Lunch at embarkation

[trbarton]

On Princess they always have one dinning room opened from 12 noon - 1:30 pm lunch on embarkation day. Does Carnival do the same?

 

It’s nice to be able to sit down & relax rather than fighting all of the people in the buffet. 
 

Tom😀

[BlerkOne]

Nope.

[Saint Greg]

They don’t but depending on what ship you’re on you can get something the deck above the buffet. It’s usually a nice quiet embarkation day lunch because most people don’t know it’s there. 

[lasekeye]

If your ship has a BBQ venue, it will be open to everyone on embarkation day (otherwise only on sea days).  Many guests don’t know...so 🤫

[trbarton]

20 minutes ago, lasekeye said:

If your ship has a BBQ venue, it will be open to everyone on embarkation day (otherwise only on sea days).  Many guests don’t know...so 🤫

I’m going to be on the Miracle. Do you know where the BBQ venue is?

 

Thanks!

 

Tom😀

[sanmarcosman]

13 minutes ago, trbarton said:

I’m going to be on the Miracle. Do you know where the BBQ venue is?

 

Thanks!

 

Tom😀

Here's a link to the food venues on the Carnival Miracle. I didn't see the BBQ place like they have on Carnival Panorama.

https://www.carnival.com/cruise-food/?shipCode=MI

[firefly333]

Maybe it was a blog? But someone said to allow a hour and a half to board, by the time you get staggered and temp taken, maybe a covid test. It could take most of the afternoon to board.

 

Cleaning between cruises is apt to take longer than before. 

 

I'm keeping my expectations low what to expect. 

[PhillyFan33579]

On a couple of fairly recent Carnival cruises I was on they had one of the MDRs open on embarkation day and called it the Family Zone or something similar to that. I assume it was a concept they were testing since it wasn’t available on every Carnival ship I have cruised on over the last few years. 

[SadieN]

2 hours ago, trbarton said:

I’m going to be on the Miracle. Do you know where the BBQ venue is?

 

Thanks!

 

Tom😀

Miracle only has embarkation dining  Deck 9.  But she does have many buffet lines that are spread apart.  In the buffet, I'm including two lines outside (including burgers), inside includes Asian and Pizza.

[trbarton]

I’ve asked John Hearld & he indicated that they tried it on a few ships before the Pandemic & it was very successful. He’s going to look into it. How do other people feel about this?  Would you like to see this?  All of the Princess ships have a dinn8ng room opened at embarkation. 
 

Tom😀

[sanmarcosman]

3 hours ago, trbarton said:

I’ve asked John Hearld & he indicated that they tried it on a few ships before the Pandemic & it was very successful. He’s going to look into it. How do other people feel about this?  Would you like to see this?  All of the Princess ships have a dinn8ng room opened at embarkation. 
 

Tom😀

I'm surprised John Heald said it was very successful. We were told it was discontinued due to very low attendance. The times we went the dining room was nearly empty which was fine for us but not the masses. The point of the experiment was to take some of the pressure off the lido deck venues. It didn't accomplish this.

 

[shof515]

I wish the dinning room was open for lunch, it reduces the crowds in the buffet. Based on the past cruises i've been on, no one knows it is open except for mostly past cruisers. it will be nice if the staff onboard the ship doing crowd control tells people to go to dinning room instead of helping direct people to the buffet

[Honolulu Blue]

11 hours ago, trbarton said:

On Princess they always have one dinning room opened from 12 noon - 1:30 pm lunch on embarkation day. Does Carnival do the same?

 

It’s nice to be able to sit down & relax rather than fighting all of the people in the buffet. 
 

Tom😀

 

Hi Tom.  BC (Before COVID), your question has already been answered by others - except for a few experiments, Carnival's dining rooms weren't open for meals on embarkation day.  Once they start sailing again, who knows?  Capacity will be way down in the buffet area and that might spur a need for dining elsewhere.

 

And don't forget that the dining options around the buffet (Guy's, BlueIguana, the deli, the pizza joint, perhaps others depending on the ship) are likely to be open.

 

Wherever you choose to dine, whenever you sail again, I hope you have a wonderful time!

[stellarose]

we heard via cruise critic that we would eat at the Italian place , for free, on embarkation day. yes. no crowds. its was awesome. 

 

 

[MeganGC1983]

I’m not sure we would be interested in lunch in the dining room on embarkation day. The dining rooms are slow. We eat, explore and unpack before muster. We never do buffet either though. We usually have BBQ or Guys!... mostly Guys!! 

