Buffet Food vs. MDR

[MATHA531]

Hi....I'm taking my first Carnival cruise next week on the Miracle and will be packing. Frankly, I am offended by the concept of "formal" night or whatever they call it on Carnival. I did Norwegian cruises and we didn't have any of that garbage. I also did a couple of Holland America cruises and they did and on formal night, instead of going to the MDR, I ate dinner at the buffet.

I don't really want to pack a sports jacket and want to get away with one piece of luggage which is usually fine for me for a week (a medium sized one at that to drag through the streets of NYC to walk from the bus stop to the cruise terminal. So with that long preamble, here's the question.

On one of the Holland America cruises whatever food they had in the mdr they had at the buffet. It just so happened that on "formal" night, they had surf and turf in the mdr and they had it in the buffet (I hate to tell you how many shrimp cocktails I downed that night and how many lobster tails). However, this was not replicated on the other Holland America cruise or on the Norwegian cruises. So...

The question is does the buffet serve the same dishes as does the mdr? If the mdr has surf and turf on a particular night, will it be available at the buffet saving me the ridiculous trouble of having to put on a shirt and a tie along with a sports jacket (with my blue jeans of course) just to partake in the mdr?

If anybody knows, please share.

Thank you.

[SadieN]

This should be posted on the Carnival Board.

For the most part the same menu is served in the MDR and BUffet on Carnival. Some things are different such as there is no lobster served on the CE night.

Carnival's minimum dress for gents on CE night is slacks and a long sleeve dress shirt, no jacket or tie.
DH doesn't do formal either. On Carnival he will wear Dockers and an extremely nice Guayabera. Hasn't been turned away yet. Last HAL cruise we only ate in the buffet.