We have recently been informed that the “Kosher” Burger King in Costa Rica is currently under new ownership and is no longer kosher.

Here are a few locations that either serve (restaurants) or carry kosher food (ready to eat or other kosher products):

• AIRPORT in San Jose – “Deli Poás” stands carry Kosher Salami sandwiches
• CAFETERIA TAAM SHEL PAAM – located in the Jewish Community Center: DAIRY & PARVE cafeteria and restaurant as well as Catering and take out. Tel: (506) 2520-1013 /ext. 122
• RESTAURANTE CLUB DEPORTIVO ISRAELITA – Meat Restaurant located in the Jewish Sports Club near the Airport. Tel: (506) 2441-1086
• KOSHER CENTER – Take out food: deli, meats, grill, pareve bakery section. Tel: (506) 2232-2991. Address: Carretera a Pavas – South side of October 54, diagonal to La Artistica.
• KOSHER 2 GO – Pareve & Dairy take out food. Located at: Carretera a Pavas, frente a la Shell. Less than Two blocks from the Orthodox Community Center.

If you have any tips for keeping #Kosher in #CostaRica please reply to this tweet w/the following tag: #kosherCRWill include info on blog.

— Dani Klein ✈ ✈ ✈ (@YeahThatsKosher) January 6, 2012

✈ For more tips on keeping kosher and traveling to Costa Rica, please read this post: Keeping Kosher in San Jose, Costa Rica

@YeahThatsKosher I remember, when I went 7 years ago, there being a kosher shop down the road from the grand synagogue. #koshercr

— Drew Kaplan (@DrewKaplan) January 6, 2012

Special for YeahThatsKosher.com readers – Mention the code “YTK” and get 2 free spa/massage treatments.

Ani Villas is a new luxury collection of villas on the island of Anguilla in the British West Indies, east of Puerto Rico. The villa estate has 10 bedrooms and 2 villas just steps from the Caribbean beach. The villas are rented out in one week intervals.

The resort contains nearly every luxurious amenity you can think of including a Tennis Court, Pools, Jacuzzis, a Fully Outfitted Gym, Game Room with Pool and Shuffle Board Tables, Kids Media Room, Mountain Bikes, and Snorkeling Equipment.

The exciting part about this property is that each of the villas can be rented with Kosher Kitchens. This is done in coordination with the Chabad of St. Martin. This includes proper cleaning and sterilization of all cooking appliances, surfaces and equipment. A brand new set of tableware, cooking utensils, pots and pans are provided for your stay, as is a barbeque and dedicated toaster and microwave.

This is not your typical Caribbean resort, and the costs reflect that. Prices start at USD $30,000 per week for a full 5 bedroom villa or complete 10 bedroom estate. The Kosher service is an additional USD $2,000.

Best to visit their website to check this place out for yourself: http://www.anivillas.com

Contributed by Matt Erlandsen | Last Date of Travel: April 2011

Kosher Info: Higienópolis is the Jewish neighborhood in Sao Paulo. With at least two kosher supermarkets (during Passover you can find all you’ll need in a good price), the ‘Super K’ and ‘All Kosher’ you’ll feel at home.

While ‘All Kosher’ is more like a neighbor store, ‘Super K’ incorporates two kosher restaurants: one for sushi and another for pizza. They also deliver.

Since Higienópolis is home to the biggest orthodox community in Sao Paulo, almost any block will contain a restaurant, a café, a Pizza store or even a Sushi bar. The best way to know the place is checking the Kosher Map website for Sao Paulo.

Centro da Cultura Judaica (see more info below under “Jewish Info”) has a kosher cafeteria.



Restaurants at Super K Supermarket are nice and reasonably priced. Cantina do Berô offers a wide variety of home made pizza, pastas, fish and salads. You can eat in the place or take an order to go. They also deliver.

Sushi Bol is another good option, especially in the afternoon or at night, when they deliver faster. They have all kinds of sushi and and they just opened up a new burger shop. It’s absolutely a worth to try.

Pizza is the basic dietary menu of the Brazilians, so when it comes to kosher food, you better think about this as first option. Actually, they use to eat it at least once a week, usually at night with the family. Pizza Parma (11-3825-2579) has a delicious variety of Italian food, including gnocchi, lasagna, and cannelloni. Of course their main business is pizza (try the sweet banana + chocolate pizza, for dessert).

Due to the big Japanese and Asian population of Brazil, Oriental food is also very popular. If you want to try the mix of those two cultures, you definitely need to order from Sushi Papaia (11-3824-0400). When on the phone, try to speak slowly and ask for someone who understands either English or Hebrew, their telephone assistants are not very good in understanding much beyond Portuguese.



Travel Info:

The very first stop you need to do when visiting Sao Paulo is Banespa Building. For one of the best sights of the city, head to the top of the skyscraper in the center of Sao Paulo (Rua João Brícola 24, Monday through Friday 10am and 3pm. Sao Bento metro station, blue line). The entrance is free and after taking the elevator for 33 floors you’ll need to walk another 2 more to get to its observation deck. Note that you’ll asked for an ID to sign in. The best time to go is in the morning since the line to the elevator could be much longer in the evening.

Right in front of Banespa Building you can find Bovespa, Latin America’s largest stock exchange. They don’t show the trading floor anymore but the main lobby is an excellent museum many times with good exhibitions.

Also close to the Banespa Building is Mercado Municipal (Local Market). This covered building opens at 6 in the morning and remains welcoming visitors up to 6pm. It’s a great place to try exotic fruits from Brazil and also from many other places in the world. Beware they might be expensive.

Another two important building you don’t want to miss are Edifício Italia (Av. Ipiranga 344) and Edifício Copan (Av. Ipiranga 200). The first one is the tallest building in the city. It’s top floor has a restaurant with a 360° view. Strictly speaking, you are supposed to be a costumer to go there, but they don’t sell any kosher food. Just to be fine, buy a Coca Cola and enjoy the panoramic; Edifício Copan was designed by the prominent and modernist master Brazilian architect Oscar Niemayer. Its serpentine façade became a symbol of the city. Unfortunately its top floors are only private apartments so you can’t go up.

