Carnival Food Quality Very Subpar

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

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.

ALL Carnival food is sub par except the FAHRENHEIT 555 That is Excellent

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

On 12/27/2021 at 11:59 PM, scpirate said:

I disagree. I have a house south of naples. Carnival pizza is not anything like naples or anywhere in italy for that matter. I had some on MSC that was good though. Almost like my 5'2" italian grandma's pizza. Hers was better of course.  To each their own. Somebody needs to eat carnivals pizza. It just will not be me.

Carnivals pizza is always burnt. So if burnt pizza is your liking. It is for you. I totally agree about Alfredo's on Princess, Excellent.

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

3 minutes ago, ALWAYS CRUZIN said:

Carnivals pizza is always burnt. So if burnt pizza is your liking. It is for you. I totally agree about Alfredo's on Princess, Excellent.

Here is a picture of your Carnivals pizza. Not for me.

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

I agree to another poster. Halloween on the Mardi Gras. The Guy's burgers have gone so far down hill they are in the gutter. Over done, thin and dry. I was just on the Caribbean Princess. They do there's as always on a grill. Hand made burgers. Juicer and delicious without having to add anything to them. I had mine a few times on the plate no bun with mashed potatoes and a veggie. Excellent.

[icft]

4 minutes ago, ALWAYS CRUZIN said:

Here is a picture of your Carnivals pizza. Not for me.

Carnival changed something a few years back and ruined their pizza. I have heard that it was a change in the ovens and that makes sense because the change resulted in burnt edges and under cooked centers (like a wet paper towel). 

 

That does not look like any Carnival pizza I have ever seen. Too thick, too much cheese and they have never served me a pizza on a chopping block with a pizza cutter.

[sanmarcosman]

32 minutes ago, icft said:

That does not look like any Carnival pizza I have ever seen. Too thick, too much cheese and they have never served me a pizza on a chopping block with a pizza cutter.

Correct. Wood cutting boards are not used. This image was posted on CC in 2020 on a thread about the lido food options. I didn't buy into it then either.

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2730329-buffet-for-dinner/page/3/

Edited December 29, 2021 by sanmarcosman

[sid_9169]

I guess that my recent experience on the Mardi Gras must have been different from what you all ate, but everything I had on the ship was "good" to "excellent"... Standouts were Shaq's Big Chicken, Emeril's, and Street Eats, but I didn't come across a single thing that I thought was "sub-par"... I don't eat cookies, so I can't judge those...

[firefly333]

1 minute ago, sid_9169 said:

I guess that my recent experience on the Mardi Gras must have been different from what you all ate, but everything I had on the ship was "good" to "excellent"... Standouts were Shaq's Big Chicken, Emeril's, and Street Eats, but I didn't come across a single thing that I thought was "sub-par"... I don't eat cookies, so I can't judge those...

I liked the pizza better than before. I hated the old crumbly cookies but liked the new chocolate chip. Finally a cookie I liked. 

 

Steak restaurant was good but rude waiters. 

 

Dinner menu ...uggh. ate in buffet. Rcl was better for meals imo. 

[CookieShip]

On Legend, I liked the pizzas and thought they were very consistent. I remember on the Splendor that sometimes you would get a lot of crust and/or be burnt, but that was also almost a decade ago :|.

 

I liked the chocolate chip cookies ok from the buffet, not the best thing ever, but edible. The brown flour chunks from the deli were inedible to me, regretted getting 3 of those. 

[sparks1093]

1 hour ago, ALWAYS CRUZIN said:

Here is a picture of your Carnivals pizza. Not for me.

Not like any Carnival pizza that I've ever seen. Always found them to be acceptable but we don't eat a lot of it.

[Eliot Ness]

Just got back from a B2B on the Glory and here are my impressions of the food venues:

 

MDR (breakfast):  We ate almost all our breakfasts in the MDR to avoid crowds on the Lido.  We enjoyed both the regular and the Seaday Brunch offerings, except the last day waffles were soggy.

 

MDR (dinner):  Kind of mixed here, some nights had a much better menu than others.  I'm sure food chain issues are at play here and we didn't starve.

 

Steakhouse (twice):  I love a good Ribeye, and if it has a bone that's a bonus, but the Cowboy Steak was a major disappointment.  It was thin and while not really too overcooked (med rare) it was dry.  As bad as the Ribeye was my next steak, the NY Strip, was very good.  Much thicker and tastier than the Cowboy Ribeye.

 

Seafood Shack:  For $20 we got a big bowl of clam chowder, fish n' chips, and a seafood platter.  Not bad for $20 and a nice change of pace.

 

While I like Guy's Burgers I really like the old grilled burgers much more.  The Deli was good, Blue Iguana was nice (tacos).  The free BBQ was good, but I didn't care for the beef.  I thought the pizza was better than usual and their Caesar salad was pretty good.  Lido was OK, and I do really like their cakes!  On Christmas they had eggnog set out with the drinks which I thought was nice.

 

Overall I'd rate the food a notch below what it was pre-covid, but it wasn't terrible and it was great to be cruising again.

 

John

Edited December 29, 2021 by Eliot Ness
added pizza

[Don Kehote]

On 12/27/2021 at 11:59 PM, scpirate said:

I disagree. I have a house south of naples.

I believe they meant Italy, not Florida.

[SNJCruisers]

3 hours ago, ALWAYS CRUZIN said:

ALL Carnival food is sub par except the FAHRENHEIT 555 That is Excellent

Since 52 out of your 80 cruises have been on Carnival, the food can't be that subpar, otherwise you would have shifted more of those cruises to other lines.

