Rotational Dining on Disney Cruise Line

Everyone please give a warm welcome to our friend our very special Guest, Brenda! Brenda is a longtime Disney fan who has sailed aboard Disney Cruise Line several times. She runs www.ideallydisney.com, where you can find her each month on Magical Blogorail Blue.

Disney Cruise Line offers guests a unique dining experience called rotational dining. This innovative concept allows each guest the opportunity to try each themed dining experience onboard “while traveling with their own Disney servers.” Every evening, guests in your party dine in a different location and experience different menus, while still enjoying the company of the same tablemates and the excellent, detailed attention of the same servers. I found this to be a delightful and easy way to add a little something extra to our experiences when dining at sea.

Upon arriving at your stateroom, you will find a dining ticket for your party that looks like this:

The ticket lists the lead guest’s name, stateroom number, dining schedule (which is your dinner time) and table number. The time and table number is the same for every evening in each restaurant. The only thing that changes is the restaurant location. There are three main restaurants on each Disney ship:

Disney Magic: Animator’s Palate, Lumiere’s, and Parrot Cay
Disney Wonder: Animator’s Palate, Triton’s, and Parrot Cay
Disney Dream: Animator’s Palate, Enchanted Garden, and Royal Palace
Disney Fantasy: Animator’s Palate, Enchanted Garden, and Royal Court

Each of these dining locations offers a unique setting and its own tasty menu selections. You will notice that each ship has an Animator’s Palate and once you dine there you will understand why. The concept is quite brilliant.

Your entire serving team travels with you to each restaurant. You will meet your staff on the first night of your cruise. When you are greeted the next evening, you will notice that they will already know your drink of choice and will bring it to you without even asking. Your serving team will include your Server, Assistant Server and Head Server.  Your designated Server and Assistant Server will take care of everything you need each night of your cruise.  Your Head Server will stop by occasionally just to make sure you are having a great cruise and to make sure everything exceeds your expectations.

We enjoyed experiencing different restaurants and cuisines while rotating with our awesome serving staff. Our tablemates and staff alike became fast friends and we had lots of fun coupled with exceptional service. Dining with the staff of Disney Cruise Line reminds me of the spirit you can only find at Disney. No matter what the question, your answer is, “Yes! What can we do to serve you?”

I hope you will take a Disney cruise, if you haven’t yet, and experience this fun concept. If you have sailed with Disney Cruise Line in the past, I would love to hear your comments about your own experiences.

Happy sailing and bon appétit!

Here’s a tip: No matter which location in which you dine, you can always order one of these special treats for dessert. You won’t find it on the menu, but they are always available.

Today’s Takeaway:
Disney Cruise Line‘s MAGIC is being re-imagined with numerous enhancements. When it launches this October, it will feature a brand new dining experience called Carioca’s, named for Donald Duck’s The Three Caballeros character. Kathy Winfield-Sheely of The Disney Ladies says, “Latin influences will be apparent not only in the design of the room, which is inspired by the vibrancy of Rio de Janeiro, but also in many of the new menu items.” And speaking of new menu items, she shared the official recipe for the restaurant’s De La Costa Cream Cheese Flan with Pedro Ximenez Reduction Sauce.

Your assignment for today is to make this dessert for your family! Enjoy!

De La Costa Cream Cheese Flan with Pedro Ximenez Reduction Sauce
Caramel Base
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup water

Cream Cheese Flan
8 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup whole milk at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 eggs
2 egg yolks
Pinch coarse salt
Boiling water, for water bath

Pedro Ximenez Reduction
1/2 cup Pedro Ximenez wine (sweet wine)
1/2 cup sugar

Garnish
Sliced bananas
Raspberries

For caramel base:
Place a 10-inch round cake pan on top of a folded dishtowel set inside a medium roasting pan. Set aside.

Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir until sugar dissolves. Brush sugar crystals from sides of pan with a wet pastry brush.

Boil, swirling pan and occasionally brushing down sides of pan with wet pastry brush, until mixture is golden brown, about 5 to 6 minutes.

Remove from heat and pour caramel into the bottom of the prepared cake pan. Cool to room temperature.

For cream cheese flan:
Preheat oven to 350°F.

Beat cream cheese in an electric mixer fitted with a wire whisk until smooth. Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, and whole milk until smooth, scraping sides and bottom of bowl. Slowly add in eggs and the egg yolks, beating until completely combined. Stir in salt and vanilla extract.

Pour mixture over caramel in prepared cake pan set inside the roasting pan. Open oven and place the roasting pan on the center oven rack.

Carefully pour boiling water into roasting pan until water reaches halfway up the cake pan.

Bake until a knife inserted into the center of the flan comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool in water bath; when cool enough to handle, remove cake pan and cool completely. Refrigerate overnight or at least 6 hours before serving.

For Pedro Ximenez reduction:
Combine sugar and Pedro Ximenez in a small saucepan over medium heat. Simmer until mixture is reduced by one-third, about 20 to 30 minutes.

Remove from heat and cool to room temperature before serving.

Assembly:
Run a thin knife around the inside edge of the cake pan to loosen flan. Shake pan gently from side to side until flan moves freely in pan. Invert a large plate over cake pan; holding pan and plate securely together, quickly invert and turn out flan onto plate. (Caramel will pour out over and around flan.)

Cut flan into rectangles and top with sliced bananas and raspberries. Drizzle with Pedro Ximenez reduction.

SCHOOL SUBJECT: Home Economics
SKILL LEVEL: High School

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