1st time on a longer DCL voyage - Questions

Looking for advice & suggestions as I will be booking the Magic for fall 2019 when the dates are released to do a NE/Canada voyage. This will be our first Disney voyage of longer than 3/4 days since we may plan on booking 7 nights. I have done this voyage on the QM2 probably about half dozen times so I know the ports, I am looking for ship advice.

Besides the "quick service" burger/pizza options I have seen at the pools, what non-MDR alternative options are there for dinner on the ship ?

We plan on Palo at least 3 times

Are the Cove Café appetizers available at night? We are wondering what type of things they have.

I vaguely remember hearing the pub might have light bites out at night also? We have no problem with light grazing-style plates for dinner on days we have a large lunch in port. Are there any other lounges offering an evening light appetizer spread? Any spots which have sandwiches? I know we will try the new Tangled restaurant but really want to eat outside of the dining room whenever possible.

Are there any special things which have been offered on a 7 day such as a food and wine pairing sessions/tastings? Thinking about whether 7 days or 5 is better when we go to book - but we really want to do 7 to experience more of what the longer DCL voyages offer and the 5 day ports in the past have not included Quebec.

Thanks for any tips!

Looking for advice & suggestions as I will be booking the Magic for fall 2019 when the dates are released to do a NE/Canada voyage. This will be our first Disney voyage of longer than 3/4 days since we may plan on booking 7 nights. I have done this voyage on the QM2 probably about half dozen times so I know the ports, I am looking for ship advice.

 

Besides the "quick service" burger/pizza options I have seen at the pools, what non-MDR alternative options are there for dinner on the ship ?

We plan on Palo at least 3 times

 

Are the Cove Café appetizers available at night? We are wondering what type of things they have.

I vaguely remember hearing the pub might have light bites out at night also? We have no problem with light grazing-style plates for dinner on days we have a large lunch in port. Are there any other lounges offering an evening light appetizer spread? Any spots which have sandwiches? I know we will try the new Tangled restaurant but really want to eat outside of the dining room whenever possible.

Are there any special things which have been offered on a 7 day such as a food and wine pairing sessions/tastings? Thinking about whether 7 days or 5 is better when we go to book - but we really want to do 7 to experience more of what the longer DCL voyages offer and the 5 day ports in the past have not included Quebec.

Thanks for any tips!

Other than the dining rooms for dinner there's Cabanas (unlike breakfast & lunch, it's a sit-down service, not buffet); pool-side quick serve; and room service. The pub has a menu (extra cost) and late night finger foods (hot dogs/chips & dip/etc). That's typically only out for about 45 minutes or so around 10:00.

Cove Cafe has hors d'overes type things in the evening. Sorry, can't tell you specifically what as we eat in the dining rooms.

Sandwiches are at the pool-side quick serve location, also. Promenade Lounge typically has chips & dip (salsa or guacamole), not really "meal" foods.

There is a chocolate & liquor tasting on many cruises (extra cost), but not any food & wine pairings.

I'm curious as to why you want to avoid the main dining rooms. We have always been quite happy there.

I believe the Promenade Lounge has some "grazing" type food.

Frankly the MDR experience is a big reason why we cruise DCL, however on our most recent TA with them, we had the most god awful table mates along with rough seas, so we decided to skip the MDR most nights. We ate upstairs, the buffet turns into a casual no-frills table service restaurant. Or we would go grab some thing by the pool, the grill restaurant was usually open til about 10pm.

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You essentially listed the options.

At night, Cabanas becomes a cruise casual sit down location; it is closed on the first and last nights of each cruise. The food is better quality than the MDR, even though the choices are largely the same. My guess is that this is because it is prepared when you order instead of mass quantities. They also have a "carved item" and a salad bar. the views are lovely (sit so you can see the sunset) and the service is lovely. There are very few people there so it is calm and quiet.

There are munchies in the Cove Cafe--basically an antipasta selection similar to what is in Palo. At 11pm, there are hot and cold munchies. On the Magic these are served in the Promenade Lounge and in the hallway outside the nightclubs; the selections are not always the same. Typically there are one or two hot items as well as trays of fruit, cheese and crackers, etc. And as you noted, you have room service and the fast food outlets.

