Food on Disney compared to other lines?

[firstever]

My wife and I have cruised twice before, once on RCL and once on Carnival. Our upcoming cruise will be Disney - this had been decided for us by the kids. So I am just curious of what to expect, especially in terms of food. Will Disney have the same range of adult food that other cruise lines have (including steak and lobster etc...) or will it be more kid-friendly type food like mac and cheese and hot dogs etc...?

[Shmoo here]

My wife and I have cruised twice before, once on RCL and once on Carnival. Our upcoming cruise will be Disney - this had been decided for us by the kids. So I am just curious of what to expect, especially in terms of food. Will Disney have the same range of adult food that other cruise lines have (including steak and lobster etc...) or will it be more kid-friendly type food like mac and cheese and hot dogs etc...?

 

Both. DCL has the regular menus in the MDRs, as well as a kid-specific menu each evening. That being said, anyone can order from whichever menu appeals to them, regardless of age.

 

The quick serve locations poolside have burgers, chicken tenders, hot dogs, pizza, as well as healthier options - wraps, salads, sandwiches.

[Ex techie]

Here are some sample menus to look through. You haven't said which ship you are sailing on, so select which restaurants are appropriate from the ones listed.

 

As above you are welcome to select from the kids menus and they are welcome to select from the adult menus.

 

http://disneycruiselineblog.com/menus/

 

Also steak is served pretty much every night, so no worries there!

 

ex techie

Edited August 5, 2015 by Ex techie

[moki'smommy]

Steak IS served every night under the "lighter fare" section of the menu. In addition, there is some sort of beef tenderloin or other beef dish almost every night. If you do a 7 night or longer cruise, there will be lobster tail on one night. In addition, there are other lobster dishes.

 

As above, there is an adult and a kid menu each night but anyone can order off any menu. There is also a kid menu at lunch if you opt for the dining room, and of course kid friendly items on the lunch buffet.

 

One difference you might note between the other lines named and DCL...on DCL, the only upcharge restaurants are the "adult only" specialty restaurants. That said, it is rumored that the Dream will be adding an ice cream outlet that has a charge. Bad idea, IMHO...but I don't run DCL.

[firstever]

Excellent! I knew I could count on the people on this forum to provide helpful info - one of the best things I like about cruising. Well that and the knowledge that I will be eating real food on the Fantasy :)

[c-cruise]

DCL isn't really known for their food, but I haven't had any trouble finding plenty to eat. ;)

 

I do think they do a better job with the dining room food than the buffet or quick service options. Main dining room quality has generally been on par with other lines we have sailed, but the buffet and quick service places are pretty average (to put it nicely). I think that's to be expected though when the majority of your guests are families with kids who want to grab a quick bite and get back to having fun.

 

I do love the self service soft serve ice cream!

[meatloafsfan]

There is a variety of adult foods available. However, the quality/execution of a dish isn't always that great.

 

For me, I'd rank DCL 3rd in food in the 4 lines I've cruised on:

 

1. Carnival (they have a very good selection of everyday choices plus the choices that change everyday - I've also had pretty good luck with food arriving the correct temperature)

2. Celebrity (very good food, fewer choices but they seem to do stuff well)

3. Disney (choice is a bit limited, and I've personally found dishes to be inconsistent between cruises and even between people served at the same table on the same cruise)

4. Royal Caribbean (they try but I've found the choices to be more limited and the execution generally bland.)

[meatloafsfan]

One difference you might note between the other lines named and DCL...on DCL' date=' the only upcharge restaurants are the "adult only" specialty restaurants. That said, it is rumored that the Dream will be adding an ice cream outlet that has a charge. Bad idea, IMHO...but I don't run DCL.[/quote']

 

With the addition of the paid ice cream, and the candy shop, and DCL charging for popcorn, it's starting to feel like there's as much "nickel and diming" on Disney as people claim there is on other lines.

 

Not to mention that there are no inclusive drink packages (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) on DCL so every smoothie, bottle of water, specialty coffee, canned soda in a bar or theatre, is charged separately to your KTTW card. It's actually becoming easier to have an "all inclusive cruise" on other lines.

Edited August 6, 2015 by meatloafsfan

[moki'smommy]

With the addition of the paid ice cream, and the candy shop, and DCL charging for popcorn, it's starting to feel like there's as much "nickel and diming" on Disney as people claim there is on other lines.

