Carnival dining room food quality

[jimbo5544]

I find it amazing how people's perception of food is on CC. We have posts where they say they don't like American table and then in the same sentence say the menu has not changed.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone

[coevan]

IMHO anyone who thinks standing in line like high school eating buffet food is better than being served in the DR needs their head examined.

[sjn911]

I find it amazing how people's perception of food is on CC. We have posts where they say they don't like American table and then in the same sentence say the menu has not changed.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone

 

So glad to be having a moment to chill here again with same issues...somehow comforting..lol. People are still cruising, I always pick up a point here in the ups and downs of service and food and how to make it work for me...especially glad to know that those who cruise Carnival more often and often on same ships, get good and not so good....and that budget cruising and cruising in general is still fun and good with proper expectations at each level.

 

It is rarely the quality of yesteryear on anything. And with lots of people and banquet food..in a way even in specialty restaurants it can fall to that banquet bad not good level.....and had that experience myself in a steakhouse as stated...we do not starve and can navigate asking for something else and having a good time at an unbelievable deal. So many parts to cruising and service and cabin choice and entertainment. So many parts to also being rested and calm enough on your vacation and getting into that "zone" as quickly as possible to make the trip work for oneself.

 

Happy sailing all and thanks for comments...

 

Merry Christmas dear Jimbo....

Edited December 28, 2016 by sjn911

[Nic6318]

IMHO anyone who thinks standing in line like high school eating buffet food is better than being served in the DR needs their head examined.

 

Hi there

 

I understand that everyone has an opinion and you are certainly allowed to have your own, but really "needs to have their head examined". Are you serious? We are just talking about where one prefers to eat.

 

IMHO :)

[DebJ14]

This is one of the many reasons my wife wants to be done with cruising Carnival. She argues that cruising used to be maybe a 3 or 4 star resort experience, but is now on par with a Holiday Inn/Howard Johnson's type vacation in both food and atmosphere. It is getting harder every year to argue the counter point.

 

I need to get her on a Celebrity or Princess cruise and try that now that we are better off financially, but she is so jaded to cruises now, she really does not want to try anything else.

 

No need to wait until you are better off to try Princess. We sailed Princess in each of the last 3 years and the cost of each cruise was cheaper than Carnival cruises the same week. Sign up to get specials e-mailed to you.

 

I like to mix it up and go to all inclusive resorts, but with airfare they usually end up costing us $5000 a week or more. You need to step up to a 4 or 5 star resort unless you want to eat in a buffet every meal. We can do a cruise in a suite for about $3000.

[coevan]

Hi there

 

I understand that everyone has an opinion and you are certainly allowed to have your own, but really "needs to have their head examined". Are you serious? We are just talking about where one prefers to eat.

 

IMHO :)

 

 

Alright, I digress, have their palate examined. Maybe watching people pile 3" of food on a plate and eat 1/2 the food and go back to the buffet line and do it again. Maybe cruises would be cheaper if they had a sign at the buffet line," take what you like, but eat what you take"

[BoDidly]

Alright, I digress, have their palate examined. Maybe watching people pile 3" of food on a plate and eat 1/2 the food and go back to the buffet line and do it again. Maybe cruises would be cheaper if they had a sign at the buffet line," take what you like, but eat what you take"

 

Oh No, not possible then you would see less and less skinny people. :eek:

[crzndeb]

Alright, I digress, have their palate examined. Maybe watching people pile 3" of food on a plate and eat 1/2 the food and go back to the buffet line and do it again. Maybe cruises would be cheaper if they had a sign at the buffet line," take what you like, but eat what you take"

 

I am the opposite. I take a spoonful of a few things to try. I don't like the MDR because of noise and wait. I waste more food in the MDR. For dinner, the Lido usually has some of the same things as MDR, but I can control my portions. But these are my choices. One size does not fit all.

[OCruisers]

We've never found the food in the MDR for dinner to have been good and often rather bad.

