Disney Dream Cruise Dining Rooms

Disney Cruise Line offers a wonderful dining experience which is unlike any other dining experience at sea. There are three fabulous dining rooms that you rotate through called Animator’s Palate, The Royal Palace, and Enchanted Garden. Your dining room servers will always remain the same since they rotate with you. Each dining room has a different theme and menu and not only is it the best cruise food we’ve ever had but also the best service.

The dining rooms serve 4,000 people a night, thus the food is not on par with Ruth’s Chris or any fine dining establishment. Like all cruise lines, this is catering food and let me say that it is excellent catering food.

I have severe IBS and my husband is the pickiest texture eater you’ll ever meet but we have always found food options that were very satisfying. At each dining room, the food is free and all beverages such as soda, tea, coffee, juice, and milk are free. On the menu you’ll see some special mixed or blended drinks, but these are not free.

Dining times are 5:45pm or 8:15pm and you must select either early or late dining when you book your cruise. If you are child-free, you might want to select the later dining time as there will be fewer children in the dining room. It is possible to change your dining time but this can only be done on the first day of the cruise at the assigned location and time that is announced.

If you show up for dinner early or right on time, there will be a line at the door but when doors open, the line moves quickly. Servers gather at the front entrance and will escort you to your table.

ATTIRE

Most people dress nicely but not too dressy and not too casual. Disney has recently begun allowing shorts in the dining room but only a small amount of lazy people take advantage of it. Women usually wear nice sundresses and men often wear slacks and a polo top. There is one optional formal night but most people don’t bother dressing in formal attire and those who do stick out like a sore thumb.

TABLE MATES

If you are a child-free couple, you’ll be sitting with 3 other child-free couples who are close to your age and your table mates remain the same for the duration of the cruise. (If you are a party of 3, you’ll be seated with another party of 3. If you are a party of 4 or more, you get your own table.) For the most part, the other child-free couples you are seated with are friendly but forced conversation is always awkward so after a handful of Disney cruises, we have begun requesting a table to ourselves when we book our cruise. What is nice about sitting alone is that we can begin ordering as soon as we sit down and our food comes at quickly. When you are seated with other people, you can’t begin ordering until everyone assigned to the table has arrived and the servers bring out each course only once everyone at the table has finished the previous course.

SERVICE

Servers on the Disney Dream are the friendliest, most professional severs you’ll ever meet. In fact, we have always found that they provide far better service than the servers in Palo which is the fancy restaurant you must pay for. You really get to know your servers since they travel with you to each dining room and they go above and beyond to ensure you have a fantastic dining experience.

Feel free to order as much as you want. If you fancy 2 appetizers and 2 desserts, do it! The servers will never look at you like you’re a piggy or a weirdo. And if you order something you don’t care for, the servers are happy to bring you something different.

DINING ROTATION

Each dining room has a different menu which reflects the theme of the restaurant and the servers even have a different style outfit for each restaurant. If you are on a 3 night cruise, you’ll visit each dining room once. When you look at your Key to the World Card, you’ll see your dining rotation in capitalized letters. For example, a 3 night cruise might look like REA. These letters represent the order in which you’ll visit each dining room. R stands for Royal Palace. E stands for Enchanted Garden. A stands for Animators Palate. On longer cruises, you’ll visit the dining rooms more than once.

It is possible to change your dining rotation if you want to be sure to visit your favorite dining room more often or if you don’t want to miss your favorite dining room on the night you dine at Palo or Remy. Doing this must be done on the first day of the cruise at the assigned location and time that is announced. Disney always tries their best to accommodate your wishes.

On Pirate Night, no matter which dining room you are assigned to, there will be a special Pirate Menu. Dressing up for Pirate Night is encouraged and while some people wear their pirate outfits to dinner, others prefer to get dressed up after dinner for the Pirate Night Party.

ANIMATOR’S PALATE

This is our favorite dining room because it’s the only one that creates a truly magical experience. Crush from Finding Nemo swims around from screen to screen and will stop to have an actual conversation with different tables. We also love this dining room because it’s our favorite menu.

Baked Potato and Cheddar Cheese Soup. My husband likes this soup so much that he orders two!

Black Truffle Pasta Purseittes. This is my favorite dish on the whole cruise.

Pennete Bolognese.

Lemon-Thyme Marinated All Natural Chicken Breast. Very tender and tasty.

Cookies & Cream Sundae. My husband had fallen in love with the Strawberry Shortcake Sundae from the main dining room we had eaten in the night before and our server surprised him with it!

ENCHANTED GARDEN

This dining room offers what we feel to be the weakest menu because we don’t care for any of the appetizers, however the entrees are very tasty and satisfying. Occasionally, we’ll skip this venue and instead dine at Cabana’s buffet or order room service. Most often, the breakfast buffet is held in this room so if you skip Enchanted Garden to eat elsewhere for dinner, you can still visit it for breakfast to see what it looks like in person.