DCL Food - What to expect?

[KashasMom]

"foodies" would only be offended, disgusted, or turned off by the food on DCL is they CHOOSE to be. "Foodies" would also understand that all food / flavor is subjective and also appreciate the chefs & line cooks must appeal to a large number of people when composing & preparing dishes. "Foodies" could also make a tasty meal out of the variety presented at the Cabanas breakfast/lunch buffet (breakfast - corned beef hash from the buffet, with a cooked-to-order fried egg from tghe omlette bar, topped with hollandaise) and MDR menus in the evening. As others have said, the appetizers are usually more 'adventurous' then the main courses and I've often made a meal from those alone. Standouts include the escargot, tuna tartar (our favorite DCL app - we often eat several of these ), and cold asparagus soup.

Those vaunted 5-star restaurants in the urban 'utopias' are meant to appeal to a smaller population of diners - not the masses. Chefs/cooks for the masses are no less skilled than specialty chefs - their skill set is simply different but no less valuable.

Not sure about this especially from first time Disney cruisers thinking the "excellent" food is partly the reason for a premium price. Also - almost ALL of the threads about DCL food are sort of...gushing. This is actually the only thread I can remember where most of the people said the food was "okay".

 

[KashasMom]

On one of our B2B's, 14 days, we had servers who felt they were our buddies after the first few days. We are much like you, while I want friendly I don't want friendship. They were very nice with us however the problem was that they complained to us about each other. At first we found it funny but a week into it it got old. If you have a problem with your partner we are not the people to fix it. Take it up with the boss.

As to the OPPs concern, my penny and a half says if you didn't like the offerings on RCCL you will not like the offerings on DCL. We spent 14 days on the Symphony recently and found the food in the buffet very good. Good to the point where we stopped going to the MDR for dinner after the third night. The offerings were very vast, they even had a Mongolian station every night. And it was HUGE. The stations never stopped. It looked like you would be at the end then you would turn a corner and bam, more choices. DCL has stations for breakfast and lunch but it seems a bit limited. Not bad just not a wide variety.

Its nice to have the choice of a dinning room OR buffet for dinner which is not something DCL offers unfortunately. Also not something everyone would be interested in but I liked it.

We LOVE Oasis class dinner buffets. We don't even go to the MDRs. Love the choices and that there are always some ethnic dishes. I wish DCL would have a dinner buffet because sometimes you just don't feel like a long dinner but I know that will never happen because most people like the MDR experience (if not the food) on Disney.

 

[KashasMom]

Just curious what is the sales pitch you are referring to, I have been on 8 cruises and am not sure what you mean.

Five of seven nights on the Magic we got the "ratings" pitch. Must give them a 10, blah, blah, blah. By night 3 I was so over the MDR. Hated going to dinner!

 

[DietCokeMommy]

I just read something interesting in a family travel group about kids getting served first. If you're traveling with young kids (or any who aren't going to a kids club) have them served when you are so they are not done and ready to go before parents are even served. Since we're cruising with a toddler in Nov, we're going to try that out. Seems to make more sense to me. (Easy to keep kids entertained when none of you are eating than while parent is trying to eat.)

This is how we eat everywhere we eat out. I have a 2 year old and 5 year old. It's good to give them something small (fruit, bread, pouch, etc), but if you give them their entire meal, they will finish and want to leave long before the grownups have eaten. We always refuse for the kids to be served first and I really hope that our servers don't make any assumptions on our next cruise.

 

[Pens Fan]

We LOVE Oasis class dinner buffets. We don't even go to the MDRs. Love the choices and that there are always some ethnic dishes. I wish DCL would have a dinner buffet because sometimes you just don't feel like a long dinner but I know that will never happen because most people like the MDR experience (if not the food) on Disney.

