possible MSC cruise - wondering about buffet meals

I look forward to the main dining room on Carnival, although in recent years the selection has become less appealing and the duration of dinner has risen to ~90-120 minutes (really, longer than we'd like to stay).

I've read good things about the food on MSC - but the dress code is more than we would regularly meet.

Is it possible to dine exclusively at the MSC buffet for evening dinner and be satisfied/wow-ed by the food?

I keep trying to decide where to book our next cruise. Thank you for your input.

On my last Carnival cruise I realized they have the same exact food in the buffet that the main dining room serves. So instead of waiting and sitting with random people we just eat at the buffet and don't have to waste 1-2 hours. I love meeting people but when eating I like it to be just me and my family.

This is gonna sound nuts but in the vast majority of the reviews I've read the buffet food is reportedly better than the MDR.

The dinner buffet on the Seaside on April was wonderful ..... MSC's buffet food and MDR food was way way better than our Carnival Vista cruise last year. There wasn't much of a dress code in the MDR ..... men wore shorts and a polo. I wore khakis or dress pants with various polos and button down shirts. If you're saying you want to wear a stained Harley Davidson t-shirt from 1998 and cut off to the MDR, I'd look elsewhere. The dress level can't get any lower than that of Carnival's MDR slobbage ..... If that's a word.

I look forward to the main dining room on Carnival, although in recent years the selection has become less appealing and the duration of dinner has risen to ~90-120 minutes (really, longer than we'd like to stay).

 

I've read good things about the food on MSC - but the dress code is more than we would regularly meet.

 

Is it possible to dine exclusively at the MSC buffet for evening dinner and be satisfied/wow-ed by the food?

 

I keep trying to decide where to book our next cruise. Thank you for your input.

Don't worry about dress code and food is very subjective but IMO MSC has much better food in the buffet.

Don't worry about dress code ....

Ditto this! Although you may not get into the dining room in short shorts, tank tops, etc., casual works. We just spent 3 weeks on Meraviglia (first MSC after many NCL-we are platinum- and a few Carnival). We loved almost everything about the experience and would probably ONLY choose MSC in the future (I plan to write more in a post later.) The evening dining room experience was quite good; however, I do not like to eat in the evening so we only chose the dining room about a third of the time. The buffet on our ship was outstanding.

MSC MDR, as long as you wear long pants and button shirt (polo ok) it should be fine, and you don't need to sit with others if you don't want. Ask for a dedicated table for your family. Buffet food seems to be less consistent than MDR but it will be a hit or miss. As for Seaside there are two decks of buffet one on deck 8 Market place and one on 16 Biscayne Bay Restaurant and Buffet. Food choice at deck 16 is less and mostly a grill items, and night they do turn into a waiter service area to meet demands of MDR over flow.