The “f-word” means one of two things in my (some would argue weird and little) brain: food or free. Combine the two and locate them on a cruise ship and you’ve got my personal vision of heaven. And the free (or “included” if you want to get technical about it) dining venues on Carnival are one of the things that keep me coming back to the line time and time again despite some of my snootier cruise friends tipping up their noses at me and making rude jokes like, “did you remember to pack your cutoff shorts and midriff for formal night?”
While another f-word might come to mind, ignore them and read on for all the delicious complimentary dining venues and experiences you will enjoy on your Carnival cruise. Be sure to take lots of photos and send them to all the Carnival critics in your life (or send them to me so I can drool as I look forward to my next Carnival cruise booked for July on the Carnival Spirit to Alaska).
Let’s start with the complimentary dining experience that will shock Carnival critics most: afternoon tea (be sure to raise your pinky for the picture to give them the full effect)!
Afternoon tea usually takes place at 3pm on sea days in one of the main dining rooms and consists of a selection of teas, finger sandwiches, and delicious desserts. It’s a great place to meet and chat with your fellow cruisers while you enjoy a little afternoon pick-me-up and snack. Be sure to watch a few episodes of “The Crown” before your cruise though, so you’ll know what you’re doing.
While Afternoon Tea is available on every Carnival ship, it’s not offered on every itinerary. Be sure to check your schedule on the app to see if and when it’s offered on your particular cruise.
Sorry if going directly from delicate tea sandwiches sans crust to greasy fried chicken requiring prolific finger licking and stain remover gave you whiplash, but it just goes to show that there’s something for everyone on Carnival.
Big Chicken, Shaq’s chicken restaurant at sea is open for breakfast (until 3pm), lunch, and dinner and among other things, offers chicken biscuits, sandwiches, and strips.
Big Chicken is currently available on the Radiance and Mardi Gras and will be available on the Celebration and Jubilee.
This fast casual Mexican counter located on the Lido deck near the buffet is open for breakfast and lunch (it usually closes by 5pm) and offers two of my absolute favorite food items on Carnival: breakfast burritos and arepas.
Blue Iguana Cantina is currently available on all Carnival ships except the Splendor and will be available on the Celebration and Jubilee.
While I’ll discuss the Lido Marketplace (buffet) later, the cakes available at “The Sweet Spot,” the dessert section on Carnival buffets is so good it deserves its own section. Those who have cruised on Carnival for many years will remember the days before buffet cakes when the desserts on Carnival were all composed of the same three ingredients: sugar, gelatin, and food coloring. Then they were “molded” to look like real desserts. But as soon as you bit into that “cheesecake” you realized it was actually jello. “Apple pie?” Nope, jello! Creme Brulee? Surprise, jello! “Tiramisu?” Brown jello with a bit of coffee syrup thrown in for good measure!
But the people spoke (I once filled out a post-cruise Carnival survey by saying: “As the world record holder for most desserts eaten on a cruise, I only ate 40 total buffet desserts on the Pride. That’s how bad they were!”) and Carnival finally listened and replaced questionable molded jello with cakes as beautiful as they are delicious. The German chocolate is available every day, but the other flavors rotate. I recommend trying a slice of each daily! Note that the cakes are only available for lunch, so if there’s a flavor you particularly love, take an extra few slices back to your cabin to store in your fridge for a late-night snack!
Buffet cake is currently available on all Carnival ships and will be available on the Celebration and Jubilee.
Looking for a less chaotic alternative to the buffet? Do you enjoy a full-service lunch? Try The Captain’s Pasta Bar where you can enjoy custom, made-to-order pasta or the featured specialty item! Check your ship’s Fun Times or the app for the location, as it will vary depending on ship. On the Panorama it was located in the speciality Italian restaurant. I almost felt like I was scamming Carnival, eating for “free” in a specialty restaurant.
The Captain’s Pasta Bar is currently available on the Breeze, Horizon, Magic, Panorama, Sunshine, and Vista.
The deli will be located on the Lido deck near the buffet and is open for lunch and dinner. In addition to the regular menu, there’s a rotating daily special. You can also ask for a custom sandwich or wrap and, as long as the ingredients are available, they will make it for you. Veggie burgers are also offered at the deli (although they don’t appear on the menu) and many people (including myself) prefer the fries from the deli over those at Guy’s Burgers. They are crispy, golden perfection.
