17 Inspiring Disney Cruise Food Ideas

The food on a Disney ship is already yours. You paid for it with the fare, and the list of things that still carry a charge is short enough to write on a boarding pass. Nineteen sailings in, I can name every line on that short list without looking it up, and so can you by the end of this page.

This question feels frightening because nobody hands you the two lists side by side. You get a review of the desserts instead, and you board still guessing. So here are the two lists first: what you never pay for twice, and the few lines that land on your folio if you choose them.

Quick answer: almost all Disney cruise food is already included

I have sailed nineteen cruises across five lines, and this is the one topic where the honest answer is shorter than the question.

• Included: rotational dining rooms, buffet, quick-service, room service basics, snacks.
• Included drinks: drip coffee, juice, soda from the machines, tap water, milk, tea, lemonade.
• Charged to your folio: alcohol, canned soda from a bar, bottled water, smoothies.
• Charged separately: the adults-only restaurants, and nothing else in the dining lineup.

Everything below this box is the detail behind those four lines, in the order you will meet it on board.

The one meal of the week nobody has paid for on your behalf is the one ashore, which is why one booked food stop in port is the single line I plan at home.

Pro tip: screenshot that list before you sail, because the first night is when people buy things out of uncertainty.

What is included on a Disney cruise: the food you never pay for twice

Start with the sentence that settles it. All rotational dining rooms, buffets, quick-service spots, room service basics and snacks are included.

The only exception inside the dining lineup is specialty dining, and that is a short named list I will get to.

What that means in practice, deck by deck:

• Dinner: a table in one of the three main dining rooms, every night, with your own serving team.
• Breakfast and lunch: the buffet, a main dining room when it is open, or a quick-service window.
• Between meals: the snack counters and the soft-serve machines on the pool deck.
• In the cabin: room service, around the clock, with most items included.
• Portion size: a second appetizer or a second main is a request to your server, not a purchase.

So when the autocomplete asks whether disney cruise food included means everything, the answer is close to yes. The line falls at a few named venues and a few named drinks.

What you really pay for on this holiday is not dinner. It is the day you spend ashore, and that is where my own money goes: a food tour or a market walk booked before the ship docks is the one meal of the week worth planning. The rest of the planning side lives on the packing list.

That table is the whole argument of this article. Everything else is how to use it.

Rotational dining: how the three main restaurants work

This is the part that confuses first timers, and it is also the part that makes Disney cruise dining easier than it sounds.

You are assigned a rotational dining restaurant for each night of your cruise. You do not book dinner. Dinner is already booked.

Over the week you move through all three main dining rooms, and more than once on sailings longer than three nights. Your service team moves with you, and your table number stays the same each night.

So the thing that rotates is the room, not the people. By the second or third night your servers feel like your best friends, because they are the same four faces every evening.

• You keep: your table number, your servers, your dining time.
• You change: the room and the menu, on a schedule set before you boarded.
• You never book: the main dining rooms. No reservation exists to make.
• You check: the app, which shows your full disney cruise rotational dining schedule.

If you forget where you are supposed to be eating, the app has your rotation on the screen. I stopped writing it down after the first sailing.

That app is also the thing that goes quiet the moment you step off in a port, so data loaded before you board is what keeps your rotation and your reservations readable all week.

Pro tip: tell your server on night one how your family eats, because that team carries the note through every room for the rest of the week.

Your dining time and rotation are assigned before you board

Here is the decision most people make without realising it was a decision. At booking you select either main dining or late dining, and that choice sets your evenings.

There are generally two assigned dinner seatings each evening. The early seating starts around quarter to six, and the room is flipped for the late seating about two hours later. Late dining begins at quarter past eight and usually finishes between half nine and ten.

Switching is not symmetrical. It is harder to move from late to early than the other way, so choose carefully when you book.

• Take early dining if: you are sailing with small children, or you want the evening show after dinner.
• Take late dining if: you come back from port late, or your family eats late at home anyway.
• Ask on day one: the dining desk can sometimes move you, and the queue is shortest at embarkation.
• Do not assume: the show schedule pairs with your seating automatically. Check both in the app.

I took late dining once with a six year old in the party. We fed her at the buffet at five and she ate bread rolls at dinner. That is the mistake to learn from rather than repeat.

Late seating also decides your last day, because a late lunch and a flight home do not combine. A port transfer booked in advance takes that collision off the table.

