Cruise Adventure - Part 2 - The Food!

There is no shortage of food on a cruise ship and I've been asked over and over what we ate and what we liked best, so without further ado, let's pop the cork and celebrate all the things we ate on this cruise! I purchased a champagne package to have a bottle delivered on the first day and a bottle delivered on the last so we can start and end the trip with a magical toast. It was well worth it to have this bottle waiting for us when we arrived and a great way to start the trip. I will be perfectly honest, this wasn't the first thing we ate or drank onboard just the first edible item I photographed. When you board the ship you pretty much head to a lunch spot, it's typically one sit down restaurant and the buffet Cabanas. We chose the buffet where I ate a giant plate of shrimp and fried fish and Tamy ate her weight in meat!

I mentioned in the last post that Disney Cruise Line has a dining rotation, each night you head to your scheduled signature restaurant, you sit at your assigned table at the designated time. We had the late seating which we kinda enjoyed because that left for more fun and more day eating! You also get a team of two servers who follow you each night. The perk of having the same servers every night, you get to know them and they get to know you. They know when you want a diet coke, or when to bring Tamy extra scallops and that Mickey butter balls are your favorite. Pictured above is our serving team Ma Katrina and Taner. It was amazing sharing stories with them, talking about our families, our jobs and our day. It was like visiting friends each evening.

The first night we ate Royal Palace. This elegant dining room was the perfect way to start the trip! Another amazing thing about eating on a Disney Cruise - you can order extra things and it's all included in the price of the cruise. So on this first night Tamy got the French Onion Soup (inexplicably not pictured) and I got two appetizers the deep fried brie and my beloved escargot. You also get a bread basket each night with a different signature bread and a dipping sauce - at Royal Palace it was herbed brioche with an olive dipping situation and it was amazing. Tamy ate more bread on this trip than I've seen her eat in all the years we've been together! For our entrees I got pasta with buttered lobster and tarragon - so good! And Tamy got the Chateaubriand Filet. We left nothing behind. For dessert Tamy actually got the sugar free option just because she said it sounded good the duo chocolate slice and berry cream, and you know what? Even though I gave her a hard time it was delicious. I got the strawberry shortcake sundae which was also quite delicious. We left dinner full and happy.

The next day was Tamy's birthday so it was cause for big celebrations and even bigger eating. We also stopped at the 18+ Cove Cafe for lattes and we received these with completely adorable and appropriate latte art on top. The Cove Cafe is wonderful, I'm a huge fan of the Tumeric Latte. Items from the Cove Cafe are at an additional cost but well worth it. Also 18% gratuity is added to the bill at the Cove and other bars throughout the ship and on the Island.

Since we had a noon brunch reservation at Palo we had a light breakfast and coffee delivered to our room where we watched the sun rise and the ship head into Nassau. We had heard only amazing things about Palo so we were excited to head there for brunch. Palo is an adult only restaurant and costs and additional $45 per person - like the Cove, this is worth every penny!

You guys, wow! I was totally blown away by Palo, we both were. Our server Nicholas was so much fun and made great recommendations. We started with a Mimosa, followed by a meat and cheese board, another huge basket of bread that was outstanding, and Tamy got the best tomato soup we ever tasted and we shared a goat cheese and sundried tomato pizza that was out of this world. I would love to say we left a lot knowing we were going to eat more but you know what? We didn't! It was too good to leave much behind. For entrees we had eggplant rollatini and lemon artichoke raviolis. Nicholas highly recommended these dishes and he was 100% correct they were out of this world and we cleared these plates. The next part is really decadent... we asked for dessert recommendations and Nicholas said "leave it to me"

Nicholas brought us each of the six desserts on the menu. Once again I would love to say we took tiny ladylike bites of each dessert and went on our way but no, we almost finished five of the six desserts! Also, let's talk about the light fixture in the lobby of the restaurant, the hostess told us it was meant to represent different shapes of pasta, melted cheese and tomato sauce - you can see if right? This completely wonderful and decadent meal was a perfect birthday celebration and just a wonderful romantic meal.

For dinner we headed to Animator's Palette. This is the most fun dining room with all kinds of incredible touches. We started with the Black Truffle Pasta Purseittes and the Baked Potato and Cheddar Cheese Soup. The bread basket was full of Focaccia and accompanied by a roasted garlic dipping sauce - we ate a lot of this. My entrée was the grilled tuna steak and I asked for an extra side of Wasabi mashed potatoes that came with another dish on the menu, of course my request was happily fulfilled and everything was amazingly delicious. Tamy had the Herb Crusted Pork Chop and she devoured it. We skipped out on dessert this night - you'll see why in a minute.

