Disney Cruise Line's Rotational Dining and Our Dining Team!

Lee, our Head Server

A unique feature of Disney Cruise Line is rotational dining.  Each night of their cruise, guests are assigned to one of three main themed dining rooms, visiting each dining room at least once during their cruise.  And, the dining team rotates, too!

Guests wonder what their dining rotation will be and it is almost impossible to know prior to one's cruise, but as soon as guests receive their Key to the World Card at port check-in, they know their dining rotation.  The string of little letters under the guest's name indicate the order of restaurants for each night for the duration of their cruise.  Our first letter was "A" for Animator's Palette.

Once the dining rotation is determined, the next piece of important information is the table number.  Waiting for us in our stateroom on the first afternoon were dining tickets.  The tickets indicated the table number as well as the dining rotation.  It is important to bring the dining ticket with you to the first dining room on the first night.  This helps the serving team determine your location.  Our table was #38.  We dined at table 38 in each of the main themed dining rooms each night, but please know that the table location varies from dining room to dining room.

Julio, our Server

That first evening in Animator's Palette, we met our dining team:  Lee, our Head Server, Julio our Server, and Zaldy, our Assistant Server.

Zaldy, our Assistant Server

The Head Server checks in on you at least once each evening making sure everything is going well.  The Server brings you menus, makes recommendations, takes your orders, including dessert, and serves your food.  The Assistant Server takes your drink orders, makes sure silverware and napkins are available, brings your drinks and keeps them filled, and serves the bread course.

One evening, I order a dish and Julio indicated that he did not recommend it.  He suggested something else.  I took his advice.  He later brought me a bit of the dish I had originally ordered so I could taste it.  He was right.  I would not have enjoyed the original dish.  That was the first time I had had that happen and I appreciated Julio speaking up.  I also then wondered why the dish, that did not taste good, was on the menu. . .

On our first night, Todd asked for a side of asparagus.  It was not available on the first night, but Julio made sure that there was a side of asparagus for him the rest of the evenings. 

The dining team is there to help you have an excellent experience.  We found our team very helpful.  They learned our drink preferences and had them ready to serve us upon our arrival at the dining room.  If we needed to speed up dinner to a scheduled event, such as Pin Trading, they accommodated us.  There were evenings when we ordered off both the adult menu and the children's menu.  The boy wanted the salad from the children's menu but the soup and entree from the adult's menu.  And, sometimes the dessert from the children's menu was my preference.  Each request was easily fulfilled.

Dining in each of the three main themed dining rooms on a Disney ship is part of the Disney Cruise Line experience.  Given the number of empty tables in the dining rooms told us that some guests chose to skip the experience and dine elsewhere on the ship.  We wouldn't miss the various menus and experiences that each of the dining rooms provide.