First time on DCL - thoughts after the trip

[geoly1]

Room service is free (except for the optional tip) and open all day. When we return from ports we always get some cheese platters, fruit and sandwiches.

I’m so sad they are now charging for the “all hands on deck” fruit & cheese platter in room service now.

 

[Geomom]

I’m so sad they are now charging for the “all hands on deck” fruit & cheese platter in room service now.

More recent room service menu:
http://disneycruiselineblog.com/menus/room-service-menu/
All Hands on Deck: They only did that for about 2 weeks in January 2016. They got tons of complaints and said it was a 'printing error'. All Hands on Deck went back to being free as of 1/10/16.

 

[RedSox68]

More recent room service menu:
http://disneycruiselineblog.com/menus/room-service-menu/
All Hands on Deck: They only did that for about 2 weeks in January 2016. They got tons of complaints and said it was a 'printing error'. All Hands on Deck went back to being free as of 1/10/16.

Thank goodness! It's bad enough that other cruise lines now charge a $7.95 "service fee" for room service, but to pay for the All Hands on Deck would be so disappointing (one of our all time favorite options between meals). Thanks for the update.

 

[emilymad]

We agree that the food isn't great. Our main issue is the lack of options. Compared to Royal DCL options are laughable. We still sail on DCL but only when it works with the schedule and destination. I am not sure we would sail on DCL again for the regular 7 night Caribbean cruises.

 

[mydisneyanytime]

We sail for the Disney atmosphere not the food. My kids are NOT foodies (I try but they just aren't) so the food is ok to them. They like being able to order anything they want - my daughter usually gets a steak in every restaurant. We don't usually eat at the buffet but do take advantage of the room service many nights. I very rarely come out with any extra charges as we don't buy any of the extra cost items that are offered since there are so many free options. My kids love the cruises and that is really why we go!!

 

[mmouse37]

do you know what their "freshly hand tossed with your favorite ingredients" salads are like? I see it on the menu but the only picture I saw was a boring premade lettuce and tomato bowls.

Just got off the Wonder on Sunday and at Daisy De Lites they had a premade salad bowl with lettuce, carrot and tomato and then to the left of the counter they had many other toppings like red onion, cucumber, chopped green and red peppers, cilantro, mushrooms, olives, shredded cheese, cous cous, rice, scallions, etc. You could also add those toppings to the chili they had as well. Not sure if that is what they are referring to as "Make your own"

I like Cabanas for breakfast and lunch because we can get what we want quickly. We had breakfast in the MDR one morning and unfortunately all four of us had been brought wrong orders so the MDR's are not perfect either.

I actually like Cabanas for lunch as they always have healthy options like salad, steamed veggies (I am on a weight loss plan) that I can have without a sauce.

MJ

 

[starvenger]

Thank goodness! It's bad enough that other cruise lines now charge a $7.95 "service fee" for room service, but to pay for the All Hands on Deck would be so disappointing (one of our all time favorite options between meals). Thanks for the update.

Yeah, charging for room service on Royal is disappointing, At the end of the day, it just means that if you want to eat in the cabin, you have to plan ahead. Which also kind of sucks (wrt room service).

 

[Trera]

I’m so sad they are now charging for the “all hands on deck” fruit & cheese platter in room service now.

Ouch. And it is not cheap either.

 

[Lisa F]

Just got off the Wonder on Sunday and at Daisy De Lites they had a premade salad bowl with lettuce, carrot and tomato and then to the left of the counter they had many other toppings like red onion, cucumber, chopped green and red peppers, cilantro, mushrooms, olives, shredded cheese, cous cous, rice, scallions, etc. You could also add those toppings to the chili they had as well. Not sure if that is what they are referring to as "Make your own"

I like Cabanas for breakfast and lunch because we can get what we want quickly. We had breakfast in the MDR one morning and unfortunately all four of us had been brought wrong orders so the MDR's are not perfect either.

I actually like Cabanas for lunch as they always have healthy options like salad, steamed veggies (I am on a weight loss plan) that I can have without a sauce.

MJ

I wonder if they will just give me toppings not a huge fan of lettuce and tomato!
Thanks though, it seems like I can get something salad like there. Watching what I eat as well, mostly watching the carbs. And I love salad!