[Saint Greg]

7 hours ago, trbarton said:

I’ve asked John Hearld & he indicated that they tried it on a few ships before the Pandemic & it was very successful. He’s going to look into it. How do other people feel about this?  Would you like to see this?  All of the Princess ships have a dinn8ng room opened at embarkation. 
 

Tom😀

I would eat there.

[jetsfan58]

7 hours ago, trbarton said:

I’ve asked John Hearld & he indicated that they tried it on a few ships before the Pandemic & it was very successful. He’s going to look into it. How do other people feel about this?  Would you like to see this?  All of the Princess ships have a dinn8ng room opened at embarkation. 
 

Tom😀

I haven't really witnessed many people scampering around to find food prior to sailing. I have mostly witnessed confused first time passengers, excited kids and those desperately trying to get into their assigned cabins. When cruising does again resume I would advise everyone to eat prior to boarding as these new precautionary procedures could delay the onboarding process.    

[MeganGC1983]

5 hours ago, jetsfan58 said:

I haven't really witnessed many people scampering around to find food prior to sailing. I have mostly witnessed confused first time passengers, excited kids and those desperately trying to get into their assigned cabins. When cruising does again resume I would advise everyone to eat prior to boarding as these new precautionary procedures could delay the onboarding process.    

I’ve all ready been thinking about that for January. Normally we go to the cruise port starving. I’m thinking we will have to have breakfast this time. 

[SNJCruisers]

On 10/20/2020 at 11:24 PM, firefly333 said:

 

I'm keeping my expectations low what to expect. 

If I recall correctly all you want is to see the waves roll by, and have someone make your beds and cook your meals.  I assume towel animals would be a bonus.

[firefly333]

4 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

If I recall correctly all you want is to see the waves roll by, and have someone make your beds and cook your meals.  I assume towel animals would be a bonus.

They can skip the towel animals. I'm on vista and my only complaints are the closed in promenade deck I cant do anything about and bbq outside deck 5 in the heat. Booked sept 11, the heat doesnt work well with potato salad or coleslaw.  My freedom cruise for october 2020 got cancelled. I really preferred freedom, but I'll take vista. 

 

Dont mess with my food. At least it has all my favourites to look forward to. I like the taco salad in the formed tortilla bowl, the salad up in the spa area isnt bad, but I decided loses to the mexican salad, and wok, and bbq and last but not least guys burgers open until 6 so it seriously interferes with my appetite for dinner.

 

I did the bike pedaling thing up in the air last time in a pretty high wind. They shut it down after me. Lol I'm not so sure about that but figured it never fell off the tracks before and bike thing wasnt going to fall that time and started pedaling. That was a little scary alone. 

 

Favorites are conquest and dream class, but vista was the only 7 day when I wanted to go. I had 6 rcl bookings to work around date wise or wouldnt have chosen that date, but at least it has my favorite lunch choices. 

 

Carnival is enticing with obc, rcl with lower prices, but double loyalty pts, so now rcl prices are moving up, especially balconys and suites.,insides still cheap. A solo can now get 6 loyalty pts with a JS on rcl per day. Boom diamond, boom, diamond plus next year if i ever get to sail. All suites sold out for next rcl sailing april 25th. Everyone wants those double pts. I'll settle for 4 loyalty pts a day for my balcony. Still some dates in april with less than 200% solo supplement but my ta talked me out of a b2b until cruising starts and we know b2bs allowed. I could have booked a inside the week before for under $700 including taxes for 4 loyalty pts a day. I guess no one including me really wants insides during covid.

 

Keep the deals coming cruiselines and let's get going.

 

P,ease let us cruise., let us decide not cdc. 

Edited October 22, 2020 by firefly333

[kwokpot]

On 10/21/2020 at 2:14 AM, trbarton said:

I’ve asked John Hearld & he indicated that they tried it on a few ships before the Pandemic & it was very successful. He’s going to look into it. How do other people feel about this?  Would you like to see this?  All of the Princess ships have a dinn8ng room opened at embarkation. 
 

Tom😀

We were on the Breeze in 2016 from Port Canaveral and as we boarded the ship we were asked if we wanted to dine in the Dining Room for lunch. It was a total surprise and it was quite pleasant and civilized. It was located at the midship Dining room and while I don't remember the choices it was clearly a lunch menu as opposed to Carnival's usual brunch menu. It was the first and last time we ever experienced embarkation lunch in a Dining room. 

Edited October 22, 2020 by kwokpot

[fla gang]

Right now we are all only speculating! We each know what we hope will be open but until they are up and running and they try a few things, it will all be just a guess! I have several dates for comped cruises for next year, but I'm not even paying the port tax on those until They are up and running for a while. If I miss out on the freebie dates, oh well!