Such horrible food

[MMW37]

I halfway understand not temping burgers, but yes, i was told that I could not order rare steak for dinner even in the dining room last year. I tried MR, but I don't believe I ever saw any pink, let alone red. I tried it a couple of times and then gave up on steak. A friend of mine a few weeks later was able to get the "rarest of the med rare" steaks for his table, on the exact same cruise. Their waiter made the extra effort, I assume. And yes. the steaks in the supper club would cost $30 on land with no salad, no sides, no dessert, etc. Theay are absolutely awesome.

[broberts]

Just off the Legend last week and we were not impressed with the selections on the menu in the dinnng room for dinner. What we chose to eat could have been better. The filet was small and dry. However, the Golden Fleece offered the best filet we have ever had! What a difference between the two. We also enjoyed the omlets in the morning and the deli station for lunch. The pizza was good also. :o

 

Sorry about the fillet. Did you send it back? The one I had two weeks ago aboard the Elation was very good. Big, juicy, and cooked to a, for me, perfect medium rare. So big, in fact, that for the first time in recent memory I actually had to leave about 1/5th of it on the plate.

 

I take it that Stuffed Quail, Langoustine, Orange Roughy, Duck, Grouper, Caribbean Lobster, Asparagus Vichyssoise, Mango Ginger soup, Wild Mushroom soup, Chateaubriand, Beef Wellington, NY Strip, Baby Back Ribs, Tiger Shrimp Cocktail, Sauteed Tiger Shrimp, Seafood Newberg, Herb Roasted Chicken, Satay Chicken Tenderloins, and Coconut Shrimp, to name a few, do not impress you. I have to ask, what would impress you as far as dinner selections are concerned?

[Leo Jay]

We're pretty sold on the supper clubs, at least based on our experiences on Legend. We may give up the dining room altogether. Though I do love the duck.

[Leo Jay]

If I recall correctly FDA guidelines call for an internal temperature of at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit for ground beef. Medium is around 160, according to them. (Personally I prefer a medium around 155.) Since meat continues to cook after it is removed from the heat source, the burger would have to go from the stove / grill to your mouth at almost light speed :) .

 

It takes a quality ingredient, a well trained staff with the proper equipment, i.e. digital instant read thermometers, and knowledgeable management policies to safely serve a truly medium burger from frozen meat. Most establishments like to err on the side of extreme caution. Its also cheaper to cook the heck out of ground beef - saves on thermometers and insurance.

 

Ok, gotcha. Thanks.

[truecruiser]

 

I'm afraid to admit it but I also liked Carnival's food better than Celebrity's, in the dining room anyway. I thought Celebrity's waffle station was great and I loved their buffets and dessert station. Carnival's desserts weren't nearly as good so I tend to gain less weight (which is a good thing ;) )

 

That's wierd... that's not my quote. That's coolcruise's quote.

[jbags58]

Food has always been pretty good on every cruise i've been on....ok...the occasional entree might be good but hey...they great thing is...I just ask for something else! NO BIGGIE! WHere else can you do that and NOT have to pay for it...

 

As for the formal dress I TOO enjoy dressing up..I dont let others dress get me down..in fact we encouraged our table mates to show up even though they didnt have formal wear..they were going to stay out of the dining room. A nice polo he wore...they were fine...but I agree, I would probably be alittle tiffed to see cut off shorts and such on formal nite but then I wouldnt let it GET IN MY CRAW either...

 

To each his own! lol...

[Leo Jay]

Even if my meal was horrible (and I had noooo love for that wabbit, thank you very much), there's always pizza!

[2Ports]

Just sail NCL or NCLA - especially the Pride of Aloha. :eek: You'll never complain about Carnival again!

[wavecruiser]

Just sail NCL or NCLA - especially the Pride of Aloha. :eek: You'll never complain about Carnival again!

 

Hey 2Ports, a bunch of my family members just got off that ship and they also said the food was downright horrible. How bad was it, compared to Carnival?

[Guinnivere]

Sigh. I read these posts about great dining experiences and think I must have been on that Carnival from another time continuum. The evil ship. I wish I had been on your Carnival.

 

I had been on Royal Caribbean cruises before Carnival. I found that food to be excellent, superb in taste and selection. Also, if you wanted to eat at the Windjammer, they had the same selection there as at the dining room, without the close to 3 hr dining time. The choices ranged from basic continental/american to exotic and sophisticated. Breakfast in the dining room or Windjammer had many choices, sweet and savory. Lunches had so many different salads. Desserts...well we were spoiled for choice.

