On Virgin Voyages' ships, "The Galley" replaces a ship's buffet area with a bunch of mini-restaurants, each serving a certain specialty. (I won't list them by name here. Instead, I'll list their functions.) First, one finds the salad station, where salads are produced according to menu listings. Next is a burger station. There is a taco station, a sushi station, and a ramen soup station. What they all have in common are two key things:
- Simple menu selections mean that dishes can be mass produced without customization.
- Cruisers never touch the food before it gets to the table, reducing disease spread.
As much as I admire Virgin for reworking the concept of the buffet, they have not solved a key problem: How can a cruise line design in adequate seating capacity for busy hours? Given the nature of The Galley, Virgin has added a new problem: giving cruisers quick service after sitting down in the Galley.
RQS and I have been looking for sit-down dining options for breakfast and lunch that are not connected to the Galley. It is not easy, as many others are flocking to these venues as well. And this is one of the things I don't like about cruising with Virgin.
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Today's port stop was Nassau. We had no intentions of getting off the ship here. So we took a leisurely lunch in the Galley and then relaxed in our cabin. RQS was doing her watercolors while I was working on my cruise blog.
Around 6 pm, it was time to go to dinner. Wayfaring signage on the ship is terrible, and we asked for instructions on how to get to our restaurant - and got lost for a few minutes. But we ended up in the right place and had a nice meal. I know when I next get on the scale, I will be shocked of the weight I gained. But for now, I might as well enjoy the delicacies I'm having that I won't be able to get when I return home.