Right out of Luz metro station there are two good museums: Pinacoteca do Estado gives home to a very good collection of Brazilian art, especially Paulista. Museu da língua portuguesa celebrates the local language. Do not expect to find any instruction in English, they are proud to speak Portuguese.

‘When in Rome act as the Romans do’, they say. So in Brazil you must love soccer. Close to Higienópolis neighborhood you can find the Museu do futebol (Praça Charles Miller s/n; adult/student R$6/3; h10am-6pm, last admission 5pm Tue-Sun) with its multimedia show spread over two floors, even non fans of the sport will end loving it.

Avenida Paulista is home to Paulista financial center. It’s full of offices, banks, shops, theatres and cafés. MASP (Museum of Art of Sao Paulo) is an absolutely must due to its Latin America’s most comprehensive collection of Western art going from Goya, to El Greco, to Manet, to Van Gogh.

Right in front of MASP you can visit Parque Siqueira Campos, also known as Trianon. It’s a remarkably tranquil refuge just of the city’s busiest street. The park recreates the Atlantic rain forest that was leveled to build Sao Paulo.

To the south of Paulista Avenue lies Jardins, another very nice neighborhood of Sao Paulo and home to the most expensive street in South America, Rua Oscar Freire, the local Rodeo Drive. You can walk down the street and see almost any of the most known brand shops. With almost two guards in every front door, feel at home and relax, probably it’s one of the safest places in the whole country.

Museu do Ipiranga is another worth stop. Placen within a very nice and big (sometimes also crowded) park, this is the palace where the independence of Brazil was proclaimed. The museum contains a wide variety of pieces and shows of the colonial times that will delight kinds and parents.

Parque Ibirapuera (Ibirapuera Park) is worth for a whole afternoon. Having a picnic in it is common for the Paulistas on Sunday. Try to get around noon and make good use of it big spaces (do not neglect your kids, Sao Paulo is dangerous). Besides being the bigest green area in the city, Ibirapuera is home to several museums, such as: Museu de Arte Moderna, Museu Afro Brasil, The Bienal Building, Auditório Ibirapuera (designed by Oscar Niemayer), Bosque da Leitura, Pavilhao Japones and Obelisco de Sao Paulo.Close by Parque Ibirapuera, you’ll find Museo Lasar Segal, (Rua Berta 111. Free entrance. Tuesday to Saturday 2pm to 6pm) offering more than 3,800 canvas of the famous Brazilian Jewish painter.

Tips in the City:

• First of all, do not expect to see the whole city in only one week. Since it’s really BIG (its metropolitan populations gets up to 15 million while the state makes 41 millions), you’ll need at least 14 days or so to feel like you saw it everything.
• Sao Paulo is dangerous, really. While crime rates have been going down in the last years, it still remains high. Try not to walk alone at night.
• Sao Paulo is safe if you know where to go. Paulista people love to talk to the foreigners. Don’t be afraid if somebody talks to you either on the street or someone ask you for directions in the subway. If you don’t speak Portuguese, remember to say ‘Eu nao falo português’ so they’ll understand you are not a local.
• Always ask the police or security people if you ever get lost. If you can’t find one, talk to the store attendants or people in the kiosks, but never try to get information from a person walking down the street. It might be dangerous.
• Don’t panic if you ever see some homeless sleeping at any time in the street. Brazil is known for its big poor population. The rule here is do not bother so they won’t bother you back.
• Also, don’t panic if you ever see someone smoking drugs in the street. Brazilians abuse of crack and marihuana. Praca da Sé (the Main Square) is known to be a place of drug deals.
• As in any other big city in the world, don’t carry a very big amount of money with you. Most of the stores and museums will accept most of the American credit cards, but sometimes it can be difficult to pay cash in Dollars.
• Take enough time to go anywhere. Although the public system of transportation works very well, distances are big. Just to give you an idea, going from the airport to the city center could take you up to three hours by bus and subway. The time isn’t much better if you go by car.

Jewish Info: Sao Paulo has one of the biggest Chabad communities in South America. Also, you can attend services in almost any synagogue in Higienópolis / Santa Cecília area. Most of them will be frum. But bewere that Sefardi minhag is more popular than you would expect. If you are Haredi or full committed to Ashkenazi minhag, look for the proper minyan.

Mikvaot are also easy to find.

The Jewish cultural center is worth visiting: Centro da Cultura Judaica (Rua Oscar Freire, 2500 Sumaré Metro Station), the result of 35 years of cultural cooperation between Israel and Brazil that finally gave birth to an impressive massive building in Torah shape offering many courses and activities both in Hebrew and Portuguese. If you are lucky, you could catch some art exposition or theatre show. Its cafeteria is 100% kosher.

My husband and I were recently in Belize on our Honeymoon and wanted to share some Kosher food tips:

- It’s true that there is zero kosher food or Jewish life found in Belize. We were in touch with the next closest thing- the Chabad in Guatemala. The Rabbi was very nice and helpful (put us in touch with some Chabad guys who had just traveled through Belize and offered advice). There wasn’t much he could help us with, but if you have the time, and it fits into your schedule, you can easily get to Guatemala to spend Shabbos by them.

-We pretty much brought a suitcase of food (we were there for 9 days) of the usual dry goods/tuna packets/instant soups etc, as well as some of the La Briute heat up meals (which were definitely better then we expected!).