We've never really been fans of buffets (on land or sea) until our last cruise. We were on a very port intensive 12 night cruise through Canada and New England on NCL. There were several nights when after a long day in port (often sampling the incredible fresh seafood options in Nova Scotia and Maine for lunch), the last thing we wanted was a long drawn-out multi course meal for dinner. It was so nice to just run up to the buffet, grab a few things and be done with it. And as you experienced on Royal, the ethnic options were often the best ones. Some of the curries were simply delicious. One night, near the end of the cruise, I had basically hit the food coma stage. The thought of another big meal just made me ill. We went to the buffet, and I made myself a nice, healthy salad and it was just perfect.

I really wish Disney would rethink their Cabanas offerings in the evening, though I guess they just don't feel there is enough demand for keeping it a buffet.

 

[KashasMom]

We've never really been fans of buffets (on land or sea) until our last cruise. We were on a very port intensive 12 night cruise through Canada and New England on NCL. There were several nights when after a long day in port (often sampling the incredible fresh seafood options in Nova Scotia and Maine for lunch), the last thing we wanted was a long drawn-out multi course meal for dinner. It was so nice to just run up to the buffet, grab a few things and be done with it. And as you experienced on Royal, the ethnic options were often the best ones. Some of the curries were simply delicious. One night, near the end of the cruise, I had basically hit the food coma stage. The thought of another big meal just made me ill. We went to the buffet, and I made myself a nice, healthy salad and it was just perfect.

I really wish Disney would rethink their Cabanas offerings in the evening, though I guess they just don't feel there is enough demand for keeping it a buffet.

Our extended family is a big brunch buffet group (on land). NCL has some great Indian options! I just like to taste a very little bit of a lot of different food. To me that is less wasteful than ordering one entree that I might not like. (I have hit the coma stage as well!)

 

[KennesawNemo]

I really don't think DCL dinning room food is much better than Carnival dinning room food. On the most part, they are on par to each other. That being said, I personally think both are decent.

 

[Dug720]

Five of seven nights on the Magic we got the "ratings" pitch. Must give them a 10, blah, blah, blah. By night 3 I was so over the MDR. Hated going to dinner!

I have found a simple and polite "I understand, and if there is a problem or something that can be improved, I will let you know. Otherwise, please assume I am happy." has always sufficed to nip that speech the first time it's given.

 

[xavier2001]

I have found a simple and polite "I understand, and if there is a problem or something that can be improved, I will let you know. Otherwise, please assume I am happy." has always sufficed to nip that speech the first time it's given.

Yep. I usually say ‘I know I know, excellent’ with a thumbs up and they get the hint. I will say we had less of a sales pitch on my most recent cruise than in past ones. Maybe Disney has gotten the clue and retrained the servers to avoid the ‘hard sell’ or maybe we just got lucky. Regardless in 4 cruises we have always had ‘excellent’ service.

 

[slatterie]

Five of seven nights on the Magic we got the "ratings" pitch. Must give them a 10, blah, blah, blah. By night 3 I was so over the MDR. Hated going to dinner!

OMG...We are not big chatters/buddies either with people. However, we do recognize great service and reward accordingly. We are fully aware how hard most of them work and the conditions they work in.

We just got off the Magic about 2 weeks ago. Everything was wonderful...except for our servers in the MDR. This was our second DCL trip ever and we had awesome servers the first time. We talked about it over the years how much we enjoyed them. This time a complete 180. The first night (4 night cruise) the Asst Server (drinks guy) while cleaning up the table and we are eating our very late served dessert. He starts going into how his daughter died at 17 of a unknown brain tumor or aneurysm. We had not said anything to bring that topic up and everyone but DH and myself had already left, so that made me suspicious from the start. Also our table was always served last (4 adults, 2 preteens) - no one had any special dietary needs that required extra time. Around us people were into their desserts and we were just served our main course. It was well over 2 hours to do the meal. So very disappointed.

By night two I was ready to to just quit the MDR - after once again the entire area was on desserts we were still waiting for our main meals. Fortunately, we had great table mates from Canada so they were great company even with the lack luster service.

