French Fry Diary 748: Cabanas, Disney Dream, June 2017

On the last day of our June 2017 Disney Cruise on the Dream I hit Cabanas for lunch. While it's not always my first choice, we were close and both The Bride and I were hungry. Cabanas, as you can see from this search of the blog, is primarily the best place for breakfast, and not necessarily for lunch… but I was in for a shocking surprise.

Expecting of the favorite fried food the usual fare of Disney natural cuts, as by the last day they are usually out of steak fries, I came upon a glorious oasis in the buffet line… perfect British chips, or perfect French fries, depending on your perception. These were ¾ inch thickness square, and three to four inches long. They had been under a heat lamp for a bit, but still hot and soft like baked potato inside, and crispy on the outside.

These French fries were perfect. I loved them. So if you're on the Disney Cruise, and on the top deck buffet, keep your eyes open, they were fantastic.

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This is Cabanas lunch from our June 2017 Disney Cruise on board the Dream. These steak fries were labeled as "steak frites," but were decidedly not that at all, still very very yummy though.

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Cabanas roasted red potatoes again, this time from day four of our June 2017 Disney Cruise, this time with red and green peppers added in. Mmmm... breakfast potatoes...

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Cabanas breakfast on day three of our June 2017 Disney Cruise. On this morning, shredded and carmelized onions were added to the mix, tasty.

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Lunch on the first full day of our June 2017 Disney Cruise on the Dream, these are the standard Disney natural cuts from Cabanas.  You can see how tasty they were by how many I actually got.  Not many were eaten afterward either. 

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From Cabanas on the first morning of our June 2017 Disney Cruise, those fabulous roasted red breakfast potatoes, that morning with green peppers and onions.

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Another shot of the roasted red skin breakfast potatoes at Cabanas on board the Disney Fantasy.

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From our recent Disney Fantasy trip, this is lunch at Cabanas, the top deck buffet on board. Not just some sweet juicy ham, but the two potato stars of the Disney Cruise Line - the roasted red potatoes and the steak fries. Mmmm...

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Always a highlight of the Disney Cruise, the breakfast potatoes, made with red potatoes, red and green peppers, and onions. Awesome, always the best.

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More breakfast potatoes, these are from Cabanas, roasted redskin breakfast potatoes with crispy onions and peppers - from the TCM Classic Cruise on board the Disney Magic. Mmmmm...

French Fry Diary 632: Cabanas - TCM Cruise Day Three

We had a surprise this morning. Either someone complained, the staff was needed elsewhere, or they decided we didn't have Ebola and we're capable of serving ourselves - but today we were allowed to serve ourselves.

The waitstaff kept trying to hand us wet wipes for after we used spoons and tongs like perpetual motion machines, but still.

The great self-service buffet ban was over!

The potatoes were awesome, and this morning I was able to get some bacon done the way I liked it - and more than two pieces(!). The mood on this morning was considerably better. And not just for me, for everyone at Cabanas.

French Fry Diary 628: Cabanas - TCM Cruise Day Two

For apparent health reasons (we are in the middle of a worldwide ebola scare, and cruise ships are well known for spreading germs like wildfire, so I do get it, but still…), Disney is attempting to kill the all-you-can-eat buffet concept with guilt. As I mentioned in an earlier post, you may no longer serve yourself. *

If say, a huge percentage of the reason you choose Cabanas is for the breakfast potatoes, you can only get a small serving of them. And if you ask nicely for more please, they will give you a proper non-verbal shaming before finally, after an appropriate pause, giving you another small serving.

Another negative to having a server in front of each station to give you your food at the 'all-you-can-eat' buffet is bacon. A serving of bacon is two small strips, period. Try, just try asking for more. And there is no longer any such thing as crispy bacon and not so crispy bacon. If you wanted one of the other previously, you could just pick them out and put them on your plate. Now, The Bride who likes crispy bacon and I who like it not so crispy, got the same bacon, despite our instructions. You have zero control on what you get to eat at a buffet.

The same goes for the wonderful breakfast potatoes on board. These are great chunked broiled, spiced, and marinated small red potatoes that are a number one reason to go to Cabanas for breakfast. Suppose you want them soft one day and crispy the next, the server will just plop a small spoonful on your plate willy-nilly, crispy or soft. The image you see is three servings by the way.

