$20.00 surcharge for Lobster Tail???

[katiel53]

For less than $20, you can buy 2 tails at a grocery store...cook them yourself! So easy!

 

I'll remember that and bring it on the ship and ask them to cook it for me. I don't have a clue what your post has to do with whether or not one pays for lobster on the ship.

[Warm Breezes]

I find that the $20 charge in MDR is not worth it, it is better to spend $15 more and go to the steakhouse.

 

For us it would be the opposite since I would not enjoy any of the items on the steakhouse menu and DH would. Therefore spending $20 for him to enjoy it in the MDR while I got something lighter I would enjoy already included vs going to the steak house and spending $70 for both of us when I wouldn't enjoy it is a much better deal.

[CruiseBride926]

Not on the ship. ;)

 

 

Maybe the new vendors carry lobster haha

 

 

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[cruzinlisa]

We can't all get to Maine as often as we want to eat lobster. Although I agree that frozen Maine lobster doesn't even seem like it's the same food as the succulent fresh Maine lobster I enjoyed several times on my visit to Maine (just as those pathetic frozen warm-water tails in the MDR are absolutely nothing like the Abaco lobster that I spear and have cooked for me about 15 minutes later on my visits to Abaco;)), if I want lobster (which I often do), I will pay for the best lobster I can get where I am. Even if that's frozen lobster, if it's handled and cooked properly, it's better than no lobster, IMO.

 

Nothing frozen ever beats the fresh version of the same thing. But sometimes frozen is all you can get. I'd rather have the frozen Maine lobster tail from the Steakhouse with the upcharge than the crappy flat iron steak, for example, for free.

 

Yep. I have never been to Maine or had fresh Maine Lobster (or any lobster not previously frozen). I am landlocked in the Midwest. So any kind of lobster is a treat for me, even if there are better. Here I have seen them at the grocery store but they are not very cheap and are very frozen and when I cook them myself its not that great. So my options for lobster are eating subpar lobster on a cruise, eating subpar lobster at red lobster for $30 or paying "market price" which scares me immensely for lobster at a fancier restaurant. So I can't really be a "lobster snob." Now with steak I can be. I won't mess with the flat iron steak. And I don't think I would pay extra. For $20 I could get a few pounds of rib eye steaks and grill them myself. And it would probably be just as good if not better.

[untailored bostonian]

Is this true? We are sailing on the Freedom in 45 days!! I was reviewing the menus and think this is what I saw.

 

I got off the Dream 1/31. There was a "Lobster tail night" in the MDR on the second [formal] night of the cruise. There was no charge for the lobster and if you wanted you could request seconds. One gentleman near me had at least 4 servings, no charge.

 

On other nights you could request items from the steak house menu, and for a lobster tail under that option you paid $20. That was also the price for a steak from that menu. [Flat Iron steaks were an every day item and free.]

[untailored bostonian]

Yep. I have never been to Maine or had fresh Maine Lobster (or any lobster not previously frozen). I am landlocked in the Midwest. So any kind of lobster is a treat for me, even if there are better. Here I have seen them at the grocery store but they are not very cheap and are very frozen and when I cook them myself its not that great. So my options for lobster are eating subpar lobster on a cruise, eating subpar lobster at red lobster for $30 or paying "market price" which scares me immensely for lobster at a fancier restaurant. So I can't really be a "lobster snob." Now with steak I can be. I won't mess with the flat iron steak. And I don't think I would pay extra. For $20 I could get a few pounds of rib eye steaks and grill them myself. And it would probably be just as good if not better.

 

I live 200 yards from the ocean and these critter can be caught just down the street. On our cruise I had one of the "free" lobster tails. and I am certain it was a block of ice the day before. It was not a treat for me, but I can see how others might enjoy their lobster.

 

When I want a beastie, I got to the local lobster pound and get a 3+ ponder which they cook for me for $30-35.

[untailored bostonian]

For all that they're giant seabugs, lobsters are freaking delicious.

 

There used to be a kind of stigma around eating lobster, because it was considered a "poor-man's food:" fishermen would bring the ones stuck in the nets home for their families to eat, because they couldn't sell them. My father-in-law has told me stories of how kids at his school would be mortified to have a lobster sandwich in their lunchbox. It's really only been 100 years or so that it has become a delicacy.

 

And thus ends today's North Atlantic culinary history lesson.

