Giving up on MDR food

[cedricandsophie]

We did the wonder transpacific in October. 13 days at sea. We love the Mdrs and other than a night at Palo akways eat late dinner. Maybe are lucky but have never had a bad server on the 20 plus cruises we have done. We love the longer cruises because you really get to know your servers. They feel like family

The food is not gourmet but it’s fine for us. If I don’t like something I just order another entree. We just can’t imagine skipping dinner. For us it’s part of the whole Disney magical experience. I don’t think we have ever eaten lunch inside. Sone of us go to cabanas. I usually get a wrap or something from the grill and eat at the pool.

 

[bakerworld]

Our relatives feel not attending the MDR is like wasting $$ but we feel like eating something we enjoy negates the TS experience. I find the food very comparable at the buffet and QS, especially on the Wish. I'd be more included to enjoy the TS experience if we weren't packed in like sardines, we didn't feel like we had to eat more and the waitstaff didn't feel like they had to 'perform' for us.

 

[ajs123]

For the OP - you are not crazy. Our last two cruises - 7-night Fantasy in May 2023 and 5-night Dream in December 2023 - we could no longer deal with the food quality and chaos in the MDR and opted for three nights in Palo. So much more relaxing and higher quality dining experience. We would compare it to having the Haven restaurant on NCL.

 

[Clarkson U]

Overall for us MDR food is still very good but I would agree it is down a notch from our earlier sailings pre-covid. Our worst service ever in the MDR was on the Wish in October of 2022. It was so bad, that even guest services team was aware of so many complaints and when we went back on the Wish in December 2022 it was much better and staff acknowledged that October ratings on surveys for the dining room were horrible and they are starting to come up.

Overall, our least favorite restaurants are Enchanted Garden and Arrendale. We are vegetarians so our opinion may be based on the vegetarian options and selections at those restaurants. We do often get Indian food but as Indians often times it is not made to our taste as the same dish is often made very differently in different parts of the country so it really depends on what part of India the chef comes from who is making the food.

Palo is definitely much better than any MDR but to me MDR food is very good and isn't a reason to not sail DCL. My cousin did Haven on NCL and felt that the food in Haven was as good as if not slightly better than MDR food on DCL.

We all have to remember that it is still hotel banquet food as they are trying to serve 2500-4000 guests (depending on ship) in a matter of 4 hours plus feeding the crew. Any hotel banquet food will have some challenges, including some cool or cold dishes, some food made earlier in the day than other food items, etc.

I do not agree with the excuse that they have staffing issues or space for crew issues to prevent them from doing Cabanas at dinner. They did it pre-Covid so clearly they had room on the ships pre-covid for this staff so they should have that same room again. Disney has gotten more expensive over the years but not sure their product has gotten better to keep up with the higher prices they continue to charge.

For us, it is all about service and relaxation. I know on that ship I will not worry about food or getting enough to eat, I enjoy the general cleanliness of the ship. the courtesy of the crew everywhere on the ship and just general higher level of service.

I often tell friends and co-workers that to me cruising Disney is cruising First Class. After 3 cruises in 2023 and 7 since Covid restart, I would say that generally speaking this is still true. There are some misses for me recently (Oct 2022 Wish and May 2023 Magic) but overall still to me it is cruising first class.

 

[Jsoenning]

I do think DCL should constantly get together and brainstorm what can we do to plus the experience. I think customers would be okay with things coming and going but with the laser focus on profit, they kill profit in the end.

It’s in the food and in the Castaway Club changes. It’s in removing Palo buffet and removing Cabanas for dinner. It’s in the gingerbread houses to gingerbread cookie decorating to nothing. It’s in the no more individual soaps and shampoos. It’s in the no more straws. It’s even in the kids club recent change. It’s like they come up with a change that benefits Disney and there is literally no one in the room playing devils advocate, which would lead to finding ways to soften the blow of changes. Tweak change or add a new fun experience to include a win for customers.

To be fair, RCL and Carnival are doing the same with stuff like room changeover once per day. We saw this when we bought faster to the fun on Carnival and the get in your room benefit didn’t happen. Not a deal breaker but we had visions of dropping our stuff off early and hitting the pool before it got crowded and didn’t happen. The poor room attendants are turning over twice the rooms now. We watched him run out of time, finish slap dash, which led to finding prior guest stuff and not clean areas in the cabin.

There is a clear lack of vision. If Disney executives asked “what is our core value as a company” and put every decision against that lens, their profit share would automatically take off like when Walt was alive. Most of his visions weren’t economically obvious but in the end each was in alignment with this is for “boys and girls, young and old” so drew in a wide swath of the population recapturing their childhood and wanting to bring that to their kids.

On my Carnival example they could still cut costs and crew cleaning rooms in half (cha-Ching for bean counter minded executive) but if kept customers in mind would find a way to identify faster to the fun rooms (still tough as would be skipping rooms in a line) or lose a little of the extra profit and have folks come in that live in the home port to help with turnover.

