Destination | My Disney Pro | Travel tips and tricks, focusing on Disney Cruises

Dining Options

grant cline

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October 4, 2022

Each ship is a little different, here is what’s available on the Disney Wonder.

There are a variety of dining options on the Disney Wonder, including rotational dining, quick-service and a buffet option.

There are three restaurants included in the nightly rotational dining – Tiana’s Place, Triton’s and Animator’s Palate. Each night your party will be scheduled to eat in a different restaurant with its own menu. You’ll be paired with a specific group of waitstaff members who will move from restaurant to restaurant with you. You can find the menus and your assigned restaurant in the Disney Navigator App.

Tiana’s Place includes a Louisiana inspired atmosphere inspired by The Princess and The Frog movie. While dining here, you’ll enjoy live jazz music and an on stage visit with Tiana. Louis often shows up as well and leads an impromptu parade ending with everyone dancing under a limbo pole.

Animator’s Palate is where the art of Disney seems to come to life. The hallway entrance is lined with sketches of many of your favorite characters. While dining, you can watch the characters evolve from a few pencil scratches to full blown in color characters in the ‘live’ artwork surrounding the room.

Triton’s, as you may have guessed, is a Little Mermaid themed restaurant, named after none other than the king of the sea himself, Ariel’s father.

On embarkation day, after completing the mandatory muster drill, the Disney Wonder offers lunch at Triton’s for concierge guests and Tiana’s Place for all non-concierge guests. The menu is the same in both places.

In addition, the Disney Wonder offers a more casual dining atmosphere at Cabanas, where you can choose from a variety of buffet menu options for breakfast and lunch. Pre-Covid, Cabanas also offered table-service dining in the evening during dinner time, featuring the signature dishes from the main restaurant. As of July 30th, they haven’t yet brought this option back.

If you’re looking for an adults only upscale dining experience, consider booking brunch or dinner at Palo. Palo offers a more refined restaurant atmosphere and reservations are required. Palo is not included in the main dining plan; additional fees apply. If this is something you are interested in, consider making the reservation as soon as your window opens up; slots fill up fast.

In addition to the ‘Wonder’ful options listed above, there are several quick service options available on Deck 9, including Pinnochio’s Pizzeria, Pete’s Boiler Bites, Daisy’s De-Lites and Eye-Scream Treats, where you can snack on pizza, burgers, small sandwiches, and of course soft-serve ice cream.

If none of that works for you or you just feel like staying in your cabin all day, there’s also the option of room service. Room service is available 24 hours a day and includes a continental breakfast and a limited menu for lunch and dinner.

On debarkation day, breakfast will be served at one of two assigned times based on your nightly dining rotation time. Those with the earlier dining reservations will also be assigned to the earlier breakfast and vice versa.

More information about the restaurant and time can be found in your Disney Navigator App.

Disney Cruise App

grant cline

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September 30, 2022

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The Disney Cruise App is useful before your cruise, and while onboard!

Before your cruise you can review your reservations and see your handy countdown timer!

Once onboard, you will switch over to the ships Wi-Fi and the cruise app becomes your navigator for the cruise. Anything and everything you need to know will be in the app!

MyDisneyPro Tip: download and update the app prior to getting onboard the ship, the first thing you will have to do is find your muster station and take a picture with the app

More info below!

Before your cruise begins, your Disney Cruise App is your countdown app!

Every passenger is assigned a Muster Station, the place on a ship where passengers should assemble in the event of an emergency.

Character greetings typically occur midship on decks 3 & 4. The App will tell you when and where, but post Covid it no longer tells you who.

MyDisneyPro Tip: ask one of the handlers, or if you are in concierge ask one of the hosts, when your favorite character will be out, they have a list.

Pre-Covid your dining rotation was printed on your Key to the World card, post Covid that has changed. Your dining rotation is now in the app under My Plans.

Under My Plans it will tell you which of the main dining rooms you are eating in that night, the table number, what deck it is on, and the time of your dinner service. There is also a link to the menu so you can plan ahead!