The Carnival Deli is currently available on the Breeze, Conquest, Dream, Ecstasy, Elation, Freedom, Glory, Horizon, Legend, Liberty, Magic, Miracle, Panorama, Paradise, Pride, Radiance, Spirit, Splendor, Sunrise, Sunshine, Valor, and Vista.
Carnival Deli Pro Tip: Dip your fries in the truffle aioli (shown on the photo on the bottom right below). It’s available along with several other sauces on the counter where you order. So good!
This Chinese/Mexican fusion restaurant open for lunch and dinner debuted on the Mardi Gras and, while it may eventually have an additional charge, it remains complimentary as of today.
CHIBANG! is currently only available on the Mardi Gras, but will also be on the Celebration and the Jubilee. Stay tuned to see if it will be complimentary on those ships.
While Cucina del Capitano is normally an Italian specialty restaurant on Carnival with an extra charge of $18 for dinner ($6 for kids), on the Mardi Gras, it’s complimentary!
I mean, if you’re one of those weird people who eats salad on a cruise, at least you can get a good salad on Carnival. Fresh Creations is Carnival’s salad restaurant at sea and is generally open for lunch daily. You can order one of five salads on the menu or a custom salad with your choice of dozens of fresh ingredients. I’m always calculating how much an equivalent meal would cost me in my downtown Seattle neighborhood, and a giant custom salad like this would run around $15. The cost at Fresh Creations? Free!
Fresh Creations is currently available on Horizon, Mardi Gras, Panorama, and Vista and is coming to the Celebration and Jubilee.
I recently had unfortunate experience of actually meeting Guy Fieri on the Carnival Panorama (he was onboard filming). Why was meeting a famous chef, restaurateur, author, and Emmy award winning television star unfortunate? Because when he asked me which of his burgers was my favorite, I had to confess to being a vegetarian. Doh!
But judging by the ever present line and years of positive reviews from my family and friends, Guy’s serves some of the best burgers at sea, which one can customize at the topping’s bar with caramelized onions, grilled mushrooms, chopped bacon, lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, and a variety of condiments. One can also use the toppings bar for numerous cruise food hacks. Get creative and have fun by combining items from various food venues on the Lido deck. Share to the comments any combinations you’ve tried and liked. A virtual ship on a stick will be awarded to the most creative!
Guy’s Burger Joint is currently available on all Carnival ships and will be available on the Celebration and Jubilee.
It’s a good thing Guy didn’t also ask me about his BBQ restaurant on the Panorama, or I might have had to show him this pitiful photo of my plate of vegetarian sides:
But my meat eating, BBQ loving cruise friends will definitely want to try Guy’s Pig and Anchor walk up counter for some of the best BBQ at sea! While there’s an associated sit-down specialty restaurant called Guy’s Pig and Anchor Smokehouse and Brewhouse open for an extra charge at dinner, the nearby lunchtime counter is totally free!
Guy’s Pig and Anchor is currently available on the Breeze, Dream, Horizon, Magic, Mardi Gras, Panorama, Radiance, Sunrise, and Vista and coming soon to Celebration and Jubilee.
While the quality and selection at the Lido Marketplace buffet, open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Carnival cruises, isn’t as good as on most other lines, as a quantity vs quality kind of gal, even a mediocre buffet is still pretty great in my estimation. And worst case, just grab something foolproof like a slice of bread with butter or some mashed potatoes for “lunch” to justify your six slices of buffet cake!
The Lido Marketplace buffet is currently available on all Carnival ships and coming soon to the Celebration and the Jubilee.
Here are a few sample dinner menus from the buffet on Carnival to give you and idea of what’s offered.
If you’re new to cruising, main dining rooms are complimentary, full-service restaurants. On Carnival, they’re open for breakfast on port days, brunch on sea days (I’ll cover the Seaday Brunch later), and dinner every night. While it’s possible to cruise without ever eating in an MDR (you can also eat your meals at the buffet, specialty restaurants that cost extra, or other complimentary restaurants), most people eat the majority of their dinners and sometimes breakfast or brunch in the main dining rooms.
For dinner in the MDR’s, Carnival still offers the choice of either anytime dining (which works much like a regular restaurant on land – you make a reservation on the app each day for whatever time you’d like to eat and show up at the dining room at that time) or a set dining time (either early or late) where you will eat at the same time, at the same table, and with the same wait staff each night.
