Carnival Food Quality Very Subpar

[BlerkOne]

On 1/1/2022 at 10:35 AM, Kjjd4 said:

I loved this discussion on food aboard Carnival/RC.  We have noticed it as well over the years - declining quality.  But it is still better than we often eat at home, and we don't have to cook it.  We especially noticed it on MSC in Europe, but still...you have so many options.

 

Don Kehote - loved your comments on Pizza.  We lived for 40 years in Chicago, so Lou's, Geno's East, Muggavero's, et al - (except Giordonno's - they are living off their reputation 20 years ago) are the gold standard for deep dish pizza.  Tavern pizza (thin crust) is also dear to our hearts.

 

But in 2018 we moved to Idaho to be near the kids after I developed stage 4 cancer - AND THERE IS NO GOOD PIZZA out here.  New York style - California style, fast food style...it is a crap shoot.  So I have also had to experiment with deep dish recipes, and am pretty close to Lou Malnati's deep dish.  

 

Still working on a thin crust recipe and have yet to conquer the crust or the combination of cheeses.

Would love some wisdom!

 

 

Goldbelly it

 

https://www.goldbelly.com/lou-malnatis-pizzeria?ref=gs

 

[bogeydi]

Totally agree the quality of food is very subjective. We are not big foodies and have never had "bad" food in 42 cruises. However, we are 3 days in on the Dream right now - unbelievable how bad the dining room food is. We had lobster tail last night. It was the tiniest thing I had ever seen. It was chewy, stringy, tasteless, and fell apart like it had been shredded.  All 3 of us tried another and it was worse than the 1st one. The accompanying vegetable was broccoli.  It was 1 tiny spear (I swear it was 1 inch) and rice that was a glob of mush.   Our creme brulee was room temperature (almost cold).  Very disappointing. We'll stick to buffet for now. Hopefully our 2nd cruise next week on Dream will be better. Wait staff excellent as always.  

[1kaper]

It's been about 8 years since I've cruised.  I loved Guy's Burgers on my last trip.  And had no complaints about the food in general. 
I am hoping to still go on our March cruise.  I am interested to see if it is a preference thing or if things have really changed, particularly Guys. 

[ninjacat123]

33 minutes ago, 1kaper said:

It's been about 8 years since I've cruised.  I loved Guy's Burgers on my last trip.  And had no complaints about the food in general. 
I am hoping to still go on our March cruise.  I am interested to see if it is a preference thing or if things have really changed, particularly Guys. 

I had a Guy's Burger on Magic and Mardi Gras and both were yummy!  In eight days I'll be onboard Sunshine and will be chowing on a Guy's burger there.  I will report back! 😉

[RockHoundTX]

21 hours ago, bogeydi said:

Totally agree the quality of food is very subjective. We are not big foodies and have never had "bad" food in 42 cruises. However, we are 3 days in on the Dream right now - unbelievable how bad the dining room food is. We had lobster tail last night. It was the tiniest thing I had ever seen. It was chewy, stringy, tasteless, and fell apart like it had been shredded.  All 3 of us tried another and it was worse than the 1st one. The accompanying vegetable was broccoli.  It was 1 tiny spear (I swear it was 1 inch) and rice that was a glob of mush.   Our creme brulee was room temperature (almost cold).  Very disappointing. We'll stick to buffet for now. Hopefully our 2nd cruise next week on Dream will be better. Wait staff excellent as always.  

This sums up our Vista Christmas cruise perfectly. Definitely the worst MDR food we have had in the last 22 years of cruising. Just based on this thread, it seems to be nearly fleet-wide (with just a few ships still offering "good" MDR food). Still trying to figure out if this is due to staff shortages or some bean-counter at Carnival trying to save money with a "tweak" to the menu (but that does not really explain the consistently room-temperature food we had all week other than over-worked wait-staff). If it is the latter, then that is a losing strategy. When I got back from the Vista this week, my neighbor asked about which cruise-line he should book. Knowing that he was a foodie, my instinctive response was "definitely don't go on Carnival until things get back to normal".   

