Food Disappointment BIG Time...

[sissy_ib]

Nobody should be expecting the best food they've ever eaten on a Disney cruise. Probably not on any cruise except the supreme high end ones. But for the most part it isn't bad, and I love Palo and Remy.

One thing DCL sucks at is breakfast. They even make bad pancakes.

Breakfast is the worst! I love breakfast and the options were very disappointing for me. I never tied the omelet station so I will have to look for it in November.

 

[TDC Nala]

The omelet station isn't bad. But I will only eat them if there is a ton of cheese in them. They're good with that request but I don't want cheesy omelets all the time. Cereal is my friend.

 

[sissy_ib]

The omelet station isn't bad. But I will only eat them if there is a ton of cheese in them. They're good with that request but I don't want cheesy omelets all the time. Cereal is my friend.

I love lots of cheese in omelets but I agree. I don't want a cheese omelet every morning for a week! I also understand there is no hot sauce on-board. I will have to go pick up a bottle of Cholula to bring with me.

 

[TDC Nala]

They might have Tobasco, which I consider to be merely chili-flavored vinegar but will do in a pinch. We're bringing Sambal Oelek.

 

[sissy_ib]

LOL, I feel the same way about Tobasco. Although it did get me through a year eating in an Army Chow hall! I guess that might have something to do with why we don't feel DCL food is that bad. Not much is as bad as Army food!

 

[Clotho]

For breakfast we did room service a few days with the little door hanger. Just some pastries, a bagel and cream cheese, and cereal w/ milk, tea, coffee. Was nice to just be able to nibble while we got ready for the day, especially since we aren't morning people and getting up so early for port days were tough.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Thanks to OP for opening up a great discussion. I love DCL but do think there is room for improvement with the food. I sometimes feel while reading this board that I'm the only person in the world who doesn't "love" the food on the cruises. It's nice to see I'm not alone. I've cruised on the Magic twice (including once in Europe), the Fantasy last June, the Wonder a few weeks ago, and I'm about to hop on a plane again in a few hours to catch the Magic in NYC (hopefully avoiding Leslie!).

Anyway, for the most part, I think the food in the main dining rooms has been of similar quality among the different ships. Overall, it's fine---not great, but considering the number of people they are serving it's okay. My biggest complaint is the abysmal selection and quantity of vegetables offered (especially those that are not swimming in oil and butter). I usually ask for extra, and by the end of 7 nights, I have frozen broccoli, carrots and cauliflower mix coming out of my ears I wish they'd improve the simple/standard offerings on the menu. Every time i've ordered the plain salmon, chicken or steak, it's been way overdone and obviously reheated.

I haven't been to Remy yet (next April), but I've dined at Palo all four cruises. This is where I probably have diverge from most people, in that I don't think it's all "that." Is it better than the MDRs? Definitely. Is it fine dining? Eh. It reminds me of a restaurant in a nice hotel, but it's no French Laundry, Chez Panisse or Masa's (can you tell where I'm from . I prefer brunch as the food doesn't seem to be quite as heavy. The funny thing is that my favorite items on the brunch are the things they don't cook: the cheese and salumi. The thing that bugs me the most about Palo is how much the waiters overdo it about the food--as if this is the greatest meal I will ever eat--but that's probably a personal pet peeve. I do think it is "worth" the upcharge, mostly to have something different from the MDRs, but I don't rave.

Where I have seen the most variance among the ships, and where I have been most disappointed, are the food offerings outside of the MDRs--i.e. cabanas, goofy's galley, etc. On the Fantasy in June, Cabanas was great for breakfast, the similar restaurant on the Wonder a few weeks ago . . . very disappointing. The Magic wasn't that great either. The Fantasy seemed to be better prepared and have a ton more options, including poached eggs with spinach(yeah!), which I loved (without the sauce). You should have seen the made to order eggs I had on the wonder in Alaska--they were brown and hard as a rock every day. When I saw the amount of grease they were using to cook, I asked for Pam. Big mistake, LOL. I would have been much happier with hard boiled eggs, but unlike the Fantasy, the Wonder only had them one or two days. I noticed the same problems with selection and quality on the wonder compared to the fantasy at lunch.

