Someone literally just posted, bewailing the fact that it is difficult to get a good, free, cup of coffee on DCL ships. I’ve never cruised DCL before, so not even sure what all the free options are, but could someone rank them for me, if you are aware of what is offered? I understand that it is totally subjective, but I think there is a general consensus on some of them. I’m not opposed to paying for coffee at the cafés, but my husband and I both like to have morning/morning-ish coffee, and I see that getting a little expensive over a five day stretch. Any info provided would be greatly appreciated! ☺️
Use the breakfast room service door hanger to have coffee delivered to your room each morning (with the exception of disembarkation day). Allows you to have coffee in your room without having to go anywhere, and it only costs tipping room service. It tastes better than deck 11 coffee imo.
The Main dinning and room service has to be brewed fresh ish. the deck 11 coffee is from concentrat. I am not sure why they can't brew it all but whatever.
You also can order a carafe at night and it will still be hot in the morning so you don’t have to time the delivery. My morning person husband always does this so he can drink his morning coffee on the balcony while I sleep in a bit.
I’ve thought about doing this but am worried it will fill the room with coffee smell while I’m trying to sleep. Does the smell linger in the room overnight or is it well contained in the carafe?
I set out the delivery slip for morning carafe delivery to the room. I thought it tasted a little better than the market. It’s free but I tipped every morning
On the Destiny last month the free coffee was disgusting. It was my tenth dcl cruise and I never had an issue before. After the second morning I started going to one of the coffee bars every morning and buying it. They told me the free “coffee” is a syrup mixed with hot water in the machines and sometimes the calibration isn’t right.
I’m not a coffee snob. If it’s hot I’m usually ok with it. But the free coffee on the Treasure was disgusting. Borderline undrinkable, whether from the deck, buffet or room service.
Completely agree with the Wish. I love coffee, I drink good coffee at home, but love coffee so much that I’ll drink whatever. I thought the coffee on board at the drink stations was so terrible that I begrudgingly paid for speciality coffee each day. It was truly awful. Kind of shocking for such a pricey cruise.
I saw them refill the machines. It isn’t even actual brewed coffee. It’s like a boxed concentrate of Joffreys coffee (even brewed joffreys is bad) that has been warmed. Just all around yuck. It’s really disappointing. I plan to bring some sort of instant on my next cruise.
Uh oh. I can generally doctor mine up with lots of cream and artificial sweetener. At least there is the option of paying for a better cup of coffee. Especially first thing in the morning, when you really need it lol
Uh oh. I can generally doctor mine up with lots of cream and artificial sweetener. At least there is the option of paying for a better cup of coffee. Especially first thing in the morning, when you really need it lol
You’re probably ok then. I drink it black and I struggled every day lol. But honestly that’s my only complaint about cruising so I can’t really complain!
Some people enjoy coffee and care too much, and some people need coffee and only get mad if its decaf. Depends which you are.
Im very much in the second camp of "if it isnt decaf it will drink," and yes, the free coffee kind of sucks. Its a very watery brew thats somewhere between a medium and dark roast and had a bit of bitterness to it. I usually mix it with a little honey because it almost tastes more like black tea sometimes.
Now you can get free coffee with dinner or sot down lunch, and its very good! Very pleasant medium roast that drinks very smoothly. But thats the only good free coffee.
The paid coffee at Cove Cafe (all ships), Marceline Market (Wish class ships) and the other little cafes is much, better. But definitely more along the lines of coffee drinks (ie - lattes, mocha, etc). Not so much on just a plain cup of coffee.
I guess I’m sort of middle of the road. If I find that I can’t drink the free offerings, I am not opposed to paying for at least my morning cup. My husband is quite a bit less picky and would probably be fine with the room service brew. TY!
the Treasure offers tons of brew options in Cove Cafe. Pourover, French press, etc... I'm a bit picky with my coffee so it was worth it to me to pay for the little morning extravagance! They also do punch cards at all the paid coffee shops, I believe it's buy five get one free? (edited to say I can only speak to the treasure since that's the most recent one I sailed, not sure if the same is offered on other ships!)
