Indulging on the Carnival Glory Part TWO

Beautiful view of the middle of no where.

It’s been about a week since my vacation ended and I am finally writing my last post about my Carnival Cruise. Then it’s back to posting about Houston fare! So this final post will focus on all of the food we had in the main dining room. For traditional cruising, you eat your dinner in the main dining room. It is generally a three course meal with several menu options. Best of all you can order as many of the options as you would like. The dining room is the best place to expand your horizons and try some foods you have never had before! This is all included in your cruising fee, so there is not cost for being adventurous here. If you did not like what you ordered you just politely ask your waiter for another option.

I ate in the dining room way too much to speak about every meal specifically. So I am breaking this post up by course and I will highlight my favorites. Generally speaking, the food was good and some meals were excellent. While cruises may try to sell you on the idea of this fine dining at sea, let’s be real! It’s impossible to produce really high quality food in mass like that. We were unable to make slight changes on many of the dishes because they were pre-made. Again, I do think cruises offer great opportunities to try new things, but I hope people do not walk away thinking that all “fine dining” is like cruise fine dining. It’s a bit better on land. Anywho, here is all the food that contributed to me being unable to get into my work slacks when I returned home! Make sure to click through the galleries so you can see the explanations.

Breakfast

The buffet seemed to be the go to place for breakfast on our cruise for most folks. We had to be different though. We preferred the main dining room for breakfast. On days at sea our ship offered a “Seaside Brunch.” Well you see the name of this blog, so obviously the word brunch meant I would in attendance for that. I was ON time both at sea days 🙂 On brunch days the menu was a little more inventive (check out the gallery below to see what I mean). On regular days they stuck with traditional fare. I had the french toast the first day and pretty much stuck with it. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it was my breakfast motto! All of the other pictures are of others food.

: The menu!

: Brunch = mimosa even at sea!

: A popover I had at brunch. It was okay. I’m bread eater, but I wasn’t too impressed with any of the bread I had.

: Here are the inventive items I was talking about. Cereal coated french toast. I couldn’t wrap my head around that so I didn’t order it. I just took pictures when the rest of my family did :). My cousin who tends to be less adventurous with food liked it.

: My aunt ordered the frosted flakes coated french toast. One cut into it, you could see the bread was still gummy. She sent it right on back.

: My go to french toast with ham. I switched it up a bit with the meat choice, but couldn’t go wrong with the french toast!

: My cousin had the steak and eggs. It was one of the prettiest presented dishes! It even came with those beautifully cut fries.

: My cousin tried to be healthy with fruit plates at breakfast and for dessert. I in turn side eyed her as I hate my ham, bacon and french toast 🙂

Drinks

I am also highlighting our drinks here. I watched a special on cruising some years back and learned that alcohol is one of the biggest ways that ships make money. With the added gratuity on every drink, you end up shelling out about 10 dollars per drink. On my Royal Caribbean cruise in 2008, most of the drinks came with a souvenir cup. I still have a few of them to this day. A few drinks, particularly shot glasses, were souvenir glasses on carnival as well. I kept my drinking to a minimum due to cost plus I would have adverse side effects with my motion sickness medicine. Most of these drinks are my other family members so unfortunately I do not know the names of the drinks. I love them, but they are lushes 🙂

: My sister tells me this was a Pina Colada with a Grand Marnier floater!

: I believe this was a mojito. The port of call menu also included drinks.

: Our bartender even spelled my sister’s name in the chocolate.

: Every night our bartender offered a different shot with a different signature glass. My aunts would buy the glass and have someone else take the shot for them LOL.

: The water that I stuck with LOL 🙂

Appetizers

The appetizer portions were typically pretty small. One to two pieces or a salad that amounted to a few bites. This did not bother me because SO much food goes to waste on cruises. Start small and if you wanted more then you could get more!

: Grilled Beef Skewers. Tender and seasoned well. Another one of my favorites.

: Chicken Pastelitos, flaky pastry filled with shredded chicken breast. One of my favorites. It was seasoned well and was listed on the port of call menu for Isla Roatan.

: The two bites Caesar salad.

: The amazing crab cake. Probably my favorite appetizer.

: The bread basket. The bread was just alright and I am a bread connoisseur.

: Crescent Rolls. They weren’t Pillsbury though :/. Please notice the Texas themed bread plate though! 🙂

: Cannelloni

: Flat bread. Minus the large onions, they were pretty good.

: Fried oysters. Pretttty good.

Entrees

Here is where we were true gluttons! Once we got the game down, we would order two entrees just to try it. One of my cousins ordered three the last few days. Each day included a menu inspired by the port of call, a few other interesting items and some standard food like a steak or grilled chicken. In my group, half of us tried to be adventurous while most stuck to the safe bets.

: Roasted chicken with herb stuffing with mac and cheese. Love mac and cheese but this one was a miss. The chicken was superb though.

: Better picture of the roasted chicken minus the mac and cheese.

: Dual or filet mignon and short rib. Pretty good dish.

: Lobster and Shrimp.

: The standard steak that they served every night.

: Seared striped bass with fried potatoes. Liked the bass but the potatoes were just okay.

Desserts

At some point I was the kid who did not like cake and ice cream, but today the dessert is my favorite part of the meal! As excited as I was for the final course, this was pretty hit and miss. When it was good, it was GOOD. But those misses, whew, led me to the cafe downstairs for something else to fulfill my sweet tooth! Carnival will always laude their signature chocolate molten cake dessert. For those who do not mind a cake that seems partly cooked like myself, then you will like this. Despite what they say though, that is not the best dessert Carnival has to offer. Check the gallery for my favorites.

: Grand Marnier Souffle with orange creme anglaise

: Key Lime mousse. This was one of the low fat desserts. I did not try it but my cousin was disappointed once he discovered it was “healthy” HA.

: Amaretto Cake. One of my biggest disappointments on the cruise. I love adding amaretto flavoring or almond extract to desserts so I figured this would be a guaranteed win. NOPE, major fail.

: Tiramisu that my cousin enjoyed.

: I shall try to replicate this s’mores parfait for National S’Mores Day next year!

: Creme brulee!

: Banana bread pudding. Another one of my favorites. It was more like a warm banana cake SO good.

: The Carnival melting chocolate cake that they rave about on the cruise. It’s offered every night and it really isn’t the BEST thing they have to offer.

: My sister’s souffle was more souffle like LOL. Things we saw on movies really shape our life. We don’t remember what movie it was or when, but because of some movie, we just had to try the souflee! It was good, a little eggy but I liked it overall.

Finally, the staff in the dining room really is amazing! They work really hard and spend so much time cruising that I do not think they get to see their family too often. They greet you by name every day and go above and beyond to ensure that you have the best service. The staff even puts on shows a couple of the nights to entertain the guests. Our group did prepaid gratuities but we made sure to tip more on our last night. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in the dining room! Make sure to check the “traveling foodie” category for the rest of the posts about my trip!

My mother, sister and I on one of the formal nights. Here is a good tip, you don’t have to go THAT formal if you don’t want to. We stuck with maxi dresses.