Eastern Caribbean Cruise: Food on Board

After spending a day in Tortola, the hubby and I braced ourselves for another day at sea, while our Carnival ship was en route to the Bahamas.Since I’ve already shown you a day at sea and given you a tour of the ship, I figured I could use today’s post to talk about the food onboard a cruise ship.

Cruise ships, especially Carnival, provide you a plethora of eating options.So much food in fact that the average 7 day cruiser gains anywhere from 5 to 10 pounds (although I’m convinced that a lot of this is from the abundant flow of alcohol).
For those of you completely new to cruising, your meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner are all included with your cruise.In terms of drinks, water, tea, juice and coffee are also included, but any alcohol or soda will cost you (they aren’t cheap…think like $8 for a pina coloda).
For breakfast and lunch, you have the option of eating at any of the dining rooms or at the lido deck buffet.The dining rooms are typically open for a few hours for breakfast and lunch and they serve a condensed version of the meals from the lido deck.It’s first come first serve so there’s always the potential that you would have to wait for a seat if all the tables were taken.
Eastern Caribbean Cruise: Food on Board

We always do breakfast and lunch on the lido deck because it has more options and you control the portions.Typically, the dining room serves really small portions so you end up ordering like 5 to 6 different items.It also takes longer since you have to wait for the kitchen and wait staff.
Eastern Caribbean Cruise: Food on Board

Breakfast on the lido deck typically contains every breakfast option you can think of: cereal, oatmeal, bagels, fruit, pancakes, waffles, omelets, eggs, bacon, pastries, muffins, etc.I always stuck to the oatmeal.They make a huge batch of plain oatmeal, with toppings on the side.I usually added some raisins and almonds and grabbed a banana.Mr. A tried pretty much all the breakfast food and liked all of it except for some cold bacon he had one morning.
Eastern Caribbean Cruise: Food on Board

We also decided to eat lunch on the Lido deck when we weren’t in port eating.Lunch offers tons of options besides the typical lunch salad buffet.
On our ship (the Carnival Valor) we had a deli stand (for all your typical sandwich meals), the Mongolian wok (stir fry Asian food), the Burrito Bar, Fish N Chips, the Grill (hamburger/hot dog fare), the Pizzeria, the Dessert Stand, and the Ice Cream/Fro Yo Stand.The Grill, the Pizzeria and the Ice Cream stay open 24/7 but the other stations typically operated from 12-3 and then 5-7.
We spent most of our lunch time at the Burrito bar and the Pizzeria.Since we knew we would be having a huge dinner, we tried to keep the lunches quick and simple.
For dinner, Carnival offers you the opportunity to eat in the dining rooms or on the Lido deck.The dining rooms are situated differently for dinner than they are for breakfast or lunch.Carnival gives you the option of having assigned dining at their early (6 pm) or late seating (8:15 pm).
The benefit to an assigned time is that you sit at the same table every night with the same wait staff.   This allows the wait staff to build a rapport with you (e.g. if they found out that you order iced tea with lemons every night, they would have the lemons on the table as you arrived).The downside however is that you are forced to eat at 6 or at 8:15, no exceptions.So if one night you want to see a show at 7pm and you have assigned dining at 6pm, you have to eat dinner on the Lido deck.
In the last few years, Carnival has been experimenting with a more flexible dinner dining scheme called Your Time Dining.If you select, Your Time Dining you can go to your designated dining room anytime between 5:45pm and 8:45pm.We picked this option since it allows you flexibility and you aren’t forced to eat super early or super late.
There are a few downsides to Your Time Dining but there are some work arounds to minimize the frustration.We found that the dining room was really busy around 7pm, especially on the formal night.Our recommendation would be to go around 6:30pm or wait until 7:30pm.   Otherwise, you are likely to end up sitting around with a pager for a good 30 minutes.
Our other recommendation would be to find a wait team you like and request to be seated with them.After a few nights of lackluster service (including overhearing two waiters arguing with one another on the dining room floor), we lodged a complaint with the customer service desk.
Eastern Caribbean Cruise: Food on Board

From that night on, we were assigned to Crisanta and her wonderful team.She and her staff seriously made our dining experience.The one night we opted to go with a different wait staff (Crisanta’s tables were full) we totally regretted it.It was worth the extra wait for her tables to be open to have a good dining experience.
Eastern Caribbean Cruise: Food on Board

As far as the food goes, the dining room dinners are beyond delicious.Every night, you are given the opportunity to order from their every day menu (i.e. items that stay the same every night) or the menu of the day. Every day items include the standard broiled fish, Caesar salad, grilled chicken, hamburger and French fries kind of fare.The menu of the day features the more exotic, upscale food, oysters rockefeller, filet mignon, lobster tail, and it changes every night.
The menu is organized into a three course meal but you can order anything at anytime.For example, if I saw two entrées that I wanted to try, I could order one as an appetizer and one as an entrée.You can also order as much as you like (Mr. A often times went with 2 entrées).
Just to give you an idea of what dinner looks like I photographed an evening of our food for you.