How's the Food -- REALLY

[Farms]

We're going on our first ever cruise - 3 day land and 4 day sea. We're trying to decide if we want to go to a few of the more upscale restaurants while in Disney for the land portion. However, if the food on the ship is very good, then we'll probably wait and just go to Paolo's and enjoy the food on board.

Any input from you frequent cruisers?? Any help is appreciated!! THANKS!!:jester:

[bahama97]

We never made it to Palo, but in my opinion, the food in the restaurants are EXCELLENT. There was a big variety. You could have something like steak or something more fancy. I personally would just wait for the ship. JMHO :D

[lemstar]

i think disney restaurants (in orlando) are some of the best i have eaten at. the cruise food was very adequate--some things better than others, always fresh fruit and vegetables/salads at buffets, but nothing like, say....california grille, or boma, or citricos, or flying fish, or chef mickeys for fun, house of blues, rainforest cafe....i could go on....eat at disney....
jayne

[saturday97]

The food on board was very good, and Palo's was excellent. But I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to eat at the great restaurants of WDW!:D

[disneystyle]

Palo is a must if you are on the cruise! Take advantage of the wonderful experience.

[mickeyfan1]

On the Wonder, the food was adequate at best. Very institutional like. And we were lucky to have lousy table mates and a waiter and assistant waiter who were the worst I have ever had. That has turned me off to DCL, sorry. I have cruised on 12 other ships/lines and to me, DCL had a long way to go to be a good cruise. Castaway Cay is the best private Island I have been to, and 2 of the 3 shows were really good (Sorry, hated Disney Dreams), but all of this is only my opinion, and that of my limo driver in 2002, dsaid the food was still as bad, so go with an open mind. I did not go to Palo, I am sure the food has to be better there.

[paulmc80]

To me, the food was excellent. What you'd get at the better restaurants anywhere.

[mickeyfan1]

On the Wonder, the food was adequate at best. Very institutional like. And we were lucky to have lousy table mates and a waiter and assistant waiter who were the worst I have ever had. That has turned me off to DCL, sorry. I have cruised on 12 other ships/lines and to me, DCL had a long way to go to be a good cruise. Castaway Cay is the best private Island I have been to, and 2 of the 3 shows were really good (Sorry, hated Disney Dreams), but all of this is only my opinion, and that of my limo driver in 2002, who said the food was still as bad, but go with an open mind. I did not go to Palo, I am sure the food has to be better there.

As far as food in the world, there are so many great restaurants there, I love Califonia Grill, the food is excellent, the presentations are beautiful. Boma is a really good buffet for breakfast, the different countries in World Showcase have great "native" food. You should have no problem finding a great meal on land.

[CamColt]

My first Disney cruise was in 10/00, and I was very underwhelmed by the food. Found the best of the cruise to be at Cookies BBQ. Our second cruise was 7/02 and the food had gotten so much better. We didnt go to Palo the first time, but we did the second time, and it was wonderful! My opinion is with such a short time on land, enjoy the parks, and dont waste time at a lot of long meals. You will be eating plenty on the ship. :D

[eva]

You are definitely going to get mixed opinions on this one. We thought that the food on the Wonder this past may was pretty good. We really like the buffet on deck and thought that it was one of the best buffets that we had been to. We only ate at Triton's and Animator's Palette and found the food to be pretty good over all. I definitely would not put them on the same level as some of the finer restaurants at WDW. I would say that the food and service at places like California Grill, Artist Point, Narcoossee's, and Jiko's are far better. The one exception on the ship is Palo. We thought that this restaurant rivaled the best that WDW has to offer. The service and food there were fantastic! We will be going on the Magic this coming May and we will definitely be eating at Palo as much as possible. I say this because we have 3 cabins booked! Yippeee!

[scott62]

I have only ever been on one cruise - the Magic, April 2003, so I cannot compare the food with that of other cruise lines.

I thought that the food was very good. There was plenty of selection, and being a fairly picky eater, I was able to try things that I probably wouldn't have ordered at a "regular restaurant." There were also many selections that were in my comfort zone such as steak and chicken.

Some of my favorites included the mango soup, Palo chocolate souffle, Topsiders shrimp on the first day, glazed chicken wings with pomegranate BBQ sauce, potato-crusted grouper, the prime rib, and popcorn shrimp from the children's menu. Yes, I admit that I did order from the children's menu. By the way, the Mickey Mac-n-Cheese and the ice cream bars are pretty good too! ;)

OK, now I'm getting hungry... gotta go!

