*Complete* Sit back, Relax as the Dining Room presents Your Dinner Oct 30-Nov 6

[PrincessTrisha]

Very enjoyable report and great pictures! My family loves the first night dinner menu and I also thought the eggs benedict your Mom had at brunch were delicious. It is so great to relive all the wonderful food. Thanks for this, Karyn

You're very welcome. I couldn't believe how consistently good the food was.

What a fun TR! Your pictures are delicious! This makes me super impatient for my 10/2011 cruise!!!

Relax - your cruise will get here - it'll go from "oh it's so far away" to "OMG, I'm not ready yet!" in no time.

I am absolutely loving your cruise food review. I have a cruise coming up next month and it is so helpful for me to see pictures and read your opinions. Thanks!

Best advice - try everything!

Thank you SO much. Really enjoying your report!

Very welcome.

Great TR, subbing in and awaiting more food pictures!!!!!

More pictures coming up!

Ooooo, this thread is good, at least now I can check out the food before we go. Thank you for writing it. I've subscribed to it.

Thanks for subscribing.

 

[PrincessTrisha]

Let me just say - you get really used to having dessert on the cruise. So much so that no meal really feels complete until you've had something sweet.

So since we'd had lunch but no dessert - well......

My Dad went up to the buffet to see what desserts they had and brought back:

Ermm, that's not right is it? Do they look like sweet gooey goodness? He was looking around all of deck nine and spoted the wraps and sandwiches so he picked up two shrimp wraps and a turkey sandwich.

He also brought back:

They were chocolate cups with custard and strawberry and a cup of some other kind of custard as well. Neither of these were very good.

This lead us back to the room service menu.....

"Yes, could we please have two cakes of the day? And what other sweets do you have? Oh yes, we'll have three of those please!"

Mickey Ice cream bars! We ordered these several times through room service during the trip. Just like at the parks - these were so good - rich chocolate, premium ice cream. Practically worth the cost of the cruise alone.

Cake of the day today was Black Forest Cake.

My parents said it was good. I don't like cherries so I don't tend to eat blackforest cake.

They seemed to serve the same cake of the day at least two days in a row all cruise. I don't know if it was because people weren't ordering it or if that's normal?

So that was all until dinner. Tonight was Formal night so we took some time to get into our finery before going down to dinner.

 

[Sleeping*Beauty]

Yum, I am now starving! Great pictures.

 

[diheartsdisney]

I keep looking at your pictures of the sailaway package. It is very enticing! I'm considering it for our upcoming Panama Canal repositioning cruise. It's funny, but the price doesn't seem that expensive. I would love to add a little surprise for the rest of my traveling party. I wish we had a lovely balcony to enjoy them on like yours, but I am just thrilled to be going on the cruise.

Also, I appreciate your take on the dessert trios. I think I will take your advice and order the full size versions and share between my kids and I.

 

[seasideliz]

Great food report.... what I really wanna know though is..... what kind of balcony did you have, that is outstanding and would make my trip complete

 

[JKSWonder]

They seemed to serve the same cake of the day at least two days in a row all cruise. I don't know if it was because people weren't ordering it or if that's normal?

I tried ordering the Cake of the Day from room service on one day, I can't remember which, and was told they didn't have any more! I think this was late afternoon, early evening, so the moral is if you really want it and your ship is full, you may need to consider ordering it early!

Although, I did think to myself at the time, "Really? No more cake? Even if they were out of THE cake of the day, couldn't they have sent some sort of cake? It's not like I would know it's not THE cake of the day."

 

[wld4mky]

Thank-you for taking the time to do this thread. Great pictures and review. My kids had the Mickey Icecream every day for desert. Yummy

 

[PrincessTrisha]

Yum, I am now starving! Great pictures.

Thanks for reading along!

I keep looking at your pictures of the sailaway package. It is very enticing! I'm considering it for our upcoming Panama Canal repositioning cruise. It's funny, but the price doesn't seem that expensive. I would love to add a little surprise for the rest of my traveling party. I wish we had a lovely balcony to enjoy them on like yours, but I am just thrilled to be going on the cruise.

Also, I appreciate your take on the dessert trios. I think I will take your advice and order the full size versions and share between my kids and I.

