Let’s Discuss Disney Cruise Line Dining

Today, I’m going to tell you a quick story that some of you already know, at least in broad strokes.

Then, I’ll tell you why I’m more impressed with Disney than ever.

So, let’s discuss all the joys of Disney Cruise Line dining, which somehow just satisfied me, an impossible customer.

A Quick Bio

In May 2024, my life took a turn for the worse. I started having chest pains – I’m fine – and headed to my doctor.

While there, I took and promptly failed an EKG. So, my doctor promptly sent me across the street to the emergency room.

When I arrived there, the first thing they did was give me an EKG, which I promptly failed again.

Life gets real when you fail two EKGs in an hour. I spent the next three nights in the hospital, and that wasn’t the worst part.

Seemingly overnight, my diet shrunk from “I can eat food” to “My doctor says I can’t have any of that.” It was rough.

Nearly a year later, I’m 25 pounds lighter and have a pretty good idea what caused the random health crisis.

Thankfully, the issue wasn’t my heart, and my prognosis is so good that I’m done with doctor’s appointments. One statement remains true, though. My dietary options are terrible!

So, when Disney offered me a spot on a media cruise, my immediate answer wasn’t yes. It was more along the lines of, “Umm…”

Once I relayed my situation to Disney, they thoughtfully indicated that they could handle all my dietary restrictions.

Thus, I just finished my first Disney cruise, which was legitimately love at first sight.

And I’m here to tell you that the dining was nothing short of life-affirming.

I’m not being the least bit hyperbolic when I say that it’s the best I’ve eaten in a calendar year.

Flo’s Café

Disney Cruise Line (DCL) dining comes in three primary forms.

The primary options are the buffets, where you will usually eat breakfast and lunch.

You will also participate in rotational dining at dinner each night.

Think of these experiences as the equivalent of nicer Table Service meals at Disney theme parks.

DCL includes rotational dining meals

Flo’s Café is right by the main pool and offers many basic options like burgers, chicken tenders, sandwiches, and pizza.

This open-air space can be a bit congested since it’s a highly trafficked part of the cruise ship.

For this reason, we only ate a couple of things at Flo’s Café during our trip.

That’s not a knock on the restaurant, as what we had was perfectly adequate.

Cabanas

What we preferred instead was to visit Cabanas, the giant oval-shaped restaurant akin to an Indy car racetrack.

In broad strokes, Cabanas covered the entire floor of our cruise ship. That’s a modest exaggeration, but it’s accurate enough.

The remarkable part of Cabanas is that Disney has designed it as a series of blocks.

When you don’t like the food on one block, you just keep walking until the next one.

Due to the massive scale of this restaurant, you’ll find basically every food you’ve ever seen at a buffet…and some you haven’t.

Here’s a video of what you’ll find at breakfast:

And here’s one for lunch:

Believe it or not, they’re not even showing everything. I found myself thinking that Cabanas could cure world hunger.

Our meals here were exquisite exercises in my trying everything I haven’t been able to eat for a year.

The setup here is remarkable. You find a table – which can admittedly be a challenge – and sit down to eat.

Drink refill stations are seemingly never more than 20 feet away, and you don’t even need to take your plates.

Cast Members will do that for you. So, you just sit there and stare out the window, admiring the ocean view.

Some tables are outside if you’d prefer a mild breeze while you dine. And it’s such a peaceful experience.

Enchanted Garden

MickeyBlog’s Cassie Agundes recently explained how rotational dining works on the Disney Treasure.

DCL’s Triton-class ships, the newest ones, have introduced the “dinner and a show” concept.

Experiences like Plaza de Coco and Worlds of Marvel add mini-movies or live performances to the dining experience.

On the older cruise ships, you’re really just there for the food and the ambiance, which is plenty, I swear.

During your cruise, you’ll dine at a different restaurant each night. However, your servers will remain the same.

They rotate with the restaurants, thereby preventing you from having to explain your preferences multiple times.

This clever setup guarantees the highest quality service delivered efficiently.

I’ll go ahead and throw in that we tipped very well because our service was exemplary.

Since ours was a media event, Disney would have paid them a set fee anyway.

We wanted our servers to understand how much we admired and respected their job performances. So, we paid quite a bit extra.

I mention this because cruise tipping is a whole big thing on social media, but the point is that Disney servers are the best.

As for the restaurants, we started with Enchanted Garden, an idyllic setting inspired by the Gardens of Versailles.

Nothing could disrupt our calm in this tranquil setting, although one cranky customer at a nearby table tried to Karen.

As for the food, the bread service was disappointing, but that’s because the server misunderstood my dietary concerns.

I got hard rolls, and I’m not French enough ever to enjoy those. But the rest of the meal was exquisite.

More importantly, the setting relaxed us totally, a recurring theme.

Royal Palace

On our second night, we had what I expected to be our favorite meal of the trip.

At the time, I couldn’t imagine anything surpassing it, although the following night’s restaurant did.

The theming of Royal Palace celebrates Disney Princesses, which you’ll notice in subtle and overt ways.