MyDisneyPro Tip: check out the menu in advance, if they are serving something you like that may be a good night for room service, or for quick serve!

If you ask nicely, your waiter may even get you a meal from one of the other restaurants!

Everything that is happening on the ship is in the navigator app! This includes everything listed above plus show information, trivia contests, Bingo, and so much more!

MyDisneyPro Tip: Press the ❤️ next to an activity and it will show up in your ‘My Plans’, plus you will get a notification 15 minutes before that activity starts!

in addition to everything mentioned here, the navigator app can be used to chat with your travel party, view what time each restaurant is open, find locations on the ship, get the hours for the spa/youth clubs/pools, and more!

MyDisneyPro Tip: all of the ships currently allow you to text with people on and off the ship for free, it is typically more reliable than the chat in the navigator app.
Note: you cannot send pictures or videos using the free text.

Here is a video of the Navigator app from our Alaskan Cruise. It moves pretty quick, if you see something you want to read just pause the video.

Pirate Night

grant cline

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September 30, 2022

1

Arrr you ready for pirate night?

Let’s start with “what is pirate night?”

On most Disney cruises there is a pirate night (Alaska and Northern Europe have Frozen Night instead). Pirate night which actually starts during the day, includes characters in their pirate dress, guests wearing their pirate outfits, pirate themed food in the main dining room (as well as the buffet), a pirate show by the funnel vision, and fireworks off the side of the boat!

Characters

All of the characters will be wearing their pirate themed costumes and Captain Jack Sparrow will also be on deck for photo opportunities. There are typically pirate themed backdrops as well.

Costumes

Your stateroom attendant will leave pirate themed bandannas in your room, but you will want to be prepared for a pirate night with your own costume, or at least a t-shirt!

If your child is 3 to 12 years old they can go to Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and get made up like a pirate, they do an awesome job! The costumes are made really well and the one in the picture below made its way to several Disney cruises for my son.

For everybody else it is a lot easier and cheaper to pick up pirate gear on Amazon before your trip. This isn’t just for the kids, so moms and dads get your pirate gear too!

After the late dinner there is a pirate themed show by the funnel vision followed by fireworks.

After fireworks the deck turns into a dance club, while many people will go to Cabana’s for a late night snack!

What to bring on a Disney Cruise?

grant cline

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September 29, 2022

1

Disney cruises are fun and exciting for the entire family! Whether you are new to cruising with Disney, or if you are a seasoned veteran, you may find this list helpful!

Here is a list of things that we bring on Disney cruises:

Lanyards

If you have never been on a Disney Cruise before, you may want to bring a lanyard. When you get on the ship you will be given a Key to the World Card. This card is your room key, your payment card for buying drinks or gifts in the stores, your identification if you get off the ship at a port, and it has your muster station printed on it.

Those who have previously cruised with Disney will be given a lanyard when they board, but first time cruisers will need to bring their own or buy one in the gift shop. They are significantly less expensive on Amazon.

Magnets

Many cruisers like to decorate their doors with magnets. You can order these on Amazon or Etsy, or make them yourself! If you decide to make them yourself, check out our ‘How to’ guide!

If you are in concierge on the Fantasy or Dream, they have a wrap over the door that makes it look like wood, the typical door magnets will not stick! Get a set of small neodymium magnets and attach them to the back of your door magnets. Concierge doors on the Magic, Wish and Wonder do not have the faux wood wrap.

Magnetic Hooks

We always bring small magnetic hooks that we put on the back of the door and hang our lanyards when we come in to the room. This is a great way to ensure that your lanyards never get lost! We went with a set of color-coded hooks so everybody has their own color. If you are in concierge on the Fantasy or Dream, they have a wrap over the door, so you need stronger neodymium magnets.

Chargers

You can’t bring power strips on a Disney cruise, and the rooms don’t have a lot of USB ports. You can bring USB charging blocks and we always bring a travel battery so we don’t have to worry about our phones running out of juice! Why are we using our phones? The Disney Cruise App is where you will find everything you need, including your dining room assignment and all the entertainment schedules.

