Carnival Venezia Buffet

[amberjohn]

Hello,

  We sail on this ship in October.  I've heard numerous horror stories about the lines in the Buffet

and seen lots of videos to support this. I guess the Buffet area/lines was designed very poorly?

Has anyone who has sailed recently noticed an improvement in this situation?

 

Thanks

[shof515]

it is designed very poorly

 

there is one single line for salad, soup, entrees, etc, etc

 

if you do no want any salad, you still have to stand in that line

[Stick93]

Think of it as an encouraging diet on the high seas - Italian style of course. 

[Haljo1935]

10 hours ago, shof515 said:

it is designed very poorly

 

there is one single line for salad, soup, entrees, etc, etc

 

if you do no want any salad, you still have to stand in that line

Just to confirm - if I only want a salad, for example, I can't bypass the people waiting for entrees and walk to the salad section? Or if I only want a roll, I have to wait through the entire line?

Going in Sept so trying to prepare...

Edited August 4, 2023 by Haljo1935
Typo

[shof515]

you will need to wait in line unless you get a nice person that will allow you to cut the line

[Despegue]

You need to consider each section as a station. People act like sheep though and just blindly join the end of “the line” instead of treating each section ( soup/ salad/ main course/ dessert,...) as seperate stations, eventhough they are lined -up in a row. 
 

[Crusin Karen]

11 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

Just to confirm - if I only want a salad, for example, I can't bypass the people waiting for entrees and walk to the salad section? Or if I only want a roll, I have to wait through the entire line?

Going in Sept so trying to prepare...

Correct! If you want just “one little thing” I’d advise you to get in line before it opens then you can make a mad dash to fill up your plate with what you want. 

[realtrip]

Thankfully the line moves pretty quickly. The salad part is the only tedious section as people take more time. The buffet section has the same set up as all the Carnival ships I have been on. One difference is there is no wok station. Instead there is an asian section just outside the buffet area at the aft ( where the seafood place is). This is only on sea days though. It is pretty good.

[realtrip]

17 hours ago, Crusin Karen said:

Correct! If you want just “one little thing” I’d advise you to get in line before it opens then you can make a mad dash to fill up your plate with what you want. 

The salad section is at the start of the line. You will be able to avoid the rest of the buffet by just leaving the line after you have prepped your salad.

[Haljo1935]

34 minutes ago, realtrip said:

The salad section is at the start of the line. You will be able to avoid the rest of the buffet by just leaving the line after you have prepped your salad.

YAY! And does this keep me from standing by the seafood section? I avoid seafood.

[Despegue]

1 hour ago, Haljo1935 said:

YAY! And does this keep me from standing by the seafood section? I avoid seafood.

Just stand at the section where you need to be! There is NO reason to stand in line at the beginning if you want something at the end! Treat the damn thing like any other buffet with stations/

[Haljo1935]

23 minutes ago, Despegue said:

Just stand at the section where you need to be! There is NO reason to stand in line at the beginning if you want something at the end! Treat the damn thing like any other buffet with stations/

 

On 8/4/2023 at 8:31 AM, shof515 said:

you will need to wait in line unless you get a nice person that will allow you to cut the line

 

On 8/3/2023 at 9:17 PM, shof515 said:

it is designed very poorly

 

there is one single line for salad, soup, entrees, etc, etc

 

if you do no want any salad, you still have to stand in that line

@DespegueI saw your other post saying no need to stand in the full line, but also see the other posts saying the opposite. I am not accustomed to standing in the full line, but rather treating each area as a section, so just going where I need to go and get in that line.

But not having been on Venezia before (sailed Carnival just not Venezia) I'm trying to find out the way her buffet works. I sure have no interest in being seen on YT as the next victim of a brawl because I skipped past the noodles, lol.

[stobe1]

55 minutes ago, Haljo1935 said:

 

 

@DespegueI saw your other post saying no need to stand in the full line, but also see the other posts saying the opposite. I am not accustomed to standing in the full line, but rather treating each area as a section, so just going where I need to go and get in that line.

But not having been on Venezia before (sailed Carnival just not Venezia) I'm trying to find out the way her buffet works. I sure have no interest in being seen on YT as the next victim of a brawl because I skipped past the noodles, lol.

 

Yeah there are 2 vastly differing schools of thought on that. As you can see in this thread they are both on full display. One person says they have to wait in the entire line to get something and others say no just go grab what you want. I am in camp #2. No need to stand in a 10 or 15 minute line if what you want or need is 3/4 of the way down towards the end. Just say excuse me and grab it.

 

Actually, there is a 3rd school of thought and that is to avoid the buffet completely. Guys, Blue Iguana, Pizza, Seafood Shack (or Tandoor depending on the ship...does anyone know if any Tandoors are still around on any ships?), Big Chicken, Guys Smokehouse or MDR for meals. 

Edited August 5, 2023 by stobe1

[ObstructedView2]

57 minutes ago, stobe1 said:

does anyone know if any Tandoors are still around on any ships?

 

Hi @stobe1🙂

 

Unfortunately & sadly, all of the Tandoors are gone.

 

However, on Splendor (only) there is Masala Tiger. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

🍹

[Crusin Karen]

17 hours ago, realtrip said:

The salad section is at the start of the line. You will be able to avoid the rest of the buffet by just leaving the line after you have prepped your salad.

