At dinner, the options are less, so I’d recommend dining somewhere else in the evnings unless you just want something simple like a salad.

I sailed on Nieuw Statendam and I loved the poolside options which included hot dogs, burgers, vegan pizza and bagels with Violife vegan cream cheese. The pizza and bagels aren’t on the menu, but I asked and they delivered!

The speciality restaurants also have some good options and I was even able to dine in the steakhouse! The waiters also offered to adapt the menus, such as switching shrimps for tofu in some of the dishes.

In my experience, the ship used a lot of Beyond Meat, which is okay, but a lot of the meals felt like they were Beyond Meat burgers served in different ways, such as crumbled into mince or even reshaped into sausages!

There are no vegan options on the room service menu, which is a shame. Still, this cruise line is a good option for vegans, particulartly on the newer ships like Nieuw Statendam, Koningsdam and Rotterdam.

8. Star Clippers

Star Clippers offers cruises on the world’s largest square-rigged sailing ships. Last year, I placed this cruise line as number 14 in this list, but after taking a second cruise with the line in 2025, and some huge improvements to the vegan offerings, they have shot up the rankings.

Now, as long as you let them know of your dietary requirements in advance, Star Clippers will present you with a special vegan menu that’s packed with different options each evening…

With less 200 guests on each ship, the dining options aren’t as varied as they are on larger ships. Breakfast and lunch is served buffet-style in the dining room. Here’s what that looks like…

Everything is nicely labelled and the staff are really helpful so you can ask if you need any help. The breakfast buffet had plenty of options, including plant-based yoghurts. There’s also a live cooking station where you can request vegan eggs and sausages!

When it comes to milk, you can choose from soya, almond or oat. It’s kept in the main dining room, so if you want it outside of mealtimes for your coffee you’ll beed to ask a crew member to get it for you, which is fine.

Dinner is a luxurious sit-down affair in the main dining room. I love that the menu had different options to choose from and everything was healthy and delicious. You can order as much as you like and I often had four courses.

I love that the menu features a vegan cheese course each evening, there are several different cheese that are served on rotation. I loved the pecorino one, so I requested that on a night that it wasn’t on the menu, and of course, they obliged.

Star Clippers is another cruise line that offers the baked Alaska parade, with an alternative dessert for people who don’t eat dairy.

Afternoon snacks are served in the tropical bar at 5pm. Sometimes, the only vegan option is fruit, but other times there are some lovely things like spring rolls or hummus and bread. You can also help yourself to fresh fruit at all times from the piano bar.

9. Virgin Voyages

Vigin Voyages does dining quite differently to every other cruise line, but it’s a great choice for vegans, with lots of delicious options to enjoy.

You won’t find a main dining room on Virgin Voyages ships. Instead, you can choose to dine in a different restaurant each night, and they’re all included in your cruise fare.

There’s a vegan option in almost every restaurant, sometimes two options and the food is excellent. I recommend booking your dining times for your whole cruise on the app when you first board, although walk-ins are sometimes available too.

The only restaurant I didn’t enjoy was The Wake. There was no vegan starter. The main was nice, but it was the exact same dish as on the brunch menu. It felt weird to have something for breakfast and then again for dinner.

As well as all of the restuarants, you can also eat in the Galley, which is open 24 hours per day! This is like a food court and it has lots of different outlets you can visit. There’s a menu too, which is clearly labelled with V for vegetarian and VV for vegan.

If you like avocado on toast, as I do, then you’ll love the breakfasts. There are so many different versions of it depending on where you order it from.

I love the sushi bar in the Galley and I got vegan sushi most days. It comes in plastic bento boxes, so I would usually take one and pop it in the fridge in my room to eat later.

There are also a few grab and go fridges on the ship, where you can get sanwiches, like this vegetable wrap with vegan cheese and vegan mayo.

Ice cream is free of charge on the ship and there’s always at least one vegan option. There’s also a pizza place which does vegan pizza. You can eat in, or get it to takeaway in a box.

Virgin Voyages is very good when it comes to vegan options and the labelling is spot on. My only concern is that if you were to cruise more than once, the food would be exactly the same. The four ships are identical and you would know exactly what you were going to eat in each restaurant, so there would be no novelty or surprises.

10. Royal Caribbean

Royal Caribbean does a pretty good job of catering for vegans. The cruise line used to offer special vegan menus in the main dining room, but they stoppped doing that in 2023. Since then, there is always a vegan option on the regular menu. If you don’t like it, you can ask for a secret vegetable curry.

The food in the main dining room is very tasty, and the crew members are very knowledgeable and happy to help with any questions.

There are some decent options in the speciality restaurants too. Izumi sushi is a good option and the vegan sushi is very nice. I also ate in Wonderland but was a little underwhelmed by some of the food compared to the main menu versions.

