Food on Disney Cruise Lines

[TheTravelCouple]

How is the food on Disney? I normally go on carnival but next year for my birthday I want to do a 3 day on the Disney Dream. Carnival's food is very good so I was wondering if Disney was going to be good as well.

 

 

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[logan25]

Comparing my two Carnival cruises with my two Disney cruises, Disney food in MDR is head and shoulders better. Particularly if you like shellfish, Disney is the clear winner.

[jwalk03]

The Disney food is MUCH better than the Carnival food in most respects.

 

The only thing on Disney I did not like as well food wise, was the lack of a dinner buffet option.

 

The soft serve ice cream on Disney is just short of a million times better than the ice cream on Carnival, btw. don't miss it!

Edited June 9, 2014 by jwalk03

[MizDaisy]

Since everyone's idea of "good food" is totally different....I hate liver, some love it.....I'll just list a few differences. 12 Disney cruises, 4 Carnival.

 

Menu in the main dining room:

Carnival has the left side of the menu with the new choices of the day, the right side has favorites or comfort foods.

Disney just has one new menu each night, along with a choice of vegetarian, a plain steak or a chicken breast, if nothing on the main menu strikes your fancy.

 

Carnival has more specialty dining, and not all are at an upsell price.

Disney has only the very upscale and expensive adult-only Palo and Remy.

 

Carnival buffet open longer hours, more food choices and more freshly made to order stations....such as the Indian food or the deli sandwiches.

 

A previous poster mentioned shellfish and I'm trying to remember how many times (on ALL of my Disney cruises) I was actually offered shellfish. Shrimp at the buffet, definitely on embarkation day....as far as the rest of the cruise, I'm not certain it was there.

Lobster night once, on the longer cruises. That's all I can think of.

 

 

Anyway....food is subjective. You'll be certain to find something you like, you definitely won't starve. If you like your meals on the "fancier" side, with lots of exotic sauces, etc, then you'll like your dinner on Disney.

[ducklite]

We found the meals on the Magic to be good but not fantastic.

 

On the Dream we ate in Animators the first night, food was good. Palo the second, food was very good. Remy the third night, the food was excellent and worth every penny of the up-charge.

 

We had a fantastic lunch in the Royal Palace (best lunch on any of the ships we've sailed, hands down), a meh lunch in the Enchanted Garden.

 

Of the ships I've sailed I'd rank the food from best to worst:

 

Wind Surf

Dream

Paul Gauguin

Magic

Mariner (which had pretty awful food except in Chops where it was good, but Flemings good, not Capital Grill very good.)

[meatloafsfan]

Comparing my two Carnival cruises with my two Disney cruises, Disney food in MDR is head and shoulders better. Particularly if you like shellfish, Disney is the clear winner.

 

I disagree with Disney cruise food the clear winner.

 

My first disney cruise, the food was wonderful. But, over the remaining 4 Disney cruises, I've seen the food quality go down. Now, Carnival has the better MDR food (IMHO). I also like the Carnival sea day brunch and on their newer ships, the food choices at lunch (burrito bar, tandoori, pasta bar, etc).

 

Disney is the best for fast food though - great burgers, chicken fingers, big soft pretzels, etc. They also have a solid room service menu (but no hot breakfast like Royal or Celebrity).

 

And the availability of mickey ice cream bars 24 hours a day is a big plus.

 

However, Disney doesn't have the equilivent of WCMC (one of my all time favourites).

 

You won't starve. You will find something you'll like. You'll also find stuff that you won't like, stuff you'll hate and stuff you'll think "what the heck were they thinking this is terrible?!?" when you try it.

[Shmoo here]

...

 

However, Disney doesn't have the equilivent of WCMC (one of my all time favourites)...

 

While not all cruises have it there is the Warm Chocolate Lava Cake (baked chocolate delicacy served warm with double chocolate sauce). It's on the Captain's Gala menu, so not all cruises have it.

 

 

Yummmmmm

 

[Guinness4me]

 

 

A previous poster mentioned shellfish and I'm trying to remember how many times (on ALL of my Disney cruises) I was actually offered shellfish. Shrimp at the buffet, definitely on embarkation day....as far as the rest of the cruise, I'm not certain it was there.

 

We had fried Cocnut Shrimp on the lunch buffet the second day on our 4 day Dream cruise. I hurt myself eating too much..lol. We raved about it to our server that night because my Wife and MIL missed lunch due to an excursion that day.

 

The next night when we arrived for dinner, our server presented us with a platter of fired Cocnut Shrimp.:D SO delicous! and a nice touch on his part to have the kitchen prepare it for us since it was not on the menu anywhere that day.

