Dining on Disney Wonder

[Full90]

We are thinking of going on the panama canal cruise on the Wonder. Cannot figure out from the website how the dinning works. Seems to be several adult only restuarants. My question is are these like speciality restuarants on Celebrity where you pay additional and make reservations for any time?

 

We have traveled exclusively on Celebrity, but this ship looked interesting and considering giving it a go. Like the Celebrity website everything is pretty vague.

[moki'smommy]

Palo is the ONLY adult only restaurant on the Wonder. This is adult only dining and costs $25 per person + any alcohol and additional tip.

 

Parrot Cay, Triton's, and Animator's Palate are family restaurants. You will be assigned to a specific one each night. Each has a signature menu which will be served once during the cruise. On the other nights, there is a theme menu which will be served in all 3 dining rooms.

 

Another option is Topsiders, which for dinner is NOT a buffet. It is a sit down, casual restaurant serving most of the items from the main dining rooms. There is no upcharge or additional tip required here. While it is considered a "training restaurant" for the staff, we have found it to have excellent service.

 

On Celebrity, we found only one dining room where we were assigned each night, and the option of several adult locations with an upcharge. On DCL, you have 3 main dining rooms and just rotate thru them. While it may sound confusing, it really is not. Your rotation will be noted on your KTTW card and each evening you server will remind you of which restaurant you will be in the next night. Your serving team will move with you.

Edited June 7, 2014 by moki'smommy

[Full90]

Thanks. That explains it perfectly.

[Muushka]

moki'smommy gave a great explaination of how the DCL dining works.

 

As someone who has cruised almost exclusively Celebrity (X) and previously some DCL, I thought I may chime in.

 

We loved DCL. We just completed the PC cruise in May 2014. Prior to S class ships on X, we did mixed DCL and X. Post S class ships, all X. It was my dream to cruise through the Panama Canal on a Disney cruise. Mickey at the helm. But I fear we have just become too accustomed to Celebrity.

 

While we loved the PC cruise on DCL we could not help but compare the 2 lines. Bottom line, we missed X. But DCL offers a great deal on their PC cruises and I am very glad we did it.

 

One of the things we missed the most was the Select Dining on X. We didn't like the MDR on DCL. 2+ hours of dining, never at a time that was good for us. And the food....meh. We missed the fresh waffles, eggs, the buffet on X.

Edited June 8, 2014 by Muushka

[moki'smommy]

moki'smommy gave a great explaination of how the DCL dining works.

 

As someone who has cruised almost exclusively Celebrity (X) and previously some DCL, I thought I may chime in.

 

We loved DCL. We just completed the PC cruise in May 2014. Prior to S class ships on X, we did mixed DCL and X. Post S class ships, all X. It was my dream to cruise through the Panama Canal on a Disney cruise. Mickey at the helm. But I fear we have just become too accustomed to Celebrity.

 

While we loved the PC cruise on DCL we could not help but compare the 2 lines. Bottom line, we missed X. But DCL offers a great deal on their PC cruises and I am very glad we did it.

 

One of the things we missed the most was the Select Dining on X. We didn't like the MDR on DCL. 2+ hours of dining, never at a time that was good for us. And the food....meh. We missed the fresh waffles, eggs, the buffet on X.

 

I fully agree that the food on Celebrity is better than the main dining rooms on DCL. However, we've never had a meal take 2 hours unless we wanted it to. 90 minutes is pretty normal. If your server is so slow that it takes 2 hours, talk to the head server. He will either speed up your team or change you to a new team. If you don't like your dining time and can't change it to the other seating, you can go to Topsiders. Seating there is 6:00-8:30. You don't have to be out by 8:30, but they won't seat anyone new after that time. It is table service with a menu, and available every night except the first and last nights of the cruise.

 

The "healthy options" outlet on X, the wonderful munchies (almond croissants)....amazing. I could be completely happy on X again, but my family likes the service on DCL as well as the age mix of the passengers. We all agree that DCL has better entertainment.

[Muushka]

I think that the last cruise in May will be our last with DCL.

It's funny though. Our table mates who cruise only Disney also were irritated about the slow dinners.

I guess the waiters assume that you want to be in the dining room until 10:30 pm. Unless you complain I guess.

[moki'smommy]

I think that the last cruise in May will be our last with DCL.

It's funny though. Our table mates who cruise only Disney also were irritated about the slow dinners.

I guess the waiters assume that you want to be in the dining room until 10:30 pm. Unless you complain I guess.

 

It depends a lot on the server and how he runs his station. We were off the Magic one week ago. I think, in 12 nights we only ran past 10:00 one time.

 

One big consideration is how they handle guests who are late. If someone is late, it screws up everything. Some servers will start with the people who are already there while others will wait until either that table or their entire station is present (handing out menus, but not getting any orders to the kitchen....) We just let our person know that we will be on time and we expect to get started with dinner; if others are not there, that's their problem!