How to Eat on a Cruise

This past weekend, I took a Carnival cruise to Ensenada, Mexico with 11 other girls for a bachelorette party.  3 days and 3 nights of eating, drinking, and sleeping, and one Buddha belly later, here is what I have learned about cruising:

1. Take advantage of the 24 hour buffet and eat a full meal every few hours with snacks in between. 
Don't overload your plate the first time around.  The buffet will always be there.  Get a little of everything and then go back for what you enjoyed.  You need something to break up all that laying out on the pool deck during the "at-sea" days.

2. Sit down dinner: Order as many appetizers and entrees as you can.
In the event you are undecided between two dishes, order both.  If you've never had a rare steak, then order a rare steak and another entree as a backup.  Order the soup, the shrimp cocktail, and the melon and prosciutto salad to start. Order two desserts and a side of sorbet to finish.

3. Don't fill up on salad or fruit.
You can always get a salad in San Francisco for $11.  Save room for meats, fats and sugars.

4. Don't order anything that has the word "diet" in it.
We ordered the "diet orange cake" to share on top of our individual desserts, just to try it.  But we really could've just ordered an additional molten chocolate cake instead.  If you're goal is to "eat healthy" and "stay in shape", then you must have been sniffing white out when deciding to book the cruise.

5.  Don't exercise early in the morning, even if everyone else is.  
I did this after my cruise roommate and our 2 friends got up at 8 am to workout.  "You don't have to come" said my friend Paula in a soothing voice after waking me up and looking worriedly at my bloodshot eyes and tousled hair.  But I did anyways and I could've skipped it, slept in until 9, and met them for breakfast.

7.  Don't expect the food to be good. 
It's about quantity, not quality.  The cook-to-order Mongolian noodle station was actually decent, but part of that was the 45 minute line.  Even the chocolate fondue bar was underwhelming.  But it doesn't matter - when else can you order an entire menu for dinner or eat pizza at 8 in the morning?

8.  When in Ensenada, eat like a local.
While our friends went to Papas and Beer to drink and do unmentionable things, Marcie, Evelyn and I ventured out of town for some authentic tacos.  A taxi driver had told us where to find the fish tacos that made Ensenada famous, and after about a 13 block walk, we came across a street with several carts, serving fish and shrimp tacos, (Avenue Esbinoza, in case you find yourself there)

The fish was fried to order in large vats of oil:

Toppings of fresh vegetables, limes and spicy salsas were on the side for a DIY taco.

Tada! Amazing taco.  Definitely worth the 13 block walk and the entire $1 cost.

We were fortunate enough to arrive at one taco stand when a new batch of salsa was being made.  Turns out the salsa was comprised of an entire blender of peppers with a few garlic cloves thrown in on top.  We were like, SO authentic.

After washing down the tacos with Fantas from the local supermercado, we headed back to town and then to the cruise, ready to fill our stomachs with more.