Waiter follows you on Cruise Ship?!

[dotnang]

Hello,
I've been wanting to go on a Disney Cruise for awhile and while watching a TV special about Disney Cruises, behind the scenes, they stated that personalized touches like having your waiter follow your family through the different restaurants and all your meals is one of the personal touches. So does that mean every family gets their own waiter assigned to them?? I think thats great, but seems so unrealistic.

Hoping to go for my 20yr anniversary to find out myself!!

Dorothy

 

[JohnDS]

Hello,
I've been wanting to go on a Disney Cruise for awhile and while watching a TV special about Disney Cruises, behind the scenes, they stated that personalized touches like having your waiter follow your family through the different restaurants and all your meals is one of the personal touches. So does that mean every family gets their own waiter assigned to them?? I think thats great, but seems so unrealistic.

Hoping to go for my 20yr anniversary to find out myself!!

Dorothy

It means the waitstaff rotates through the 3 main dining rooms just like the guests. So that you have the same staff each night, however that server has more guests assigned to them than just you. If you choose to eat at one of the other places such as Cabanas or Palo, you will not have your regular servers.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Hello,
I've been wanting to go on a Disney Cruise for awhile and while watching a TV special about Disney Cruises, behind the scenes, they stated that personalized touches like having your waiter follow your family through the different restaurants and all your meals is one of the personal touches. So does that mean every family gets their own waiter assigned to them?? I think thats great, but seems so unrealistic.

Hoping to go for my 20yr anniversary to find out myself!!

Dorothy

There are 3 Main Dining Rooms onboard. You are assigned to a specific table for dinner. The same table number in all MDRs. You are also assigned a specific rotation that you will go to the MDRs . Your dining room servers are assigned to the same rotation and table number that you are. So, for dinner, you will have the same servers during the entire cruise (barring illness or injury).

 

[bayamandal]

Yup, that is exactly what it means and it is awesome.

One of the benefits is that they figure out pretty quickly what you like and have it for you at your next seating. For instance, they realized my daughter loves strawberries and at every seating before we even sat down there was a bowl of strawberries there for them. Same with non-alcoholic beverages. My husband always ordered a coke, and when we arrived coke, tea, whatever was available. They also figured out what kinds of foods we gravitated to and made recommendations based on that.

It was great because it is one of those personal touches that makes Disney so wonderful. As a matter of fact, I am FB friends with our server from our last cruise now.

 

[laurianne]

As long as you dine in the main dining room at your scheduled dinner seating, your waitstaff will be the same during your cruise. From my experience on other cruises, they work very hard for you, and are worth the tips they earn.

 

[lanejudy]

DCL uses "rotational" dining for the evening meal. You will rotate among the 3 Main Dining Rooms (MDRs) throughout your cruise. You will have the same wait staff team (head server, server, assistant server) at each MDR. This team serves more than just your family, but everyone is on the same rotation schedule. They try really hard to get to know you -- might have your favorite beverage ready at the table, know your likes to offer suggestions off the menu, become familiar with allergy or other food-related concerns.

If you so choose, you can eat at the casual dining restaurant, fast food locations, room service or adult dining restaurants (extra $) instead of the MDRs each night -- in this case you will not have the same serving team.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[calker]

yes, the entire wait staff follow you between all of the rotational restaurants.

There is usually a waiter/waitress and an assistant assigned to your table. (they do also take care of a couple other tables in your immediate area)

there are three rotational restaurants - you will have the same table number in each restaurant -

Our experiences with them has been fantastic - by the second meal the staff figured out preferences and had them waiting for us at the table (white milk/chocolate milk - water/no water - soup/salad - soup/no salad)

Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

 

[chateau]

It is GREAT! They know our preferences, to the point that ordering drinks (especially for the kids) isn't necessary. It's there within a minute of sitting at the table. They know what you want, what you tend to choose (such as foods to avoid), know that you like the extra dessert (ok, so maybe that's not so great when you get home and have gained weight!)