-We also had gone on a fishing trip one morning, where we caught 20 fish (there is an abundance of fish in Belize and they’re found not too far from the shore, so fishing is surprisingly easy)-all of the fish were Kosher fish and we were able to speak to and work with the chef at our hotel, who triple wrapped all the fish in tin foil, sprinkled some salt & pepper and put it on the grill (he allowed my husband to act as the ‘mashgiach’, so he watched over the entire process)- this was a huge highlight of the trip and the fish was extremely delicious!

-We spent half the trip at the jungle and half at the islands/beach area. When we landed in Belize we asked our cab to pull into a supermarket that was literally right outside the airport (you can get a lot of American OU dry goods, cereals, snacks, etc). When we transfered from the Jungle to the Beach, we stopped in Belize City to catch a ferry. Belize City has a big supermarket called “Brodies” which had tons of OU products! All kinds of dry good groceries and then in their freezer section, they have a great selection of frozen OU brand bagels, cream-cheeses, breads and other cheeses…so we happily stocked up there.

The trip was absolutely incredible and while food was definitely a major concern before leaving, in the end, it all worked out amazingly and it wasn’t as difficult as it could’ve been in a country with zero Jewish life.

We highly recommend traveling to and exploring all that Belize has to offer and hope that some of these ideas help in planning your trip!

Contributed by Erica W. | Last Date of Travel: February 2011

I am platinum of Royal Caribbean, so I always tend to favor their cruises because of that. We decided to book a cruise out of Miami for February, and because of our baby who was just under 10 months at the time, we decided to do a shorter cruise as a trial with her. I was a little paranoid about being on a week-long cruise with so many sea days in case we needed something.

We flew on a direct red-eye flight from SFO on Virgin America to FLL. It was a really nice flight, and it was even empty enough for us to bring our car seat on board even though we didn’t buy the baby a seat. We arrived at 8:05 am in FLL and almost immediately SAS Transportation called me and asked me to call them back after we’ve picked up our luggage and were waiting at the curb. They came promptly and we asked them if we could stop to pick up some water on the way to the port. He promptly took us and the other couple on the shuttle to 7-11 and my husband was able to pick up 6 large bottles of water. We were concerned about having water to make the baby’s formula and I did not trust the cruise cabin room water.

We arrived at the Port of Miami around 9:30am and it was still really hectic from all the previous cruisers leaving. I do not recommend getting there so early, but since our flight came in so early, we really did not have another choice. Royal Caribbean did let us go upstairs and sit in a waiting area outside the cruise terminal and my husband was able to nap for about an hour. At around 11:30 they let us go in and check in to the cruise. I got to stand in the Platinum line, which I really love, and they were really extra accommodating to us because of the baby. For example, everyone else was forming a line that would be allow people to board the boat, and they let us stay seated nearby with the baby and then let us go near the front of the line and directed us to the elevator.

Then we got on the boat and realized we had been a little too paranoid with carrying our own luggage. We had 2 carry-on size rolling suitcases, a large Britax Car seat and 2 backpacks and we had to lug this up to Windjammer and then to the pool deck until we were let into our cabin just before 1pm.  The only food that was kosher in the Windjammer was fruit, crackers and some vegetables.  Keep in mind if you are embarking early, that kosher meals will not be available until dinner on the first night.  The soft-serve machine was open, but ask your LOR about whether you can eat from it or not.

The cabin was tiny, as I booked the cheapest inside cabin available. I thought that maybe I would get an upgrade, because that happened on the Vision in 2008 when I got upgraded to a beautiful ocean view cabin automatically, however this didn’t happen, as apparently the cruise was so full, no upgrades were doled out.

A few problems when we got there:

1. The pack n’ play we ordered through the travel agent was not there.
2. The woman who booked my cruise said she requested a fridge for us for the baby, this never was delivered.

We immediately asked our cabin attendant, Francisco, if he could bring the Pack-N-Play (Standard Graco) and he really hesitated. He told us it was a bad idea, that it wouldn’t fit and that we should just sleep with the baby in our bed. We thought this was weird, so we urged him to bring it, and he did. We set it up and it fit fine, but it literally took up the whole width of the cabin with the two twin beds made into the queen and the pack and play. He folded up a quilt into fourths and placed it in the bottom of the crib and covered it with a folded up sheet, which would make any paranoid moms be frightful of SIDS, but because our baby is already 10 months and very healthy we decided it would be better for her to be comfy than just sleep on the hard pack and play mattress. Our baby slept amazingly throughout the cruise, so the only issue was that it wasn’t there when we arrived and that the attendant didn’t want to bring it to us because he thought there wouldn’t be enough room.

We asked him to take away the mini-bar since it took up so much of the desk, and the only thing he could do was move it up above our closet, which was frustrating. This may be why we received a $55 charge from “Majesty of the Seas” a day after sailing… even though we did not eat or drink anything in the mini bar (always check your statements and credit card bills!). We then went to the dining room to talk to the Head Waiters about our kosher meals and make sure they would be ready at dinner.

The muster drill was simple, we carried the baby up without the stroller and when we arrived at our station they told us we could go inside deck 7 and sit with the baby, so we didn’t have to stand there. It was great. Then we took a nap in the cabin until our late-seating dinner.

We had requested a private table, and the three of us were placed at a table for four, which was excellent. Unfortunately, because we were kosher, we were virtually ignored by the wait staff, to the point that no was even pouring us water. The thing that made up for that was the fact that our headwaiter, Raj, was fantastic. He really took full responsibility for our kosher food and spent much of the dinner service time going back and forth getting our food, paper plates, and plastic cups, and serving us. I have been on a few cruise lines as a kosher cruiser and they all pretty much carry the same food.

There were about 10 options for meat entrees and about 4 dairy/parve options. All the food was either OU or OK Glatt and Chalav Yisroel.

