Food on Disney Cruises

[Destin dreamer]

We are taking our son on a disney cruise. Just wondering how the food is and what were the best items to eat on the ship?

[julielouhoo]

I just came off of the Wonder, two weeks ago and I was on the Magic 3 years ago. Both cruises I thought the food was fine. Nothing spectacular, but nice. I have also cruised RCCL a few times and found the food to be very good.

 

Both times we cruised Disney, we had the first seating. This time, we were really wishing we requested late seating. Especially since they have staggered the early and late seatings. It used to be 6pm was early and 8 pm was late. You can request early or late, but there are really 3 early seatings and 3 late seatings. You can't choose which you are assigned. We were assigned 5:45 seating (some people had 5:30 and some 6pm). It's just too rushed to get off an island, get everyone ready and get to dinner on time. We ate by the pool the night we were in Nassau because we were on a Dolphin Encounter excursion and didn't get back to the ship until 5:30pm. No way would we have made it, even by 6pm. If your son isn't too young, you may want to consider the later seating. You may get 8pm, 8:15 or 8:30pm. You still will have to be ready by 6:15, if you want to see the shows (which I whole heartedly recommend). Late seating goes to the show before dinner and early seating goes to the shows after dinner. I do have to say that the night we ate at the pool (and had plenty of nice choices) was very relaxing!! The kids enjoyed it much more than the dining room. Hope this helps! Have a great time!! Terri

[logan1_2000]

We've done 5 cruises on Disney, 6 on Royal Caribbean. Food, you should find on these boards, can be one of the most subjective aspects of a cruise and you can often find a very, very broad range of opinions, seemingly over the same food. So take all this w/a lost shaker of salt...

 

We find the rotational restaurants on DCL to have better food than what we have usually experienced in RCI's main dining rooms. That's our taste and opinion, though. Disney's kids menus are fun, but DS ordered off the adult menu from the very first cruise at age 6. Or feel free to mix & match items from each menu (and adults need not be shy about ordering a Mickey ice cream bar for dessert off the kids menu). The maple glazed salmon in Anaimator's Palate is simply prepared but wonderfully executed, and we have loved it every time. The Parrot Cay "tropical" themed menu is in our opinion one of the weaker menus, and I think I had the grouper last time, though in the past have usually gone with the rib eye. And yes, I have even skipped the menu and ordered the always available in every restaurant sirloin steak. There is a crusted fish filet in Lumiere's/Triton's that is a feature, but what I recall most from that menu is that is an excellent lineup of desserts, including a nice souffle.

 

have a chat early and make friends w/ your servers--let them know likes and dislikes, and they do have the opportunity w/ a little heads up to get something from the other restaurants for you no matter where you are--last cruise I had the caesar salad on 3 of 4 nights, not just in animator's, and had souffle on non-triton's nights, too.

 

if you are on the longer cruise, there are additional menus that others can comment on. or go to DisBoards and find a link to Barb and Tony's Platinum site where the Disney Menus are posted.

 

I do love the RCI chilled fruit soups, though DS, 11, thought I was nuts for enjoying them last month on our most recent cruise. And we prefer RCI's buffet restaurants to Disney's.

[winemistress45]

Ugh -- no bueno.

 

Lost weight on this cruise!

[CastawayCruisers]

IMO, Disney's dining room food is much better than Carnival and NCL, and slightly better than RCI's dining room food. The RCI buffet beats out the Disney buffet, but if you have kids, the Disney children's buffet line can't be beat.