The buffet and the quick-service windows nobody plans for

Dinner gets all the attention, and then people spend four days eating lunch by accident. The daytime layer is where most of your included food actually happens.

On the older ships the buffet is a beach-themed space with ten food stations. On the newest ships it is a food hall, named after Walt Disney’s hometown of Marceline, Missouri, serving breakfast and lunch.

One difference matters if you have ever hated a buffet queue. At the food hall, crew members often fill up your plate for you rather than leaving you to serve yourself.

The quick-service windows are the piece people forget entirely. They are perfect for lunch, snacks, or late afternoon hunger, and they cost nothing.

• Breakfast: buffet, or a main dining room on the mornings it opens.
• Lunch: buffet, quick-service windows, or a dining room on sea days.
• Afternoon: snack counters and soft serve, open long past when you expect.
• Port mornings: eat on board before you walk off. It is paid for and the queue is short early.

Eat on board on a port morning and the day starts whenever breakfast ends, which suits a self-guided audio walk better than a fixed meeting time.

Pro tip: the windows stay open through the gap between lunch and dinner, which is exactly when hungry children melt down.

Room service and the late-night food that stays included

This is the single most underused thing on the ship, and the reason is that other cruise lines trained you out of it.

Unlike many other cruise lines that charge for room service, Disney Cruise Line still includes room service in its fares. It is available around the clock, and most items are included.

The one window with a rule is the cabin breakfast. Continental breakfast offerings can be delivered to your room in the morning, roughly between seven and ten.

• Use it on the first night when the bags arrive late and nobody wants to dress for dinner.
• Use it after a port day when you come back too tired to sit through a seating.
• Use it for the early riser in your cabin who wakes before the buffet opens.
• Use it at night when a child wakes up hungry and the decks are closed.

My own habit is an order after a day at the private island, and the wings arrive hot and crisp every time. That is not a splurge. That is food I already bought.

Room service is also the fallback when a stomach has had enough of a port lunch, and that is the one food risk worth covering: travel cover you can open offline lives in the same folder as my boarding pass.

The card still goes through the door the night before, so fill it in while you are brushing your teeth. The rest of the small cabin habits are in the cabin hacks list.

Drinks: which ones are included and which ones are a paid line

Drinks are where the money actually leaks, and almost nobody warns you in the right order. The warning is not about the restaurants. It is about the glass in your hand at four in the afternoon.

Most drinks are included with your overall cruise cost. These include drip coffee, juice, soda from soda machines, tap water, milk, tea and lemonade.

The exceptions are alcoholic drinks, canned sodas from bars, bottled water and smoothies, which are purchased individually and charged to your folio.

Poured by you from a machine on deck, it is included. Handed to you by a bartender in a can or a bottle, it is charged. That one test settles almost every drink question on a Disney ship.

Read those two sentences together and the rule becomes physical rather than financial:

• Poured by you, from a machine on deck: included.
• Handed to you by a bartender in a can or a bottle: charged.
• Drip coffee from the beverage station: included.
• A coffee with a name and a syrup: charged.
• Water from the tap or the station: included. The bottle on the bar shelf is not.

Ashore, every drink is a purchase again. That is one more reason the port day gets a plan rather than a wander, and a booked market walk usually feeds and waters you in one go.

Pro tip: carry a refillable bottle and fill it at the beverage station, and the bottled water line disappears from your folio entirely.

Is a drink package worth a slot on a seven-night sailing

Somebody will ask you about a disney cruise drink package before you board, and you should have an answer ready rather than a shrug at a bar.

I cannot quote you a sum here, and the sums move anyway. What does not move is the arithmetic you can do yourself in thirty seconds.

1. Count your real drinking days. Port days you are ashore from morning to evening do not count.
2. Count your real drinks per day at home, not the version of yourself you are picturing on a deck chair.
3. Remember what is already free: coffee, tea, juice, soda from the machines, lemonade, milk, water.
4. Subtract the non-alcohol half of your day. For most families that is most of the day.
5. Then compare what is on offer with the number you just produced, at the bar, on day one.

The honest pattern from nineteen sailings: packages pay off for people who drink steadily on sea days, and not for families whose week is four port days and a toddler nap.

Here is the doubt worth naming out loud. The fear is not the package. The fear is boarding convinced food is covered and walking off with a folio full of small charges you never agreed to. That is not what happens once you know the five lines on the paid list, and it is not solved by buying a package in advance.

