Carnival Cruise Line No Longer Offering All-Free Room Service

Beginning later this month, Carnival Cruise Line will no longer be offering free room service for all meals. Instead, the line will move to an a la carte menu — aside from continental breakfast, which will remain free.

According to Carnival ambassador John Heald, the decision was made as Carnival aims to “find effective means to continue to reduce food waste.”

A new menu with individual items will debut on Carnival ships in mid-January. The line will offer lunch, dinner, and late-night meals for between $2 and $5 per item, including things like salads, pan pizzas, wings, cheesecakes, sandwiches, and fries.

According to Heald, Carnival’s onboard deli will now stay open until 11 p.m. across its fleet and will remain complimentary.

“We’re always tweaking things on board to make sure that we still provide a fun, affordable vacation for our guests. Sometimes we need to make a tough decision that may be unpopular but make sense in the long run. Even with these changes, a Carnival cruise offers the greatest array of free-of-charge options and remains the best value in travel,” Heald said.

The change comes almost exactly a year after Carnival announced it would end its 24-hour complimentary room service by adding a surcharge on items added late-night—between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.