Food reviews on the Wonder

[jenf22]

Hi all. We are booked on our first ever cruise on the Wonder in September to Alaska. My husband has been reading reviews on various sites where people loved the cruise, but hated the food. Is the food really that bad? Are the restaurants good? Do they serve "normal" (i.e. Chili's, Outback, American chain) food or is it all fancy? We're not fancy people, and our 4-year old is REALLY not fancy. What does everyone think of the food? Thanks for your help!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Hi all. We are booked on our first ever cruise on the Wonder in September to Alaska. My husband has been reading reviews on various sites where people loved the cruise, but hated the food. Is the food really that bad? Are the restaurants good? Do they serve "normal" (i.e. Chili's, Outback, American chain) food or is it all fancy? We're not fancy people, and our 4-year old is REALLY not fancy. What does everyone think of the food? Thanks for your help!

This is the third thread I've see started about reading on "other sites" as to the quality of the food (bad) on the Wonder. I've never seen these reviews, but we just took 2 cruises on the Wonder (Oct and Dec).

Food is really a subjective matter, but, in my opinion, I found it to be quite good. Along the lines of, say, a 3 or 4 star restaurant.

That said, while fancy in some things, there are other, more basic offerings. There is always a lighter fare menu that is chicken or fish. And the menus that have steak as one of the regular offerings, you can get a plain steak, also. You can always ask your server to substitute things, if you wish. For example: you can ask for steamed veggies instead of whatever veggies are being served with your particular entree; you can get 2 appitizers, if that's all you want; ask for sauces/gravies on the side. They want you to be happy, so they will work with you.

I posted a week or so ago the kids menus on our cruise. Sorry, I don't know how to post a link, but just search for "kids menus". They had burgers, mac & cheese, and other kid friendly food.

 

[Yokelridesagain]

I think the food on DCL is quite bad, particularly at dinner. Or maybe it's just that the disconnect between what they're trying to make you think they're serving and what they're actually serving is so much more pronounced at dinner that it's much more noticeable then.

There is very little of what you describe as "normal" American chain food. The grill by the pool has VERY basic chicken fingers, cheeseburgers, etc., which are edible but nothing to get excited about at all (except the pizza...that's just awful).

The main dining rooms aspire to be "fine dining" experiences, and they resemble such in terms of the food offerings and the service...right up until they bring the food out. I wrote one of the bad reviews of the food you likely read, and I liked my turn of phrase so well I'll use it again--pretentious descriptions attached to bad food.

If I haven't put you off it too much, it wouldn't stop me from going. The food is bad in an "unpleasant caricature of fine dining featuring mass prepared frozen ingredients" kind of way, rather than inedible. I would stick with chicken, fish and beef and stay away from anything frou frou like elk, oysters, escargot, etc.--in general the rule was, the more 'unusual' the ingredient, the worse it tasted (these are all things I like and, with the exception of elk, eat with some regularity).

 

[PrincessShmoo]

While I don't eat escargot, we've dined with several other passengers who thought it was quite good.

As I said, food is really subjective.

 

[jdb in AZ]

DCL food is better than some, but not quite as good as others. I would mention specifics, but there are fans of the other cruise lines that like to jump all over any criticism, warranted or not. And as stated above, it's all subjective.

I would rate DCL better than Chili's, less salty than the sodium overload at Outback. You don't have to go gourmet unless you want. Last year we shared a cruise table with a steak and potatoes guy -- that's all he ordered. every. single. night. boring! Since the food in the main dining room is all inclusive, you'd think he'd at least taste something new and different. And if you don't like something, the waiters are quite willing to bring you something else.

On the other hand, a teenage niece (on another cruise line) got so tired of all the fahncy food she opted for a hot dog at dinner. It wasn't on the adult menu, but the waiter brought it to her.

On yet another cruise line, the food was soooo very bad, the young adults in our extended family spent valuable port time searching out a Pizza Hut so they would at least find something they liked. A pregnant niece actually lost weight on that cruise.

A bro-in-law (verteran passenger of 6 other cruise lines) put off going on a Disney cruise, thinking it was all childish, til he tried the food and became a believer. He didn't have any qualms about sailing DCL a 2nd time.

 

[sdtwins]

Hi Jenf22,

I was having the same questions and concerns as our trip on the Wonder approached a few weeks ago. There were wildly different reviews of the food, so I didn’t really know what to expect. Here are my thoughts.