The thing worth buying before you board is not a package at all. It is a data plan set up at home, so you can open your bank app the minute you are back in port and watch your folio instead of guessing at it.

Adult-only and specialty restaurants: the short paid list

Now the paid list, and notice how short it is. The only exception to everything being included is specialty dining.

Every ship in the fleet has an Italian-inspired steakhouse called Palo. The newest ships add a more formal room created with a three Michelin star chef, Arnaud Lallement, called Enchanté.

These rooms are adults only. You drop the children at the Oceaneer Club or Oceaneer Lab and walk upstairs.

• Palo: on the Magic, the Wonder, the Dream and the Fantasy.
• Enchanté: on the Wish, the Destiny and the Treasure.
• Formats: prix fixe dinner, à la carte, brunch, and an evening format called Prima Notte.
• Register: the top room is elegant and very much a special occasion meal, not a Tuesday.

Reservations are highly recommended for all of the adults-only specialty restaurants fleetwide. They can be made online as early as 123 days before your embarkation day, depending on your level in the loyalty programme.

One quiet benefit is worth knowing if you have sailed before. Platinum and Pearl level Castaway Club members get one free dinner at Palo per sailing for everyone sharing their cabin.

Book the slot at home on a proper screen rather than on ship wifi. The same goes for anything else ashore that runs on a timed entry, like museum and attraction tickets in a port city.

Which paid venue earns one evening, and which does not

Assume you will spend on exactly one dinner all week. That is the realistic version of this decision, and the question becomes which one.

My answer after nineteen sailings is the steakhouse, and the reason has nothing to do with the food.

• Take the steakhouse for a quiet adult evening in the middle of the week, when the children are deep in the club and you need two hours of conversation.
• Take brunch instead of dinner on a sea day if your evenings are already spoken for by shows and early bedtimes.
• Take the formal room only for an actual occasion. It is a special occasion meal and it reads flat on an ordinary night.
• Skip both if your week has four port days. You will be too tired and the included dinner holds up.

There is a third option nobody puts on this list. Spend the one paid slot ashore instead, on a cooking class or a food tour in port, and you come home with the meal the ship could not serve.

Pro tip: book the one paid dinner for the middle of the sailing, because night one is chaos and the last night is packing.

Disney cruise food with kids: the menus you already have

Parents arrive at this topic braced for a fight, and the ship has already solved most of it. Children’s menus are available in the rotational dining rooms, at no extra charge, every night.

The ship also says complimentary high chairs are available at all onboard restaurants. A booster seat can be requested if your toddler needs one, subject to availability.

For the youngest passengers there is a step most people never ask about. Fresh pureed vegetables can be prepared in the main dining rooms and through room service on request.

• Ask at the first dinner, not at the fourth. Your serving team carries the request through the rotation.
• Order the child’s meal first so it lands while the adults are still on starters.
• Feed early if dinner is late. If dinner is later than your toddler’s usual meal time, feed them earlier.
• Use the buffet and the windows for the meals where a toddler at a table is nobody’s idea of a holiday.

The failure mode is not the food. A toddler may do great at breakfast and lunch, then struggle at dinner because they skipped or shortened a nap.

So the fix is a nap schedule, not a different restaurant.

Feeding children goes wrong ashore, not on board. Getting a tired child from the port to somewhere with a table is the real problem, and a driver booked in advance solves it better than a map does.

Food allergies on a Disney cruise: what to say and when

This is where the included dining quietly becomes the best thing on the ship. Disney takes food allergies seriously, really seriously, and the system works because the same serving team follows you.

Use the official dietary request or Special Services process before sailing, then confirm on board before ordering. The note ends up on your account, but you will do more in person with the dining team on board than through that email chain.

On board, ask for the head server rather than explaining it to whoever is nearest. The head server has a much stronger understanding of how things are actually prepared in the kitchen.

Then comes the mechanism that makes it all work:

1. Pre-order the night before. At dinner each evening your serving team comes back to take your order for the following day, breakfast and lunch included.
2. Lean on the rotation. Because your serving team rotates with you through the different restaurants, they get to know your needs quickly.
3. Do not serve yourself at the buffet. Find a head server, usually in a white polo, explain what you need, and have the food brought out from the kitchen.
4. Check every plate. Grill marks, for instance, give away a shared grill, and a shared grill is a cross-contact risk.
5. Keep paying attention. Even after six sailings and many good experiences, experienced allergy travellers still watch every single meal.