 

[mmouse37]

I’m so sad they are now charging for the “all hands on deck” fruit & cheese platter in room service now.

Can confirm there was no charge for All Hands on Deck Platter from room service last week on the Wonder.

MJ

 

[professorandmom]

We joke that they put crack in them because they are so addicting!

To add to our addiction, we collect Chic-Fil-A sauce and their honey mustard sauce packets and bring them on board (the Heinz sauces on board are less than ideal)...we dream of this!!!!

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

We were on the Wonder from the 21-28 Southern Caribbean sailing which was "port-heavy" and I also did not like the fact that Cabanas and sit down restaurants were closed every time we got back on board. We even made a point of coming back for a "late" lunch at 2 pm only to find out Cabanas just closed.... whereas it was open longer on a sea day.
My son would give me the look of... pizza or chicken fingers by the pool again? I mean this did not really ruin our vacation or anything, but when you are looking forward to other food... well...
I did enjoy the Sharma a lot though, but again... every day?
That was the only thing for us. You know we are in port, give people more options. Not just quick service.

As for Popcorn, I have never experienced Disney trying to sell it to us - we just knew there is a charge for it, went up to buy it when we wanted some. I usually get the refillable bucket though so the charge was only $1.75 with gratuity.
Same for the souvenir drink glasses. Only saw waiters with them during sail away, but otherwise had to ask for one. Which I did
My son looked at the Sully's souvenir cup at Sully's Sips when he had his smoothie.. and I was like nope. Not paying $6 more for this. Nobody was walking around with them though trying to push them on my kids.

 

[Main Street Matilda]

I'm hoping my memory isn't failing me - but on our 7-day sailing on the Fantasy a few years ago, I recall the MDRs' food being quite good. To be fair, I'm grading the food "on a curve" because I don't expect mass produced food to be as good as that I get at a solid sit-down restaurant at home, but I enjoyed what I had, as did my family. I do recall the pool-side food being nothing to speak of and we thought of that food as "just something to tide us over" until dinner. As buffets go, I thought Cabanas was far better than the Windjammer on RCL, but heck, they're both buffets. Hardly expecting haute cuisine.

Individual tastes vary and I often find I'm surprised when people rave over a dish I find mediocre and vice-versa. IMHO, I thought the food was good enough that I didn't feel like my money was wasted on DCL and it was better than average considering the number of people they are feeding.

 

[yargrnhoj]

When we first started cruising Disney (2001), we thought the food was excellent. Now we think it is just okay and wondered if it has really gone downhill. But back in 2001, we had two small children and a third on the way and 'dining out' was Applebee's. Now we have regularly dined at three and four star restaurants land side and maybe we are comparing those experiences to the cruise line, which is unfair (except perhaps for Remy).

We do believe the food is overcooked. On our last cruise, we started ordering all meats medium-rare so they came out just north of medium. I think this is done because there are a lot of people who maybe have never had a good medium steak and would be sending it back as too pink so they err on the side of overcooking.

One area we were very disappointed in was the up-charge for bar food in the Irish/English pubs on the classic ships (and presumably on the newer ships too). It's chicken fingers and burgers yet they feel they can charge there. And we rarely saw anyone ordering any of it and we spent a lot of time in the pubs on the last cruise in Alaska.

 

[Catvondita]

Not to hijack this thread but did anyone else on the Dream wish there were more late night activities for adults? Most of the activities ended for us at 12 but I would see the teens and kids get activities that start as late as 1am. The only bar that was open until 2AM was kind of lame and had a DJ that wasn't very good. Also jealous that the teens had a Battle Front tournament and video games in their teen center. Do they not realize adults can be gamers too?? I demand satisfaction! lol

 

[YawningDodo]

One tip that has helped me really enjoy the food on our cruises is that the best food in DCL's MDRs are the meals your servers recommend you have for dinner each night. They recommend those for a reason- they tend to be better than the other items on the menu. If you dine in the MDRs, eating the recommended entrees, your experience will be better than if you try the more obscure items on the menu.