 

[goofy4prez]

I only cruise on the Fantasy and don't have problems with their food. If I ever felt like I needed to primarily eat Palo or Remy then I'd just move to a cruise line with better food

I find the food in the MDR's with DCL to be just ok. Not complaining, just ok. On a seven night cruise I do eat at Palo twice and Remy once. I still sail with Disney... Why? Because I enjoy Disney. With that said though, I also sail with Regent Seven Seas, which is an entirely different experience.

 

[SL6827]

For DCL pricing, the food should be spectacular everywhere. But their need for more and more $$$$$ will win out every time.

 

[randumb0]

For DCL pricing, the food should be spectacular everywhere. But their need for more and more $$$$$ will win out every time.

Maybe, but a booking on the Icon is going to cost you the same amount of money and I don't expect the food to be outstanding

 

[SL6827]

Maybe, but a booking on the Icon is going to cost you the same amount of money and I don't expect the food to be outstanding

Shameful as well.

 

[enzy65]

I feel like most of the food in the mdr is equivalent to banquet hall/wedding style. But, every once in awhile something does wow me.

 

[WvT3rd]

We're doing our first cruise with DCL soon on the Wish, and if the food is poor, it'll almost certainly be our last DCL cruise. Weird to me that folks wouldn't hold DCL to a higher standard when paying luxury-cruise prices.

Don’t go by the Wish. Largest of the fleet. I’ve had excellent food on the Magic and Wonder ships

 

[Cfabar1]

Between our family, we have had one meal that one person didn't like.

The food is consistently better than RCL, which is our other comparison. I can't compare it to Regent, Seabourn, Ritz Carlton, Virgin, Carnival, Celebrity, etc. It is large produced food, and we all have our tastes. There are a couple of meals I have had in Arendelle that I really enjoyed. My worst meal was in Marvel, but on another wish cruise, my best meal was in Marvel.

When we sailed RCL, we felt our bodies needed a few days to "adjust" to the cruise food. We didn't have that experience on Disney. That alone was worth the increased cost of DCL...

Dinner, especially on a family friendly line, needs another option than the MDRs. I understand why they are loathe to do it, but there has to be a way, even if you had to notify them a certain number of hours in advance to reserve your dinner or something.

While I am sad that DCL has not returned to offering Dinner in Marceline/Cabanas/etc., I applaud Disney for continuing to service the rooms twice daily, which to me, is a huge reason why I love cruising compared to staying at a hotel/resort. However, DCL is not Carnival or RCL, and they don't price themselves as such - especially lately... Last year we were able to book several cruises within $300 of RCL prices - often close in - and being FL residents with VGT/OGT/etc., but lately they have been about $1,000 more... DCL guests expect something better for those extra $$$s, especially given the number of things they give up when they sail DCL instead of RCL.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

What happens when we are pressured to give all Excellents

 

[bakerworld]

The Wish has such good QS venues that missing the MDR isn't an issue. My question is how do you handle that 3 of the people tipped are MDR staff. Truthfully, we've always had the same question regarding Palo/Remy. Although we've never been, our 2025 cruise will be platinum and they we will be able to have a 'free' Palo/Remy so I'm interested in the tipping issue.

 

[Genie+]

I would like more then 2 florets of broccoli please.

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More of the greens please!

 

[tidefan]

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More of the greens please!

ils aiment les legumes!

 

[otten]

We hav only done the Wish... I am told that the food is better on the Wish in MDR than any other vessel, so maybe that's part of the issue?

I';ve never been on the Fantasy or Dream, just the Wish once and the Magic and Wonder a couple times and I have to say I found the whole MDR experience on the Wish to be pretty disappointing overall. The noise in Marvel made it hard to hear the servers, service was slow and the food was pretty meh so I don;t think it's strictly a ship thing.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

The Wish has such good QS venues that missing the MDR isn't an issue. My question is how do you handle that 3 of the people tipped are MDR staff. Truthfully, we've always had the same question regarding Palo/Remy. Although we've never been, our 2025 cruise will be platinum and they we will be able to have a 'free' Palo/Remy so I'm interested in the tipping issue.

The gratuities paid the MDR staff covers all food service. Your dinner server does stints in the buffet and the MDR open for lunch and breakfast, as well as the quick serve locations.

 

[Halfbrit]

ils aiment les legumes!

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More of the greens please!

We’ve only been on 2 cruises (3rd will be in 5 days time) and both times we asked our servers on day 1 to bring us extra vegetables with our meals. They were wonderful and bought us plenty of mixed veg each day after that.

 

[Pixie Dust Believer]

The Wish has such good QS venues that missing the MDR isn't an issue. My question is how do you handle that 3 of the people tipped are MDR staff. Truthfully, we've always had the same question regarding Palo/Remy. Although we've never been, our 2025 cruise will be platinum and they we will be able to have a 'free' Palo/Remy so I'm interested in the tipping issue.

We always tip the MDR team the same standard tip for nights we aren't there. We normally increase the tips for the nights we are there. Ex. On a 5 night, we were in the MDR 2 nights. We took what those tips were meant to be and increased them. Once we figured that out, we added the standard tip for the 3 days we weren't there.

We figured since they are the same team who serves throughout the day and the decision to skip the MDR was ours, they shouldn't miss out on those tips.