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Disney 2–restaurants
One of the cool things about a Disney cruise is that you are assigned a dinner seating–ours was table 62 at the 5:30 seating (there was early, at either 5:30, 5:45 or 6—we had hoped for 6 but obviously didn’t get it, or late seating at 8, 8:15 or 8:30…too late for us). Dinners are served in one of three dining rooms, and you rotate from one to the next to the next, then begin the rounds again. You are assigned a head waiter and assistant waiter/server and they go with you from dining room to dining room, so you get to know them.
Our servers were Ancell, from Jamaica (far left, carrying the Brazilian flag):
and Matthew, from Sweden (the smiling one in the center, Ancell on the far right):
Ancell sailed with the Disney Magic on her maiden voyage 8 years ago, and is one of the most senior servers there. Matthew just began with Disney 3 weeks before our trip, and was on his first “solo” serving, and was wonderful! He’s a friendly, thoughtful young man with a great future ahead of him. Matthew…if you manage to surf in and read this, Hi! We hope you’re settling in and having fun (and not dying of the heat…it *will* get better!)
On our first night, they addressed us ALL (even the kids) by name (very clearly they are well briefed and prepped, learn who is whom at the tables, remember what you like to drink with dinner, the whole nine yards—fantastic service!). We just loved having them be a part of our trip. On the last night, they played “It’s small world” which actually didn’t even sound insipid (for once), the staff (which for the entire crew comes from sixty different nations…from US to Botswana and everywhere in between) did a national parade…Ancell caried the flag of Brazil.
Food was fantastic, generous, and everything was included in the trip price except for alcoholic beverages. I ate shrimp, more shrimp, salmon, scallops, more fish, lobster tails, more shrimp (sensing a theme here? Paul is allergic, and I love shrimp, so I ATE! though I did make one exception to the seafood: filet mignon with bernaise sauce! YUMMM), Joshua ate salmon at every chance. There were two appetizers, break, a main dish, and dessert for every meal. And if you (???!!!) got hungry during the day, up on deck 9 was a free beverage station (sodas and coffee and tea) plus all-day pizza, sandwiches and burgers, fruit and ice cream…all no extra charge. Disney definitely did not skimp on its food budget!
Our first dinner was in Parrot Cay, which is decorated Caribbean style (look behind Eli and friend…):
even down to the carpet, which I loved!
Our second dinner was in Animator’ Palate, which starts out as a black and white world, with 50’s diner-style chairs, black or white tablecloths, and walls that appear black and white with sketches from an animator’s sketch pad.
As dinner progresses, the colors are added so you go from this:
to this:
By the end, you have full color on all the walls, the characters change from line drawings to what you see in the movies, and even the “paintbrush” pillars that support the paint pallettes on the ceiling are lit with colored lights on the “brush” area of the pillar!
The third restaurant was the classy “Lumiere”, next to the Lobby Atrium on level three. It used highly stylized designs, with a papyrus or torchiere design in the windows
and on the backs of the chairs–although it appears I only sketched the chair, but didn’t take a photo..phooey!
(Stay tuned…that chair back inspired a new teaching-quilt and will be one of my journal quilts for this year! The inspiration was just EVERYwhere on this ship!).
Next: The Walt Disney Theatre and the public bathrooms (yep…I’m crazy…)
August 22nd, 2006 at 8:46 pm
How exciting! What a dream to take a cruise!!!! Some day… 🙂
August 24th, 2006 at 5:32 pm
wonder if you can deduct this trip as a business expense!!