Every Carnival ship will have at least one main dining room and the menus are currently fleet-wide. The breakfast menu will be the same every morning, while the dinner menu will be different each night. The current dinner menus you’ll see on your sailing and the order in which you’ll see them depends on the length of your cruise and itinerary.
Generally the order of the dinner menus will look like this for 8 night, 7 night, and 4 night sailings:
And here are the 5 night main dining room menus debuting on profcruise.com for the first time:
My favorite restaurant as a poor graduate student living in Michigan was BD’s Mongolian BBQ both because it was delicious, but also because I ate so much it kept me going for a solid week for the price of one meal! Then, when I moved to Pittsburgh, I used to drive all the way to Cleveland to eat there. But I continued to write and lobby and pray that one would come to Pittsburgh. And guess what? Not only did a BD’s Mongolian BBQ come to Pittsburgh, it came to my neighborhood, within walking distance of my house! I noted recently that it’s since gone, likely because I moved to Seattle drying up most of their business (sorry about that).
But, while we don’t have a location in Seattle, but I’ve given up my lobbying efforts in favor of Carnival cruises. Why? Because many Carnival ships have a complimentary restaurant called Mongolian Wok. And what’s better than Mongolian BBQ on land? Mongolian BBQ at sea!
The Mongolian Wok is currently available on the Breeze, Dream, Freedom, Liberty, Magic, Panorama, Splendor, and Valor.
Your Carnival ship will have one of two pizza counters usually located on the Lido deck, open 24 hours a day, and different in name only: Pizzeria del Capitano or Pizza Pirate. Pies feature thin, crispy crusts and you can order a half or a whole pie from the menu or you can mix and match available ingredients to customize your order (when the line isn’t long – otherwise customizing will hold up the line). You can also hit the buffet, Guy’s Burgers, or Blue Iguana Cantina for additional ingredients to throw on top of your cooked pizza. #cruisehack
Pizzeria del Capitano is currently available on the Dream, Horizon, Magic, Mardi Gras, Panorama, Radiance, Sunrise, Sunshine, Vista, Spirit, and Splendor.
Pizza Pirate is currently available on Breeze, Conquest, Ecstasy, Elation, Freedom, Glory, Legend, Liberty, Miracle, Paradise, Pride, Splendor, Valor.
While many cruise lines now charge a delivery fee, Carnival still offers a number of complimentary room service items (just be sure to tip – I usually tip $1 per item) with no fee.
Room service is available on all Carnival ships.
For breakfast, you’ll order by hanging this card on your door the night before:
And here are the daytime and late night menus (you’ll order these items via the phone in your cabin). Note that only those items listed as “on the house” or “no charge” are complimentary.
I’ve been on dozens of cruises on every non-luxury line, but the Seaday Brunch on Carnival remains one of my favorite complimentary dining experiences and I never miss it, sometimes even going twice in the same day (once for breakfast food and again for lunch food). It’s usually offered on every sea day. My favorite items are the parfait, skillet cake, and banana cream pie. The steak and eggs are also very popular among non-vegetarians. But go every day it’s offered so you can try everything!
The Seaday Brunch is currently available on all Carnival ships and coming soon to the Celebration and Jubilee.
If you’re a fan of food trucks, street vendors, or food carts on land, you’ll love Street Eats at sea! Three open-air stations, Steam Dream, Mad Sizzle, and Time Fries offer some of the most popular street food in the world such as dumplings, kebabs, and loaded fries.
Street Eats is currently available on the Mardi Gras and is coming soon to the Celebration and Jubilee.
Here are some sample dishes available at Street Eats on the Carnival Mardi Gras. Featured items will be different each day.
Open 24 hours (verified by my 9-year-old son on the Panorama as he achieved his goal of 24 cones in a single day – okay that was actually me), Swirls is your spot for soft serve and frozen yogurt.
Pro Tip: If your kid (or mom) is missing, there’s a 100% chance you’ll find them at Swirls.
Swirls is currently available on all Carnival ships and coming soon to the Celebration and Jubilee.
Pro Tip: If your kid (or mom) is missing, there’s a 100% chance you’ll find them at Swirls. And with that…
Class Dismissed.
Homework (10 points): Check out my 10 Pro Tips For A Fast And Smooth Embarkation Day on Carnival. You can also find all the Carnival dining and bar menus with prices HERE.
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