Jump to a part

Carnival Cruise Lines Carnival Spirit

Cruise Review

April 01, 2012 By Anonymous 0 Comments (add your own)

Previous: Page 5

In-Room Dining

Next: Page 7

Drinks

Page 6

Dining

Though not long on dining options—a consideration for a cruise of more than a week—Carnival Spirit had several very satisfying choices, if you knew where to look.

There are three primary dining venues aboard Carnival Spirit. This was sufficient for a five-day cruise, but we suspected it might get old during a longer journey. In addition to the main dining room and a buffet, there is a sushi bar with a very small selection of rolls, and a café serving coffee drinks and desserts for a surcharge. There was also the ship’s specialty restaurant; it was here that we were very pleasantly surprised.

When we first boarded Carnival Spirit we noticed the strong smell of a steakhouse. Whether this is by design or accident, our stomachs ordered us straight to the reservation desk to book a table. The Nouveau Steakhouse is the ship’s one restaurant carrying a surcharge, but the $30 cover was worth it, delivering not just our best meals on Carnival Spirit but steak dinners that rivaled the ones we crave at home. And note, we didn’t have to be die-hard carnivores to eat here: The menu has tempting seafood options.

Otherwise we found the main dining room (Empire Restaurant) to be a bit uneven, with some dishes pleasing and others middling. And although the spread changed daily, the buffet had a somewhat limited selection and most of it was unimpressive.

A “Chef’s Table” experience is offered on most cruises, in a private dining room. The cost is $75 per person, limited to 12 people, but the requests didn’t hit the minimum for operation on our cruise, so the dinner was not held. You can read about our experience at a similar dinner, aboard Carnival Freedom, here.

Note: In June 2012, Carnival increased the surcharge on all its steakhouses, to $35 per person.

This section is organized into 2 pages
Page 1 In-Room Dining The menu was short, but sufficient for continental breakfast, sandwiches and snacks. Read More...	Page 2 Drinks The ship had an array of alcoholic drinks on offer, but some were priced a bit higher than we expected. Read More...

Empire Restaurant	Comfort Food, Vegetarian, International, Indian / South Asian
Food at the main dining room on Carnival Spirit was generally fair to good.
Nouveau Steakhouse	Steakhouse, Seafood	$35	Menu
A steakhouse aroma wafts mid-ship, and when we traced the scent to its source we came away most contented.
La Playa Grille	Comfort Food, Pizza, Ice Cream, International
The buffet on Carnival Spirit was mostly disappointing.
Sushi Bar	Japanese, Sushi
Don’t plan on making a meal out of this venue.