had a great time on victory except the food was awful

[wytygr8]

11 hours ago, crzndeb said:

I read thread after thread about bad food, but nobody ever says what was bad. I have been cruising since 1980, on several cruise lines and several ships, and I have never had bad food. There are things I haven’t liked, but that’s my personal taste.

 

So what exactly is bad? Raw chicken, stinky fish, to much fat on steak, undercooked rice or pasta, to salty, not enough seasoning? Since food tastes are so different with every person, there has got to be reasons why people say the food was bad.

 

Are people supposed to describe each individual item? A general “bad” implies that it was a lot of things, including bad versions of things they normally like. If someone says Golden Corral is bad, do you think they’re just talking about one or two items? Most people arent going to provide a short story describing each of their meals.

[jimbo5544]

19 minutes ago, wytygr8 said:

 

Are people supposed to describe each individual item? A general “bad” implies that it was a lot of things, including bad versions of things they normally like. If someone says Golden Corral is bad, do you think they’re just talking about one or two items? Most people arent going to provide a short story describing each of their meals.

I think it comes from people who’s describe everything is awful and trying to out their kids around comments like that.

[chloebell1]

We have decided to try royal Caribbean for the next cruise, maybe we will like the food better.

[quickrate]

12 hours ago, chloebell1 said:

I will say for our first cruise everything else was great! The ship was clean the entertainment and drinks were really good . I’m hooked on cruising I just wish the food was better. If we cruise on a ship with a steakhouse we would definitely go there as most say it’s well worth the charge. 

I'm really surprised by this as we are veteran cruisers and took a short 4 day cruise on Victory in October. We were blown away by how good the food in the dining room was and how awesome the staff on this ship were. I also think it has a lot to do with what you order and your wait staff. We tend to order seafood and fish at most meals and always find them to be excellent. Give another ship a try and hopefully the food will be better for you next time.

Pat

[serene56]

13 hours ago, chloebell1 said:

Thanks joepeka, I do agree the quality isn’t what caused me to choke. Maybe the waiter wasn’t sure what to do. I know some say carnival has better food than other cruise lines, this just wasn’t our experience. We heard from other people on the cruise that only cruise with carnival and they were  surprised at the food quality on this cruise. They said it’s always been good. I wonder if maybe some of the newer carnival ships with more dining options may be better. 

Food is very subjective.  Menu is fleetwide.   Preparing meals at the same time for 2500 + people.  I expect it to be good-   5 star cuisine no.   Cafeteria style No     but with so many options on each section of the menu.    its bizzare that all the food was not good.

 

[ProgRockCruiser]

We've sailed on Carnival three times in the last 14 months or so.

 

Twice I've been disappointed in the main dish (entree, as North Americans call it): a sea bass that was too dry and relatively tasteless, and a flat iron steak that was a "meh" cut of meat.  I had had the flat iron steak previously, and it was delicious, so I am going to hesitate to say it will almost always be bad (or good).  And the sea bass was on the evening where we had the worst swells, 20 to 25', and the ship was moving a lot, and the MDR was less than 1/3 full - I think 6 out of 10 of my table mates did not show up, and two left pretty quickly due to the movement inducing green faces.  So that fish probably sat longer under the heat lamp waiting for someone to order it.

 

Other than those two cases, I have enjoyed everything from the MDR!  But maybe I'm just lucky, or not picky. :shrug:

[crzndeb]

3 hours ago, wytygr8 said:

 

Are people supposed to describe each individual item? A general “bad” implies that it was a lot of things, including bad versions of things they normally like. If someone says Golden Corral is bad, do you think they’re just talking about one or two items? Most people arent going to provide a short story describing each of their meals.

Of course not, but a generalization makes a new cruiser really leary of sailing that ship. A couple of bad things may steer people away from ordering that item and I think maybe a couple of things might be fixable. Like I said, food is subjective. 

[jwcruise1]

Ok, people describe different things as "choking" so was OP not breathing, face turning blue kind of choking or was she coughing her lungs out kind of choking? Because if she were coughing that means she was breathing and waiter wasn't supposed to do anything.

