Would you consider DCL's menus too American?

[tidefan]

Virgin has an interior Mexican (not Tex Mex) called Agave. It looks really good. It's an included restaurant. Most of theirs are.

Pink Agave is an amazing restaurant.

VV is so different in a great way!

 

[soniam]

Pink Agave is an amazing restaurant.

VV is so different in a great way!

I really want to do Virgin; however, the itineraries are not very interesting. I am think it would be a good cruise to do for NYE. Was the food more interior or more Tex Mex? It seemed more authentic. Thanks

 

[DCLMP]

I can tolerate anything with a good bottle of wine. I still can't believe they had a 24-hour ban on alcohol. They made an announcement at 6 p.m. that all stores and alcohol sales would cease for 24 hours because we would not be leaving Danish waters. We went from Frederecia to Skagen. The itinerary had been planned for over a year and they did not know this? It had to be a huge money loss for them.

My guess is they did not pay some fees or something that they were supposed to do to be able to open stores and serve alcohol. They tried to blow it off and say it was a Denmark rule..... um ok, and you just discovered this at the last minute? It was obvious it was a big shock to the crew and bartenders who had to remove all the bottles from the bars and pack up everything.

It was irritating because I bought the wine package and even though I paid for it before I left home I still couldn't get a bottle. I did bring a bottle of wine that we had bought in port and told them they better not dare try to charge me a corkage fee.

I felt bad for people with reservations in Remy and Palo that night. How do you eat that kind of meal without some wine...if you are a wine lover? Whenever I eat at Palo most tables are drinking wine.

I just thought I'd share. I've cruised 33 times and this had to be the weirdest thing I've seen. Can you imagine this happening on a cruise line where people buy alcohol packages? There would have been a riot.

 

[tidefan]

I really want to do Virgin; however, the itineraries are not very interesting. I am think it would be a good cruise to do for NYE. Was the food more interior or more Tex Mex? It seemed more authentic. Thanks

We loved our 8 night this past March on Valiant Lady. We stopped in St. Croix, which we had never been to. We’d also like to do their Greece itinerary that overnights in Mykonos.

As to Pink Agave, it is probably more authentic. Here are some pics:

 

[tvguy]

I'm surprised by the notion that decent Mexican food couldn't be served on a cruise. I think there are many dishes that would be fairly easy to mass produce to an acceptable standard. Would it be as good as authentic Mexican food? Of course not, but I can't think of any dish on the ship that would be as good as the real thing. There are many Mexican dishes that aren't particularly complex, but very good. On the other hand, that Mexican restaurant at the Magic Kingdom is pretty terrible, while the one at Disneyland is pretty good for a theme park, so maybe I am wrong and DCL wouldn't be able to pull it off well.

Many cruise lines do offer Mexican food. I LOLed at the "authentic" comment. I have eaten some very very good Mexican food, but I don't think any of the Mexican food I have eaten was like the Mexican food I had in Mexico. The Americanized versions are much spicier. And potatoes were very popular as an ingredient in all dishes I had in Mexico.

 

[cmph]

Can you imagine this happening on a cruise line where people buy alcohol packages? There would have been a riot.

Ohhh... it did earlier this year, on NCL! It was a big topic on the NCL board on CC. It happened in multiple places - UK for sure, Ireland I think, Italy. Some of the time it was full-alcohol close-downs, and I think maybe Italy it was just hard liquor? But people were pretty irate, especially the ones who upgraded their packages. The story NCL gave to explain why they couldn't serve alcohol kept changing, and meanwhile other cruiselines were sailing in the same ports and serving alcohol in some cases. I'm not sure anyone ever got a clear answer why.

 

[Annabell]

For us, food on DCL is just average at best. If we cruise DCL then we do it for the entertainment and not for the food.

 

[Bad Pink Tink 2.0]

What do you consider American food?

I'll go through the other food in a separate post, but to start, breakfast on DCL is very American.

In Ireland / UK our standard hotel breakfast buffet is

• Tea, coffee, juice,
• cereal
• fruit
• bagels
• croissants
• toast

UK / Irish Cooked Breakfast Items
bacon

• pork sausages
• bacon
• hash browns
• fried mushrooms
• fried tomatoes
• scrambled eggs
• baked beans

Our breakfast cereals are different, we dont have the high sugar ones like Lucky Charms or Froot Loops. Porridge (what Americans call oatmeal) and muesli are popular.

Hot tea is a big part of breakfast

Our bread is different. In Ireland we have traditional white and brown soda bread as well as bread for toasting.

We dont have sweet pastries like muffins or doughnuts.

