Here’s your one warning… If you are currently hungry… or about to go to the grocery store… Come back to the blog later. Ok... now the rest of us can proceed forward.
There is no doubt about it…. I LOVE cruise food! I often (daily) read through cruise reviews (obsessed, I know) and I am always amazed when people say the food onboard is horrible. Where the hell do you people eat on a daily basis?!
Mark is a fantastic cook (thankfully because I started a fire attempting to boil water! (True story) People rave about his food. When he doesn’t want to cook we have some really good restaurants we go to and we are quite picky regarding service and quality. When we eat somewhere good… It’s good!
Here’s my one and only complaint with Carnival food. There are too many choices. When I eat something that is fantastic, I certainly want more before they kick me off the boat at the end of the week… but I can’t manage to fit all the food in and still try other things. I don’t think I ate half the places that were available on the Magic… and I still came home with 4 extra pounds. :(
I am thankful I brought 2 different sizes of shorts. Those that fit at the beginning of the week and those for the end of the week so I don’t feel so bad about myself :) Am I the only one who does this?
Let’s start on the Lido Deck. Our very first meal on board was from the Deli Station. Fresh made sandwiches right in front of you. Trenton had an amazing grilled cheese, Mark had a corned beef and I am partial to the turkey wrap. Ahh… they are soo good! Your other choices up here by the pool are the hamburgers and hotdogs… complete with all the fixings (chili, mushrooms, jalapeno’s, grilled onions, cheese sauce, fries) … And the pizza. 24 hours a day! I really like the new recipe with the thin crust. You just can’t go wrong with the pizza. I was starving one night, headed back up to the room with my pizza and turned the corner too sharp. My pizza flew off my plate onto the floor… I actually contemplated picking it up and eating it. (Don’t panic. I went back and got in line to get another piece), but that’s how good it was!
Inside the Lido Marketplace is the buffet. Plenty of choices from salad, pasta salads, hot choices (meat and veggies). Burrito bar (tried it on the Valor and loved it!... never made it there on the Magic) I also discovered the Mongolian Wok which looked pretty popular … only it was after I had just consumed an entire plate of pasta, ceasar salad and half a portion of lasagna at Cucina de Capitano. Sooo…. I didn’t get to personally try it. It is on the To Do List though (in the future).
Another super, duper don’t miss on the Magic is the Seaside BBQ. It is located outside on deck 5. We had a balcony a couple of floors above it and had the pleasure of smelling it on sea days :) The only reason it took us until the last sea day to eat lunch there was because Sea day #1 we were consuming beverages at our Cruise Critic Meet N Greet and completely forgot to eat lunch at all! Sea Day #2 mother nature sent a downpour of rain and they had to close down early. So… Sea Day #3 it was. They had slider hamburgers, huge hot dogs, quesadillas and some other type of Mexican wrap thingy, and chips and salsa. It was all very good. First ship we had been on with the concept… it’s quite nice. There did seem to be a line, but it moved really quickly.
The Main Dining Room (MDR): We had Any Time Dining which is my new preferred way to go. I thought I would miss the dedicated waiter, but on several occasions we have had the same waiter/waitress and you can always request a specific section if you want too. Most nights our wait was 5 minutes at most… if there was a wait at all. This proved to be an experience this time because after the first night at dinner, Trenton refused to go to Camp Carnival. The first night Camp Carnival was not open, so he came to dinner with us. The kid acted like we hadn’t fed him in an entire week. He ordered fruit cocktail, chicken fingers, cured salmon as appetizers and the southern fried chicken with mashed potatoes for his main course… and ATE IT ALL! After that… MDR it was. He continued to amaze the waiters and fellow diners around us ordering Oysters Rockefeller, 2 plates of Escargot, Lobster, you name it… and he ate it. The waiters were all very professional. He ordered just like an adult and they wrote it all down with an amused smile on their face… (I know they were thinking this kid will never eat that!) halfway through dinner it never failed that someone at a table beside us would lean over and say “Excuse me…Is that _____ he is eating?” Why yes, yes it is. There was only 1 thing he didn’t like and for the life of me I can’t remember what it was. I do remember we had wine at dinner that night though :)
The Chef’s Table: The first time we ever did this was last summer in July on the Valor and we LOVED it! This year I was trying to rack my brain on what to get my Mom for Mother’s Day and I decided we would all go back to the Chef’s Table on our May cruise. Trenton did not get to participate in this as it is $75 per person, but worth every penny! Perhaps next year we will let him join us. We had no idea he would develop such a love for real food on the ship when we made the reservations. Some items on the menu from last July were the same, but some were different.
