Disney Cruise line food question

[lookinforthesun]

For those of you who have sailed on the cruise line before on a scale of 1-10 what would you rate the cruise lines food.

 

[Carol36]

I have only cruised DCL once(May 23, 2004). I would give the food in the dining room about an 8. But the food in Palos is a 10+.

Carol

 

[clh2]

I didn't like some of the food I ordered. In DCL's defense - I ordered stuff I would have never tried in a restaurant back home. Some I liked - others I didn't. The serving team was extremely concerned about me - and offered many other entrees/options. I didn't want to stuff myself - so I didn't order 2 entrees if I didn't like the first.

So - if you've followed this so far - If it was a "normal" food that I would eat at home - it was excellent!

 

[JLSM97]

Everyone's opinion of the food is going to be different, depending on what you like, what restaurants you enjoy at home, etc. I admit I'm a bit of a food snob, but here's what I thought:

Palo, hands down, one of the best meals I have EVER had anywhere. Dinner was perfection. Brunch was very good.

The three rotation restaurants were so-so. I was a little disappointed with some items, especially because I'd heard such wonderful things about the food. Overall I think I'd give it a 7 for most nights.

I was impressed with room service, and the walk-up places were better than we expected. The buffet was like a bad cafeteria, definitely not a highlight.

I've heard Disney's food is a lot better than other cruise lines', but this being our first and only cruise so far, I can't compare. However, I'd cruise DCL again in a heartbeat!

 

[eritouma]

Opinions on the food will vary like previously noted, and I would have to give the food an overall 5-6 rating. On our past cruise I felt the seafood was all over cooked, but the meat (beef, lamb, pork) was cooked nicely. The pasta was a little soft and the sushi was ... well not sushi. Having lived in Japan, what DCL served as sushi was not sushi. The rice was bad and the "filling" was just strange.

I thought the room service food was good, and the buffet, just average. Palos was good. The desserts, although plentiful, lacked something. Although New York cheese cake was listed, when I ordered it it came out as some type of mouse cheese cake thing. I did enjoy the Pear dish though.

I do no cruise disney for the food, thus to me it is not that big of a deal...

 

[Ellay]

I think that the food DD and I had on the Wonder this year was the worst we have encountered on any cruise line we have sailed with. It was just plain boring. There was not enough choice for me - I ended up having steak three out of the four nights. We didn't bother going to dinner on the fourth night as the only choice I had was steak! We had a sandwich and cake from room service instead.

I have to say also that the manners of our table guests, 2 couples, left a lot to be desired. We'd heard that you folks were friendly. This is not my experience. OUr table mates were downright rude.

My rating 3/10.

 

[tkd lisa]

I'm not really picky. We eat out a lot, but it's usually family restaurants or local chains. I would give them an 8 on a scale of 1-10 for the sit down restaurants. I really liked the bread and desserts. The buffet was probably a 7, and Pinnochio's/Plutos was about an 8 for it's type of food. I didn't eat at Palo's and really only got a couple of sandwiches from room service.

I agree that I tried food I wouldn't normally eat. And the servers are very concerned if you don't eat it.

You have to remember that they are feeding 2000+ people within the space of 4 hours. It's not going to be exactly perfect every time, but your servers will work very hard to find you something you like! And they'll definitely fix anything that comes out wrong right away.

 

[smchan]

Originally posted by lookinforthesun
For those of you who have sailed on the cruise line before on a scale of 1-10 what would you rate the cruise lines food.

If I were to use the 5 star rating system for DCL, I'd say the regular rotation is roughly 3.5 stars and Palo is a solid 4 star. The best Disney comparison I have are California Grill and Victoria & Alberts. Palo is squarely in line with CG but falls short of V&A in terms of experience, service, and quality. The regular rotation is good but falls shy of the experiences I've had at CG and some of the other, better WDW restaurants like Bistro de Paris. (FWIW, I've been to all these restaurants multiple times.)

