Giving up on MDR food

[knewton64]

After trying the Remy restaurant for the very first time while on the Disney Fantasy 6 weeks ago, I can see now the hypocrisy of the DCL Waitstaff as they have IMO overall "EXCELLENT" restaurant environments but only "GOOD" Waitstaff followed by "FAIR" food and or drink.
AND
to be so pressured to express to anyone inside those restaurants that work for DCL that the Food / overall experience was "Excellent" IMO comes across as two-faced and unprofessional.
*
So much that yes, i agree -
I will be looking at booking Palo a few times while on the Magic in late October and or just straight ordering Room Service in the pm and the Cabanas in the am as yes.... fair to say that I too am "Done" with MDR.
*
..... all because of average food / average Customer Service and yet they demand I say "EXCELLENT" on their surveys.
*
Again, just my .02 worth on this subject -

 

[Elleinthecity]

A few years ago we were sitting next to a family that were Indian. One night we notice that they were eating Indian food so we politely asked after they were done eating how did they get it, did you have to let them know before you go on the ship as a special dietary situation? They said no we just asked for it each night. If you are still on the ship ask your server (or head server) if you can get the Indian Dish of the night. They usually have one, sometimes 2 a night.

I mentioned before that on our last cruise we only ate Indian food each night, no entrees (we did order apps) and the day before the last day the head chef who was from India came out to talk to us and asked why. We told him we really enjoy good Indian food and don't get it very much near where we live. He was very pleased.

Is this considered a "crew meal" - if so, I'm down to eat that!

 

[Jsoenning]

Just got off the Magic, which was a 6 night cruise. We skipped one night because excursion came back late. For 2 out of the 5 nights I didn’t enjoy the meal. So much so that I didn’t finish it. I picked off the waitress recommendations of what was good that night too.

One was a pasta that had a chef boyaddee flavor, red sauce. The other was the last night - lobster was over cooked and venison didn’t have a good flavor, was chewy.

Other observation reminded me of an observation from a year ago. I used to rave to folks about each night had a different bread and sauce. All good. This time and time before bread didn’t match the menu descriptions and the sauces were pretty bad. Saved calories by not consuming. The bread was the same hard white or wheat rolls every night except for one night that had a pretzel bread, which was good.

One of my kids notes was no longer sprinkles with Mickey Bars. I noticed the chocolate milk looked off another night and that my daughter who loves chocolate milk didn’t touch it.

Did it ruin the experience? No the dinner shows were nice and wait staff were practically running. So much so that they don’t have any time to spend interacting. Too many tables? If I asked my kids would they want to skip dinner it would be a strong YES every night.

If someone asked me about the food it’s no longer a selling point for Disney.

The light snacks in concierge lounge were consistently better than dinner. I did have the churro waffles for the first time, and they were dang good.

 

[randumb0]

After trying the Remy restaurant for the very first time while on the Disney Fantasy 6 weeks ago, I can see now the hypocrisy of the DCL Waitstaff as they have IMO overall "EXCELLENT" restaurant environments but only "GOOD" Waitstaff followed by "FAIR" food and or drink.
AND
to be so pressured to express to anyone inside those restaurants that work for DCL that the Food / overall experience was "Excellent" IMO comes across as two-faced and unprofessional.
*
So much that yes, i agree -
I will be looking at booking Palo a few times while on the Magic in late October and or just straight ordering Room Service in the pm and the Cabanas in the am as yes.... fair to say that I too am "Done" with MDR.
*
..... all because of average food / average Customer Service and yet they demand I say "EXCELLENT" on their surveys.
*
Again, just my .02 worth on this subject -

Was Remy that bad?

 

[drstrange]

I just got off the Dream yesterday from a 5 night sailing. The first night we were at Animators Palate and the food was AWFUL. We've been on 15 cruises and I have never had such a bad meal. It took them 50 minutes to bring out anything, the servers all seemed frantic. On top of it, the screens at animators palate were frozen/glitching. We had a second meal at Animators Palate and it was also not very good. Did not have any issues at the other MDRs.

 

[peder]

Food was better than I expected on the Wish! Everything was very heavy (even the lighter fare), but nearly everything was better than food anywhere I've had at Disney World. Couple of misses (had a beef tenderloin come out cold and overcooked, for instance), but lots of details executed well.

 

[knewton64]

Was Remy that bad?

I felt like that Food critic in the movie Ratatouille when he first took a spoon full of ratatouille…I mean I was totally blown away by the food , the atmosphere and the drink .
*
So no , Remy was fantastic and would highly recommend it -

 

[Ol Goof]

This is my #1 complaint about DCL. They should most definitely open Cabanas back up for dinner. We ate at the buffet on our Regal Princess British Isles cruise many nights this past Summer and it was so easy to just eat when you wanted (especially when you may be on land until late at night on a port intensive cruise). Princess even had a different theme in there every night.