We dont have waffles or pancakes.

Our sausages are high quality pork.

In Ireland we have black pudding and white pudding, which are blood sausages and cooked like regular sausages.

Our bacon is different. What Americans call Canadian bacon is regular bacon in UK and Ireland.

 

[Bad Pink Tink 2.0]

What do you consider American food?

In central Europe, France, Germany, Spain etc hotel breakfast buffets are very similar to UK / Ireland hotel breakfast buffets. They have more meat items though, a range of cold sliced meats and cheeses, the bread is different, the milk is usually UHT not fresh milk. They will also have a bigger selection of prepared fruit and yoghurts, as well as muesli and maybe sometimes individual selections of various dried fruit and nuts for yoghurt toppings. Nutella is popular in central Europe, and there may be crepes and a bigger selection of croissants than in UK / Ireland

 

[Karin1984]

What do you consider American food?

Not sure if I would call dinner on DCL particularly American. Maybe standard Western dinners? It is very much playing it safe.

Breakfast is easier to identify as American. Johnny Harris did a good video on why Americans eat dessert for breakfast. And that sweet tooth is reflected in the breakfast buffet.

 

[DCLMP]

Not sure if I would call dinner on DCL particularly American. Maybe standard Western dinners? It is very much playing it safe.

Breakfast is easier to identify as American. Johnny Harris did a good video on why Americans eat dessert for breakfast. And that sweet tooth is reflected in the breakfast buffet.

Buffets have everything and Europeans eat their share of pastry’s and waffles. Probably more so than Americans. An American breakfast would be eggs, bacon, hash browns, biscuits and gravy. We have donut shops in America, but I wouldn’t say that’s a standard for most people. I might eat a donut once a month if someone brings in a dozen to work.

 

[Phoneix8]

Good grief. That’s a ridiculous price for dinner.

I think it was $125/pp. I did splurge for a caviar tasting and a wine pairing (another $125 for each of those experiences). Then gratuity added. I have had Michelin meals for less than what I paid at Remy and much more enjoyable too. I would not recommend Remy dinner. Either take the $500-600 and eat at a real Michelin restaurant or eat at 3 different local restaurants at one of the local ports.

Previous to this, I had only had Palo Brunch and absolutely adored that, dinner is a different story, especially considering the constant price hikes. It's no wonder that on my 11nt cruise all brunches were booked solid, and dinner was readily available seemingly each night.

 

[brentm77]

Many cruise lines do offer Mexican food. I LOLed at the "authentic" comment. I have eaten some very very good Mexican food, but I don't think any of the Mexican food I have eaten was like the Mexican food I had in Mexico. The Americanized versions are much spicier. And potatoes were very popular as an ingredient in all dishes I had in Mexico.

That probably depends on what part of Mexico you are talking about, as some regions tend to use spicier ingredients than others. I think it would surprise many Americans how diverse the cuisine is in different parts of Mexico because the American versions tend to treat it as one homogenized cuisine.

 

[Phoneix8]

I can tolerate anything with a good bottle of wine. I still can't believe they had a 24-hour ban on alcohol. They made an announcement at 6 p.m. that all stores and alcohol sales would cease for 24 hours because we would not be leaving Danish waters. We went from Frederecia to Skagen. The itinerary had been planned for over a year and they did not know this? It had to be a huge money loss for them.

My guess is they did not pay some fees or something that they were supposed to do to be able to open stores and serve alcohol. They tried to blow it off and say it was a Denmark rule..... um ok, and you just discovered this at the last minute? It was obvious it was a big shock to the crew and bartenders who had to remove all the bottles from the bars and pack up everything.

It was irritating because I bought the wine package and even though I paid for it before I left home I still couldn't get a bottle. I did bring a bottle of wine that we had bought in port and told them they better not dare try to charge me a corkage fee.

I felt bad for people with reservations in Remy and Palo that night. How do you eat that kind of meal without some wine...if you are a wine lover? Whenever I eat at Palo most tables are drinking wine.

I just thought I'd share. I've cruised 33 times and this had to be the weirdest thing I've seen. Can you imagine this happening on a cruise line where people buy alcohol packages? There would have been a riot.

Lol I too remember this on Day 6. I had just gotten back from the Lego House excursion and was expecting to have some wine when the announcement came in. I was told by a server that the ship was docked somewhere it wasn't supposed to, hadn't given a heads up to Danish authorities, and the dry night was some sort of punishment. I have no idea if this is the truth. This obviously wasn't the norm for Denmark because many ppl who had sailed there previously had never heard such a thing.

