Wilderness Legacy Dining

There is only one restaurant (Deck 1) onboard S.S. Legacy though you can also get food in the Lounge (Deck 2) at breakfast and in the mid to late afternoon. The restaurant is one of the loudest we've ever been in on a cruise vessel. With patterned tin tiles on the ceiling, the noise of 80-something people eating and chatting bounces around making it difficult to hear the person next to you, let alone at the other end of the table.

Food is generally good, but the menus, specifically at lunch and dinner are quirky and often require a little Googling -- we didn't know what guasacaca (a savory sauce made from avocado and citrus) was, for instance. A fellow cruiser referred to the meals as "frou frou" but most people nevertheless enjoyed the food. At every meal, if you don't like the choices, you can make a special request (within reason); we saw more than a few hamburgers and we occasionally asked to have a lunch item for dinner.

Service, like anywhere you go, varies from server to server. All are friendly and enjoy chatting, but some are better at their jobs, with fewer mix-ups of dishes or forgotten orders. You'll figure out which servers you like best quickly.

The head chef and pastry chef onboard can cater to just about any dietary needs, and there was always a gluten-free version of every meal option and dessert -- we even had fantastic gluten-free gnocchi.

Breakfast in the dining room was generally from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. and always offered two specials, eggs any way, yogurt parfait, toast and a fruit cup. Specials included various omelets, corned beef, eggs Benedict and French toast. An early morning breakfast begins at 6:30 a.m. in the Lounge and consists of yogurt parfaits, fruit cups, pastries and toast.

Lunch and dinner were usually themed: New Orleans-style, Italian, barbecue, Mediterranean, etc. Lunch, which was always at 12:30 p.m., offered three options (meat, vegetarian and salad). On days that you eat off the ship with the group, there's only one option (plus the vegetarian and gluten-free versions of that option). Among some of the items on the menus were muffaletta, smoked salmon nicoise, beef brisket, vegetable skewers with a side of baked beans, chicken shawarma, Greek salad with beef and the Hawaiian dish loco moco.

Cookies were usually put out in the Lounge around 3 or 4 p.m., and during the daily happy hour (from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.), a small selection of small bites was always available. These ranged from cheese and crackers to smoked salmon and crudite to mini sourdough pretzels with melted cheese.

Dinner begins at either 6:30 or 7 p.m. and features one appetizer and three entree choices (meat, fish and vegetarian). Appetizers included potato leek soup, family-style antipasto board, tabbouleh salad and baked Brie. Entree choices included pork loin porchetta, roasted chicken breast, beef short rib, rack of lamb, crab-stuffed trout, Alaskan halibut, mushroom tom kha, ratatouille and a cotija-crusted arepa. We heard numerous complaints about the fish dishes being overcooked and dry (and we'd have to agree), though the all-you-can-eat Dungeness crab night was a hit.

There was one special dessert option every night, plus vanilla and chocolate ice cream and lemon sorbet. There were few complaints about the desserts, and the pastry chef got a roar of approval on the last evening when she was introduced.