Some of the meat entrees were:

• BBQ Ribs (excellent)
• Chicken in the Pot
• Meatloaf
• Chicken Shawarma
• Brisket
• Chicken Tenders
• Hot dog on a bun
• Chicken Moussak

The Dairy/Parve entrees were:

• Lasagna
• Pizza
• Eggplant Parmesan
• Fish
• Gefilte Fish

They also had:

• Apple turnover
• brownies
• carrot cake
• dinner rolls
• challah rolls

Royal Caribbean will also double wrap regular fish and vegetables and cut special salads for kosher travelers, but not all kosher cruisers will eat this. Do want you feel most comfortable with. I asked for a salmon double wrapped one night to see what it is, and one of the interesting things is that it came with Broccoli and Cauliflower, the types of vegetables some Orthodox Jews are paranoid about eating because of bug infestation problems, so it is definitely not for everyone. In the Windjammer they had sliced fruit (watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew and pineapple) whole fruits, apples and bananas and some others, and packaged saltine crackers and Carr’s crackers (OU).

Some complaints from Kosher cruisers: meals are only available in the main dining room unless the dining room is closed, such as at lunch on port days, in which case they will serve them to you at the Windjammer cafe. If you beg and plead they will deliver the meals to your cabin via room service, but they will never let you carry out the food yourself.

There were a lot of kosher breakfast options in the buffet and room service: Kellogg’s cereals, milk (comes in individual cartons and marked OU-D), Yogurt marked OU-D, fruit, Thomas’ Bagels and English Muffins – but you’ll have to ask them for one before they toast them. They will give you paper cups for coffee or tea.

Key West:

The next morning we docked in Key West. We ordered room service for breakfast, and afterwards were able to get off the boat easily. We went to the Butterfly Conservatory and the Aquarium. We walked to both places, the butterfly place is only 1 mile away from the boat, and it was an easy and great walk, not sure why people pay for a bus… That night was the formal night, we took some cute pictures before dinner, and attended the Captain’s Gala with the baby.

We spent the first 3 days of the cruise looking for the card room, only to realize it was the Library – a small alcove near the Purser’s Desk. I was confident that the Monarch ship had a proper card room back in 1997 and convinced myself that RCCL removed it to add in one of their chargeable services like Latte-tudes or Johnny Rockets, etc. One of my favorite things to do on a cruise is to play board games and card games with my family for hours and hours, and there was no good place to do this. The cardroom/library is the only place on a cruise you won’t be accosted to order drinks every 5 minutes.

Another complaint: no movie theatre! I actually have sailed on the Viking Serenade! Yes I’m that old-school, and they had a theatre playing movies all day, and it was a great source of entertainment for the young and old. When we sailed on the Vision of the Seas, they would play late night movies around midnight almost every night which added so much to my entertainment. Instead I was forced to sit in my room watching all the great movies: The Social Network, Eat Pray Love, Life as we Know it, Charlie St. Cloud, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Great selection RCCL, but screen them also on a bigger screen if you can!

On day 3, we were invited to the secret cocktail party for Platinum and Diamond members which was at 11:45 and we attended after breakfast. It was a great little session and we got to ask questions. It seems like the older cruisers aren’t too happy about RCCL’s new branding: Dreamworks, and The Nation of Why Not. We prefer the older smaller ships, we prefer the less-commercialized days when the food was good, and there were midnight buffets every night. But I think the Dreamworks stuff and all the rock-climbing and ice skating will help attract families with kids and give Disney a real run for their money. But please do not become Carnival, RCCL. Stay classy!

We did not attend any Royal Babies events, but all they had was a nightly story time and the Fisher Price toy lending program.

Nassau

In Nassau we didn’t really have a plan, and we realized Nassau kind of sucks without a plan. We started walking through downtown but then we realized it reminded us of Ensanada (Mexico), but a little cleaner and better developed. We ended up taking a taxi for $4 to the Atlantis Casino on Paradise Island which seemed like the only place to really go. My husband gambled a little bit, and we bought the expensive $39 per person pass to see the aquarium in The Dig, and Predator’s Cove, which were actually pretty cool, but still overpriced.

That night we watched this terrible comedian magician, and we left early – he was that terrible. It’s sad that RCCL treats Majesty and Monarch like the brunt of their fleet and gives them crappy entertainers. Perhaps I have been on so many cruises that I am biased… the first time cruisers who were drunk seemed to really enjoy everything.

CocoCay

On day 4 we got room service again, slept in a little bit and then went to the tender. There was no line which was great because we missed the rush. CocoCay was beautiful the weather was stunning, warm with a breeze, so perfect, but too cold to tempt me to swim. [CocoCay is an island in the Bahamas that is owned/leased by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. is actually named Little Stirrup Cay]. We walked along the shore, stopped a few times to sit in lounge chairs and stare out on the ocean. We walked to the end of this stunning beach, where few cruisers were because it was so far, found this trail that looked like a hike, which led us to the Royal Caribbean service road, and walked along that back all the way passing all the “Staff Only” sections of the island, it was really interesting. We had some watermelon in Blackbeard’s Diner, but had to go aboard to get our kosher meals. We did not take a stroller to CocoCay and just carried the baby in the carrier, which I think was an excellent idea. We had a nice kosher lunch in Windjammer (the food always arrived 10x faster in Windjammer) and then hung out on the pool deck and swam a little bit, it wasn’t too crowded because everyone was still at the beach.

That night’s show was Boogie Nights, the same show I saw on Vision in December 2008. Its actually a really enjoyable show, but I had already seen it so we left halfway through again. We watched the Love and Marriage Game show, always funny. We attended Karaoke twice.

Debarkation was easy. We stayed in our room until 9:15am because our baby was asleep, then we went to deck 7 and we just sat in some chairs near the atrium (our favorite spot on Majesty) and we waited to get off until 9:30am. They let us get perks because of the baby, like cutting in line etc. Customs were painless and we were able to get our bags right away. We ended up waiting curbside for an hour though because our ride was lost. But it was fine and enjoyable. Everyone was gone by 10am which was cool to see.