[sanmarcosman]

On 1/2/2022 at 10:47 PM, Calnev1 said:

Yes.  Not a vegetarian, but tried the Indian vegetarian entree on the Panorama.  Very tasty!   Ordered it again later in the cruise.

If you haven't tried the Masala Dosa on the Port Day Menu you might want to try it. It is also vegetarian and is boiled spiced cubes of potato in sauce served on a freshly cooked lentil crepe. I have Masala Dosa every port day with a side of eggs. Delicious! 

 

[larkz]

Just off Magic Dec 12-19 and in our subjective opinions (redundant phrase) the food was extremely good. We ate at the Lido buffet and Blue Iguana for breakfast and lunch, in the main dining room, and at the well-hidden pasta restaurant. The 24-hour pizza was also great. The selection was excellent, a nice variety of healthy options, and even the sugar free desserts were delicious.

[SNJCruisers]

On 1/3/2022 at 4:27 PM, linbobky said:

I had smoked salmon and bagel every day on my b2b 10 day cruise. very good! This was in the bdr.

The bdr?  Did you wife serve it to you as you stepped out of the shower?

[SNJCruisers]

On 1/5/2022 at 10:14 AM, dcsham said:

Looking forward to trying the specialty restaurants on the Panorama for our January 8 cruise. We’ve got reservations at Ji Ji Asian Kitchen and Cucina del Capitano, and will be trying out Guy’s Pig and Anchor as well. I’ve heard good things about all of them and don’t mind the $15 up charge. I’ve never been a fan of MDR food, I always pay the $20 bucks extra and get a good steak if I do happen to eat there. 

You can get three 15.00 vouchers on board good for dinner at Jiji's, Cucina or to use at a la carte in Guys for dinner or Sushi.  The cost is 38 pp, saving 7.00.  Or for 60, you get 2 vouchers for the above choices as well as 1 night in the steakhouse.  Only available on board and on the 3 Vista Class ships.

[Viajera7]

I have not sailed Carnival in a long time but I have back to back cruises in March. In recent years, I have sailed NCL because of the perks being Platinum and if my cruises don’t get cancelled, Platinum + this year. I remembered that in my 10 cruises with Carnival the food was good but Princess was better. After reading all these pages I am glad that I have $800 OBC for my first cruise and $500 on the second one. I  already had plans to try the specialty restaurants and Chef’s Table. I got great ideas here for those and also for the MDR to see if everything is true. Thanks for that.

 

I was in an NCL ship on btb cruises in December. The buffet food was not very good but the MDR was good. I ate breakfast at Taste from the 3rd day until the 14th and didn’t go back to the buffet at least for breakfast and dinner. I ate at all the specialty restaurants and all were good.

I agree that Chicago pizza is really good. I cannot eat pizza frequently but Malnatis, Giordano’s, Pizzeria Uno and Pizzeria Due are really good. I also tried one of Malnatis salad last summer and that’s  one of my favorite salads now.

[Viajera7]

I forgot to clarify that not only the away ships have a 24 hours restaurant. I think that all the NCL ships that I  been to have one. I don’t remember the names of all the 24 hrs restaurants but some of them are  or were O’Sheas, Blue Lagoon, etc.

[Pellaz]

33 minutes ago, Viajera7 said:

I forgot to clarify that not only the away ships have a 24 hours restaurant. I think that all the NCL ships that I  been to have one. I don’t remember the names of all the 24 hrs restaurants but some of them are  or were O’Sheas, Blue Lagoon, etc.

 

NCL's 24-hour pub-type restaurant is called O'Sheehan's, but it is not present on their older ships.  

 

I'm not actually sure what 24-hour options are available on, say, Norwegian Sky.   (But at one time it was their all-open-bar ship, so did anyone really care after 10 pm?  🙂 )  

[Viajera7]

I was on the Epic just 2 weeks ago and O’Sheehans was open 24 hours except the morning of embarkation . People were eating there past 10:00 p.m because when I returned from the casino or the late comedy show, I walked by it and I saw them. The Epic is not an away ship.