[billslowsky]

I find the comfort foods on Carnival to be more than "good enough" and seek it out.  In the dining rooms, I know it's not great but with dopey pirates ruining dinners for photo sales it doesn't really bother me to skip it.

 

And Guy's burgers are not worse than the ones on any other cruise ship buffet lines, the ones lying in greasy hot water, true mystery meat.

[surfone]

On the Legend earlier this month the food in the MDR was not good at all which is not consistent with all the previous cruises on Carnival.  We can say that we only had one night that was just ok for the main but all other nights were poor.  Even the specialty steak house was not nearly as good as on the Pride or Legend from  years passed.   MDR on the Horizon in August was pretty good but again we saw a difference from the Pre Covid days.   Our service was always great though!

[smellywax]

 

18 hours ago, Wennfred said:

Keto review onboard Panorama 3 times, first the sugarfree cakes were not sugar free, the cake was made with wheat flour and not with almond or coconut flours, they use Splenda (sucralose) instead of stevia, Splenda will spike most diabetics so if you’re reversing diabetes stay away from those cakes at the buffet.

 

brunch alway at the Vista restaurant for breakfast in the mornings where I would have my omelette (cheddar, spinach, bacon) and 2 over medium, side of extra bacon.

 

For Lunch if I was hungry, Mongolian Wok, people forgot this place is open every day at noon. The food is amazing. I only have the chicken with zucchini & broccoli and I have them cook it in butter.

 

Salad bar up on Serenity deck 15 was also very good.

 

At the MDR, mostly everything I had to Sub out, like Potatoes, Carrots, Tomato sauce and corn. On some cruises the waiter would work with me and bring me a side of broccoli, on other cruises I just removed the sides and just had the steak, chicken or salmon but from the others at the table the food wasn’t as good as years back.

 

Steakhouse onboard Panorama was a total disappointment, the food was not only bad but they kept Messing up my order, the Surf & Turf was a 2 inch Filet Mignon and a lobster no bigger then a shrimp. Also their so called big slice of cheesecake has Zero Flavor, I had to try just a tiny corner and she was right, I thought we had Covid because of no taste.

 

after we headed to the coffee shop Blue Java Cafe were she purchased a slice of cheesecake there is she was like Wow that was cheesecake, I tried a tiny piece and it did have an amazing cheesecake flavor, then I spit it out.

 

Its unfortunate that Carnival’s MDR is so boring and tasteless. And on these 3 cruises the food quality didn’t improve, even after submitting the surveys.

 

Im a Platinum guest member and almost Diamond on Carnival and we have a Miracle, Conquest and Magic cruise booked for 2022 but after that it’s time to try NCL & Celebrity, they say their food is way better.

 

Fred

 I agree with all you said. We always found something to eat on the Panorama but the quality and flavor has definitely gone downhill. They are trying to save money and it tastes like it. Even the steakhouse this time was disappointing. The Bernaise sauce was disgusting and it seems like none of their sauces had any flavor and were runny. Something good we found were the empanadas on the buffet and their different sauces were great. But overall, I miss Aqua class cabin food on Celebrity. Does it mean I won’t cruise carnival…no. I will always sail with a variety of lines depending on who is sailing with us.

[canes20]

On 12/27/2021 at 6:25 PM, Tiger0613 said:

For chain burgers I prefer McDonald's, Steak 'n Shake, Freddy's, Johnny Rockets, and Fuddruckers over Guy's.  The only compliment I can give Guy's is that it is better than Burger King, but that doesn't take much.

 

 

[canes20]

4 hours ago, ALWAYS CRUZIN said:

Here is a picture of your Carnivals pizza. Not for me.

[Wennfred]

4 hours ago, ALWAYS CRUZIN said:

Here is a picture of your Carnivals pizza. Not for me.

I can’t eat pizza anymore but I always liked a semi Burnt pizza, From what I heard, Panorama pizza wasn’t as good but I always saw a line, some people will eat Pizza because it’s there. Coming from Brooklyn NY, you have something to compare it with.

 

Fred

[famof4togo]

I have only ever had Carnival pizza at about 2am after a night of drinking....and I found it just fine, but maybe as an actual meal or while sober I wouldn't be as satisfied....

[Duanerice1]

We don't cruise for the food.  And yea we enjoy going to dinner but it's not what makes a cruise for us. I also only eat what's good.  Too many calories otherwise.  I don't force myself to eat something I don't like. Too many other options.   I was brought up with the 'eat everything on your plate', lol.  That's why we don't do a lot of buffets although I do like a good breakfast buffet. 

 

 

 

[BlerkOne]

5 hours ago, ALWAYS CRUZIN said:

Here is a picture of your Carnivals pizza. Not for me.

Doesn't look like the picture is from a Carnival ship.

[BlerkOne]

2 hours ago, Don Kehote said:

I believe they meant Italy, not Florida.

Absolutely.

[KmomChicago]

I have not been all that impressed with cruise pizza on either Carnival or RCI. But you know, Chicago. I can get way better pizza right here, baby!  
 

I really don’t look for pizza on a cruise, at all, in other words. Cookies either, for that matter.   It’s just not kinda their thing, IMHO. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

11 hours ago, Pyrate13 said:

Agree 100%. The food on Pride back at the beginning of the month was awful in our opinion and I said just that on my post cruise survey.

 

That's exactly what everyone should do, mention it in the survey.