Happily, we don't cruise for food when we sail on Carnival and the convenience of being able to take roundtrips out of Charleston trumps the food. :D

[riclop]

Just returned from a cruise aboard the Carnival Conquest. Is it me or has the quality of the dining room food gone down? It was served cold and poor quality. Plus in order to get a filet you now have to pay extra

 

 

Sent from my iPod touch using Forums

 

Quality has gone downhill and the prices uphill.

[jimbo5544]

So glad to be having a moment to chill here again with same issues...somehow comforting..lol. People are still cruising, I always pick up a point here in the ups and downs of service and food and how to make it work for me...especially glad to know that those who cruise Carnival more often and often on same ships, get good and not so good....and that budget cruising and cruising in general is still fun and good with proper expectations at each level.

 

 

 

It is rarely the quality of yesteryear on anything. And with lots of people and banquet food..in a way even in specialty restaurants it can fall to that banquet bad not good level.....and had that experience myself in a steakhouse as stated...we do not starve and can navigate asking for something else and having a good time at an unbelievable deal. So many parts to cruising and service and cabin choice and entertainment. So many parts to also being rested and calm enough on your vacation and getting into that "zone" as quickly as possible to make the trip work for oneself.

 

 

 

Happy sailing all and thanks for comments...

 

 

 

Merry Christmas dear Jimbo....

 

 

First of all, a very merry Christmas to you Sarah! I write this while sitting on lido on the Carnival Pride. Yesteryear, for me anyway, always seems at the very least fuzzy good (probably because I am getting old). While the dining experience certainly is evolving, I am just not sure if it better or worse. Last evening I was walking back to the cabin to get something during dinner. I was shocked at how many people were eating dinner on lido. Just another example. My main point was really people contradicting themselves in the same post.

 

Jim

 

 

Sent from my iPhone

[AdGuyMG]

This is one of the many reasons my wife wants to be done with cruising Carnival. She argues that cruising used to be maybe a 3 or 4 star resort experience, but is now on par with a Holiday Inn/Howard Johnson's type vacation in both food and atmosphere. It is getting harder every year to argue the counter point.

 

I need to get her on a Celebrity or Princess cruise and try that now that we are better off financially, but she is so jaded to cruises now, she really does not want to try anything else.

 

Just make sure she doesn't see these Celebrity or Princess postings from just last week. They won't help your cause:

 

Celebrity

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=51810755&postcount=1

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=51812429&postcount=17

 

Princess

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2433534&highlight=Princess+Dining

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=51673117&postcount=1

 

Food quality and downhill service are not a Carnival Only issue.

[saharaga]

If you're referring to my post, the American Table menu has not changed since we first experienced it on the Fascination last year. This means we've seen the same menus day after day on the past three cruises. Between the Fascination and the Valor, we've had most of it. That is part of the problem. There are too few selections on the American table menu to truly offer a variety of food that will appeal to most people.

 

I find it amazing how people's perception of food is on CC. We have posts where they say they don't like American table and then in the same sentence say the menu has not changed.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone

[saharaga]

Some of the food we've been served in the dining room tasted and looked like it came from a buffet. There is no difference in food quality anymore between the buffet and the dining room in my opinion.

 

IMHO anyone who thinks standing in line like high school eating buffet food is better than being served in the DR needs their head examined.

[Doggielover68]

I have to disagree. I thought the food was delicious on the Conquest. Occasionally I had a not so good dish but they will gladly bring you something else if you are not happy with what you ordered.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[BoDidly]

I have to disagree. I thought the food was delicious on the Conquest. Occasionally I had a not so good dish but they will gladly bring you something else if you are not happy with what you ordered.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

True , by that time I'm already missing the entertainment planed for the evening.

[sparks1093]

Other than a more limited choice we noticed no big difference with the American Table menu. We enjoyed everything that we ordered and had no serious issues with the service.

[Coach Pedro]

Quality has gone downhill and the prices uphill.

 

To Quote Al Czervik - I've had better food at the ball game.

