jimbob22

we were on the last sailing before your's. Note that around day 4 or 5, all the Lido coffee areas were out of Splenda for the rest of the cruise (we persevered using Equal). We were not that crazy about the bossche bol at GDC--but their apple pie is awesome. If they can warm it up, that would take it to the next level. We noticed that when we did k-dam over Christmas 5 years ago, the tv had many movies and also many on-demand tv shows. I guess something changed b/c there are no more on-demand tv shows. On day one, wife and daughter got sandwiches at NYDP and they forgot to ask for extra meat--but their sandwiches actually had a decent amount, probably over an inch of meat (tapering off a bit toward the edges). But it never hurts to ask for extra of course. Consider stockpiling the chocolate croissants if you like them. They tend to disappear quicker than the others. Enjoy your sailing. I greatly enjoyed it. I went in worried about tremendous cutbacks but IMO the fears were unfounded (we do not do the specialty dining, did 3 nights in MDR, the rest in lido).

that could well be the case. They typically all brag about how much flour they bring on board (and that *is* the most space efficient way of bringing bread/pastries on board). But I'm thinking that they are pre-made. We were just on Hal and they had some of these same pastries, but also a lot of others that I think are closer to scratch/truly made on the ship. But it's possible I'm bamboozled and Hal just brings on a lot more pre-made, pre-baked pastries and breads...

does anyone have any opinion or knowledge on how much/many things are truly made from scratch on Carnival?? Supposedly, pretty much everything is made from scratch. Some aspects that made me curious: they are clearly cutting back on some portions, but we (and others online) noticed that the chicken parm at capitano was actually pretty huge. This made me wonder if it was pre-cooked and sealed in a bag (i.e. something where they could not actually reduce the portion size). Are some foods pre-made? pre-cooked and individually vac sealed? without working in the galley, it's hard to be certain. Nothing inherently wrong with pre-sealed foods, which is a common cost cutting measure. Fuddruckers used to hang sides of beef, grind it in house. Then they went to pre-made patties, then they mostly all went out of business...

On rotterdam, on the port side just outside the fitness center was a room that said something like 'relaxation room'. It had loungers facing windows. I (and likely many others) was not sure if that was a 'pay extra' area, but I asked a worker and she said anyone can go in there. That could be a good place to read if you like silence and good views.

it's a shame Carnival doesn't do any sailings to Bermuda or northward to Canada out of Charleston. I'm in Atlanta and there's basically no point in driving north to Charleston just to get on a ship heading south going to the same islands we've been to. I'm sure they've planned it all out to maximize profits, but there is no doubt that they've lost out on a substantial number of Atlanta-based cruisers.

I have my sherpa hit it with a blow torch for a bit to ensure the top is adequately browned before I ingest it. If you're not cruising with a personal sherpa, it's really the only way to go.

I had one on Carnival where the egg was still very soft and I didn't need a chainsaw or anything like that. The technology exists for all this. And they may have had a few pre-made ones near the sticky buns (I only caught a quick glimpse of the covered metal pan over there). But it's not a huge deal to me; I found other good things. I would like if Hal upgraded the coffee though. The lido coffee is probably the weakest coffee I've had on any cruise.

different strokes for different folks. I have no problem eating a pre-made EB, since it's undoubtedly fresher than much of the pre-made stuff I eat at home. The quality need not suffer other than sitting for a few minutes under the heat lamp. I don't feel like waiting in a 10-15 minute line--but many have no problem with it of course.

oh definitely. You should definitely walk all of it though to get a good look! I'm having croissant withdrawal shakes right now. Pray for me.

so is this menu basically available to everyone on every hal cruise? (obviously the menu may have some slightly different items on it from week to week). Would a diner request this when arriving at the mdr? or does it need to be coordinated ahead of time? tia,

I figure that maybe when taking costs (and availability?) into account, that providing good lobster to everyone does not work well. On a meat-to-meat basis, everything on Hal is higher quality than on Carnival, so I don't think Hal wants to provide those same small lobster tails that Carnival provides. We felt that the evening lido had some variety to it (since it would provide much or all of the mdr items), but the morning lido was repetitive, but still with enough variety to keep us happy. I *would* like to see Hal have more trays of pre-made omelettes, benedicts and similar. I never wanted to wait in that line and would gravitate toward the lox, bagel, croissants, muesli areas. I saw one round metal pan by the sticky buns, and it may have had pre-made benedicts in it. I'm not certain. Someone may be able to confirm. But overall, their standard lido offerings were (for our tastes) sufficiently varied, good quality.

just our opinion, corroborated by a couple of random plates I saw that had hollowed out carcasses on them: the bossche bol at GDC is 'ok' but did not knock our socks off. The chocolate layer is a dark, but not strongly flavored, chocolate frosting, then an average dough layer (hard to cut through, not really like eclair dough) and the cream was just whipped cream, not a custard. So it was not bad by any means--but it had been built up like the holy grail. We did find the apple pie in the GDC case to be excellent (would be even better warmed up, we didn't inquire about this). And there was some marble cake in there that looked excellent, but we did not try it. It would be nice if they had brown water (i.e. 'coffee') dispensers at GDC. I did get the fruit pancake ( a rolled crepe with blueberry/raspberry type fruit in it). It was good, but holy cow it was like a 30 minute wait...GDC seemed to be 'less noticed' on our k-dam cruise 5 years ago.

