Carnival Celebration Bagels @ Sea Review: The One Truly Bad Meal of My Cruise
Carnival Celebration has a lot of food, and overall, I came away genuinely impressed with the dining on the ship. I enjoyed everything from quick-service favorites to the Main Dining Room, and Chibang was one of the highlights of the entire cruise. Unfortunately, there was one meal that stood out for all the wrong reasons: breakfast at Bagels @ Sea.
Bagels @ Sea sounds like a great concept. Choose a bagel, add a spread, or order one of the more substantial breakfast combinations. Simple, quick, and exactly the kind of food that should work well on a cruise ship. My experience, however, was genuinely awful. In fact, this was the only meal during my Carnival Celebration cruise that I would describe as truly bad.
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Bagels @ Sea Menu on Carnival Celebration
The Bagels @ Sea menu displayed during my sailing offered both simple bagels with spreads and several assembled breakfast options.
For bagels and spreads, the choices shown were:
- Plain cream cheese
- Scallion & bacon spread
- Nova spread
- Wedding cake
There were also several more elaborate options.
The Breakfast Club was described as a combination of Western omelet, sausage patty, bacon, cheddar melt, sunrise sauce, and chives cream cheese.
The Carnival Lox featured smoked salmon, capers, onion, and cream cheese spread.
The Powerhouse Protein included pesto chicken, egg whites, fresh spinach, avocado, and pepper jack cheese.
For something sweet, The Rainbow combined strawberry cream cheese, Funfetti sprinkles, and maple caramel.
On paper, there are some interesting choices here. Unfortunately, the actual execution of my breakfast was the problem.
What I Ordered at Bagels @ Sea
I ordered two bagels: one of the prepared breakfast sandwiches for myself and a sesame seed bagel with cream cheese for my mom.
The breakfast sandwich was assembled very quickly. The components appeared to have already been cooked and stacked together. When I ordered, the bagel was heated briefly and the prepared stack of ingredients was placed inside.
Speed is obviously important at a busy cruise ship breakfast venue, and I have no problem with ingredients being prepared in advance. But the finished product still needs to taste fresh.
Mine didn’t.
The Bagel Was Extremely Hard
The first thing that surprised me was the size. These were not what I would consider normal full-size bagels. They were quite small.
The bigger problem, however, was the texture.
My bagel was incredibly hard. And I don’t mean slightly over-toasted or pleasantly chewy. It was genuinely hard as a rock.
The prepared filling didn’t help. The cheese had developed a visibly hardened, crusted appearance around the edges, which you can see in the photo. Combined with the hard bagel, the entire sandwich tasted like something that had been sitting prepared for too long rather than a fresh breakfast sandwich.
I sat down, took one bite, and that was enough.
I left the sandwich behind, grabbed my mom’s bagel, and walked away. I didn’t finish it, and I didn’t go back to Bagels @ Sea for the remainder of the cruise.
Was the Plain Bagel With Cream Cheese Any Better?
A little.
My mom’s sesame bagel with cream cheese wasn’t nearly as bad as my breakfast sandwich. Since it was essentially a bagel with cream cheese rather than a stack of pre-cooked hot ingredients, it avoided the biggest problem I had with my order.
But the bagel itself was still harder than I would have liked.
So while her order was better, it wasn’t enough to change my overall impression of Bagels @ Sea.
I Probably Should Have Tried the Carnival Lox
Looking back, there is one item I wish I had tried before completely giving up on the venue: The Carnival Lox.
The menu describes it as smoked salmon, capers, onion, and cream cheese spread. Since those ingredients don’t depend on a stack of pre-cooked hot breakfast components, I suspect it might have provided a completely different experience.
But after my first breakfast was so bad, I simply wasn’t interested in giving Bagels @ Sea another chance.
That’s important context for this review. I only ate here once. I can’t say that every item served at Bagels @ Sea is bad, and another passenger could have a completely different experience. I can only judge what I was actually served.
And what I was served was awful.
How Bagels @ Sea Compared With the Rest of Carnival Celebration’s Food
This is where I want to be especially fair to Carnival.
Bagels @ Sea was not representative of my overall dining experience on Carnival Celebration.
Quite the opposite.
I had a great experience with Carnival’s food overall. The chicken, burgers, tacos, buffet, and other casual dining options were enjoyable. The Main Dining Room was pretty good, and Chibang was absolutely fantastic. Cucina del Capitano was more average for me, but even that wasn’t remotely comparable to how much I disliked this breakfast.
That’s why Bagels @ Sea stood out so much.
On a cruise where I ate at numerous restaurants and quick-service venues, this was the one meal that I considered genuinely terrible.
Is Bagels @ Sea Worth Trying?
Based solely on my experience, I wouldn’t personally return for one of the prepared hot breakfast sandwiches.
If I were giving the venue another chance, I would probably choose something simpler or try The Carnival Lox. A freshly assembled combination of smoked salmon, cream cheese, onion, and capers sounds much more appealing to me than the pre-cooked breakfast stack I received.
But after one bite of my original sandwich, I was done.
That doesn’t mean you should automatically skip Bagels @ Sea on your Carnival cruise. Food quality can vary from sailing to sailing and even from one morning to another. My experience represents one visit during one cruise.
Still, if your bagel looks or feels excessively hard, there are plenty of other breakfast options onboard.
Bagels @ Sea FAQ
What is Bagels @ Sea on Carnival Celebration?
Bagels @ Sea is a Carnival dining venue centered around bagels, spreads, and assembled breakfast options. During my sailing, the menu included basic cream cheese spreads as well as more substantial combinations featuring ingredients such as bacon, sausage, eggs, smoked salmon, chicken, avocado, and cheese.
What was on the Bagels @ Sea menu?
The menu photographed during my cruise included plain cream cheese, scallion & bacon spread, Nova spread, Wedding Cake, The Breakfast Club, The Carnival Lox, Powerhouse Protein, and The Rainbow.
Are the bagels large?
The bagels I received were quite small compared with what I would consider a typical full-size bagel.
How was the Breakfast Club at Bagels @ Sea?
My experience was extremely poor. The bagel was exceptionally hard, and the prepared hot filling did not taste fresh to me. I took one bite and did not finish the sandwich.
Was the plain bagel with cream cheese better?
Yes. My mom’s sesame bagel with cream cheese was better than my breakfast sandwich, although the bagel itself was still harder than I would have preferred.
Would I eat at Bagels @ Sea again?
Probably not for the same breakfast sandwich. If I decided to give it another try, The Carnival Lox would be the item I would choose because the smoked salmon, capers, onion, and cream cheese combination sounds like it could provide a very different experience.
Final Thoughts on Bagels @ Sea
Carnival Celebration gave me a very good overall food experience, which makes this review somewhat unusual. I’m not coming away from the cruise complaining about Carnival’s dining. In fact, several of the meals I had onboard were excellent.
Bagels @ Sea was simply the exception.
The bagel was small and unbelievably hard, the hot filling tasted like it had been prepared too far in advance, and after a single bite I had no desire to finish it or return to the venue.
My mom’s simpler cream cheese bagel was somewhat better, and I acknowledge that something like The Carnival Lox might have changed my opinion had I gone back and tried it.
But based on the meal I actually received, Bagels @ Sea was easily the worst food experience of my Carnival Celebration cruise — and the only meal onboard that I would describe as truly awful.
