The food is just so-so

[minmom]

I'm on the Magic right now. I think it depends on if you've cruised before and which lines. I've been on carnival, royal carribean, ncl, celebrity and now disney. My last cruise was celebrity and their food is amazing so I've been spoiled nothing else can compare. Disney is OK.

 

[hubby_of_newtodisney]

The food is excellent.

It is NOT the best I have ever eaten, but I have been lucky enough to enjoy meals at some great restaurants off of the boat. I am talking about meals that run in the $100-150 pp with apps salad and dessert. If those meals were a 10, I'd give DCL meals 7 or 8. I'd give Palos Dinner a 9, Palos brunch a 9.5. At WDW, I'd give Boma at AKL a 9, Liberty Tree Tavern a 6. Olive Garden would get a 4 and McDonalds a 2.5. I'd give my home cooking between a 3 and a 6, except for my roasted turkey (8), my scrambled eggs (7), and my bbq food(10).

I would give Mortons between 6 and 9, Ruth Chris 8, the Palm (for those who know it) an 8.5.

Does that give everyone a little basis of comparison?

 

[Karel]

I find most of the food really wonderful but have eaten some not so great things. The potato salad I had one day for lunch was just horrible - I spit it out.


My first cruise, I didn't really like the Palo souffle, couldn't figure out what the fuss was all about. Also, I found the lobster to be rather tough and not tasty. This last cruise, I loved both of the items. So things change from cruise to cruise.

By the end of the week, I find that I've eaten so much food, more than I eat at home, that I am really just tired of eating. Nothing tastes all that great anymore because I'm just so blah from it all.

 

[Tluvs2talk]

I also think Disney has GREAT food!! I have also been on Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and Norwegian. I thought they all had good food. I think Disney and Celebrity have had the Best food so far. I think Disney has a better choice of room service and fast food than the other's. I also enjoyed :Freestyle cruising" on the Norwegian Magesty. It was great to eat where, when and with whom you like every night. I was very surprised by the good service and food.


Teri

 

[HookedonMagic]

We've been on four DCL vacations. Twice we found the food to be in the "ok to good" range (in 2000 and 2003) and twice we found the food to be "very good to great." (in 2001 and 2004) Most recently (last month on the Magic), we really enjoyed our dining room meals. We skipped dinner at Palo this trip, but enjoyed an outstanding brunch!

We sailed RCCL Mariner of the Seas this past March and thought the dining room food was just ok (although the meals in their specialty restaurants was very good!)

 

[roscodog]

I found the food on the Magic to be adequate. There were certainly enough to choose from so there is something for everybody. My scale is to order a steak and see how it compares. In my case, the steak I had at Animator's was very dry ( I always order my steaks no more than mediu rare), while the steak at Palo's was excellent.

 

[Zitofamily]

We've sailed on Carnival once over 6 years ago and the Magic two times in the last year. With the cavaet that one's opinion on food is like an argument about sushi between a sushi lover and a sushi hater, here's what I think.

We think the food is so-so and inconsistent except for Palo's. Carnival was able to have excellent food with over 2000 people on board, so I don't buy the reasoning that they're cooking a lot of meals. On the Magic, there were nights where the salad was good (and others when it was ok), main dish was ok, and desserts were almost always disappointing.

Desserts in general were blah. For example, the cheesecakes remind me of the "no-bake" stuff you buy in a box from the grocery store and I suspect that's what they are. Last year I stayed up late to go to the midnight dessert buffet. While the presentation was nice, the desserts were ho-hum. While my DW liked the Creme Brulee at dinner one evening, I can't say I really enjoyed a single dessert in the dinning rooms. I missed it this year (not even sure if they did it other than I saw MJ posted pictures) but I'm not too upset by it.

Palo's remains the exception. We really enjoyed dinner and especially the brunch. For those of you who say you're skipping Palo's so that you can experience the dinning rooms, let us know when you're sailing so we have a better chance at getting into Palo's more often. As a comparison, I had the tenderloin in Palo's one night and it melted in my mouth. The next night, my DW order the tenderloin in I think Lumiere's. It wasn't even a close second.

One more opinion that might help you understand where I'm coming from - I will NEVER eat at Olive Garden again. It is the worst Italian food on the planet. I like all kinds of food, except bland too much of the food on Disney is bland.

We (like Marcy) were not impressed with our waitstaff on our 9/27 cruise. One night our waiter took some dinner orders and walked away from the table without taking my order. On another night, he didn't bring an appetizer I had asked for. My kids loved our waitstaff last year so we were really disappointed this year. John from Scottland (our headwaiter a few weeks ago) made up for some of the damage by bringing us a couple of Palo souffle's on our last night in Lumiere's.