This didn't incident turn us against DCL, but we will do the Cabanas MDR menu or eat pizza/room sevice/Palo next trip. We are just not MDR people - at least not every night.

I know DCL prides itself on the MDR meal but I really think cruising in general has changed to where people want to be more flexible with their plans (not many esp. with kids want to eat a large dinner after 8:30). I know that makes scheduling the shows challenging but maybe they should consider opening up Cabanas for buffet service or something. It doesn't have to be the whole place either.

 

[KashasMom]

OMG...We are not big chatters/buddies either with people. However, we do recognize great service and reward accordingly. We are fully aware how hard most of them work and the conditions they work in.

We just got off the Magic about 2 weeks ago. Everything was wonderful...except for our servers in the MDR. This was our second DCL trip ever and we had awesome servers the first time. We talked about it over the years how much we enjoyed them. This time a complete 180. The first night (4 night cruise) the Asst Server (drinks guy) while cleaning up the table and we are eating our very late served dessert. He starts going into how his daughter died at 17 of a unknown brain tumor or aneurysm. We had not said anything to bring that topic up and everyone but DH and myself had already left, so that made me suspicious from the start. Also our table was always served last (4 adults, 2 preteens) - no one had any special dietary needs that required extra time. Around us people were into their desserts and we were just served our main course. It was well over 2 hours to do the meal. So very disappointed.

By night two I was ready to to just quit the MDR - after once again the entire area was on desserts we were still waiting for our main meals. Fortunately, we had great table mates from Canada so they were great company even with the lack luster service.

This didn't incident turn us against DCL, but we will do the Cabanas MDR menu or eat pizza/room sevice/Palo next trip. We are just not MDR people - at least not every night.

I know DCL prides itself on the MDR meal but I really think cruising in general has changed to where people want to be more flexible with their plans (not many esp. with kids want to eat a large dinner after 8:30). I know that makes scheduling the shows challenging but maybe they should consider opening up Cabanas for buffet service or something. It doesn't have to be the whole place either.

That Asst Server story is terrible but really inappropriate that he brought it up. I know some people LOVE getting close to their dining team and enjoy having other table mates but that's not us. And once you've done all the rotations on a particular ship, it's kind of same old, same old (like the shows). Our particular dining team was the worst but the worst table mates was a family with 2 young kids. Mom was very pregnant and the kids kind of did whatever they want including climb all over the table. I spent most of dinner worrying the little girl (2) was going to have a bad fall. Mom and dad were unconcerned. Most fun was when she threw up all over the table. Give me a buffet any day!

 

[pixiedustedme]

I've really enjoyed the food at Cabanas breakfast and lunch buffets. I also really like the chicken fingers & fries on the pool deck for some reason- it's my go-to comfort food onboard. The MDR food is hit or miss, in my experience, so we try to go with our server's suggestions for the best meals at each seating. We've sailed five cruises, once on each DCL ship and a second time on the Magic, and we found the MDR food to be weak on the Magic both times. It was noticeably better on the other three ships.

 

[darnheather]

I've really enjoyed the food at Cabanas breakfast and lunch buffets. I also really like the chicken fingers & fries on the pool deck for some reason- it's my go-to comfort food onboard. The MDR food is hit or miss, in my experience, so we try to go with our server's suggestions for the best meals at each seating. We've sailed five cruises, once on each DCL ship and a second time on the Magic, and we found the MDR food to be weak on the Magic both times. It was noticeably better on the other three ships.

This last cruise we had two primary food issues. The first was rice or risotto not being cooked thoroughly. Or maybe they think they are supposed to be al dente? The second was VERY salty soup the first few nights. We mentioned the soup a few times and finally it was fixed. My daughter adores soup and it was starting to ruin her meals. Everything else was delightful. We had this incredible soup on Panama Canal day that was an assortment of at least 15 different seafoods I've never tasted anything so good.