The worst food I've ever had on the ships though was the Pizza on the Wonder a few weeks ago. The cheap, plastic-like cheese was inedible. Even DH and DS who eat just about anything put it down.

I would really love to see them expand the food offerings beyond the MDRs and concentrate more on the quality.

About our eating habits: I pretty much ascribe to the Alice Waters school of thoughts: fresh and local, simply prepared, but cooked to perfection. I tend to prefer rustic to classic cooking styles. The entire family has very broad palates and we try to avoid processed foods as much as possible. We don't eat at chain or fast food restaurants. The kids eat what we do--I've never made them a nugget or mac 'n' cheese, LOL.

 

[poohluv2u]

o.k. most people here think the food is adequate, etc. but how do you respond to the waiters' pleading for an excellent review -- if we don't tell DCL how excellent the food is, the waiters are to blame.

Short of not turning in the questionnaire at the end of the cruise, what's the best way to deal with it? I don't want to cause problems for the hard-working(!) wait staff, but the food doesn't deserve a cross-the-board excellent rating.

I also worried about this. Our servers were great and deserved excellent on their reviews. When they asked us how we were enjoying our meal, and we would say everything is good, or it's delicious, they would ask what can we do to make it excellent. I felt bad for them as sometimes there is no way for it to be excellent. One of our meals was particularly enjoyable, right up to the time that we tasted a bundle of green beans that had been wrapped so prettily, only to find out that the beans were the frozen kind - yuk! So should I grade the meal based on some gross beans? After the first few nights we started thinking "for cruise food, this is excellent" so we said it was excellent ... and sometimes it was the truth

There was a separate scoring for food and servers but we treated it as one, as I didn't want our servers to be marked down in any way. However, we did give lower marks for the buffets and fast food, I specifically mentioned the pizza.

I kind of chuckled over the question Disney asks about whether your answers were coerced (or whatever word it is they use). For 99% of the grading is exactly how I feel, but there is that small part of my answers where I feel obligated to watch out for my servers.

 

[dclcruiser88]

Although the DIS members of this board will only be a smallish percentage of cruisers aboard all 4 of DCL vessels, would it not be more appropriate to mark the card as service excellent (if it is) and food as poor or poor quality despite choosing several dishes over the course of the cruise(if it is) rather than saying it was good or excellent?
Not wanting to get the servers in to any trouble, but if you have a meal prepared with poor quality, low grade ingredients, then DCL should be made aware of that and it not covered up by wanting to protect the servers.
Perpetuating an excellent rating for the food neither serves DCL well nor the cruiser?

 

[Keurigirl]

It's not shown on the blueprints, but there is a cattle hold near the bow. The problem was that cows get seasick, so they stopped using it.

 

[tanyam76]

Just got off the Wonder yesterday, and had a great time. Staff was amazing, the ship was gorgeous, and we are already looking forward to a future cruise. But with who...? Because we love good food and frankly, we didn't have much--hubby loved his lamb dish at Palo, and we both enjoyed brunch there, mostly eating the buffet items, but that's it.

I swear I am not as picky as this sounds, but I didn't have one single meal that I fully enjoyed on the ship. Bland, overcooked, lukewarm, over-salted, tasted like frozen food or school lunches. Even Palo overcooked my shrimp and steak (and the waiter failed to bring an entire course we had ordered, which only contributed to my disappointment).

Is this normal? What was your experience? I would love some perspective, because this is actually one of the sticking points in deciding if we want to cruise with Disney again or try another line. We love our Disney vacations for the decor, theming, and service; and we have read about people actually liking the food on Disney, so I had to wonder if somehow we got a bad kitchen experience on this cruise? Or if our idea of good food is vastly different from the reviewers we have read. For instance Red Lobster is NOT "good food" in our book, but we would eat there and find a thing or two that would satisfy. If our cruise on the Wonder were a restaurant, we would never go back.

So question for y'all who have cruised Disney before: tell me of your food experiences, good and bad. And for reference, what kinds of foods do you enjoy eating at home? For instance, if you regularly eat at McDonald's and Long John Silvers, and if you use that as a basis for comparison for "good food" then I have an idea of your personal 1-to-10 scale, know what I mean? It is not my intention to judge anyone's food choices and I hope that this thread will stay on topic without any personal barbs. I just want to gauge why I read so many good reviews of Disney food when my one experience was SO BAD--is this an isolated incident, or is it a case of taste/preference/perspective?

