Carnival Cruise Line drops a popular menu item fleetwide
The cruise line made a quiet change that has angered some of its passengers.
When a cruise line drops a staple item, passengers notice and get mad.
Royal Caribbean, for example, has changed its doughnuts and its hashbrowns on some recent sailings. These appear to be supply chain issues and not an overall fleetwide change, but that has not stopped passengers from being angry.
Related: U.S. government updates travel warning for Caribbean cruise port
Sometimes, a change happens because of a short-term supply chain issue. These have become more common since the Covid pandemic. A cruise line might run out of stock of a favored liquor or bottle of wine.
Royal Caribbean actually has a policy for this when it happens with liquor. The cruise line allots whatever stock it has remaining to any bars where that liquor appears in a recipe.
The pub, for example, will receive any available bottles of Buffalo Trace because the bourbon appears on the menu in the Buffalo Manhattan. When there's a shortage of the popular spirit, you may not find it elsewhere onboard, but the pub will have it until supplies run out.
In some cases, however, there are bigger reasons as to why an item has been taken off the menu. Carnival Cruise Line Brand Ambassador John Heald addressed one major menu change in a recent Facebook post. Image source: Carnival Cruise Line
Carnival takes away a popular menu item
Some cruisers would not notice if Carnival, or any other cruise line, dropped salads and fresh fruits entirely. That's because many people view a cruise as a chance to indulge in items they may not eat often in their regular lives.
There are, of course, many cruisers who love fresh fruit, salads, and other healthy items. One of them recently shared that something was missing from Carnival's ships with Heald.
“We’ve noticed that the ships do not serve grapes on the buffet or in restaurants. They have them onboard, as we have seen them used on fruit baskets,” the passenger wrote. “Just curious if there is an operational reason...From the kitchen tour days of years ago we know that bananas are only available for the first few days, but just general curiosity on grapes?”
(Bananas do no stay fresh as long as many other fruits).
Other passengers have noticed that grapes are scarce or non-existent on Carnival ships. Heald had a very direct answer.
“The problem with grapes is the communal picking of them off the vine. It’s not very hygienic. We have shared them in bowls before, but at the moment, we don’t have them on the buffet line," Heald wrote.
The brand ambassador did share that the popular fruit could return in the future.
Cruise lines do make tough decisions
While Carnival has removed grapes for cleanliness reasons and other items disappear due to supply chain reasons, some items are simply dropped. In order to add new items, older ones have to come off the menu.
That's a challenge because even the least popular menu items are somebody's favorite onboard food.
In many cases, items are changed or offered less often rather than dropped. Carnival, for example, no longer has a custom omelet station at its buffet and only rarely offers escargot in its main dining room.
These are not easy decisions for the cruise line to make.
Carnival, for example, recently stopped offering pizza from its walk-up counters at midnight. Instead, it offers a much broader selection of food on a late-night buffet, which includes pizza, but it is the type of pizza that many passengers think is inferior.
The change was made partly because the lines for made-to-order pizza often exceeded half an hour. Some passengers do not care and want the old pizza back.
"This looks good, but it doesn't taste that great. The sandwiches are usually dried out & falling apart. Keep the fresh late-night pizza," Nancy Saville posted.
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