Here’s where RCCL could have improved:

Activities that were lacking: Movies, ballroom dancing, napkin folding, ping pong tournaments, etc. I guess they cannot fit them all into a 4 day cruise, especially without any “at sea” days. Overall, I thought the cruise was a good value for the money. I did not even mind the tiny cabin because it was only for four days. We were also really close to the center of the ship and elevators so getting around was really fast. I like the size of Majesty because we could get around easily. We took a lot of walks around deck 7 with the stroller and it was great. The staff always brought us highchairs in the dining room and Windjammer, and our baby dropped a lot of Saltine Crackers on the floor. I would cruise again, but probably would not fly all the way to Florida again just for a four day cruise. It’s too bad RCCL has cut a lot of their west-cast itineraries because I may be forced to change cruise lines.

Contributed by: Jason Schoenbrun | Dates of Travel: Jan 2008 & Jan 2010

Kosher Info: On my 2008 trip, Norwegian Cruise Lines had a kosher menu of sealed hechshered items and double-wrapped items. The latter consisted mostly of fish, but 1 was chicken. We asked to see the packaging, and sure enough it was Purdue chicken (i.e. trief). After many conversations, they politely promised not to do it again, but you should be aware of this on your trip. I’ll be back on NCL again soon so I’ll send an update if God forbid the same thing happens.

However, I should say that overall it was excellent. The kosher food on Norwegian Cruise Lines is catered by Weberman’s, and it was awesome. I keep telling people it is much better than airline food. It maybe not as high caliber as what all the non-Jews were eating on the ship, but it was really good anyway.

Only thing that was outrageous was that for 3 of 5 days, the kosher menu had purdue chicken on it. I told them if only the people who asked for the kosher menu and ordered that chicken knew, they’d be fuming!

It was a 5 day cruise during yeshiva break to the western caribbean a few years ago, so hopefully things have changed.

—
In 2010, things took a turn for the worse. NCL had run out of Kosher food on DAY 1! To explain the situation, I am posting the majority of my complaint letter to NCL management:

Dear Mr. Sheehan,
I was aboard your Norwegian Jewel cruise to the Caribbean from January 24 – January 31, 2010. This letter was originally going to be a scathing complaint letter, demanding, with the help of a lawyer if need be, a full refund. Thanks to the help of your incredible staff, I must write this letter to shower praise where it is due. I will begin with the complaint, because NCL messed up in a big way to cause this mess and hopefully this letter can help make sure the root cause will be avoided in the future. I will then proceed to the praise, and then suggestions.

Complaint
My family and I are Orthodox Jews and therefore keep strict Kosher. The six of us all submitted a special request form for Kosher meals many months in advance, and have our confirmations that indicate that we reserved Kosher meals. This alone should have meant that there would be sufficient options for approximately 6 people x 7 days x 3 meals = 126 meals with our names on them. Considering this confirmed request, there are no excuses for any of us at any point on our cruise to be told there are no meals for us.

However, we had significant issues beginning on our very first day. For our first lunch on the ship, we ate fruits and vegetables at the Garden Café, because the Maitre D at the Tsar’s Palace, Junior, told us that it would take some time for the Kosher meals to be brought on the ship and to be made ready. We completely understood. After lunch, we went to Azura to make sure everything would be set for dinner. The Maitre D, Maribel Quevedo, told us to order with her then so that everything would be defrosted in time for us to sit down at dinner. Unfortunately, she said the only options for dinner were Fish Croquettes and Mousaka! This would not be an enjoyable first meal, but we were promised that they would have more options beginning with lunch on our second day of the cruise. We again understood.

We sat down for dinner at the Tsar’s Palace on our first day. When we asked for our Kosher meals, our waiter brought over Junior. He gave us the Mousaka we ordered, but no fish. We also noticed that the Mousaka was only an appetizer! We demanded a real dinner, and he came back with his sheet of Kosher meal inventory (catered by Weberman’s Traditional Foods in Miami, Florida). He said that about 5 options were out of stock already, but a decent selection of about 2 appetizers and 10 main courses remained. Alarm bells went off when he said that any options were already out of stock at the very first dinner, but we went ahead and ordered. It took them a full hour to bring our food to us, on top of the hour it had taken them to show us the list of Kosher options. After our meal, Junior promised that if we ordered with him then for the second day’s three meals, everything would be smoother. We did so and looked forward to smoother sailing (sorry) from then on.

Breakfast and lunch on our second day was served as ordered, and tasted excellent. Dinner however, was a complete disaster. We went to the Tsar’s Palace at 6:15 PM and were told it was full and that we’d have to wait 40 minutes to sit down. So we took a beeper and found Junior. We told him that we’d be seated in 40 minutes, and asked that he make sure that we’d have no further delays and be able to eat the food we had ordered the previous day soon after sitting down. He gave us his assurance. Our beeper went off at 7:00 PM and we sat down. Despite having ordered all of our meals the day before (which should have meant that those meals would be reserved with our cabin numbers and not released to anyone else), Junior told us that the food we had ordered simply didn’t exist. We wondered aloud why he took our orders the previous day if they either didn’t exist in the first place or he was going to give them away to someone else, as well as why he didn’t tell us about this issue 45 minutes prior. While waiting for Junior to get back to us, my father ate three baked potatoes, and my Mom and I ate two, and everyone else had similar non-Dinner for Dinner that night. Our baby was crying the whole time, watching all other patrons eat. Finally at 8:00 PM, Junior came back and informed us that he found a few Veal and Mousaka meals for us. Most of us didn’t like those and the rest of us had already filled up on potatoes! So we left and went straight to complain at the Reception Desk on Deck 7.