I found the buffet to be quite frustrating on Royal Caribbean ships. Nothing is labelled so you have to ask and the servers never seem to know what the ingredients are. They can go away and find out, but that means a lot of waiting around.

The buffet is huge though, so if you don’t want to wait, you can just select the things that are obviously vegan and avoid anything you’re unsure about. There is a vegan corner, but it’s very small.

You do have to order some of the dishes too, and then wait for them to be cooked. By that point, the rest of your family are probably onto their desserts.

Sorrentos pizza restaurant is a good option for vegans. On my cruise I was able to order a whole vegan pizza, and its open until 3am. That may not be the case on every ship though, and it’s not advertised anywhere, so you’ll have to just ask and hope they say yes.

I would rate Royal Caribbean as average when it comes to vegan-friendly cruise lines. Adding labels to the buffet items would make things so much better for people with all kinds of dietary requirements.

11. Disney Cruise Line

Disney Cruise Line used to be my third favourite cruise line when it comes to vegan food. However, after taking six Disney cruises, each on a different ship, I have had to move it down the list due to the quality of the offerings just not being consistent each time.

Disney has a rotational dining system, which means that you move between three different themed restaurants. As you do, your waiter moves with you, so they really get to know your family as well as everyone’s dietary requirements.

Disney Cruise Line doesn’t offer separate vegan menus, and the main menu doesn’t always have a vegan option. However, the waiters are very good and will always adapt someting to suit you. You just might not always get a say in what that is so there’s no guarantee you’ll like it.

The quality of the food really does vary. On Disney Fantasy I had a different vegan dessert each night and they were all incredible. On Disney Destiny, it was lemon sorbet or nothing!

There are sadly no vegan options on the kids’ menus. But kids are welcome to order from the adults’ menu too or if they want something simple like pasta with tomato sauce, that’s not a problem.

One thing to know when you cruise with Disney as a vegan, is that you can always ask for what you want, even if it’s not on the menu. And I definitely recommend that you do this!

At breakfast in the main dining room, on some ship’s I’ve been able to order vegan sausages and the most incredible vegan omelette made with ‘Just Egg’, although these weren’t on the menu. Even the Mickey waffles could be made vegan on request!

However, on other ships this just wasn’t an option. I was told no sausages, no avocado, and I waited almost an hour for a cold vegan omelette that was rubbery and inedible.

In the buffet, nothing is labelled with ingredients or allergens, which is a little annoying. I love it when buffets have labels!

However, the buffet staff are really friendly and will help you. I recommend that you head over the ‘podium’ to ask. They sometimes also offer to make you other things too. Once, they brought me an avocado that wasn’t on the buffet. But on another cruise they simply pointed me towards the fruit section and said that’s all they have!

You’ll have no problem getting any kind of alternative milk, butter or cheese on a Disney cruise.

As well as the three main dining rooms and Cabanas buffet, there are lots more places you can eat in the food court on the pool deck too. Most stations have vegan options, so if you fancy a burger, hot dog, tacos or pizza for lunch, this is the place to go.

Disney Cruise Line is great for families, of course, but it’s also great for adults too. The speciality restaurants, Palo and Remy are both adults-only. If you dine here, be sure to let them know that you’re vegan the day before and the chef will make something special for you.

If you’re considering a Disney cruise, I recommend that you head over to my Disney Cruise Line Vegan Guide next.

12. Windstar Cruises

I was really excited to try the food on Windstar. This is a luxury cruise line that’s know for having excellent food.

On the menu, there’s always a plant-based option…

Windstar Cruises is the Official Cruise Line of the National Health Association. This means that all of the plant-based dishes are also free from salt, oil, sugar and gluten.

While this is wonderfully healthy, it’s clearly a challenge to cook within those limitations. The food was very nice, but I found some dishes to be a little lacking in flavour given the lack of salt and sugar. Although you can always add salt at the table if you wish.

On a Windstar Cruise, you’ll enjoy breakfast and lunch in the restaurant with a combination of buffet and a la carte choices. I found the options to be a little limited compared to other cruises I’ve been on.

This breakfast would have been lovely with some vegan sausages, avocado, tofu scramble or mushrooms.

I must praise the room service on Windstar which is free of charge and always excellent. This veggie chilli was particularly delicious.

If you love to eat super-healthy food all of the time, then I have no doubt that you’ll love the food on Windstar. But, if like me, you like a pizza with vegan cheese or a veggie sausage on occasion, you may miss those.

Read more: Windstar Cruise Review

13. Marella Cruises

If you’re looking for a stress-free, great-value cruise with decent vegan options, Marella Cruises delivers. As part of the TUI family, Marella offers all-inclusive cruises that are packaged with flights from the UK – and they’ve made a good attempt at catering for plant-based diets.

