Thanksgiving Turkey Better at Lido Buffet

[AHS123]

This photo was taken aboard the Carnival Spirit yesterday, Thanksgiving, from the main dining room dinner per an internet posting since removed. 

We've known for years Carnival can't serve fresh carved turkey in the MDR for the holiday and uses pressed turkey instead.

 

We much prefer dressing up for family photos and then changing into comfortable clothes and heading to the lido where

whole turkey is carved to order on Thanksgiving.

 

I'm a realist and I get that pressed turkey will be served in the MDR but we love that Carnival offers us a choice and it is still one of the few mass market cruise lines that offers carved turkey on this special day in one of its venues.

 

The whole turkey photo was taken last Thanksgiving by family on the Panorama. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 25, 2022 by AHS123

[shof515]

another sign of cutbacks at carnival

[chengkp75]

38 minutes ago, AHS123 said:

I'm a realist and I get that pressed turkey will be served in the MDR but we love that Carnival offers us a choice and it is still one of the few mass market cruise lines that offers carved turkey on this special day in one of its venues.

NCL used to serve whole turkey on Thanksgiving (if the US pax count was high enough), and I think they still do.  Whether in the MDR or buffet, I can't remember.  Since I was on the Pride of Aloha, with a full US crew, during the day, while most pax were ashore, the aft MDR would be taken over for a crew Thanksgiving dinner, where the officers served the crew.  I carved many a turkey on those days.

[firefly333]

1 hour ago, shof515 said:

another sign of cutbacks at carnival

It's always been like this as far back as I can remember. Mdr awful pressed turkey, buffet has a real turkey they carve. Dont order the thanksgiving turkey in Mdr.

[Raiderguy8]

Do they also serve turkey this way, pressed in the MDR and carved in the buffet, on Christmas or do they not serve turkey at all on that day?

[ElectricBallroom]

I got off Radiance this morning and the MDR turkey looked better than that. We guessed that it was hand sliced from breasts. It was okay. 
 

The Lido had a nice looking turkey. The young lady that was carving it didn’t seem familiar with the bird and the slices weren’t great. It tasted about the same as my grandmas. 

 

The Thanksgiving turkey looked like that in the Miracle MDR last year. I didn’t see the Lido.

 

 

[CruizinSusan70]

Luckily we'll be on the Celebrity Beyond over Thanksgiving next year on day 2 of our B2B.  It's a sea day and I'm sure their buffet, which is a major step above the other mass market lines will more than likely be carving turkey at lunch time since their lunch time buffet includes grilled to order options on a daily basis.

[mondello]

11 hours ago, Raiderguy8 said:

Do they also serve turkey this way, pressed in the MDR and carved in the buffet, on Christmas or do they not serve turkey at all on that day?

The carving station at the Buffet carved roasted turkey 1 day on each cruise, not just Thanksgiving. The turkey always looks great. The leg of lamb on another day is also good.

[Purvis1231]

On our recent cruise, there was roast turkey several days on the buffet- it was good. 

[jimbob22]

just got off MG and the turkey was real. It was a few thin slices of white meat and a separate 'rolled and stuffed' thicker slice of dark meat.  The plate also had an average (not generous) sized portion of sweet potatoes, and dressing.  It was an adequate sized plate of food.  Whereas wife got the shrimp and grits which was half a normal serving, had 5 small shrimp.  On MG they are putting around 5 small shrimp in shrimp entrees.

 

I've never been enamored of Carnival's dinner buffet, but I think that on our next Carnival cruise, I will strongly consider doing one or more dinners there.  Note that we did like all of the quick serve places (guy's, BI, BC, pannini, pizza).

[cruisinpips]

Just off Horizon this morning, Thanksgiving turkey in MDR was real carved turkey. It was a little dry but OK. Also had the “rolled and stuffed” dark meat slice. 
on another note…Steakhouse was awesome as usual, as was Teppanyaki.
Tried the Bonsai teryaki steak in Bonsai Sushi and it was great. 

Edited November 27, 2022 by cruisinpips

[aztekpm]

Was on the Legend for 2 weeks at the start of November and for the first time ever ate dinner on the Lido. I had never considered doing so until Jamman was saying in his last few reviews that they ate on the Lido and most of the food selections were the same as the MDR, which of course makes sense. 

 

I must say I was pleasantly surprised at how good the food was, especially the daily carving station and yes real, full turkeys! As well, the chef was very good with his pasta courses, very flavourful and nothing like jarred sauce, which is frankly what I had expected based on some comments.

[Joebucks]

12 hours ago, jimbob22 said:

I've never been enamored of Carnival's dinner buffet, but I think that on our next Carnival cruise, I will strongly consider doing one or more dinners there.  Note that we did like all of the quick serve places (guy's, BI, BC, pannini, pizza).

