Quality of Food

[shibby sails]

The food is fine. The buffet area usually smells like your thread name.

[Farts]

The food is fine. The buffet area usually smells like your thread name.

I know EXACTLY what you mean :')....that wet dishwater smell that isn't clean

[hapytobehr]

If you are cruising for the food, then you will be disappointed.

The food on Carnival is adequate at best. Although we find the steakhouses wonderful!.

There are certain dishes that are better than others.

I have been on NCL, Royal and mostly Carnival and none impress me with their food.

We go on cruises because it is value for your dollar and we cruise Carnival because they are the "Fun Ships" and we do have fun.....

Happy Sailing!

[oncruisecontrol]

That was around the time that things started to change iirc

You are 100% correct! From 2002 to about 2008 every meal we had in the main dining room on Carnival was stupendous. We sailed the Miracle in 2008 and every meal in the MDR was out-of-this-world delicious (and I am a foodie and a pretty good home cook). But in 2009 on the Freedom we saw the food begin to change, and not for the better. Some of our favorite dishes disappeared off the MDR menu or were replaced by inferior reincarnations. The food quality has gone down steadily hence then.

[Farts]

If you are cruising for the food, then you will be disappointed.

 

The food on Carnival is adequate at best. Although we find the steakhouses wonderful!.

 

There are certain dishes that are better than others.

 

I have been on NCL, Royal and mostly Carnival and none impress me with their food.

 

We go on cruises because it is value for your dollar and we cruise Carnival because they are the "Fun Ships" and we do have fun.....

 

Happy Sailing!

 

For me, NCL is the bare minimum for me to be satisfied in terms of food. It is disappointing that CCL hasn't improved the quality of the food since 2010, which even back then I thought the difference was stark compared to NCL and RCCL.

 

 

With that being said, I will go on CCL if they have huge last minute discounts. That is how CCL is going to fit into my world. I figure the discounted price makes up for the sub par food. I'll take it for what it is and just lower my expectations w/ of course the respective lowered price point. I am not going to pay $40 upcharge for lunch and dinner per day, as I would rather go to other CL at that point.

[Farts]

You are 100% correct! From 2002 to about 2008 every meal we had in the main dining room on Carnival was stupendous. We sailed the Miracle in 2008 and every meal in the MDR was out-of-this-world delicious (and I am a foodie and a pretty good home cook). But in 2009 on the Freedom we saw the food begin to change, and not for the better. Some of our favorite dishes disappeared off the MDR menu or were replaced by inferior reincarnations. The food quality has gone down steadily hence then.

It's disappointing, but I get that they want to capture a certain market segment. I, a millennial who have been cruising for quite some time, am perhaps not their main target market.

[cherbear4000]

I have been cruising Carnival for 19 years. I have noticed a decline in the food quality. There is prime rib 2 nights in the MDR on a 7 day cruise. Usually the first formal night and the last night. As others mention, you can get flat iron steak every night. You can get steak at the brunch in the MDR too. If you love steak, I definitely recommend the Steakhouse for $35/pp.

[bUU]

That was around the time that things started to change iirc

A great deal of the discretionary economy (the products and services that people purchase that they do not "need") changed about that time, coincident and attributable to the deepest recession that we've experience in most of our lifetimes.

 

I remember growing up learning about the Great Depression of the 1930s, from both family and through academics. Our society changed and those changes were durable. To her dying day my mother remembered and lived her life as affected by having lived through the hunger and fear of those days. Society itself perhaps to this day still is responding to the Great Depression and its impact on the national psyche, though perhaps the lingering vestiges of that impact are now overshadowed by the corresponding impact from the Great Recession of 2007-2009.

 

There are still many people who hold forcefully to the contention that the Great Recession is not over (for them). Agree or not, what we can all agree about is that the impact of the Great Recession combined with the evolving state of globalism and its impact on the economy, separate from the impact of the recession on the economy, has yet again changed our discretionary economy and those changes are durable. From this confluence of factors we now have a substantially unbundled airfare, with folks now paying separately and extra for anything close to the amount of comfort that used to be included; with folks now paying separately and extra for checked baggage. And so on. Obviously, this also has had similar impact on other sectors within the discretionary economy, such as cruising.

 

The impact is durable but is it permanent? No. Though even before the Great Recession there were still vestiges of the impact of the Great Depression, they were faint echoes. Over the ~77 intervening years, the impact lessened, slowly but steadily. We became as a society much more comfortable with discretionary expense and even excess. Our economy's survival now utterly relies on consumption in a way that couldn't be fathomed in the decades after the Great Depression, so we'll obviously see an initial level of restoration of some "normality" motivated by government just to forestall complete collapse.

 

However, things like unbundling aren't going away anytime soon. Maybe 77 years from now, but not today. Today, we can enjoy cruising paying a cruise fare lower than that we paid 15 years ago, adjusted for inflation, but we're getting what we pay for, not what used to pay for. If we want what we used to pay for, we need to pay what we used to pay. So we see that offered in "Premium Economy" airfares and in specialty restaurants aboard cruise ships.