[wytygr8]

3 hours ago, crzndeb said:

Of course not, but a generalization makes a new cruiser really leary of sailing that ship.

 

Yes, that’s the point.

[Mommawo]

1 hour ago, jwcruise1 said:

Ok, people describe different things as "choking" so was OP not breathing, face turning blue kind of choking or was she coughing her lungs out kind of choking? Because if she were coughing that means she was breathing and waiter wasn't supposed to do anything.

Exactly if I am truly turning blue because no oxygen is flowing then I have no clue what the wait staff is or isn’t doing 

[mvaughn11]

We no longer eat in the MDR. We either eat at a specialty restaurant or do the buffet or get a burger at Guy's. Our main complaints about the MDR dining is the service is almost always slow, the food many times is no longer warm when it gets to the table and it just does not seem to wow us anymore... We just have other things to do than spend 3 hours of our evening in the MDR.

[chloebell1]

I saw the waiter standing a ways in front of me when I first starting choking and putting my hands up to my throat. After it was over  other guests at nearby tables  said the waiter didn’t step forward and if my husband didn’t help me they were ready to come over. I never passed out and I’m fine now of course. All I meant in my original post was I was surprised he didn’t say or do anything. He did come up,to me while I was leaving and said drink some water you will be fine, which at that point I was ok and ready to leave. 

[K&RCurt]

In February of 2018 we took our first Carnival cruise, after several other cruises on Holland America and Celebrity.  The February 2018 cruise was on the Victory.

 

We found the food to be sub-par.  The MDR food was just OK, not well seasoned, over cooked and only lukewarm.  The food from the Lido Buffet was worse, very overcooked and too long on the line beef, pork and chicken, again little to no seasoning.

 

The Seafood Shack, Guys, Blue Iguana and the Deli were fine to very good.

 

We chalked it up to "That must be how the food on Carnival is."

 

Then this year we were on the Carnival Sunshine and the food was wonderful.  The same dishes we didn't bother finishing last year on the Victory were delicious and perfectly seasoned and hot or cold as they should be.  Both the MDR food and the food on the Lido buffet were very good to excellent.  The steakhouse, Jijis and the BBQ served in the Ocean Plaza were outstanding.

 

Reconsidering it must be the luck of the draw with the head chef and how he or she manages the sous chefs and cooks.  Surely the ingredients must be the same or very similar and the recipes standard fleet wide.  In my mind it has to come down to the people cooking the food, their skills and how they are managed.  

[ProgRockCruiser]

1 hour ago, K&RCurt said:

In my mind it has to come down to the people cooking the food, their skills and how they are managed.  

 

The universal truth of cooking, especially en masse.

[cingroomer]

I was just off the Victory last week and I can say the food was really good. The Deli made fresh sandwiches, the MDR had some great choices an I enjoyed everything except the salmon patties and broccoli soup. Everyone with me loved their steaks. At Seaday brunch they all had the steak and eggs *filet mignon and said it was the best. I'm a pretty picky eater and don't eat meat, and while its not 5 star, I would say its probably 4 star. I did not eat off them buffet except for breakfast one morning and the food was a bit colder than I like, the bacon was very well done. I like breakfast in the MDR though best. Their pizza was ok, the crust thin and crunchy and I like that too. I had shrimp and clams from seafood shack, they weren't greasy and their breading was fantastic, all fresh made. 

[brookeq]

We have found when in the main dining room to ask the head waiter what they suggest.  They are usually spot on with their recommendations.  

 

Also you never know how someone will react in an emergency situation.  Even with lots of training some people just freeze in bad situations. A waiter is not an Emt/fire fighter etc.   so you never know how they would handle it.  

[schazzy]

On 2/7/2019 at 2:56 PM, K&RCurt said:

Reconsidering it must be the luck of the draw with the head chef and how he or she manages the sous chefs and cooks.  Surely the ingredients must be the same or very similar and the recipes standard fleet wide.  In my mind it has to come down to the people cooking the food, their skills and how they are managed.  