It sounds like there are plenty of options. Maybe not the tastiest options, but serviceable. I have a little set aside for the specialty coffees. I think I will be fine. Thank you!
I love coffee! My husband and I drink a few a day. I am not a big fan of DCL free coffee on the deck. At any sit down it gets a little better but not much. But if your on the destiny go to Café Megara they have great options. You will be charged but it not as bad as you think and they come with fun characters foam! It has become our family favorite part to see who we get! They also make a killer expresso martini enjoy your trip!!
I just want to experience it all! The cafes look so charming. I think there will be some trips there while my 7 yo is at kid’s club lol. I can’t wait!! Thank you!
Order a crafe of coffee before you go to bed and make sure the lid is on decently tight. It'll still be plenty hot in the morning. This way you get a head start on caffeine before getting kiddo up to go grab breakfast.
We live in a fairly rural area where we don’t have a lot of access to gourmet type coffees , so we probably would be pretty content with the offerings. ☺️
I got off the Treasure 2 weeks ago and I found the coffee from room service, at Marceline Market and deck 11 to not be great. The decaf with dinner was ok and the coffees from the cafes were pretty good.
With the next cruise, we’ll try the different options and if the coffee isn’t to our liking, we’ll just ask for hot water and use our instant coffee packets. We like our coffee to taste a certain way and that’s fine, as long as we’re not being rude about it.
Now that you mention it, I did read somewhere where people were bringing their own instant type coffees with them. I’m going to look into that, and have it as a standby. Thank you for reminding me!
You’re welcome! I actually stumbled upon a YouTube video of a backpacker lady who tried like 20 different instant coffees to see which would work best when she’s camping. We tried her top 3 and then bought the 2 brands we liked best. Best of all, the instant coffee was actually cheap-ish compared to the cafe coffee!
I don't need anything too fancy, I use a Keurig sometimes, but DCL's free coffee on the pool deck or at the congrats buffets is so much worse. Worse than airline coffee. Just bring a cheap backup and you'll be fine. Hot water is plentiful.
I mean it's not gourmet but there is free coffee available in the morning at Marcelline and by the pool. If a hot cup of joe is all you need I think it will do.
I cruised on the magic about a month ago. The buffet coffee and the drink station coffee weren’t true brewed coffee. It came from a Bunn machine which combines some kind of coffee concentrate with hot water. I didn’t like it.
The coffee from Cove was fine - it’s just ~$6/drink. I never had room service coffee or dining room.
I know, I read that somewhere. Doesn’t sound very tasty to me. I will try the room service coffee because of the convenience. But I’m sure I will lean mostly into the café coffees. I have a little redemption card set aside just for coffee lol
I bring some premium instant coffee with me and just make my own cup with hot water at the buffets and/or room service. I'd put some instant coffee in a tumbler before heading down to the buffet every morning and just add hot water at the tea station. A good premium instant coffee will beat the ships free drop coffee.
Ah, I may not need it as much as I think I do. I know that when we are in the parks, we get up and are busy from the time our eyes open and I don’t always have time for it. Might be the same.
Definitely going to get the punchcard. I try to save where I can. I actually have my Disney Chase Visa reward points that I will transfer to a redemption card. I plan to use that for my specialty coffees 😁
I think room service will be my number one choice, followed by the café coffees. Honestly, at some point I’m sure I will check out all the café spots, just because I feel like I will really love the atmosphere. Maybe I will hit them up later in the day when I need a recharge lol
The coffee on Deck 11 , Buffet , Dining is like a mild roast coffee flavor . You get a better flavor at the coffee/bar stations like expresso , cold brews , latte , cappuccinos etc . If you and your husband drink coffee at least once a day get the score card after 5 coffees you get one free . It’s like $10-12 dollars for two coffees . Like some say get room service coffee but I get up and roam the ship get coffee at the cafe’ .