The lady at the desk referred us to Victor Nunez da Silva (Restaurant Manager), who came out in a few minutes to speak with us. He told us that the ship ordered so much Kosher food, but simply ran out due to demand. We appreciated NCL’s situation, but told him our two main points:

1) We understand that there was so much demand, but we had confirmed our Kosher meals months ago, and therefore our meals should have been set aside with our names and staterooms on them so that no matter how much demand there was, each confirmed Kosher passenger would not run out of meals. If there were people who forgot to confirm that they were Kosher ahead of time, they should be denied Kosher meals until all confirmed Kosher guests are fully taken care of. Like on an airplane, meals should only be distributed after checking the passenger’s name against a list of advance orders.

2) We also doubt Victor’s claim that the demand was so much more than what was confirmed ahead of time; each of the 60 or so people who ate Kosher with us once we found a solution had told us they faxed their special Kosher requests months ago. Therefore, we doubt demand on the ship was so much higher than the number of previously submitted and confirmed requests that we almost completely ran out of food after just 1 day on board! If the issue was demand on the ship being higher than the number of advance requests, running out of meals after one day out of seven implies that seven times as many guests requested Kosher meals on ship than reserved Kosher meals in advance. We would be shocked if this were the case, but would appreciate correction if this was indeed the case. In fact, we would appreciate clarification on precisely how many advance special Kosher requests you received. We suspect that NCL simply did not tally the advance Kosher requests submitted and ordered what they are used to ordering.

After making these points, we told Victor that all Kosher guests would have to eat fruits and vegetables for the six remaining days of the cruise. We are talking about a cruise, where people spend a significant amount of money so that eating can be a principal component of the luxurious experience! Victor acknowledged our severe grievances, and promised to make amends however he could. He called a meeting the following day at 8:00 AM so that we could speak with him and the Executive Chef, Andreas O. Hollerer to devise a solution.

The next morning we met with them and explained again our situation: we had nothing to eat. There were few solutions we could imagine other than either NCL flying overnight more Weberman’s meals to our next port or paying for our flights home from the next port. This is where the compliment portion of the letter begins, and it consists exclusively of such praise and suggestions for the future from here on. I will therefore sum up the above by saying that there is no excuse in the future for running out of Kosher food for any guest who reserved and confirmed Kosher meals in advance. Not on the seventh day, and certainly not on the first day! If such a situation can happen again, it is clear that NCL does not take responsibility for promises made and Jews should not trust NCL to cruise with them again. I hope you implement new procedures, such as checking names and cabins against a list as on an airplane, to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

Praise

At our meeting, Andreas mentioned that he had on board cases of Kosher chicken as well as new dishes and cooking utensils. I apologized to him later, but I doubted NCL actually had Kosher chicken on board. Why would they? They couldn’t be served to Kosher guests anyway unless they had a Kosher supervisor (traditionally called a Mashgiach: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashgiach) to supervise it being cooked to make sure everything is done according to Jewish law, which NCL obviously doesn’t retain on staff. Since Kosher chicken costs more, it (still) makes no sense to me why NCL would have any on board. Nevertheless, I acknowledged that if such chicken existed, I could volunteer to serve as Mashgiach and perhaps this could work. I also mentioned that in accordance with Jewish law, a Jew would have to turn on all Kosher cooking surfaces before any Kosher cooking can be done. Both of these Kosher requirements were an issue, as passengers are not allowed in the kitchen. But in order to settle this major issue in a timely manner, Victor and Andreas took us straight to John O’Hara’s (Hotel Director) office to secure special permission for me to enter the Kitchen and turn on the stoves and supervise the cooking intermittently.

John as well as Mustafa Gulbahar (Food and Beverage Director) were there and we explained the situation to them. They said it would be impossible due to customs and other regulations to ship any more Weberman’s meals to us. However, they granted permission for me (and only me) to enter the kitchen on a limited and supervised basis so that I may act as Mashgiach. I then went to the Kitchen with Andreas to check whether the chicken, as well as a number of other ingredients, were actually Kosher. We determined that the chicken, as well as the vast majority of other ingredients were Kosher. This, particularly the chicken, sealed our ability to proceed.

I wrote a list of rules for Andreas (Only use ingredients I approve are Kosher / No milk and meat together / No fish and meat together / Wash all utensils in cold water / I must turn on all stoves / No non-Kosher food or cooking utensils may be used in the Kosher section) and set a time to turn on the stoves every morning. He agreed to follow all the rules and ask me as soon as he has any questions. We set standard Kosher meal times and a standard place of the Azura extension so that the same waiters can serve us every meal and new staff didn’t have to be retrained to our special circumstances every day. I provided these updates to all Kosher Jews.

By the next meal, I was surprised at exactly how far Andreas went to satisfy Kosher people. He dedicated 2 chefs, Enrique Arroyo and Valentino Ritiro to cook for us, as well as a full wait staff led by Jefftha Foster and Maribel Quevedo (see below). Jefftha was particularly friendly and accommodating. Andreas even prepared a menu for each meal with many options, including Appetizers, Entrées and Desserts. This was well beyond what any of us Kosher-observant people were expecting. We expect to eat reheated frozen (Weberman’s) meals which taste pretty good, but most of us have never eaten Kosher meals on a ship prepared by a professional chef. Every dish tasted amazing and all 60 or so of us were so grateful to Andreas and most NCL staff for turning a terrible situation around into more than we could have asked for.

Sabbath meals were particularly challenging, but the wait staff rose to the occasion. Among other challenges, food had to be prepared Friday afternoon before the Sabbath began, and there were nearly twice as many Kosher mouths to feed because the Friday night Sabbath meal is the meal in which even less-observant Jews generally participate. Andreas even took the initiative to identify a traditional dish, a stew called cholent, and cooked it for us. This dish is eaten by most religious Jews in America for Saturday lunch due to the Sabbath cooking restrictions mentioned above and how easy it is to make within those constraints. We could never have imagined Andreas would take such initiative to make us feel so at home. This was the most special thing he did for us, and went a tremendous way to endear him and NCL to all of us.