We met in the disco and were served champagne and appetizers. The Chef met us here and took us back to the galley. We had a small tour of the galley and our table for dinner was actually set up there. It was lovely. You are assigned seats, complete with little name cards :) Red and white wine is served with each dish. The food is amazing! Hands down some of the best stuff I have ever eaten. If you are a foodie… this table is the place for you! Lots of different concepts and flavors placed together. More food than any one person should rightfully ever eat!
We did the Chef’s Table after our excursion in Roatan so my leg was throbbing and all scraped up and my hand was throbbing with a huge bruise rising off the top of it. They request that you wear closed toed shoes for this and I had to break the rules as I could not get any other shoe on my foot besides flip flops for the rest of the cruise! I was pretty banged up, but ready for a good meal :)
I would say on the Valor we did not eat in the galley, but instead a little room off the side of the main dining room. While a table in the actual kitchen was cool, it was very loud… our galley tour on the Valor was better and being able to eat in a quiet room allowed for more conversation with our tablemates and a better conversation with the chef. The food… it tastes good no matter where you are! LOL
*They also say you aren't allowed to take pictures. Twice I have eaten at the Chef's Table and failed to figure out a way to sneak them in. That in no way implies that I have given up :)
Steakhouse: Trenton did join us here. He was still refusing to go eat with Camp Carnival and had decided he would just stay in the room and order room service. So Mark caved in… gave him the “You will eat $35 worth of food” lecture and called to adjust our reservation. Trenton was really excited!
They start you off with a complementary appetizer from the chef. You are given a menu like the Main Dining Room and asked to choose 1 appetizer, 1 salad and 1 main entrée. Unlike the Main Dining Room if you want to order a second entrée, they charge you an additional $25 I think. However, you can substitute your salad choice for an additional entrée or vice versa. The food and service is phenomenal.
We had escargot, lobster bisque, and ceasar salad as appetizers. Main entrée was lobster ravioli, surf and turf, and lobster tail. Dessert was fruit, the chocolate sampler and Mark chose a slice of cheesecake that came out big enough to feed all four of us and then some!
Tea Time: I managed to talk Mark and Trenton into joining me for tea time. Neither was happy about this arrangement, but I promised we could all go to the arcade if they would come with me. My persuasive skills are amazing!
Tea time actually turned out well. It was my first time to ever attend and I had heard wonderful things about it. It did not disappoint. The tea was nice. We were served cute little salmon and cucumber sandwiches and the best desserts on the ship… hands down (minus the Chef’s Table and Steakhouse… those don’t count)! Even Mark and Trenton agreed the desserts were awesome! Afterwards we returned to the arcade just as I had promised. It’s worth it to go atleast once :)
While we’re talking about food… let’s talk about Wine: Mark, Mom and I ordered wine on a couple of nights and usually more than 1 bottle at a time. We found a wine we all really liked. I believe it was $35 a bottle + gratuity. Mom asked (I don’t know why she does this to me!) “This is the same wine we drank and liked so much on the last cruise. Have you ever tried to find it at home?” Well… I have now.
Hell…. Nothing like the sting of paying $40 bucks for $5 WalMart wine!
Next up... the bottom part of the ship and fun cruise group activities :)
*sidenote… If you are reading this and want to read more of our adventures… please subscribe by email over on the right hand side of the page. If you really, really like it… please share it with your friends.
This cruise was the first time I had met strangers that had actually read my blog… while it was extremely cool… I found myself embarrassed! How silly is that? I think… well, I know… by nature I am introverted. When writing my blog I don’t hold anything back. I write it as I see it and how I feel it. Perhaps meeting people that have seen/read such a raw side of me is hard for me to grasp because these thoughts are usually buried deep inside. So… if you meet me on a cruise and I seem a little weird at first, just point me to the nearest bar. After a drink or 2 I’ll knock the edge off :) IF you happen to run into Mark at the bar… hold onto your seats… you are guaranteed an adventure!
