Today’s Cruise Chat theme — Just Dessert – inspired us to think about the amazing desserts we’ve enjoyed during our cruise vacations. Narrowing the list was tough, as we like to sample sweets on board and in port. Note, we broadly define “desserts” to include sweet or special treats any time of the day.
Here are our 12 favorite cruise vacation desserts.
1. Chocolate snowman served for Christmas Eve dinner in the main dining room during the Holiday cruise on Holland America’s ms Prinsendam.
2. Café Au Lait and Beignets The Café Du Monde at New Orleans Riverwalk Mall is the perfect place to taste delicious puffy bites of dough drenched in powdered sugar, washed down with milky chicory coffee. This Café Du Monde is near the Port of New Orleans cruise terminal.
3. Real hot chocolate Warm up in Reykjavik, Iceland with hot chocolate. No powdered mixes here – just molten bars of rich chocolate with milk and real whipped cream. It’s the perfect “dessert” after a visit to the Blue Lagoon. You’ll find the same kind of “real” hot chocolate throughout Norway.
4. The Grande Finale provided a sumptuous end to an incredible Sommelier’s Tasting Dinner – six courses paired with wines in the Pinnacle Grill. This feast was onboard the Prinsendam during a transatlantic cruise to Europe.
5. Scones and clotted cream during a 12-day cruise Mediterranean cruise on the NCL Jewel, the Garden Café buffet offered fresh scones, clotted cream and jam every afternoon, along with self-serve complimentary espresso drinks. Mr. Jones rarely missed this delight.
6. Tamarind Chocolate From the Tamarind Asian specialty restaurant on the Nieuw Amsterdam, we found this ginger and tamarind flavored dark chocolate mousse the perfect ending a somewhat spicy meal.
7. Crí¨me Brí»lée Always a favorite, this dessert was the best part of our LeCirque dinner experience on the Nieuw Amsterdam, with the recipe at the bottom of the serving dish.
8. Tuxedo dessert Served in the main dining room on New Year’s Eve on board Holland America’s ms Noordam.
9. Freshly made waffles in a café in Bruges, Belgium. We also love them in Brussels hot and doughy from the iron of one of the city’s inexpensive waffle trucks.
10. Lake Bled Cream Cake This dessert requires a pre-or post-cruise side trip from Venice to Slovenia by train or bus. Bled, a small town in the Julian Alps, once the playground of Austro-Hungarian Empire’s elite, is Slovenia’s top tourist destination. This small town features a fairytale castle overlooking Lake Bled. The lake surrounds Bled Island Besides the storybook setting, the area is famous for its cream cake, a vanilla and cream pastry. We found it to be Europe’s best dessert.
11. Our favorite champagne Taittinger makes a perfect dessert, especially on a cruise ship watching entertainment in a smaller venue.
12. A chocolate on your pillow Even if you manage to past up all other dessert, it’s tough to skip the chocolate on your pillow, particularly when it’s a part of towel are like this bunny on Holland America’s ms Veendam.
What’s your favorite cruise dessert? Please share in comments.