Disney Cruise Line in a Jiffy: What is a Server?

When eating in Disney Cruise Line’s main rotational restaurants, you will be tended to by a serving team of three people: the server, the assistant server, and the head server.

The server is your main waiter, he or she will take your order, make sure that your food arrives properly at your table, and often amuse you with games or stories at the end of your meal. The assistant server is primarily tasked with your beverages, bread service, and clearing the table between courses. He or she will make sure that your favorite drinks get to the table when you do and that your water is always topped up. The head server is sometimes a mystery to DCL guests. You may or may not see the head server at your table, but he or she is working behind the scenes to make sure that the entire dining room runs smoothly. Don’t like your table? Don’t like the other party you’re sitting with? Need to move from the late seating to the early seating? All this will be handled by the head server.

In several of the DCL restaurants, the serving team will also play a minor role in some of the evening’s entertainment.

If you’re on a quick two or three-night sailing you may only have cursory interactions with your serving team. But if you’re on a sailing of a week or more, you might form a lovely bond with your servers. In all cases, you’re expected to tip each server at the minimum prescribed level. Many guests choose to tip more.

Disney Cruise Line in a Jiffy is an offshoot of our “Disney in a Minute” posts, “In a Jiffy” posts are bite-sized nuggets of information that can better help you understand a Disney term or planning topic, but here we focus on all thing Disney Cruise Line (DCL). Have a question about a DCL term that is unfamiliar to you? Suggest it here for an upcoming segment.