I know it's hard to imagine improving on Palo, but I think it's possible. Doesn't make it any less enjoyable.

Sam

 

[maryisme]

We just returned from the Magic August 21st sailing and thought the food was mediocre. My husband and I are not picky eaters by any stretch but there were nights when we were just not happy with what we ordered.

We cruised twice before on the Wonder and don't recall feeling this way about our dining experience.

Palo, on the other hand was fantastic. Easily the best meal on the ship.

Mary

 

[markºoº]

We felt the food was about what we expected. The 3 regular restaurants had good food - few items were really good/special and nothing was really bad. Giving the number of meals they need to prepare, we really didn't expect a gourmet meal every night.

The food at Palo was much better since it is individually prepared to order. We would rate Palo almost as good as other gourmet restaurants. The service is also a key to a good meal at a restaurant like Palo. A good server will guide you to what is best and help enhance your experience. We felt we received excellent service during our 3 trips to Palo.

DCL does try to offer something for everyone every night. Remember though that they need to feed up to 2800 guest (and 975 crew) and the menus have to be somewhat limited. They simply cannot offer 15 different entrees every night. Yes, the menu some nights was more appealing to me than other nights but I always found something to eat.

Your expectations will drive how you feel about the food. We don't cruise to eat at a 5 star restaurant everynight. If you want that, cruise with Silversea or Seven Seas or take a trip to New York, Chicago, or LA and bring lots of cash! However, decent food and a resonable selection are resonable expectations to have for food on a cruise line like Disney.

 

[mmouse37]

If I do not have to prepare it, cook it or clean it up it is a 10 to me!!!

But honestly, we have sailed DCL 10 times with #11 in less than 2 weeks and I have always enjoyed the food. There are so many choices and I usually go with a server recommendation.

Not sure what people are used to eating back home but I feel the variety on board is great and the flavorings/spices very good!!! Of course there are going to be things that I don't care for but there are things I don't care for that I have ordered in land restaurants as well.

The good meals far outweigh any bad meals onboard.

As far as the "fast food" places....DCL has the best chicken fingers we have had anywhere.

MJ

 

[MarcyIn Florida]

I thought the food was okay -- definitely not up to par with Disney World's good restaurants, though. Their salads were vry good though, and they always had good fruit salads. We did not eat at Palo's, so my only point of reference is the dining rooms and the buffets.

My one beef (pun intended) with DCL food was the kids' menus. Blech! I know that people say they love the service on DCL, but our server on the Wonder did not allow our daughter (who was 2.5 at the time) to order off of the adult menu. As a result, she was unhappy, we were unhappy at the lack of healthy options, and DCL received a letter after the cruise. We know, this time around, that she can absolutely order off of the adult menu. Of course, now that she's 4, she's all about eating kids' meals, but we had successfully sheltered her back then.

As for comments about having to feed so many people, my only response is that I've sailed RCCL numerous times, and their food is phenomenal. Disney's did not compare to Royal Caribbean's food.

 

[logan1_2000]

DW and I had been on one crusie before, RCCL ship now known as Empress of the Seas (formerly Nordic Empress). I had thought while on board the Empress that it was okay, not great, but just fine for what it was, which is large scale banquet, really.

Then we cruised on the Wonder and were blown away and realized that the Empress had sucked by comparison! We did not quite have the same impression on the Magic, but our head waiter left a lot to be desired on that trip. (Example--Roland, this roasted chicken dish, how is that?--Roland: Oh, yes, that is chicken, and its roasted...). On the whole, I give the overall experience a 7 to an 8, some dishes probably just not my preference for the preparation, some very well executed. I live in a city with a decent supply of high end restaurants, and we are not regulars but do manage to find a few evenings each year to go out for very nice meals, so I think our expectations were for "good" and interesting presentations, but not expecting the finest meals of our lives. I'll give them credit--on at least one evening I liked the fish but not the preparation, and asked for a "Custom" order of that fish, sea bass, simply grilled and served with the sides that were listed for another entree on the menu, and without much of a wait I got that. Not from Roland, that was with Andre on the Wonder.

