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.

Rotational Dining on a Disney Cruise

Guests departing on their first Disney Cruise want to know which restaurant to “pick” each night of their cruise.  Well, since Disney makes things as easy as possible, guests don’t have to “pick” as traveling parties are assigned to a dining room rotation for either main dinner seating or late dinner seating, and are assigned to a specific table in each dining room.

Rotational dining allows guests to rotate through each of the main dining rooms during the duration of their cruise.  The serving team assigned to your traveling party will rotate with you and will serve you in each of the three main dining rooms.  If you choose to dine in Palo or Remy, you will be served with dining teams assigned to those restaurants.  As a cruise guest, you will be informed of your dining rotation in two ways.  One is when you check in at the port and are given your Key to The World Card.  There will be a series of letters and each stands for a dining room and the letters are in the order of your dining rotation.  For example, on our most recent cruise, our letters were “ERRAE.”  This meant we were dining in Enchanted Garden the first night, Royal Palace the second and third night, Animator’s Palette the fourth night, and Enchanted Garden on the last night of our 5 night cruise.  The second way you will be informed is with the dining tickets in your stateroom—one for each person in your party with the dining rotation listed, the location of each dining room, and your table number.  It is important to take at least one of these tickets with you to your assigned dining room the first night.  No need after that to bring your ticket along as long as you can remember your table number.  If you forget, no worries; this is Disney and they will look it up for you at the dining room.

While waiting in line to get the boy’s  kid’s club bracelet at the Port Terminal before boarding the ship for our most recent cruise, there was another mother in front of me who indicated that this was their first Disney cruise (I think our shirts give it away that we have done this before) and she asked how to find out their dining rotation.  I showed her on your Key to The World Card how she could find out and told her about the dining tickets she would find in her stateroom.

The main dinner seating is at 5:45 pm and the late seating 8:15 pm.  We have always opted for the main seating.  If you wish to change your dinner seating or rotation, check with Guest Services upon boarding the ship.  They will do their best to accommodate you based on availability. 

So, the only “picking” to do is what you are going to eat when you arrive at your dining room for the evening.  Unless, that is, you have opted to dine at Palo or Remy, which charge an additional fee and require a reservation, or choose more casual dining on Deck 9 or 11 respectfully depending on your Disney ship. 

I appreciate the dining rotation system and knowing which dining room we will be dining in each night of our cruise.  I don’t have a high need to know prior to our cruise as we typically don’t make reservations for Palo or Remy—we have eaten brunch at Palo on two cruises.  Knowing that the decisions are already made is comforting to me and my family.  We stayed at an all inclusive resort in the Caribbean which required making same day reservations at one of the seven on-site restaurants and it was an inconvenience to do that each day. 

Another great thing about rotational dining on a Disney cruise is that your serving team gets to know your family, especially on longer cruises.   So, don’t be surprised if your drink preferences are already waiting for you when you arrive at your table!