 

When the Irish where flooding the country during the famine years, NYC passed a law forbidding the servants being feed too much lobster. It was considered an insubstantial food source and a cheap out for the "upstair" folk.

 

From Wiki: "Thomas Morton (c. 1579–1647) was an early American colonist from Devon, England, a lawyer, writer and social reformer. He was famed for founding the British colony of Merrymount, located in what is now Quincy, Massachusetts, and for his work studying Native American culture."

 

He lived adjacent to a beach now called Wollaston Beach In Quincy. He lived there in the 1624+ era. In his diary he describes how these lobster just swarmed onto the beach making is hard to walk near the shore. I have often thought that if time travel become possible, I'd like to visit those beaches with pounds of butter.

[ShakyBeef]

For those that don't know (and if it matters to you:)): the free lobster tails served in the MDR come from (cheaper) warm-water lobsters, not Maine lobsters. The two lobster types are entirely different species and taste very different, even when they are fresh. So it's not really "fair" to compare the MDR lobster to fresh Maine lobster.;)

[funship freddy]

Just off Carnival Victory (Jan 23rd - 5 nights) I had the $20 lobster three nights. Yes it is "spiny" lobster not Maine. It was prepared correctly and not tough or mushy. I felt it was worth the $20. One of my companions had the filet. It was prepared as ordered (rare) and looked great. $20 when I am cruising is no big deal. Didn't have the option of going to the steakhouse as Victory has no extra fee dining options. Typically I go to optional venues every night when available. :D

[firemanbobswife]

Just off Carnival Victory (Jan 23rd - 5 nights) I had the $20 lobster three nights. Yes it is "spiny" lobster not Maine. It was prepared correctly and not tough or mushy. I felt it was worth the $20. One of my companions had the filet. It was prepared as ordered (rare) and looked great. $20 when I am cruising is no big deal. Didn't have the option of going to the steakhouse as Victory has no extra fee dining options. Typically I go to optional venues every night when available. :D

 

 

The Steakhouse lobster is Maine Lobster. If it's not, then they have some false advertising going on.

 

[ShakyBeef]

The Steakhouse lobster is Maine Lobster. If it's not, then they have some false advertising going on.

 

 

Thanks, your picture confirms what I was thinking. I know it's Maine lobster in the Steakhouse, and I didn't think they were offering something other than Maine lobster for the Steakhouse MDR option, but I wasn't going to say anything because I couldn't remember what the MDR menu listed it as.

[mumtopugs]

6 days and longer they are free on elegant night. You can get them on shorter cruises or other nights for the fee.

[FireEater]

Last thing I would want to do on elegant night is spill butter on me or have it hit my tie as I lean over...

 

Use to live in Maine in the early 80's. $1 a pound off the boats at the dock, plus steamed there for ya.....that and the winters were the highlights of living in Maine besides all the beautiful sights to see of course...

 

Here in the Orlando area is a restaurant called Boston Lobster feast. All the Maine lobster you can eat at the buffet, one at a time, plus steaks and New Zealand mussels, claims, and so many other items. A tad expensive, but I go in hungry and leave full....:)

Edited February 12, 2016 by FireEater

[HamSammie]

I could be wrong, but didn't the MDR steakhouse selection used to be a whole Maine lobster and not just the tail?

[BallFour4]

I could be wrong, but didn't the MDR steakhouse selection used to be a whole Maine lobster and not just the tail?

 

I've enjoyed one or seen one delivered since the program started and it's just been the tail. Not discounting what you saw, but who knows!

 

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Edited February 12, 2016 by BallFour4

[ryanedoyle]

I would rather BY FAR just spend the extra $15 and enjoy a nice $35 steakhouse meal. The atmosphere, food and service is well worth the cost.

[Lace]

Is this true? We are sailing on the Freedom in 45 days!! I was reviewing the menus and think this is what I saw.

 

Rediculous, ain't it. Charge a fare for room board entertainment, and then charge again for stuff that used to be included.

 

When I heard they were going to charge for tea, I was wondering if water was next. Oh yeah.

[jimbo5544]

Rediculous, ain't it. Charge a fare for room board entertainment, and then charge again for stuff that used to be included.

 

 

 

When I heard they were going to charge for tea, I was wondering if water was next. Oh yeah.

 

 

Lobster is still included on the Freedom.....other than that we were right there with you.