Talk to anyone who's been on a cruise and the chances are they'll mention the
food. On a cruise food isn't just a form of
nourishment it's a form of entertainment and there's plenty of it too, you could
wake up in the morning and have breakfast in bed
followed by a second breakfast in the ship's buffet you could then make the
latter part of the main seating in the dining room
and have a formal breakfast, followed by morning tea
back in the buffet and it's not even 12 o'clock yet
with food available around the clock on pretty much every cruise ship during
every voyage, it'll come as no surprise to you that
cruise ships order a lot of food, so with the ongoing cruise pause putting
300 cruise ships into layup around the world
what's happened to all that food?
I'm Chris Frame, and today we're going to be talking about what's happened to all
the food on board the cruise ships, both at the
beginning of the cruise pause and even now. When cruise ships order
food they order big, this isn't your average
supermarket shop. Quite often cruise lines like to wow
their guests by sharing remarkable food usage stats
from onboard their ships you can often find this information on
cruise line websites or on fact sheets found on board. For
example a ship the size of QM2 uses enough tea in a year to fill an
olympic size swimming pool, they also use 1.5 million eggs during
the year, 8,000 bags of flour and 372,000
packs of cereal - can you imagine trying to fit that into your shopping
basket? To manage the storage of food cruise
ships usually have multiple food storage areas, These areas
take up huge spaces within the ship often below the waterline and away from
the eyes of passengers. These stores consist of huge walk-in
refrigerators and freezers as well as multiple dry store rooms.
These stores remain well stocked and organised at all times
thanks to a dedicated team and specialized computer systems that
are responsible for ordering suppliers - but we all know that 2020 is not a good
example of what is normal, with cruise lines entering into a
voluntary cruise pause back in March with sailings cancelled and ships
entering into warm layup - you can see my video about that in the
info card. Cruise lines were left with huge quantities of food and
perishable stores on board and no passengers left to feed. It is an
alarming statistic that across the world it is estimated that roughly one third
of all food produced is wasted, having 300 cruise ships around the world
suddenly laid up could have certainly led to even more
food waste. So an alternative use needed to be found!
And we're not just talking about food that was already on board.
Dealing with such large quantities of food requires a supply
chain and forward planning to ensure the right goods
and quantities are available and delivered to the ship on time.
You probably couldn't find 2,400 dozen eggs at short notice?
Which is what you'd need for a typical week on board QM2.
Orders are placed well in advance of a cruise departure
with items arriving at the port in advance of a cruise ship turnaround
where new produce is loaded on board. When the cruise pause came into effect
not only was there food aboard the ships but plenty of stock was also waiting to
be loaded on board, furthermore orders for subsequent
voyages had already been processed and in many cases was on route to cruise
ports around the world. While not all food is
perishable and some things can last for months in
storage, many items cannot. Fresh fruit vegetables meat eggs and
dairy all have a limited shelf life and there
was far too much left on board the cruise ships
to be eaten by the offices and crew who remain on board. So to the disappointment
of the local seagulls, the cruise lines look to shore side
charities to help distribute this food to those in need.
Donating to charities isn't new to cruise lines with many lions pledging
money in support of the Australian bushfire
relief in early 2020 as well as offering financial and
logistical support to hurricane devastated regions
such as the Bahamas in the wake of hurricane Dorian,
& while donating produce isn't entirely new to some cruise lines
the scope following the cruise pause certainly is. For example
in Vancouver Holland America donated several
shipping containers worth of food to the greater Vancouver food bank.
UK brands Cunard and P&O both donated their excess food to UK Harvest
with logistics handled in the ship's home port of Southampton.
UK-based Fred Olsen Cruise Line donated many of its
excess perishables in Scotland where the fleet is currently in warm layup,
however they also donated plenty of food far from home
in Barbados. When ships are sailing on longer duration voyages
such as world cruisesm or when they are based somewhere other than their home
port produce is taken on board at various
international ports. If you have traveled on one of these
long-duration voyages you may have noticed that items that come
in their original packaging - such as cereal boxes or cans of soft drink or
soda - may have originated in unexpected places,
it's possible for a group of friends on a world cruise
to all order the same thing - say a can of cola -
and each one will have originated from a different country.
If you haven't noticed this before keep an eye out next time you're on board.
As the cruise pause happened at the tail end of the northern winter season
there are a high number of ships undertaking itineraries away from their
usual base of operations. This meant that there were also a number
of food orders that were no longer needed
in places other than the usual homeports of these ships.
Fred Olsen's Braemar was one such example
sailing in the Caribbean she was due to take on supplies
and had a container worth of food waiting in Barbados
when Bremer was denied access to the port the Line worked to distribute the
food to numerous local charities. As a side
note on the topic of food it's interesting to think about what
food service was like on the old ocean liners.
Today food is sort of synonymous with the modern cruise
experience you board a ship, no matter what kind of ship, going to whatever
destination and you expect to be fed, and to be fed well. But this wasn't
always the case. In fact on some voyages, particularly
before the age of steam, passengers were expected to bring their
own food! Another thing that cruise lines have
been doing during the unprecedented cruise pause
is sharing some of their famous recipes with passengers,
so they can make these dishes at home recent examples include Cunard Line
which has shared its iconic scone recipe and if you search social media you can
see many people who are making those scones at home
and enjoying the afternoon tea experience during the cruising
shutdown. The immediate knock-on effects of COVID have impacted many people
around the world, including those working within the
travel industry. Even though donating the excess food
doesn't fix those problems, it's nice to know that not all of the
food that was originally destined for cruise passengers
has gone to waste. If you found the video interesting please give it a thumbs up
and don't forget to subscribe and hit the notification bell so you don't miss
future videos. So, what's your favourite dish to eat on
board a cruise ship, and do you have a favourite line?
Or brand that makes the best food? Let me know in the comments below.
If you enjoyed this video and you'd like to know more about what's happening
during the cruising pause, check out my cruising and COVID-19
playlist, or if you're more interested in maritime
history and would like to have some more context around stories such as how it
was like to sail on those ocean liners of days gone by,
check out my maritime history playlist. Thanks again for watching
and when we are able to set sail again I hope to see you
on board.
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