Carnival 's Food Quality & Service

[mcrcruiser]

We are doing a 14 night Hawaii Journeys  cruise on Carnival Miracle  Dec 8,2019 . 

 

 What with the recent lower earnings report & stock price drop , just wondering how the food quality ,presentation & service will be for our cruise . 

 

 Please advise us about both the MDR &  the buffet  food quality  & the service in the Main Dining Room 

 

 TIA

[jimbo5544]

4 minutes ago, mcrcruiser said:

We are doing a 14 night Hawaii Journeys  cruise on Carnival Miracle  Dec 8,2019 . 

 

 What with the recent lower earnings report & stock price drop , just wondering how the food quality ,presentation & service will be for our cruise . 

 

 Please advise us about both the MDR &  the buffet  food quality  & the service in the Main Dining Room 

 

 TIA

Thre is no immediate correlation between the stock price, earnings and current cruising.  We are going on the Sunrise July 22 and zero worries about anything changes, same for our November, March, May or August cruises..... Enjoy your Journey cruise, we loved ours....

[mexicobob]

Seems like the service depends on who is giving you service.  Some are good, some not so good.  There are hundreds of servers so luck of the draw.  

Food is not 5-star on Carnival.  You get what you pay for.  Definitely, good though.   Presentation seems to be always great.

Sure you will have a fantastic cruise.

[Micahs Grandad]

Service in DR is not as good as it used to be. Servers used to have time to chat with passengers. Sadly they are too busy to do so these days

[mcrcruiser]

16 minutes ago, fyree39 said:

I'm also flummoxed with your assumed correlation between stock prices and food/service. Anyway, I find the service is suffering greatly only because the crew that deal directly with the passengers are fewer in number than in years past. I find the food to still be tasty, but my expectations are tempered by the reality of today's cruising.

There was a loss of profits mainly from  their   Europe  market  & the problems with Vista .Thus ,a big loss in share holder value  .We are also confident in time  ,that the share price will rebound .  Because of lower profits just wondering if the food quality would suffer

[jimbo5544]

To be more specific, in the past when they have run on tough times we had seen none.....  When questioned on that topic, senior management said it was time to do just the opposite, impress their customers, not cut pennies on product,  Hope the more specific answer helps.

[sanmarcosman]

1 hour ago, Micah's Grandad said:

Service in DR is not as good as it used to be. Servers used to have time to chat with passengers. Sadly they are too busy to do so these days

Stu, I think in this case the OP is seeking an opinion with this in mind: " What with the recent lower earnings report & stock price drop , just wondering how the food quality,presentation & service will be for our cruise . " 

 

[scpirate]

Food quality suffered long ago.i only do short cruises on carnival when I have to.my wife get to pick which cruise line every other trip.

[Micahs Grandad]

8 hours ago, Micah's Grandad said:

Service in DR is not as good as it used to be. Servers used to have time to chat with passengers. Sadly they are too busy to do so these days

I should clarify. We have seen downgrades over the years but do not expect anything to happen based on new events. If anything they will be forced into improvements

[havanadaydreaming]

I'm headed back to Carnival in a couple months after a few years sailing with MCS and NCL...I recall the food being pretty decent in the MDR and the buffet being hit or miss. 

 

that said, I could certainly find things at Guy's burger or the Captain's pizza that I really enjoyed.

[riffatsea]

We have always been happy with the service in the MDR and at the buffet areas.

Food is a very individual thing and your taste buds and mine may be quite different!

I think that NCL's MDR and buffet is quite horrible! The only good food on those ships are in the extra restaurants.

I would not expect the stock price to have anything at all to do with the experience on an individual ship!! Not sure why you would even think about that??

[mcrcruiser]

On 7/3/2019 at 7:42 AM, riffatsea said:

We have always been happy with the service in the MDR and at the buffet areas.

Food is a very individual thing and your taste buds and mine may be quite different!

I think that NCL's MDR and buffet is quite horrible! The only good food on those ships are in the extra restaurants.

I would not expect the stock price to have anything at all to do with the experience on an individual ship!! Not sure why you would even think about that??

It has been our experience (sailing  on cruise ships since the early 90s ) in general that all the major lines have cut back a clot in the food selections  from when we first started sailing on Carnival Holiday  & Jubilee to the Spirit & Freedom  .Admittedly ,most of our  cruises have been with Celebrity,Royal Caribbean ,Holland America & Princess . Even those lines  have cut way back on their selections . We rarely see a roast beef carving station in the  lido restaurant any longer ,as a example  .The deserts have changed a lot as well 

 

 We can only hope  that Carnival will want to wow it's guests to stimulate further growth & profits 

[Joebucks]

The food is actually quite good. Don't expect the elites to tell you otherwise.

 

If anything, I would expect current news to contribute to them improving quality before lowering it

[Doggielover68]

1 hour ago, Joebucks said:

The food is actually quite good. Don't expect the elites to tell you otherwise.

 

If anything, I would expect current news to contribute to them improving quality before lowering it

Agreed. It is not 5 star quality but you are not paying 5 star prices. The food is good and more than adequate. Of course, some dishes don't quite hit the mark, but you can always get something else to eat if you don't like one thing in particular. 

 

By this I mean, sometimes I will get a crummy steak or a dry piece of chicken. The same can happen at any restaurant.

[SRQbeachgirl]

7 minutes ago, Doggielover68 said:

Agreed. It is not 5 star quality but you are not paying 5 star prices. The food is good and more than adequate. Of course, some dishes don't quite hit the mark, but you can always get something else to eat if you don't like one thing in particular. 

