Food compared to Celebrity cruise line

[tink_n_pooh]

DH & I have sailed with Celebrity before (our honeymoon) and we loved the food After looking at the menus for the DCL cruises and I'm not sure if it really compares but I'm hoping I'm wrong. Can anyone comment?

 

[joksten2000]

We've been on three RCCL cruises and had three different experiences. The food on the first cruise was awful, the second was good and the third was excellent on par with DCL. There were different chefs on each cruise. Disney is a lot more strict and has guidelines for the chefs (recipes) so the food quality is always consistant. I worked for a company called CBORD that sold the software that ran the food service for Disney.

 

[yenlee]

We've been on Celebrity a few times and Disney just once so far (and no other cruise lines, partly because we don't trust that the food will be good on the cheaper ones). I think that the food is great on both, and it's difficult to compare without eating the meals back-to-back. I vaguely recall thinking that Celebrity was slightly better while my wife thought that Disney was slightly better. But the style of the food on the two lines is very different, so I could imagine someone else strongly preferring one over the other.

I would compare the food quality on DCL to the (non-signature) restaurants at the WDW resorts, but I have no idea whether other people agree with that assessment. Service on DCL is going to be better, though.

Something else worth knowing is that eating in the main dining room on Celebrity is always a drawn-out 2 hour affair, but on Disney they are able to speed things up if need be (e.g. impatient children).

 

[Mrsjvb]

I'll be totally honest, with the exception of Palo, the food was better on Carnival as far as main entrees go.

I loved many of the appetizers but disliked EVERY dessert I had in the main dining rooms and 5 of the 7 nights was woefully UNimpressed by the entree. and I like the more fancy dishes.. the duck was pretty crappy, to be honest.

In fact the food was the single most disappointing part of the entire cruise( Palo excluded) and is the single reason we most likely will never cruise with Disney again. We cruise for the Food more than anything else.

 

[Jack & Monica]

I am no connoisseur of food, but I have been on a number of different Cruise Lines. I would rate the Disney food service about a 4 out of a possible 5. (Palo being a definite exception -- 5 all the way). It is consistently good. Princess I rated as a 5 RCCL a 4 (at least on the one cruise we took). Norwegian -- depended on the ship we sailed on -- Norwegian had a number of inexpensive sailings offered up departing from the Northeast ports during the winter -- these were older ships (no balconies) and the food was not as good as on the more modern ships -- normally I would give NCL a 4 but not on the older ships -- 2.5. I guess for some lines it really depends on the ship. As for Carneval -- I was pretty surprised (pleasantly) at the food quality -- but I would still go 3-3.5. Also -- it has probably been about 10 years since I sailed on a Carneval Cruise. Again, except for Disney I just get the impression it depends on the ship. Never sailed on a Celebrity Cruise. Hope this helps a little. Jack

 

[NancyIL]

My last two cruises were on Celebrity Constellation (September) and Disney Wonder (December). I'm not a picky eater, and thought the food was good to very food on both. We had excellent service on Celebrity, and nice servers on DCL - but they were a bit frazzled one night.

I don't cruise for the food, and I'm just happy to not have to cook while I'm on vacation!

 

[ppiew]

Stateroom, Itinerary, & food are the reasons we cruise. We will be on the Equinox in March and the Wonder in April. Will let u know. As far as last year, the food on the Wonder was not good at all in the main dining rooms, and just so so in Palo. No steak, no lobster, no crab, beef inedible and tough, ravioli had one lonely piece of seafood. Was NOT impressed. Servers worked very hard though and the food at Beach Blanket for lunch was super!! Although Palo gave you more than enough to eat, it was very ordinary despite the fancy names for the entrees on the menu. Would have preferred less with better preparation.

 

[Twinsn2004]

We have cruised on the Wonder 3 times. I have to say that we have Never had a bad meal on any of the 3....my husband just raves to everyone about the food! We have never cruised another cruise line because we just love Disney so much.

 

[seashell724]

Our friends have been on both and they said that Celebrity was much better food.

 

[Sailingpartyof10]

My personal experience is that Celebrity used to have exceptionally good food (around 1998) that was somewhat better than Disney's, but in comparing Celebrity somewhat more recently (2006), I found that Celebrity's food service had declined and was not quite as good as Disney's. Granted, my recollection of the food in 1998 might not have been perfect by the time I cruised DCL and Celebrity in 2006, but I really do think it had gone down a bit. It was still good, though.

The specialty restaurant on the Celebrity ship was even better than Palo, though, with perfectly spectacular service in the private dining room there (we had a large group that reserved that one night).

I think both have good food (with a few exceptions - I agree about some DCL desserts) and would happily eat on either line, and I think both lines' specialty restaurants are better than many nice places I would go for special occasions at home.