 

Not to mention that there are no inclusive drink packages (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) on DCL so every smoothie, bottle of water, specialty coffee, canned soda in a bar or theatre, is charged separately to your KTTW card. It's actually becoming easier to have an "all inclusive cruise" on other lines.

 

Well, the ice cream place hasn't been built yet, so not really fair to criticize what none of us has seen. I really don't like the idea though. And there is no mention of whether this will be just some sort of "special" ice creams or whether it will replace the ice creams available elsewhere.

 

I could never drink enough to make the beverage packages on Celebrity a "good value" for me. The soda package for kids, yes....but even there, they have developed ways to "limit" your unlimited soda package. In the dining room, they would bring one can and pour 2/3 of it into a glass. They would not leave the remainder of the can (guess it doesn't look elegant). Daughter would drink her glass and then have to wait 20-30 minutes to get a refill. It took time to flag down the beverage person and more time for him to bring it after it was requested. Much better at lunch where you would walk over to the beverage place and get the can.

 

As to the above....Celebrity food was much better than DCL, both at the buffet and in the dining rooms. And some of their "special" outlets were amazing--there is a healthy choice place (Aqua Spa???) by the adult pool where they have salads, will grill salmon while you wait, etc. And their "treat" place similar to the Cove Cafe was delicious. Their ice cream place was also excellent but the hours were very limited (often conflicted with entertainment times), and they always closed earlier than the stated hours...like they were trying to be totally cleaned up and out of there by the listed closing time. All of these were managed by crew--no self serve messes!

[Loonbeam]

Food is subjective. We found DCL to be pretty uninspired on our last 2 cruises, but others liked it.

 

I feel they are trying too hard to straddle kid friendly and upscale cruise and succeed at neither.

 

If I had to rank mass market lines, my list would be:

 

Princess

Celebrity

NCL (newer ships)

RCCL

Disney

NCL (older ships)

 

Haven't sailed Carnival or HAL...

[perditax]

Heh, as a new cruiser these threads drive me to distraction with curiosity.

 

I have seen every single mass-market line described, variously, as having either the best food or the worst food of any cruise line. In the last month or two, I'd definitely gotten the impression that Princess food was awful, except that now twice in the last 24 hours I've seen people say it's better than Celebrity (which is supposed to be the 'good' food line).

 

I know a common phrase is 'food is subjective' but to a certain extent that's a cop-out, and I wish people would be more specific about why something is bad. For example, on my one cruise so far I had something that was pretty gross, a 'lobster pasta' on the NCL buffet. It was gross because the pasta was overcooked/mushy, the lobster was rubbery, and the sauce tasted like nothing. So it's not ONLY subjective, these things can be quantified at least some of the time. I can also tell you why the prime rib I had on the same cruise was good: it was cooked correctly, served hot, didn't taste of injected preservatives (which I'd expected), and the meat quality was good (tender where it should be, and fatty where it should be, but not overly greasy).

 

By comparison, some of the pictures I've seen of DCL prime rib looks terrifying:

 

https://eatingwdw.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/fantasy-enchanted-garden-slow-roasted-prime-rib.jpg

 

This was my NCL prime rib:

 

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/405/19302547976_8498a40bcb_c.jpg

 

But that could just be a sourcing problem. Maybe DCL had a bad delivery.

 

I've also long seen the desserts on DCL described as pretty meh, especially the buffet desserts. This was true on my NCL cruise (found one delicious chocolate mousse torte, but it never showed up again). I've come to the conclusion that they make the desserts 'meh' as a gating mechanism, to keep people from really overloading on them/to keep costs down, since sweets are one thing that almost everyone will reliably overeat.

 

Sorry for the random musings.

[c-cruise]

You have to take these food reviews with a grain of salt. Most people don't cruise frequently enough on various lines to really make a good comparison of the food between them.

 

I could tell you I thought NCL's food was the worst of all the lines I have been on, but then you could ask me the last time I sailed on NCL and I would say 2000. Hardly a relevant comparison in 2015.

 

It's easier to compare variety and preparation. Does the line change up their buffet offerings or is it largely the same from day to day? Do they offer fresh preparation stations or are you getting food from under a heat lamp? Etc, etc.

 

Disney's buffet and quick service options are largely the same from day to day and they are mostly prepared in advance and sitting there waiting for you. To me that's ok, because I am traveling with kids who have no patience to sit and wait while their hamburger or pizza is made to order. We just want to grab something quick and get back to whatever they were doing. So, its a tradeoff between quality and convenience.