We're not big wine drinks (why I ordered the least expensive sparkling wine) but it was very nice and great fun. We did finish off the bottle throughout the week (it fit in the little fridge). The treats were nice to have in the room at the beginning. It was our first cruise and it took us a bit before we were comfortable "foraging for treats". In the beginning, we used mostly the dining rooms (until our day at sea).

Great food report.... what I really wanna know though is..... what kind of balcony did you have, that is outstanding and would make my trip complete

My mom is in a wheelchair so we had to book an accessible room. It was room 7636 on the Magic. In 2010 it was classified as a Cat 5 I believe.

I tried ordering the Cake of the Day from room service on one day, I can't remember which, and was told they didn't have any more! I think this was late afternoon, early evening, so the moral is if you really want it and your ship is full, you may need to consider ordering it early!

Although, I did think to myself at the time, "Really? No more cake? Even if they were out of THE cake of the day, couldn't they have sent some sort of cake? It's not like I would know it's not THE cake of the day."

Funny - the one night we returned late (I can't even think of what we had done) and ordered a cake of day. When it came it was clearly the end (there was maybe 1 ounce of cake and 10 ounces of whipped cream / icing). Honestly, the cakes of the day were okay but the Mickey bars were sooooo much better.

Thank-you for taking the time to do this thread. Great pictures and review. My kids had the Mickey Icecream every day for desert. Yummy

I loved being able to order them from room service. I know it may not be a popular idea but I wish they had a smaller sized version of the mickey bar. They are great but just too much - they are so rich.

 

[PrincessTrisha]

Our prince and princess dinner (formal night) was in Animators Palate (so we would need to wait until the following night to see the restaurant "show").

Started off and my mom and dad decided to share a drink. The Tutti Frutti - Tequila, Midori Melon, Passionfruit puree and cranberry juice.

It was a very sweet drink.

For appetizers both my dad and I got Belle's Scallops (scallops and mushrooms in a white sauce).

These were good but not "blow your mind" good.

My mom order the cheese souffle

The verdict - weird, but good. It wasn't quite like quiche but similar.

Entree #1 - Parma Ham wrapped chicken breast

The chicken was moist and my mom really enjoyed the vegetables it was served with. The thin sliced roasted potatoes were very tender. I thought the meal looked dry when it came out but she said it was moist.

Entree #2

My dad ordered two portions of the Beef Wellington served medium (or maybe it was medium well?). When ordering he was a little about the whole "wrapped in puff pastry with a cabernet truffle oil" thing. (he's much more of a meat and potato kind of guy). He ordered it because it truly was the only thing on the menu that really appealed to him. If he hadn't liked it he would have ordered the chicken but wouldn't have been really happy. Well, he loved it and ate both pieces and all of the sides.

Entree #3 - baked fillet of turbot with mashed potatoes

This entree was very "white". I was always taught that mains and sides should compliment each other and colour should be considered. That being said, it was a very good dish. Again the fish was tender and cooked properly and the mashed potatoes were to die for (smooth, rich and creamy). The sauce it was on was very rich and went well with both.

Entree #4 - Vegetable lasagna

This was so good. Simple, nice vegetable, rich cheese sauce and then it was sitting on a layer of chucky marinara. Of any dish I crave right now, it's this one (ironically the one I could probably replicate at home).

Desserts -

I'll admit, I was too full. I ate every bite of the two entrees and just couldn't fit anything else in.

My mom ordered the dessert trio (she wasn't really hungry, she just wanted to say she'd had dessert). I think she took maybe a bite of each one and that was it.

It was lemon cheesecake, chocolate souffle, and tiramisu.

My dad ordered the tiramisu (which is his all time favourite dessert - even above chocolate cake).

Maybe because it was "diet" but he found it very bland.

Dessert #2 for dad was the ice cream sundae

Overall, the food was good but this isn't a menu I'd rush back for. To me, I don't understand why this menu and the semi-formal night menu aren't switched (have this one on semi formal night and the other menu - which I consider fancier, on the formal night).

 

[PrincessTrisha]

Today was Grand Caymen. Because it is a tender port, my mother could not get off the ship so I stayed with her and my dad went on a tour with other people from our roll call.

