Carnival 's Food Quality & Service

[Eli_6]

In my experience, the food varies from ship to ship.  Best cruise food I have ever had was on one of Carnival's oldest ships in 2017.  (Unfortunately, can't remember the name now.) Parts of the boat looked like they needed to be scrapped for spare parts, but the service and food made up for it. 

 

Honestly, if the Costa Concordia sinking and the the "poop ship" Triumph incident didn't kill Carnival Corp, I think they will recover from the relatively minor (by comparison) cancellation of 3 Vista cruises. I don't expect them to cut corners on food or service. 

Edited December 11, 2019 by Eli_6

[Eli_6]

As for the illness issue:

 

My husband ended up with norovirus on an NCL cruise.  I also went to a university for undergrad where there was a deadly outbreak of it.  In that situation, it was traced back to a cafeteria worker at the sandwich station who didn't wash their hands after going #2 and some fecal matter got into the sandwiches.  I think most of the time when noro hits, it is due to a food handler doing something like this or baby pooping in the pool, etc. (Which is why babies aren't supposed to be in the pool.)  Not saying it isn't possible because it is (and I think there has even been a case where a disgruntled employee admitted to food tampering in this manner), but in general I would bet most instances are negligence.  You would have to be a pretty big piece of you-know-what to try to intentionally get someone sick with noro and not even know who it is going to affect.  Noro is not fun.

 

As for cold/flu, anytime you are somewhere with a lot of people sharing the same (relatively confined) space, viruses are going to spread.  That's why college dorms, daycares, and airports are notorious for being germ centers. 14 day cruises probably see more of it because the guests are on board long enough for people to actually get sick from a virus while on the cruise whereas on a 7-Day Cruise, if someone is going to catch a cold or the flu from someone else on board, they probably don't exhibit symptoms until after they're already off the boat. 

 

I also would expect that if the majority of the cruisers are 60+ or 70+, some of them may have weaker immune systems and, therefore, be more suspectible to catching something... just like babies and toddlers in daycares end up frequently sick.

[coevan]

1 hour ago, Jerseygirl1416 said:

You don’t have a signature. Check your settings

 

 

sure I do, looking right at it

[jimbo5544]

2 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

 

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. 😎

Thanks Jeff, I was taking the high road instead of questioning further.  New philosophy, we will see how it works.  😉

[Mutumbojimbo]

9 hours 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)

I've heard that this seems to be the new standard procedure, I expect to see that as the procedure when I cruise in January. On our NCL cruise the whole order including dessert was taken at once. I would prefer the dessert order to be taken after we eat our entrees, but it seems that many people want the dining experience shortened. 

[gtaylor]

5 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

In my experience, the food varies from ship to ship.  Best cruise food I have ever had was on one of Carnival's oldest ships in 2017.  (Unfortunately, can't remember the name now.) Parts of the boat looked like they needed to be scrapped for spare parts, but the service and food made up for it. 

 

Just check your cruise history on Carnival.com.

gary

Edited December 12, 2019 by gtaylor

[coevan]

We told our server on the first night, we will decide on dessert when we are done with dinner, never asked us again. Why would you order dessert if you were full and wouldn't eat it anyway. Kind of like the steward trying to push you into once a day cleaning, no thanks. 

[Saint Greg]

5 hours ago, coevan said:

 

 

sure I do, looking right at it

Maybe you have it set to private where only you can see it.

[Stateroom_Sailor]

13 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

Thanks Jeff, I was taking the high road instead of questioning further.  New philosophy, we will see how it works.  😉

 

Just curious, what would the low road look like?  I would be happy to answer any questions, and trust that you could do so with integrity.  You are hearing the glass is half empty, glass is half full, where the truth may be somewhere in the middle.

[jimbo5544]

3 hours ago, Stateroom_Sailor said:

 

Just curious, what would the low road look like?  I would be happy to answer any questions, and trust that you could do so with integrity.  You are hearing the glass is half empty, glass is half full, where the truth may be somewhere in the middle.

The low road would be us getting into the weeds on your views and mine.  I agree on the glass analogy.  I asked a question and you answered it.  It is not a blame or who is right or who is wrong thing. 

[luv2trvlnow]

13 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

Maybe you have it set to private where only you can see it.

It can't be set to private since jimbo5544 can see it.  And I can see the signature too!

[Mutumbojimbo]

As to the original issue of this thread - Menus are planned so far in advance that I would not think they could make any changes in response to a drop in share price. It seems like it took several years to replace the previous dinner menus with the American Table menus.  Recipes need to be developed, the supplies need to be sourced, the table tops need to be changed 😉. Even if they want to, I doubt Carnival can easily change things on a whim. I would not expect to see anything different in this regard when you cruise.

 

As to the pressing issue of this thread - I CAN see Coevan's signature! 

[Despegue]

Any dining experience of less than 1 hour is akin to fast food, and NOT a relaxing sit-down experience. If you want such fast service, go to the buffet. I can not stand when I have to gulp everything down asap. Time between courses should be at least 10 minutes.