[cruisingguy007]

On 1/5/2022 at 11:03 AM, RockHoundTX said:

This sums up our Vista Christmas cruise perfectly. Definitely the worst MDR food we have had in the last 22 years of cruising. Just based on this thread, it seems to be nearly fleet-wide (with just a few ships still offering "good" MDR food). Still trying to figure out if this is due to staff shortages or some bean-counter at Carnival trying to save money with a "tweak" to the menu (but that does not really explain the consistently room-temperature food we had all week other than over-worked wait-staff). If it is the latter, then that is a losing strategy. When I got back from the Vista this week, my neighbor asked about which cruise-line he should book. Knowing that he was a foodie, my instinctive response was "definitely don't go on Carnival until things get back to normal".   

 

It's simple. The cruising of old was a well oiled machine with tons of moving parts that all worked in synergy, along with a seasoned staff that had time to build and develop chemistry, cohesion and cooperation. Ships were in and out every week and expectations were set and delivered continually. Provisions were reliable and product ordering, preparation and particulars worked out.

 

What we have now is crews trying to get their groove back and “the system” working it’s kinks out. Provisions may be more erratic with disruptions that cause more pivoting and scrambling. Passanger loads changing, rules changing and unreliable forcasts make this exponentially difficult on thin margins. We are still in a pandemic. I don’t think people really appreciated how well the machine worked when cruising was in full swing. They did it really, really well. Now that things have been disrupted, there are chinks in the armor that are showing up. I have no doubt that when things are running smoothly/regularly again and “back to normal”, that within 6-weeks or so it will be like cruising of old. In the meantime, we gotta roll with the punches if we choose to cruise.  

 

I just hope that new cruisers who are disappointed with the current environment will give cruising a chance again when things are back in full swing so they can see "the magic" for themselves. For everyone else it can be a bit disappointing when you know "how good it could be" from past experiences.

Edited January 9, 2022 by cruisingguy007

[SNJCruisers]

13 hours ago, Pellaz said:

But at one time it was their all-open-bar ship, so did anyone really care after 10 pm?  🙂 )  

Having cruised on the Bliss once and the Escape three times all with the drinks package, the 24 hour venue was a needed necessity around 1230 am.  It soaked up the alcohol really well, especially their Thai wings.

[IntrepidFromDC]

On 1/5/2022 at 10:31 AM, ninjacat123 said:

I had a Guy's Burger on Magic and Mardi Gras and both were yummy!  In eight days I'll be onboard Sunshine and will be chowing on a Guy's burger there.  I will report back! 😉

 

Lookin' out for ya, Ninjacat...

[phatsneaks]

On 12/27/2021 at 11:15 AM, solinar said:

Took our 7th Carnival cruise on 12/18 on the Valor out of New Orleans. It has been 5 years since our last Carnival cruise. We had a good time (excellent service, boat was nice, excursions fun) but the food was just awful. I have been on a diet, and I weighed the day I left and they day I got back and I lost 1/2lb over the 5 day cruise.

 

• Same cookies every night (overcooked chocolate chip, a sandy, double chocolate at the deli). The cookies were BAD. I have 3 kids (6,11,16) and only one would eat the cookies and the other two are the sugar addicts and said they were horrible.  One night they had brownies at the dining room for desert, and two kids ordered them, ate one bite, and asked if they could have something else. The brownies looked like dry crumbly cake.
• All of the food was super bland. No flavor, no salt. Upon reflection, my wife and decided that dinner at a local cafeteria would have been a better option than the food offered at the dining room and Lido on every night.
• The Lido buffet was the exact same food as the dining room every night, just served in pans. Its been 5 years, but I don't recall this ever being the case before.
• The specialty dining options were all pretty good (Guys burgers were great, Deli was good, Seafood was good, Steakhouse was very good but not great), but there are only so many times you can eat them before they get old with the same menu all the time.

 

The staff was wonderful. It seemed like everyone was very appreciative to be back at work. The food quality was just very subpar, and very disappointing; so much so that I doubt we will do Carnival again unless I see evidence on the boards that their food gets a big upgrade.

I agree, Carnival has changed and not for the better.  They want you to now pay and go to the specialty restaurants for the better food.