This is my favorite wall charger , it is compact has 4 ports and charges fast! It is a little expensive, but it will also charge a 16 inch MacBook Pro (and smaller Mac and MBP models)! When I bring this adapter I can now leave my very heavy MacBook Pro charger at home!

This is my favorite battery, you can charge it with a lightning cable, USB-C or micro USB!

Luggage

This luggage is nothing short of amazing! While waiting in the line for customs after one of our Disney cruises, we saw a mom with a few kids and a few bags, but their luggage was no big deal because they had these TACH suitcases. These bags are amazing, I don’t typically get excited about luggage but these are different! We bought a set of three bags (large, medium and carry on) and how to use them for each subsequent cruise.

What makes these so special?

They Velcro together and become a single unit that you can easily pull. Because of the way that they Velcro together, they don’t shift around, it isn’t like tying them together, they are a single unit that will not tip over or get out of hand while pulling them through the airport. They are also hard sided, but incredibly light!

Toiletry Bags

The split bathrooms in the cabins is nice, but you still don’t have a lot of space for your toiletry items. Over the years I have traveled a lot for business and got in the habit of keeping a separate toiletry bag for my business trips, it makes packing so much easier! Now each of us have our own toiletry bags and we keep them separate from our daily toiletry items, when it’s time to travel we grab them out of the closet and throw them in our suitcases.

Cash

While you were on the ship, everything you buy will be charged to your Key to the World card. If you order room service, the food is included in the cost of your cruise, but it is customary to tip your room service wait staff. You can charge it to your room, but most people prefer to tip in cash. Prior to leaving for our trip we will typically go to the bank and get singles and fives so we have money for cash tips.

Pirate Gear

Pirate night is a lot of fun! Pirate night occurs on most cruises with the exception of those in Alaska and Northern Europe, which feature Frozen night! If your child is 3 to 12 years old they can go to Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and get made up like a pirate, they do an awesome job! This is a picture of my son after visiting the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique!

For everybody else it is a lot easier and cheaper to pick up pirate gear on Amazon before your trip. Pirate night includes a pirate themed menu, characters in their pirate outfits, a pirate deck show and fireworks! This isn’t just for the kids, so moms and dads get your pirate gear too!

Frozen Night

For cruises in Alaska and northern Europe, rather than pirate night Disney has frozen night. There are no fireworks on these cruises but there is a frozen themed show on deck! Just like pirate night, everyone dresses up for frozen night as well! This isn’t just for your little princes and princesses, moms and dads get in on the fun too!

Autograph Book (and Pen)

Mickey, Minnie and all their Friends will be on board your Disney cruise ship for photo opportunities and autographs, so make sure you have your autograph book and pen ready! Prior to the pandemic, in the navigator app you would be able to see which character was going to be available in each location and that what time. Post pandemic, they just list that a character will be appearing and where.

Matching Shirts

You will see a lot of families with matching shirts on your Disney cruise, no different than if you go to Walt Disney World or Disneyland! You can find the shirts on Amazon, Etsy or other places online. You can make the shirts yourself, check out our “How-to” guide.

Camera

Things get a little more expensive when you start talking about camera gear, here are the cameras that we always travel with!

GoPro – my current GoPro is a GoPro Hero13 Black I used a Hero9 on our recent Alaska cruise to create a time lapse of the entire cruise from the balcony of our room (Click here for the video), I also have a page on how to create a time lapse like that. If you’re not familiar with GoPro’s, they shoot video and take great pictures in a small waterproof, durable body. There are an infinite number of accessories that allow you to connect it to just about anything and they really are amazing for something that can fit in your pocket. We used to bring an Olympus tough waterproof digital camera with us, but I’ll go pro replaced that!
DJI Pocket 3 – the DJI Pocket 3 is an incredibly small camera on a gimbal which studies the image as you walk or move, but this camera has incredible quality for something that is the size of a snickers bar! This camera really is amazing!

Tips & Tricks

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grant cline

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September 27, 2022

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