Simple Butter Question

[shortyjoesmith]

I have read through the threads on this spirited topic.  I have read and read. In one comment from a few months ago, someone said they asked for butter in the MDR and was told that it was not available. They said they used the cheese tray to eat with the bread.

 

I just have one simple yes/no question for recent cruisers.  Is there butter available in the MDR during mealtimes?

[mar214]

Yes absolutely you can have all the butter you need!!

[Haveuseen1]

Butter was on the table in the MDR last month.

[Joe817]

Absolutely yes. All you can eat.

[canes20]

yes

[bury me at sea]

I will give the above posters the benefit of the doubt that things have changed since my last cruise.

 

In April of this year butter was absolutely not available in the MDR on the Freedom.  There were bowls of light yellow hydrogenated, spreadable oil on each table that the waiters referred to as butter.

 

I will be so happy if this is no longer the case, but meanwhile butter pats are on the packing list for my next cruise.

[tattoos]

No, there is no butter available any longer in the main dining room or the buffet or anywhere else on Carnival ships.

 

What you see in the little ramekin in the dining room and the crock at the Lido buffet is whipped oleo, you know, vegetable oil with a sprinkling of salt and yellow food coloring.  The waiters are calling this butter but it is definitely not butter.

 

I am old enough to remember the rationing during WWII and standing in line with my mother, food stamps in hand, for sugar and bogus butter which was a clear plastic package of oleo/white goo with a little red/yellow food coloring button in the dead center.  We took the pouch home and broke the button of color and massaged it into the vegetable oil until it was light yellow so it would give the appearance of butter but not the taste.  Oleo is made from vegetable oil.  Or, you can whip a small portion of butter with milk or water and it will expand and become whipped butter and go much further than real butter.

 

The wait staff are either misinformed or are coached in what to say when people ask for butter.

 

The first item on my cruise list for next year is 1) remember to pack real butter.

 

 

[coevan]

margarine is disgusting, or any butter substitute like eating plastic. True fact, ants will not eat fake butter. I have a hard time believing they are not serving bread and real butter. I would seriously spit it out on my first bite. It might be whipped but butter based. Guess I have to wait for our next cruise

[bury me at sea]

6 minutes ago, tattoos said:

 

What you see in the little ramekin in the dining room and the crock at the Lido buffet is whipped oleo, you know, vegetable oil with a sprinkling of salt and yellow food coloring.  The waiters are calling this butter but it is definitely not butter.

 

This was the case on the Freedom in April.

 

6 minutes ago, tattoos said:

 

The wait staff are either misinformed or are coached in what to say when people ask for butter.

 

I imagine both.  They refer to all sweeteners as sugar, whether sugar or sugar substitutes.

 

 

6 minutes ago, tattoos said:

 

The first item on my cruise list for next year is 1) remember to pack real butter.

 

 

 

On my list too unless and until Carnival issues a statement saying butter (not a substitute) is once again available.

[Butterbean1000]

I guess I won't be asking for butter on our cruise next week.

[LatinaInTexas]

It took me a minute to figure out why  my favorite bread didn't taste as good as I remembered in the MDR. Then it hit me, it was the butter that isn't butter. I use real butter at home, didn't care for this stuff. 

[searoses]

Wow....havent cruised carnival since 2001...joining extended family in a few weeks...to me stuff you put butter on is merely a receptacle for the butter...i really cant believe its not butter!😱

[Drose716]

We used the butter on the tables in the MDR for our bread on our cruise earlier this month. No complaints 🤷 We also lean towards margarine & most often the "butter" spray in our house so maybe that's why we weren't phased? I don't know, but it tasted just fine to us!

[RWolver672]

9 hours ago, tattoos said:

 

The first item on my cruise list for next year is 1) remember to pack real butter.

 

 

 

I'm sorry but I have to ask.  How on Earth do you pack butter so that it doesn't melt into one big glob?  From most ports it's in the 80's or 90's and your luggage sits out in the sun until they load it on the ship.

[JaxsMama]

I use real butter at home and it definitely isn't that. 

[tattoos]

I'm going to freeze the butter and put it in my insulated container with a couple of ice packs before we leave the house and put it in my carry-on bag.  It should be fine for hours.

 

I usually book cruises from the Port of Miami (25 minutes from my house), Port Canaveral (2-1/2 hours), Port Everglades (15 minutes).  I will have no problem keeping my yummy butter cold.  When I sail out of Port Everglades, I am on board the ship within an hour of departure from my home.  We are Diamond on Carnival and will be among the first people to board and can proceed directly to our stateroom and put our butter in the refrigerator.  Even if we were not Diamond, the butter will stay in the insulated container for a very long time before it gets soft.

 

 

 

 

[ray98]

I love the whipped butter.....easy to spread even if the bread isn't warm.

[biomedbob]

They used to have "President" brand of butter that I looked forward to enjoying.  Oh well!

[tattoos]

When Carnival emails me the survey after the cruise, I am definitely going to state my disappointment that they chose to eliminate the butter pats from all their cruise ships.  I'm sure Carnival has addressed the problem because of all the complaints from cruisers since the announcement and the crock of whipped faux butter was their solution.  I personally think that by eliminating the butter, Carnival is saving a lot of money.

 

Carnival's reasoning behind eliminating the butter pats is that the foil paper mixes with food waste and clogs their garbage disposal.  

[coevan]

15 hours ago, tattoos said:

If Carnival blends even a tiny bit of butter with water

 

 

butter and water do not blend or mix, try it. 

[tattoos]

Sure it does, let the butter soften to room temperature and whip until it is light in color then add cold water a little at a time. 

[tattoos]

You can also flavor your whipped butter with fresh herbs, orange or lemon juice even brown sugar would make a nice flavored whipped butter.

[Joe817]

As long as we are on the subject of 'butter', can you get a hot buttered rum in the alchemy bar? 😁

 

And will it be real butter, or some  facsimile thereof? These things keep me awake at night thinking about it. 

[silvercrikhix]

Well, I guess we will be bringing butter on board also. Unbelievable! 

We don’t eat anything but real butter at home and aren’t about to eat oleo on a vacation. 

Carnival has gone too far with this butter thing.  

 

Hey, come pay thousands of bucks with us to vacay and eat Oleo. Not happening, ever. 

All these cuts to better the environment are saving them tons of bucks too. 

Doubt we’ll see any improvements elsewhere to compensate for all the missing items. 

They could easily make rosettes of real butter in the dip cups in the kitchen and have those available

Very. Easy to do. They’re choosing to cut instead. Tacky. 

 

[RjayB]

The fact is (and this comes up in many of the "cutback" threads) that the price of a cruise has not really increased much over the years.  I looked back at several standard balcony cruises we took over 10 years ago, and the price per person per day is about the same as our upcoming cruise this year.  It is no surprise to me that the pats of individually wrapped butter we had in 2002 have been replaced with a substitute.  I know i am in a minority, but i would prefer we had the same service standards as 15 years ago with an adjusted higher price.