Cook side-by-side with Disney Cruise Line chefs aboard Disney Fantasy

in Disney, Entertainment, Events

Cook side-by-side with Disney Cruise Line chefs aboard Disney Fantasy

Credit: Disney Cruise Line

Disney Cruise Line offers some of the most signature dining experiences on the sea, as each ship features culinary masters who specialize in cuisine found all around the world. Imagine if you had the opportunity to cook with one of these world-class chefs? Well, now you can aboard the Disney Fantasy with the all-new Palo Be Our Chef experience. Here we have an in-depth look at this experience, as recently, Inside The Magic was invited by Disney Cruise Line to take part in it!

Palo Be Our Chef is an all-new experience found aboard the Disney Fantasy, which allows guests aboard the Disney Fantasy to eat, drink and prepare delicious cuisine side-by-side with the gastronomical gurus of Palo‘s kitchen (A signature restaurant found on the Disney Fantasy). This experience will let you savor delicious food offerings while learning to make several crowd-pleasing plates from Palo’s brunch menu.

The experience begins with you and the rest of the guests in your party being escorted into the waiting area of Palo, where you are met with your chef’s outfit folded and neatly placed on the bar with a Palo name tag.

Wrapped Food with a text Sean

Once you quickly place the outfit over your clothes and tie on your apron, you are then brought into Palo’s dining room where you’re greeted by none other than Mickey Mouse! Mickey is stood in his own chef outfit ready to pose for pictures. This is also where you meet the chef you’ll be cooking with, who also is available for pictures as well.

Chef Mickey Mouse hugging a chef

After the fun of meeting chef Mickey and the chef you’ll be “training with” ends, you are then brought backstage into the kitchen, where the culinary magic begins.

As you walk in you are immediately greeted by shiny stainless steel appliances and workspaces, which already contain the pre-measured ingredients for your first creation, Margherita Pizza. Before getting down to business, guests are asked to wash their hands in nearby sinks. Be warned, these sinks only seem to use hot water, which can be a little painful.

After washing, the chef gathers all of the guests around to explain what we’ll get to take part in, including the creation of the Margherita Pizza, Butternut Agnolotti Ravioli and Palo’s popular signature dessert, the Limoncello Tart. After the brief rundown, the chef discusses how to create the first dish, which he runs through step-by-step.

The first step the chef covers is how to take the dough for the pizza and spread it out with the use of a lot of flour and a special hand technique, which evenly separates the dough ball into a round and flat pie crust.

Baking inside Ktchen

Chef molding a dough

After firmly working out the dough, you are then left with a neat pie crust ready for toppings, first of which, includes sauce.

Spreading a sauce in a dough

This is then followed by the rest of the toppings of basil, cheese, spinach and tomatoes.

A person making a pizza to bake

Uncook Pizza with a lot of Tomatoes

Uncook Pizza with a lot of Tomatoes

After completing the first creation, everyone in your group is instructed to put your trays together on a rack to see everyone’s dish side-by-side.

This same step-by-step guided experience is then repeated for the Butternut Agnolotti Ravioli and Palo’s popular signature dessert, the Limoncello Tart.

A close-up of a pasta

Mixtures of  dough

Baking Dessert

Ready to Cook Baking Pastry

A Mixture for baking

A close-up of rolling of a dough

Flattened Dough

A Mixture for Baking

Dessert

Following the experience, guests get to feast on authentic antipasto and tomato-mozzarella Caprese salad as well as the items you created during the experience.

A Food Presentation

For those of you who love the idea of cooking and eating your own creation from the ship’s kitchen, think again. Due to liability issues, you don’t actually get to eat your own creation. In fact, all the food you make is thrown out after the experience. However, the ship’s real chefs re-create all of these dishes for you to sample following it. Additionally, the experience also allows you to sample a selection of Italian wines while Palo’s resident sommelier explains the intricate art of wine pairing.

A slice of pizza on a plate

A plate of food with ravioli

A Dessert with Presentation

As part of the experience, guests can commemorate their time in the kitchen with parting gifts, which include a personalized Palo chef’s jacket, apron, hat and name tag plus a keepsake menu, recipe cards and photos with the chef as well as a Chef Mickey Mouse!

A picture of Chef Mickey Mouse

A picture of chefs with Mickey Mouse

The event takes place at Palo restaurant on the Disney Fantasy from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Each class is limited to only 8 attendees and costs $279 per guest.

The event is only for visitors 18 and older who wouldn’t mind remaining onboard during port days. Additionally, guests taking part in the experience must wear closed-toe, slip-resistant shoes, pants or slacks (good condition jeans with no holes may be worn) and long hair must be pulled back.

People entering Palo restaurant
Credit: Disney

The experience is offered once per cruise in Tortola for eastern itineraries and Grand Cayman for Western itineraries while the ship is in port.

To book this once-in-a-lifetime experience for your next trip aboard the Disney Fantasy, be sure to reach out to our friends at Destinations To Travel.  As an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, they are super knowledgeable of the Walt Disney World parks and can help you with FastPass+, Advanced Dining Reservations, special or seasonal events, discounts, and so much more. Best of all, when you use Academy Travel to book your vacation, you don’t pay any extra fees or commissions.

Additionally, they will constantly be looking for reduced rates or discounts the second you book with them, up until the first day of your stay. If a better deal becomes available, they will automatically cancel and rebook your reservations to save you money!

Click here for a no-obligation vacation quote from Academy Travel!

Photography Credit: ITM Reporter Sean Sposato

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