Scott

[alexandrew]

Palo is outstanding

[Scott5150]

First of all, the three restaurants that are not to be missed at WDW are:
1. California Grille
2. Flying Fish Cafe
3. Artist Pointe

They are all top restaruants with very different menus.

On the cruise, I would say that the meals ranged from OK to Excellent. Palos was the best. At $5 per person, it is a steal. Go there as often as possible. Lumieres was very good. AP was Good, but you have to see the show, especially if you have kids. Skip Parrot Cay and go to Palos that night. Of the 4 specialty dinners, my least favorite was the Tropicalif.... It was just OK. I found the others really good.

The topsiders buffet is great for breakfast. You can get Mickey waffles and omletts made to order there. I preferred the sit down lunches to the buffets. I though the selection was good, better than I would normally eat for lunch.

Happy eating!

Scott

[abitjaded]

Palo cuisine is very good, but cannot hold a candle to California Grill, Brown Derby, Jiko and even Flying Fish. These restaurants have better food, but the smaller size of Palo, not to mention being on the ocean, make Palo a winner atmosphere-wise. Be prepared for pretty choaotic atmosphere in all the park and resort restaurants and at dinner on the cruise. We thought the rest of the food on the cruise to be only O.K. Our cruise was only 66% full, so the lunch buffets and sit-down meals not part of the dinner rotation were better, did not taste quite as mass produced. And the service was better since the restaurants were not wall-to-wall people.

[Favorite Auntie]

I think the food is great! There is always at least one or two things that sounds yummy. If you like chocolate, get the Chocolate lava cake when it is offered. YUM! Not sure I would miss a favorite restaurant at WDW, but if you just want a great formal meal with your family, every dinner will be just that on DCL. Also, don't miss Palo!

[rsholtis]

First off - this is coming from a guy that eats MREs for a living:) , but there is absolutely nothing AT ALL to complain about with the food on the magic. TOP NOTCH!....Every meal may not be Filet Mignon, but every meal is a three star...most four. Unless you are used to 5 star (and they always complain about everything) eat on the ship. Beautiful service and chow. Have fun!

[obsessed]

We just returned from 7 days at WDW and 3 days on the Wonder. By far, our best meal was at Palo. The food in the other restaraunts was good, but not great. We enjoy eating out at fine restaraunts and expected the food to be better. Although the menu offered a lot of choices, the presentation was adequate and the food reminded us of "banquet" food. Mind you, I managed to gain 5 lbs while away, so it couldn't have been too bad.

We had excellent meals at Boma's, Kona Cafe for dinner (great tuna and mahi-mahi). Unfortunately, we cancelled our Citrico's reservations and now will have to go to WDW again just to try it and CG.

If you want to have a "fine dining" experience, definitely try Palo and give the restaraunts at WDW a shot.

[findingnemofan]

I just booked our first cruise---and the woman said to reserve at Palo--is 10$ per person---this is for the June12th 2004 7 day eastern...anyone else quoted this amt?

[Minnie's Guy]

It is SO MUCH BETTER than eating at home.
We've travelled Disneyworld 2 or 3 times a year,
the cruises twice, and I can't say I've ever gone hungry.
My concern is always there is food for the children
and that has never been a problem on the cruise.
I think any meal is GREAT that I don't need to make myself
(give me chicken tenders at Pluto's with ice cream from
Scoops and I think I've had a gourmet meal!).
A hello to findingnemofan - we're from Kutztown!
The $10/person is for the brunch at Palos. I don't drink
champagne at all and it was well-worth the price!:Pinkbounc

[mickeyfan1]

Originally posted by findingnemofan
I just booked our first cruise---and the woman said to reserve at Palo--is 10$ per person---this is for the June12th 2004 7 day eastern...anyone else quoted this amt?

Yes, there is a $5.00 p/p charge for eating in Palo, this is quite common on cruises these days.

[Donalds_best_pal]

I have ate at many resturaunts at WDW and been on 2 DCL cruises. The resturants at WDW are wonderful and dont pass them up. The food though on the Disney Magic is also top notch some food better then resturaunts at WDW and some worse. You will be treated like you are at a fancy resturaunt when onboard. When DCL first came at there food was pretty bad from i what i heard. It so much better now. Enjoy WDW and DCL
Have Fun
Matt:bounce:

[disney queen]

we dined twice at palo in may, once for dinner and for brunch. both were excellent. and the food at the other restaurants was very, very good. i appreciated the fact that there were also "healthy choices" included. the above poster who stated california grill, artist point and flying fish are a wdw must, i would like to add another--jiko at AKL. happy eating!:p