I'm a regular visitor to the Disney Parks and can tell you from experience that there is good park pizza, and not so good park pizza.
An example of good pizza would be at Via Napoli Ristorante in EPCOT. Not so good, would be a walk up quick service option like PizzeRizzo at Disney's Hollywood Studios.
Therefore, I was quite curious as to what the pizza was like on Disney Cruise Lines. I got a chance to find out for myself in early September when I set sail on the Disney Dream for a 3 day Bahama cruise. Here's what I found..
Pizza w/a view of the Miami skyline
Once we boarded the ship and took a few pictures, we made a beeline to the buffet for lunch. I immediately grabbed a couple slices and sat down to do my first taste test. I chose a cheese slice and another sporting basil and tomato.
They were good looking slices for sure, and tasted decent. However, I just couldn't get past the crust. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. I could tell it was a frozen dough that could have benefited from a longer cook time.
However it was day one of the cruise, with a couple thousand people swarming the buffet, so I decided to shift my focus to the seafood section. I planned a proper pizza review the next day, at the dedicated pizza place onboard called 'Luigi's'.
Flo's V-8 Cafe. Midship on Deck 11
where Luigi's is located
I gave Luigi's an hour to push some pizzas through the oven, and hit them up when the lunch rush was in full effect. I did this so as to get some piping hot slices fresh from the oven.
I thought the pizza I ate the previous day simply may have been rushed, and was hoping these slices would get a longer cook time for the sake of the crust.
Once again, they were good looking slices. The cheese had some nice leopard spotting to it, the end crust had more browning than the previous day's slices, and they smelled great.
I ordered one pepperoni and one chicken & BBQ slice. I took them for a short one minute walk around the corner, to the adults only section of the ship to review my slices in peace and quiet.
Confirming what I already knew, next to the pizza assembly station in the kitchen was a stack of frozen pizza dough discs.
The kitchen staff was tirelessly spreading sauce and adding fresh ingredients like a fine tuned machine. I was very hopeful that these slices would be great, but upon sampling them, I immediately had déjà vu.
Again, the crust just wasn't doing it for me.
Soft and pliable pizza crust
Pizza ovens capable of 'bringing the heat'
I took a peek behind the buffet to see what kind of ovens the kitchen was utilizing. They were deck ovens, perfectly capable of baking some great pizzas.
I wondered why all the pizza slices I had sampled up to this point had the same crust consistency. I even tried a couple more slices on the third day of my cruise, and they were exactly like previous slices I ate.
Disney does everything for a reason, so I knew there had to be an explanation for the pizza cook times across pizza stations on the ship.
One afternoon, I saw tons of kids walking from the pizza window to the pool. They were carrying pizza slices on plates, by hand, and in their mouths. That's when it hit me.
Of course the kitchen can't be serving up blistering hot pizza to go! Thousands of kiddies onboard would be blistering their mouths at every turn.
And believe me when I say there is a steady stream of kids, day and night walking up to grab pizza. In the end, I totally get why there has to be a compromise like this.
Other than the crust, I really had no other problems with the pizza I ate. The sauce was decent, the cheese was of good quality, and all the toppings were fresh and full of flavor.
It really is a shame they can't get the crust to a higher heat, as it would taste so much better and have a great texture. The Chicken & BBQ slice was super tasty, and would have been unreal on a thin or crispy cracker crust.
So while this pizza won't be mistaken for freshly stretched and tossed authentic pie, it will do just fine when a snack attack of the pizza kind hits. Plus, I can't deny how incredibly awesome it is to have pizza instantly available to you whenever you like.
Imagine for a moment enjoying the following activities on a Disney Cruise ship:
- Taking in the Miami skyline
- Relaxing on an easy chair facing the sea
- Lounging by the pool
- Watching fireworks at sea
- Enjoying free room service
I did all of these on the Disney Dream and had pizza at my fingertips while doing so!
To be perfectly honest, pizza was the very least of what I ate on this cruise. Day after day, we enjoyed incredible dining experiences, all which left very little time to even eat pizza. However, I powered through and found a way to squeeze my slices in.
I'm not sure if the pizza styles vary from ship to ship in the Disney fleet, but I do believe I'm going to make it my mission to personally find out. I see another Disney cruise in my future, and when it happens, I will report back here with my findings.
If you have eaten Disney Cruise Line Pizza, give us your thoughts in the comment section. Also, if there are any other cruise line pizzas I should know about, by all means feel free to share that info as well!
