Topsiders Food for Dinner

[txaggie94gigem]

What kind of food does topsiders have for dinner? i know thwy have a salad bar and then you order some of the same food they have in the dining rooms but how do you know which entrees will be offered up there?

 

[webray]

In our experience the menu has been the same as the main dining rooms, with the exception of the salads...as you already stated, you just go the the salad bar in topsiders.

Other than that, everything else is served to you, just like you were in one of the main dining rooms. You can also get wine or whatever to go with the meal.

We loved dining at topsiders! Hubby said..jeesh, we could just eat here every night. I think he is right!

 

[perdidobay]

Hi Elizabeth,
On the Molar express cruise *ahhh, sweet memories* DH and I had dinner with Nancy and Chuck at Topsider's one night. It was pretty much the same food as dinner, except we ate up there on lobster night and there was no lobster.
The tables were covered and it looked pretty nice, service was good, but a little slow. I'd eat there again, it's a nice change from the dining rooms.

 

[jerseyjanie]

When dining at Topsiders do they seat you with others (as in the dining rooms) or choose your own seating?

 

[ragdoll]

They do not seat you with others. We usually ask for a seat by the window. I love Topsider's for dinner. I really appreciate the quiet atmosphere after the noisy dining rooms. DH and I also say that we wouldn't mind eating there every night.

 

[HLester3]

We were traveling with our 4 year old twins, so we ate there every night except one. It got to the point that we would see the people who worked there around the ship and they would tell us they had our table waiting. One night my son fell asleep and the waiter came down and brought the meal to him in our room. They were so nice, that I tipped our waiter there instead of the waiter at the main restraunt, since we never went, and has was not very friendly the night we did go. They also went and got us the pirate banadas on pirate night from the main dining room. It is also much faster, since our kids could never last 2 hours for dinner.

 

[gssmks]

Thank you guys for this thread. My DD (age 8) and I will be sailing alone on this cruise, and it will be our first ever. This board has been invaluable to me. I know for a fact that my DD will not sit through a two hour meal, and I wasn't looking forward to it either. We do both enjoy trying new foods though. Someone on a thread sayed that he thought Topsiders had made this change. I have posted several times trying to get specific information and have never received a direct answer. Since Topsideres does offer the same menu as the dinning rooms, we will only eat in the formal restuarants during dinner on our first Animator's night to see the color show. This leaves me with some questions:

1. I have early seating and numerous poeple on this thread have complained that they have small children and were only able to get late seating. Should I notify Disney that I will only be eating in the dinning room for Animator's and let them know that if they will give me the dinning rotation with Animator's being on day of embarkation, they can offer my early seating to another cruiser?

2. Tipping has been a point of debate on the threads I have read. If we in fact do only eat in the dinning room on one night and at Topsiders every other night, would it be proper to tip the Topsider's staff instead of the dinning room staff, or I should I still tip the dinning room staff? I feel that I should tip the individuals who actually serve us, but it would not be fair to us to have to tip twice.

3. Do any of you know whether or not you can go into Topsiders, order the food to go and carry it on a tray to one of the outside tables or the stateroom?

4. I am assuming from the fact that one of the posters here said that their child would never have made it through a 2 hour meal, that the food is served quicker here than in the dinning rooms. Do the bring everything at once or do they serve you each course as it is being served in the dinning rooms?

 

[dabsjad]

I will be watching this thread too !! We leave in 4 days for our 1st 3 nite Wonder. I for sure know that my DS4 & DS2 will have difficulty sitting through the whole meal and this is a good option to have. I would also like to know how to deal with the tipping !!
Ash

 

[happymommy]

Hi Elizabeth,
On the Molar express cruise *ahhh, sweet memories* DH and I had dinner with Nancy and Chuck at Topsider's one night. It was pretty much the same food as dinner, except we ate up there on lobster night and there was no lobster.
The tables were covered and it looked pretty nice, service was good, but a little slow. I'd eat there again, it's a nice change from the dining rooms.

Just wondering, is there one night that lobster is offered? We're on a 7 day Western in August (Magic). I'd love to know ahead of time about this! Do they tell you ahead of time which night that is?

 

[MrsMork]

They do let you know ahead of time when lobster will be served. It is on the 7 day only and is called Captain's Gala.

If this is your first sailing, I would try the dining rooms before making a decision that they definately won't work for your children. Dinner is typically shorter than 2 hours and the servers are very good at entertaining the children as well as the adults. Dinner is yet another "show" on DCL. The children are often encouraged to get up and join the staff during parades around the room, etc.