The subtle signs are visible when you stare at the central chandelier, which features a quartet of Cinderella slippers.

Throughout the restaurant, you’ll notice other stylistic touches reminding you of Aurora, Belle, and Snow White.

Some will jump out at you while others will require your full attention to notice.

My wife and I sat side by side at our table here and people-watched throughout the meal.

This is one of my fondest memories of my first cruise to the point that the food bordered on irrelevant.

However, I’d be remiss if I failed to mention the deep-fried brie here, as it’s a decadent dish.

As for my entrée, I ordered something off the menu here. So, it wouldn’t apply other than to say that you can do this.

In fact, some dishes like vegan Indian entrees are only available if you think to ask your server.

So, always be on the lookout for unique opportunities while dining on your Disney cruise. The menus are much deeper than you know.

Palo

As mentioned, this was a media cruise, which means I was technically an invited guest of Disney.

I think you know me enough by now to realize that won’t influence my commentary any.

Still, it’s relevant in the Palo discussion as my wife and I were at least vaguely celebrating our 20^th anniversary.

Technically, that event doesn’t happen for another three weeks, but we’d planned to take a Disney cruise for our anniversary.

Some kindly folks at Disney found out and treated this cruise as our anniversary.

One of them, a pro’s pro, was sitting in the vestibule at Palo when we entered.

The hostess called her table first. So, in an act of immeasurable thoughtfulness, she walked over to where we were standing.

Using a voice that the Palo staff was sure to hear, she said, “Happy anniversary, you two.”

From that point forward, we were made men with Palo’s staff.

They made sure to make our anniversary dinner unforgettable. And it was.

More about Palo

This meal featured unquestionably THE best food I’ve ever had during a Disney dining experience. I’m not being hyperbolic, ever.

As a picky eater, I rarely clean my plate even in the best of times.

At Palo, I all but licked my plate repeatedly throughout the 90-minute meal presentation.

Even better, the view at Palo overlooks the ocean. Virtually all the tables overlook the starboard part of the ship.

So, you’re staring out the window at the majesty of the high seas throughout the meal. It’s hypnotic and serene.

As for the service, we learned the life story of the Cast Member, as well as his intention to propose soon.

We’re oddly invested in his love life now, as we bonded that much throughout the meal.

He was delighted to learn that some couples can stay together for 20+ years.

His sincerity and earnestness throughout the meal accentuated the intimate mood at Palo.

As an FYI, Palo costs $50 per person, which we fully intended to pay. However, Disney comped us for the exemplary meal.

For that and the Disney media member’s random act of kindness, I will always be grateful.

Still, I consider Palo exceptional value at $50 per person.

We’d happily pay that much to eat here regularly if it were at a Disney park.

Animator’s Palate

On our final evening, we ate at Animator’s Palate, a play on words.

Before I get to that, I should mention something vital about rotational dining.

Many cruises last more than four days. On such trips, the restaurants update their menus during your return visit.

Technically, this didn’t apply to us during a four-night cruise, though.

Since we ate at Palo one night, our menu at the other restaurants had no reason to change since we never duplicated dining.

As for Animator’s Palate, you can safely think of this meal as Turtle Talk with Crush at sea.

All the tables in the restaurant reside near digital screens, Crush and his friends will approach your table to converse.

Well, I should say that there’s a chance of it. We never spoke with the wizened turtle from Finding Nemo.

He spoke with a couple of kids at tables near us instead, which, as an introvert, I appreciated.

Still, the whole thing was great fun, as everyone laughed throughout the meal. Also, by this point, my server had long since deduced that I prefer soft rolls.

He conscientiously started microwaving them to make sure they were buttery soft.

Finally, my lone dining recommendation from the entire meal is that you simply must order the pork chop here. It’s ambrosia.

Ranking the Restaurants

I feel a bit silly ranking the various restaurants, but I know that many of you will expect it.

Please remember that I’m the core opposite of a foodie. Also, I’m a shameless tourist of the highest order.

So, the meal experience usually matters to me more than the food.

Keeping that in mind, Palo is obviously the winner here. Thus far, I’ve eaten every Disney fine dining experience except Victoria & Albert’s.

None of them could compare to Palo, where the only things better than the food were the service and the view.

This was a perfect meal across the board and one we’ll long remember.

My next-favorite meal occurred at Royal Palace, which was a magical night for us.

Then, I’d slightly favor Animator’s Palate for its laughter over the tranquility of Enchanted Garden.

Both embody the finest in family dining, though. There’s honestly no bad choice here.

In fact, I’ll add that even though I adored all these experiences, I didn’t really need any of them.

My wife and I could have happily eaten all of our meals at Cabanas and had the time of our lives.

Just for the convenience and infinite satisfaction of it, Cabanas might actually be our favorite as the populist choice. 

Honestly, everything we’ve ever heard about DCL dining undersells its greatness.

We dined like royalty throughout our cruise and have often spoken wistfully of the trip since our return.

I recently stated that we are cruise people now, and the perfection of the dining experience is a big reason why.

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Feature Photo: Disney