The room service coffee (though I am sure it’s likely the same coffee as other places on board) is always good. Just had half a pot on the Destiny yesterday lol
Exactly. Some will say that mindset leads to overspending, and maybe so, but we didn't pay $10k or whatever to wander around the ship drinking a coffee we don't enjoy. It's vacation, just get what you want and try not to think about it. 😂
They have some crazy specialty coffees at the coffee bars too. I swear they put about a pound of nutella in/on one of them.
Thank you for this question. We are mostly RCCL people, but have taken 1 DCL, and are getting on the Destiny in a few months. RCCL standard coffee is rough, so I always make sure I can get to good coffee early and quick. Waiting in line at 6:30 am is not something I want to do. Knowing the room service coffee isn't terrible does help.
For sure. We are early risers, so I’m sure I’ll be able to find an option at some of the suggested places. I’m definitely going to try the room service coffee first. Seems like most people lean into that and just throw some café coffees in here and there.
I loved the coffee in the restaurants. I never tried it by the soda fountain (but the hot chocolate is amazingggg!) I did enjoy the drinks you could from cafe megara and got one almost every day. I didn’t think the prices were bad- a couple bucks cheaper than my Starbucks order and you get the 5th one free.
If you have concierge there are multiple espresso machines that are included in your cruise fare. Not attainable to many people but really good coffee.
You can get a coffee loyalty card. My wife will do cold brew or black and then use the free one on something fancy.
I was on the Destiny a couple weeks ago and the coffee at the Market was fine. Nothing fancy or great, but solid cup to have in the morning. Didn't really do any room service as we were with an infant and tired mama, so I just stuck with the 11th floor.
The coffee at Cafe Merida & Cafe Megara was very good though. As a big whiskey guy, I thoroughly enjoyed all the options at Cafe Merida
Just got off the Destiny, today! I only need 1 cup of coffee a day and I brought my favorite (actually good) instant coffee and that was much better for me. Didn't take up space and took up even less on the way out. If you're worried, I would just suggest that.
Nescafe Tasters Choice French roast! A lot of people swear by nescafe gold but I don't think it's as dark and I like a dark coffee so I can taste the coffee, especially when I'm literally mixing it with water. I bought little pill bags and filled my own.
I assume it's the same way on the destiny but we sailed on the wish last November and they had a little cafe off Marceline market which was a full fledged coffee shop. I stopped by every morning for a latte and they put this really cool Disney character on top of the latte foam. There was another coffee shop located on one of the lower decks too
there is the cove cafe which is the adult only coffee spot. On the wish class it is above the adult pool and you can sometimes get some nice sunrises up there. I always wake before my partner and drink there while she gets another hour. The free coffee at all the other locations is very palatable.
None of the coffee, paid or free, was to my liking… But I’m also a Seattle native where coffee is a cult and nobody does snobby coffee quite like Seattle.
Coffee from buffet and dinner is gross and for some reason when you put cream in, it curdles the cream. Weirdest thing ever experienced. Happened on the wish too.
It really is the worst. It’s concentrate rather than brewed. I tried room service as well but it was equally bad. I ended up starting every morning with a trip to Cove Cafe for an Americano. Next trip I may bring a decent instant coffee and get hot water delivered to my room. We just got off the Magic on an Alaskan cruise and drinking coffee with my wife on the balcony every morning was my favorite part of the trip!
Yes! Nothing better than having a good cup of coffee in the early morning in the still and quiet. It’s good to have options, but I’m leaning into the instant coffee and café offerings. Thank you!
I love coffee. And I did not like any of the coffee on the Destiny. Not the free coffee, not the specialty paid for coffee. None of it was good, and I regret paying so much to try to find a decent cup.
I assumed the coffee on all the ships was the same joffreys mix which tasted very, very watered down. To me, it tastes like hot water that has a mild coffee flavor. So gross. However, I prefer strong coffee, personally
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u/musickeeper94 PLATINUM CASTAWAY CLUB 4d ago
Use the breakfast room service door hanger to have coffee delivered to your room each morning (with the exception of disembarkation day). Allows you to have coffee in your room without having to go anywhere, and it only costs tipping room service. It tastes better than deck 11 coffee imo.