Chocoholics at Sea
Share
The chocolate buffet has been a staple of cruise line fare for decades. The first time I experienced this floating phenomenon, I was twelve years old, sailing in the Caribbean on the now no-longer-sailing S.S. Norway, originally the France. For one evening, the “Midnight Buffet” became the “Chocolate Buffet,” and adults and children alike lined up to experience the feast of sugar and cocoa.
NCL’s “freestyle” concept has taken the idea of a late-night chocolate snack to another level, moving the buffet to slightly earlier in the evening (around 10:30 p.m.), incorporating elaborate sculptures of ice and chocolate, and promoting chocolate-and-strawberry accessorized champagne glasses as an accompaniment to their “Chocoholic Buffet.” (Mere “chocolate” as a name no longer suffices.)
Booking the Garden Villa has this extra perk: the concierge collects our party from dinner before the buffet officially opens, and we enter the restaurant just as pastry chefs in their towering hats are adding the finishing touches. The otherwise utilitarian Garden Café restaurant has been transformed into a fantastical midnight kitchen, complete with flickering LED candles (open flames are prohibited on the open sea) and miniature chocolate mice that peep out from behind towers of cookies and brownies. Signs that usually point the way to salads and soups in the daytime have been covered with panels of chocolate bearing words written in chocolate. They all say, simply enough, “CHOCOLATE.” It is as if we have entered a dream world for the sugar-toothed.
Before the crowds enter, an otherworldly glow shines out from the back-lit ice sculptures and flickering “candle” light, one could believe that almost any overindulgent guilt could be assuaged. The near-silence lasts for only a few minutes, and then the hungry crowds charge, enthralled by the promise of a late-night sugar rush.
For the more adventurous, the “chocolate sushi” includes brightly-coloured rice that is, much to our surprise, actual rice, and not candy. The purists have their chocolate cakes, the partiers have their afore-mentioned chocolate-rimmed champagne glasses, and even the health conscious can try fruit dipped in a fountain of dark-chocolate.
The chocoholic buffet in solitude is a blissful fantasy land. After it’s been attacked for half an hour, the magic starts to wear off, but there are still chocolate mice hiding about, just waiting for more hungry passengers to pop downstairs for a late-night snack.
View interactive map of the voyage
Back to Travel Diaries
Days 7-12 St Johns, Halifax and Journey's End
Chocoholics at Sea (you are here)
A Peak at the Inner Workings of the Norwegian Jewel
How to Pour Champagne in a Moving Vehicle
Day 5 - Icelandic Saga
Day 5 - Straddling the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Day 5 - Steam and Snow in the Southwest
Day 5 - Golden Waterfalls and Pearls of Architecture
Day 5 - Iceland: Tour, Geology and Saga Museum
Days 0-4 Dover to the Shetlands
Average customer rating
awaiting 5 vote(s)...
Email
Add to your Pocket Guide
Why Register?