Why choose Cabanas? Well, the first time we ate there it was because we were back from a long port day in the Med and were hungry. We wanted dinner, not a snack and then go to MDR. Yes, we missed our dining crew, but we were so totally pleased with the Cabanas experience that we used it on future cruises when we wanted a more calm, grown up atmosphere. No flames, please. The issue isn't that I hate children; it is that I don't like kids running around the dining room creating a hazard for servers or coming over to "visit" at my table. We've been seated near some wonderful families with great kids and also some disasters. If the MDR situation is not good, Cabanas is great. Families with children are welcome in Cabanas; they just aren't there normally!

for us, the 3 rotation restaurants on disney ships are part of our disney cruise line experience!

really not sure why people would pay the premuim if they're not interested in the disney experience..

and as for me, i much prefer the rotation restaurants over Palo - which i found to be just meh.

We love both the MDR and Palo's. All of this can quickly become undone if you don't have good table mates in the MDR. This has only happened to us once or twice, and it can be awkward. If a table mate makes dining a poor experience, ask to be reseated. DCL will do its best to accommodate you. Best done sooner than later. On a recent cruise, we were scheduled to have table mates, but they never showed up (and we were told they did not want to share a table with anyone). We struck up a conversation with the couple at the table next to us and they were our table mates for the following 10 nights (we were back-to-back from the Southern Caribbean cruise going back into Port Canaveral). We had a great time with these nice people and that has been more the norm than not.

we always ask for a private table and so far haven't had a problem.

We have been on 20 Disney cruises, never less than 7 days and as long as 11 days, except for the 5 day member cruise. We have never eaten dinner anywhere except MDRs and Palo and remy at least once every cruise. Like others have stated I just don’t see the point. But some people seem to like cabanas. We always eat late sitting so have a snack on pool deck around 5ish. I always enjoy the grill.

We also do late dinner, typically at a "just our group" table. Thru my 30 cruises and over 300 days on board, that "group" has ranged from 2 to 16 people. I didn't expect to like dinner at Cabanas when we first went there, and in fact we asked them to send word to our MDR crew that we wouldn't be there that evening. That first time was purely a time thing--we were hungry after a long day on shore in the Med and wanted dinner. We figured that a "snack" at 7:15 would mean we wouldn't want dinner, so decided to try Cabanas...and were very pleasantly surprised. I even ordered the same dish that I'd found disappointing in the MDR the night before, and it was great at Cabanas. I agree that the dining experience on DCL is part of the fun, but we no longer hesitate to eat at Cabanas when it serves our purposes.

Thank you for the advice on the promenade lounge, Cove, the pub - which we will definitely try - and Cabanas at night. I know some "don't understand the point" of DCL if we skip the MDR. Well we just don't like the food, the wine choices, & noise levels there and have not for the past few voyages. It is pretty crowded. Just not our thing. We choose the smaller, quiet dining venues on Cunard too. I am sure others have great experiences in the MDR, we just like other options. So we ate our meals in the lounge and Palo. The food was great in both of those. But - we loved every single other thing about our Disney cruises; we really had not one complaint in 4 voyages except the quality and noise/crowds in the MDR. It is just 2 adults and we like a nice, relaxed, quiet dinner - so seated Cabana's, Palo, and now we will try the pub, the Cove, and outside the nightclubs, and we plan on some great lunches ashore. Quebec and Halifax have awesome restaurants and we plan on taking full advantage so we will not eat heavy at night anyway.

Just got off the Magic on Friday and the Promenade Lounge & O'Gills has "late night" munchies from 10:30-11:45 (except for Pirate night, had to go to Cabanas) In O'Gills and Promenade they had chicken wings, hot dogs, veggie plate, cheese, crackers. tea sandwiches, polish sausages, chips, salsa, etc...every night something different.

Tea Sandwiches, veggie plates - perfect thanks for all the information!