Alaska: Foods

The 2nd part of our vacation was spent cruising Alaska on the Carnival Spirit. This was our 2nd cruise (the first was to the Eastern Caribbean several years ago).

The boat was a little older (at least 10 years old), and honestly the food was rather disappointing. At the start of the cruise some of it was downright terrible; by the end it had improved slightly. I understand it's very difficult to cook for 2000+ people, but things should at least taste alright, even if they aren't elaborate, gourmet meals. However, dessert was almost always delicious, and the drinks were good.

Breakfast:
We ordered the continental breakfast several of the port days. It was a fairly simple offering, but it was good. Bagels or english muffins, cream cheese, pastries, fruits, yogurts, beverages. It was nice being able to eat while getting ready for the day and avoid the crowds on the buffet deck. We ate breakfast in the main restaurant once, and it was pretty good.
Lunches:
Usually we ate on the Lido deck (aka buffet central). We quickly found that the food was lackluster here, but they did have an awesome burger station. Seriously, one of the tastiest burgers I've ever had (sadly I have no pictures of the burger). The lettuce/tomato/pickles were some of the freshest on the whole ship, the buns were sturdy and the meat was tasty. Winner!Dinners:
We ate most of our meals in the regular dining area, although we ate in the buffet section two nights in a row (after having an especially awful dinner in the dining room one of the nights). I do want to point out that the actual service was great - servers were attentive and they were constantly refilling your water and getting you anything you wanted. So A+ for service, C- for food.








Desserts/Drinks:
I think the desserts part of the cruise is the main reason people gain so much weight while cruising. There's a never-ending supply of ice cream, pastries, cakes, cookies, and high-calorie drinks available to you 24/7. I didn't have a bad dessert the whole cruise!I probably wouldn't sail on the Carnival Spirit again unless it gets a major makeover. Alaska was beautiful and I'd go back again, but I'd try a different cruise line next time.

More to come: food while in port, and non-food pics!