Lido buffet times - any changes?

[taco88]

We're sailing on Carnival Magic next month out of Port Canaveral.  With the recent changes in dining, I'm wondering what time Carnival stops serving in the Lido buffet these days?   We aren't midnight diners, but we do like to wander down there after the traditional dinner time. 

 

Thanks in advance. 

 

 

 

 

[mz-s]

Other than the late night snacks buffet being gone, I can't recall any other changes to the Lido buffet's hours. I tend to think of the buffet as "recession proof" because it's the cheapest way for Carnival to feed its guests. They've definitely cheapened the food in recent months but the hours are the same as I remember.

[ray98]

The Lido now closes at 9:30.  The late night selection from the past is no more.  That leaves you with the deli that is open until 10pm, otherwise it is just pizza and the line is absolutely chaos.  The only other option is going back to the cabin and ordering room service.

[simplelife]

The older we get the more we find we don't do well with late eating, so these changes do not bother me at all.

[jimbob22]

the excel class has 'late night snacks' from 11:30pm-1am at P&A.  Based on seeing someone's vid, I thought the the non-excel class still has late night snacks at the regular lido, but I'm not sure exactly what they are doing.

 

But the late night snacks on Mardi Gras was not a really huge selection, mostly savory things.   The only sweets I saw on the one night we checked it out were some basic cookies and a bowl of 'creme' (that sort of non-melting mystery cream stuff).  

[Illbcruzn4life]

38 minutes ago, simplelife said:

The older we get the more we find we don't do well with late eating, so these changes do not bother me at all.

Unfortunately we are in the same boat. My pallet hasn’t changed but my stomach has changed. 😒

[Knights on the Beach]

25 minutes ago, jimbob22 said:

the excel class has 'late night snacks' from 11:30pm-1am at P&A.  Based on seeing someone's vid, I thought the the non-excel class still has late night snacks at the regular lido, but I'm not sure exactly what they are doing.

 

But the late night snacks on Mardi Gras was not a really huge selection, mostly savory things.   The only sweets I saw on the one night we checked it out were some basic cookies and a bowl of 'creme' (that sort of non-melting mystery cream stuff).  

 

I didn't see this listed on the Hub app at all last week so I wonder if they stopped doing it on MG?

[jam19872016]

Not listed on Celebration either.

[DallasGuy75219]

5 hours ago, ray98 said:

The Lido now closes at 9:30.  The late night selection from the past is no more.  That leaves you with the deli that is open until 10pm, otherwise it is just pizza and the line is absolutely chaos.  The only other option is going back to the cabin and ordering room service.

When they announced the second-to-last round of cuts, didn’t they say the deli would be closing an hour earlier?  Was that 11:00 moved to 10:00 close, or 10:00 moved to 9:00 close?  

 

Too many cuts to keep track of and too much trying to figure out how your next cruise is going to be a lessened experience vs. your last.

[jimbob22]

6 hours ago, Knights on the Beach said:

 

I didn't see this listed on the Hub app at all last week so I wonder if they stopped doing it on MG?

hmm. We were on MG over Thanksgiving. I don't recall if/how it showed on the hub app. I assume it did.  That's fairly lame if they entirely did away with the late snacks. There were definitely some people in the P&A area partaking...

[Knights on the Beach]

4 hours ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

When they announced the second-to-last round of cuts, didn’t they say the deli would be closing an hour earlier?  Was that 11:00 moved to 10:00 close, or 10:00 moved to 9:00 close?  

 

Too many cuts to keep track of and too much trying to figure out how your next cruise is going to be a lessened experience vs. your last.

 

The deli closed at 10:00 on Mardi Gras this last week.

 

2 hours ago, jimbob22 said:

hmm. We were on MG over Thanksgiving. I don't recall if/how it showed on the hub app. I assume it did.  That's fairly lame if they entirely did away with the late snacks. There were definitely some people in the P&A area partaking...

 

The only time we were in P&A (or close by) that late was Sunday night when we watched the Dolphins game. They made me lose my appetite anyway, so I didn't think to look and see if they were getting ready to put any food out. 😝

[Pellaz]

8 hours ago, Knights on the Beach said:

The deli closed at 10:00 on Mardi Gras this last week.