[Rogueperson]

This is one of the many reasons my wife wants to be done with cruising Carnival. She argues that cruising used to be maybe a 3 or 4 star resort experience, but is now on par with a Holiday Inn/Howard Johnson's type vacation in both food and atmosphere. It is getting harder every year to argue the counter point.

 

I need to get her on a Celebrity or Princess cruise and try that now that we are better off financially, but she is so jaded to cruises now, she really does not want to try anything else.

 

It used to be that Celebrity's claim to fame was their food. It used to be they were a big step above Royal Caribbean and Carnival and even Princess. I was on Celebrity last year on a 15 night cruise, and their food has also suffered over the last 10 years. My last Celebrity cruise before this was in 2004 and it was night and day. Now, Celebrity is a bare edge over Royal Caribbean and Carnival. There are some good things and Celebrity is a different cruising experience than Royal Caribbean or Carnival. Is the food better on Celebrity. Yes, it still is. However, the difference used to be pronounced, and now the difference is much narrower. If you are looking for that great food that was once on cruises, you might have to step up your game and go total small ship experience like Seabourne or Oceania. I also heard Viking Ocean has pretty good food too.

 

Princess, on the other hand, i found the food to be about the same as Carnival and Royal Caribbean. The edges I've found tend to be ship to ship, dependent on staff, and not quality. Princess's niche lie elsewhere and they too have a different cruising experience compared to Celebrity.

[crusinpsychRN]

It's been a long time since cruise food has been really good. Seems the prime rib went back to a better portion--it had shrunk to a near sliver. That's usually good. Love horseradish with it. And a good baked potato. The bacon is limp and nasty. Got a BLT from room service--asked for white toast. It wasn't toasted. Same thing happened when I reordered it. Both times got chips instead of potato salad...and the person who took the order spoke English very well.

[Micahs Grandad]

Some of the food we've been served in the dining room tasted and looked like it came from a buffet. There is no difference in food quality anymore between the buffet and the dining room in my opinion.

 

Have to disagree, a lot of food on Carnival buffet is at best lukewarm, food served in DR is served hotter.

[Micahs Grandad]

It used to be that Celebrity's claim to fame was their food. It used to be they were a big step above Royal Caribbean and Carnival and even Princess. I was on Celebrity last year on a 15 night cruise, and their food has also suffered over the last 10 years. My last Celebrity cruise before this was in 2004 and it was night and day. Now, Celebrity is a bare edge over Royal Caribbean and Carnival. There are some good things and Celebrity is a different cruising experience than Royal Caribbean or Carnival. Is the food better on Celebrity. Yes, it still is. However, the difference used to be pronounced, and now the difference is much narrower. If you are looking for that great food that was once on cruises, you might have to step up your game and go total small ship experience like Seabourne or Oceania. I also heard Viking Ocean has pretty good food too.

 

Princess, on the other hand, i found the food to be about the same as Carnival and Royal Caribbean. The edges I've found tend to be ship to ship, dependent on staff, and not quality. Princess's niche lie elsewhere and they too have a different cruising experience compared to Celebrity.

 

We find Princess food substantially better than Carnival especially the buffets

[Micahs Grandad]

It's been a long time since cruise food has been really good. Seems the prime rib went back to a better portion--it had shrunk to a near sliver. That's usually good. Love horseradish with it. And a good baked potato. The bacon is limp and nasty. Got a BLT from room service--asked for white toast. It wasn't toasted. Same thing happened when I reordered it. Both times got chips instead of potato salad...and the person who took the order spoke English very well.

 

We kind of stopped ordering room service as the person taking the order couldnt speak English very well and what actually came was rather different than what we ordered.

[bakersdozen12]

I was on the Conquest in July, and I thought the MDR food was the best of the three ships I've been on. Really excellent.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[crusinpsychRN]

We kind of stopped ordering room service as the person taking the order couldnt speak English very well and what actually came was rather different than what we ordered.

 

http://www.maylin.net/joke.html