Galley Tours

[CruiseDad]

I noticed in our pre cruise stuff that there are Galley Tours. Has any one taken one of these? What was is like? What do you get to see?

[Dave]

You get to tour a commercial kitchen and perhaps get your photo taken with someone wearing a toque and white jacket. I hate to make it sound dull but it is a tour of the food prep stations, the saute and grilling stations, ovens, steam kettles for soups, pickup area, etc., while they tell you how many eggs, vegetables, and pounds of meat they use in a week. Not much different than touring the kitchen at a large hotel, other than it is more compact.

[canuckcrusiers]

I remember when I was a junior chef de partie on the Sensation.

Lol Dave is right on the money there is no different than a large commercial kitchen in a hotel - I remember seeing the guests come into the galley and go Ohhh and Ahh over the spotless shining stainless steel, and some of the questions that we were asked - Most guests have got no idea as to the amount of provisions that A cruise ship goes through in 1 week!!!! and that is also including the staff.

[penny3333]

I always enjoyed the tours because I couldn't get over how small they were in comparison to the number of meals served. It still blows my mind how they can plate so many meals, serve them warm, and do it so quickly. My hats off to the chefs!

[Dave]

I remember seeing the guests come into the galley and go Ohhh and Ahh over the spotless shining stainless steel

This reminds me of when sailors who weren't in the nuclear power field were allowed into the engineering spaces. Instead of ooohs and ahhs it was usually disappointing for them. I guess they expected a Star Trekish engine room with us nukes standing around in white lab coats while a strange blue/green glow pulsated in the background. Instead all they saw was a nasty old steam plant with pipes, lagging, noisy pumps and turbines running, and annoyed sailors standing around in the heat counting the hours until their watch was over. (Well, except for us ELTs (chemists). We never broke a sweat since our nucleonics lab had to be kept nice and chilly )

Thus, along with my not caring to visit another ship's galley I will also skip the engine room tour - which they don't offer anyway but if they did I've already seen it or something close enough to it.

[Berick1234]

It's something to do on the ship....You do get some facts and figures that might be interesting to you....Never pass anything up on a ship if it's free:-)....I was just on an NCL ship and they were charging $55 to take a tour of most of the ship...not including the engine room.....But the captain did have an hour video presentation of the whole ship...very interesting....Happy Sailing...

Bob E