We sailed on a 7 night cruise on the Carnival Vista in July 2022. We were a party of 9, and we wanted to be together for dinner every night. That made a standing early seating in the main dining room (MDR) a great choice. While the service was fine, it was a bit rushed due to lack of staff. The food seemed pretty ordinary, but there were always 1-2 solid choices every night. In this post, I want to share with you the Carnival MDR menus for each night of our cruise. I will also tell you when formal night was.
We left Galveston on a Saturday. Our itinerary lined up like this, and at each one I have provided a link to the relevant menu:
Embarkation Day Menu (Night 1)
Night-1-MDR-menuFun Day at Sea and First Formal Night (Lobster Night) (Night 2)
Night-2-MDR-Formal-NightFun Day at Sea (Night 3)
Night-3-MDR-menuRoatan (Night 4)
Night-4-MDR-menu-RoatanBelize and Second Formal Night (No Lobster) (Night 5)
Night-5-second-formal-night-BelizeCozumel (Night 6)
Night-6-MDR-menu-CozumelFun Day at Sea (Night 7)
Night-7-MDR-MenuHighlights from the Carnival MDR menus
There are several things to note about the MDR offerings. First, on our cruise Cucina del Capitano was closed due to lack of staffing. That meant that each night they offered the chicken parmigiana and the Nonna’s Dish each night in the main dining room. My best guess is that will change when the specialty restaurant comes back online, but that is only a guess.
There is also a standing Indian vegetarian dish each night which featured three different curries. It was very, very good. There was also a grilled steak each night along with one other grilled item. For appetizers, every night featured a cold soup, a hot soup, some fixed items, and some rotating items. All dishes were ordered at the start of the meal. Our wait staff was exceptionally kind and hard working, although I got the impression there weren’t quite enough of them due to pandemic restrictions. Sometimes things felt very hurried.
So what was my overall impression of the MDR food on this cruise relative to, say, the last big cruise we took on Royal Caribbean? That isn’t really a fair comparison, because that cruise was pre-COVID and 4 or 5 cancelled cruised ago. I remember there being more variety on Royal, but I haven’t sailed them post-pandemic. My judgment is that on this cruise the Carnival MDR menus were good, but not great. Our favorites tended to be the standing dishes such as steak, chicken parmigiana, and the Indian vegetarian. Still, we finally got to get back on a ship and dine and drink with our friends. That part is always great! Leave your comments below and let me know what you think about the current menus.
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