Pirate Night Dinner at Animator's Palate

Night three on the Disney Dream had me back at Animator's Palate for Pirate Night. Notice I said "me", not "us". It was a fabulous day in the blazing sun, full of swimming, snacks, hunting for shells, a race for me, snorkeling for Shawn and the kid's club for Katura. With all of that happening, by the time dinner came Katura was completely passed out and snoring. We didn't want to skip dinner all together, so I went as our family representative. Solo dinner for me, and it was still just as fun!

When I arrived at our table Linval was right there to greet me, and wonder where the rest of my party was. Once I explained that I was solo he immediately said we should surprise Shawn and have food sent to the room! He brought me a menu right away so we could plot what dishes we would have delivered. That was quite awesome! I don't know that I would have been brave enough to ask if that was possible, and I probably would have just brought him some pizza from the pool deck on my way back to our cabin! For dinner this evening the entire restaurant was in pirate mode! The girl's had menus that turned into pirate hats and the serving teams were decked out in pirate gear. Nearly every guest had some form of pirate attire, ranging from full outfits like mine down to just pirate inspired t-shirts or the bandannas that we were all gifted in our stateroom's that day. You can see the bandanna on the grandpa at our table in the photo below!

Here is a look at our table settings when I arrived. Aren't those pirate hat menus adorable? And check out the butter knifes... they look like artist's paint brushes!

Bread Service.  This evening's bread was Johnny Cake with mango dip. I think we had that AND cornbread, and I tried a bit of both. But I never tried the mango dip. It wasn't very close to me, and the bread was all good on its own that I didn't feel a need to reach over for something else. Maybe had I not been alone I wouldn't have felt too shy. But that being said, the bread was very yummy and I had a lot of it! I also had the drink of the day for the 3rd day in a row. It had Captain Morgan rum in it, so I knew that I needed it on my table!

The standard version of Animator's Palate is Finding Nemo themed, but for this night I was treated to screens rotating through different pictures from various pirate movies and the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction. I was in absolute Heaven with this! It didn't really even phase me that I was alone because I had my pirates with me. Melissa, the other mom at the table, and I did chat a little. And Ariana and I had a mini-sword fight while waiting for our dinner, so that was fun!

And now for the food!

Appetizers/Soup & Salad.  I did not chose an appetizer on this evening. Honestly this menu was the most difficult for me. It was very friendly on the meaty dishes, and the vegetarian options weren't really that appealing to me. The suggestion from Linval was a mushroom thing and I HATE mushrooms. So I went for the Fennel, orange and quinoa  salad with saffron, pine nuts and pomegranate. It was... interesting. I think mostly I had issues with textures of it. I liked the flavors, but the textures were just too weird for me. I gave it a try, so I'm proud of myself for that!

The appetizer that was suggested, and most people at the table chose, was what we had sent to Shawn in our cabin. And he loved it! It was the Deep fried calypso crab cake with Cajun remoulade, green onion and lemon. I noticed everyone gobbled it up, Shawn included!

Entrees.  For the vegetarian options I had two choices. The one I didn't chose was the Barbary Coast Falafel. Instead I had the Shanghaied Noodle Stir Fly  - egg noodles with nori, edamame beans, white soy sauce, marinated tofu, scallions, peppers, carrots and sesame seeds. This was really good and as much as I ate I couldn't even eat half of it. Again it was one of those that was deceptively filling. Of course I did have pizza in our room once we got back on the ship, so that may have played into it.

And here's where we got wild! Together Linval and I had not one, but TWO entrees sent to Shawn! First up to look at is King George's Roasted Privateer Strip Loin with thyme-roasted potatoes, buttered savoy cabbage, Yorkshire pudding and a rosemary wine sauce. "It was freaking marvelous" he says.

And his second entree was Chevalle's Lamb Shank - a rosemary lamb shank slowly braised in red wine served with buttered green beans and parsnip mash. "That was marvelous. Scrumptious. Delicious. Orgasmic." Apparently we chose well!

And finally, bring on the Dessert! Again, with my quirk of not eating chocolate I didn't have as many options. I could have ordered really whatever I wanted, but I wanted to stick to just ordering things presented on the menu so I could really get the feel of the whole experience and go outside of  my comfort zone. So for my dessert I nibbled on the Pirate's Treasure Sundae. Rum and raisin ice cream, pineapple, whipped cream and Florentine shard. A little too much raisin for me, but I enjoyed the overall taste of the ice cream. I was just too full, so I barely made a dent. I deliberately didn't eat too much of my main course just so I could have room for dessert! I left this dinner full, so that's a win I'd say!

A surprise to both Shawn and myself was that Linval sent dessert, too! He sent what everyone else at our table got, the signature dessert of Caramel Macadamia Nut Cheesecake Tart served with whipped cream and caramel ganache. He says it was good. It wasn't his favorite of all desserts, but he didn't complain!

At the end of dinner I wandered around a little bit, taking in some of the action of the Pirates IN the Caribbean party going on. So darn cute, with all of the characters in their own pirate attire. Peter Pan and Captain Hook were busy gallivanting around the atrium decks as well. It was completely adorable. I did not make it on deck for the 10:30pm party. I just didn't want to go without my crew, and we were in a storm anyway. I hear the show happened and fireworks did go off, but it was cut short. But this is why I will just go on another cruise and really do the whole pirate night thing!