 

I supposed I expected the same kind of food on Carnival Victory. With the exception of lobster night (I had 3) the food was awful. The dining room was always so hot and food tasted old or not prepared correctly. I thought, well, the buffet would be fresh, it moves fast. There was one meat choice, fries, one salad. One dessert square cake. Where was the rest?

 

Breakfast was school cafeteria. Tater tots? French toast sticks? On a cruise? Lines that went back to Moses. No omelette station or cheeses, or meats.

 

Lunch, oddly, was the most varied meal. The deli bar and pizza had the best quality food overall. I didn't want to Have to eat that mostly, but the rest was on par with Sizzler buffet, your school cafeteria, etc. Ruby Tuesday, TGIF, or Bennigans would have been gourmet compared to this.

 

I did not understand why the quality was so low. I had paid a good price for this cruise. The drink specials were a nice touch; maybe people had a lot of them and didn't care about the food;)

 

Now I read that Carnival food is great compared to NCL. I am planning a trip in Hawaii on the Wind....is it all downhill from here?

 

If the bad experience I had on the Victory was an anomaly, let me know. For the price paid, I guess I expected better food item variety and quality.

 

Thanks,

J

[broberts]

Guinnivere, I suspect that you are either vastly exaggerating for effect, which is not terribly helpful, or you failed to locate all of the buffet lines. While the later may be the case, even then I suspect that you are exaggerating since during regular meal hours I have never seen a savory Carnival buffet line that didn't have at least two protein selections. Nor have I ever seen a Carnival dessert buffet line that had less than five selections.

 

Its a shame that you didn't find the omelet station. As far as I know this is a breakfast fixture on all Carnival ships. And I wonder that you didn't see the ham, bacon, and sausage that most of us usually find right beside the scrambled eggs on the breakfast buffet lines. At the other end of the breakfast line I generally find a platter of sliced cheese and cold ham. Typically right beside the fresh fruit, milk, and yogurt.

 

I was surprised at your comments regarding dinner. Your experience is certainly remarkably different from what has been reported by others. Although I have to admit to some confusion, did you eat in the dining room every night? Was it hot every night? And if so, did you ask the maitre d' to find you a more comfortable table?

 

Not sure what you mean by "tasted old". Are you suggesting that the ingredients were past their best before date? Or are you suggesting that the meals had been prepared on shore and brought along for service?

[hank56]

Once again its a matter of taste I suppose. I thought Royal Caribbean was bland at the buffet with little variety, esp. in the meats. The Dining room was okay. I feel Disney was very good all around. Sail Princess in dec. looking forward to trying them, and next oct will give Carnival a try.

[Leo Jay]

Nevermind -- posted elsewhere...

[sharonella]

One of the things I've seen posted elsewhere is that Cruise Lines tend have "European" trained chefs who don't cook "American". I'm not exactly sure what the distinction is, but my sister confirmed this to me. (She has sailed with us 2x and has a cum laude culinary degree from Johnson & Wales college - J&W is where Emeril Lagasse of FoodTV went)

 

I remember she asked for a different entree one time (not sure what), not because it wasn't "prepared properly" or that it tasted "bad", but because it just wasn't what she "expected". She said it was probably because it wasn't prepared how you would normally get it in an American restaurant - no biggie - just not what she wanted. She also didn't like the pumpkin soup (again, personal taste), because she said the "American way" which she happens to prefer, is thicker - more of a pureed pumpkin - not thinned out as much with broth.

 

She also thought the serving sizes were were great - again - more "European", than the Mega-sized American portions.

 

Except for things that we attribute to "personal taste", I and my cruise mates have pretty much LOVED all Carnival food - we've sailed on the Legend 2x & the Glory 1x. When dining at the buffets I always "took a walk" around the whole area - scoping out ALL the buffet lines before deciding what to have.

 

I'm sorry the OP (and others) have not had the same great experiences we've had with Carnival food.

 

Sha

[toz]

Fine food is high on my list of priorities. I thoroughly enjoyed the dining room selections and Nick and Nora's selections on the Miracle.

[abrakadabra]

Just sail NCL or NCLA - especially the Pride of Aloha. :eek: You'll never complain about Carnival again!

 

that's a good one.

 

I feel sorry for the Chefs onboard,they feed thousands of people and a handful don't like it so does that mean they are incompetent?

 

'specially the one here who ordered Soup and expected to get Puree`:eek:

 

abrakadabra

[Leo Jay]

One meat choice? One salad? One cake? No meats at all for breakfast?