 

Your pictures of the prime ribs are an excellent example. I don't generally like prime rib anyway, but I would probably choose the DCL one. It doesn't look great, but at least it is cooked. The NCL one is way too pink for my liking (probably why I don't like prime rib).

[moki'smommy]

So you want more information....

 

As I said above, the lunch items at the ?Aqua Spa on Celebrity were fresh cooked and great. They had several cold selections and maybe two or three hot. My favorite was the grilled salmon. Daughter liked the buffet on Celebrity because they had curry. It wasn't her favorite Japanese curry, but it was curry. I don't remember a lot about the dinners except that they had the best salmon I've ever eaten and everything was pretty good. The almond croissants from the snack outlet were amazing.

 

DCL--depends a lot on the preparation. I ordered the lobster macaroni two nights in a row. Once was in the signature restaurant off their menu--there were maybe 3 small pieces of lobster and it was cold. Ordered it the next night in Cabanas (which is a sit down restaurant at night). The food there is made when you order it. It was fantastic with probably 8 good sized pieces of lobster and hot!

 

I'm with others. Desserts on the buffet are meh at best. In the Cove Cafe, they used to serve the same stuff as the Palo high tea (gone....sorry) and the concierge munchies when those were sweets. However, on our last Magic cruise, the "Executive Pastry Chef" for the line was on board and he had decided to experiment with the Cove Cafe offerings. I think they were shooting for a lighter fare or something because the stuff was not sweet. We did enjoy the chocolate chips that were out as part of the decor. Honestly, the stuff was different but it wasn't very good.

 

The buffets in general are sort of meh. When I eat there, I walk away thinking "OK, I had lunch." Not how good lunch was or anything.

 

DCL desserts in the dining rooms....Creme Brulee in all its forms was good. The sundaes were good. The lava cake came out cold so the "lava" wasn't melted (kid comment--Mom, you make better lava cake than this.") Nothing was bad, but nothing was amazing.

 

Honestly, part of me was wondering if I've done too much DCL and it is just getting old. But they have altered the menus several times and removed some of my favorites. And we do the longer cruises, so it is 12-14 nights without repeats generally. Don't get me wrong; the food is not bad. It just isn't great.

 

Ok, another dumb thing. I like Splenda in my tea. DCL for a while went to a cheaper substitute (NutraSweet Yellow) that has a very chemical after taste. Now, sometimes they have real Splenda, sometimes they have other yuk stuff. So, I've taken to bringing a box of my own in my luggage. This may be stupid, but for a cruise that costs me thousands of dollars, I shouldn't have to bring my own! On shore, the stuff that most restaurants use is fine and tastes just like Splenda--Panera Bread, Meijer, and Kroger all have their own brands that are acceptable to me. But the stuff that DCL substitutes is plain nasty.

Edited August 7, 2015 by moki'smommy

[perditax]

Oh wow, the Splenda heads-up is relevant to me, thanks. :) I'll bring my liquid stuff.

 

The worst part of being a new cruiser right now is getting the sense that things used to be a lot better. :/ But I think my NCL cruise has adequately prepared me for the fact that, if nothing else, mass market cruise food will be hit or miss.

[moki'smommy]

The Splenda situation is spotty. Sometime they have it, sometimes they don't. One server told me that his section has at least one person on each cruise who asks for it and he wishes they would at least keep some available for those who ask.

 

The reason I will only comment on Celebrity and DCL is that these are the only 2 lines I've cruised in the last 5 years. I've been on other lines, but as you stated, it isn't fair to compare a cruise from 10 or 20 years ago to one now. DCL 10 years ago was different than DCL today in many areas!

[perditax]

The Splenda situation is spotty. Sometime they have it' date=' sometimes they don't. One server told me that his section has at least one person on each cruise who asks for it and he wishes they would at least keep some available for those who ask.

 

The reason I will only comment on Celebrity and DCL is that these are the only 2 lines I've cruised in the last 5 years. I've been on other lines, but as you stated, it isn't fair to compare a cruise from 10 or 20 years ago to one now. [b']DCL 10 years ago was different than DCL today in many areas![/b]

 

Do you feel like things have declined, or is it more "up and down"?

 

(I ask this on a lot of lines' forums; I have a voracious appetite for info when I get interested in something, and I'm always curious if the sense of 'the good old days are over' is something that a lot of long-time cruisers share, or if it's just a message forum artifact.)