Yep, this. I usually ordered about half what was recommended and half whatever I felt like (I don't really eat seafood, and a lot of the best dishes are apparently the seafood dishes). I was never led wrong by my server, but once or twice when I chose my own it was a little bit of a letdown (though the Jose Carioca's platter on the first night was excellent despite not being recommended to me). Second to last night he even insisted on bringing my tablemate a second appetizer if they were going to insist on the soup they'd ordered, as he didn't think the soup was very good. Lo and behold, he was right and they enjoyed the second appetizer much more than the soup. So just...yeah, listen to your server. And if you don't like what you get, tell them. He reminded us at survey time that food quality is also his responsibility when his guests rate their MDR experiences because if they don't like something he's supposed to fix it. Give your servers a chance and they'll do what they can to make you happy.

As for the OP's other experiences...I'll admit I wasn't terribly impressed with Cabanas in general, but I still ate there because it was usually the most convenient option and on my first cruise I wanted to do so many activities that I never felt like I had time to sit down for breakfast or lunch in Lumiere's. On a repeat cruise I may feel differently (and the one lunch I did have in Lumiere's was very good). Upsell-wise I'd gone in knowing what cost extra and what didn't and I budgeted accordingly, so even though I bought a lot of food and drinks on board I didn't feel resentful about it. I had a minor surprise when I forgot that nonalcoholic beverages outside the MDRs and beverage station would be packaged drinks with an extra charge and had to sign off on something like $1.70 for a can of diet coke, but I obviously wasn't too upset about it considering it wasn't the last time I ordered a soda in one of the lounges. The popcorn charge was nominal once you got the souvenir bucket, which pays for itself in two visits. I can see how that would all add up if you were paying for a whole family, but it's all optional and it added enough to my enjoyment of the trip that I just budgeted it in instead of policing myself to avoid upcharges.

 

[rlk]

.

 

[Pens Fan]

We do believe the food is overcooked. On our last cruise, we started ordering all meats medium-rare so they came out just north of medium. I think this is done because there are a lot of people who maybe have never had a good medium steak and would be sending it back as too pink so they err on the side of overcooking.

This is probably my main complaint about the MDR food. It's all pretty much cooked to oblivion. And it never seems to really matter if you tell them medium rare - you're lucky if it doesn't arrive well done. I guess it just goes with the territory when serving that number of people all at once.

This reminded me of something that really made DH and I chuckle on our last cruise. One night we both ordered tuna. We always get our tuna rare - basically sear it briefly on both sides and send it to us. Our waiter was very concerned about this. We had to assure him several times, that yes, we wanted rare (bright pink, even red!!) tuna. Then the head server came over and wanted to verify that we actually wanted it cooked rare as well. Once it arrived (sufficiently rare, but slightly more cooked than if I'd cooked it at home), both the waiter and the head server came back around to assure we were happy and offered to cook it further if we so wanted. Someone even came out of the kitchen to make sure we were happy.

While we appreciated their attention to detail, it was kind of ridiculous in a way. We always order tuna rare and have never once been questioned about it at any land based restaurant. Obviously it's a pretty unusual request on a Disney cruise (though no where else we have ordered it). It cracked us up. I mean, have they never seen "seared tuna steak" on a menu????

 

[AquaDame]

We were on the Wonder from the 21-28 Southern Caribbean sailing which was "port-heavy" and I also did not like the fact that Cabanas and sit down restaurants were closed every time we got back on board. We even made a point of coming back for a "late" lunch at 2 pm only to find out Cabanas just closed.... whereas it was open longer on a sea day.
My son would give me the look of... pizza or chicken fingers by the pool again? I mean this did not really ruin our vacation or anything, but when you are looking forward to other food... well...
I did enjoy the Sharma a lot though, but again... every day?
That was the only thing for us. You know we are in port, give people more options. Not just quick service.

You know I was just thinking we ended up eating off ship a lot more this cruise...! A couple of the days we just got a couple small bites from the concierge lounge and some chicken fingers but mostly we ate lunch in port and even had dinner at a place in Aruba since we had a late night. We were turned away from Cabanas at 2:14pm one day which felt so early... The islands kind of put the ship food to shame this trip anyway!

 

[MelSpees]

We do believe the food is overcooked. On our last cruise, we started ordering all meats medium-rare so they came out just north of medium. I think this is done because there are a lot of people who maybe have never had a good medium steak and would be sending it back as too pink so they err on the side of overcooking.

That's interesting. My husband likes his steaks medium rare and never had a complaint. My medium was fine as well. Maybe it depends on the ship and chef.