Not just any ol' dinner

If you have ever cruised before, you know about dinners at sea. They are meant to be grand, delicious, unique, exquisite, and remarkable...

For the girls, it was! They had so much fun ordering cheese pizza almost every night. Ella was adventurous with a few of her appetizers-ordering soups. They enjoyed teasing Alvin, our server from the Phillipines. They couldn't wait for each night's dessert menu.

In my opinion, the food was good. Not the afore mentioned remarkable, but good. Understand, I was looking at the cruise through the eyes of a mom and then through the eyes of a critic hoping to publish a review. More on that later....

Our server was friendly and helpful. He worked HARD to keep all 20 of his guests happy. He was sarcastic, which took a bit to get used to. He was also smitten by Ella and thoroughly enjoyed teasing her or hiding her little toys. One night, he brought her a bowl of ice cream with literally one drop in it, while McKenna's bowl was overflowing. This almost brought Ella to tears....which, I wonder-might have been his goal =(

Here are Alvin and the girls. We learned that Alvin's wife still lives in the Phillipines with their 4 children (oldest is 19). He works 6 months and then has 8 weeks off. We don't fully believe that this is his given name-rather one he created for himself out of ease for Americans.

For some reason, you will notice Ella's tongue is sticking out in way too many pictures.

Uncle Dale, Sergio and McKenna

Sergio is from Spain. He hasn't been working with DCL very long. He mentioned that he isn't sure how much he likes it. (Keep in mind that I asked lots of questions to the servers. Getting to know them was a fun part for me.)  He was EXCELLENT at memorizing our names and recognizing us outside of the dinning rooms. Very nice guy. Very gentle spirit.

We also celebrated Ella's birthday while on the ship. Alvin brought her this giant slice of cake. It had so many yummy layers. That cruise ship on top? White and Dark chocolate!

Not sure why but Alvin decided to encourage Ella to put her face into the cake and McKenna quickly chimed in. He also fed Ella her first bite!

DCL dinning differs from others in that it offers rotation dining. There are 3 different dinning rooms on board: Parrot Cay, Lumiere's, Animator's Palate

Animator's Palate was my favorite. As you begin your dinning experience the room and servers-lack color. Everything is black, white or gray. As the dinner progresses colors start to appear and characters begin to become animated on the wall. Very cool. By dessert everything is vivid.

Parrot Cay was my least favorite of the three. It felt like a Old Country Buffet to me (Or, Shoney's) minus the "help yourself buffet line." Here's McKenna enjoying too much Jello at Parrot Cay.

Lot of the food is shaped like Mickey! Even the ketchup!