Menus clearly mark what is gluten free, and your server can also guide you through off-menu choices. The soft-serve machines offer gluten-free cones, but you have to ask a cast member.

If you or your children have any allergies or sensitivities, always speak up. The line gives you the foundation, and you just have to show up and use it.

Allergies and special diets come up in eighty six threads across cruise discussion, far more than any menu question. It is the one dining topic where preparation changes the whole week.

A medical note and a policy document on your phone belong in the same folder as the boarding pass. I keep my travel insurance details saved offline for exactly the moment a reaction happens in a port with no signal.

Castaway Cay and the private island food question

A private island day looks like the day you will finally have to pay for lunch. It is not.

The island day runs on the same fare you already paid. The thing that changes is logistics, not cost: you are off the ship, the day is hot, and the queue peaks at the obvious hour.

• Eat at the island lunch service in the middle of the day, and go either early or late to skip the crowd.
• Carry water from the ship in a refillable bottle rather than buying bottled water ashore.
• Keep the bar separate in your head. A drink in your hand on a beach is still a charged drink.
• Plan the recovery meal. Room service when you get back is included, and it is the best use of it all week.

My own island routine ends with an order to the cabin rather than a dining room. After a day in salt water, a plate that arrives at the door beats getting dressed for a seating.

For a guided version of a beach day in one of the other ports, book it before you sail rather than at a kiosk on the pier.

Pro tip: the island day is the one day worth eating a proper breakfast on board, because the next real meal is further away than you think.

Can you bring food on a Disney cruise

This question is asked constantly in search and almost never in real life. Across cruise discussion, bringing your own food on board comes up in three threads out of thousands.

The rule itself is simple. Nonperishable snack foods are allowed in original factory-sealed packaging, subject to current rules.

And there is a second half people miss. Nonperishable snacks must stay in original factory-sealed packaging, and items must either be consumed before you return to your home port or remain unopened.

• Sealed and shelf stable: fine to bring aboard.
• Opened, homemade or fresh: leave it at home.
• Medically necessary or allergy-safe food: bring it, and tell the dining team you have it.
• Baby food: treat it as the medical category rather than the snack category, and pack it sealed.

The real reason to pack snacks is not the rulebook. On the newest ships, finding safe grab-and-go options during off hours can be harder than you would expect, and that matters most when someone in the cabin has an allergy.

For a toddler, pack a small dining kit instead of a food supply: a spill-resistant cup, a bib, wipes, a small snack container, one quiet activity, and any medically necessary or allergy-safe food your child needs.

Sealed snacks matter most on the travel days at either end of the sailing. A storage point for the big bag is what leaves you with a snack and a water bottle in your hands instead of luggage.

The food you really do pay for is ashore

Everything included stops at the gangway. That sentence is the whole money map of this holiday, and it is the part the tables-of-sums articles bury.

So the one food budget worth having is the port one. It is also the only food decision of the week that is still open to you.

• Book the port meal before you sail, because ship wifi is a bad place to research lunch.
• Pick one port, not all of them. One real meal ashore beats four rushed ones.
• Eat breakfast on board on that morning and go ashore hungry.
• Keep the last port light. Packing night and a heavy lunch do not combine well.

The second thing I buy before boarding is data. Finding a booking confirmation in a port with no signal is how people end up eating at the terminal, so a travel data plan set up at home is part of the food plan rather than a separate purchase. The rest of the pre-boarding list is in the first timer tips.

A seven-night dining plan that spends nothing extra

Here is a whole week of eating with nothing on the folio. I have sailed this exact shape, and it is not an austerity exercise.

1. Embarkation day: buffet or a quick-service window for lunch, then your assigned dining room for dinner.
2. Sea day: dining room breakfast, quick-service lunch on deck, rotation dinner, soft serve in the afternoon.
3. Port day: early buffet breakfast on board, your own booked meal ashore, rotation dinner back on the ship.
4. Private island day: big breakfast, island lunch service, room service when you get back.
5. Mid-week evening: the children go to the club, you go to your one paid dinner if you want one, and the rotation waits.
6. Second sea day: continental breakfast in the cabin, buffet lunch, rotation dinner, coffee from the beverage station.
7. Last night: rotation dinner, then room service while you pack.

Count the charges in that week. If you skip the paid dinner, there are none, and nobody at any point ate badly.

