How is the food?

[Mattsolo]

How is the food on DCL? We have never been on a Disney cruise, however we have used several other cruise lines. The food has been better on some than others. How would you guys rate the food?

 

[JohnPA]

For the most part, the food is good to great. I guess it really depends on your 'foodie' level. I've NEVER gone hungry! I hear the Remy dinner is great, haven't done that yet. Palo has many fans and a few that weren't impressed. We've only done the Palo brunch twice, and came out stuffed and thought the food was great.

I've only had a bad meal two or three times, out of 29 MDR experiences. And folks having the exact same thing had a great meal. Just a cut of meat that was a little sub par I think.

Desserts are just OK by me . . . except for the Grand Marnier Souffle (and I hear the Chocolate Souffle in Palo/Remy). But again, I never leave hungry.

 

[Four Swampers]

How is the food on DCL? We have never been on a Disney cruise, however we have used several other cruise lines. The food has been better on some than others. How would you guys rate the food?

You will get answers all over the map. Some people like DCL food better than other cruise lines, some prefer other cruise lines. The MDR are quite good, in my opinion, especially when you factor in that they each MDR feeds 300 or more people at a sitting. Obviously, they can't go to exotic, as they have to appeal to a broad range of tastes.

Palo is very good, as is Remy. We always go to Palo for brunch, and we almost always go to Palo for dinner.

As PP said, you won't go hungry!

 

[Four Swampers]

Desserts are just OK by me . . . except for the Grand Marnier Souffle (and I hear the Chocolate Souffle in Palo/Remy). But again, I never leave hungry.

Agreed. The desserts usually look good, but rarely deliver on flavor.

 

[TifffanyD]

Agreed. The desserts usually look good, but rarely deliver on flavor.

I agree with this too. The only one I really love is the Baked Alaska. All the others (including both souffles) I usually skip.

 

[sayhello]

In general, I find the food OK. The MDR's are generally nothing special, but not bad, either. Palo brunch is yummy, wasn't too impressed with Palo dinner. Remy dinner was very good but overpriced for what it was, and Remy brunch was one of the best meals I have ever had.

Sayhello

 

[MND]

It depends on who you ask, but since you've asked me, I tell you my opinion. I love the food on DCL! We've been on the Dream and the Fantasy and I think the food is great! I love Cabana's and the MDRs. On our recent Fantasy cruise, I always snacked on pizza and roll up sandwiches near the pool.

One thing I like is that the portions are small, so you can sample and try different items.

I keep thinking that I will gain weight on the cruises, but I don't. I walk a lot on the ship, plus I think that most of the DCL food I eat is healthy. I avoid fried foods and junk foods, and I load up fruit.

Enjoy your cruise!

Mike

 

[Ofinn]

On our first cruise I thought the food was awful in the MDR's. I actually like the food now. I don't know if it's gotten better or I have just lowered my expectations. The buffet at Cabanas is great. Flo's is just ok. Love Palo's for brunch or dinner.

 

[wiigirl]

Agreed. The desserts usually look good, but rarely deliver on flavor.

agreed...

 

[Silver Queen]

Our opinion is that the food is good to very good. Definitely better than RCL. We have eaten in the MDRs and Palo. I agree with the comment about the desserts being lacking in flavor.

 

[ahain]

We've never cruised on any other line, but we absolutely LOVED the food on our Dream cruise. As pp said, I certainly didn't go hungry....ever.....quite to the contrary! I think the fact that I didn't have to cook or clean up after the meal really adds to my enjoyment of the meal! Seriously though....I like the fact that you can order more than one entree if you are not sure about whether or not you'll like a certain offering.

 

[aprilchem]

I agree that you'll get all sorts of opinions on this. I'm a professor at a college, and IMO the food on DCL (in both the MDRs and the buffets) is not much different from what I get in our dining hall - a good amount of variety but nothing is particularly spectacular. I didn't care for the desserts, although the creme brûlée was good.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

I posted this on another forum. It touches on our views of the food and dining.

Animator's Palette-
Incredible live interactive colorful technology for a show, flavorful dining (menus are available online) and we loved everything except the pineapple cake. They brought out a small mouse anniversary cake and sang to Mom & Dad. It was our favorite restaurant and our server made it seriously magical. (He did puzzles with us every night.)

Enchanted Garden-
This was Pirate night and we came in full pirate wench regalia. We noticed many tables weren't as full for late seating so we had our back of the room totally to ourselves. i was crazy about the Asparagus soup (ate two!) and Twinkie loved the tomato soup (ate two!) and I got scallops (you don't see that often on cruises) and she got sea bass and they brought us a cake and sang to us and I STILL LOVE my DCL Happy Anniversary buttons. You will get a honeymoon button! I think it's got Ariel on it! We were pretty stuffed but we still finished in time to watch the pirate stunt show with Jack Sparrow and the fireworks. I guess there was a pirate buffet but I was stuffed from dinner and my pirate corset had no more eating room. I will have to change my pirate plan this time to include something stretchy without boning! haha because our family raved about the pirate buffet crepes. We went to the adult lounge for Krazy karaoke after. (it was ok but we LOVED the family karaoke. that was funny!)