The Deli closed at 10 pm on the Mardi Gras in October 2021 as well, despite every other ship in the fleet having its Deli open until 11 pm at that time.  

 

We've seen some recent Fun Times or app screenshots showing Late Night Snacks (in Lido) or the "Pizza Plus" menu (at Pizzeria/Pizza Pirate), typically 11 pm or so to 1 am.   

The latter will include lasagna, a rotating sub sandwich choice (chicken parm, meatball, etc.) and caesar salad.   At least it's something.

[ray98]

22 hours ago, jimbob22 said:

the excel class has 'late night snacks' from 11:30pm-1am at P&A.  Based on seeing someone's vid, I thought the the non-excel class still has late night snacks at the regular lido, but I'm not sure exactly what they are doing.

  

Not anymore.

18 hours ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

When they announced the second-to-last round of cuts, didn’t they say the deli would be closing an hour earlier?  Was that 11:00 moved to 10:00 close, or 10:00 moved to 9:00 close?  

 

Too many cuts to keep track of and too much trying to figure out how your next cruise is going to be a lessened experience vs. your last.

 

It went from 11 to 10.  I'm sure getting it to 9 is a goal in the upcoming months, so ya don't waste food and all that you know...lol.

[jimbob22]

28 minutes ago, ray98 said:

Not anymore.

 

It went from 11 to 10.  I'm sure getting it to 9 is a goal in the upcoming months, so ya don't waste food and all that you know...lol.

I'm actually really skeptical about how much food they're 'saving'.  They gave me some skimpy dinner in P&A at 9:20pm, then closed the serving area at 9:30 and there was still a bunch of food there.  I think the meat portions of entrees (in MDR) are likely vacuum sealed such that Carnival can't shrink them, so they mostly just seem to be shrinking the sides.  How much money can that possibly save them??

 

It seems like a Guy's burger and fries is cheaper than an MDR meal--so they should try to get me to have dinner at Guy's--but I can't b/c it closes around 6pm.  Big Chicken closes at 5pm.  I'd have had dinner there had it been open later.  I hope Carnival reads these boards...

[DallasGuy75219]

48 minutes ago, ray98 said:

Not anymore.

 

It went from 11 to 10.  I'm sure getting it to 9 is a goal in the upcoming months, so ya don't waste food and all that you know...lol.

Yes, all these foodservice are in the name of environmental consciousness🙄

 

They'd love to shut down everything down by 9 (last seating for YTD) so your only complimentary option is pizza.  Then when you see the ginormous line for pizza you resign yourself to paying for room service. 

[DallasGuy75219]

27 minutes ago, jimbob22 said:

I think the meat portions of entrees (in MDR) are likely vacuum sealed such that Carnival can't shrink them, so they mostly just seem to be shrinking the sides.  How much money can that possibly save them??

Doesn't stop them from cutting it in half, like the shoe leather steak at brunch.

[ray98]

18 minutes ago, jimbob22 said:

I'm actually really skeptical about how much food they're 'saving'.  They gave me some skimpy dinner in P&A at 9:20pm, then closed the serving area at 9:30 and there was still a bunch of food there.  I think the meat portions of entrees (in MDR) are likely vacuum sealed such that Carnival can't shrink them, so they mostly just seem to be shrinking the sides.  How much money can that possibly save them??

 

It seems like a Guy's burger and fries is cheaper than an MDR meal--so they should try to get me to have dinner at Guy's--but I can't b/c it closes around 6pm.  Big Chicken closes at 5pm.  I'd have had dinner there had it been open later.  I hope Carnival reads these boards...

 

I fully agree.  My last visit to the P&A the sides were served in what most restaurants use for condiment cups.  

 

Many of the food decisions, especially late night, seem designed to push people to paid room service.  Many people won't wait 30 minutes for pizza and will instead pay for food.

[jimbob22]

1 hour ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

Doesn't stop them from cutting it in half, like the shoe leather steak at brunch.

could be.  I've noticed consistently (based on vids and our son's order) at Capitano, that the chicken parm is really huge, a large sized breast that has been flattened a bit--but it looks the same wherever I see it, so I'm thinking it's pre-sealed, probably pre-cooked (but I don't know for certain).  If Carnival was making it from scratch, they'd probably cut it in half before cooking it.  Maybe a steak (which is unbattered of course) they can cut in half without the recipient noticing, but with the chicken parm you'd see an unbattered part where they cut it.

