Carnival 's Food Quality & Service

[jimbo5544]

12 minutes 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.

Do you consider Guys, Blue Iguana, Italian Restaurant, Seafood shack, Pizza Pirate, Mongolian Wok part of the buffets that you say Carnival has the shortest buffet on? 

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

1 minute ago, jimbo5544 said:

Do you consider Guys, Blue Iguana, Italian Restaurant, Seafood shack, Pizza Pirate, Mongolian Wok part of the buffets that you say Carnival has the shortest buffet on? 

OK you got me. As for Pizza it is terrible and almost always burnt. try to fold it and it breaks in half. Yum? Guys has went down in quality very badly. It was awesome when it started. No longer. Blue Iguana I cannot comment on. Mongolian Wok my wife will kill for that. She loves it. Italian restaurant is very good. Seafood shack is a paid item. As is the Italian restaurant in the evening. Fish and chips are a fair price but very greasy. When they had it free on the next deck up it was excellent. We ate the fish and chips and the next evening it was on the buffet, far better fish.  Now they have BBQ which is good.

[jimbo5544]

1 minute ago, twodaywonder said:

OK you got me. As for Pizza it is terrible and almost always burnt. try to fold it and it breaks in half. Yum? Guys has went down in quality very badly. It was awesome when it started. No longer. Blue Iguana I cannot comment on. Mongolian Wok my wife will kill for that. She loves it. Italian restaurant is very good. Seafood shack is a paid item. As is the Italian restaurant in the evening. Fish and chips are a fair price but very greasy. When they had it free on the next deck up it was excellent. We ate the fish and chips and the next evening it was on the buffet, far better fish.  Now they have BBQ which is good.

Not trying to start a debate.  While we have sailed Royal, I really cannot comment on the buffet, was just interested in your thoughts 

 

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

5 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

Not trying to start a debate.  While we have sailed Royal, I really cannot comment on the buffet, was just interested in your thoughts 

 

No problem. Just replying with my thoughts on the food. As for Royal. They do have the very best. Wife does not like it that they do not have the Wok. But they do have Asian which she accepts. No 24/7 pizza or soft serve. If you have a chance to do a cruise on the Harmony. Do it. The very best bang for the buck. Do not let the amount of cruisers on the ship stop you. The ship is so big, it actually feels like very few are on it. The shows are awesome to say the least. The buffet will blow you away. So much to do on the ship. Just always doing something. I wish they would change the shows more often. Switch them from one Oasis class ship to the other. Do not want to see the same thing.

[Stateroom_Sailor]

We did Carnival Pride in Feb 2017, and were less than impressed.  The MDR was decent if you avoided greasy / gristly beef dishes, loved the fish and lamb, fresh vegetables, and sides.  The beds, maintenance, customer service, buffet, and passenger behavior associated with a 14 night cruise, poor.  We have a 6 night cruise coming up on the Freedom, hoping not much has declined.  At least it won't be a Journey cruise with growing restlessness and and intentional germ spreaders.  

[coevan]

1 hour ago, Stateroom_Sailor said:

At least it won't be a Journey cruise with growing restlessness and and intentional germ spreaders.  

 

 

What does a Journeys cruise have to do with germs?

[katstoy]

Here's my two cents on Carnival food.  Just got off the Miracle on 11/30.

 

Lido Buffet - In my opinion the quality of the buffet food has gone way down hill.  Not much variety and not very appetizing at all.  Best thing was the cookies and the lunchtime cakes.  Everything else was not very good, except for the omelette station at breakfast.  Made that buffet that's in everyone's "home town" look good.  The Deli was marginally passable.  Pizza - it's a major food group, IMO, and on the Miracle it was awesome.  I am a thin crust fan and loved it.  The Miracle does not yet have a Guys or Blue Iguana, but has an outside grill - that was the best food for lunch, burgers, dogs and nachos.

 

MDR - Ate there every night for dinner and did not have a single bad meal.  Everything tasted great.  Service depended upon your wait staff.  We had YTD and by the third night found an awesome team who's section we requested for the rest of the cruise. 

Ate in MDR for all three sea day brunches.  Service was slow but food was good. 

 

 

[jimbo5544]

3 hours ago, Stateroom_Sailor said:

We did Carnival Pride in Feb 2017, and were less than impressed.  The MDR was decent if you avoided greasy / gristly beef dishes, loved the fish and lamb, fresh vegetables, and sides.  The beds, maintenance, customer service, buffet, and passenger behavior associated with a 14 night cruise, poor.  We have a 6 night cruise coming up on the Freedom, hoping not much has declined.  At least it won't be a Journey cruise with growing restlessness and and intentional germ spreaders.  

What the heck is intentional germ spreaders?

Edited December 10, 2019 by jimbo5544

[Eli_6]

14 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

What the heck is intentional germ spreaders?

I was wondering the same thing! Are they suggesting some competitor sends in sick plants to sneeze on people's food or touch items in the buffet with 💩 on their hands?

[Dixe Lee]

Food is so subjective We were on the Fantasy the end of October and IMHO the buffet was very good Blue Iguana was great especially the taco salad Love Guys Burgers and the Deli was delicious and the soft serve ice cream was a favorite treat We did not eat in the MDR so can’t speak to that Had no idea that stock prices are lower so, at least for our cruise I don’t think there was any correlation when compared to our last cruise on CCL prior to that 

[coevan]

4 hours ago, katstoy said:

The Miracle does not yet have a Guys or Blue Iguana, but has an outside grill - that was the best food for lunch, burgers, dogs and nachos.