I like it. It's more personal and friendly. The only time I didn't like it was when we had a sub-Disney-par wait staff (and for me, that's really hard to do... I'm not picky or demanding).

 

[lbgraves]

Each serving team has 18-20 people in their section for each seating. You will have an assistant server and a server. There is also a head server who is in charge of several sections and is in charge of making sure things run smoothly in the dining room. They may spend a lot of time on the line in the kitchen helping the servers' orders go out correctly. The dining managers are in charge of everyone in the MDR.

 

[Justacruiser]

there are three members of your dining room staff. they include:
Head Server
Server
Assistant Server

the Head Server supervises the Server and Assistant Server and has numerous other Server/Assistant Servers underneath him/her.

The Server and Assistant Server is you main servers providing you service. They have between 12-20 patrons assigned to them. So, depending on how big the parties are, that's how many tables they can serve. The most efficient way for the service team to work is that everyone starts at the same time. They get all the drinks, take all the others, deliver everything as a group. The first night it will take a little longer because the don't know everyone. Things should speed up on the second night.

The only hiccup is service will be IF a specific table decides to not show up at the designated time, say delay 15-30 minutes late. This throws everything off for the service team. They will have gotten your drinks, and taken your order..... and then they late group walks. Now the have to stop.... take their drink order, get our food, take their order, clear our plates, get their food, bring our food......... hopefully you get that. If you see others coming in late... don't blame your service team for being slow. They are only trying to provide the best service.

You do NOT need to arrive to dinner 5 minutes early. Your table will be there when you get there. But, for the courtesy of your service staff and others cruising.... show up with 5-10 within your dinner time.

 

[AquaDame]

You share them with other families and yes, they do follow you throughout the cruise! The main benefit is supposedly that they learn what you like/dislike etc, but I have not personally found this to be true. Of our three cruises I have always ordered the exact same tea each night for example, always Jasmine, and always go through 3 or 4 cups of hot water, and none of them have ever had it waiting for me - they always ask what I would like as if I were any other person at any other restaurant. They have also never figured out that yes I will need more hot water! I'm not saying this to be mean, but just don't want you to go in and be disappointed if your servers don't pull this bit of magic off.

 

[Tinknalli]

YMMV, but our serving team on our last cruise had drinks ready each night, including the last night where the kids sat down to one of each drink they had ordered during the entire week and my son was served a cookies and cream sundae ever night even when it wasn't on the menu.

 

[JohnDS]

The only hiccup is service will be IF a specific table decides to not show up at the designated time, say delay 15-30 minutes late. This throws everything off for the service team. They will have gotten your drinks, and taken your order..... and then they late group walks. Now the have to stop.... take their drink order, get our food, take their order, clear our plates, get their food, bring our food......... hopefully you get that. If you see others coming in late... don't blame your service team for being slow. They are only trying to provide the best service.

I do not understand this. When I go to nice restaurants on land, people are arriving and leaving throughout the dinner hours and it doesn't cause any extra distress to the serving staff. Why would it cause any additional disruption on the ship if someone is 15 minutes late?

 

[Justacruiser]

I do not understand this. When I go to nice restaurants on land, people are arriving and leaving throughout the dinner hours and it doesn't cause any extra distress to the serving staff. Why would it cause any additional disruption on the ship if someone is 15 minutes late?

The dining rooms are huge and it takes alot of time to get from the back to the front. Let's say you have 3 kids and you are sitting down at the dinner table. One wants catsup, the other two just sit there. The second child needs more milk, so you get the mik while the other two sit there. And finally, the third asks for another napkin. If you would have had the three requests at the same time you make one trip. Otherwise you make three trips. Now combine that with 12-20 people and multiply the distance for the staff they must walk.

Most service staff will adjust to whatever the cruisers desire, but that is because they want tips. And from what i am used too, the finer restaurants that serve multiple courses also limit the amount of customers at one time. Single service is much easier to manage than a 4 course dinner service.

hope this clarifies.