I originally had reservations for Remy that night but switched with my sister-in-law and husband a couple days prior. It wasn't a big deal for them cuz they dun drink so it worked out for all parties involved =)

BTW, i do recall standing on the balcony on Day 6 around sailaway time when i saw Danish coast guard flag down the Dream, and saw 3-4 men board the ship.

 

[brentm77]

I still don't know what OP meant by American food. When I think of American food I think of things like Fried Chicken, meatloaf, BBQ, or maybe Southern food. There's not that many foods that originated in America.

It may have been a poor choice of words. I probably should have said "DCL's version of what it thinks Americans like," which means a hunk of meat and a small side of veggies or something similar for many dishes, and for dishes borrowed from other cuisine, a sort of dumbed down version with less flavor and overly processed ingredients.

For example, the DCL curry is easily the most flavorless curry I have ever tried. Pasta sauces are sugary and overly processed stuff. Most everything is prepared fairly bland. When I think of the same dishes in their more authentic forms, I think of dishes that pop with unique flavors, or stand out for their use of simple less processed ingredients. To some extent, it's due to mass producing the food, but there is also evidence that DCL thinks that average American won't like anything with a strong flavor (hence the constant warnings from waiters that something might be too spicy, which always turns out to be be bland like everything else).

Even their gelato is terrible, which is a rather basic recipe that is hard to mess up unless you use a bunch of processed stuff to make it instead of a few basic quality ingredients.

All my posts make it sound like I don't like DCL food. I think it is perfectly fine overall considering it is mass produced, and even enjoy many meals. I would just greatly welcome more variety, more international dishes, maybe a chef special each night that is constantly changing as someone else suggested, etc. It's not just from repeat cruising either, I had the exact same feeling by the end of my very first DCL cruise.

 

[sadiecatie]

My short answer is no.

My longer answer - it's an American cruise line It's also a family cruise line. I think there's a good balance of "safe" foods that kids will actually eat, plus somewhat more interesting dishes for adults. Is it the most adventurous food you're going to find? Of course not. Do I enjoy it? Yup. I'm not booking Disney for adventurous or gourmet food. (also, my husband's response was "go eat off the ship if you want more international fare" so I guess that's an option too)

 

[brentm77]

My short answer is no.

My longer answer - it's an American cruise line It's also a family cruise line. I think there's a good balance of "safe" foods that kids will actually eat, plus somewhat more interesting dishes for adults. Is it the most adventurous food you're going to find? Of course not. Do I enjoy it? Yup. I'm not booking Disney for adventurous or gourmet food. (also, my husband's response was "go eat off the ship if you want more international fare" so I guess that's an option too)

Fair enough. And I am sure your opinion is more consistent with the average customer, hence the reason it hasn't changed in two decades. But I think American cuisine has evolved a lot in most cities in those two decades, while DCL is still serving what was considered "fancy" then and not so much now. I do eat local food off the ship whenever possible - it was one my favorite parts of cruising the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, that's rarely an option for dinner.

 

[tvguy]

That probably depends on what part of Mexico you are talking about, as some regions tend to use spicier ingredients than others. I think it would surprise many Americans how diverse the cuisine is in different parts of Mexico because the American versions tend to treat it as one homogenized cuisine.

Certain could be. I went with my high school Spanish class in 1975. Our teacher was from Mexico and he warned us that restaurants the use a lot of spice are just trying to cover up rancid ingredients.

 

[anjuan]

I was on the NCL Prima this past May. While I still love DCL, their food was a step up. I especially loved the Indulge Food Hall. It was like a food court with different restaurants but you ordered the food on a tablet and they brought it to you very quick. They had great Indian food as well as food from other countries!

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

I think it was $125/pp. I did splurge for a caviar tasting and a wine pairing (another $125 for each of those experiences). Then gratuity added. I have had Michelin meals for less than what I paid at Remy and much more enjoyable too. I would not recommend Remy dinner. Either take the $500-600 and eat at a real Michelin restaurant or eat at 3 different local restaurants at one of the local ports.

Previous to this, I had only had Palo Brunch and absolutely adored that, dinner is a different story, especially considering the constant price hikes. It's no wonder that on my 11nt cruise all brunches were booked solid, and dinner was readily available seemingly each night.

I am surprised Disney charges so much for this experience. We’ve never done remy but we do like palo. I am a bit provincial I guess and I just hate spending a lot of money on food. My husband only eats meat and potatoes type food (his favorite cruise food is guy’s burgers on carnival ) and I don’t get very excited about food so it is kind of a waste.