 

[callahanjulie10]

We were there on formal night and they went to the dining room to get lobster for me! Likes others have said, it is very quiet, relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere. If we decided we didn't want to dress up, we would go there again without giving it a second thought!

 

[gssmks]

They do let you know ahead of time when lobster will be served. It is on the 7 day only and is called Captain's Gala.

If this is your first sailing, I would try the dining rooms before making a decision that they definately won't work for your children. Dinner is typically shorter than 2 hours and the servers are very good at entertaining the children as well as the adults. Dinner is yet another "show" on DCL. The children are often encouraged to get up and join the staff during parades around the room, etc.

Other than Animator's show with the changing color, do any of the other dinning rooms actually have shows, or do you just mean that the servers try to make sure everyone has fun? According to the posters on this board, dinner last from 90minutes to 2 hours. If you went to the dinning rooms every night that would be a total of 10 and a half to 14 hours spent doing nothing but eating dinner. That doesn't even include breakfast, lunch and snacks. From looking at the navigators, there are so many activities offered from 6:00 to 9:00 each night that there is no way of doing them all even if we never step foot in a dinning room. I just can't imagine spending that much time sitting at a table when we are on the ship for such a short time. There are just too many things that we would rather be doing. I have to eat out so much due to business that formal meals feel more like work to me than vacation. Still, we would like to try some of the wonderful dishes that we have seen on the DCL Food thread on this board.

 

[cruisnfamily]

According to the posters on this board, dinner last from 90minutes to 2 hours. .

We've been on 3 Disney cruises, each time, the dinner on the first night was long(about 90min-2hrs) and each time, we told our waitstaff that it was too long for us & the kids and we'd like to get out of there quicker. All the following nights, we were out in about 1hr to 1hr15min max. They want to please you and they'll speed it up if that's your preference.

 

[LOVETHATMOUSE]

We do Topsiders every morning for breakfast - except for the Character Breakfast, and have lunch there too. We LOVE eating outdoors. That said, we have never tried eating there for dinner because we have always loved our waitstaff in the restaurants, but sometimes 5:30 is just too early for dinner for us (we have main seating again this year). We would love to try dinner there, so my question is - can you eat outside in the front like we do for breakfast and lunch? That would be awesome. Having dinner under the stars with a warm breeze - what could be better than that?

 

[wdw1972]

I will be watching this thread too !! We leave in 4 days for our 1st 3 nite Wonder. I for sure know that my DS4 & DS2 will have difficulty sitting through the whole meal and this is a good option to have. I would also like to know how to deal with the tipping !!
Ash

This is not an option on the Wonder - only the Magic.

 

[UMTerp]

If you arrive to dinner on time there is no reason why dinner should take longer than about an hour unless your child eats very slowly. We have been on 3 DCL cruises, always have early dinner, and have left within about an hour each time. I would not miss the atmosphere, fun, and shows in the dining rooms on your first cruise. They do a great job of accomodating the kids! Our DD was only 4 on our first cruise and they did a great job with her!

UMTerp

 

[dlf246]

Tipping has been a point of debate on the threads I have read. If we in fact do only eat in the dinning room on one night and at Topsiders every other night, would it be proper to tip the Topsider's staff instead of the dinning room staff, or I should I still tip the dinning room staff? I feel that I should tip the individuals who actually serve us, but it would not be fair to us to have to tip twice.

Can someone answer this good question... how to fairly tip in this setting?

 

[happymommy]

What's not an option on the Wonder, only the Magic? We'll be on the Magic.

 

[aprilgail2]

We ate at topsiders one night since we didn't want to dress for formal night. It was nice there and the service was very quick...but I wouldn't eat there every night, almost every night there was something going on in the dining rooms...my daughter didn't let us leave until the end of dining time since she wanted to make sure she didn't miss anything. My daughter loved the napkin waving, the parade of flags etc...our very least favorite thing was that "light show" at animators..what a disappointment! It was downright boring and even my daughter didn't think it was anything great, she liked the other dinners better! They had lobster on Semi Formal night and my mom loved the lobster, I don't care for fish/meat so I didn't try it.

 

[grlzmom]

We also tried Topsiders on one of our cruises. We tipped at Topsiders and still tipped our regular dining room staff. They work all day for their tips (serving breakfast, lunch, etc.), not just at dinner.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Topsiders is NOT open the first or last night of the cruise for dinner.

We usually average about 1.25 hours for dinner in the restaurants (NOT on the first night). However, there have been times is has taken 2 hours through no fault of our own.