 

What the heck was the chef thinking? Or maybe, given the long lines, all the other passengers completely depleted all the other salad, cake and meat options before you were able to get to them, but still, that's Carnival's fault for not having enough. Which sailing was this?

[2Ports]

Hey 2Ports, a bunch of my family members just got off that ship and they also said the food was downright horrible. How bad was it, compared to Carnival?

 

Are you familiar with the term "Honey Wagon"? :p

[rdreid]

Dressing up is the best thing about cruising, the meals are not all that great, but keep you fed at any time of the day. Even at 50, we didn't take a cruise for the food. :rolleyes: Happy cruising

[Third Coast Sailor]

These post remind of something else everyone has in addition to opions .

;)

Just roll with the flow, personally I have been on NCL, RCL, & Carnival before, as well as I have "dined" on my own boat, (only 19' long though ), and I prefer the food on the Cruise ships all the way .

However, I prefer the fishing on my own boat .

[Guinnivere]

One meat choice? One salad? One cake? No meats at all for breakfast?

 

What the heck was the chef thinking? Or maybe, given the long lines, all the other passengers completely depleted all the other salad, cake and meat options before you were able to get to them, but still, that's Carnival's fault for not having enough. Which sailing was this?

 

 

This was a Canada cruise on the Victory; late July sailing. Just not the variety I expected. Personally, I think they did it so that people would eat in the dining rooms every night. I was thinking why variety at Lido would be so absent. Perhaps they were having trouble with people eating buffet meals and not showing up to dinner so they would not have to tip? There are some out there like that, unfortunately.

 

Couple that with little children filling the adult pool and hot tubs and the smoking that was allowed everywhere and you had a difficult cruise. We asked staff particularly about the smoking and they said, they can't control it, the customers get angry. There was smoking everywhere. It was a shame.:(

[Zyzygy]

I liked the food on Glory in August. Did receive one crab cake that was gamey, but everything else was quite good.

 

The Emeral Room was excellent.

 

I went on Celebrity two years ago, and do believe Celebrity is slightly better, but Carnival is definitely catching up in my book.

 

A shorter (four day) Carnival cruise we took some years ago was not very good, just ordinary.

[Leo Jay]

This was a Canada cruise on the Victory; late July sailing. Just not the variety I expected. Personally, I think they did it so that people would eat in the dining rooms every night. I was thinking why variety at Lido would be so absent. Perhaps they were having trouble with people eating buffet meals and not showing up to dinner so they would not have to tip? There are some out there like that, unfortunately.

 

Couple that with little children filling the adult pool and hot tubs and the smoking that was allowed everywhere and you had a difficult cruise. We asked staff particularly about the smoking and they said, they can't control it, the customers get angry. There was smoking everywhere. It was a shame.:(

 

That's outrageous! :eek:

 

Well, I do somewhat sympathize with the kids -- maybe the adult pool was one of the few places they could find to escape from the smoke! :o That's just crazy!

 

And skimping on the buffet selections in order to force people to eat in the dining room is just insane! :mad:

 

I hope you wrote them a letter!

[sharonella]

that's a good one.

 

I feel sorry for the Chefs onboard,they feed thousands of people and a handful don't like it so does that mean they are incompetent?

 

'specially the one here who ordered Soup and expected to get Puree`:eek:

 

abrakadabra

 

My sister never said the chef was "incompetent" - she never even said the soup was "bad" - she just didn't happen to like the pumpkin soup (PERSONAL PREFERENCE) they way they prepared it on the ship because, compared to how she is used to having it, it was much thinner - more broth, less pumpkin. Maybe it's a "regional thing", but up here in New England, all the pumpkin (or squash-based) soups I've ever had are pretty thick - indicating they contain more puree & less broth.

 

I only brought up this example to show that many of things people don't like about cruise food can (and should) be chalked up to personal preference, NOT that the chefs can't cook.

 

Sha

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

I just have to get in on this one ... I wish, wish, wish there were no dress code. As someone who has to dress in suits and heels for work every day, day in and day out, Monday to Friday, day after day after day... the last thing I want is to dress up on vacation :rolleyes: .

 

Here's what I wish Carnival would do...have one seating per night or one dining room (whatever) where shorts/tee shirts/jeans are ok. That way, those who enjoy dressing up are made happy :o and those of us who prefer comfort and practicality (ie, packing light) but still want to eat lobster and such are made happy :o .

 

HELLO CARNIVAL..... ARE YOU LISTENING :confused: ?

 

TO EVERYONE ELSE .... HAPPY SAILINGS AND BON APPETIT :D !!!!

 

Oh, and I love any food I don't have to cook myself (except jello, yuck).