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Berry Rose popsicles - delicious and refreshing! |
Back to the ListSun Club Cafe
Sun Club Cafe is located outside on Deck 16 - it's near the pool, which is one deck below. Sun Club Cafe offers Poke bowls. There are no vegan poke bowls on the menu, but they can make a custom bowl for you with various ingredients that are vegan-friendly. This spot also has a vegan bao bun and a vegan dip (basically guacamole). If you are very clear on what you want, you can get a really delicious vegan poke bowl here. Look at the menu and pick out the different components of the non-vegan bowls that seem vegan and ask if they can put those items together into a vegan bowl for you. They should be able to do rice base, then the mixed veggies, plus the lotus root, mushrooms, and avocado. The black garlic gochujang sauce was also vegan when we asked.
In October 2023 we tried the vegan mushroom bao bun. We must say that this dish was quite disappointing. The filling had a nice flavor, but the bao bun itself was basically like bread rather than a traditional steamed bun. It wasn't bad, but was not the expected texture so was a bit of a disappointment.
As of October 2023, this location also has a dip called "Guaka" Mousse. It is basically creamy guacamole with salsa. They don't give you enough bread, so ask for more if needed!
Back to the ListThe Dock House/The Dock
The Dock House / The Dock are two connected eateries - one inside and one outside. Here they have a number of "mezze" dishes that are vegan. We tried almost all of them (they apparently also have a chocolate hummus, but we didn't try that). IMPORTANT NOTE: The Lavash crackers here are NOT vegan, at least not on Valiant Lady. We were served them several times even when we said we were vegan before one server who was vegetarian and understood our restrictions better spoke to a chef and found out the crackers contain dairy.
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Babba Ghanouj with fresh vegetables. |
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Falafel |
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Walnut and pomegranate dip (note the lavash crackers are usually NOT vegan, so be sure to ask for confirmation from a chef)
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Cauliflower Couscous
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Watermelon with tajin and pepitas |
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Beet Hummus |
Back to the List
The Pizza Place
The Pizza Place was a welcome surprise. Their menu has a vegan pizza option, which is made with Violife mozzarella. You can modify the toppings on the pizza to get whatever topping options they have. On Valiant Lady we found that they had the following vegan toppings: tomato sauce, vegan cheese, arugula, basil, tomatoes, mushrooms, grilled onions, roasted garlic, and olives.
The Social Club
The Social Club has a Vegan Hotdog, which is a Beyond Brat with pickled jalapenos, tomato slices, and spicy mayo. It's a basic but decent option for a quick snack. They serve popcorn here too, which is also vegan, but unfortunately the soft pretzels are not (they contain egg). I did not ask about the drinks.
Lick Me Til Ice Cream
This is the ice cream shop on board. They have a number of flavors, but only one that is vegan each day. We have seen the following flavors: raspberry beet, passionfruit, blackberry, black cherry, mango orange, peach, coconut, apricot, orange, peach orange, and green machine (kiwi, apple, avocado and lime). The Blackberry was by far the best! These are all sorbets and not ice cream.
Grounds Club
Grounds Club is the gourmet coffee shop on board. There is one location on Deck 7 and a second in the Galley on Deck 15. This location is not included in your fare, so it is an extra charge (except for the pastries, which ARE included). They have various plant milks, including oat, soy and almond. As of October 2023 on Scarlet lady, they now have vegan muffins available. If they aren't shown in the case, they might be behind the counter - just ask the barista if they have any.
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Vegan Muffins at the Grounds Club |
The Beach Club at Bimini
The Beach Club at Bimini is Virgin's style of private Bahamas island experience. They don't own a whole island some other cruise lines, but they have built a private club on the beach. It is a beautiful venue, but be warned that there isn't much shade. If you don't get a seat under one of the few beach umbrellas, you won't have many options to lounge in the shade (which is my preferred way to experience the outdoors).
At the beach club they have two locations that serve food (although on our second cruise only one was open, I think because the cruise was not very full). I spoke to a chef and was very impressed that he was able to make many of the items vegan.