[Dixe Lee]

15 minutes ago, Despegue said:

Any dining experience of less than 1 hour is akin to fast food, and NOT a relaxing sit-down experience. If you want such fast service, go to the buffet. I can not stand when I have to gulp everything down asap. Time between courses should be at least 10 minutes.

I don’t think anyone is arguing your point. You are right. But not everyone wants that amount of time dedicated to a meal. That’s why we and others go to the buffet. I don’t consider that fast food. Often simply don’t have the time to spend in the MDR and we have never gotten out of there in under an hour. For us that is often too long.

[marci4tony]

On 7/2/2019 at 7:56 PM, Micahs 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 firmly disagree!  We had OUTSTANDING DR service!  OUTSTANDING!

 

I do agree that your service is luck of the draw, though - some are better than others.  But on Vista, MDR, it was OUTSTANDING!

[pacruise804]

On 12/11/2019 at 12:48 PM, Jerseygirl1416 said:

You don’t have a signature. Check your settings

I can see it too:

Carnivale 82

Carla C 84

Big Red Boat 94

Imagination 96

Holiday 98

Elation 99

Victory 12/01

Destiny 12/15/02

Valor 12/19/04

Miracle 12/31/06

Victory 12/30/07

NCL Star 9/10/2011

Dream 01/03/2016 B2B 21 days

Magic 01/07/2017 B2B 14 days

Miracle 01/13/2018 Transcanal 14 days

Conquest 2/25/2018 B2B 14 days

 

On 12/11/2019 at 1:53 PM, Jerseygirl1416 said:

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

Strange, but sometimes this site can be a little wonky😉 

[Joe817]

2 minutes ago, marci4tony said:

 

I firmly disagree!  We had OUTSTANDING DR service!  OUTSTANDING!

 

I do agree that your service is luck of the draw, though - some are better than others.  But on Vista, MDR, it was OUTSTANDING!

I agree, marci. Our serving staff on the Dream last July was superb! We could not have ask for a more friendly and congenial wait staff! 

[rukkian]

2 hours ago, Despegue said:

Any dining experience of less than 1 hour is akin to fast food, and NOT a relaxing sit-down experience. If you want such fast service, go to the buffet. I can not stand when I have to gulp everything down asap. Time between courses should be at least 10 minutes.

While that may be for you, not everybody agrees with that.  Many people (my family included) are not really buffet people, but would rather have a 45 min meal than a 2 hour long meal, anyday.

[Stateroom_Sailor]

9 hours ago, marci4tony said:

 

I firmly disagree!  We had OUTSTANDING DR service!  OUTSTANDING!

 

I do agree that your service is luck of the draw, though - some are better than others.  But on Vista, MDR, it was OUTSTANDING!

 

As was ours on the Pride.  Good before we swapped dining times, given that they had the help of a trainee, overexceeding with 3 people at late dining.  We got tired of seeing spousal abuse at our table, which was escalating physically, and prefer eating later anyways.

 

However, given that the demographic was older, a slew of people chose anytime dining, wanting to eat early, leading to an excessive line.  Many from that camp would disagree.

[fla gang]

I have sailed many times on Carnival and I am Diamond with Royal and in my opinion I think both lines have went downhill with food quality and with service. Servers now have more tables to take care of and the food sometimes arrives just Luke warm. My best service and food was on the older ships, but I just don't care to go on them anymore. The one thing that is better is check in. On Royal it is so much faster than in years past.

 

Happy Cruising

[ray98]

LOL.....lower earning report = level of service.

[ray98]

20 hours ago, Despegue said:

Any dining experience of less than 1 hour is akin to fast food, and NOT a relaxing sit-down experience. If you want such fast service, go to the buffet. I can not stand when I have to gulp everything down asap. Time between courses should be at least 10 minutes.

 

Maybe for you.  For me 45 minutes is a great pace if we skip dessert.

[evandbob]

On 12/12/2019 at 5:34 AM, Stateroom_Sailor said:

 

Just curious, what would the low road look like?  I would be happy to answer any questions, and trust that you could do so with integrity.  You are hearing the glass is half empty, glass is half full, where the truth may be somewhere in the middle.

 

You mean either way you can refill the glass or pour out it's contents?

[Stateroom_Sailor]

34 minutes ago, evandbob said:

 

You mean either way you can refill the glass or pour out it's contents?

 

Yes.  Always clearer if you leave the pom poms and pitchfork at home.

[Bowman1]

On 12/11/2019 at 7:37 PM, coevan said:

We told our server on the first night, we will decide on dessert when we are done with dinner, never asked us again. Why would you order dessert if you were full and wouldn't eat it anyway. Kind of like the steward trying to push you into once a day cleaning, no thanks. 

We were asked to order dessert with our entree on Liberty in Nov - I did not think to do anything different 

 

We are sailing Paradise in Jan and I will let the server know that we prefer to wait

 

For me, it is not about being full, I just enjoy looking at a separate dessert menu after my main meal

 

If for some reason, Carnival starts insisting that all desserts be ordered with the entree, it will not bother me in the least (this is such a minor nuance and there is so much that I love about changes that Carnival has implemented in the past few years)