How does the food in the MDRs compare to the restaurants on Disney? Will they bring you as much as you want if you ask? What is the menu like? Which has better food? Also, in the speciality restaurants I know there's an up charge but what does that price include?
I've recently been on the Disney Dream twice, and on Liberty, Oasis and Allure on Royal (and also Quantum, but that's a whole different can of worms).
For all those cruises, we found the MDR food at dinner pretty comparable between disney and royal, with a slight edge toward royal, though not enough to make a difference in who we'd choose to sail with. I thought the disney buffet had more selection than royal, though quality was similar. Palo, the disney adults-only specialty restaurant, was slightly better than the specialties on royal (chops, portofino, giovanni's table), though they were all good, and all were steps up from the MDRs on both lines.
In the MDR on royal, you can definitely get as much as you want. we tend to travel with a group and people will order 2 or more of a certain course (like 2 entrees, or 2 desserts), and a lot of the time we will also order extra dishes for the table to share. no problem. if for some reason your server won't give you extra (i've only read about that happening once, but i guess it happens), talk to the head waiter.
The menus change every night, so it's hard to say what they are "like." They are loosely themed, like italian, or asian, but not every food on the menu will subscribe to the theme. there is also a basic menu of chicken breast, pasta, steak, and fish available every day, if you don't like that day's selections. (quantum is totally different, so if you're sailing on quantum, let me know - that will require a whole different explanation!)
The upcharge in the specialty restaurants includes an appetizer, entree, and dessert. usually you can get an extra app or dessert. as for entrees, it depends on the restaurant - portofino charges a little extra (i think $10?) for a second entree, but giovanni's brought us one for free. the extra charge was printed on the menu, though, so we knew about it, and you could always ask. that said, the specialty restaurants bring you enough food, you generally don't need any extra (the giovanni's one was split among a bunch of us, just to try it). other than the usual free drinks, liked iced tea, drinks are an extra charge and not included in the upcharge, but if you purchase a drink package the drinks will be included in the package. Chops has additional items that are even more of an upcharge, like steak that's more aged - the additional amount will be printed on the menu. There is some debate as to whether the upcharge includes tips for the servers; fwiw, we presume it doesn't, or at least not enough, and tip extra, but others don't. to each their own.