When we got off the dream in May, the only somewhat negative thing we had to say was the food. That said, I wouldnt say it was bad but it wasnt great. To please that many people would be hard. We were pretty easy going. But hands down, every sit down meal had the best tasting, perfectly prepared vegetables--that was consistent. However during dinner the entree could be hit or miss. I am not a foodie by no means and I am not fussy but their food did not reach the same standard as their customer service, their entertainment etc. I thought their hamburgers were blah. Who mangles hamburgers!!! If I were to rate their food I say maybe a 6.

I still with cruise with Disney because like I said it was ok. When suggesting people to go, I always tell them that the food is just alright so if you want 5 star dining you will be disappointed.

 

[kcashner]

We did a Celebrity cruise last month, and the food was MUCH better. This was across the board, at all outlets. It proved to me that a cruise line could do truly EXCELLENT food...and the cost of the cruise was a lot less than DCL's. Note--this was in the "included" restaurants and outlets. The only thing we did that cost extra was the tea. That was very comparable to the discontinued tea on DCL.

There were lots of other things that we liked better on DCL, but food...hands down, Celebrity wins.

I, too, wish that our servers were not held responsible for food quality. In most cases, they are not to blame for bad or take credit for good; all they can do is offer another item!

 

[Toddymae]

The food is just bad. My opinion and after 35 cruises I feel I have the right to say that. I don't by the line - with so many people to feed they do an okay job - no. The cruise industry has been around long enough to know how to cook for a large group of people. Sorry, I just think that's an excuse for bad food and not a reason that the food is bad. Care and preparation should be a hallmark for these chefs and for DCL - I personally don't see that they really care about the food. That being said, I continue to cruise with DCL because I love it - just wish I loved the food.

I always write in - food/poor and servers/excellent.

 

[ducky2u]

I loved the food.

 

[tortoni]

We did a Celebrity cruise last month, and the food was MUCH better. This was across the board, at all outlets. It proved to me that a cruise line could do truly EXCELLENT food...and the cost of the cruise was a lot less than DCL's. Note--this was in the "included" restaurants and outlets. The only thing we did that cost extra was the tea. That was very comparable to the discontinued tea on DCL.

There were lots of other things that we liked better on DCL, but food...hands down, Celebrity wins.

I, too, wish that our servers were not held responsible for food quality. In most cases, they are not to blame for bad or take credit for good; all they can do is offer another item!

I had to chuckle when I read this because it made me realize how subjective food is. We had the good fortune of sailing the Summit and the Magic this summer. Just got off the Magic today. We left the Summit feeling surprised by what we considered to be poor food quality. Just not to our liking and steak that was like rawhide. Even ordered rare, it came out well done. We kept looking at each other on the Magic this week and commenting positively on the food. Palo was fantastic and the rest was very good. Not a bad meal at all.

I don't dispute your view at all, we maybe had a bad week on the Summit or ordered the wrong food, but thankfully, we picked all the right things on the magic!

 

[nordkin]

I had to chuckle when I read this because it made me realize how subjective food is. We had the good fortune of sailing the Summit and the Magic this summer. Just got off the Magic today. We left the Summit feeling surprised by what we considered to be poor food quality. Just not to our liking and steak that was like rawhide. Even ordered rare, it came out well done. We kept looking at each other on the Magic this week and commenting positively on the food. Palo was fantastic and the rest was very good. Not a bad meal at all.

I don't dispute your view at all, we maybe had a bad week on the Summit or ordered the wrong food, but thankfully, we picked all the right things on the magic!

We also got off the Magic today and all three of us commented on how bad the food was. Most nights all of the vegetables were cold when served and the choices on the menus were nothing to write home about. The lobster mac and cheese was the worst mac and cheese we have ever had. Imagine melted cheese with a very small amount of lobster stirred into pasta that was not even cooked ala dente. The pasta cracked when you chewed it. Most nights we ordered the tryed and true sirloin or chicken dishes and were pleased. Even our servers were recommending these over the other options on the menu.

