Cold food at second seating?

[CapnCrunch]

We just booked last night and have second seating by choice for the first time. I think with our kids being so much older that it will work out great for us.

I'm booked on the Dec 19th-24th Merrytime sailing with my wife/kids/my mom and have already opted for the 2nd seating as well. We have a spread from a toddler to pre-teens to a teenager and this will be theirs (and my mom's) first cruise. We think they'll enjoy having the option of a less crowded pool deck or being in the kids clubs while still giving us time to put the toddler down for a late afternoon nap.

 

[KashasMom]

Hello! Has anyone had the experience of lukewarm or cold food being served at second seating dinner? We had planned to do second seating but heard some reports recently of food being served as barely warm at the later dining. Just wondering if this was a fluke or happens often? I'd prefer late seating but also want fresh, hot meals! Thanks for any insight!

Just back from 5 nights on the Magic - main seating. Not a hot meal the whole trip (7 of us).

 

[Clarkson U]

Hello! Has anyone had the experience of lukewarm or cold food being served at second seating dinner? We had planned to do second seating but heard some reports recently of food being served as barely warm at the later dining. Just wondering if this was a fluke or happens often? I'd prefer late seating but also want fresh, hot meals! Thanks for any insight!

We had that experience since the restart with second seating. Since then we moved to first seating and have not had that happen. It might be server dependent to some degree. In July we had family on second seating on the fantasy and they said some meals hot and some
Meals lukewarm.

 

[Rob1872]

Just back from 5 nights on the Magic - main seating. Not a hot meal the whole trip (7 of us).

Did you say anything to your server or the head server?

 

[CarouselofColor]

I just did a 5 night of the Dream, second seating. On our first night, my soup and entree were lukewarm. On the third night, my appetizer was lukewarm and soup was kind of congealed. Besides that everything was a fine temperature, but it definitely happened more this cruise than any other Disney cruise I’ve been on

 

[KashasMom]

Did you say anything to your server or the head server?

There really were too many issues (every night) to deal with. The temperature of the food was the least of them.

 

[anjuan]

Just off the Dream with second seating and never had any issues with cold food.

 

[delmar411]

Both cruises on the Dream, both second seating, the food was never hot.

It's all pre-made and racked up for grabbing by the servers (think convention food) so that's why I didn't bother to complain. It's not something that the servers have control over.

It's not like a cook is making your food to order. That's not possible for as fast as they pump that food out and get people 2nd and other entrees. It's all likely kept in a hotbox and the temp/freshness all depends on how many guests are ordering an item. The more popular, the fresher your plate is likely to be.

I couldn't even get just a main protein this past cruise. The server brought the whole entree and I took the protein off the plate and he took the rest away. He said that was the easiest and fastest.

MDR food is not for me but with Cabanas closed for dinner, that's really my only option and I like to sit with my family anyway.

 

[flyswatter]

Second serving on Dream this week and nothing came out hot or tasted fresh. Felt like everything was on a hot plate for awhile.

Some of it was inedible and we could see the tables around us were having the same reaction to the same entrees. They offered to swap it out but we never had anything in the MDR that wowed us so we passed.

 

[mollygirl13]

We were on the Fantasy a few weeks ago and had 2nd seating. We party consisted of 2 adults. Our food all week was lukewarm. Nothing came out hot. Our server and asst server were working their tails off as they had 4 tables & were hustling. Not sure if that many tables is normal, too many or what but he was such a wonderful server but seemed so, so busy with the 4 tables he had.
We ate at Palo mid-week which was absolutely fantastic and so we opted to dine at Palo again on our last night because the food was so fresh & wonderful. (Our sever mentioned to us that they had availability on the last night if we wanted to come back again for which we said YES!) Our Palo meals were perfect, the MDR was disappointed the food was lukewarm all week. We have been on 12 DCL cruises and I honestly don't remember the food being served lukewarm before.

 

[RedHead0186]

Just off the Fantasy a couple weeks ago and had second seating. I can't specifically recall getting cold food any night; maybe a couple were more 'lukewarm' than hot, but it never was a huge detriment, so much that I noticed it.

 

[CaseyCruiser]

2nd seating during my Hawai'i cruise in May. The food was hot and very good.

 

[Capt_BJ]

when I started cruising it was

early seating

and

main seating .......

funny how name changes drive preferences .....

but I do realize that for many an 8pm seating is too late for their little ones unless you let the 'club' feed them

 

[gismo1554]

when I started cruising it was

early seating

and

main seating .......

funny how name changes drive preferences .....

but I do realize that for many an 8pm seating is too late for their little ones unless you let the 'club' feed them

Not sure the club has ever fed kids. They used to come and collect kids from the 8pm seating once they had eaten to take to the club but I don't think they specifically provided food

 

[5Texans]

Not sure the club has ever fed kids. They used to come and collect kids from the 8pm seating once they had eaten to take to the club but I don't think they specifically provided food

They do (or at least pre covid did) serve very basic food at lunch and dinner in the club and at scuttles cove. My kids said it was usually two options of sandwiches at lunch and pizza or chicken strips at dinner. They ate there while we did specialty dining/brunch instead of trying to figure out two dinner times.

 

[DynamicDisneyDuo]

I can't recall ever having had anything actually hot except at Palo on any of our cruises. All second seatings. Very warm was about as hot as it gets in our experience and never had to wait for something to cool to eat it. I will say as cool as they keep it in the MDRs, if you aren't the first table to get your food it's probably going to cool a bit waiting for the server to bring it over.

 

[Jsoenning]

I was surprised by the number of responses that echo the OP's question / concern. Maybe it's time we start rating the dining 1 out of 5 stars and add comments that it's not the staff it's the food.

 

[Disneygirlxo91]

I’ve never experienced anything other then lukewarm food in the dining rooms, and I don’t really except the food to be hot honestly they have to prepare so much food, and there’s no way it can be hot. It’s still enjoyable, the food has always been so so in the dining rooms there is nothing I’ve ever been blown away by the seabass is amazing but I’m not blown away by it, we still enjoy some of the dishes we just except it to so so.

 

[brentm77]

Just back from 5 nights on the Magic - main seating. Not a hot meal the whole trip (7 of us).

Did you ask to speak to the head server and ask for it to be corrected? I am pretty easy going as a customer, but for the price of a Disney cruise, it's reasonable to expect warm food and wouldn't be unreasonable to keep sending it back until they get it right.

Also - others here have convinced me that we can no longer give five star survey results to protect our servers, even when we love them. It's that kind of thinking that results in this type of experience. Disney needs to hear the truth. If we all were honest, it would be an even playing field for all servers too.

 

[bakerworld]

We were just on the Wishes and selected 2nd seating. I really enjoyed it. I think it was much more relaxing than the early dinner that we selected the previous 5 cruises. One dinner served a cold, oddly flavored dish which was returned. Other than that, all the servings were the appropriate temperature.