Food Disappointment BIG Time...

[OurDogCisco]

At home, since, we have children it is not practical not to eat at a chain restaurant. My kids love fine dining but now that they are a tween and teenager it is not economical to take them out to fine dining where we could spend $300 for a fine meal. I love fine dining. I want to eat the local resturants that use local produce and meat. I live in Central CA but grew up on the coast and I'm totally disguisted with the quality of seafood in our town. I also, at home tend to cook mostly out of America'a Test Kitchen, Fine Cooking Magazine, Cook's Illustrated, Martha Stewart, etc... I don't like cooking out of box. I make my own BBQ sauce and I will not eat it out of a jar. I even whip my own whipping cream. I really don't like processed food that much and many chain restuarants do use processed food.

Now, I've been on 5 Disney cruises and will be on 6th in November. I've also been on RCCL and NCL. I swore I would never cruise NCL because the food on our ship was GROSS. For example, I ordered a root beer float and it came with coffee ice cream instead of vanilla. Another thing which is totally off subject is that I hate when they use a hot water dispenser and my tea tastes like coffee because they had made coffee in it. But the sad thing is I'm giving them a second chance and cruising with them in Alaska.

So, in my opinion I like the food on DCL. For cruise food I think it pretty good. I've never really had a huge issue with the food on the cruise. There was always something I liked on the menu. I've always ordered what the server recommended. Maybe that is the key. Is some of the food bland? Yes, but I find a lot of food in Florida is. I also find that some of the quality of ingredients being used will greatly affect the taste. I feel the same way about WDW food. I like most of the food for the most part. Are there some chain restuarants I like better you bet. I like Chipotle over Taco Bell or In-Out Burger over McDonalds or Smash Burger over In-n-Out Burger or NYC Italian restuarant over Olive Garden or Spaghetti Factory over Olive Garden. I love Fine Dining over any chain restuarant. But again I have children so, sometimes we eat a places we normally wouldn't as adults but do because of our kids. Hopefully, I'm making sense. I think, in general DCL and WDW tend to make their food bland to appease the younger population.

[jdb in AZ]

[QUOTE=Keurigirl;46053595]Shay, I totally agree with you, and we're not even fancy eaters by any standard. We're regulars at chain restaurants and I really don't have high standards. But I had the same experience on the Princess cruises we'd been on prior to Disney - the food stinks. It's all bland, bland, bland.[/QUOTE]

When we cruised on Princess last fall they had a pizza sandwich -- the bread had tomato sauce baked into it, and the filling was marinated eggplant. huh? Try serving that up with squid-ball soup. Thanks, but no thanks. We really used to enjoy Princess, but their food has definitely gone downhill. Except for their pastries. They've always been better than DCL. Disney does serve Krispy Kreme donuts, but they lose something when they've been frozen/defrosted.

[GoofyTwinDad]

I think it is funny that many cruisers including the OP think the MDR is comparable to a fine dining experience. How in the world can you expect DCL to put out the quality of food with the obviously astronomical expectations that you had going into the cruise. They are mass producing four course meals for 2,000 to 4,000 guests in a very short period of time. Many of these,cruisers tend to eat more than 1 appetizer, main dish or dessert each meal. The other thing to consider is many of these guests are children that may not have the refined taste that the "foodies" have developed. DCL needs to try and satisfy the majority not the select few that have the refined tastes as I stated before.

IMO, I would rate the overall quality of food at a 7/10. However, considering my comments earlier I feel DCL does an excellent job in attempting to satisfy the vast majority of cruisers. If DCL gets too fancy and season more there will be those who will complain and visa versa. Sometimes it is better to be in the middle to appease more cruisers.

As previous posters have stated, we cruise DCL for the disney experience not to have 5-star quality food. If you expect that type of food, then maybe one of the luxury lines would be a better fit.

[Annabell]

Originally Posted by GoofyTwinDad

we cruise DCL for the disney experience not to have 5-star quality food.

Same to us, we cruise on DCL mainly for the entertainment part and the overall experience !