We have not done Palo's--I think DW would like to, but having studied their menu, it really isn't something I need to do for myself. Again, just preferences, not that the dishes are expertly prepared. And as mentioned elsewhere--surprise of all surprises, the chicken fingers at Pluto's probably are the best chicken fingers I have ever had anywhere! Sort of a "for what its worth" issue.

Agree with others--those looking for gourmet as a centerpiece to their vacation should go on another cruise line. But the food is certainly fine for a vacation that has a somewhat premium price tag and has some dress up nights. Still have never done room service, and noticed that the pizza slices, while eminently forgettable (think college cafeteria--at a college without any italians), did seem to be the favored movie snack of choice at the evening movies.

 

[goin2disneyagain]

I was not overly impressed with the food. I would give it a 6. This was my 1st cruise so I can't compare it to any other cruise line. The other family members I cruised with said RCCL was better. They were not impressed at all. One thing I do know is that I am a HUGE dessert person and found the desserts on the cruise to be awful with the exception of 2 desserts. We went to the dessert buffet and left our plates full, it was so bad we couldn't even eat it. One family member said that if I didn't eat it then you know it's bad. I rarely pass up dessert. I don't know if it was just our cruise or what because I had heard great reviews about the food and I was not impressed at all.

 

[wnissen]

I would have to say that the food was better than I was expecting from a cruise ship feeding all-you-can-eat meals using ingredients that may be frozen to thousands of people with tastes varying from middle American to Scandinavian. Really, they do a very good job given the constraints.

To set up an informal rating scale, where 1 is inedible crap, 3 is McDonald's, 5 is Olive Garden, 7 is a good gourmet restaurant, and 10 is the finest restaurants in the world, I'd say the food in the main dining rooms ranged from 4-6. There were some days that Topsiders had good stuff (shrimp were tasty, I liked many of the desserts) and other times ("Asian" lunch) when it was not good. Even badly-prepared Chinese food can at least be flavorful, but this was just boring. Dinners had some good stuff, including paella, although the vegetables left a lot to be desired. And, even if it's not the firmest, sweetest lobster in the world, it's great fun to say, "I'd like another lobster, please!"

On that same scale, Palo is about a 7. I've had a perfect meal (at Taillevent), and Palo is not that, so I think it's all relative to your expectations. The souffle is indeed remarkable, combining unbelievably light texture with intense cocoa flavor. Furthermore, I've tried making it, and their version is really superior. However, the "filet" is not as flavorful, well-marbled, or as tender as a good piece of meat should be. Palo has a good wine list as well, and gets points for reasonable prices. The brunch has a lot of good dishes (I can't pass up stone crab claws, and really liked the smoked trout) but the buffet setup means that they can dry out. As a comparison, the lunch buffet at the Bellagio hotel/casino in Las Vegas is slightly better in terms of food, but the service at Palo is better.

It may sound like I'm down on the Disney food, but I'm not. We're going back for another Magic cruise, and I'm looking forward to the food. It's good food, and we don't eat out a lot so eating out for a whole week is a treat.

Walt

 

[cristit14]

Originally posted by MarcyIn Florida


My one beef (pun intended) with DCL food was the kids' menus. Blech! I know that people say they love the service on DCL, but our server on the Wonder did not allow our daughter (who was 2.5 at the time) to order off of the adult menu. As a result, she was unhappy, we were unhappy at the lack of healthy options, and DCL received a letter after the cruise. We know, this time around, that she can absolutely order off of the adult menu. Of course, now that she's 4, she's all about eating kids' meals, but we had successfully sheltered her back then.

When we sailed in July on the Wonder our server told us that they had just redone the kids menu. It still had your staples of stuff like mac n cheese and pizza, but it also had items like steak, grilled pork chops, roast beef and turkey. My DD 8 absolutely loved it. She was able to have mashed potatoes every night with her meal.