Royal Palace-
This was the 'finer' dining establishment that included french onion soup (my honey's favorite, he got 2), lamb, duck, goat cheese salad (yay!) and escargot and a favorite desert Grand Marnier Soufflee.

We never have gone to Palo (maybe next time on Magic, but likely to save for the WDW tix instead) but we enjoyed most of what we got. I think a few things were over done for my honey's liking. He was not a fan of the square breakfast premade hashbrown, I think that was his biggest complaint. For him Disney food was good. For my sisters and I, it was GREAT. Cabana's breakfast buffet was way better to us than the MDR breakfast (usually its the other way around) and also has hand fried yummy potatos (instead of square hash) and we thought the scrambled eggs were so good, we went up and brought them down INTO the MDR on the last day! (Boy did we get some funny looks.) Food is subjective of course. (I eat ketchup on my scrambled eggs. Oh yeah. Its a requirement.) The pineapple cake that we weren't wild about, when we made a comment to the waiter, we had a huge platter of chocolate covered strawberries and tasty pastrie morsels delivered to our table 'from the chef with apologies.' So definitely let them know if you don't like anything.

 

[klr6773]

My scale would certainly call me out as a liar if I said I didn't eat like a cow last week on the Fantasy! LOL..

I also found it to be good to mostly very good. Admitting I'm not a seafood eater,I did feel like it was a case of "this will do" at dinner a few times. My filet I ordered medium the first night was definitely well done,but growing up with a mom that cooked everything that way, I just ate it out of habit. The only meal/menu I was truly disappointed in was the last night's "sea you real soon". Appetizer,soup,main...all blah to me.

Cabana's daily always allowed a different breakfast and lunch. Kids loved the pancakes, I thought they looked frozen but didn't try. Also,the bacon was paper thin. Oatmeal with different toppings and a muffin was my favorite way to start the day. Carving staions at lunch were wonderful,esp enjoyed the corned beef (other than St Pat's, I never think to make it!) Impossible not to find several things to try..

Flo's is typical. I'm french fried out after last week for sure! Pretzels and daily soft serve ice cream is where I did myself in..

Overall, I'd say food isn't as good as Celebrity,but it was on par or better than RCI.

 

[MillauFr]

I found the food to be bland and equivalent to an average American chain restaurant. I wasn't expecting much though so I wasn't disappointed. The service though was awesome. My son still talks about "Hans" all the time.

I just wish Disney wouldn't let the marketing department run hog wild and make outrageous statements like "world class dining". They are just raising people expectation to an unrealistic level.

 

[kathie859]

I've been on Carnival, Holland America, NCL, RCCL and Uniworld in addition to a cruise on DCL's The Fantasy, Oct. 2012. The food on this cruise was okay. Nothing spectacular or noteworthy when compared to HAL or Uniworld.
You won't starve but don't think you're getting gourmet fare.

 

[jjje]

We really liked the food. Our first cruise was 8 nights and out of 40 courses ordered in the MDRs there were only two things I didn't care for. The buffet had a lot of good food as well. I loved the sandwiches from Goofy's Galley. I think I ate my weight in bacon and brie sandwiches. My mouth is watering just thinking about them!

 

[Heard02]

Been on a couple Carnival, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean and Disney......Disney has the best food out of those 4 by far. Best everything actually.
Now it is not gourmet, but better than the others.

 

[Summerl30]

I think it may depend on the ships you have been on. We were in the dream and the first night our server told us before we were served our dinner that the food won't compare to what we are used to on royal cc and he was right! Between dh and I he had one good meal and I had none. Not horrible, but not better than what I could make at home (bonus! I didn't have to make it!). We cruise for the kids and there must be something laced in that Mac and cheese cuz the kids could not get enough of it. They had that stuff for lunch and dinner every.day. We haven't been on a royal ship higher class than voyager because we usually pick our cruises based on itinerary (Mediterranean, southern Caribbean, Bermuda). So comparing those to the Disney dream. We are booked on the magic in jan. Hopefully the food will be better on the smaller ships. We are not expecting it to, though. So we won't be disappointed. And the kids will be happy to be reunited with the Mac and cheese again.

 

[jimsubry]

Desserts are just OK by me . . . except for the Grand Marnier Souffle

Ack! That was my absolute fave dessert!

The desserts were all amazing to me...don't know why people often criticize them. But then, back home we don't really do a lot of desserts, try to not eat a lot of sugar and fat. We splurged and indulged on the cruise, so maybe that's why they tasted so rich and decadent to me!

Food: mostly I stuck with the vegetarian or chicken dishes which I thought were great! Just one chicken and pasta dish I found flavorless and could not finish.