Carnival Legend Cruise Ship - A Culinary Tour

Late last year I had a blissful 8 night cruise holiday with Mr P and my parents on board Carnival Cruise Line's - Carnival Legend.

We all came back well fed, well rested and relaxed. Mr P and I even got engaged on board the ship on the very first day as the ship set sail from Sydney Harbour which was so romantic and beautiful, and a perfect start to the holiday!

I've been sharing my happy snaps on Facebook and Instagram and I have lots more to share in this blog post too as I take you on a culinary tour of the Carnival Legend cruise ship.

I love cruise holidays so much because you can pretty much eat 24/7 if you want too! And the best thing is that it is all FREE because it's included in your cruise fare. There are a few speciality restaurants on board that charge a small fee and we dined at a few of those, but otherwise all meals are included which is fantastic.

While all you can eat buffets are good for the variety, I'm much more a fine dining and specialty restaurant kind of girl, I will take quality over quantity any day and was in my element on this cruise because it had exactly that.

Room Service - Being a blogger on board did have it's perks because I was spoilt with treats being left in my cabin a few times which was lovely.

You had to pay for room service which was a shame because room service is usually free, but to make up for that we just took some snacks from the Lido Restaurant and The Taste Bar back to the cabin when we wanted to chill and watch a movie, it just meant we had to go and get it ourselves!

The Lido Restaurant is the buffet which was set up with different foods in each corner of the room, salads at one end, made to order sandwiches at the other, pies and snags, which made it a bit tricky to manoeuvre around with your plate of food. I think most buffets work the best when they are all in a long line and you can see everything on offer and go along and load up your plate.

My favourite part of the Lido Restaurant which was open 24 hours was the Pizza Pirate. They made pizzas to order from a set menu which were delicious and we ate here a few times for a quick and easy snack.

The other favourite was outside by the pool Off The Grill where you could make your own hamburgers, this was open until late afternoon so perfect for days when you were in port and came back late and wanted to make a delicious home made burger and fries and enjoy it pool side.

Truffles Restaurant is the formal dining room where you can dine for breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner and afternoon tea at no charge.

This room was spectacular with a grand staircase, beautiful chandeliers and ocean views. We had the same table with the same waiters every night which is the best way to go because they get to know what you like which means they know when to give you double servings!

For breakfast, brunch, lunch and afternoon tea we dined in Truffles Restaurant a few times because it had a big selection of dishes and there were no queues you just sit down and enjoy fine dining service. 

We sat at different tables during the day, usually to the back of the ship with incredible ocean views.

For dinner in Truffles Restaurant they provided a different 4 course menu every night, a big variety of dishes - entrees, sides, soups, salads, main and dessert.

There were quality dishes on the menu like lobster and escargot which is usually hard to find on some cruise ship restaurants so we were all impressed with our menu choices.

Personally, I'm not a huge sweet tooth I usually go for the cheese board but Mr P worked his way through the desserts and the Chocolate Melting Cake was a firm favourite, I even managed to track down the recipe for him which you can find here.

For a special dinner we dined at the Nouveau Restaurant which was $40 a head and well worth it because the quality of food and ingredients used were amazing .... blue swimmer crab, lobster bisque, mouth watering steaks just to name a few!

Not to mention the trolley they come around with for you to select the cut of meat you would like. This was a really beautiful dinner, we stayed for hours enjoying the intimate ambiance of the restaurant and amazing food and wines.

We also treated ourselves to Japanese for lunch one day at Bonsai Sushi Bar. To order you tick the boxes on the menu which the lovely kimono dressed waitresses take to the chef and then eagerly await your meal to arrive!

There are rolls and bento boxes but you can't go past the sushi boat for two which cost $40 and tasted as good as it looked. All our dishes were beautifully presented and there were roll combinations that I've never tried before and I eat sushi every week! We all really loved this place it's a must for Japanese foodies!!

There was The Taste Bar which was open on sea days and served small tapas style dishes from the featured restaurants on board like the steakhouse and sushi, which was a great idea because if you like the cuisine you'll dine at the restaurant.

Once we discovered The Taste Bar (it took us a few days!) we would go down for dinner early so we could have a drink at the nearby RedFrog Pub and enjoy an appetiser before dinner.

Next time I would love to try Chef's Table which includes a tour of the galley and a delectable dinner with a small intimate group - this is a must do on my next cruise!

If you're mouth is watering and you're looking for your own cruise holiday getaway, Carnival Cruises has two ships cruising from Sydney - Carnival Spirit and Carnival Legend which sail around the Pacific Islands for 8-12 days and some shorter weekend getaways too. The Carnival Spirit sails from Sydney year round and the Carnival Legend will sail over the summer months until April 2015 and then return to Australian waters in September 2015.

Fares on Carnival Legend's 10 night Pacific Islands cruise in January 2015 start at $1499 per person.

What is your favourite thing about a cruise holiday? 
The food? Port stops and destinations? Unpacking once? Cocktails poolside?

Disclosure: Carnival Cruises partnered with me to help promote their company. I received dinner for two at Nouveau Restaurant and complimentary WIFI throughout the cruise. I have not received any payment for this review. As always, all opinions are my own.

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[All images my own]