Having said that, I do think the overall quality of food on DCL has decreased over the years. I am especially disappointed on the food on our last cruise. Many dishes were way too salty. Seafood was never really good on DCL (often they overcook it) but this time around they were almost not edible. The lobster and crab legs were so salty that I just could not finish it.

On the Magic last year, we had very good cold fruit soups and we were looking forward to have them again while on the Wonder recently. However, this time around (Wonder) we didn’t enjoy any of the cold fruit soups at all. They all just had an artificial flavor iso real fruit tastes like before.

The only dish that has always been good is the Seabass ! Consistently good everytime I take it.

As for snack, the pizza’s are fine (if they come right out the oven), not so much if they have been sitting there for a while. Chicken tenders are fine too.

I think if you want fine dining then DCL is not for you !

[TDC Nala]

I would not call it "so bad," but it's cruise food. Palo and Remy notwithstanding. You can do much better there.

We tend to bring along hot sauce. DCL will not provide hot sauce (there was a question and answer session on the Hawaii cruise in which they confirmed they don't want to serve spicy food to guests). And yes, the dining room food can be bland. On the Wonder to Hawaii there actually appeared to be someone in the kitchen who could cook fish, the fish was uniformly good. Or maybe they just had better fish in the Pacific.

And Ive done nine cruises on DCL and while there were clunkers here and there I cannot say that every meal I had every time was uniformly bad.

[disneyholic family]

Originally Posted by Clotho

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?

try a different cruise line.
though many if not most will have mediocre food in the main dining room.

But many other cruise lines offer additional specialty dining (for a small fee). Often more options than what disney has.

[FJS961]

It's a little ironic. Just off the fantasy and I surprisingly enjoyed the MDR food a little better than I expected. Granted there are hits and missed I course. The presentation of most dishes is pretty nice actually. Our server made good recommendations and seemed to steer us toward the better items even gently telling us if our initial choice was 'questionable' such as too dry. He did know his food. If we did stray, he wound up bringing his recommendation as well and it was always better

My ideal DCL dining experience would be Remy / Palo exclusively which we did on our Dream 3 night getaway. That was NICE.

[BethC1952]

I'm going on my 14th DCL cruise next week, and can honestly say I've never had a bad meal. I'm not sure (other than Palo) that I've had too many great meals, but the food is good enough for me. I don't cruise for the food, but I do have to eat.

I enjoy fine dining now and then, and I will admit to enjoying a Big Mac now and again too, especially since there's a McDonald's directly outside my office LOL!!!

I think the food is sometimes a bit bland, but that's the price you pay for having to mass produce thousands of meals each night. I've never been served anything that I would consider inedible, and I have never had to send anything back to the kitchen. Maybe I'm just not fussy enough about my food. I eat to live, I don't live to eat.

Beth

[mammacaryn]

I would never expect anything more than "DECENT" food when I am sharing the kitchen with thousands of other people for each meal.

A cruise is about it being a certain type of vacation, not the food I will be eating.

The food is ok. But that is ok with me.

[tweis]

