Dining with Disney

More of our adventures on our recent cruise.

One of the best aspects of cruising with Disney Cruise Line (DCL) is the food. OMG, what a banquet! Breakfast and lunch were buffets. Miles of food lines. Maybe not quite “miles.” It just seemed that way. Anything you want and as much as you want. Cereal, waffles, eggs, bacon, sausage, hash, fresh fruit, pancakes, oatmeal, and so much more. Did I mention pastries? Cinnamon rolls, donuts, danishes, croissants. The latter was one of the grandkids’ favorites.

Lunch wasn’t just sandwich makings, although you could get that, too. Stir-fry, wraps (grandson, who doesn’t like fish, loved the tuna wrap), salad bar, fresh fruit, peel-and-eat shrimp, pizza, hamburgers, a dessert bar that rivaled the salad bar in length.

Disney does rotational dining for dinner. You rotate through three restaurants, and your wait staff rotates with you. Each dining room has a different flair. International cuisine and plain fare. Lite and vegetarian meals. Daughter has a dairy allergy, and the staff made sure she had very tempting meals, even a dairy-less cake. I loved the night we had lobster. After indulging too much (maybe?) on the shrimp at lunch, Hubs stuck with steak, fearing that his gout would act up if he went for the lobster. Beverages were unlimited. On the second night, our server (with a great memory) immediately brought Hubs his iced tea and my ginger ale. Son-in-law had ordered a wine package, so a different wine was brought to the table each night. The servers interacted well with the kids, treating them as adults, really listening to them.

Daughter had a rule for the kiddies on the trip. Each day they had to try three new things, not necessarily food. Since accounting time occurred at dinner, they did try different foods. G’daughter liked the crab but not shrimp. G’son tried and didn’t like salmon. He liked one of the dessert options on the adult menu, though. The triple treat. Three different desserts—petit four size. A triangle of cheesecake, a square of something yummy, and a rectangle of chocolate. If he tried a bite of each one, he got his three new things. No dummy, that kid.

As much as I enjoyed the appetizers, salads, and main courses, the desserts were my favorite. I thought the lava chocolate cake was the best until we had a chocolate soufflé. I thought I died and went to heaven. For g’daughter, it was the Mickey ice cream bar. Mickey’s head on a stick, covered with hard chocolate and sprinkles (which one of our servers called sparkles). G’son loved the Han Solo in Carbonite bar. Hubs liked all the desserts.

DCL has two special adult-only dining rooms. According to Hubs, that was the best part. (All the noise in the regular dining rooms made him a bit of a cranky-pants.) Although I enjoyed the dining rooms. Disney means kids and kids make noise. But this restaurant was a real treat. That’s where we had the chocolate soufflé.

All day long, you could get food, munchies, and beverages. Hubs liked the self-serve soft ice cream. Since the Caribbean is hot, it’s important to drink plenty of liquids. By bringing my own cup, I had ice water all day. I could have had juice or soda, too. One of the cutest novelty items was a BB-8 cup. Cute but difficult to handle.

Only on the last day did we find out about the midnight snack bar. Not that we needed anything more to eat. For those who wanted beverages of the alcohol type, small kiosks were strategically positioned, especially near the pools.

If you didn’t want to hit any of the dining rooms, there was always room service. For our family, dinner was the only time we all got together.

When I first realized our stateroom was in the very back of the boat, I cringed. Turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Walking the length of the ship after each meal helped use up some of the calories from all that scrumptious food.

The finishing touch was the foil-wrapped chocolates on the bed at night.

Disney sure does food well.