Sunday, October 23, 2011

Dining at Enchanted Garden on the Disney Dream



Just as on any cruise, dining on a Disney Cruise is all part of the wondrous adventure that is cruising.  On our 5 night cruise aboard the beautiful Disney Dream, we ate at the Enchanted Garden dining room twice—once for dinner and once for breakfast.

Guests aboard a Disney ship will rotate through three main dining rooms while their wait staff—server, assistant server, and head server rotate with them.  There are two ways guests are informed of their dining rotation—the first is when they receive their Key to the World Card, as the dining rotation will be a series of letters on the front of the card.  Ours was AERRA:  A for Animator’s Palate, E for Enchanted Garden, and R for Royal Palace.  You can see from the order of the letters the order in which we dined in the various dining rooms on board. 

The second way for guests to know their dining rotation is to look at the dining tickets in their stateroom on their first day on board.  The tickets indicate the dining rotation, time of dining, and table number.  Guests need to bring these tickets with them to dinner their first night on board.  After that first night, there is no need, as the table number will stay the same.  Know that the same table number will be located in various areas in each of the three main dining rooms.

We ate in the Enchanted Garden on our second night of our five night cruise.

The Enchanted Garden is located on Deck 2 aft.  Guests may use the mid-ship elevators or the stairs in the Lobby Atrium to make their way to the Enchanted Garden.  The bathrooms are located just outside the dining room entrance on both sides of the hallway—men’s on one side women’s on the other.  There are also Shutters kiosks located in the hallway so that guests can check their photos or manage their photo accounts.

When entering the Enchanted Garden, guests are transported to a garden scene inspired by the gardens of Versailles in France.  There are garden scenes on either side of the entrance way.  A fountain is the middle of the dining room.

While dining, the garden transforms from day to night.  We enjoyed watching the flower petals on the lights open and close.

The menu is described as market cuisine.  Click here to read the menu.

I had the Ahi Tuna and Avocado Tower—with the Wasabi dressing (I couldn’t resist as Tow Mater has a great scene in Cars 2 with Wasabi dressing),  Baby Spinach Salad, and the Pan-Seared Sea Bass.  The husband had Lobster Ravioli, the Wedge salad, and Grilled NY Strip Steak.  I know I had the Banana’s Foster Sundae for dessert.  I don’t remember what the husband had.

What’s great is there is also a children’s menu combining kids’ favorites like chicken strips with some more daring fares such as the Lobster Ravioli.  The boy ate well (you can see the Lobster Ravioli on his face if you look closely at the photo at the beginning of this post), even trying our dishes, which he typically does, and he ordered the Banana’s Foster for dessert off the adult menu.  And, this type of ordering is okay on a Disney cruise.  If there was an appetizer on the adult menu that he wanted, such as Lobster Bisque which is one of his favorites, but it isn’t listed on the children’s menu, go ahead and order it anyway.  Again, it is okay to do this.

We dined at the Enchanted Garden the next morning, on our “at sea” day for breakfast.  The breakfast is buffet style offering traditional breakfast items, and we dined at a different table and got another perspective of the dining room.

Enchanted Garden is also open for lunch.  Check Navigators for specific days and times the Enchanted Garden is available for breakfast and lunch.

In terms of the 3 main dining rooms, Enchanted Garden would rank 2nd.  It wasn’t our favorite, but it wasn’t our least favorite either.  We enjoyed ourselves and the new atmosphere, as there is no Enchanted Garden on the Disney Magic or Disney Wonder, so this was a first for us.



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