 

 

Those burgers are much better and meatier than Guys, love the grill. 

[Ellaleah]

Booked my second Carnival mainly because the food in the Royal MDR was so bad. I think both of their buffets are poor.  I would like to hear from someone who has been on several of each.

[Stateroom_Sailor]

7 hours ago, coevan said:

 

 

What does a Journeys cruise have to do with germs?

 

Go on a 14 nighter and find out, B2B doesn't count.  Hint: I was told in the roll call afterwords, that we should be thankful, all of us only having colds, and a minority with norovirus.  "On my last two Journey cruises, there were ambulances waiting in port.  This was nothing."

[Stateroom_Sailor]

5 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

I was wondering the same thing! Are they suggesting some competitor sends in sick plants to sneeze on people's food or touch items in the buffet with 💩 on their hands?

 

Strawman argument.

 

[Stateroom_Sailor]

5 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

What the heck is intentional germ spreaders?

 

The people on our cruise where generally in their 60's and 70's, very well behaved.  As we hit the midpoint in the cruise, a sour bored and irittableness set in, where by day 14, a good quarter of the ship transformed into bratty children.  F bombs flying at each other on the logo deck, pushing, shoving, and line cutting in the buffet.  A crew member had a plate thrown at her for not being able to make an omelet at the waffle station.

 

I'll give some examples to answer your question:

 

1.  Getting sneezed on directly on the back of your neck, close in line, with no attempt to cover, no apology.

2.  Being handed a phone with port photos, while the phone owner runs a snot trail down their hand and arm.

3.  Sneezing into your hands, then grabbing Jello barehanded without the tongs.  Carnival employee shakes his head laughing.

4.  Walking around with a tissue stuck up your nose, and blatantly caughing on people entering the elevator.

 

[jimbo5544]

7 hours ago, Stateroom_Sailor said:

 

The people on our cruise where generally in their 60's and 70's, very well behaved.  As we hit the midpoint in the cruise, a sour bored and irittableness set in, where by day 14, a good quarter of the ship transformed into bratty children.  F bombs flying at each other on the logo deck, pushing, shoving, and line cutting in the buffet.  A crew member had a plate thrown at her for not being able to make an omelet at the waffle station.

 

I'll give some examples to answer your question:

 

1.  Getting sneezed on directly on the back of your neck, close in line, with no attempt to cover, no apology.

2.  Being handed a phone with port photos, while the phone owner runs a snot trail down their hand and arm.

3.  Sneezing into your hands, then grabbing Jello barehanded without the tongs.  Carnival employee shakes his head laughing.

4.  Walking around with a tissue stuck up your nose, and blatantly caughing on people entering the elevator.

 

Thanks for the reply, bizarre 

[Luckiestmanonearth]

Don’t know if this happens on every Carnival Cruise now but on a 3 night cruise last month, we were shocked that the waiters now take your full dinner order (including dessert) at the beginning of the meal.

We are used to eating our main course first before they take the dessert order.

However I will say it got us out of the dining room much quicker which was good.

On the downside, there were nights we finished our entire meal and they hadn’t even started the dining entertainment (so we had to sit around waiting for that to happen)

Edited December 11, 2019 by Luckiestmanonearth

[FSHLOT]

15 minutes ago, Luckiestmanonearth said:

Don’t know if this happens on every Carnival Cruise now but on a 3 night cruise last month, we were shocked that the waiters now take your full dinner order (including dessert) at the beginning of the meal.

We are used to eating our main course first before they take the dessert order.

However I will say it got us out of the dining room much quicker which was good.

On the downside, there were nights we finished our entire meal and they hadn’t even started the dining entertainment (so we had to sit around waiting for that to happen)

We always order everything (soup,salad, app, and main course)BUT desert.  We could have ordered desert right away, but sometimes we actually passed on desert. So maybe it just depends on each person.

Edited December 11, 2019 by FSHLOT

[jimbo5544]

2 minutes ago, FSHLOT said:

We always order everything (soup,salad, app, and main course)BUT desert.  We could have ordered desert right away, but sometimes we actually passed on desert. 

Agree, who knows beforehand if you even want desert

[coevan]

5 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

Thanks for the reply, bizarre 

 

 

you are being kind, perhaps he should look at my signature, last 3 cruises 21, 14, and 14. We never got ill and never got bored.

[Jerseygirl1416]

8 minutes ago, coevan said:

 

 

you are being kind, perhaps he should look at my signature, last 3 cruises 21, 14, and 14. We never got ill and never got bored.

You don’t have a signature. Check your settings

[jimbo5544]

25 minutes ago, coevan said:

 

 

you are being kind, perhaps he should look at my signature, last 3 cruises 21, 14, and 14. We never got ill and never got bored.

Nor I

[jimbo5544]

17 minutes ago, Jerseygirl1416 said:

You don’t have a signature. Check your settings

I see it

[Jamman54]

6 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

Thanks for the reply, bizarre 

 

Jimbo, we were on the same cruise as the poster. It was a 14 day repositioning cruise from  Tampa to Baltimore a couple of years ago. My review is in my signature.  Not saying the poster was wrong, but we never experienced the vibe, behavior, or actions as they described. In fact that cruise was in our top 3 of all the cruises we've taken. Our favorite cruise was a 14 day journeys cruise to Hawaii. Go figure. 😎

Edited December 11, 2019 by Jamman54

[Jerseygirl1416]

45 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

I see it

I don’t. I see yours and a lot of other signatures but not @coevan