[Moonarino]

To qualify my comments right up front, the local Outback used to be The Place for us to get a fantastic New York Strip, best I'd ever had anywhere. But our last few visits were increasingly poor, and after the last I'll never pay those prices again. Just saying, in general.

 

My Lady, with a nose like a hound dog, has almost never mentioned a bad general smell in any Carnival cafe, and especially no more than, say, RCI Oasis class. Just my vote on that.

 

Ice cream in the MDR is as good as I've had on any cruise ship. The softserve (choc/straw/vanilla + yogurt?) isn't bad either, and is/was considerably better than what I got on X Eclipse a few years ago.

 

When I first sailed in 2008, on Triumph, Carnival had a widespread reputation for being the "economy" cruise line but with the best food in general. Some may argue, but I distinctly remember hearing/reading that over and over again.

 

I will concur that quality has dropped since 2008. But that has also happened in RCI Oasis class since 2011. Our 2016 Oasis venture was seriously subpar.

 

As a mass-commercial venue, Carnival cuisine is still good enough, IMHO. I especially enjoy Guys, the Blue Iguana, Cucina del Capitano ($15 for dinner, lunch is free), and the coffee-counter desserts.

[AdGuyMG]

With that being said, I will go on CCL if they have huge last minute discounts.

 

Good luck.

[ORB]

As you can tell in my signature I’ve not been particularly loyal to any one line. I’m starting to have a few “theories” about cruise food:

 

1. If your food arrives fresh from the kitchen, it’s more likely to be good. If it sits on the waiter’s station while you or someone at your table is finishing a course, or because the two large tables next to you are being served, the quality will suffer. My main complaint about the “New American Table” on Carnival is that it seems designed to allow them to serve in the dining room with a smaller staff. That just exacerbates this problem. If you find a waiter who can give you prompt service each night, you’ll probably be happier.

 

2. The food will never again be like what I keep hearing it was in the 1980s, because the lines won’t spend the money on it.

 

3. There seems to be as much variation in quality between the ships of a given line as there is between the various lines, so I’m becoming less convinced that, overall, any mass-market line has “better” food than another. I’d be more tempted to ask what the food is like on a particular ship.

 

So if anyone has any tips or reports for dining on the Carnival Pride, I’d like to hear it because I’ll be there in October. I would be highly surprised if it’s quite as good as on the newer flagships, though, so I don’t expect the Pride to have great food just because the Dream does.

[skiingj]

12 Carnival cruises since 2006. It has gone downhill. My wife and I were disappointed last September on the Vista. MDR was not good in regards to speed, quality, or portion size. MDR staff seemed overwhelmed many nights Carnival has the best pizza and steakhouse. The buffet and MDR have gone down hill and I hope they take notice as this appears to be an issue with many people I know.

[sanmarcosman]

Just off the Valor and my husband and I are steak lovers. Both of us are pretty much meat and potatoes kind of people. Don't like a bunch of weird stuff. Soooo we both ordered the flat iron steak every night of our cruise. (Yeah....we are definitely NOT adventurous eaters!)

We both would order 2 flat irons every night.

 

I found it to be subpar at best. Seemed to be the luck of the draw. A couple of nights we were brought what could only be described as a "tube" of steak. It was like someone had cut a strip of steak. It was so chewy and dried out , with white strips of sinew? running through it. We were barely able to saw a piece off to eat it. Other nights we were brought a nice juicy looking piece of meat that was tender and tasty. So the flat irons can really go either way. We were too cheap to order the steak upgrade from the steak house. We managed to fill up nicely on the delicious bread and our baked potatoes and desserts on nights when the steak was inedible.

 

According to Google you have given the perfect description of what can happen with a flat iron steak when it's not properly and precisely butchered. Since the piece is shoulder meat and has a large sinew running throughout it it must be butchered carefully to remove this or the entire steak will be tough and nearly inedible. The flat iron also is best cooked to a temperature of medium rare. We've had good luck with our flat irons but we never hesitate to politely ask for another when the first flat iron proves to be tough.

[Moonarino]

...

3. There seems to be as much variation in quality between the ships of a given line as there is between the various lines, so I’m becoming less convinced that, overall, any mass-market line has “better” food than another. I’d be more tempted to ask what the food is like on a particular ship. ...

 

And there you are. I've had good-to-great food on one Carnival cruise and barely digestable food on another. Same with RCI, a different cruise line altogether.

 

(Add) And just for the record, the filet mignon my lady was served on Oasis OTS last year was barely recognizable as such, the smallest hunk of meat(?) I've ever seen served on a dinner plate. She sent it back. Carnival is not the only cruise line in the world that can fail, fail, fail when it comes to food. Or service.