For these reasons, we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the people who turned this situation around.

As long as I’m writing this letter, I should mention all the other great things NCL did for Jews. We pray three times every day, and need a room for our services. The Reception Desk staff was very accommodating to make sure we always had a room to use. On Sabbath, we have longer services and we were able to reserve a room as well, with seats arranged in advance by the ship staff. Additionally, the staff brought to the room prayer books and wine so that those who forgot to bring their own could pray and make the traditional blessing over wine after our prayer services. They also graciously listed the times for our services in both Friday and Saturday’s Freestyle.

Suggestions
I have a few suggestions I wanted to offer for the future.

• Before the cruise, ensure there are sufficient meals for each such person who requested Kosher meals in advance. These meals should not be distributed on the cruise to any person who did not put in an advance request.
• As mentioned above, so many of the foods I checked with Andreas were Kosher. However, none of us Jews knew what we could eat. For instance, on the first day I went to the Reception Desk on Deck 7 and asked if the soft serve or hard ice cream were Kosher. How happy the Jews would be if it were! After about 10 minutes of the lady making calls and waiting for calls back, she said she spoke to someone who supposedly knew, and said that neither were Kosher. As it turned out, while checking ingredients in the kitchen with Andreas I discovered that both indeed had Kosher certification on their packaging. If only NCL provided a list of foods to those with Kosher requests listing the many ready-to-eat foods which already have Kosher certification symbols on their packages. Canned peaches, peanut butter, cottage cheese, olive oil and bagels are among the foods in this category. We didn’t eat any of these until well into the cruise when we learned they were indeed labeled with a Kosher certification symbol (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hekhsher).
• John O’Hara said that every year NCL is shocked by the number of Kosher Jews on certain cruises. I am not surprised that this catches you by surprise every year, but I will tell you the rhyme and reason so you can better prepared in the future. Many Jewish days schools have Winter break during the standard Christmas break. However, many, particularly in the NY/NJ area, have a different Winter break. It is usually during the third and fourth week of January. Religious Jews cannot board or disembark from the ship on their Sabbath, so cruises that leave or arrive on Saturday are excluded from this. Miami is a popular port to embark from for religious Jews. This means that every year you can expect a deluge of Kosher Jews during these weeks, and should not only reserve sufficient Weberman’s meals for each cabin that sends in an advanced request, but also order extra for the expected additional quantity of Jews. This will happen every year like clockwork.
• The prayer books are in accordance with the Reform denomination of Judaism, which omits most prayers said by Orthodox Jews. Orthodox Jews arguably tend to practice more consistently than Reform Jews, and would therefore use prayer books more often (three times daily). If NCL wanted to provide prayer books for those who would get the most use out of them, I would recommend also purchasing the most used Jewish prayer book in the world, the Hebrew/English translated Artscroll prayer book. Here is a link: http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Artscroll-Siddur-Mesorah/dp/089906650X Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artscroll#Popular_acceptance
• The Kosher food on this cruise ended up being spectacular, thanks to a number of special NCL employees. While we are happy it worked out this way, this should be the last time that this occurs due to NCL running out of Weberman’s meals for those who reserve them. However, you may want to intentionally provide this setup as an option for future Kosher guests. For instance, perhaps it is cheaper and/or easier to designate a chef and a small portion of a kitchen for Kosher guests than ordering and distributing Weberman’s meals. If that’s the case, I would be happy to serve as Mashgiach for next year’s Jewish day school January break non-Saturday-embarking/disembarking cruise out of Miami. You would have to keep me on staff so that I may legally have unrestricted access to the kitchen. I can assist with ensuring all necessary ingredients are Kosher (90% of them already are). I would take responsibility for keeping relevant staff abreast of any necessary information, for instance that we would need more dining room space for the Friday night Sabbath meal, as mentioned above, among many other considerations. I can prepare a list of all such considerations now, if you’d like to proceed in considering this option. If this arrangement were made, I would spread the word to many religious communities and be able to guarantee more than 100 Kosher guests, and probably well beyond that. Many, many more religious Jews would be interested in cruising with NCL knowing that the food is prepared by a chef instead of reheated frozen airline-style meals. I worked and got along very well with Andreas, Mirabel, Jefftha, Mustafa, Victor and all other staff. With advance planning, we could accomplish the same result without the hurdles.

Conclusion
I regret the tens of hours (literally) I spent waiting, complaining, lobbying for improvements, helping to implement these improvements, liaising between all affected parties and writing this letter, among other things. On the other hand, I appreciate this opportunity to point out both the major deficiencies we experienced this past week aboard NCL, as well as the impressive accommodations made to turn the situation around. My hope in investing all this time is that both NCL and Kosher Jews can avoid these pitfalls in the future for an enhanced experience. My hope in investing all this time is that all people responsible for the foundation of the debacle (not having enough meals) take steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again. My hope in investing all this time is that all those who made impressive accommodations are given a pat on the back for saving NCL from about 60 full refund requests. Lastly, I hope that the suggestions I give above are helpful. I would be happy to communicate with you further if you have any questions.

I have included on the final page the cabin numbers of all Kosher Jews who were similarly affected.

Sincerely,
Jason Schoenbrun

[To those who are interested in trying a Kosher Cruise - we just partnered with KosherCruises.com to offer a 15% discount on two of their Summer 2011 Cruises: DEAL: Kosher Cruise to ALASKA or the BALTICS!]

Contributed by: Anonymous Couple from Connecticut, USA | Last Date of Travel: January 2011

» The following is an account from a frum Jewish couple’s recent trip to this resort. We value their privacy as they preferred to remain anonymous, but found their feedback and insights very helpful on this program and resort.

Having just returned from this trip, I can tell you what was missing from this program.

Firstly, the good: which is meager. The grounds are very nice, and the beach is beautiful. The hotel complex is the Celuisma Resort on Playa Dorado.

