Nerve Endings Firing Away

This is part deux of our honeymoon cruise to the Caribbean series.

One of the primary selling points of a cruise is the all-you-can-eat food once you are aboard. The best part about a cruise is that the price includes the top three hassles of traveling – accommodation, food, and travel. While you are technically traveling and staying on a ship, you generally do not associate quality with food served aboard any mode of transportation. Just like airline food, you are expected to be simply fortunate enough to get it while in motion. But cruises are different and in fact, offer their culinary options as their primary selling points. You may choose to live in a deluxe suite or an interior room with no windows depending on your budget but all guests on board eat the same food and are offered the exact same options without coughing up anything extra. But remember, although all food unless specified explicitly is free, drinks are not! Only water, lemonade, plain fruit punch, and coffee is free but all other alcoholic drinks are billed to your account and if you aren’t careful that can add up to quite a bit.

The cruise ship we traveled on, Carnival Conquest wasn’t exactly known for great food for several years but it began receiving better reviews after they got a new chef – Georges Blanc. The Conquest has umpteen dining options. Basically, you can opt for buffet dining or seated-dining ala carte. The menu is similar for both options and generally depends on how much you are willing to pig out. The foodies who love to hog generally prefer the buffet because of the endless trips you can make to the buffet table. The seated-dining also has a dress code that needs at least a shirt and shoes that tends to make people prefer the buffet option. Why? Because more often than not, you will see people in the buffet line wearing only their swim wear. I guess some girls just change into their bikinis in the morning and wear it throughout the day. Why? Because they can.

Breakfast tends to be the most mundane affair of the day and all dining options serve regular foods like French toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, porridge, cereal, fruits, chicken sausages, and made to order omlettes. I loved the omlettes so much that the guy making them almost always recognized me and would start my order even before I could give it. But beware not to stuff yourself with breakfast especially if you get up late because it will ruin your lunch. You could always have a late lunch but then you’ll not enjoy your dinner as much :)

For most cruisers, breakfast and lunch are casual affairs while dinner is more formal when you can dress up and indulge in the fine dining experience. The cruise even reserves two nights as formal nights where it is not uncommon to see men in tuxedos and women in formal evening gowns. You can never be too overdressed on those nights. I would suggest you do not miss these formal dinners if you can because they offer you the opportunity to try out excellent fine foods like lobster and filet mignon.

Renoir & Monet Dining

Carnival Conquest has two formal dining rooms – The Renoir and The Monet. They are located mid-level and are two-floored dining restaurants complete with professional waiting staff and maitre’d who surprisingly also entertain you on most nights with impromptu dance performance and conga lines. Each night, you are served a 4-course meal with a wide range of appetizers, salads, entrées, and desserts. The menu is available early in the day on the TV in your room and you can make a decision then by browsing through the description instead of taking your time while dining. But even if you don’t, the waiters will never rush you and they always take the full order except the dessert right at the outset. It is better to be aware of certain dining etiquette like which hands do you use for a fork and a knife, when you eat here.

It is customary to make a choice regarding your dining time and you have four options that start from 6:15 to 8:30. We chose the 8:00 one so that we had enough time after lunch to enjoy our dinners and we could spend our early evenings in peace. Ash and I are devoted foodies who love trying out different cuisines and foods. We are also open to eating anything that moves, or at least I am, so we freaked out on the dining options. For dinner on this cruise, I had lobster, New Zealand lamb ribs, clams, oysters, fish, Fillet Mignon (Chateubriand Tenderloin; aged beef), Prime Rib of American Beef Au Jus, Sirloin steak, sushi, shrimps, veal, Jerked pork chops, and of course chicken; of course on different days. If you are the conservative kinds, then they offer a regular menu on all days that generally includes food you get at a regular restaurant including a jumbo burger. The desserts are equally delicious and their signature Melting Chocolate with Vanilla ice cream which is simply awesome. Other desserts include tiramisu, espresso almond cake and truffle cakes. For the health-conscious, they even offer calorie-friendly entrees. But if you are calorie-conscious, what the heck are you doing on a cruise?! If you are already salivating and want more information on the menu choices, check out this complete list of starters, salads, entrees, and dessert [PDF link]. It is a rough guide but I found it to be almost the exact menu we were offered.

The Point Supper Club

If you are looking for more fancy food and an even more uppity dining ambiance, the ship has an excellent fine dining restaurant called The Point – Supper Club, where you have to pay a nominal fee of $30 per person. The menu options are more ‘refined’, varied, generous, and sophisticated and almost on-par with a premium steakhouse. We didn’t try it out but I overheard a couple of people talking about the great experience they had for the price. Seemingly they have an excellent wine list and the waiting staff is quite professional and friendly. I’m sure we’ll try it out next time we are on a cruise just for the experience.

Cezanne Restaurant on the Lido Deck

Lido or Deck 9 is devoted to the Cezanne Restaurant which offers casual buffet dining. This restaurant has ample seating and you can almost always manage to find a seat next to full-size windows that overlook the sea. This dining area has more flexible hours (and dress code). The restaurant has two sections – the regular one has salads, breads, entrées and desserts (including vegetarian fare) while the second section, called “Nation of the Day”, serves cuisine from a different nation every day. We had Italian, French, Indian, Caribbean, Mexican, American, and Chocolate. Yup! Chocolate is a new nation which apparently is a big hit with the kids. Nah! They just have a assortment of chocolate desserts including chocolate sushi. Apart from these options, you have two specialized diner-type windows, one that offers deli food (sandwiches, burgers etc) and the other offers Asian (Chinese) food. You can go back any number of times and eat (and waste) as much as you want. Thoda Khao Thoda Phekko seems to be the norm though.

Other Dining Options

If you thought that these are enough food options to keep you busy for the entire cruise even if you did nothing else, there are a few more. The Sur Mer Restaurant on the upper level of the Cezanne offers various fish and chips dishes including some that you don’t know what they are until you get them. We dined here only once i.e. for our first lunch and were not particularly impressed. The Sushi Bar on the Promenade/Deck 5 is open from 5pm – 8pm and you can have as much and as many kinds as you want. Don’t worry, you don’t have to try to pronounce the names and can instead point and say, you want two of this and two of that.

The areas around the pool on Lido/Deck 9 serve hot dogs, burgers, pizzas, onion rings, fries, and ice cream almost throughout the day. The pizza place is open 24 hours and so are the ice cream and softee machines. According to our cruise director Wee Jimmy, it’s not uncommon for people to use big salad bowls as ice bowls instead of the small plastic ones next to the machine, specially on cruises going out from Texas!

On one night, they have a grand Mexican buffet at midnight where the chefs take extra efforts to decorate the food and have ice sculptures. But if you have been to enough desi weddings, this ‘grand buffet’ will not impress you much.

And (whew!) you also have complementary room service albeit with a limited menu in your cabin at no extra cost although it is customary to tip the waiter. If you think you simply cannot have all that food, don’t worry just space it out correctly and you’ll be just fine! The waiters are extremely friendly and attentive. Our waiters in the Monet Dining room even sang us a Happy Honeymoon to You song one night. The Maitre’D assuming we needed privacy on our honeymoon assigned us to a two-only corner table overlooking the lower level of the restaurant. We loved it. You rarely have to wait for a table to be cleaned or your glass to be filled with water. And they remember how you like your steak!

Why don’t I have more pictures of the food, you ask? Well, I was busy eating. Duh!

More on the entertainment and activities aboard and offshore excursions later.