Cruise passengers love their late-night pizza.
It's a tradition that may not be healthy, but many passengers, at least one night of their cruise, will succumb and indulge.
That means different things on different cruise lines. Some MSC ships, for example, have excellent added-fee pizza that's made to order. Virgin Voyages also offers made-to-order pizzas (with some daring choices) but does not charge extra.
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Both Carnival and Royal Caribbean have more pedestrian pizza, but it's free and served up until roughly 3 a.m. Lines on both cruise lines can be long as lots of people look to make a bad choice that seems like a good one in the moment.
Carnival Cruise Line, however, has made a major change to its late-night dining offerings. It has added an expanded, rotating late-night buffet including soups, sandwiches, snacks and more.
That has brought about some changes to its pizza offering, and some passengers are not going to be happy.
Image source: Carnival Corp.
Carnival closing pizza restaurants earlier
Carnival is changing its pizza offering as it adds its late-night buffet. Exactly how was a question posed to Brand Ambassador John Heald.
"Good morning! Just wondering if you are closing the Pizza Pirate at midnight due to having late-night buffets, or does this remain open as well?" asked Shannon Eileen Marttila.
"Also wonder how late the late night buffets are open if you get out of the club or piano bar at two and want an evening snack after late night drinking."
Heald responded directly.
"Thank you, The pizza does close at midnight but we will keep the late nights snacks open until 2:30 a.m. Thank you, I hope you get to enjoy these different menus very soon," Heald wrote.
He also observed that people seem to really like the late-night menu.
"Well then, the news about our Late Night food additions provoked 1,000 plus positive and excitable comments," he posted. "Some wrote that they would now stay up later than usual so they could graze on a grilled cheese sandwich, a dollop of chicken tenders or indeed a slice or three of pizza."
Not everyone was happy.
"What I didn’t realize was the anger that we were serving Chicago-style pizza instead of New York-style pizza, which, according to a post from Larry T, is ' ----ing better in every way than Chicago cardboard,'" Heald posted. "I am not a pizza expert, but it isn’t the best pizza from Naples, Italy, or indeed Cleveland, Ohio."
(Cleveland is a running joke from Heald.)
Carnival makes controversial pizza change
Carnival has done more than just change the location of its late-night pizza.
Under the old system, Carnival passengers could get made-to-order pizza until the wee hours of the morning. Most passengers like the thin-crust pizza, which has a cult-like following.
After midnight, however, the pizza counter closes and all food is offered on the late-night buffet. The problem there isn't just that the pizza isn't fresh; it isn't even the same pizza.
"The pizza on the buffet is not the same kind of pizza the pizza bar offers," wrote Jonnie Simmons. "I’m on the Vista now. We usually stay at the Piano bar til closing, but after the first night, we leave before 12 to get some good pizza cause it closes at 12 now."
Related: Carnival Cruise Line pushes back on late-night dining changes
Some passengers were upset at the change.
"I know I’m well aware of this sheet pizza from a school lunchroom," wrote Martilla. "The soup and chips and salsa are good until the chips and salsa runs out within the first 40 minutes."
Heald did not answer about the pizza change but did respond to part of the comment.
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"Nothing is running out. Thank you so much. I just wanted to contradict you respectfully that I have asked for reports from all the ships as we’ve started this now and there have been no negative reports or any comments on board and everybody seems to be enjoying the food and having a wonderful time," he replied.
You can still order room service pizza 24/7, which is the classic "Pizza Pirate" pizza that Carnival passengers are used to.
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