MV Discovery - Food and Dining - B to B+

[SwissMyst]

Recently back from a 6 week Grand Voyage Asia to Africa on the MV Discovery and will report my reactions to the food and dining options.

 

Overall the food was good; with a few deficiencies.

 

BREAKFAST was served in the main dining room with very nice selections. Buffet was available on the Lido deck and early riser self-serve continental items were available in the indoor Yatch Club dining venue, as well as room service.

 

Just about everything one would want for breakfast was available all days. Eggs cooked to order, pre-cooked, ham, bacon, hot side dishes, oatmeal, cold cereals, cold buffet meat items, yogurts, fresh fruit, granolas, excellent baked goods. No complaints at all about the variety and quality of breakfast.

 

LUNCH: Similar set up: main dining room for multi-course selections, room service and Lido buffet. Salad bar, cold meats and salad accompaniments, hot full lunch buffet items, specialty menus on different days (pub, german, asian, etc). Good variety and good quality ingredients. Lousy hamburgers (if you are an American). Ice cream cart for sundaes and cones - pretty good. Usually 4 or so varieties available each day and changing.

 

TEA: (4-5pm) Tea and biscuits in the Palm Court. Full buffet at the Lido with a sandwich bar and variety of desserts, specialities and scones. Unlike many cruise ships, the desserts often tasted as good as they looked.

 

DINNER: Varied and nicely presented four courses, with meat, fish and pasta choices for entrees. A full four course vegetarian option. Sugar-free (but artificially sweetened) and gluten-free dessert options. Ice cream and sorbets always available, of differing flavors.

 

Appetizers often quite good, sometimes average, soups universally excellent both hot and cold, entrees good except for meat quality too often lacking in flavor, tenderness and menu descriptions which were enticing but not well-executed for the initial descriptive promise. This was the single dining disappointment.

 

Portion size was very sensible and half-size was always available by request which in fact was a even better option due to all the day's accumulated eating, as well as the basically disappointing execution of the main course.

 

LATE BUFFET: Very enticing array of finger foods and hot appetizer items but late hour after busy days and full schedule eatings through out the day left little room for this very lovely offering of both sweets and savories.

 

ROOM SERVICE: Major deficiency. You had to pick from the day's menu which meant you had to go view the menu first at the dining room entrance and then order from that, which did not work if you were feeling sick in your room.

 

Only that day's menu items could be ordered and there was no "sick tummy" type menu or stock items except what were "always available" on the menus (minute steak, chicken breast, salmon, baked potato, ceasar salad).

 

The worst part is that they would only be delivered after the start of each dining room sitting so these could not be ordered at random when the need/desire arose. However, when delivered they were nicely presented and enjoyable.

 

24 HOUR COFFEE/TEA/HOT CHOCOLATE SELF-SERVICE - Lido deck. DH is a critical coffee fan and claimed the MV Discovery coffee on the Lido deck was the best he ever tasted. I loved the variety of teas - good quality English teas.

 

 

LONG CRUISES: There was never a feeling of repeated dinner menus though the Lido buffet items were repetitive, but there was so much variety this was not an issue. What became increasingly oppresive was the lack of a flexible, evening "light" dining option. It was the formal dining room four course or the limitations of room service, or else. Plan accordingly.

 

Formal dining room evening dining was a delightful part of the cruise experience and would always be welcome on shorter cruises, but it did become an unwelcome daily requirement on a long cruise.

 

Ideally on the longer cruises, for me I would have preferred taking a larger lunch and then having some lighter, less formal options for the evening. Some took to preparing a good sandwich at the 4-5pm tea for later "dinner" dining in lieu of going to the formal dining room.

 

YATCH CLUB SPECIALTY DINING (No extra charge, but limited reservations to one per week): Some dining menus themes were more successful than others. Both the Jazz (contemporary French) and the SE Asian menus were excellent. The Asian less so and the Italian (tried twice) was downright awful.

 

Nor did the African menu look particularly appealing which was over-booked by the time we tried to make reservations so not sure this was an unfortunate missed opportunity for us or not.

 

The concept is nice, but the Italian menu needs to be totally reworked ..... or avoided.

 

Overall, I would give the MV Discovery a B to a B+ for dining.

 

I give them an A for their excellent baked bread items. This is a real plus for me and they never failed to deliver. Simple, fresh baked breads and sweet butter can go a long way keeping me happy, regardless of other menu choices. And this was always a good option on my bad sea days.

 

And as noted, a good solid F for the Yatch Club Italian night.

 

Its primary weakness are the main course entrees only, but even with these rarely living up to the promise of the menu description you will never feel hungry for the rest of the day's dining options and if you do, just wait it out for the late night buffet to get your last goodies of the day. And maybe 3 out of 7 entrees a week were very good. But 4 out of 7 were undistinguished. You never knew which ones. Think cafeteria food or chain restaurant food for the main course items and you will get the idea - okay if you just want food, but not great if you expect to dine well each and every night. And sometimes you will. Just be prepared for the uneveness of the quality - or maybe the unfortunate eveness of the blandness.

 

One could dream for a better room service option, but this is a functional ship and not one that is there to pamper your every individual need. If you know and accept this ahead of time, you can work around this. I appreciate this is a high staff intensive service and not something to be expected on this cruise line. Just welcomed; but not expected.

 

But I did miss my anytime club sandwich that I have come to expect on more typical cruise lines room service. MV Discovery is not a typical cruise line, and god love them for that.

 

One simple suggestion is to add a little more tart to their sauces with vinegars or lime juices to bring up their flavors and make them zing a bit. One could request a dose of vinegar and/or hot sauce at dinner and finish off these items to their own tastes. In retrospect, i am sorry I did not avail myself of this option because things were never bad, just not all that appealing sometime and a little boost to the basics would have gone a long way.

 

Service in all dining venues was friendly and professional. Dining was always a very pleasant experience. Passengers welcomed dressing up, even on "casual night" and it had the highest proportion of men in tuxes on formal nights I have have seen on any cruise line.

 

The brand of ginger beer (not just ginger ale) would change throughout the trip, but was always good. Always a good option to keep that sea tummy in order so it was good they had robust flavor choice brands.

[im-a-going]

We will be on Discovery for the first time beginning April 28 and will be with her for 29 nights. Your review here, and the other on cabins are both helpful. Your descriptions are broad and detailed, and you present both good and not-so-good points. Thanks for taking the time for this.

Best wishes for good expeirences with all your future trips.

[SwissMyst]

Bumping up this thread for the new poster who wanted more information about the MV Discovery.

[comcox]

I wanted to thank you for your several postings on this ship as we were just looking at a possible 2011 cruise on MV Discovery. Your insights were very helpful.

[SwissMyst]

I wanted to thank you for your several postings on this ship as we were just looking at a possible 2011 cruise on MV Discovery. Your insights were very helpful.

 

Thank you. I did this primarily because I could find so little practical information about Discovery, let alone pictures of shipboard life besides what little was available from the company or Cruise Critic member reviews which often were more itinerary oriented than the day to day details of life onboard.

 

Since they offer many excellent long cruise possibilities, I wanted more information about what it was like to be on the Discovery for a long period of time rather than where it was going -- which is always terrific.

 

I still think about it often and now we are over a month back home and I miss our daily routines a lot. (My late bout with sea sickness is now fading from the memory banks :p)

 

It was the most enriching travel experience we have ever had. The one thing I would have wanted changed, and apparently I missed totally was finding out exactly what was available for room service. Be sure and check on that if you are in for a long cruise or simply want a less structured dinner alternative.

 

Yes, we miss our Discovery days a lot.

[SwissMyst]

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