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As you can see, there were several vegan options. The pumpkin curry, the rice and beans, the grilled corn, and the fruit salad were all vegan (or could be prepared vegan) on our first cruise. On the second there was a salad with crispy tofu and on our third time at Bimini they had crispy cassava fries in addition to the other options. Just ask to speak to a chef before ordering to be sure. The pumpkin curry is outstanding! |
Back to the ListRestaurants (reservations available)
We were excited to try The Wake for brunch on our second cruise. They were able to prepare three dishes for us here. The first was a citrus salad that they modified to be vegan (removed cheese). The other two - "Egg" in a Hole and Coconut Panna Cotta are both marked vegan on the menu and both were absolutely outstanding (note, however, that the Panna Cotta is a bit hit or miss and sometimes comes out too solid and lacking flavor). These were two of our favorite dishes on the cruise. The Egg in a Hole is some kind of white sauce with sautéed spinach and yellow bell pepper surrounded by crispy polenta. Note that if your polenta does not come out with a nice light brown crispy crust, then it hasn't been cooked properly and you may want to ask for another because this dish really sings when you get the properly crispy polenta.
We ate at The Wake once for dinner on Valiant Lady and we had the Egg in the Hole again, which was great. We also were able to have all of the vegetable side dishes (mushrooms, asparagus, spinach, potatoes, and french fries) made vegan (we forgot to take a photo). The vegetables were basically plain and not very seasoned since the typical flavors added are not vegan. But they were cooked well and tasted pretty good with some salt and pepper. The manager here also said that if given advanced notice the chef could prepare us a special vegan entree.
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Fennel & Citrus salad modified to be vegan |
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'Egg' in a Hole crispy polenta dish |
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Coconut Panna Cotta |
Gunbae is the Korean BBQ restaurant on board. This spot is a ton of fun, especially if you go with a group. They have rowdy drinking games that people seemed to enjoy. We don't drink alcohol, so we did not partake. Also, at this restaurant they seat multiple parties together at a large table around a communal cooking grill. When we checked in for our reservation, I advised the host that we are vegan and would rather not be cooking with other people who would be cooking meat. They sat us at a small table for 4 (just the two of us) and did not put anyone else with us. I don't know if this will always be possible, but I was very thankful.
We were happy to find out that they were able to serve us several vegan "banchan", 4 different vegan side dishes, and then they gave us a plate full of vegetables to cook. Everything was really delicious - I didn't find most of it to be very spicy. Not all of the items we received were marked vegan, so just let your server know of your needs and they will check with the kitchen to figure out what you can have. Some of our items were modified to be vegan.
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Banchan on Valiant Lady |
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Miscellaneous vegetable banchan on Scarlet Lady
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Vegetable japchae |
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Mung bean pancakes |
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Vegan bibimbap
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Grilled Veggies |
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Miso Soup on Valiant Lady |
Back to the ListPink Agave is a Mexican restaurant and they have several vegan options on the menu. We tried them all and loved everything, except the dessert was just OK (it was better on Valiant Lady). It was definitely nice to have a dessert option, so I'm not going to complain. We found the flavors to be very focused on tasting the ingredients as opposed to having lots of salt or oil or other seasonings. The vegetable flavors came through really strongly.
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They started us with a spicy nuts and pumpkin seeds. It was salty and delicious! I believe this is on the late-night menu. |
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Esquites - grilled corn without spicy aioli. |
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Next we had the Chayote Yucateco, which included mexican squash and baby carrots. I expected more spice because of the habaneros, but it was very subtle. The mexican squash was outstanding. |
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We also had guacamole, which was nice. It had pomegranate seeds and freshly fried tortillas. It was the third time we had avocado that day. LOL. |
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Roasted potatoes made without the chorizo - very tasty! |
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Our main course was the Relleno Vegano. It was a roasted poblano pepper stuffed with mashed russet potato and corn. The flavor of the vegetables was outstanding. Not overly spiced - you could really taste the veggies. This was one of our favorite dishes on the cruise! |
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Our dessert was the tamal de chocolate. I've never been a huge fan of tamales, so I wasn't that excited about this. Chocolate with corn meal is a little odd. The desert was good, but not great, and I didn't feel the need to finish it. It would have been helped by a little more sugar I think. We tried this again on Valiant Lady and it was better - more moist and a little sweeter. It was like a brownie made with corn meal. |
Razzle Dazzle was the restaurant I was most excited about before the cruise. As you'll see from the photos below, it definitely had the most options for vegans, including breakfast and dinner. On our first cruise we were a bit disappointed by this option, but they improved a lot on the second cruise (although there were still some disappointments). As of October 2023 on scarlet Lady they have completely changed the dinner menu and none of the original dinner offerings are still available. We have left these items below but have noted the changes, just in case they haven't removed these items on other ships yet. Sadly, they have removed ALL vegan desserts from the dinner menu, which is very disappointing. They have increased the amount of animal meat options at this restaurant, which is frustrating.
