Do they still do Midnight/chocolate buffets on NCL?

[lvic]

Wondering if NCL has completely abandoned the midnight/chocolate buffet concept, in preference for theme nights for Garden Cafe dinner? Sailing for first time since 2018, on the Bliss. 

[shof515]

no,long gone

[ggTexasGal]

1 hour ago, shof515 said:

no, long gone

Sad, but true!

[PATRLR]

2 hours ago, lvic said:

Wondering if NCL has completely abandoned the midnight/chocolate buffet concept, in preference for theme nights for Garden Cafe dinner? Sailing for first time since 2018, on the Bliss. 

As stated, long gone.  You didn't have on the Bliss in 2018 either.  At least, I didn't in June 2018.

[BirdTravels]

2 hours ago, lvic said:

Wondering if NCL has completely abandoned the midnight/chocolate buffet concept, in preference for theme nights for Garden Cafe dinner? Sailing for first time since 2018, on the Bliss. 

The chocolate buffet was discontinued long ago. 90% of the chocolate treats were ending up in the grinder and jettisoned to be fish food. At the time, it was 10's of thousands of pounds of chocolate each week, fleetwide, that was just thrown out. While it was a favorite in the olden days, the contemporary cruisers were no longer interested in sweets at midnight. They are down in The Local having chicken wings and beer. 

[Turtles06]

4 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

The chocolate buffet was discontinued long ago. 90% of the chocolate treats were ending up in the grinder and jettisoned to be fish food. At the time, it was 10's of thousands of pounds of chocolate each week, fleetwide, that was just thrown out. While it was a favorite in the olden days, the contemporary cruisers were no longer interested in sweets at midnight. They are down in The Local having chicken wings and beer. 

 

I never found the chocolate to be very good.  Looked nice, but the taste was lacking.  Perhaps that's also why so much was uneaten.    (I'm not a baker, but I suspect there's a difference between the ingredients used on a small scale and those used for a huge buffet of chocolate treats.)

[LandlockedCruiser01]

Most chocolate made in the US isn't good, with Godiva being one exception.  (Although you wouldn't expect Godiva to be served at a buffet on a mass-market cruise line; even on Cunard, it's a stretch.)  I bet the chocolate buffet was Hershey-quality.  That stuff was fine in the 80's and 90's, because that's all Americans knew back then, but today, they've tried better-quality European chocolates.  So it's one cutback that won't be missed for the most part.

 

Besides, if you dump ground chocolate into the ocean, it could make the dogfish sick. 😁

Edited November 30, 2022 by LandlockedCruiser01

[detroitlions]

I tried it a few times everything had the same flavor and I did not like it so they should come up with something else. I am not a big eater of sweets at night but when your on vacation you do things you normally don't. 

[lvic]

Thanks for the responses -- it sounds like I'm not really missing anything, am I? I'll stop in on a theme night for the buffet or go to Coco's instead. 😉 

[mking8288]

Midnight/Chocolate Buffet was discontinued over 10 years ago, I don't remember the exact timeline (last one that we knew was on a mini-scale in the mid-afternoon in the Garden Cafe, not as elaborate as the "full scale" major production ones, including the sugar-free sections ... and ice carving demo on display)  

 

AFAIK, it was never offered on the Breakaway or other newer *.Away/Plus class ships. 

 

Had to really search into my digital folders in the NAD server to find those old photos, these're either from the mid-sized Jewel or Star, over 10 years ago & held in the AFT Main Dining Room.  IMHO, nice for photo ops but fairly wasteful, and after seeing one or two, the third time ... pretty boring & we skipped them.   Here's to memory lanes, the old days - not missing anything