 

[woody73]

We have sailed on both Disney and Celebrity, most recently on the Magic (Sept. '09) and Infinity (Oct. '09).

Mrs. Woody and I are split on who has better food in the main dining room.

If you are a meat eater as I am, dinner on Celebrity is better. I found the rack of lamb, prime rib, filet mignon and other dishes among the best of any cruise line I have experienced. Nice cuts (for a cruise line), imaginative preparation, and attractive presentation.

Mrs. Woody only orders chicken, fish or vegetarian dishes. She said the quality of those dishes are comparable on both lines, but Disney has a better selection, so she slightly favors Disney.

One area that we both agree on is ice cream. During the day, the Magic has soft serve. The Infinity has two ice cream stations, each with eight flavors of homemade (actually made on the ship) hand scooped ice cream. The only flavor they don't make onboard is the sugar free vanilla.

YMMV

Woody

 

[NancyIL]

One area that we both agree on is ice cream. During the day, the Magic has soft serve. The Infinity has two ice cream stations, each with eight flavors of homemade (actually made on the ship) hand scooped ice cream. The only flavor they don't make onboard is the sugar free vanilla.

Celebrity also had great toppings for their ice cream. I'll have a bowl of M&M's with a spoonful of ice cream, please!

 

[yenlee]

Here are some poll results from Conde Nast that include FOOD ratings on individual cruise ships:

http://www.concierge.com/tools/travelawards/cruisepoll/

Brief summary: Celebrity does a little bit better than Disney, which is perhaps slightly better than or comparable to HAL, Princess, and Cunard, and then there's a small but noticeable drop-off to RCCL, with the caveat that there is significant variation among different ships on the same line. Norwegian and Carnival have no ships in the Top 25, so one might naturally assume that their food ratings are lower.

If you look at the numbers, they are close enough that you (tink_n_pooh) have every reason to be as excited about DCL food as you were for Celebrity food, but obviously, you never really know until you try it.

 

[tink_n_pooh]

Thank you for all of the responses

A close friend of mine just came home from DCL and she said the food was great but then again she also thinks McDonald's is really good From her descriptions and some of the menus and things I have seen it just seems like DCL is maybe not as "fancy" or "classy" as Celebrity? I'm not sure how else to say that, its just the impression that I got.

I guess I would put DH & I in the category of 'cruising for the food', we really enjoyed the dinners on our Celebrity cruise. We enjoy a formal meal and don't mind sitting for a few hours over drinks and a good meal

I just checked on the cruise we wanted to take and its booked anyway so it looks like we might be leaving a lot sooner or waiting a few years again

 

[nailil]

Just got back from a cruise on Disney Magic. Both my husband and I were not happy with the food. Everything tasted very bland. We have cruised on Carnival 5 times and always loved the food. The cruise could have been great if the food was better.

 

[nailil]

Thank you for all of the responses

A close friend of mine just came home from DCL and she said the food was great but then again she also thinks McDonald's is really good From her descriptions and some of the menus and things I have seen it just seems like DCL is maybe not as "fancy" or "classy" as Celebrity? I'm not sure how else to say that, its just the impression that I got.

I guess I would put DH & I in the category of 'cruising for the food', we really enjoyed the dinners on our Celebrity cruise. We enjoy a formal meal and don't mind sitting for a few hours over drinks and a good meal

I just checked on the cruise we wanted to take and its booked anyway so it looks like we might be leaving a lot sooner or waiting a few years again

Hey, I like McDonald's too and I didn't like the food at all (except the quick service).

 

[tink_n_pooh]

We ended up on the Wonder for a 3 day cruise and the food wasn't great, not even remotely compared to Celebrity, heck our local pizza place makes by far better food than what we got in the dining rooms on the Wonder

 

[Angelhalo]

I'll be totally honest, with the exception of Palo, the food was better on Carnival as far as main entrees go.

I loved many of the appetizers but disliked EVERY dessert I had in the main dining rooms and 5 of the 7 nights was woefully UNimpressed by the entree. and I like the more fancy dishes.. the duck was pretty crappy, to be honest.

In fact the food was the single most disappointing part of the entire cruise( Palo excluded) and is the single reason we most likely will never cruise with Disney again. We cruise for the Food more than anything else.

I completely disagree. DH and I talked all week on our Carnival cruise about how bad the food was and how Disney was light years better. This is the problem with the question. It is all subjective to different diners. We hated the food on Carnival but love the food on DCL.

 

[TammyAlphabet]

Given that I am Pooh-sized, I like to sail Disney because I am less likely to gain weight.

 

[NancyIL]

The food has been pretty comparable on 5 different cruise lines. But then - I liked college DORM food!