Embarking on the Carnival Imagination
Summer is coming to an end and I can’t help but reminisce about our wonderful time filled with some great family moments, especially our first cruise. If you are a loyal reader then you read my previous post about our cruise aboard the Carnival Imagination. One of the things people think of when they think of a cruise is “the food”. So this article is centered around the food during our cruise and an amusing story I love to tell others when they ask what the kids thought.
Many Dining Choices
When we first boarded the Carnival Imagination it was lunch time. What we found was buffet after buffet of all kinds of goods. My oldest son’s favorite and most frequented buffet was the All-American. Each day you could find the same thing, chicken nuggets, fries, hamburgers, and hot dogs. Every kids dream buffet, well not every kid but the majority of these days. There was a Chinese-type buffet that my daughter gave a try but found the food was just not her normal flavors. Another buffet was changed daily and on our first day contained Italian food, definitely right up my daughter’s alley. In addition, each day you could find a salad buffet, pizza buffet, dessert buffet, and deli sandwich center. With all these choices there was no lack of finding something good to eat.
On our first night, we made our way down to our assigned dining room, Spirit Dining Room, to have our first dinner. We were seated at an eight-top and were next to a family of three that was cruising together and also happened to only live about 45 minutes from us. We were given our menus, and here is were the amusing story comes in. The boys were on the opposite side of the table from my husband, my daughter and I. I was looking over the menu with my daughter and loving how excited she was about the spinach artichoke dip and vegetable lasagna. She was super excited about what she was going to order. I looked up and you could see the crestfallen faces of my almost 16-year-old and 13-year-old sons. The menu consisted of elegant dining and not one thing appealed to them. Trying to figure out the best choice I noticed they had fried chicken and french fries. I told them this was as close as they were going to get to chicken nuggets. Then our waiter appeared with a children’s activity book and crayons and on the back side was a kids’ menu that included chicken nuggets and pizza. I looked over to two huge smiles. So while my daughter ordered her fancy schmancy dinner the boys ordered, you guessed it, chicken nuggets and fries.
Dining Aboard Carnival Imagination
My daughter’s taste in food never ceases to amaze me. For a seven-year-old old she has very grown-up tastes. The next night it turned out the “All American” buffet was staying open until 6 pm, and 6 pm was our assigned dinner time. I told the boys if they wanted to they could leave a little early and go to the buffet and skip the dining room if they wanted. They decided to take us up on the offer and the three of us headed to our table. That night it was just the three of us, until my son decided to join us while his brother went back to the room. Our dinner turned out to be rather entertaining. Each night the dining staff would pump up the music and do a little dance. That night the song was “That’s Amore!” While dancing our waiter was also making shapes out of napkins and made my son a bow.
Entertainment on the Carnival Imagination
Thankfully my son is a good sport and actually enjoys the attention. Our waiter tried his hardest to get my daughter to get up and dance. I told him I would pay him $100 if he actually made that happen. I knew I was not in any danger of forking out any money soon. Where the youngest son enjoys the spotlight the other two shy away from it, or better yet run! That night my daughter had spinach stuffed mushrooms in tomato basil sauce, spare ribs, and corn on the cob. Another great dinner she said!
My husband loved his dinner which was lobster tail and shrimp. The waiter, featuring my husband was going to enjoy the dinner, actually ordered two on his behalf. When he took his plate and asked if he enjoyed it, in which my husband replied YES! He handed him another plate and told him he said he would. My husband was very impressed, and this is just one of the AMAZING staff members we encountered on the cruise.
The last night the buffet closed early and the boys ate with us in the dining area. My son was thankful for the turn of events because he had already conspired with our waiter to have the staff sing Happy Birthday to my oldest son. He was one week from turning 16 when we were on the ship. I would like to say it was out of love, but I think it was more because he knows his brother hates attention. I guess you can call that brotherly love LOL! We enjoyed our last dinner, the boys dined on french fries and my daughter enjoyed French onion soup, and some time of pasta.
If you ask my daughter what her favorite part of our Carnival Imagination cruise she would say hands down “THE FOOD”!
Carnival Imagination at Nassau, Bahamas
Enjoy additional articles from our trip aboard the Carnival Imagination:
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