What I did get was very good, but you should never have to leave an all-you-can-eat buffet hungry, right? I did. And don't even get me started on asking for those tiny paper cartons of milk, especially if you want one for cereal and one or two to drink. Talk about a server stink-face! Perhaps it's not just health reasons, maybe Disney is running out of food…

* The situation did resolve itself, check here.

French Fry Diary 626: Cabanas - TCM Cruise Day One

This past October I had the opportunity to go on the TCM Classic Cruise on board the Disney Magic. It was my fiftieth birthday gift from The Bride.

After you board, you have time on your hands as your rooms take some time to get ready, and sometimes your luggage takes some time to arrive as well. The Disney Cruise lets you make the most of your wait time by opening their huge buffet up on the top deck, Cabanas. It's like a Florida tourism feeding frenzy.

First things first, buffets on the Disney Cruise work different than traditional buffets. They are station based as opposed to line based. If you want French fries, you go right to the French fries as opposed to waiting in a single line until you get to the French fries. Also, new on this trip, due to supposed health reasons, they have servers who get the food for you. You can't do it yourself any more. Not so happy about that, and I'll talk about it in another post. I get it, but it is what it is.

I got, or rather my server got, some chicken and those wonderful baked steak fries the Disney Cruise is famous for. The chicken was thin cuts, very spicy and citrusy, of which I was only allowed two pieces, and I got a reasonable amount of the fries. You can see what a serving size is, plus what I got when I asked for more please would be from the picture.

The fries were very good, but you can see how folks are being shamed into smaller portions by the powers that be. Happy, but not happy, if you know what I mean.

Dining on the Disney Fantasy

We've been talking about the meals (and the potato-ey offerings) on board the Disney Fantasy ship of the Disney Cruise Line for a few weeks now. If you haven't had enough already, here's an extra special treat.

If you liked reading about the dining on the Disney Fantasy, you might also like listening to The Bride and myself talking about it. For those of you who aren't aware, we're doing a Disney-focused podcast called The Make Mine Magic Podcast, which you can hear here.

Not just about French fries, but all of the food offerings and dining options on board are up for discussion. Check out the podcast here.

French Fry Diary 537: Celebration Night at Enchanted Garden

After a night suffering from a thankfully 24-hour bug, and a special thank you to the newlywed couple who helped me out, especially the man who escorted me to the medical center, I was back on track aboard the Disney Fantasy. The kindness of strangers is a wonderful thing, and these two gentlemen were very caring and thoughtful. The next morning I awoke, fever broken, and voracious, diving right for those great roasted potatoes up at Cabanas. I was back.

Our final night on board was a good one, and not just because I was feeling better. First I was feeling good enough to eat. As an appetizer I tried the Grilled Potato with Goat Cheese Napoleon. Wow. The potato part was very good, but I'm not sure why they called that other stuff cheese. Nope, Tiggers do not like goat cheese.

Now all week I had been using the new app for my iPhone that only works on the boat called 'Disney Fantasy Navigator.' It was basically an electronic version of the daily schedule given out everyday on the boat. In the dinner menus for everyday I kept reading about this Golden Chicken Strips with Barbeque Sauce served with Steak Fries. As it turns out this was a kiddie offering, but by the end of seeing it all week, I wanted it, and ordered it. Sadly, they were out of steak fries. I guess the good fries go first.

For dessert, The Bride was sung to for her birthday, and we were both sung to for our anniversary. Combine that with a luscious dessert called Chocolate Decadence, as well as baked Alaska, and this was a very good night.

And remember, French Fry Diary is now on Facebook, come on over and join the fun and the discussion!

French Fry Diary 534: Enchanted Garden, Disney Fantasy

Today was a good food day on board the Disney Fantasy, between breakfast at Cabanas and lunch at the Royal Court, I wasn't sure what to expect at the Enchanted Garden for dinner. I need not have worried.

I got the steak option available every night that is for the folks not interested in that night's particular fare. With that I got a baked potato, which was one of the better such I have had in quite some time. I mashed that sucker up with a fork, smothered it in butter and went to town. And yeah, the steak was very good too.