 

By this I mean, sometimes I will get a crummy steak or a dry piece of chicken. The same can happen at any restaurant.

 

^^This. Carnival doesn't bill itself as 5-star and never has. Its brand consists of a fun experience at a decent price. Anyone going on Carnival and expecting 5-star food and service either hasn't done their homework or has unrealistic champagne expectations on a Dr. Pepper budget. Personally, I can afford the champagne, but prefer Dr. Pepper. 😁

[coevan]

On 7/2/2019 at 8:39 PM, jimbo5544 said:

To be more specific, in the past when they have run on tough times we had seen none.....  When questioned on that topic, senior management said it was time to do just the opposite, impress their customers, not cut pennies on product,  Hope the more specific answer helps.

 

 

It would make no financial sense to make the food or service worse. The stock prices have little to do with daily operating costs.

[mexicobob]

3 hours ago, SRQbeachgirl said:

 

^^This. Carnival doesn't bill itself as 5-star and never has. Its brand consists of a fun experience at a decent price. Anyone going on Carnival and expecting 5-star food and service either hasn't done their homework or has unrealistic champagne expectations on a Dr. Pepper budget. Personally, I can afford the champagne, but prefer Dr. Pepper. 😁

Champagne is nice though.

[Cache Trekker]

I'll be getting on the Miracle the day you disembark, and I'm expecting good food and service. This is the second time I've sailed on the Miracle and have great memories from the first trip.

[naxer]

Although there is no correlation, I have cruised when stock prices were at record highs, and in periods when they were lower than average.  I found no difference in anything. 

[jimbo5544]

4 minutes ago, naxer said:

Although there is no correlation, I have cruised when stock prices were at record highs, and in periods when they were lower than average.  I found no difference in anything. 

I agree, there is no correlation between stock price and quality of food.

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

On 7/2/2019 at 9:35 PM, mcrcruiser said:

We are doing a 14 night Hawaii Journeys  cruise on Carnival Miracle  Dec 8,2019 . 

 

 What with the recent lower earnings report & stock price drop , just wondering how the food quality ,presentation & service will be for our cruise . 

 

 Please advise us about both the MDR &  the buffet  food quality  & the service in the Main Dining Room 

 

 TIA

I really do not think the stock drop has anything to do with the food. Back in the 90s Carnival and all the cruise lines had excellent food and service. Since adding all the water fun and a lot of other things the quality has went down. For many years Carnivals food is at the bottom of the list. One exception is the steak house. It is by far the best at sea and probably any steak on land for that matter. Always excellent to say the least, a great price and a free bottle of wine on the first night or 50% off your choice, plus service has always been excellent. The MDR average and slow service. The buffet has a minimum selection and the food is almost average. Royal has the best buffets and pizza. Carnival has burnt pizza most of the time. Carnival, that I know of is the only line with 24/7 pizza and soft serve.

[jimbo5544]

7 minutes ago, twodaywonder said:

I really do not think the stock drop has anything to do with the food. Back in the 90s Carnival and all the cruise lines had excellent food and service. Since adding all the water fun and a lot of other things the quality has went down. For many years Carnivals food is at the bottom of the list. One exception is the steak house. It is by far the best at sea and probably any steak on land for that matter. Always excellent to say the least, a great price and a free bottle of wine on the first night or 50% off your choice, plus service has always been excellent. The MDR average and slow service. The buffet has a minimum selection and the food is almost average. Royal has the best buffets and pizza. Carnival has burnt pizza most of the time. Carnival, that I know of is the only line with 24/7 pizza and soft serve.

Not sure what water fun is, but your perspective is interesting..  My view is that when ships cost a billion dollars or more to make and the order book of ships on order is also at a record high something has to give for public companies.  I also agree on the Steakhouse, the rest.....not so much, but all opinions count.

[groundloop]

On 7/5/2019 at 6:54 PM, coevan said:

 

 

It would make no financial sense to make the food or service worse. The stock prices have little to do with daily operating costs.

A major problem when companies start worrying about stock prices is that they become short-sighted.  My current employer's CEO has his compensation package tied to the share value and we've done some really stupid things to bump up stock price short term so he could get his bonus, things that wound up hurting the company long term.  

 

Overall food has been quite good on the Carnival cruises I've been on, both in the MDR and buffet.  There was one meal in MDR on Paradise that wasn't so good, but that was just one time out of many.

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

4 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

Not sure what water fun is, but your perspective is interesting..  My view is that when ships cost a billion dollars or more to make and the order book of ships on order is also at a record high something has to give for public companies.  I also agree on the Steakhouse, the rest.....not so much, but all opinions count.

Water fun. Early on there were no water slides or hot tubs for that matter. Now, challenging rock walls, rope walks, go carts, bumper cars, ice skating rinks etc. Carnival and Royal and NCL top the list for those. There were no specialty restaurants. Carnival for the buffet has the shortest buffet of any cruise line and the least selective. Sometimes the food int he MDR is fine. Not most of the time. At least that is how we see it. Royal by far has the very best buffets.

[jimbo5544]

1 minute ago, twodaywonder said:

Water fun. Early on there were no water slides or hot tubs for that matter. Now, challenging rock walls, rope walks, go carts, bumper cars, ice skating rinks etc. Carnival and Royal and NCL top the list for those. There were no specialty restaurants. Carnival for the buffet has the shortest buffet of any cruise line and the least selective. Sometimes the food int he MDR is fine. Not most of the time. At least that is how we see it. Royal by far has the very best buffets.

Understand, thanks for the reply