I am just off the Holland America Line’s Zuiderdam after a magnificent ten day Vegan Cruise to Panama!
We visited Half Moon Cay, Bahamas, Aruba, and Curacao, and we sailed through the Panama Canal, where I experienced the surprise of howler and capuchin monkeys jumping onto our little motorboat. In Costa Rica, my group visited the Jaguar Rescue Center, saw baskets of baby Sloths, infant monkeys, and so many other injured or orphaned animals being cared for lovingly. After a vegan lunch in the center’s cafe we had a guided tour through a bit of the rainforest. I’ve got to find photos of the Walking Stick Trees (they actually move!) the Red Eyed Frogs, all sorts of lush forest. Everything works together, and there in the Rainforest, we all marveled at and thanked mother nature. We must protect these natural ecosystems.
Cooking demos by The Vegan Zombie, Vegan Black Metal Chef, and raw Chef Laurel Anderson, and me were well attended and fun. The culinary staff of the ship went out of their way to make stunningly delicious vegan meals for the 100 or so of us. We were joined at several dinners by trainers from the gym and a guest relations specialist from Germany, who are vegan and were so thrilled to spend time with us.
As I have to board my plane and have limited wifi, I’ll have to stop here but expect more photos on my social media accounts soon. We are awaiting the announcement of the dates and Itinerary that Franci and Curtis Kettman will share soon. Believe me, you will want to sail with us.
I’ll be checking into the Rouxbe course dashboard soon as I arrive home in great anticipation of tomorrow’s Essential Vegan Desserts course launch. It isn’t too late for a few of you to join us! http://rouxbe.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=6&aff_id=1498
Looks like it was a fantastic trip!
It was definitely a fantastic trip!
Hi Fran,
Thanks for sharing your cruise with us. I hope to make one of these specialist vegan cruises one day – as I normally cruise regular cruise lines and have to hope chefs are open to creating something for me 🙂 It has been mostly good, but some stinkers too 😉 Did you see the regular HAL menu on your sailing and how savvy did staff seem to be about vegan food? Just wondering if a regular HAL cruise would be vegan friendly – they certainly used to have a separate veggie menu for the MDR (or so I have been told) instead of just having a vegetarian entree and main course option among all the meat & seafood choices.
It was a credit to Vegan Cruise Planners, Franci and Curtis Kettman who worked closely with the staff to ensure our vegan meals were tops. Not one clinker in the bunch. The executive even personally oversaw the Vegan BBQ we had on the beach. I’ve done 2 cruises now, Alaska and Panama Canal and both with Vegan Cruise Planners as a guest chef. Check them out, they’ve got 2 cruises upcoming.