[bUU]

Very few people have been on all of the six largest mainline mass market North American cruise lines and practically no one has been on enough cruises on all six of them, recent enough to be unquestionably relevant indicators, but we can all read what people who have cruised on these cruise lines say about them. There is no compelling evidence to indicate that the six are so radically different from each other. There may be marginal differences that perhaps (often, but not always) put Carnival in the lower-price/lower-quality end of that relatively short spectrum and put Celebrity in the higher-price/higher-quality end of that relatively short spectrum. However, it is clear that none of the six cruise lines are unequivocally offering a better overall average product at a lower overall average price. This realization, for those willing to do the research to acquire it, is that whatever concerns there are about value-for-price are concerns that are relevant to the industry, overall, not any one cruise line individually. Insinuations that any such criticisms are reasonably directed at any one of these cruise lines are reasonably suspect.

[Moonarino]

Very few people have been on all of the six largest mainline mass market North American cruise lines and ... There is no compelling evidence to indicate that the six are so radically different from each other. ...

 

Case in point, supported by Cruise Critic review synopsis (#1 con): One of my least favorite MDR (and ice cream) experiences to date was Celebrity Eclipse. But the same is not said of Celebrity Reflection in CC review summaries, or of any other Celebrity ship.

 

(Edit) Ah, wait, maybe it was Equinox that gets the bad MDR rating. But I didn't enjoy Eclipse MDR either. But I am strongly considering Reflection for a next cruise, knowing from personal experience that it does very much vary from ship to ship in the same line.

[Submariner]

Just got off the Sunshine last week,

Our previous experience with carnival was with the Magic about 10 years ago, Our party thoroughly enjoyed the food then, We have great memories of succulent portions of tasty food,

On this latest trip, however, we felt that the food portions are much smaller and suffers from the 'Applebees effect' In other words, you get a piece of meat, a baked potato and a stem of broccoli. It looks like a menu item off any food chain restaurant you get now. No imagination, no tasty sauces, no variety. Kind of bland, really.

[ryano]

Our previous experience with carnival was with the Magic about 10 years ago,

 

About 6 years ago you mean :D:cool::p

[meatloafsfan]

Just got off the Sunshine last week,

Our previous experience with carnival was with the Magic about 10 years ago, Our party thoroughly enjoyed the food then, We have great memories of succulent portions of tasty food,

On this latest trip, however, we felt that the food portions are much smaller and suffers from the 'Applebees effect' In other words, you get a piece of meat, a baked potato and a stem of broccoli. It looks like a menu item off any food chain restaurant you get now. No imagination, no tasty sauces, no variety. Kind of bland, really.

 

I think that really depends on what you order.

 

For instance, the flat iron steak is served just as you said - meat, potato, 1 spear of broccoli.

 

 

But the lamb shank? Nope. A variety of vegetables and a tasty sauce.

 

 

Same with the Vegetarian portebello mushroom dish - lovely cream sauce, sweet potato and nicely seasoned dish.

 

 

And yes, these are from the Sunshine - May 29-June 3 2017.

[bUU]

Interesting contrast. It just goes to underscore that if the chef gets to prepare something different (the "special of the day") it's probably going to be a better dining experience.

 

Of course, that doesn't work when your food isn't prepared by a chef but instead is brewed in a cauldron. Those "specials of the day" are frightful.

[Micahs Grandad]

Overall food is good but quality of cuts of meat they used has gone downhill over the years.

 

Breakfast on lido does leave something to be desired. Toast is made hours before it is put out to be served. Also pancakes and waffles sit way too long.

 

Have been on lido at 6 am and toast is already out even though it does not open till 7.

[sanmarcosman]

Meatloafsfan: I couldn't agree more, the Portobello entree is a sleeper hit on the menu that rarely gets a mention here. The white mushroom appetizer in that red sauce is raved about a lot but I don't care for that at all. I usually order the Portobello entree and a Flat Iron steak on the night the Portobello is on the menu and I always enjoy that meal on Carnival. More people who like mushrooms should try it!

 

[happy cruzer]

Sauces - 5 are offered nightly, they are listed right below the From the Grill (Always availble items)

 

Side are listed next usually starches like a baked potato, mac and cheese, plus three vegetable choices.

 

They are available. I can see having them seperate since some don't eat their veggies :)

[Moonarino]

Breakfast on lido ...

 

You jogged a vital memory. Tip coming!

 

I love my eggs in the morning. On Dream in 2014 I believe it was' date=' the first two days I waited in a (usually short) line for scrambled. But it was hardly worth the wait, because the eggs were premixed for scrambling and not as tasty as I expected.

 

On the third day I mumbled a grumble while waiting in line. Somebody overheard and told me, "If you want [b']fresh unbroken[/b] eggs, just ask." I did, and the cook reached down and pulled up two beautiful white whole eggs and broke them in the pan for me. After that I noticed a lot of other people were doing the same, asking for and getting fresh/unbroken eggs.

[LaFrimaire]

Just off the Vista and really enjoyed the MDR food. One night they had sirloin cut instead of flat iron and it was really good (medium rare). Prime rib was available at no upcharge as well. You can get steak at Sea Day brunch but never had it. Overall pleased with food and options on this trip.

 

 

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