“Ask and It Shall Be Given”: Carnival Confirms Bread Is Unlimited
Food, food, and more food – it’s a cornerstone of any cruise vacation. From all-you-can-eat buffets to fine dining restaurants to pizza, ice cream, burgers, salad bars, holiday menus, and more, no cruise passenger will ever go hungry.
Or will they? Some guests on Carnival cruise ships have noticed an apparent stinginess with one popular dinner item and are demanding that even more food be given.
The guest reached out to Carnival Cruise Line’s official brand ambassador, John Heald, with their concerns, albeit not in the politest way they could have made their request.
“I know this will seem petty to some of your cult John but my grandkids, aged 7 and 12, love to eat bread before dinner,” the guest began.
While Carnival Cruise Line does have some very enthusiastic fans, choosing the word “cult” might indicate the guest’s frame of mind with their request. As they go on, it can seem petty indeed – their word, not mine.
“We are now on the Carnival [ship]. Tonight at dinner we were only given two small pieces of bread,” the guest explained.
“Compared to what other cruise companies we have been with this is unsatisfactory for [my grandkids] and not just them I would bet. Put the bread basket back or tell the servers to stop with the stinginess! Give more bread.”
I adore bread. On every Carnival cruise, I can’t even begin to guess how many of those baguette slices I tear open to slather with butter (too-cold butter in the Main Dining Room is another issue entirely).
I would never, however, consider the cruise line stingy with the bread. At the Lido Marketplace buffet, you can simply take all the bread you’d like, and Heald confirms that the same policy applies in the Main Dining Room.
“Let me clarify that bread is not limited but rather unlimited,” he said. “Ask and it shall be given and last night I made sure that without asking the family are served many pieces of bread.”
Oh, I wish I’d been in the dining room to see just how “many pieces of bread” were served to the family. I’d have made certain they got at least 20, just for fun, but that’s my sense of humor.
Do You Enjoy Bread on a Carnival Cruise?
Heald goes on to note how curious it is that having bread before a meal is viewed differently at one’s home compared to while on a cruise vacation.
“If I was to eat a basket of bread before my meal at home it would be considered weird, reckless, and possibly bonkers but on a cruise it is considered normal, healthy and dare I say even chic,” he commented.
Many other commenters – those cult members who love Carnival cruises and are among Heald’s more than 600,000 Facebook followers – chimed in with their thoughts on bread as well.
The overwhelming consensus is that it is very easy to ask for more bread, not just in the Main Dining Room but at the Fahrenheit 555 steakhouse or other specialty restaurants as well.
Guests can ask for multiple pieces right when bread is offered after they are seated, though full baskets of bread are no longer automatically provided.
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This is a subtle change that has been implemented in recent months, as previously guests in the Main Dining Room received a wire basket with 4-6 pieces of bread (larger or multiple baskets for larger groups).
Each basket would have the classic baguettes, as well as other selections such as sunflower rolls, sourdough, or cranberry ciabatta rolls. Now, single pieces are offered, though the choices change each evening.
While there has been no official statement about the change from bread baskets to individual slices, food waste and the impact on profits is always a concern aboard cruise ships.
Can one roll cause that much of a profit difference? Imagine the entire Carnival fleet – 29 ships around the world, with a capacity of more than 90,000 guests every single day just at double occupancy.
If just one guest out of every 10 threw away one uneaten roll, that would be more than 60,000 rolls discarded in a single week, or more than 3.2 million rolls wasted in one year.
No matter what your personal preference for how many rolls you enjoy at dinner that’s a lot of bread – both carbs and cash.
“Ask and It Shall Be Given”: Carnival Confirms Bread Is Unlimited