Since this is subjective, I’ve put together the following scale that I used in my ratings. I use +/- to denote borderline ratings.

***My rating scale***
A – Exceptional food. I not only would order it again, it sticks in my mind as something wonderful.

B – Good. I might order it again, but I’ll probably forget about it.

C – Serves the purpose of feeding me, but nothing more. I didn’t particularly like it, but it wasn’t bad enough to send it back.

D – Didn’t taste good. I didn’t eat more than a couple of bites and probably sent it back.

F – Inedible. Probably gave me food poisoning.



***Dinner Menus***
With the exception of the Golden Mickey’s menu, I would give dinner a solid B. It is mass produced food meant to appeal to a broad range of people (re: bland). There were some relatively good things (very few As) and some Cs. The good thing is that the exceptional wait staff steered us toward the better items. When we went against their advice, we often found ourselves with something not very good. The baked goods (at any meal) were consistently excellent (A rating). The desserts weren’t that great (consistent C rating). Ice cream sundae types of things were consistently safe. There was a shortrib main dish that was a solid D (poor meat quality and not a lot of flavor). We are used to incredibly good produce and found the quality fairly poor (C- rating). There was one salad that we ordered that was not edible (wilted lettuce, weird apple dressing). Between the two main dishes, two appetizers and two salads/soups, we typically had plenty of B quality food. Across the board, we didn’t like the Golden Mickey’s menu. I would plan your Palo reservation that night.

***Breakfast***
The bad – We didn’t like the Character Breakfast menu much (C-).
The good - The breakfast buffets were overall pretty good (B+). There was a good selection, the baked goods were excellent (A), and the premade or made-to-order omelets were good (B). The table service breakfasts were also pretty good (B+). There were a couple of items that were expectional.
***Lunch***
We found the lunches (both in the table service and buffets) solidly OK (B rating). We didn’t encounter anything particular bad or anything particular wonderful. The one exception was with the baked goods (breads) that were always good.

***Quick Service***
These eateries served food that was extremely popular with our kids (pizza, chicken fingers, hamburgers, hotdogs). We didn’t particular like any of this, but the kids loved it.

***Palo***
We ate dinner and brunch at Palo and found it consistently good. The quality of the food was notably better and since it was cooked in the smaller kitchen, the food always arrived hot and well prepared. I would give them an A- rating. I will add that the chocolate soufflé dessert was an A+. This is one of the best things that we’ve ever eaten.

***Kid’s menu***
As you can see from the images people have posted, the kid menus have one or two “chef special” items that are different every night and then a standard set of food. Our kids ate mac and cheese with some sliced melon almost every night. They ate a lot of chicken fingers and pizza at lunch. I didn’t eat the kid food, so I’m not rating it.

***Overall Thoughts***

1. Set your expectations in the middle-of-the-road. Don’t expect that you’re going to be eating the best food you’ve ever consumed and you’ll be happy.
2. The produce is not that great. We found the variety and quality poor.
3. The bread and baked goods are really excellent (dinner rolls, sliced bread, donuts, breakfast rolls).
4. Palo is worth the extra money. Don’t skip it.

Hope that helps

 

[sdtwins]

I'll add to what Yokelridesagain had to say about the pretentious menu descriptions. This was particular notable on the dessert menus. The dessert descriptions were exceptionally wonderful. The actual desserts were typically crummy.

 

[MillauFr]

The problem is that they market it as fine dining but it doesn't come anywhere close. The food is on par with most large chain restaurants. Not sure why the food isn't better with the premium they over other mass market cruise lines.

 

[Brumbie13]

I generally describe the dining room food as a step up from Applebees. Think of the quality if Applebees, then think one step above that. This is how I thought of the food.

I didn't like everything I tried, but I liked a majority of it. We dressed up in semi-formal clothes (me a collared shirt and slacks and her a dress) every night except the dress-up nights, and we treated each meal as though we were going to a nice restaurant. Our tablemates did the same. I think it added to the feeling of being in nice restaurants.

Overall, we felt that the food was definitely a highlight of our vacation. One of the best things about the meals was, if there was anything we didn't like, we could easily swap it out. That was part of what made the meals so good for us. Even if the particular plate wasn't good, it could always be rectified.