 

[Luv2Diz]

Interesting how opinions can vary so much! We were on the same cruise as the OP and we thought the food overall was good.

I am very picky about hot food being hot and cold food being cold and thought DCL did a good job with that. We also tend to like our food spicy and didn't find the DCL food to be bland.

A few items could have been better, but overall, we were pleased with the food. I had expected much worse based on comments I had read here before sailing!

 

[Clotho]

Interesting how opinions can vary so much! We were on the same cruise as the OP and we thought the food overall was good.

I am very picky about hot food being hot and cold food being cold and thought DCL did a good job with that. We also tend to like our food spicy and didn't find the DCL food to be bland.

A few items could have been better, but overall, we were pleased with the food. I had expected much worse based on comments I had read here before sailing!

Looks like a lot of things must play into this, from what I ordered vs. what you ordered, what seating we each had, and I am guessing even how long one takes to eat will affect whether you get warmer or colder food, since so much of the food is timed to go out at the same time. We took our time, since we were chatting so much and enjoying ourselves, but we weren't the last people out of the room every night either (though sometimes we were pretty close).

I feel like this thread has given me a lot of helpful perspective on how to get the most out of my dining experience. Hubby was about ready to just book Palo every day if we had to, which I think speaks more to his eagerness to make Disney work out for a future cruise than his passion for Palo. But honestly, it is helpful to know that maybe going for the "light fare", simpler preparations might be the key to greater satisfaction. So thanks for everyone's comments and feedback and experiences!!

 

[poohluv2u]

Interesting how opinions can vary so much! We were on the same cruise as the OP and we thought the food overall was good.

I am very picky about hot food being hot and cold food being cold and thought DCL did a good job with that. We also tend to like our food spicy and didn't find the DCL food to be bland.

A few items could have been better, but overall, we were pleased with the food. I had expected much worse based on comments I had read here before sailing!

We also were happy with the temperature of our food on the Alaska cruise, by chance did you have second seating APPTAPT?

 

[BMICKEY]

Just got off the Wonder yesterday, and had a great time. Staff was amazing, the ship was gorgeous, and we are already looking forward to a future cruise. But with who...? Because we love good food and frankly, we didn't have much--hubby loved his lamb dish at Palo, and we both enjoyed brunch there, mostly eating the buffet items, but that's it.

I swear I am not as picky as this sounds, but I didn't have one single meal that I fully enjoyed on the ship. Bland, overcooked, lukewarm, over-salted, tasted like frozen food or school lunches. Even Palo overcooked my shrimp and steak (and the waiter failed to bring an entire course we had ordered, which only contributed to my disappointment).

Is this normal? What was your experience? I would love some perspective, because this is actually one of the sticking points in deciding if we want to cruise with Disney again or try another line. We love our Disney vacations for the decor, theming, and service; and we have read about people actually liking the food on Disney, so I had to wonder if somehow we got a bad kitchen experience on this cruise? Or if our idea of good food is vastly different from the reviewers we have read. For instance Red Lobster is NOT "good food" in our book, but we would eat there and find a thing or two that would satisfy. If our cruise on the Wonder were a restaurant, we would never go back.

So question for y'all who have cruised Disney before: tell me of your food experiences, good and bad. And for reference, what kinds of foods do you enjoy eating at home? For instance, if you regularly eat at McDonald's and Long John Silvers, and if you use that as a basis for comparison for "good food" then I have an idea of your personal 1-to-10 scale, know what I mean? It is not my intention to judge anyone's food choices and I hope that this thread will stay on topic without any personal barbs. I just want to gauge why I read so many good reviews of Disney food when my one experience was SO BAD--is this an isolated incident, or is it a case of taste/preference/perspective?

Before we did the Wonder with our friends (who have also been on the Magic), we had been on two 7-day cruises on the Magic. We all agreed that the food and atmosphere was better on the Magic. I can't explain why other then they get to know you better on a 7 day....We go on the Fantasy in October, so I'll let you know then!

I've been on Carnival (5 times), Princess (once) and Holland America (once). Princess was the best followed by Disney. Carnival - blech....Holland American - just ok but geared towards an older pallette....I think it really depends alot on your tastes...