This article provides detail information about the food onboard Carnival Conquest class ships. I was cook onboard Carnival Conquest in 2001 working in crew galley and I would like to share my experience for the new crew members what to expect from food stand point when they join the cruise ship. Carnival Conquest has three dining rooms for crew, staff and officers plus one for the captain. 

Crew galley

Crew galley is located in between crew mess and captains dining room. Opposite is the Staff mess. Here most of the food for crew, staff and petite officers is prepared. Usually there are three meals prepared here plus midnight snack when most of the leftover food from guest is served at night (crew love this food). 

Crew Mess

The crew mess is the biggest one since majority of personal working on cruise ship are crew. For breakfast you can find most of the items like on the guest line on lido except French toast, eggs benedict and poached eggs. (in staff mess you will find this dishes.) There is also omelet station when you can order different kind of omelet or fried eggs. Now omelet station is tricky and cooks make mamagayo here because they place the pen on low heat. This way cooks have less orders because crew have only 20 minutes to eat and go back on duty (well crew have 30 minutes break but you need 5 minutes to come to crew mess and 5 minutes to go back on duty). The other usual items you will find for breakfast in crew mess are boiled eggs, hash browns, sausages, beans, rice, scramble eggs and my personal favorite Aroscaldo soup. This is Filipino soup made with chicken stock, chicken wings and rice. Personally I don’t like Filipino food but this soup is perfect. I usually had 3 soups per breakfast and come back home 18 kilos heavier 

On the cold line for breakfast you will find usual cold cuts of yellow cheeses like Swiss cheese, gouda and different kind of salami, ham plus butter and jams.

Lunch you have usual hot line with rice again as number one item, some fish and meat or some stew. There is option to order burgers or pica however this takes time and since crew does not have time almost no one orders. The omelet station for lunch is transformed to pasta station where crew can order pasta prepared ala minute so this is nice touch.

Dinner

The most important meal of the day dinner in crew mess starts early for the crew because they need to get back on work. Now I don’t know if everyone will agree but I can say that food for dinner is pretty good considering other cruise lines. Sometimes on the many you can find NY stake, minute steak, tilapia fish, pizza and other dishes on demand. I remember there was also shrimp cocktail however you need to read the sign at the beginning of the line to see what is on demand. There is standard cold line where you can find some salads and desserts.

After almost all crew members finish with their duties late at night there is one more meal that offers combination of leftover from the guests and leftover from crew mess from that day.

Staff Mess

Food in staff mess is almost the same as crew mess with some additional items on the menu. They also have hot line Bain marine with one difference, staff members can order dishes prepared ala minute. Most of the time staff members are ok however there are always some wanna be super stars that act like kids and complain about the food like they are guest and not here to work. 

Petite Officers Mess

This is a small dining room with all dishes prepared ala minute. Petite officers are usually from maintaining departments such as plumbers, electricians etc. This people are ok and never give hard time to the cooks. 

Captains Dining Room 

The Captain and officers dine in a special dining room which has one long table. Usually they have special food prepared and the cooks sweat like crazy when they prepare the food for the captain. He also has a fisherman that fishes for him in some ports (back then was in Grand Cayman) and have fresh fish for dinner. I meet the guy who fishes for the captain and made deal with him when he fishes for the captain he can catch some fish and I will cook and we will share. So this was good deal. We had some barracudas and other blue and yellow fish for dinner. 

So that’s all about the food for crew on Carnival Conquest. Aldo its been 14 years since I was working on Conquest I hope some thigs have changed for better about the food in crew mess. Overall I can say Carnival had one of the best food for crew compared to other cruise lines that I have work for.

I have one advice for all: In order to eat good and get the food fast tip the cook couple of dollars and he can bring you food that is not on the line or some special order that is served in staff mess.