Agreed! So tired of sitting through long and drawn out MDR seatings. Would just like to run up to cabanas and/or Marceline market grab something!

 

[RedHead0186]

After trying the Remy restaurant for the very first time while on the Disney Fantasy 6 weeks ago, I can see now the hypocrisy of the DCL Waitstaff as they have IMO overall "EXCELLENT" restaurant environments but only "GOOD" Waitstaff followed by "FAIR" food and or drink.
AND
to be so pressured to express to anyone inside those restaurants that work for DCL that the Food / overall experience was "Excellent" IMO comes across as two-faced and unprofessional.
*
So much that yes, i agree -
I will be looking at booking Palo a few times while on the Magic in late October and or just straight ordering Room Service in the pm and the Cabanas in the am as yes.... fair to say that I too am "Done" with MDR.
*
..... all because of average food / average Customer Service and yet they demand I say "EXCELLENT" on their surveys.
*
Again, just my .02 worth on this subject -

I'm not sure it's fair to compare the MDRs to Remy, in terms of service or food quality. Remy is meant to be the top of the line in terms of experience-they have a very accomplished chef with a very specific menu and food cooked to order. Servers have a much smaller table load as well so service is more attentive. Palo falls into that category, maybe slightly lesser so but it's the same idea.

MDR food is not made to order (unless you need something 'specific'), and it's mass-produced. The servers have a much higher table load and sometimes there's entertainment/shows going on they have to work around. It's two very different experiences, and that's by design. To me, it's kind of like comparing an Applebee's to a Michelin-starred restaurant.

To each their own, and if you didn't have a good experience then it's totally your call to skip the MDRs in the future. I just think that MDR experiences should be compared to other MDR experiences, not compared to Remy/Palo as that's such a different thing. I do hear you though on the pressure to put 'Excellent,' which is not at all the fault of the servers but instead a poorly-designed system by DCL (one which seems to be much disliked on these boards).

 

[bakerworld]

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.

Just to clarify, we don't worry about tipping Palo/Remy because the food service tips are shared?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Just to clarify, we don't worry about tipping Palo/Remy because the food service tips are shared?

No, Palo/Remy are a separate entity. They don't participate in the auto gratuities. Food service tips are not shared, they do go to specific servers. I was just pointing out that the MDR servers do more than serve in the dining rooms (at dinnertime) and their gratuities are covered for all (regular) meal services. Even though you most likely will not be served by "your" (dinner) server at a different meal, someone else will be and their tips for, say, lunch service in the dining room are covered.

 

[foolish-mortal]

Agree with others that not having Cabanas open during dinner is my #1 complaint about DCL. The fact that their options are so much more limited is so disappointing. We love the MDRs overall, but sometimes we just want quiet, fast and casual. We don't always want a dinner show and the fanfare that comes with the MDRs. And eating on my bed from a very limited room service menu is not what I mean. Cabanas was awesome when it was open in the evenings. We always did that at least once.

 

[mk2.0]

I've sailed on the Fantasy twice and had good food and fantastic service. We asked them on day one both times to bring us extra (and a variety of) vegetables with our meals and they did that every day thereafter without us having to ask again. Our servers got to know our food preferences and their recommendations for our tastes we're spot on. We normally eat a variety of international cuisines at home, so missed that on the menus. Will definitely ask for Indian next time now I know we can!

We're going on the Wonder from Sydney on 24 days. My wife was diagnosed as coeliac since or last cruise so this'll be out first cruise experience with dietary needs. We've not heard good things so far about DCLs handling of special dietary requirements on the Aussie cruises. Let's hope our experience is better now that they've had a few months here in Australia.

My wife has many allergies that are not on the normal list such as latex, kiwi, rosemary, potatoes, and even potato starch that may be used as an anti-caking agent in cheese or bread! The request form on the website was not broad enough, however, as soon as we said something on board to our server, action was taken. After every meal, they would show the next day's menu and review any changes that would be required. They would swap out sides, ingredients, or even add custom dishes.

No, I would say Disney was incredible with the responsibility they took when it came to allergies.

 

[mk2.0]

The food served on our Fantasy cruise in February wasn't bad. Other than dry over-cooked cuts of meat on two nights, I would say it was well prepared for a mass produced product. It really helps if you let the server guide you to the best dishes too.

However, we are tiering of the MDR food a bit. On my very first cruise I noticed that, by the fifth night, my pallet was looking for more variety than what was offered. I was actually looking forward to getting a meal off the ship. So after several cruises, I was really feeling it. We even skipped the MDR one night and ate bad pool side food. I don't know what it is, but all the meals start feeling very similar in the MDR's, even if you try to order a variety of dishes.