 

[aan1701]

My food review is very simple. I don't ever buy food off the ship, and I have never gone hungry.

 

[hudson3709]

I had read all those reviews before as well and was concerned. Now I've only been on one cruise, but on the Wonder cruise we took last year all 12 of us were very happy with the food. I am not sure where some people are used to eating, or if we just happened to be on a good week, but I thought the food was excellent. I also wasn't expecting much. So go with low expectations and hope to be surprised, we were.

 

[Ikaikalani]

I don't think the food is all that bad really. It's not 5 star (save Remy and Palo that is!!!! And I agree that the restraunt food could use some help at times. I have the funniest video of my partner trying to cut/eat an eggs benidict one morning at Royal Palace restraunt....it goes on and on for a full 7 minutes as he tries to saw his way through the rock hard muffin, and when he finally wrestles away a small piece it takes another few minutes of painful looking chewing to get it down. I do have a great suggestion though: I try to order special items..i.e. eggwhite omlete w/o onions for example; anything that will ensure that it has to be made to order; Also, I find the room service items to be really good (BLT and Tomatoe soup comes to mind!!) I also try to frequent places like Quiet Cove for danish (they're exceptional!!), etc.

 

[seven2go]

I would have to agree with the above poster about special order eggs....the one thing that as a family we dislike are the premade/scrambled eggs.......just not right. We would order an omlette OR my sons would just order eggs exactly how they wanted them! Even at the omlette bar the cook would cook up fried eggs if you asked!
As far as other meals, the food is fine, and again, you can always request almost anything else you may need or desire!!! Our server Lito was THE best at trying to accomodate/make all seven of us happy each and every night on our last cruise!
Hey, it may not be five star.....but it is a great meal, and for me, a nice break from COOKING!!!!!

 

[MateasMom]

I thought it was pretty bad. Not completely inedible, but I went to every meal fingers crossed for something of quality and by the end of the cruise was craving 'real' food something fierce. My comment card read 'A feeble attempt at pretentious dining'. Desserts - I tried *every single trio* as well as a full size dessert here and there. The only desserts I thought were of quality were during the dessert gala (the tarts and strawberries were very good) and I also enjoyed the Celebration Cake.

The food on deck....the 'pizza' was like movie theater pizza.....like, less good than Frozen pizza. The chicken strips I had once and weren't so terrible that I couldn't eat them, but were just boring chicken strips (I had read that they were amazing).

The breakfasts were like a decent continental breakfast. Even when sitting down to order the selection/quality wasn't much better than that.

That said, we had a great time and wouldn't think twice about going again.

 

[jdb in AZ]

Hi Jenf22,

***Breakfast***
The bad – We didn’t like the Character Breakfast menu much (C-).
The good - The breakfast buffets were overall pretty good (B+). There was a good selection, the baked goods were excellent (A), and the premade or made-to-order omelets were good (B). The table service breakfasts were also pretty good (B+). There were a couple of items that were expectional.
Hope that helps

Sorry, but I didn't think the baked goods were all that wonderful -- they included defrosted Krispy Kreme donuts every morning. DCL really needs a better pastry chef. On an RCI cruise our room was close enough to the bakery that we smelled fresh bread baking every afternoon. And it tasted as good as it smelled.

 

[vakamalua]

the food is OK--not bad, not great. Most things are bland, or overcooked. We have usually been able to find something at dinner that is a bit better than most and will ask for a different dish if it's pretty bad. But it is plentiful at every meal so you won't go hungry.

I doubt anyone chooses DCL for the food so just keep your expectations realistic.

 

[GoofyNewfie]

Most of these comments surprise me. Mind you, I've only done a single cruise but it was the Wonder in 2010.

I thought the food was just great. I'll agree that I've had better at a regular sit down restaurant (sometimes) but I was overall pleased (B+/A- I guess). DS and DW even tried all sorts of crazy things and had no issues (I have allergies so stay a little safer).

 

[GarakDS9]

Wonder for Alaska 8/2011 and DW and I were very satisfied with our meals. We have been on all 3 ships and didn't find that the food on the Wonder was any better or worse than any of our DCL experiences. In fact we will be back on the Wonder in 3 weeks.

I especially like the flexibility to try new things. It might not be the best elk, venison, or escargot compared to a fine Palo or Remy type meal but it certainly exceeded any chain family restaurant experience.