Each Marella Cruises ship has a choice of restaurants that are included in your cruise fare. There are always clearly-labelled vegan options and the food is pretty good, but not massively exciting. Salads and sorbets feature heavily and plant-based protein is sparse.

There’s a pizza station that will make vegan pizza on request which is great. Although whether they’ll add and vegetables apparently depends on the time of day, and without the veg, the pizza is a little sad-looking.

Marella Cruises’ buffet has the best allergen labelling I’ve seen on any cruise ship. Seriously, other cruise lines should take note. As well as having clear VE labels, there are symbols which explain which allergens are present.

When it comes to breakfast, like most cruise lines, Marella has secret vegan sausages that are available on request. They’re not very good though and you have to hang around while they’re cooked. So honestly, I wouldn’t bother with them.

Marella also loses marks for having absolutely no vegan items on the room service menu. Hello – us vegans like late-night meals in bed too!

If you take a Marella cruise you certainly won’t go hungry. The food is nothing to rave about though. It does the job, but it’s nothing to get excited over.

You can read more about dining on Marella Cruises in my guide: Marella Cruises Dining Options Explained.

14. MSC Cruises

Like most cruise lines, MSC Cruises has got much better at catering for vegans over the past few years and on my latest MSC cruise in 2024, I was thrilled to see that they have now introduced a vegan menu.

The menu shows a few days at once, and it’s not clear which are starters and which are mains, or how many you’re supposed to order. I just ordered everything and this is what arrived…

What I received didn’t match up to the menu. I’m pretty sure that’s not ‘mango coconut cream’, but the waiter just said ‘that’s the vegan option’. So I ate it.

The service on MSC sometimes leaves a little to be desired. I find that the crew members often lack both the time and the language skills to help with any slightly complex questions, which is shame. That’s not their fault, they still work really hard.

MSC’s buffet is pretty good. There’s a decent selection and meat alternatives are used in some of the dishes, which is great.

Unfortunately, the labelling can be inconsistent, with some items marked as vegetarian that are actually vegan and no allergen labelling.

You can get a pizza with no cheese on request and all the plant milks are available.

If you’re planning a cruise with MSC Cruises, I have a more detailed guide to eating vegan on MSC for you.

15. Celesytal Cruises

I first sailed with Celestyal in 2022 and then again in late 2024. And I’m pleased to report that a lot has changed in those two years, with the vegan options and labelling getting much better.

Nowadays, Celestyal does a very good job of labelling, both in the restaurants and the buffet.

I like how the buffet has different themes and uses local ingredients based on the places that you visit. In the Middle East, I very much enjoyed the Middle Eastern food that was on offer.

Another change is that there’s now always a vegan option available for each course. You won’t get a choice, but it’s great to know that you’ll always be catered for.

The food in the main dining room is Mediterranean-themed and is very tasty. I was very impressed to find a vegan cheeseboard among the dessert options on most nights.

Breakfast is served buffet-style and there’s not a whole lot of choice. There is soya milk and margarine though.

If you cruise with Celestyal you certainly won’t go hungry. The food is decent, making this cruise line a solid average when it comes to vegan cuisine.

16. Fred.Olsen Cruise Lines

I’ve cruised with Fred. Olsen twice. The food that they offer for vegans is very nice, but it’s not always easy to know what’s available.

In the main dining room, the menu is labelled, but it doesn’t always have vegan options. If you speak to the waiter they will let you know what they can come up with. They’re very helpful.

You can request to see the menu for the next day. But if there’s nothing vegan on there then it feels like it’s up to you to come up with ideas! And as you’re discussing this with a waiter rather than a chef, they don’t know what’s possible.

For that reason, I ate in the buffet most evenings. The buffet on Fred. Olsen ships isn’t like a normal buffet. You’ll be shown to a table by a crew member and served drinks at your table so it doesn’t feel too casual for an evening meal.

The buffet team are really friendly and are happy to modify dishes where possible.

For example, one night there was Pad Thai with chicken and prawns, and they made me one with tofu which was great. Not what you would usually expect from a buffet at all!

At the Poolside Grill, there’s nothing vegan on the menu aside from French fries. But when I asked, they said: “Yes, we have vegan burgers!” The burger was really good.

I have no idea how many of these burgers they make, but since it’s a secret menu item, it can’t be many as people just won’t know to ask for it. This is a shame as some meat-eaters and flexitarians will order a veggie burger if its there but won’t go out of their way to ask for one.

At breakfast, there are also secret vegan sausages and secret vegan bacon, so be sure to ask for those if you want them!