[Bevv]

On 1/4/2022 at 3:40 PM, bogeydi said:

Totally agree the quality of food is very subjective. We are not big foodies and have never had "bad" food in 42 cruises. However, we are 3 days in on the Dream right now - unbelievable how bad the dining room food is. We had lobster tail last night. It was the tiniest thing I had ever seen. It was chewy, stringy, tasteless, and fell apart like it had been shredded.  All 3 of us tried another and it was worse than the 1st one. The accompanying vegetable was broccoli.  It was 1 tiny spear (I swear it was 1 inch) and rice that was a glob of mush.   Our creme brulee was room temperature (almost cold).  Very disappointing. We'll stick to buffet for now. Hopefully our 2nd cruise next week on Dream will be better. Wait staff excellent as always.  

While you are on the ship during this cruise is the time to address your concerns. You can send a note to the supervisor of food services to outline what you are seeing.  Sometimes it takes pointing out things to the higher-ups to make things happen. Could be there was not enough screening of food dockside and that needs to be addressed at turnaround time.

 

[bmc alabama]

On 12/31/2021 at 11:35 AM, ALWAYS CRUZIN said:

Can't say anything about Disney. I am no longer a child at 76 and do not care to go on a ship that caters to them. Especially at twice the price of most any other cruise line. Guess you never went on Royals big ships. Best bang for the buck. ie the Harmony etc. Not crowded at all even with 6500 guests. The food the shows blow all others away.

So, we just got off Oasis of the Seas, and quite honestly, were very underwhelmed, especially with the food.  MDR had good service, but below average to terrible food.  My wife's Prime Rib was inedible (you could not cut through it).  Not sure what you mean about not crowded, we only had 2,900 on our sailing and the Windjammer didn't have open seats at breakfast.  Not sure how they manage with more than that on the ship.  Maybe it was because the Solarium Buffet area wasn't open.  I will say that the Aqua80 show is amazing and made up for how bad "Cats" was...

 

I actually found myself bored on Oasis, which was about the last thing in the world I ever expected.  Maybe this was due to COVID...  Other than the casino, or karaoke on the promenade, or going on the sea deck, there wasn't a lot for a 50ish year old to do (i'm not into rock walls, ice skating, or the flowrider thing).  They had a lot of "bells and whistles", but were very lacking on the activity schedule.  Also, I HATED the fact that it seemed like in order to get any decent food, you had to pay an upcharge.  No poolside eateries (other than "Loco Fresh"' which I will admit was very similar to Blue Iguana and was included), so if you want a burger, you have to go to Windjammer (or pay extra for Johnny Rockets).  Also, ice cream service only went until 5:30pm.  If you wanted any after that, you had to pay extra at the "Sugar Beach".  I also hated that the sports bar area charged for food for things like chicken wings, chicken tenders, and fries.  We never ate at any of the upcharge places.  Lastly, the Promenade Cafe was a joke as the food was terrible there (whoever is in charge of desserts/pastries on RCCL should be fired).  The International Cafe on Princess is light years better than this...

 

This was our 3rd cruise back post-COVID and our least favorite so far.  We have also cruised on Disney Magic and on Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady.  TBH, Virgin blows most everyone else out of the water where food is concerned.  We were really impressed by the food quality and inclusions on Virgin.  If you haven't tried it, do it.  For instance, the ice cream there, which is open until 10pm is gelato style and included!  The DCL cruise was a pretty good cruise as well.  Food (especially desserts) were really, really good -- much better than RCCL.  Also, the entertainment is really good, though I'd say that you really need to be a Disney fan to enjoy it.  I also enjoy the full size movie theaters on the DCL ships and the included on demand movies on Virgin, DCL, and Princess.  On RCCL, they were $11.99 a pop...

 

Our next cruise is on Mardi Gras in a couple of months, so we will get to compare it to Oasis, which is what I think Carnival is targeting with this.  We've only done one other Carnival cruise (Sunshine back in 2015 - great cruise, with a good deal of thanks to the amazing Jamie Dee for making that cruise so fun...), and had a great time, so we are looking forward to that and being able to compare.

