Somewhat embarrassingly, I must admit that we went on the Disney Cruise two months ago and we still have not blogged about all the amazing food we ate. And believe me when I say I’m not sure I was ever really hungry for seven whole days. Perhaps it was on the verge of gluttony, but you really can’t help it when everything is just SO GOOD.
At first I was going to blog about ALL the food we ate at every meal, but I decided 1) that would be excessive, and 2) I don’t have quite THAT much free time on my hands. As such, I will feature only my favorites from our wonderful 7-Night cruise on the Disney Fantasy.
One of my absolute favorite places to eat on the ship was Cabanas. Not everyone shared my extreme enthusiasm for this eatery, which I suppose is understandable because it was usually more crowded as it was buffet style dining. When you first board the ship on Embarkment Day, Cabanas is the only eatery that is open until dinner, so everyone ends up there. The lunch spread was phenomenal – literally anything you wanted was there (sandwiches, burgers, entree style dishes, salads, fruit, shellfish, pasta, pizza, dessert, and on and on). I wanted a bit of everything, so I tried to grab a few bits of all the dishes that looked enticing.
I selected three types of cured meet, a hunk of blue cheese (which was AMAZING), a cold asparagus mushroom salad, a crab coleslaw, spinach for salad with beets and cherry tomatoes, curried chicken and grape salad, and two huge fresh mussels. Everything was so fresh and tasted delicious! I also noticed overall on this cruise that the kitchen definitely reduced the salt and sugar content on all the dishes. I didn’t mind at all, everything still tasted great!
For dessert we shared a carrot cake square. Now, we are big carrot cake fans, especially my dad, but what we are not fans of is “carrot cake” that is essentially all frosting. As good as cream cheese frosting is, it tends to be too sweet at most places anyway. This carrot cake, however, was perfect. Not only was there just the right amount of frosting to lightly sweeten the cake, but the cake itself was deliciously moist with a great amount of spice and texture. A+ Disney.
So possibly my biggest reason for loving Cabanas so much was breakfast. Yes, you could have anything you could imagine – think scrambled eggs, fried eggs, eggs benedict, omelets, waffles, pancakes, french toast, cured meat, cereal, pastries, etc. – but I soon found my favorite spot: the fruit and nut bar! I LOVE dried fruit and nuts together, but usually they are so expensive at home. Here, I could have a whole assortment without having to buy each individual kind! I would fill my bowl with walnuts, almonds, pepitas, dried apricots, dried bananas, dried pineapple, raisins, and toasted coconut, then I would pour over a ladle of bircher muesli (a yogurty-oat mixture with sliced apples). OMG I was in love!
Okay, so despite my love for my tropical granola style breakfast bowl, I couldn’t forgo the warm tray of freshly baked cinnamon rolls! Gah, look how soft and gooey they look!!! And again, just sweetened enough with a light drizzle of frosting instead of slathered with entirely too much sugar.
Just in case you were still curious about some of the other lunch buffet options, here was a plate on another day, which included shrimp, crab claws, more mussels, prime rib, a chicken tender, and Disney’s perfect mac ‘n’ cheese.
Did I mention they also had plates of sushi?!?!?!!!!!! Surprisingly, I think my favorite was actually the asparagus-avocado roll.
So in conclusion, Cabanas definitely wowed me, and I was always happy to overlook the screaming (and sometimes crying) small children because I could count on an entirely satisfying meal.