[moki'smommy]

I definitely think things have declined. There have been 2 major menu overhauls over the 15 years as well as smaller "tweaks." In each case, I felt the food quality declined. We have seen a drop in Castaway Club benefits at the higher levels, more restrictions on booking on board benefits, and higher prices. Overall, there has been a decline in CM quality. We experience this somewhat less than others might as we know who to request as a server or head server.

 

Obviously the biggest change came with the launch of the new ships. DCL did a decent job of keeping each ship at about 1/3 experienced people and 2/3 new, but somehow those new CMs have not integrated as well as we might expect. The experienced people have either been promoted quickly (good for them) or left the line, usually citing personal reasons. I often wonder if those "personal reasons" are really frustration. I do know that the training for new CMs has been reduced; in my opinion that shows. There are many areas where I'm seeing a slip in quality. Don't get me wrong--there are some outstanding people. But we've gone from everyone "over the top" to "I hope we can get someone good as (fill in job title). They have gorgeous ships and overall service is still above many other lines....but not as good as it used to be. And I really do feel they have gotten into pinching pennies rather than thinking about how those changes might affect customer perception. If I drop from 2-3 DCL cruises per year to 1 per year, they can probably sell the cabin that I didn't take and never notice it. But what if 10% of their top cruisers start booking other lines? Does it matter?

[perditax]

I definitely think things have declined. There have been 2 major menu overhauls over the 15 years as well as smaller "tweaks." In each case' date=' I felt the food quality declined. We have seen a drop in Castaway Club benefits at the higher levels, more restrictions on booking on board benefits, and higher prices. Overall, there has been a decline in CM quality. We experience this somewhat less than others might as we know who to request as a server or head server.

 

Obviously the biggest change came with the launch of the new ships. DCL did a decent job of keeping each ship at about 1/3 experienced people and 2/3 new, but somehow those new CMs have not integrated as well as we might expect. The experienced people have either been promoted quickly (good for them) or left the line, usually citing personal reasons. I often wonder if those "personal reasons" are really frustration. I do know that the training for new CMs has been reduced; in my opinion that shows. There are many areas where I'm seeing a slip in quality. Don't get me wrong--there are some outstanding people. But we've gone from everyone "over the top" to "I hope we can get someone good as (fill in job title). They have gorgeous ships and overall service is still above many other lines....but not as good as it used to be. And I really do feel they have gotten into pinching pennies rather than thinking about how those changes might affect customer perception. If I drop from 2-3 DCL cruises per year to 1 per year, they can probably sell the cabin that I didn't take and never notice it. But what if 10% of their top cruisers start booking other lines? Does it matter?[/quote']

 

Thank you, I really appreciate the honest opinion. (And I suppose I've unintentionally nudged the thread off-topic.) It seems like this is a common theme across all the mass-market lines. The only forum I skim where you don't see as many people discussing how awesome things USED to be seems to be Crystal.

 

I booked my upcoming DCL cruise way back in Jan/Feb when I knew almost nothing about cruising and I was at least very familiar with Disney's resort product. Then I got seriously hooked and jumped the gun on Norwegian in June for my first cruise. I loved it, but as a result I think I have a better understanding of what elements of cruising I really enjoy, and if I had it to do again I'm not sure I would have booked DCL. Celebrity *seems* like it might be the one that actually ticks most of my boxes. I'll find out in December.

 

You mention food on Celebrity here; would you mind if I ask if you cruise on them often, and/or how long ago your cruise with them was?

 

All that said, I'm still looking forward to my DCL trip next month and intend to go into it with a good attitude and a sense of humor. I'm just slightly afraid of the food. ;)

[moki'smommy]

I cruised on the Celebrity Infinity (a ship about the same age and size as the Magic) to Alaska about 4 years ago. Reason--it was half the cost of the identical cruise on the Wonder as far as the base price was concerned. However, Celebrity had $200 per person more charges under the heading of "taxes and government fees" than DCL had....still even counting that and a soda package for daughter...and the Castaway Club discount/OBC I could have gotten on the Wonder, it was still about 1/3 less.