 

[Prose]

I do not understand this. When I go to nice restaurants on land, people are arriving and leaving throughout the dinner hours and it doesn't cause any extra distress to the serving staff. Why would it cause any additional disruption on the ship if someone is 15 minutes late?

Don't think of it as straight restaurant-type service. It is more of a hybrid of restaurant and plated banquet service. Ideally, everyone is there on time, all of the first courses are ordered and brought out at about the same time, then the soup/salad course, and so on. If your tablemates are late to arrive, your servers will wait for them (within reason) so that the service courses stay coordinated.

The dining rooms are really big and full of diners, and your wait staff will be toting huge trays of food. It is much smoother if they are bringing out all of the salads, entrees, desserts on a singe tray. This is especially true on a night when there is a "show" in the MDR, like the night your drawings come to life in Animator's Palate on the Fantasy. That service is so tightly paced (and a little frantic) that everyone gets the same appetizer and dessert to save time.

 

[JohnDS]

If your tablemates are late to arrive, your servers will wait for them (within reason) so that the service courses stay coordinated.

I hope you are mistaken. If this is true and someone decides to eat at Cabana's or have room service or just have pizza by the pool, we will all delay our meal till we are sure they aren't coming? I would hope they would instead just move along, especially if they are busy and pressed for time.

 

[lanejudy]

I hope you are mistaken. If this is true and someone decides to eat at Cabana's or have room service or just have pizza by the pool, we will all delay our meal till we are sure they aren't coming? I would hope they would instead just move along, especially if they are busy and pressed for time.

It can depend...since you are seated with other passengers, they generally prefer to serve the whole table at once. So they may bring your drinks and wait 10-15 minutes for the others to arrive. But, yes, you can ask your servers to move ahead with your orders while waiting. That's why it's important to let your servers and/or tablemates know if you don't plan to dine at the MDR any given night.

The kitchens aren't necessarily set-up like regular land-based restaurants. They expect X number of people at a certain time, and plan to serve the courses in order. If one party is late and the appetizers have already been served, the kitchen staff may already be busy getting entrees prepared, and they'll have to stop and re-plate appetizers for the late arrivals. As a PP said, it's more like a banquet service than regular land-based restaurant service.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I hope you are mistaken. If this is true and someone decides to eat at Cabana's or have room service or just have pizza by the pool, we will all delay our meal till we are sure they aren't coming? I would hope they would instead just move along, especially if they are busy and pressed for time.

Yes, unless the "missing" diners have already notified the server that they won't be there, they will wait. In our experience, they will usually delay 10-15 minutes before taking orders. Then, again delay serving until the end of the service window for that course before serving. Then, if the missing diners show up, they will fast track them to catch them up to us. At the same time delaying service on our subsequent courses until they catch up.

Yes, it's a pain in the neck when this happens. So we are very careful to let them know when we aren't going to be there.

 

[jdb in AZ]

I hope you are mistaken. If this is true and someone decides to eat at Cabana's or have room service or just have pizza by the pool, we will all delay our meal till we are sure they aren't coming? I would hope they would instead just move along, especially if they are busy and pressed for time.

If you're not planning to eat in the main dining room you should notify your waiter ahead of time so the rest of your group won't be kept waiting. After about 15 minutes of waiting the staff will go ahead without you.

 

[Prose]

That's why I said within reason - they will bring you drinks right away, but may wait just a few minutes to allow for someone running behind. You will not end up sitting there for 15 minutes waiting on food. If tablemates are late, your orders will be taken and food brought. But if they do show up extremely late, it throws off service to them (not you)- I have heard that they may end up having to skip a course, but have never seen that happen.

Delays do happen - especially on formal night when everyone is lined up outside the dining rooms for pictures - and your servers will adjust and accommodate. But if you know ahead of time that you are planning to skip a meal, it is always polite to let your servers know the night before so they won't wait.

The whole event is choreographed so well that it helps greatly for everyone to be on time.