 

But if they want to keep whittling the portions then fine, but at least keep big chicken, Guy's, Blue Iguana open for dinner.

[DallasGuy75219]

38 minutes ago, jimbob22 said:

could be.  I've noticed consistently (based on vids and our son's order) at Capitano, that the chicken parm is really huge, a large sized breast that has been flattened a bit--but it looks the same wherever I see it, so I'm thinking it's pre-sealed, probably pre-cooked (but I don't know for certain).  If Carnival was making it from scratch, they'd probably cut it in half before cooking it.  Maybe a steak (which is unbattered of course) they can cut in half without the recipient noticing, but with the chicken parm you'd see an unbattered part where they cut it.

There's no maybe. My brunch steak has been clearly cut in half.

[lennythenose]

8 hours ago, Pellaz said:

 

We've seen some recent Fun Times or app screenshots showing Late Night Snacks (in Lido) or the "Pizza Plus" menu (at Pizzeria/Pizza Pirate), typically 11 pm or so to 1 am.   

The latter will include lasagna, a rotating sub sandwich choice (chicken parm, meatball, etc.) and caesar salad.   At least it's something.

On the Oct 30 Pride TA they had Pizza Plus on the app every night but the few times I checked it was only pizza and Caesar just like rest of the day🤷🏼‍♀️. 

[Illbcruzn4life]

39 minutes ago, lennythenose said:

On the Oct 30 Pride TA they had Pizza Plus on the app every night but the few times I checked it was only pizza and Caesar just like rest of the day🤷🏼‍♀️. 

On the Horizon in they had a lasagna there a couple nights but once it was gone they didn't bring out another one.

 

even if you just wanted the lasagna you still had to wait in line with all the pizza people. Most nights it was 30-45 minute wait times. How hot would the lasagna be because it was sitting on the counter the whole time.

 

when i was on the Allure recently they knew how to move people through the pizza lines. Never had a wait more than 10 minutes. Of course they had about 5 people working back there not 2.

 

[ray98]

58 minutes ago, Illbcruzn4life said:

Of course they had about 5 people working back there not 2.

I made the same comment when we were on the MG.  It was 11pm on a sea day and the line stretched all the way down to guest services.  We funally made it to the front 40 minutes later and 2 guys were working.  The line from 10 until I know 1am when we last walked by never had less than 75 people in it.  Those two served hundreds in that time.  How Carnival thinks that is adequate for a ship of 6k is beyond me. 

[DallasGuy75219]

3 hours ago, ray98 said:

I made the same comment when we were on the MG.  It was 11pm on a sea day and the line stretched all the way down to guest services.  We funally made it to the front 40 minutes later and 2 guys were working.  The line from 10 until I know 1am when we last walked by never had less than 75 people in it.  Those two served hundreds in that time.  How Carnival thinks that is adequate for a ship of 6k is beyond me. 

And on smaller ships it's usually just one person working pizza late night when it's the only venue open.  

 

Carnival knows the staffing is inadequate but doesn't care as long as people tolerate it.  In fact the long lines actually encourage people to turn around and go back to their cabins and pay for room service. 

[Knights on the Beach]

5 hours ago, ray98 said:

I made the same comment when we were on the MG.  It was 11pm on a sea day and the line stretched all the way down to guest services.  We funally made it to the front 40 minutes later and 2 guys were working.  The line from 10 until I know 1am when we last walked by never had less than 75 people in it.  Those two served hundreds in that time.  How Carnival thinks that is adequate for a ship of 6k is beyond me. 

 

That was not the case after 10:00 pm on MG in May or last week. They had quite a few people making pizzas and the line went fast. Last week they also had servers carrying plates of pizza down the line to expedite the process. It was much better than during our MG cruises a year ago (December 2021) and in March. People keep complaining about how it was on their past cruises but Carnival is making changes and it seems to be getting better. Now we weren't in line for pizza at 2:00 am so I have no idea how it was then, but around 11:00 pm it wasn't bad at all.