When we got up, I ordered a few things from room service.

I ordered cereal, fruit (the pineapple is already picked out - my mom doesn't like it so the first thing she did was pick it out and put it on another plate), orange juice, apple juice and milk.

I also ordered danish (please excuse the bite)

Not pictured, I ordered my mom whole wheat toast (at her request).

I had forgotten to order coffee and tea and when it was delivered my mom pointed this out. I had tipped the server a few dollars and she said no problem, she'll go get it right away. She was back in under 5 minutes with a carafe of coffee, a carafe of hot water, two cups, teas, sugars, creamer, and spoons (on a tray with napkins). It was so nice of her to quickly react. It shows the great service you get on board. (and yes, I tipped a couple more bucks for the return trip).

 

[PrincessTrisha]

We spent some time in the room and out on the balcony. I wanted to go up to the adult pool again so eventually mom and I got ready to go out. I thought we should eat first since I thought I'd rather have the dining room than try to balance a couple of trays for the two of us.

Lunch was great!

To start with I had an antipasta plate. This had been the first day my mind wandered to work and my boss is Italian and always has these kind of meats in his little office fridge. Everytime I go in for a meeting he's always trying to get me to eat some of the meats or cheese (and I always say no). Anyways, maybe it was a little bit of homesickness or worksickness, whatever it was, the plate was very nice.

My mom had the asparagus starter. It was an actual plate of cooked, warm asparagus (she loved it!). The server offered hollandais sauce I believe but she declined it.

We each ordered a salad for after that. I ordered the entree salad - Salad Nicoise with tuna, hard boiled egg, and a bunch of other good stuff. I love that dressing always comes on the side so I can add as little (or as much) as I want. The salad was super fresh and crispy with enough "good stuff" to make it feel like a meal. I didn't finish the whole thing because I got a little tired of lettuce (and I knew what I ordered next!).

My mom ordered a tomato and something salad which was on the appetizer menu. She ate the cheese and tomatoes but found the type of lettuce to be too difficult to chew.

For entrees my mom had the poached salmon with roasted potatoes and (more) asparagus. It was well cooked (maybe a little on the drier side); she enjoyed it.

I ordered the mozzarella sticks off the kids menu for my entree. They were good and it was a larger portion than I anticipated. They were served with mixed vegetables (which I didn't eat), marinara sauce and fries. The fries were good and I of course had to ask for ketchup.

Super fancy "foot" ketchup.

There wasn't anything on the dessert menu that really appealed to us and we were pretty full at that point so we went up to the adult pool / cove cafe area (can you see where this is going?) for a little while (it would turn out we were up there until well after the ship set sail from Grand Caymen).

 

[iloverags2]

I am loving this report! I have to agree with you regarding the Prince and Princess menu on formal night. We looked at it in advance and decided this would be a good evening to go to Palo (although I hated to miss formal night in the dining room, especially since we had Lumiere's that evening). Loved the Captain's Gala menu on semi-formal night! Yep, they should be switched!

 

[PrincessTrisha]

I created a monster the first time I took my mom to the cove cafe. I bought her a (hot) caramel latte and I got a macciato. These were so good. The coffee in the diningrooms was close to dishwater, the coffee from room service was decent but came with little cups, so I have to admit I was jonsing for a caffenine fix by this point. Next time I cruise, I need to bring a big travel mug so I have what I consider, a full cup of coffee.

These were strong and rich.

I also got a selection of treats from the case (and yes they are free - about 7 different people asked me while we were in there if they were free or if there was a charge - I think a lot of people were too intimidated to ask the coffee barista)

There were chocolate brownies, eclairs, shortbread and some kind of almond pastry.

First tip - get these when you first order your coffee so that they can warm up a little. the fridge case is very cold and most of these items should be room temperature to really enjoy.

The eclairs were very good, my mom loved the almond pastries (and made me go get a couple more), the brownie was a pretty typical brownie, very chocolately. The shortbread wasn't very good but I put a lot of that down to keeping it in the fridge which caused it to become too "solid" It was like eating a cold slice of butter.