 

There are many differences between the lines. Celebrity had an acapella quartet on board that did several 15 minute shows in various locations....but at really inconvenient times. The "Stars of the Infinity" were horrible, although I will give them points for a live orchestra. The variety entertainers were similar to DCL; in fact, we had seen one guy on DCL! On Celebrity, the crew routinely ride elevators with the guests and speak to each other in their native languages in front of the guests. Not a right or wrong, just different. We found their equivalent of Guest Services to be absolutely amazing. Overall service on the ship was good, but not DCL quality. There is one dining room without an upcharge. We met some families with young kids in the pool/hot tub. The liked the kid programming, but the hours were not nearly as long as DCL. The "characters" in the various ports were a joke. They had a bear, an eagle, etc. but the costumes were horrible. On the other hand, when we returned to the ship after excursions, we were greeted with a steaming hot wash cloth and then a cup of hot chocolate. That was nice.

 

I would happily cruise Celebrity again, but normally cruise with a now 24 year old. The average age on the ship was probably 65+ and all of our dinner companions were 70 or older. Two were lovely. One was a recent widow with family that sent her on the cruise that had been planned with her husband. I honestly don't know if the family didn't realize that there was an element of memory loss going on or if they just wanted to get her out of their hair....but she was very confused. She would latch onto us whenever she saw us around the ship--several times we took her to the right place per her written instructions or took her to GS to get help. She had no business traveling alone and while I'm generally a nice person, she wasn't my responsibility. Obviously this wasn't totally the fault of the cruise line as she somehow managed to get to the ship and checked in.

 

OH, check in/boarding was easier than DCL. We arrived about 11:30. Dropped luggage with their person by the conveyor belt and walked to check in. Processing took about no time at all and we boarded. Absolutely no waiting at any point. Same for disembarkation. We took our own luggage off, so no waiting for a group to be called.

 

Overall, no, we are not sorry we went with Celebrity and spent the savings on great excursions. THis is not a place to skimp on excursions. We had a blast.

[perditax]

Thanks again. I get the sense the average Celebrity age has dropped a bit since the cruising boom of the last few years. Or at least, I see it more often described as 40s/50s. I'm nowhere near retirement, but kid free and am mostly looking for places to lounge/relax and write, while being able to see the ocean. A usable water feature or two is nice. Nighttime entertainment isn't a big deal to me. Good food would be a definite plus but that one appears to be a moving target.:)

[Scrapnana]

I found the dining room food on a par with Cunard and HAL with the exception of the beef. It always came out medium (which is the way I like it) but my daughter and son-in-law like theirs rare and they never got it that way. They did send it back a couple of times but it was still done more than they liked.

 

I was very disappointed with the burgers at Flo's. I have had better ones at McDonalds. They did have good fresh fruit there, however.

[Tonka's Skipper]

The bottom line with food is its subjective. DCL has been found generally pretty good, especially Palos and Remes.

 

And for some reason the Bratwurst. Its excellent!

 

AK

[perditax]

I said it on the prior page, but 'subjective' is a cop-out. I mean, yes, it's accurate when it's a thing where a person who prefers burgers and fries goes on board a ship and finds unfamiliar foods that they don't want to deal with (duck, escargot, whatever). They might describe duck as 'bad' even if it was expertly sourced and prepared.

 

But a person reasonably knowledgeable about food can quantify why they found something to be good or bad, or at least make a stab at why they didn't like something, and I wish there was more of that. Example: meat was overcooked/gristly, desserts had no flavor, pasta was mushy, bread was stale, etc.

 

I have absolutely no doubt that what cruise ship food is is variable, and I bet it varies from ship to ship and sailing to sailing, even meal to meal. I'm sure at least some of it has to do with the quality of sourcing, and it seems very clear that all lines (including DCL) are making cutbacks as food prices skyrocket. Same thing is happening at all my local restaurants.

[BullDawg91]

I've only cruised DCL and CCL. I found DCL ho-hum in the MDR where I want them to shine. There were plenty of tasty things for breakfast, lunch and snacks. Dinner tended to be bland and not as good as it sounded on the menu. Palo was another story. That was excellent, but I had to pay extra for it.

 

We just cruised CCL's Breeze. We really liked all of the meals and snacks on the Breeze. I have to give the edge to CCL. We didn't go to any for fee restaurants. Brunch was awesome, Guy's Burgers and Blue Iguana were great, and the pizza place was awesome. There were other free places that we didn't even get to. Dinner was always an adventure and we found lots of interesting things to try and were happy with the presentation and taste of all of them.

 

I don't know if all CCL food would compare since not all ships have the variety of the Breeze, but we were very happy and would sail the Breeze again in a minute.

[perditax]

This isn't the first time I've seen a lot of praise for the food on CCL's newer ships.