I thought the food on Fred. Olsen Cruises was great. My only wish is that they would make it easier for people to know what they have by putting it on the actual menus.

Suggested read: Fred. Olsen Family Cruise Review

17. Cunard

Cunard used to be much higher up this list when I cruised on Queen Mary 2, but since my cruise on Queen Anne where I was SO HUNGRY, I’ve sadly had to move them down the list.

When I cruised on Queen Mary 2 in 2024, I was given a vegan menu and had the option to pre-order my meal for the next night.

Cunard’s vegan menu is huge, and it was great to have so many choices. However, I’m not a fan of pre-ordering as I don’t like to eat in the main dining room every night and I don’t always know what my plans will be for the next day.

However, on Queen Anne, there was no vegan menu. I have no idea if Cunard has stopped offering vegan menus altogether, or if the difference was due to the ship or the length of the cruise. The waiter I spoke to wasn’t able to help with that query.

I find the portion sizes on Cunard to be very small. If I ate at 6 pm I would be hungry again by 9 pm and there’s nowhere that you can get food at that time as the buffet is closed.

On my first Cunard cruise, I loved the main dining room breakfast – the avocado on toast was lovely. However, I was disapointed to discover that in 2025 that is no longer an option.

I found the buffet on Queen Mary 2 to be good. It’s pretty big. However, on Queen Anne that was sadly not the case. I opted to dine in there one evening and the only options for me were salad or plain spaghetti with tomato sauce.

Read more: Is Cunard Too Posh For Me? I Cruised on Queen Mary 2 To Find Out

18. Costa Cruises

Costa Cruises are the cheapest you’ll find with prices often as low as £30 per day, including food! But even though the cruise line obviously has a low budget for ingredients, vegans won’t starve. But, you may become protein deficient though, so pack protein shakes. (I’m not joking).

I love how the main dining room works on Costa Cruises. Solo travellers are seated together, so you can easily make friends. And you always get four courses rather than the usual three. Which is needed, because the plates are quite small.

Each day you’ll be given a vegan menu with some choices for the next day. It’s great that there are choices, but it can be a little annoying if you don’t want to eat in the main dining room every day.

The buffet on Costa Smeralda was pretty big. But nothing is labelled and most of the buffet attendants don’t speak enough English to help. Most guests on Costa Cruises speak Italian, French, Spanish or German, so expecting English as well is a big ask.

There’s not much that looks vegan aside from salad and bread. There’s a fantastic pasta station though, and I had the pasta every day. I added chillies. There was no option to add vegan protein or even vegetables, only meat and cheese.

By the pool on Costa Smeralada, there’s an interesting-looking food outlet called Green. I was disappointed that it remained closed throughout my whole cruise. It costs extra, but I would have gladly paid for a poke bowl.

One speciality restaurant that was open was Sushino, which does some lovely vegan sushi for an extra charge.

The menu says there are take-away boxes, but I was told I must sit in the restaurant. This was a little embarrassing for me as it was formal night and I was wearing jeans, hoping to grab a takeaway to enjoy in the privacy of my cabin.

Costa is the only cruise line I have ever sailed with that doesn’t have refrigerators in the cabins. If you like to bring your own supplies like cheese, milk or butter and keep them in there, this could be an issue.

You can get soya milk in the buffet. You might have to ask around a few people who send you from one person to the next until you find someone who knows and they open the secret fridge for it.

The food on Costa is mixed – ranging from fantastic to inedible. But one thing’s for sure, vegan protein is pretty non-existent. You get what you pay for and if you get a good deal, Costa Cruises aren’t awful. But you’ll definitely want to pack some trail mix for emergencies!

Suggested read: The REAL Reasons Costa Cruises Are So Cheap!

Other Cruise Lines

There are a few cruise lines missing from this list. Carnival, Norwegian Cruise Line, AIDA Cruises and Azamara are some of the cruise lines which I would love to review the vegan options onboard.

I haven’t included these either because I was vegetarian when I cruised with them rather than vegan (I’ve only been vegan since 2019), or because I have only visited for a day rather than taking a full cruise, and so I haven’t had a chance to fully experience all of the dining options.

It’s certainly not the case that any cruise lines missing from this list are bad. I’m sure many of them are very good.

If you’d like to see real examples of vegan food on cruise ships then I recommend that you follow VeganCruiser on Instagram. In her stories, Sanna shares photos of all of her meals along with her opinions, and she doesn’t hold back!

If you have any experiences that you’d like to share, please add them in the comments below.

Related Posts:

• Carnival Vegan Menu Unveiled
• AIDA Cruises Unveils All-Vegan Menu at New Eatery
• Cruise Guests Would Rather Give Up Alcohol Than Meat!