First can we talk about the details in this dining room, the Mickey chairs and paint brush butter knives! I couldn't get over them!!

Ok instead of dessert in the dining room we headed up to Deck 11 to Vanellope's Sweet Shop. We were exactly as we were meant to be, kids in a candy store. This is also an additional cost location and it's also worth it. We got the race car sundae, three scoops of ice cream, five toppings, whip cream, chocolates and a car we got to take home. We ate it out on deck and had the best time. Also, we realized it was our second day and we had seven desserts.

The third day we ate breakfast out on the deck, we shared a plate of food from Cabanas buffet and watched the ship dock at Castaway Cay - this was the eating day Tamy had been waiting for!

Tamy spoke of nothing but this barbecue on Castaway Cay for weeks leading up to the cruise. There are three spots you can have delicious barbecue Cookies I, Cookies II and Serenity Bay the adult beach. We chose Serenity Bay and Tamy filled up on steak and ribs, I had hot dogs and hamburgers and salads and it was all amazing and nothing could over shadow the Big Island Cookie - I had two and I regret nothing!

After a day in the sun swimming and walking and having an absolute blast we took a nap and headed to dinner. It was pirate night so we were back in Animator's Palette and every dining room had the same pirate themed menu. For me it was another night of two appetizers a Samosa and a Crab Cake. Both were delicious but the Samosa was the best I had ever had. For my entrée I got the falafel which was also really yummy. The falafel was on the vegetarian menu but I'm a sucker for falafel. Tamy got the baby gem salad with bacon, blue cheese and thousand island dressing and her main course was... you guessed it, steak. She also asked for a few scallops!

We didn't skip out of dessert this time and Tamy was presented with a surprise that moved us both. A cake celebrating not only her 60th birthday but her 40 years of service as a Disney cast member (I told you I cried a lot on this trip) We had already ordered dessert from the menu banana cake with hazelnut fudge filling and caramel macadamia nut cheesecake tarte, we brought the rest of the cake to our room to nibble on! Seriously so beautiful. And again I had more than my fair share of desserts in a day and I'm pretty sure at one point Tamy stopped for soft serve - oh well calories don't count on vacation right?

The last day, we had breakfast at Cabanas... a lot of breakfast. We had lunch there too but again no photos, I think it was because my hands were too busy pealing shrimp (sorry, not sorry) Breakfast was delicious and lunch we followed up with SOFT SERVE. Once they open the soft serve machines for the day you can go and fill cones or cups all day long. This doesn't cost anything extra. There is also a soft drink machine that has water, soda water, variety of colas and iced tea. I definitely recommend bringing a refillable cup with you so you always have something to drink with you.

The last night dinner was in Enchanted Garden, probably my favorite dining room. Also it was the time I was the most wrong about a menu. I was not looking forward to this menu. Nothing jumped out at me like I had to have and you know what happened? It was the best meal! I started with the Ahi Tuna and Avocado salad... this was AMAZING. Seriously I could have eaten five, I didn't, but I could have. Tamy got a caramelized onion and mushroom tart - she wanted more! My main course was sea bass with fava bean and pea risotto and it again I could have eaten another whole helping it was so delicious, light, flavorful a definite surprise. Tamy got the caramelized scallops with sundried tomato couscous and she was brought extra scallops on the side since she asked for them the night before (so sweet right!) She couldn't stop raving about this dish. For dessert we got a pecan tart and a chocolate sundae with peanut butter brownies - heaven! This meal was so heavenly, the sad part was knowing it was our last dinner with our servers and if you guess I cried.... I did! We said our final goodbyes the next morning at breakfast also in Enchanted Garden and that was really tearful as well.

Honestly I can't rave enough about the food, the service and the dining rooms. The beauty, the detail, the quality, it was all just so good. We may have come home heavier than we left but no regrets we are just hitting the gym extra hard to prepare for our next adventure.

We ended the journey as we started with a popping of the cork and a toast to a wonderful adventure and so much delicious food. I good really go for an ahi tuna tower right about now! You see all this food we ate, we didn't even eat everything that was offered! The Dream also has Remy's another adult restaurant that offers brunch and dinner for $125 per person. There are also options by the pool serving up burgers, sandwiches, salads and pizza and there was a pirate night buffet that we missed out on as well. Bottom line is you won't go hungry on the ship and you will be glad for everything you ate! Try it all and live your best food adventure. Which dish would you want to try?