The resort is horrible. The only thing worse than the hotel is the service. The hotel management will smile at you, but do absolutely nothing when you need their help. We asked for towels five times, and were told that guests were limited to one towel per person! Our shower had mold on the ceiling, and the hot water did not work throughout most of the complex. The friends with whom we went with had no blanket on the day we arrived, and after being assured personally by everyone that they would get it, it never arrived at all! Imagine an entire vacation without having a blanket on your bed?

The Kosher tour operators (i.e. the owners and managers of the King Solomon Kosher program) have a great deal to learn, and unfortunately, practiced on the guests the week we were there. The food was at best “so – so”, and was always late. There is no one in charge, and guests can’t ever get responses about what is going on, or where to get answers. Their attitude seems to be, “you get what you pay for.”

So if you want a poorly run program with mediocre food, horrible service, and a property badly in need of renovation, but all you want is beach and don’t care about the rest, than this place is for you. Otherwise, stay home.

Kosher Food: Breakfasts are buffet with the usual fare, lots of plates of veggies, lox, eggs, etc. The one caveat is how amazing the bread was. Whoever is baking that stuff is awesome! If you can just live off of bread, you may be in luck here! (And another little treat was israeli butter from Tnuva)

Shabbat was a disaster, but not like Saturday night when the food was really late and a fight broke out. Breakfast was ok, lunch was awful and dinner was passable. The three owners don’t seem to care much; they just keep repeating something like you get what you pay for. We happened to be there with a huge Sephardic crowd, so there was no Ashkenazic davening and on the first night, no mechitza so the women stood in the hallway.

All in all, the food was unhealthy and substandard. The hotel was unresponsive, unprepared, and needs to be updated. I would suggest that they purchase some towels, too. If you do decide to go, bring Clorox, towels, and a pillow. On the upside, there is plenty of free soda, bottom shelf alcohol, and sugary drinks.

Notes: The program moved about a month ago. The King Solomon Kosher Resort is a program, not a location. They had been in one location, and told us they moved about a month ago to a better location. Playa Dorado, where they now are, is a gated area with several resorts. The American Casino is in the enclosure.

The hotel is just not equipped to handle as many people with special needs (i.e. kosher and Shabbat observant). For example, they ran out of hot water, Friday afternoon. It is because the hotel is not equipped to have hundreds of people taking hot showers at the same time. Most hotels probably are not. After Shabbat, things get back to normal, and there is hot water. They are very nice, however, they make promises they do not keep. As for the food, it was not amazing, but if you are not fussy, it was fine, and plentiful.

Avoid buildings 11 and 12. Ask for Building 19, which was recently renovated.

In summation: “You get what you pay for.”
Overall, this program was a disaster; the people behaved badly, the promoters behaved badly… I’d rather eat salad and tuna fish at a non-kosher resort then do that again.

I can tell you that a lot of people were upset. Most were upset, mainly with the hotel itself than the kosher program, but those guys (Kosher program organizer) need to get it together. They claim that they are going to try to improve for their Passover program. In the end, it’s all about expectations. Phenomenal? No. Good enough? I am sure there were several who felt that way.

NOTE: As of late January 2011, the local Chabad has dropped their hashgacha from this program.

—
Where: King Solomon Kosher Resort
Playa Dorada
Puerto Plata, DR
www.kingsolomonkosherresort.com

View Larger Map

Contributed by: Ruchie Schwartz | Last Date of Travel: January 2011

Kosher Info:
I just recently returned from a 6-day trip to Nassau, in the Bahamas, which included Shabbat, and was glad I came prepared. As far as I know, the Bahamas does not have a Jewish population and therefore does not cater to the Kosher lifestyle. Prior to the trip, my friend and I researched whether or not there was a Chabad around and found there was not. As far as we know, there are no kosher restaurants. We brought most of our food with us and got a refrigerator in the room at least until the end of Shabbat so we were able to have deli sandwiches.

There was a big supermarket there named Citymarket that carried loads of American – and therefore kosher – products. We didn’t rely solely on this place, but it came in handy. We brought dry cereal with us and were able to purchase kosher milk here. We also got some fruit and water. In theory, we could have purchased more, but the prices prevented us from even looking. To give you an idea, a box of cereal there was around $7. We were surprised at the variety of products that were available to us, such as pre-packaged pastries, but were not eager to buy them at those prices.

There are some Starbucks around and there was a Ben & Jerry’s in Atlantis, but I don’t know of any actual restaurants with kosher food.

Tourist Info:
There are a bunch of islands of the Bahamas, but tourists are mostly on Nassau or Paradise Island, which holds the Atlantis. Everything you’d want to see is pretty accessible by either bus, taxi, or ferry.

The Atlantis is definitely something to see. It’s a giant resort with a water park, casino, shopping… and host to a lot of celebrities. Although I didn’t have any encounters, people we ran into kept telling us about the famous people they saw there. It often houses big poker tournaments, too, which took place during our visit. Visiting Atlantis could be really pricey, but most people think it’s worth it.

This being a Caribbean Island, most of the great activities are water-based. There are several dolphin swims and plenty of opportunities to scuba dive and snorkel. Hotels are loaded with brochures on these activities, and if not, people that run some of these will find you on the beach. As far as nightlife goes, Senor Frog’s is a wild place that’s worth checking out and as far as we could tell, a lot of the alcohol seemed to be what we have in the US. I would still recommend asking to see what’s used in the drink to make sure it’s kosher.

Jewish Info:
If there is a Jewish presence in the Bahamas, I didn’t know about it. Being female, I didn’t bother researching shuls or minyanim, but they may exist. If the goal of your vacation is to learn about that country’s rich Jewish history, this is not the place for you. If you’re looking for a nice get-away, some beautiful beaches, and fun, this is the place.

Note: There is a tiny Jewish community and shul in Freeport, which is on a different Bahamian island from Nassau.