If I could change one thing on DCL, it would be better pool-side food and a dinner buffet. I would love a quick and easy option to get a good dinner, which DCL doesn't have (with the exception of the Wish from what I hear). It is one of the things I am looking forward to on our first Celebrity cruise.

I find that steaks are rarely great at any MDR on cruise ships. I think there's just a little too much mass production to meet the demands of several thousand people eating at once. I don't think Celebrity will be an improvement for you. RCL was some of the worst MDR I've ever had. I do wish Disney's poolside food had more options, but the newer Wish is an improvement. Honestly, you have to wonder why a burger is so difficult that they need to use frozen patties.

 

[mk2.0]

My biggest complaint with cruise line food is the amount of vegetable you are served. I would like more then 2 florets of broccoli please. I was on the Wonder. I was nervous about the food, but it was almost universally good. Service was good. Didn't get the 'excellence' speech. Service was not super duper fantastic but I thought the 2 gentleman did very good considering they did between the 2 of them what I am use to 4 people doing on Celebrity (Waiter, Assistant, Sommelier and Drink Server being separate positions on Celebrity in MDR)

Remember to use your words. They will give you as much as you like. All you have to do is ask and they will bring you an entire plate of vegetables if you want. When I don't know what I want I will just order multiple dishes. They don't stop you. Order all of the deserts on the menu if you want to taste test

 

[mk2.0]

Just got off the Magic, which was a 6 night cruise. We skipped one night because excursion came back late. For 2 out of the 5 nights I didn’t enjoy the meal. So much so that I didn’t finish it. I picked off the waitress recommendations of what was good that night too.

One was a pasta that had a chef boyaddee flavor, red sauce. The other was the last night - lobster was over cooked and venison didn’t have a good flavor, was chewy.

Other observation reminded me of an observation from a year ago. I used to rave to folks about each night had a different bread and sauce. All good. This time and time before bread didn’t match the menu descriptions and the sauces were pretty bad. Saved calories by not consuming. The bread was the same hard white or wheat rolls every night except for one night that had a pretzel bread, which was good.

One of my kids notes was no longer sprinkles with Mickey Bars. I noticed the chocolate milk looked off another night and that my daughter who loves chocolate milk didn’t touch it.

Did it ruin the experience? No the dinner shows were nice and wait staff were practically running. So much so that they don’t have any time to spend interacting. Too many tables? If I asked my kids would they want to skip dinner it would be a strong YES every night.

If someone asked me about the food it’s no longer a selling point for Disney.

The light snacks in concierge lounge were consistently better than dinner. I did have the churro waffles for the first time, and they were dang good.

Provide feedback on the cards at the end of the cruise. You don't need to put anything negative about the staff, but you can trash the chef if the food was not cooked or seasoned properly. They are held to standards

 

[brentm77]

Remember to use your words. They will give you as much as you like. All you have to do is ask and they will bring you an entire plate of vegetables if you want. When I don't know what I want I will just order multiple dishes. They don't stop you. Order all of the deserts on the menu if you want to taste test

The best server we have had was on our last cruise. He read my mind on lobster night and brought me two tails without asking. That was fantastic service. (I'm from Utah, so even mediocre lobster is a treat, even though I know some people from the East Coast wouldn't touch the tails DCL serves).

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Order all of the deserts on the menu if you want to taste test

I loved it when they had the Sweet Temptations plate for dessert. It was a small serving of 3 different desserts on the menu that night.

You don't need to put anything negative about the staff, but you can trash the chef if the food was not cooked or seasoned properly.

Ah, but there's the rub - (at least in the past) any detrimental comments regarding the food was reflected on the server, not the chef. The theory is the server should be steering you away from the badly prepared items.

 

[drstrange]

I am not sure if it is a post-COVID staffing issue, a training issue, or a bad luck issue. But I feel like the service at MDRs over the last few years has gone downhill. In the past, I feel like our servers would really get to know us (myself, wife, and two kids), would do magic, or have games for us each night, and the last few cruises I have been on have not had that extra touch of magic. Since the restart I have been on 6 sailings and I would say that 5 of them had absolutely non-memorable dining teams.

 

[Erica1016]

I loved it when they had the Sweet Temptations plate for dessert. It was a small serving of 3 different desserts on the menu that night.
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Ah, but there's the rub - (at least in the past) any detrimental comments regarding the food was reflected on the server, not the chef. The theory is the server should be steering you away from the badly prepared items.

I miss the Sweet Temptations! I would choose that almost every night!