Our recommendation for the new dinner menu is to skip the appetizers and get one of the entrees as your app and the other entree as your main. Both the cauliflower and the beet pierogis are excellent.
Dinner
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Nutty Gazpacho - this was one of my favorite items. Super creamy and delicious. This is NO LONGER AVAILABLE - it is still on the brunch menu. |
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Mushroom Tartare - this starter was also fantastic. This is NO LONGER AVAILABLE for dinner - it is still on the brunch menu. |
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Whole Roasted Cauliflower - it's beautiful. Make sure to ask for it well-done so the cauliflower is tender. Request extra curry sauce. This is NO LONGER AVAILABLE. |
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Blistered shishito peppers - always love them. This is NO LONGER AVAILABLE on Scarlet Lady. |
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One of the side items you can get is a "sage Impossible patty." It doesn't look like much but it tasted very good. As a pro-tip, get 2 orders of avocado toast and one or two of these patties and make yourself a sandwich! |
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This is the Impossible Burger option that is available on the brunch menu and the dinner menu. It was good, but it was kind of just a basic burger. NOTE that on Valiant Lady they do not have any vegan salad dressing for the salad. It is served dry. |
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Acai bowl made with coconut milk and acai on Valiant Lady (you must specify that you want this prepared vegan). Note that on Scarlet Lady you cannot get the acai mix made vegan - they use dairy yogurt only. You can, however, ask for it to be prepared with Ube ice cream (see next photo), but please double check that it is vegan before ordering.
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'Acai' Bowl but made with Ube Ice Cream to be vegan (on Scarlet Lady - on Valiant Lady the ube ice cream contains dairy) - please confirm that this is in fact vegan as it is not a standard item and recipe can change at any time.
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The Test Kitchen is kind of an experimental/experiential restaurant. It's a really lovely, modern space. They don't provide a menu to choose from - they just a full 6 course meal already planned out (on our second cruise this was reduced to 5 courses - apparently not a lot of vegans/vegetarians dine here, so they've cut out some options). On our Valiant Lady cruise they had added a second menu at this location, so if you're on a longer cruise, go to the front of the restaurant and ask when they are switching menus so you can possibly try both menus. On Valiant, both menus had 6 items for us, but only 4 changed between the two menus.
Trust me, you will not feel you are missing out as a vegan at this one! On our first cruise, we were quite full when we left here, but on the second after the removed one of the more hearty dishes, we left feeling satisfied but not as full.
Menu 1 is below - this includes gazpacho, peas, asparagus panna cotta, vegetable tart, mandarin sorbet, and coconut cake with chocolate ganache.
On our first cruise, the host at Extra Virgin told us nothing could be made vegan. We decided to try and ask them again on the second cruise because this just didn't seem right. We were delighted to hear that they could in fact accommodate us as vegans. There were about 4 or 5 options we could have plus dessert. We chose 3 of the savory items and two dessert options. Make sure to tell your server you are vegan and they will speak with the chef to confirm what you can have. On our Valiant Lady cruise, they were able to add one more option, which was a vegan pasta made with either a tomato sauce, a pesto sauce, or olive oil. As of October 2023 on Scarlet Lady there is still NO vegan pasta option. All pasta contains egg. During our October 2023 Scarlet Lady sailing, two of the items we ordered came out with cheese on them even though we had specified vegan and the server had apparently made notes on our order. Please check before eating that you don't have shredded cheese on your dish!
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They started us with focaccia style bread, which was vegan as-is.
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Crispy artichoke dish. It was flavorful but not crispy. The second time we got this, it had a crispy coating. |
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Ribollita - A cannellini bean and vegetable stew. It had tons of flavor. |
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Brussel Sprouts Arrabbiata (veganized) - another very delicious option. I love polenta. |
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Vegan Pasta with pesto (Valiant Lady only, may not be available)
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Raspberry Rose Sorbet. It was creamy and delicious. Note that not all the sorbets are vegan so be sure to ask. |
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Chocolate Olive Oil cake with almond sorbet. It was delicious, but the flavor and texture of the chocolate cake is a little unusual, so not everyone will enjoy. |
Thanks so much for writing such a detailed guide. I'm really excited about my upcoming cruise, especially with your info and tips.
ReplyDeleteSo helpful! Thanks for doing such a complete guide!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much!!!!
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