[Loonbeam]

Food is subjective, and depends more on the overall theme and the executive chef than the line...

 

That said, one important difference is Disney ONLY does traditional dining for dinner in the MDR. You can still do sit down in the buffet area (which is table service not serve yourself and actually may have more options because it draws from all 3 restaurants), but on a short cruise that means you may miss one of the cool themed dining rooms (you rotate dining rooms, your wait staff moves with you)

[N41EF]

I think the big draw to Disney food is the rotational dining. Having your server go with you each night makes sure that if you have a nut allergy, or if you don't like mushrooms you don't have to worry about it from the second night on. I realize a big part of this is who you dine with but we've been very happy with tabe mates especially on the last three cruises. We have sailed with no kids and we seated at a table ofr 6 and one for 8 all couples no kids. Had a great time.

 

Since most of us don't cruise back to back weeks on different lines I think this is very subjective. Food costs, what's in season, and any global shortages of limes means that food changes year over year, so any cruise more than a year ago could be very different.

 

On the last 4 day there was a steak and lobster night. I made a comment about getting the smallest tail at the table, 5 minutes later a HUGE second lobster arrived which I shared with several table mates.

 

After the last several cruises we've become MDR regulars, we used to do the buffett just because we wanted a broader menu. With rotational dining and the changing menu we've never not had a good choice. Last cruise one of the tablemates did no red meat, and our server spoke to her and apeared with a vegan dish that was on a different restraunt's menu, She loved it.

 

Remember, you are a guest, if you want something different, ask for it, but we tend to tip well when we are taken care of.

 

We've eated Palo and loved it, though it was more about the view and setting instead of the menu.

[Muushka]

I think if you take a Disney cruise with high expectations for delicious food, you will be disappointed.

 

If you go with the idea that it will be fun to experience DCL food, you'll be fine.

 

For us, the MDR food was not very good. Most evenings I went up to Goofy's to grab a salad and a wrap so that I wouldn't be that hungry in the MDR. My husband ordered his dinner from the children's menu for most nights.

 

We found that the buffet actually had pretty good food. It was fresh and hot and some creative dishes.

 

Breakfast became a source of sadness for me. Egg dishes were pre-cooked and rather cold and old. Eggs Benedict were awful. I couldn't even cut through the English muffin. Omelets, ugh. Waffles and pancakes, sometimes OK, usually not. I got to the point that a bagel was the best option.

 

Yup, Goofy's was my savior each evening!

 

Sorry to be a downer. We usually cruise Celebrity and their food is a tad better but still not that great. I'm pretty picky!

[ducklite]

Wow, Muushka, that's disappointing to hear. I've only had one breakfast in an MDR on DCL, and it was the last day. The food was fresh cooked and served hot. All my other breakfasts have been through room service to our cabin, and everything was always cooked to order, fresh, hot, and yummy.

 

Our biggest disappointment on DCL was the lunch buffets, but then that has been out biggest food disappointment on any cruise I've ever been on. The best lunch I've ever had on a cruise ship was in one of the restaurants in the Dream. Can't remember the name of it, but it wasn't enchanted Garden or AP.

[Muushka]

I imagine that someone receives hot breakfasts! We were just never there when the fresh stuff came.:rolleyes:

 

We thought the food on Fantasy was a tad better.

 

But like I said, I'm pretty picky.;)

 

But that Panama Canal cruise was awesome!:)

[logan25]

I will say I was disappointed in the one time I tried Disney MDR breakfast. My waffles and pancakes were served cold and soggy. Probably never going back for a repeat of that less than acceptable food experience.

[DISNEY FANTASY]

I have found the food very good, far far far better than RCL

 

 

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[DahliaRW]

We ate breakfast in the MDR almost every morning and it was always hot. The eggs weren't great, but they were the same at the buffet. We preferred the MDR breakfast to the buffet by quite a bit.

[Irene7]

The food on disney is good IMO, Animators Palet and Cabanas being my favorites of the included food venues. The two specialty restaraunts Remy and Palo are excellent. Our last disney cruise in 2013 they served shrimp everyday at Cabanas.

'

Edited June 12, 2014 by Irene7

[ilovetexas]

I've had food on DCL that ranged from very good to not good at all. Mostly solidly in-between. The buffet on Wonder, Beach Blanket Buffet, was just gross. Remy, on the other hand, was the best meal I've ever had. I found most of the meals in the MDR to be fine, if not somewhat over-salted. The desserts tend to be a bit on the bland side.