My experience with DCL food is that some of it is really good and some is really bad. We really didn't care for the breakfast buffet a Cabanas and chose instead to have the buffet in Enchanted Garden. To us it tasted better and we didn't have to deal with lines. I have to agree with PPs the bacon is not good! IMHO AP has the worst food overall. I tried the black truffle pasta after hearing great things about it and didn't care for it. My husband on the other hand loved it. I opted to try the sesame shrimp carmalized onion cheesecake since I didn't like the pasta. It is very different. Not bad at all. We tried the baked potato soup here and while it wasn't horrible it wasn't very good and was very salty. I had the trio of veal and was not impressed at all with it. My husband had the marinated beef tenderloin and thought it was great. I did love love the walnut cake. It was really the only thing I loved in AP. Just my opinion. We had a better experience in EG. We tried the lobster ravioli and it was ok but pretty salty. I had the asparagus soup and thought it was quite good. We both had the NY strip and my husband got the pork tenderloin as well. They were both good but the steak was a little fatty. I think the steak came with a twice baked potato which we did not enjoy. Didn't really taste good. Dessert I had the trio and it was not very good. Most of their desserts are not good. We had a very pleasant experience in the Royal Palace. I had the lobster and shrimp appetizer and it was good. My DH had the duck and enjoyed it. We had Belle's french onion soup and it was absolutely to die for! I loved it! We both had the Royal Palace filet and it was melt in your mouth. Cooked perfectly medium just as ordered. My DH also ordered the Wild boar tenderloin and enjoyed it also. For dessert I had the Grand Marnier souffle which I loved and my DH had the trio and loved the creme brulee! For months leading up to our cruise I was looking forward to the Pirate Night Menu, I have to say this was my least favorite night food wise. I had the crab cakes which were salty and had alot of filler.....not much crab. DH had the pot stickers and thought they were good. We both had the conch chowder and didn't care for it. For our main course we both chose the Dutchmen's dijion crusted sirlion. Mine was horribly overcooked! It was the toughest piece of meat I had had on the entire cruise. Needless to say it was not very good. Dessert was chocolate rum cake....not good rum cake. We had decided to eat in Cabanas instead of the AP for dinner again until we learned of the See ya real soon menu and found out it would be exactly the same in Cabanas. It was ok. I had the artichoke, spinach & jalapeno cheese dip......terribly bland. I did not eat it. DH had grilled chicken sate which was very good. We both loved the potato leek soup. We both had the Yachtsman steak house beef tenderloin and it was quite tasty as was the chocolate decadence dessert. Overall most of the sides and desserts were not great in any of the MDRs with a few exceptions. We did enjoy most of the food on CC. My DH and kids loved the pizza on the pool deck. There is tons of food and you will not go hungry. Best of all....you don't have to cook it!

[jdb in AZ]

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.

[GoofyTwinDad]

Originally Posted by jdb in AZ

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.

Do the waiters cook your food? If you have a concern with your food, I hope you let the server know. Don't blame the server for food not being satisfactory. The server's responsibility is to attempt to have them remake your dish to your,sarisfaction or replace it with another. I ordered venison medalions on my last cruise which came out raw, I let the server know and I had a replacement within 5 minutes. That was my one and only food concern I had on both my cruises.

[sissy_ib]

Originally Posted by GoofyTwinDad

Do the waiters cook your food? If you have a concern with your food, I hope you let the server know. Don't blame the server for food not being satisfactory. The server's responsibility is to attempt to have them remake your dish to your,sarisfaction or replace it with another. I ordered venison medalions on my last cruise which came out raw, I let the server know and I had a replacement within 5 minutes. That was my one and only food concern I had on both my cruises.

Supposedly it looks bad on the servers if you don't like the food because they are supposed to make you happy. Like if you don't like the dish they need to get you something else. This makes no sense to me at all as if the first dish was bad it is still bad even if you get a replacement.

I guess you can write on the comment card the servers did help you out but the food was the problem not the service?? I think food quality and service are not the same and food quality should not reflect badly on the servers and have no idea how DCL can justify blaming the servers for the bad food the kitchen serves.

[jdb in AZ]

Originally Posted by sissy_ib

Supposedly it looks bad on the servers if you don't like the food because they are supposed to make you happy. Like if you don't like the dish they need to get you something else. This makes no sense to me at all as if the first dish was bad it is still bad even if you get a replacement.

I guess you can write on the comment card the servers did help you out but the food was the problem not the service?? I think food quality and service are not the same and food quality should not reflect badly on the servers and have no idea how DCL can justify blaming the servers for the bad food the kitchen serves.

I agree. Maybe I should put on the comment card that DCL should stop holding the waiters accountable for the quality of the food. Can't help wondering how much flak the chefs get if/when the comment cards are less than "excellent." The wait staff pleads with the passengers for excellent reviews, but there isn't much interraction between the passengers and the chefs, so we don't know if their feet are held to the fire (or the oven) as well.

[Daisy_Mum]

Originally Posted by jdb in AZ

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.

This is why we didn't turn in the questionnaire. Don't want to cause problems for the servers.
But honesty, we totally feel that both food and service were just average and definitely not worth an excellent rating. I am not sure if there is a better way to handle this.