Just got off the 1/30 4 day cruise.
Cabanas is a huge improvement over Topsiders/Beach Blanket. The pods are set up so that you can just grab what you want quickly and move on. There are no trays to carry or drinks to balance. We sat at our table, went and got our drinks and put them back on the table. Then we picked up a plate and got the food we wanted. Loved it! The selection is good, especially at breakfast, much more to choose from then Enchanted Garden.
Breakfast - 1 day at Enchanted Garden and 3 days at Cabanas for breakfast. Would not go back to Enchanted Garden for breakfast. The buffet is small. There choices are limited. Cabanas is much much better than EG for breakfast.
Lunch - We ate at EG embarkation day, 1 day up on deck at Flo's Cafe, 1 day at Royal Palace and 1 day at Cabanas. We were disappointed with EG for embarkation day. The selection was limited and sort of like a mini-version of the fare at Cabanas.
We enjoyed Royal Palace for lunch. The lunch menu was good and the service was great. Cabanas was good for lunch as well, easy to get around and the selection was fine. Some seafood, carved beef, lots of other choices. Flo's cafe was easy as well. You could even get a sandwich made how you like it, not just the pre-made stuff. Drink stations are much more convenient.
Dinner - We ate in all 3 restaurants including Animators twice (pirate night). We enjoyed each one and they are very different from one another.
Enchanted Garden - Very pretty room. Have no idea what all we ate, but everything was good. The meal was hot and no one complained about anything they got.
Royal Palace was next and we had a great table there as well. Loved the bread basket they give you that looks like a carriage. All of the princesses walk by and say a very quick "hello, enjoy your dinner". Another very pretty room.
Animators was better on this ship than the Magic and WOnder. It didn't feel as crowded to me and we loved the theme and interaction with the character on the screen. Food was great, they had a brownie cheesecake that was wonderful. I never finish dessert and I finished every bite.
We did notice that dinners seemed quieter on this ship. One of the complaints about the Magic and Wonder was how loud the dining rooms were. I felt this was much quieter. It helps that the servers stations (where they put all the dirty dishes, prepare your plates, etc) were much better placed. Most of the tables did not face the stations so you weren't looking at dirty dishes or work stations all the time. Most of the stations face each other so the servers work back to back in the middle of the stations. In Animators, some of the stations are in little rooms off to the side or back, so you don't see them at all. This is a vast improvement.
We thought that the overall Dining experience was wonderful. We had requested a server previously on the Wonder and our request was granted. Our assistant server was new (as all of them are) and he did a good job, not fantastic, but pretty good. Our server had to pick up some of his slack, like removing dishes, placing silverware, getting extra bread. He was very friendly, but still just learning his way around. Everyone has to learn a new ship, new galley, new procedures and they are changing things everyday trying to do things better. It will probably be a little rough for awhile until they get a great system in place, but they are all trying to do the best they can and most of them keep a smile on their face while doing it.
We had no real complaints overall and thoroughly enjoyed our 4 days on the Dream.