Forgot that! 👏👍👍

[AFS1970]

This being a new ship, I will have to figure out how the buffet works when I get on board. This will likely be a combination of the physical layout and the attitudes of my fellow cruisers. While camp #2 sounds like a nice place, I can see that if I were on the line in camp #1 and waited patiently for my station to come up, and someone asked to cut in just at that moment, I might be a little annoyed. Not enough to stat an epic carnival brawl over, but still annoyed. 

 

One thing I have noticed about most of the cruise vlogs I have seen, with few exceptions most of the buffet footage is shot when it is closed and there is no food lid out or people standing on line so it is hard to gauge this part of the cruise. 

[latebloomer56]

What about if you only want the deli? Was thinking if we don't have breakfast we would grab a sandwich at the deli. Is there a separate area with in the buffet for deli only?

Thanks

[pinto18]

11 minutes ago, latebloomer56 said:

What about if you only want the deli? Was thinking if we don't have breakfast we would grab a sandwich at the deli. Is there a separate area with in the buffet for deli only?

Thanks

The deli has a separate line

 

[Haljo1935]

Maybe it will be easier to just go on a 2 week diet.🙄 

We plan (and plans can change) on having most dinners in MDR and Specialty venues, so this is mostly about sea day lunches and breakfast. We do like the variety of a buffet and prefer it be drama free.

[Drew B 58]

9 hours ago, latebloomer56 said:

What about if you only want the deli? Was thinking if we don't have breakfast we would grab a sandwich at the deli. Is there a separate area with in the buffet for deli only?

Thanks

The deli is a separate line, but it isn’t open during breakfast hours.  I believe the deli hours are 11:00-11:00.  On most ships (not sure about Venezia), they use that area as an omelette station during breakfast hours. If that’s the case, it will have a separate line - albeit often a LONG one - as well…

[Bound4Bermuda]

On 8/4/2023 at 6:11 PM, Despegue said:

You need to consider each section as a station. People act like sheep though and just blindly join the end of “the line” instead of treating each section ( soup/ salad/ main course/ dessert,...) as seperate stations, eventhough they are lined -up in a row. 
 

 

On 8/5/2023 at 4:28 PM, Despegue said:

Just stand at the section where you need to be! There is NO reason to stand in line at the beginning if you want something at the end! Treat the damn thing like any other buffet with stations/

There are no “sections” in the Venezia buffet. It’s all one row. The only areas that are sectioned off are the deli and dessert sections. But say you want a continental breakfast, they have the fruit in the beginning of the line and the pastries at the end, so you have to also wait while everyone gets all the hot foods in the middle.

[Despegue]

1 hour ago, Bound4Bermuda said:

 

There are no “sections” in the Venezia buffet. It’s all one row. The only areas that are sectioned off are the deli and dessert sections. But say you want a continental breakfast, they have the fruit in the beginning of the line and the pastries at the end, so you have to also wait while everyone gets all the hot foods in the middle.

That is exactly what people should NOT do but do not understand. Even if it is one big buffet line, you just need to gather at the place of your interest and grab what you need! Nobody should be in any line at all really if you perform the “grab and go “ concept.  People are conditioned to wait in line though, which is understandable.

[shof515]

20 minutes ago, Despegue said:

That is exactly what people should NOT do but do not understand. Even if it is one big buffet line, you just need to gather at the place of your interest and grab what you need! Nobody should be in any line at all really if you perform the “grab and go “ concept.  People are conditioned to wait in line though, which is understandable.

 

i think it is a design issue with the layout. the plates and utensils is at the beginning of the buffet where the long line forms. 

 

if each thing was a separate section then each section should also have the plates and utensils. this is what i noticed on other cruise lines like royal and norwegian where they are plenty of places to just grab a plate and go. not so much on carnival ships. 

 

 

[Haljo1935]

• So how is anyone to know the "correct" way to go through the buffet line? 

Nobody's fault on here, but truly sounds like a flawed design. 

Ugh - that's it - just ugh!

[Bound4Bermuda]

45 minutes ago, Despegue said:

That is exactly what people should NOT do but do not understand. Even if it is one big buffet line, you just need to gather at the place of your interest and grab what you need! Nobody should be in any line at all really if you perform the “grab and go “ concept.  People are conditioned to wait in line though, which is understandable.

If there were any room at all between types of food, I get your point. But these are buffet dishes touching each other lined up, with people standing shoulder to shoulder dishing up their food and a tight space to begin with. There’s no opportunity to just “jump in” where you want. People got to the end of the line and realized they missed the butter in the middle and had to backtrack, and so then people would let them “jump back” if they already had a full plate of food—and only if they already had a full plate of food. But if people just started cutting around the line and jumping in, it would not have gone over well! Hell, when we had to wait on line to get the luggage tags for disembarkation, two ladies behind me thought that two other people cut the line and started shouting about “this is how you get your ass beat” and ran up to confront them. I didn’t see what happened because someone else came back out and gave me extra tags they had. But put it this way, people are concerned about the aggression on Venezia out of NYC. As long as everyone is being polite, it’s fine. But if someone thinks the line doesn’t/rules don’t apply to them…well, let us know how it goes for you. Godspeed. I wouldn’t risk it.