Disney Cruise Line Main Dining Times & Rotation Dining Explained

Jan 4

Disney Cruise Line Main Dining Times & Rotation Dining Explained

By: Lynn Brooks, Travel Agent with Tink’s Magical Vacations

Disney Cruise Line offers a unique main dining experience onboard all of five of their ships that we just love when dinnertime rolls around! If you’re wondering how dining works on a Disney Cruise, then you’re in the right place!

First, let me talk about the dining times for dinner. Disney Cruise Line has 2 dining times: Main Seating and Second Seating. Main Seating on a Disney Cruise is at 5:45pm. This is the most popular time, and it gets booked up the fastest as it is most popular for families with small children. The Second Seating on a Disney Cruise is at 8:15pm. This seating is usually more available. Which dining time is best on a Disney Cruise will be dependent on you and your family. If your family tends to eat later in the evenings because of kids’ sports games or because you’re traveling from the West Coast to Port Canaveral or perhaps you’re planning on doing some excursions that get you back on the ship later, then Second Dining might be the best bet for you. Regardless of which dining time you are assigned, you’ll have a great experience!

When first booking your cruise, you can select your preferred seating time or let your Travel Agent know which seating you would prefer (this is just one of the many benefits of using a Disney Cruise Travel Agent). If you want Main Dining, but it is no longer available, you can let Disney Cruise Line know you want to be put on the Main Seating waitlist (your Travel Agent can do this for you as well). When it gets closer to sail date, Main Seating slots tend to open up. If you are already on the waitlist, Disney Cruise Line will go down the list and automatically switch seating times. If your waitlist never goes through, once you embark on the ship you can check to see if you can be switched by visiting Guest Services.

Both of these main dining times, along with all your breakfast, lunch, and snacks, are included in the price of your Disney Cruise. The only dining onboard that is not included are the Adult-Exclusive Restaurants like Palo and Remy and specific character interaction breakfasts like Olaf’s Royal Picnic. If neither of these dining times work for you, there are other meal options included in your price like quick bites on deck such as sandwiches, burgers, chicken tenders, etc., Room Service (be sure to bring cash for tipping and check out this full Disney Cruise Packing List), and Marceline Market. Safe to say that you won’t be going hungry on a Disney Cruise!

Now, onto what makes dining onboard a Disney Cruise so magical – Rotational Dining!

There are 3 main dining rooms that are included in the cruise price, and guests rotate between the 3 through their voyage. This is called Rotational Dining. This means on every Disney Cruise, guests will be able to experience all Main Dining Rooms (MDR) allowing them to try a variety of menus in a variety of Disney-inspired environments.

On 3-night sailings, guests will get to dine once in all three restaurants. If sailing on a 4-nights or longer, you will get to experience some restaurants more than once. An example: You are sailing on a 5-night cruise, you will eat in two of the three restaurants twice. Typically, each restaurant will have their own dedicated menu; however, on theme nights such as formal night, semi-formal night, Pirate Night, Thanksgiving, or the last night, all the restaurants will typically have the same menu regardless of where you’re dining.

Your Main Dining Rotation is not something that you can book ahead of your cruise. All rotations are wonderful, so don’t stress about this. Once you are on the ship, you will see your Main Dining Rotation on the Disney Cruise Line app. If there is a specific Rotation you want, you can let your Travel Planner know. If you booked your cruise directly through Disney Cruise Line, you can call Disney and they can have your request noted on your reservation. There is no guarantee though, and, again, there is no such thing as a bad rotation onboard a Disney Cruise!

One of the best parts about Rotational Dining is that your servers rotate with you every night to the different restaurants. On the first night during dinner, you will get to meet your serving team. The team consists of Head Server, Server and Assistant Server. Your head server is in charge of a larger section of the restaurant and oversees the entire experience. Your server is in charge of your food orders. Your Assistant Service is in charge of beverages and breads. They are all available to help you with any questions or needs in the dining rooms, so don’t be afraid to really get to know them. Over the course of your cruise, they might even start to feel like family!

Let me quickly say that the servers are all fantastic! I am a Platinum Castaway Club member, and I have had nothing but great servers on every cruise. By the second night of the cruise, they remember our names and what type of food and drinks we like. And at times our servers have stopped us during the day or while on the ship and Castaway Cay to just say hi and to see how our day is going. They are the best!

You will also have the same table number for every restaurant too which makes it easy to remember when traveling from one main dining room to another. Just know that the table locations are not in the same area in every restaurant. One restaurant you may be next to a wall or window while in another restaurant you may be in the middle of the room. The Disney Cruise Dining Team is happy to help you find your table when you enter the restaurant, so don’t be afraid to ask for help. And take it from us – there are no bad tables! Disney Cruise Line does a fantastic job of making every table feel included in whatever activities might be happening in the dining room during your meal like conversations with Crush in Animator’s Palate or live performances from Tiana in Tiana’s Place.

Oh, and don’t worry about having a specific dining seating and missing the Broadway-Style shows like Tangled: The Musical, Frozen A Musical Spectacular, Disney’s Believe, Twice Charmed, and more. The shows are set up to have 2 showings in the evening so that Main Seating guests watch the shows after dinner and Second Seating guests watch the shows before dinner. There is no need to rush to or from as Disney allots time in-between for you to be able to enjoy your evening.

Here are the Main Dining Rooms (MDR) on each Disney Cruise ship:

Disney Wish - Arendelle: A Frozen Dining Adventure, Worlds Of Marvel, 1923
Disney Fantasy - Animator’s Palate, Royal Court, Enchanted Garden
Disney Dream - Animator’s Palate, Royal Palace, Enchanted Garden
Disney Wonder - Animator’s Palate, Tiana’s Place, Triton’s
Disney Magic - Animator’s Palate, Rapunzel’s Royal Table, Lumiere’s

Disney Cruise Line truly does have a great way of doing main dining which allows you to have a stress-free way of trying multiple dining rooms onboard. No waiting in lines, no hoping for reservations, no being stuck in the same dining room each night. At first it may be confusing, but once you are on your first cruise and experiencing it, you will see how simple it really is.

If you have more questions regarding dining onboard Disney Cruise ships, please reach out to one of our Recommended Travel Agents who can help you plan your Disney Cruise Line vacation at no cost to you. Also be sure to join the DCL Community for free here!