 

I'll also say that overall, we really enjoy Princess as we find that the food is mostly pretty good (especially Alfredo's and the Buffets on the Royal Class ships) and you never feel like you have to shell out extra to enjoy it.  Also, even though there are no rock walls or waterslides on the Princess ships, they always seem to have multiple things going on all the time (my favorite being the time we stumbled into the "Dirty Irish Songs" sing-a-long) and we enjoy the vibe on the ships, though we also enjoyed that Sunshine cruise, so hopefully our Mardi Gras cruise will be similar!

Edited January 15, 2022 by bmc alabama

[jetsfan58]

Our food choices vary vastly onboard a Cruise ship. While Cruising I have always eaten the foods that I like and also that appeal to my tastes. As a result I have never had a bad food item as long as I have been sailing. If I am not accustomed to eating certain foods while on land what makes us think that we are going to like certain foods on the Ocean?

 

Eat what you like and your food will be just fine! Carnival has always pleased me with their food choices and as of my latest December 2021 Cruise they were still doing a Great Job of feeding the masses.      

[RockHoundTX]

20 minutes ago, jetsfan58 said:

Our food choices vary vastly onboard a Cruise ship. While Cruising I have always eaten the foods that I like and also that appeal to my tastes. As a result I have never had a bad food item as long as I have been sailing. If I am not accustomed to eating certain foods while on land what makes us think that we are going to like certain foods on the Ocean?

 

Eat what you like and your food will be just fine! Carnival has always pleased me with their food choices and as of my latest December 2021 Cruise they were still doing a Great Job of feeding the masses.      

I think you are missing the point. The issue here is quality, not options. In a 2 week span, I had 5 of the same "common cruise fare" dishes at least twice: RCL Adventure and Carnival Vista. Using prime rib as an example, my meal on RCL was surprisingly good: hot, good flavor, incredibly tender, large portion, good seasoning, etc. In fact, I ended up eating 3 of them they were so good (probably should have stopped at 2). There was zero comparison to what I had on Vista. The prime rib was cold, tough, and perhaps 1/2 the size as what I had on Adventure. My wife and daughter also had prime rib that night and theirs was the same. Thinking we might have gotten a "bad batch", I asked for a second order. While at least it was warm this time. it was still small, tough, and not a lot of flavor. I could say the same thing about a number of other "normal" dishes (lamb especially). I have had good prime rib on Carnival in the past (Magic, Conquest, etc.) but this time way below what I would call an acceptable standard.  

 

The other big issue was that anything fried was literally dripping in oil. It was the first time ever that I (or my wife) did not finish (could not finish) the fried coconut shrimp. Something must have been wrong with the fryer or they had a new person running it. As such, couldn't fall back to "comfort food" even if you wanted to.     

 

On most cruises, the MDR head comes by the table at least 3-4 times during the cruise to ask how the food is, how the waitstaff are doing, etc. I find it telling that the MDR head did not come to our table (or any of the tables around us) even a single time in 7 days. 

[edspec]

I love good food, but right now, with supply chain and labor shortages I wouldn't hold any land restaurant, or cruise line restaurant to pre-pandemic standards.  You're just asking to be disappointed.  If you order it and don't like it make another selection and move on.  

 

[Joe817]

32 minutes ago, edspec said:

I love good food, but right now, with supply chain and labor shortages I wouldn't hold any land restaurant, or cruise line restaurant to pre-pandemic standards.  You're just asking to be disappointed.  If you order it and don't like it make another selection and move on.  

 

Quote of the  day! 👍

[ilovesparky13]

I’m sorry that was your experience. I loved all of the included food options on my recent cruise on the Radiance. In fact, my mom insisted we go to the mdr every meal because she loved the food and service. 
 

As far as cookies and brownies go, I thought it was common knowledge that those items are easy to get “wrong.” I prefer soft, gooey cookies and fudgy brownies with no nuts, whereas others like crisp cookies and cake-like brownies with nuts. You can’t please everyone. 

[canes20]

33 minutes ago, ilovesparky13 said:

As far as cookies and brownies go, I thought it was common knowledge that those items are easy to get “wrong.” I prefer soft, gooey cookies and fudgy brownies with no nuts, whereas others like crisp cookies and cake-like brownies with nuts. You can’t please everyone.