We also had several drinks of the day (sorry no pictures). Just before the ship left port, they were offering 2 for 1 DoD's by the adult pool (not sure of anywhere else). Since they were about $4.50 that made for some super cheap drinks (though to warn you, you pay 18% gratuity on the two drinks and then they subtract the cost of the second drink - it didn't matter to me because I typically added a $1 to each order of two drinks anyways since we had a really great waiter).

This is the one day I don't recall having anything else between lunch (and cove cafe) and dinner.

 

[akluss]

Great report, your pictures of the food look great! I love the Prince and Princess menu because rack of lamb is one of my all-time favorites, but I also love lobster, so both nights are fabulous for me. Karyn

 

[Kay1]

An "all food" trip report! What could be better?

 

[farah]

Is the coffee and other speciality coffee drinks at Cove Cafe included in the cost of the cruise? Good to know about the pastries!
Thanks!

 

[PrincessTrisha]

I am loving this report! I have to agree with you regarding the Prince and Princess menu on formal night. We looked at it in advance and decided this would be a good evening to go to Palo (although I hated to miss formal night in the dining room, especially since we had Lumiere's that evening). Loved the Captain's Gala menu on semi-formal night! Yep, they should be switched!

Especially since I was sick on semi formal night and missed my lobster tail

Great report, your pictures of the food look great! I love the Prince and Princess menu because rack of lamb is one of my all-time favorites, but I also love lobster, so both nights are fabulous for me. Karyn

They are both good menus, I just always thought it more traditional to have the lobster tail on the formal night.

An "all food" trip report! What could be better?

Not much. Thanks for reading

Is the coffee and other speciality coffee drinks at Cove Cafe included in the cost of the cruise? Good to know about the pastries!
Thanks!

The treats are free but the specialty coffees are extra cost. They were really good though - certainly starbucks quality.

 

[PrincessTrisha]

In order to get more done, I think it'll be more pictures and less words.

Dinner at Animator's Palate. This is a great menu as far as I'm concerned. There were a few stand out dishes tonight.

Appetizer #1 - Shrimp and Onion Cheesecake. This was really nothing like my mom thought it would be. It was a shrimp and onion quiche. It was good but we have a bakery at home that makes great quiche so nothing "wow" for us.

Appetizer #2 - Mushroom Risotto. This was very good. Nice flavour and seasoning, not overly salty. Both my dad and I had one.

Appetizer #3 - Baked potato and cheddar soup. Not a big fan. It was kind of gritty, like they had added instant potatoes to thicken it. I prefer my potato soups to have chunks of potato.

Entree #1 - Lemon-Thyme marinated chicken breast with mashed potatoes and root vegetables. My mom enjoyed it.

Entree #2 - Veal Chop. My dad was a little hesitant because he's not a big fan of veal (he finds it tend but often lacking in flavour like regular beef). But he thought he'd give it a try and he did like it. It was nicely seasoned and well seared. He also really enjoyed the roasted red potatoes that came with it.

Entree #3 - Asian Marinated beef tenderloin with wasabi mashed potatoes. Both my Dad and I ordered this dish. This was one of the most tender pieces of beef I've ever been served. I loved the wasabi mashed as well (I had them before at the Coral Reef when they used to serve the ahi tuna with teriakyi sauce and them - oh it was so good). Very, very happy with dinner tonight. I knew ordering a beef dish I wouldn't have room to try a second entree though (when I order the fish, I can usally try a pasta or veggie dish as well).

Desserts. My mom ordered the dessert trio but basically didn't eat much of it. The desserts were small and kind of dry. And since between my Dad and I, we had ordered most of the full sized desserts that were on it, she just shared with us. The desserts were good but nothing really outstanding.

Dessert trio

Chocolate Cake:

Apple Crumble:

Chilled Lemon souffle:

Cranberry Orange cheesecake (sorry it's blurry). Least favourite dessert

The apple crumble, chocolate cake and lemon souffle were nice but the cheesecake again didn't have any "cheese" flavour to it.

 

[nenner1]

Trisha, this is so awesome, keep it coming!

I lost a lot of pictures, I think it is a glitch in my memory card (hopefully) or my camera (hopefully not!), including all of our food pics from the first night so I'm enjoying reliving what we ate through your TR. (OK now I'm hungry!!!)

 

[DMMarla07860]

love all the food pictures, makes me hungry each time I read