 

I fully agree with this and your experience is somewhat similar to ours on our last two cruises. Of course,  this can apply to anywhere that serves food. We have had a lot of good nights and a few not so good nights at our favorite restaurants and noticed it has depended on what nights where I'm guessing different people were working. Like I've said before, you can give two chefs the same ingredients and ask them to make the same dish and odds are those dishes will not look or taste the same. 

 

Also, thank you for your assessment of the food on the Sunshine, I hope it's just as good when we sail on her in April!  

 

Edited February 17, 2019 by schazzy

[hotsauce126]

Did you expect the waiter to come over and do a Heimlich maneuver?  😂

[Treyatl2006]

Food quality varies from ship to ship. I've been on some Carnival ships and the food was just ok and Ive been on others where it was exceptional. My recent favorite was Carnival Magic last July. The food there was damn good. I was on the fantasy two months ago and the food was just ok. 

[sergeant655]

The quality and variety of the food may come down to the management and chef.  I was just on Splendor and found that the food was not good.  May be isolated to that ship. . 

[joepeka]

1 hour ago, hotsauce126 said:

Did you expect the waiter to come over and do a Heimlich maneuver?  😂

Yes, or at a minimum, called for ship's emergency medical staff.

[AIO Cruiser]

I use to think that people were crazy to complain about food on cruise ships until I sailed on the Victory in June 2017.  The food was so bad I was shocked.  My husband got food poisoning the second day and ended up having to get an ambulance off the cruise ship.  Since then I have sailed on Horizon and the food was great.  I don't know why that ship was so bad but there were a lot of people we were hanging around with that had the same opinion as us on that ship.

My husband and I will be sailing on the Horizon in 90 days I am hoping the food is as good as it was when I was on the inaugural cruise so my husband will not boycott Carnival in the future.

[v3cruiser]

On 2/5/2019 at 6:20 PM, crzndeb said:

I read thread after thread about bad food, but nobody ever says what was bad. I have been cruising since 1980, on several cruise lines and several ships, and I have never had bad food. There are things I haven’t liked, but that’s my personal taste.

 

So what exactly is bad? Raw chicken, stinky fish, to much fat on steak, undercooked rice or pasta, to salty, not enough seasoning? Since food tastes are so different with every person, there has got to be reasons why people say the food was bad.

So true!

 

Although we do not eat on lido much for dinner, i can say we are rarely disappointed with the food on the ship and mdr. Guys, blue iguana, the BBQ, and tandoori have been excellent. pizza has been a let down though.  My wife does cook meals that are pretty loaded in flavor so i suspect everyone has a different palette for tastes.

 

I also hear more ships have Indian cooks instead of Philippine cooks and the flavors are different.  Some cruisers love mashed potatoes and gravy and fried chicken as basic as possible while others are quite the opposite.

 

So what exactly is bad? so true!

[autofan]

On 2/6/2019 at 11:42 AM, jwcruise1 said:

Ok, people describe different things as "choking" so was OP not breathing, face turning blue kind of choking or was she coughing her lungs out kind of choking? Because if she were coughing that means she was breathing and waiter wasn't supposed to do anything.

I am glad someone finally pointed this out.  A lot of people think they are to run over and slap the person on the back. 

[shipbound2]

On 2/5/2019 at 7:45 PM, bury me at sea said:

crzndab, I don't think the food is bad.  I do think the quality has declined steadily over the last several years.

 

Just a couple of examples

 *Flat iron steak in the MDR and a charge for better cuts.

*Shrimp salad formerly included on Room Service (when it was all no charge), replaced by several fried items for charge.

*I haven't seem Beef Wellington on the menu for several years.

*Baked potatoes have been served undercooked and at room temperature.

 

There are obviously things I like, but the quality has, in my opinion, definitely been on a downward slope.

 

That I do agree with the food has declined over the last several years, why I don't know .The food on CCL use to be getting better and better but I do notice the difference in the quality over the last few years.

Edited February 17, 2019 by shipbound2