We just returned from a Disney cruise to the Bahamas aboard the Disney Dream. I’ll be writing a series of posts about our trip, so stay tuned for more!
To be honest, my expectations weren’t high when it came to food on our cruise. I knew there would be a lot of it, but I didn’t expect it to be anything unique or interesting. I mentally prepared myself for lots of chicken fingers, pizza, and cheeseburgers.
However, the food ended up being pretty good! I was surprised by the variety of items available both at lunch and dinner. The Disney Dream also gets extra points in my book thanks to the endless supply of frozen yogurt available near the pool.
Dinner
Disney cruises have a unique rotational dining system for the evening meals. You sit with the same people each night, but in three different restaurants according to your assigned schedule. Your servers follow you from restaurant to restaurant during the duration of your cruise, so you get to know them, and they get to know your tastes. We ate at the Animator’s Palate, Enchanted Garden, and two nights at the Royal Palace.
Each night, we were given a wide variety of choices: beef dishes, lamb, chicken, seafood…even a tofu dish on our last night of the cruise. On average, we were given 2-4 appetizer choices, 4 soup/salad options, and about a half dozen entree selections each evening.
One of my favorite dishes was the black truffle pasta: pasta purses filled with truffle-scented cheese and served with champagne sauce. I ordered this on our first night of the cruise, and it was such a pleasant surprise. Another favorite was the sea scallops with pasta pearls and asparagus. My daughter loves scallops, so we actually ordered this for her instead of one of the kids meals, and she loved it!
For dessert, we were offered about 3-4 choices per night. One of the options each evening was called Sweet Temptations, which included three mini-desserts. This was a great way to try a little of everything.
Lunch
Our first afternoon on the cruise, we ate at the very-casual Flo’s V-8 Cafe. My husband chose a mozzarella, tomato, and pesto sandwich with caramalized onions. I tried a bite and was hooked. We loved it so much, that we ate lunch at Flo’s every day for the rest of the cruise! I loved that even the casual lunch options included non-fried, non-cheesey dishes. Of course, Flo’s also serves pizza, chicken fingers, and other “typical” kids dishes in addition to the more adventurous sandwiches and salads for adults.
Breakfast
A buffet breakfast is served in Enchanted Garden each day, but we could never get there at the right time. We missed brunch our second morning on the ship, arriving just minutes after they had closed. We missed it the next day too, since it closed a half-hour earlier than the day before. Darn it! We ended up eating at Cabanas, a casual spot on Deck 11. This buffet breakfast included all of the usual suspects: Mickey-shaped waffles, pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, cereal, and fruit.
Overall, I was pleased with the food on the Disney Dream. Check the Disney Cruise Line website for more on the ship’s restaurants.
Looking for more Disney cruise info? Check out my recent post about our stateroom aboard the Disney Dream.
When you’re on a cruise, preparing for port days is a little different than planning for your typical outing back home. You want to be prepared so that you don’t have to return to the ship early or spend your precious time shopping for supplies at your destination. On the other hand, you’ve probably got a packed schedule, and the last thing you want to do is lug around a bunch of stuff you won’t end up needing.
