Formal Dining Review
DCL's formal dining program is unique in that passengers are given a rotational schedule to attend different dining venues each night, while retaining the same wait staff. The Disney Wonder featured 3 dining rooms, The Artist's Palate, Tiana's Place, and Triton's. Our dining schedule on this 5 day cruise had the first 2 evenings in the Artist's Palate, the next 2 in Tiana's Place, and the final evening in Triton's. Your cruise card will show your dining schedule. One thing we found particularly nice was that on disembarkation day, you are assigned to have breakfast in the same dining room of your last evening's dinner at your assigned table. DCL has two breakfast seatings to mimic the two evening dinner seatings. Note that all the food we had in the dining rooms was good to very good with good variety from night to night. This review will focus on the experience in each dining venue.
Artist's Palate
The Artist's Palate is perhaps the most entertaining venue on the ship. The room is generally decorated in black and white with sketches in the walls showing various DCL characters. Also decorated throughout are LCD screens which animate the drawing of characters during dinner which culminate during desert on the first night. This was very entertaining and our kids loved it, as did we. On the second night, there was some more sketching but it was more limited and there was no show beyond more of a conga line put on by the wait staff. This could have been related to it being "Pirate Night"
Tiana's Place
Tiana's place is nicely decorated in a southern/creole theme and features a bandstand. On the first night, a band performed with some character interactions going on throughout the venue. The music was good, if a bit loud. The second night there was no entertainment at all, just an occasional character walking around. Our favorite part was the beignets and chicory coffee offered for desert.
Triton's Place
Other than the theming and a slight seafood influence on the menu this venue didn't have much going on. It could have been that it was our last evening, but there was nothing special about this room.
I think everyone in our party agreed that the entertainment during dining was perhaps one of the greatest innovations that DCL has contributed to the cruise industry and, other than some venues on NCL (tappanyaki) or some on RCL, I'm shocked that dining venues on HAL and Princess haven't evolved their dining somewhat beyond an occasional piano player.
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