 

The buffet gets a lot of hate because that's the fun thing to do, to show how refined your dining tastes are. When in reality, it's mostly the same food made in the same manner as in the mdr.

[Itried4498]

We celebrated Thanksgiving on the Miracle.  Dinner was a major disappointment - the buffet had carved turkey but NO traditional sides nor any other fall flavors.

 

Here was what was served in the MDR.  It looks more like a Costco sample than a meal…

[jimbob22]

8 hours ago, Joebucks said:

 

The buffet gets a lot of hate because that's the fun thing to do, to show how refined your dining tastes are. When in reality, it's mostly the same food made in the same manner as in the mdr.

we did one or two Carnivals where it seemed like it had maybe *some* mdr food, but definitely not all of it.  The quality looked fine, but not a huge number of choices and quite a few leaned toward 'very heavy starchy/cheesy'.  But I did see some good Indian food on the dinner buffet on MG this past week.  I think that now that they seem like they've downgraded the MDR experience a bit (with unpredictable portion sizes), the buffet becomes more attractive.

[jimbob22]

2 hours ago, Itried4498 said:

We celebrated Thanksgiving on the Miracle.  Dinner was a major disappointment - the buffet had carved turkey but NO traditional sides nor any other fall flavors.

 

Here was what was served in the MDR.  It looks more like a Costco sample than a meal…

 

 

 

Is that the turkey dinner? on MG, it was a more normal sized dinner for certain--although my wife got the shrimp and grits, which was like a half portion.

[Itried4498]

8 minutes ago, jimbob22 said:

Is that the turkey dinner? on MG, it was a more normal sized dinner for certain--although my wife got the shrimp and grits, which was like a half portion.

Yes, that was the full meal that was served on Miracle.  One of us got the shrimp, and it included three medium-sized shrimp.  
 

We had the pumpkin pie for dessert, but ended up supplementing our meal at the buffet.

[CruizinSusan70]

5 hours ago, Itried4498 said:

 

Here was what was served in the MDR.  It looks more like a Costco sample than a meal…

My DH could polish off two of those platters with no problem.  Of course would not order a third in order to avoid the new upcharge.  

[1kaper]

I was on the Spirit for Thanksgiving and mine didn’t look like that. 
Not a great picture. I didn’t know what the round thing was. It was dark meat of the Turkey with spinach. (I thought the waiter said duck meat and Turkey with spinach 😂) 

 

[sanmarcosman]

6 minutes ago, 1kaper said:

 

All that cranberry sauce would spoil my appetite for pumpkin pie!  🙂 

[jimbob22]

9 minutes ago, 1kaper said:

I was on the Spirit for Thanksgiving and mine didn’t look like that. 
Not a great picture. I didn’t know what the round thing was. It was dark meat of the Turkey with spinach. (I thought the waiter said duck meat and Turkey with spinach 😂) 

 

My meal on MG looked similar, maybe a tad less white meat, the dark meat 'wheel' was a bit bigger. You got heaping portions of dressing and sweet potato, per current Carnival standards.  I got a metal ketchup container filled around halfway with the cranberry sauce (a heaping portion per current standards).

[katstoy]

I was on the Panorama for Thanksgiving and opted for the buffet for hand carved turkey as I knew that the MDR would be serving the turkey roll.  The turkey in the buffet was delicious and moist!  However, there was a lack of the "traditional" sides.  Could not find any stuffing and the gravy was white and not a turkey gravy.  The potatoes were called "stewed" potatoes.  They tasted good and looked like almost mashed potatoes (just needed to mash them a bit more).   

[nydney1]

We just returned from the Glory yesterday.

 

I could not have been more disappointed with the Thanksgiving dinner. We chose to eat at Lido. There was a turkey they were carving which was good. They had a sweet potato mash but no other traditional sides.

 

I understand that Thanksgiving is an American Holiday, but I expected a little more.

 

I did notice that no one else seemed to be concerned about the offering. There were plenty of other dinner choices.

 

I may be a tad sensitive since Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

[CruizinSusan70]

5 hours ago, katstoy said:

I was on the Panorama for Thanksgiving and opted for the buffet for hand carved turkey as I knew that the MDR would be serving the turkey roll.  The turkey in the buffet was delicious and moist!  However, there was a lack of the "traditional" sides.  Could not find any stuffing and the gravy was white and not a turkey gravy.  The potatoes were called "stewed" potatoes.  They tasted good and looked like almost mashed potatoes (just needed to mash them a bit more).   

Not officially a Thanksgiving turkey meal without the stuffing (or dressing as they say in some areas south of the Mason/Dixon)

[1kaper]

1 minute ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Not officially a Thanksgiving turkey meal without the stuffing (or dressing as they say in some areas south of the Mason/Dixon)

 

Always thought dressing was cooked outside of the Turkey. Stuffing was cooked inside.