 

My first several Carnival cruises had VERY good MDR food. I mean VERY good. That has not been my experience the last few. It isn't bad, it just isn't great, either. I will say the SeaDay brunch is fabulous. I've had it three times and haven't been disappointed yet. I'm not sure which CCL ships you've been on but their newer ships with Guys, Blue Iguana, Ji Ji and La Cucina for lunch provide excellent options you aren't going to find on DCL.

 

All that said, food is subjective and everyone is going to have a different opinion of the exact same meal. DCL's food is okay to good, you'll be fine. If you really want to cruise for food on a mainstream line, cruise with Celebrity. :)

[megansdad1]

I agree that it is subjective. I enjoyed the food more on dcl, but I never had an issue with carnival

[EBonacruise]

Hi cruisers,

I agree that everyones taste is subjective and the purpose of the cruise shouldnt necessarily be for the food..... that said, we have found the food overall to be better on Disney than Royal Caribbean. Example: eggs scrambled with butter and cream on the Dream, vs powered scrambled eggs on RCCL Liberty of the Seas.

As a few others have mentioned Disney (specifically the Dream in my case) has the MOST EXCELLENT fried coconut shrimp :D:D. Hot, crisp, not greasy or tough, just the right amount and flavor of coconut.

Disney has the rotational dining, where you and tablemates and your servers moved from dining room to dining room each night, which is loads of fun. However, RCCL has the 'my time dining' where you go to the main dining room anytime you want between 6 pm and 830 pm. The first night we did that on the Liberty, we absolutely loved our head server/asst server Sakar and Cosmin and we returned to their station on our remaining nights. Disney food was still a bit fresher tasting and appearing, in my opinion. Both ships had good bar service. Disney did pour with a heavier hand though :cool::p

Fast food options on Disney good, not spectacular unless you get just as they put the food out, ie, fresh sandwich wraps, fresh hot pizza.

Free self serve ice cream is very good, as is the free 24 hour self serve soda dispenser.

[vacation_junkie]

How is the food on Disney? I normally go on carnival but next year for my birthday I want to do a 3 day on the Disney Dream. Carnival's food is very good so I was wondering if Disney was going to be good as well.

 

 

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We have sailed various lines.

 

The food on our last Disney Cruise was by far the worst we've ever experienced.

 

Cold & Under Cooked or Way Over cooked and dried out every night in the dining room!

 

BUT...the Breakfast Buffet in Cabana's was the best we've experienced at sea to date!

[moki'smommy]

Last summer, we did back to back Med cruises. On the first leg, the food could be described at terrible. The server didn't care about anything other than getting his tips (he was marking time in the MDR until he was being sent to Palo in 2 weeks). The food was cold and generally awful.

 

Before the second leg, we talked with the head server and his supervisor. We were assigned an amazing server. While the meals di take a little longer than I might have liked, the food was HOT, fresh, and good. no complaints at all.

 

2014 cruise (same ship, different location) was the same--good, hot food as we had become used to on MOST of our previous cruises.

 

OK, Celebrity food was overall better, but DCL can be good. If you aren't seeing good food, talk with the head server!

[trixiegal]

We have sailed various lines.

 

The food on our last Disney Cruise was by far the worst we've ever experienced.

 

Cold & Under Cooked or Way Over cooked and dried out every night in the dining room!

 

BUT...the Breakfast Buffet in Cabana's was the best we've experienced at sea to date!

 

 

I always complain about that being the main reason I just can't spend so much $$$ on Disney cruises. Granted, the ship's decor is fantastic and luxurious (that bedding!) and the service is like that of a Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton. But I can't get past the bad food. I mean they even messed up the Krispy Kreme donuts because they tasted freezer burned and soggy. How does that happen?!

 

My first Carnival Dream cruise last year was awesome and I enjoyed the food. It wasn't the best I've ever had but I'm into fine dining. So many choices and great service. The Taste Bar was also a very innovative concept at sea.

 

Go with the attitude that you will enjoy the amenities and service and you may be pleasantly surprised at the food. But I was disappointed in what I had on my Disney cruises, except of course with Palo.

 

 

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Edited June 21, 2014 by trixiegal

[Scrapnana]

I enjoyed the Disney food with the exception of the burgers/hot dogs at Flo's (cold and cheese was not melted - hamburger patties basic frozen, flat ones) and the creme brulee in the MDR (which was runny inside and not crispy on top).

My daughter and son in law were disappointed that the meat always came out medium when they ordered rare (even if sent back the new one was medium).

[DISNEY FANTASY]

I too have never had any bad meal on DCL at all I have had horrible food on RCI but everything is well presented on Disney and if it wasn't I would complain to the head server and get it corrected so it didn't affect the whole cruise.

 

 

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