Dining is one thing that's on everybody's mind when they're booking a cruise. For this video we focused on dinners! We'll go over everything from rotational dining, tipping your wait staff, table sharing and more!
On the Disney Ships they have a routine called rotational dining. Instead of showing up to the restaurant every night, you rotate between the three different dining rooms on the ship. The restaurants are a little different depending on what ship you're on:
Royal Court is the restaurant located in the main lobby of the Fantasy and the Dream
Enchanted Garden is also located on the Fantasy and the Dream.
Animators Palate is a restaurant that can be found on all four of Disney's ships.
Lumiere's is the 'Royal Court' of the Disney Magic.
While the Wonder has their fancier restaurant, Tritons.
Formerly, Parrot Cay, the Disney Magics third dinner area is Carioca's.
The Disney Wonder still has Parrot Cay
Your Key to the World Card has your dining rotation schedule and table number.
The dinner rotational dining schedule for the card above is:
Royal Court (R)
Animators Palate (A)
Enchanted Garden (E)
Your card also shows the assigned dining time (6:00 P.M. or 8:15 P.M) as well as your table number (36).
One restaurant you attend twice (7 nights.. only three dining rooms). On the morning you debark the ship you attend breakfast wherever you ate the last night. Cabanas is also an option for breakfast as well.
Your waiters also follow you around to each of the restaurants so they will get to know you quite well over the week.
If you choose to go to the restaurant's nightly a predetermined gratuity for the waiter, assistant waiter, and head server will all be added to your final bill. You’re allowed to hit up guest services and adjust it to pay them more or less if you wish. Wine and alcohol are also not included in dinners. All other drinks are though! Including soda.
The dinner menus are laid out the same every evening and generally go like this:
Bread is always on the table (specialty bread the first three nights, then it's just rolls)
4-5 Appetizer options
3-4 soups and salads
6-8 Main course selections
4-6 Dessert options
Every menu has the same 'lighter fare' offerings that are the same throughout the entire week. They have also included vegetarian options and no sugar added desserts.
There is one evening in Animators Palate where there is a condensed menu. This is because they have an interactive 'show' this night and like to have all your food out as soon as possible by the time it starts.
If you don't want to attend the restaurants you can easily go to the quick stop food places up on deck 9. Cabanas, the buffet, is not open buffet style for dinner. It's turned into a mini restaurant so you do have servers and you are offered similar options to what they are serving in the main dining locations.
Our famiy always attends the resturants and we would encourage you to as well! Even though you do have to tip at the end of the week:
You get a chance to interact with your servers, they are the best! On all the cruises we've been on we have never been disappointed with our assigned wait staff. They're very entertaining, even though we don't have children at our table. If you're going on another cruise you can request a server you've had in the past.
Also, adults have the option of having the kids club members come pick up their children during dinner. If you have young kids who would rather play then sit down for a nice meal this service is perfect for your family. When you come to dinner the servers will bring our your children dinner very quickly and then the kids club crew come down and take your kids to go play in the club and you are free to take your time and enjoy dinner.
Finally, there is amazing theming in the restaurants. It's a great Disney atmosphere in all of them and you won't be disappointed. In Animators Palate there's plenty going on. The first night you're eating there Crush from Finding Nemo comes on TV screens all around to interact with families and play games. They also show scenes from movies while pictures light up around the room. The second night you create your own animated character and they'll bring it to life at the end of your meal.
Table Sharing
Table sharing is not as big on Disney as it is on other ships, although it still happens. If you're traveling as a part of 2 you can expect to be sharing your table. Most tables are designed to sit 4-6 people with some pushed together for larger parties.
Dining Times
Early dining begins at 615 while late dining is at 815. Doors open at 6 and 8. People begin lining up 15 minutes before and are super antsy to get in! If you show up right at your dining time or a few minutes later you'll be able to head right to your seat with no crowds. You should be curteous to the staff and not show up too late, however.
If you don't have young children in your part expect the later time. We were first assigned late dining on our 4th cruise and thought it wouldn't work for us, and we were proved wrong. We've actually decided we enjoy the later time more. If you don't want to go to the show that night then the boat is a ghost town and it's a great time to be up on deck. We usually grab a snack around 5 and it holds us over until dinner.
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