ok, we got off Rotterdam today (fam of 4) and we got off Mardi Gras a month ago, so I feel qualified to type on this issue. While it is true that Carnival does offer the small, but cherished and sacred 'lobster tail'--Carnival does NOT offer lamb chops, and has eliminated (or greatly cut back) on filet mignon. Carnival is also serving many sides in condiment containers. On Hal we had two nights with tenderloin, and it was very, very good (not skimped out super-thin slices). The tenderloin on the first night was a nice sized medium rare slice from a full, roasted tenderloin. The 2nd time, it was slightly smaller, on a bed or orzo, but still excellent. On the first tenderloin night, I had tenderloin+lamb chop entrees. The lamb was excellent too. It was the equivalent of a very pricey restaurant meal. I had zero meals on Mardi Gras that were the equivalent of a very nice restaurant meal. Although big chicken and guys are good--they do not compare to tenderloin+good lamb chops. Hal also serves a very high % of the mdr menu in the lido. So on another night, the only real tempting mdr entree (to us) was prime rib. They were slicing medium rare prime rib in the lido that night, with gravy and/or horseradish sauce--and it was excellent. Hal also had shrimp, crabcakes, smoked salmon and other upper-tier items on the lido often (the smoked salmon was available every morning). Hal also offers a LOT more baked breads, croissants, fruit pies, etc. There was no comparison--the food on the Rotterdam was far superior to MG in presentation, quality and flavor. This was our 2nd Hal sailing (we did K-dam over Christmas 5 years ago). I think this sailing had more people, and on this one I noticed more of the 'hal stereotype' older/scooter riding passengers, but there were still many families with teens, kids, a wide variety of ages. We paid under 100 pp per day (crammed into a 4 person room with obstructed balcony), but this still a great price for a product that IMO is superior to that of Carnival. In terms of dining, there is no comparison.

We got off Rotterdam today. Great cruise. I don't think there was any beef Wellington or salmon coubilac, but we suffered through the non dough crusted versions...

seriously dietetic portions at P&A. You'd think Carnival is partnering with Weight Watchers...

this way makes it easier for them to serve a small-portion meal, where it'll be a real hassle for you to get more of anything.

could be. I've noticed consistently (based on vids and our son's order) at Capitano, that the chicken parm is really huge, a large sized breast that has been flattened a bit--but it looks the same wherever I see it, so I'm thinking it's pre-sealed, probably pre-cooked (but I don't know for certain). If Carnival was making it from scratch, they'd probably cut it in half before cooking it. Maybe a steak (which is unbattered of course) they can cut in half without the recipient noticing, but with the chicken parm you'd see an unbattered part where they cut it. But if they want to keep whittling the portions then fine, but at least keep big chicken, Guy's, Blue Iguana open for dinner.

I'm actually really skeptical about how much food they're 'saving'. They gave me some skimpy dinner in P&A at 9:20pm, then closed the serving area at 9:30 and there was still a bunch of food there. I think the meat portions of entrees (in MDR) are likely vacuum sealed such that Carnival can't shrink them, so they mostly just seem to be shrinking the sides. How much money can that possibly save them?? It seems like a Guy's burger and fries is cheaper than an MDR meal--so they should try to get me to have dinner at Guy's--but I can't b/c it closes around 6pm. Big Chicken closes at 5pm. I'd have had dinner there had it been open later. I hope Carnival reads these boards...

hmm. We were on MG over Thanksgiving. I don't recall if/how it showed on the hub app. I assume it did. That's fairly lame if they entirely did away with the late snacks. There were definitely some people in the P&A area partaking...

the excel class has 'late night snacks' from 11:30pm-1am at P&A. Based on seeing someone's vid, I thought the the non-excel class still has late night snacks at the regular lido, but I'm not sure exactly what they are doing. But the late night snacks on Mardi Gras was not a really huge selection, mostly savory things. The only sweets I saw on the one night we checked it out were some basic cookies and a bowl of 'creme' (that sort of non-melting mystery cream stuff).

costco has 2 or 3 kinds of men's 'tech pants' on sale lately, around 15-20 bucks. I'm amazed that people would not buy them when a) they look a tad dressier than jeans b) they don't shrink and c) they're really light weight, probably a third the mass of jeans. I don't remember them existing 20 years ago (or maybe they were like 4x the price, only available at places like REI), but now even lowly vulgarians like me can afford them.

I wanted to get the salmon and the brisket so I filled the bubble for both. Then the worker came back to our table and told me that was an illegal move and to choose one. I chose the salmon (not very big), and the collards and beans were in the ketchup things. My slaw (same as shaq slaw) was on the tray. It was a 300 calorie dinner. I did scavenge some brisket from others in my family. It was generally a very disappointing experience. The equivalent of ordering multiple entrees at P&A is to make sure to get more than one menu, fill them in and demand that they fill the orders I guess.

yes, the 'included' P&A is NOT the same as the fee-based P&A on other ships. Did they put your sides in the small metal ketchup containers?? If you go to Chibang, be aware that it is ALL small-plates, order several things. But I agree with many others: the vast majority of Chibang food just underwhelmed us. We went to the Italian place once, it may have been a step up from Chibang. That 'stadium seating' area between 7 and 8 was our favorite area for seeing center stage, and aiming for that area like 20-30 minutes early worked pretty well. Carnival did not skimp out on entertainment and live music---and if you mostly eat at the lido, you may not notice the food cutbacks.

I saw a vid where in either a separate room or area of the gym, there were one or two TRX's dangling from the ceiling. Has anyone noticed if they have that all the time? or maybe only for classes? I have one, and might bring it on upcoming Rotterdam--but we are flying a cheapo airline, limited by weight, so if Hal has them available for anyone to use, I'd probably just leave mine at home. Also, if anyone noticed whether they had any 'arc trainers' (similar to an elliptical, but not exactly the same), I'd be curious to know. Based on videos, I don't think they have this, but I could be wrong. Just got off of Mardi Gras, and they have two of them. Thanks in advance.

I was almost expecting him to say he found a floating volleyball in the water, drew a face on it, and talked to it to keep his sanity...