If you've ever been to any of the Disney theme parks, you've experienced some of those extra touches. Now imagine these touches applied to a cruise and multipy it times 100 - and this is what sailing with Disney is all about.
For instance -- dining onboard the Disney Magic or the Disney Wonder. Not just a dinner, not even just an exquisite dinner....but an event.
We sailed on the Wonder in 2004 and the Magic in 2005 and discovered that they are identical ships, so the dining rooms are the same with the exception of the formal dining room on each -- on the Magic it is called Lumiere's and on the Wonder it is called Triton's.
Lumiere's features French cuisine and has a beautiful rose theme - which follows the Beauty and the Beast story.
Triton's was inspired by the Little Mermaid, of course, and has an art deco style with a beautiful 'under the sea' mosaic on one wall.
When you dine on a Disney ship, you rotate dining rooms nightly. What this means is that you are assigned a specific restaurant for each night so you get to take turns in each one. You have a wait staff that is assigned to your family and this wait staff also rotates with you. Thus, each night your preferred drink is brought to your table since your waiter remembers what you usually order. My daughter, Amy, always found not one, but two, glasses of cold chocolate milk at her plate at each dinner!
The girls with our waiters on the Magic: Johnathan and Pieroj, at Lumiere's --
Over our Thanksgiving cruise, we had the best rotation ever. There are over 1,000 passengers onboard each ship, so not everyone has the same rotation, obviously. I felt we were so lucky to dine at Parrot Cay on Pirate's Night and on Thanksgiving, we were in Lumiere's (which also coincided with formal night).
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I'll start with Animator's Palate restaurant which happens to be my favorite. Now 'palate' also can be spelled 'palette' -- and both of these spellings would apply to this restaurant. It features many of Disney's most loved films and this restaurant literally comes to life while you dine. As you begin your meal, everything is black and white - the walls, the giant paintbrushes and palettes in the center of the room, the waiters' vests. But with each course (and the music is synchronized to change with each course), a bit more color appears. There are framed portraits on the walls and if there is a song playing from say - the Lion King - only the portraits featuring Lion King characters will light up in full color. As the dinner goes on, more and more color is added until dessert - when even the waiters' vests are in full rainbow hues instead of the plain black and white. Animator's Palate is a true experience!
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The very tropical Parrot Cay restaurant:
Parrot Cay is a very brightly colored, tropical restaurant featuring a lot of bamboo and green leafy designs, pinks, oranges and a live steel drum band playing Caribbean music. The food is also Caribbean themed and so delicious! I forgot to mention that all the waiters perform in each restaurant every night (after they are finished serving) and in Parrot Cay they encourage everyone to join them in a Conga line around the room. We ate at Parrot Cay on Pirate Night which was so appropriate. I'll talk more about Pirate Night later, but in a nutshell - it was a night celebrating Pirates in the Caribbean - so dining in the Caribbean restaurant was perfect that evening.
Pirate Night at Parrot Cay:
The third restaurant, as I briefly mentioned, is either Lumiere's or Triton's (depending on the ship you are on). On the Disney Magic it is Lumiere's - I don't think I've ever dined in a more luxurious and beautiful setting. It is French cuisine (and David even tried escargot), and just extremely posh. The chandeliers have the little rosebuds inside them -- these little touches are all around. Here's a photo of one of the chandeliers, although you can't see the rosebud it is inside the very bright area:
And Triton's is equally luxurious with an art deco style. You are dining 'under the sea' which may or may not be a good thing to think about while you are on a cruise ship - but anyway, who doesn't love the Little Mermaid? I just loved the huge mosaic of Ariel and also the beautiful blues and greens in this restaurant.
Now since there are three main dining rooms, you do get to visit each one twice during a week long cruise. Or you can opt for casual dining at Topsider's or Beach Blanket Buffet. At these dining rooms you can take your tray outside and sit at the rear deck, watching the ocean churning behind the ship. There are not many things I can think of that are more relaxing than just watching the ocean go by, especially in the Caribbean where it is the most wonderful aqua blue in color. But I digress....
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Above: in the hallway just outside Palo.Finally, a very special choice for dining is Palo Restaurant. If you want to dine here, you need to make reservations *before* you leave for the cruise. It is very popular at Palo for good reason. This is the adults only restaurant and although you pay $10 per person, you are catered to and doted on while you enjoy truly the finest Northern Italian cuisine.
We also had High Tea at Palo -- absolutely delightful with the wonderful creations of cakes, scones, finger sandwiches, and items that I've never seen before, served with several varieties of English Tea.
Well, I could go into the late night buffets, Pluto's Doghouse, Scoop's and other dining extravaganzas, but perhaps those are best talked about in another entry as this one is becoming very long and now I'm getting a bit hungry just thinking about them.
Truly, if you can only manage to put aside $1 every day, start saving for a Disney Cruise! You will have the time of your life and feel like a pampered princess or prince, whatever the case may be.
When you wish upon a star, your dreams come true!
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