The only line in that week I book in advance is the port meal: one food stop on the longest day ashore.

This is the answer to the question underneath the search. People are not asking what food costs. They are asking whether the holiday they already paid for will ask them for money again at every meal.

Before you sail: the dining decisions worth making early

Four decisions actually need making before you board, and the rest can wait until you are on the ship.

Two of those five lines are bought rather than decided: the port meal and the cover that sits behind it. Everything else is a sentence to your server.

The ship has already handled the part people spend the most time worrying about. What is left is the short paid list, and now you know all five lines of it.

Disney cruise food questions people actually ask

Is food included on a disney cruise?

Yes, almost all of it. The rotational dining rooms, the buffet, the quick-service windows, room service basics and the snacks are all in your fare.

What food is included on disney cruise sailings?

Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and most room service. Portions are not rationed either, so a second main at dinner is a request rather than a purchase.

Is disney cruise food included in the fare, or billed separately?

Included, with one exception inside the dining lineup: the adults-only specialty restaurants. Those are the only rooms that carry a separate charge.

Is disney cruise food free?

It is already paid for by your fare, which is why it feels free on board. Nothing in the main dining rooms, buffet or quick-service venues is charged again.

Is food free on disney cruise ships for children?

Children’s menus are available in the rotational dining rooms, and high chairs are complimentary at all onboard restaurants. There is no separate children’s dining charge.

Do you have to pay for food on disney cruise sailings?

Only for alcohol, canned soda from a bar, bottled water, smoothies, specialty coffee drinks and the adults-only restaurants. Everything else is covered.

Do disney cruise prices include food?

Yes. The fare covers the dining rooms, the buffet, quick-service, room service basics and snacks, plus most non-alcoholic drinks.

Do disney cruise include food on port days too?

Yes. The ship serves breakfast before you leave and dinner when you return, and the buffet usually runs through the middle of the day as well. The meal that costs you something is the one you choose ashore, which is why booking one in advance beats improvising at a pier.

How much is food on disney cruise sailings if you want extras?

The extras are a short list rather than a big number: specialty restaurants, alcohol, specialty coffee, bottled drinks and smoothies. A week with no food charges at all is a normal outcome.

Is disney cruise food all inclusive?

Not in the resort sense, because alcohol is not included. In the practical sense that every meal of the day is already paid for, it behaves like it.

Do you get unlimited food on disney cruise sailings?

There is no cap on how much you eat at any included venue. Ask your server for a second appetizer or a second main and it arrives without a charge.

Is disney cruise food unlimited at the buffet?

Yes, and at the quick-service windows too. On the newest ships crew members often fill your plate for you at the food hall buffet.

How does disney cruise dining work?

You are assigned a rotational dining restaurant for each night. You move through all three main dining rooms across the week, your servers move with you, and your table number stays the same.

What are disney cruise dining times?

There are generally two assigned seatings each evening. Early dining starts around quarter to six, and late dining begins at quarter past eight.

What is the best disney cruise dining time?

Early dining if you are sailing with young children or want the evening show afterwards. Late dining if you come back from port late or eat late at home.

Can you change disney cruise dining time once you have booked?

Sometimes, at the dining desk on embarkation day. Moving from late to early is harder than the other direction, so choose carefully at booking.

Drink	Where you get it	In the fare
Drip coffee, tea	Beverage station	Yes
Soda	Deck machines	Yes
Soda in a can	Bar	No
Juice, milk, lemonade	Beverage station, dining rooms	Yes
Tap water	Anywhere on board	Yes
Bottled water, smoothies	Bar, shops	No
Specialty coffee	Coffee counter	No
Alcohol	Bars, restaurants	No

Can I dine at the same rotational restaurant twice?

On sailings longer than three nights you will visit each main dining room more than once anyway, because the rotation repeats.

Do I need to make reservations for the main dining rooms?

No. Your table, your time and your rotation are set before you board, and there is nothing to reserve.

Do I need reservations for specialty restaurants?

Yes, reservations are highly recommended for all of the adults-only specialty restaurants fleetwide, and they open as early as 123 days before embarkation depending on your loyalty level. Book it from home on a real screen, the same way you would a timed-entry ticket ashore.

Are the adults-only restaurants worth the extra cost?

One evening usually is, in the middle of the week, while the children are in the club. The most formal room reads better as an occasion than as an ordinary dinner.

Which disney cruise has best food?