That's three for three today, and the third day on board. Let's see what tomorrow brings. Hopefully it's something potato-ey…

French Fry Diary 531: Cabanas, Breakfast, Disney Fantasy

I talked about this free form buffet before when I encountered it on board the Disney Dream. This morning we went there for breakfast before seeing an early morning showing of Planes in the Buena Vista Theatre. After an unlucky couple of days food-wise and no luck find breakfast potatoes other than those awful greasy hash brown slabs, I finally hit the jackpot.

Not only did Cabanas have grilled ham in pieces bigger than a half-dollar, but they had the most succulent and delicious breakfast potatoes I have every had. Big chunks of spiced potato, about half the size of a wedge, mixed in with peppers and onions. I had two servings of these awesome potatoes. Sooo good.

I guess that's a lock then, we'll be, or I'll be having breakfast at Cabanas for the rest of the trip. Those roasted breakfast potatoes are the best.

French Fry Diary 265: Royal Palace for Breakfast

For day three breakfast on board the Disney Dream I was alone. The Bride and the rest of the women of our party were at the 'princess gathering,' and the other men were smartly sleeping. I ventured into the ritzy Royal Palace for breakfast.

While there were very tempting huge breakfasts available like a pineapple French toast stack and a supposedly killer Eggs Benedict, I went off menu for ham, bacon, English muffin, and oh yeah, breakfast potatoes.

Now the grilled ham is a treat that the Disney boat always does well, and bacon is always good, in any capacity. The potatoes were much the same as the ones at Cabanas yesterday but without the onions and peppers. They did have a sharp seasoning to them though. And that's a good thing. But have a cold drink ready.

As I said I went off menu. They had those square hash browns and I didn't want those. When the roasted potatoes were brought to the table I was told they were from the Enchanted Garden so I guess that will be my next stop for breakfast.

I think this was the point in the trip where the waitstaff as a whole became wise to me. I was the guy taking pictures of potato products and taking notes on his phone as well. The next couple times I was at Cabanas, a waiter I did not know would approach me and direct me to the potato product for the meal, and tell me it was hot and tasty, try it.

French Fry Diary 262: Cabanas for Breakfast

Breakfast on day two of our Disney Dream trip brought us back to Cabanas. Hitting these places early in the morning is always the best idea as they get crowded very quickly, even Cabanas with its hit and run style buffet. And of course, no matter what kind of buffet, seating is always first come first serve.

On the menu as far as the favorite fried food goes, there were the usual hash brown squares that are barely inedible and did not make the jump to my plate, and the wonderful roasted potatoes that did. I was surprised to them both available. From experience, usually the hash browns come out later in the trip when they've run out of the good potatoes. However, the Disney Dream being so big, they never seemed to run out of the good stuff.

The roasted potatoes are new and red potatoes chopped up into bite-sized chunks, seasoned and baked in a marinade, along with peppers and onions. These are soft and succulent, and along with copious amounts of the magical food called bacon, they are easily the best thing about breakfast on the Disney boat.

French Fry Diary 260: Cabanas, Disney Dream

This is the first entry of my vacation log for French Fry Diary, enjoy! After a long day of running around, starting at four in the morning, going from passenger van to plane (including a stopover in Raleigh) to bus to finally boat, I was worn out, and Cabanas on the Disney Dream was like an oasis.

Number one, Cabanas is big, really big. Compared to the buffets at the top of the other Disney ships, it's downright huge. It's so big that while it looks like a buffet it works differently, sort of a hit and run instead of a waiting in line deal - yeah, it's big enough to do that, and not make folks mad.

It's so big we were looking for our friends we were cruising with and it seemed like we were walking forever before we found them. Get the idea, it's big and the Disney Dream is even bigger. When we found them, my friend Dom, aware of my unfortunate addiction immediately directed me to the steak fries. Yeah, he's cool like that.

The steak fries were pretty typical for buffet style steak fries, except they were very good. Of course that might have just been that I was so hungry from the day, or just that Disney magic. Anyway, they were very good, grocery freezer steak fries, probably deep-fried (not, as I learned later in the cruise, they don't deep-fry) but they tasted baked.

I also had grilled ribeye (also suggested by Dom, who is also very conscious of me being a catastrophically picky eater, he knew me waaay back when I didn't eat pizza...), wonderful Disney rolls and key lime pie (first time for me, proving I'm not hopelessly picky) for dessert - a very filling lunch. I can't wait to come back for breakfast, or for dinner tonight at the Enchanted Garden.