The food was not great, in fact as a foodie, I would describe it as mediocre. Dinner was best, but still not stellar, desserts were the best part of every meal. Even the kids thought it was gross. One of a small list of reasons we chose a cruise over a resort vacation was for the food. I've been on 5 cruises (my 2nd Carnival) and this was by far the worst food I'd ever had on a cruise, unless you went to the steakhouse and paid (approx $50 per person with the required gratuity). Which was frustrating because it proved that Carnival had the ability to make delicious food, but chose not to. This made me believe that they did this intentionally to get patrons to pay for the steakhouse. The steakhouse was amazing, the best steak I have ever had in my life. I was so full from all the yummy food that I couldn’t even think about dessert.

If you had large groups for dinner, you usually had to wait more than an hour for a table and there weren’t any snacks nearby to hold people over. You couldn’t make a reservation for the regular dining, so we had to wait every night or break up our group to eat dinner. It would have been great if Carnival would have allowed all groups over 6 or 9 to make reservations. I learned to get a small snack prior to dinner to keep from feeling sick from hunger.

The only 24 hour food is pizza (mediocre at best) and usually had long lines after bars let out...which makes sense. My husband has a gluten sensitivity and so for a late night snack he had to order pizza and only eat the toppings (not a lot of food and a waste). They did pretty good at getting pizza out quickly, but you couldn't really special order because of this. Usually there was pepperoni available and if you wanted anything else, you'd have to wait a while. It would have been great if Carnival offered other 24 hour options, but considering how poor the food was to begin with, I suppose this would not have made a big difference. Read more