The included dining is built on the same rotational system fleetwide, so the difference is the venue lineup rather than the quality. The newest ships have the food hall buffet and the most formal specialty room.

What are the best disney cruise restaurants to plan around?

The three rotational rooms are the backbone of the week, and you will see all of them without booking anything. For a paid evening, the steakhouse on every ship is the reliable pick.

What is the best disney fantasy food plan for a week?

Treat the best food disney fantasy cruise week the same way as any other: rotation dinners, buffet and windows by day, one paid evening at most.

What is the best food disney magic cruise passengers should not miss?

The included layer, not the paid one: the rotational dining rooms and the daytime quick-service windows people forget exist.

Is disney cruise line food good?

Good enough that a week of included dining does not feel like a compromise. Across cruise discussion a direct complaint about food appears in only twenty three threads.

Is disney cruise food bad on any ship?

Not in the way the question implies. The buffet at peak hour is the common grumble, and going early or late fixes most of it.

Is disney cruise food better than royal caribbean?

The useful difference is structure rather than taste: room service stays included in the fare here, where many other lines charge for it.

How good is disney cruise food compared with a resort?

Closer to a resort than to a canteen, with the added advantage that the serving team is the same every night and learns how you eat.

How is disney cruise food handled for allergies?

File the request before sailing, confirm with the head server on board, and pre-order the next day’s meals at dinner each evening. Keep your medical and policy details offline as well, because the risky meal is the one ashore.

Is disney cruise food halal?

Specific dietary requirements go through the official dietary request process before you sail, and are confirmed with the head server on board rather than assumed from the menu.

Can you bring food on a disney cruise?

Nonperishable snack foods are allowed in original factory-sealed packaging, subject to current rules. Fresh, homemade and opened food stays at home.

Can you bring snacks on disney cruise sailings?

Yes, sealed and shelf stable. They must either be eaten before you return to your home port or stay unopened.

Can you bring packaged food on disney cruise ships?

Packaged and factory sealed is the category that works. The seal is the test, not the contents.

Can you bring open food on disney cruise ships?

No. Opened packaging is the one thing the rule is explicit about, so anything already started stays behind.

Can you bring sealed food on disney cruise sailings for a special diet?

Yes, and medically necessary or allergy-safe food is worth bringing even when the ship can cater for you. Tell the dining team you have it.

Can you bring baby food on disney cruise sailings?

Bring it sealed, and know that fresh pureed vegetables can also be prepared in the main dining rooms and through room service on request.

Can you take food on disney cruise excursions?

Take water in a refillable bottle and a sealed snack. Plan your real meal ashore instead of carrying lunch off the ship, and a booked food tour is the version of that plan that already includes the table.

Can you take food off a disney cruise ship at the end?

Plan on nothing leaving with you. Snacks you brought must be eaten before you return to your home port or remain unopened.

What can you not bring on a disney cruise in the food category?

Fresh, homemade and opened food, plus anything that needs refrigeration. The allowed category is factory-sealed and shelf stable.

Is there a dress code for the restaurants?

The rotational rooms are smart casual most nights, with one dressier evening in the week. The adults-only rooms sit at the formal end.

Should I buy a drink package before boarding?

Count your real sea days and your real drinks per day first, and remember coffee, tea, juice, soda from the machines and water are already included. A data plan from home is the purchase I make instead.

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Key takeaways

• All rotational dining rooms, buffets, quick-service spots, room service basics and snacks are included in the fare.
• The paid list is short: alcohol, canned soda from a bar, bottled water, smoothies, specialty coffee and the adults-only restaurants.
• Dinner is assigned, not booked: you rotate through three rooms, your servers and table number stay the same.
• Your seating is chosen at booking, and late to early is the harder switch to make later.
• Room service stays included here, around the clock, where many other lines charge for it.
• Of 8980 cruise threads, 1516 touch food: included, complimentary and free appear in 247 of them, while upcharge, surcharge and cover charge appear in 66.
• Drink packages come up 425 times against 253 for specialty dining, which is where the money actually goes.
• Allergies show up in 86 threads and bringing your own food in 3: prepare for the first, not the second.
• Of 270 food threads with a title about food, only 31 are about money at all.
• The only food you always pay for is ashore, and that is the one meal worth booking in advance.

The week on board is already bought. The one food decision still open to you is the day in port, which is why one booked meal or market walk ashore is the only line in this article I would actually plan at home.