Welcome aboard, Natalie! You must have a magical cruise in your future with Disney Cruise Line!
Disney Cruise Line has a wonderful way to dine each night called
Rotational Dining. Guests are assigned a rotation that takes them through all three of the main dining restaurants, visiting each twice, and one three times on a seven-night sailing. My family loves that not only do we rotate through the restaurants, but that we are assigned a service team that rotates with us. It's so much fun because they get to know us and our preferences and we get to know them. They are like family by the time we disembark, and believe me when I say that there have been some tearful goodbyes when my kiddos have to wave a final farewell to their favorite servers that last day. I'm sure you'll have an absolutely wonderful service team that is great with your family as well.
Gratuities are charged either on the final night of your sailing, or can be pre-paid, which is the easiest thing to do. Traditional gratuities are as follows and are per person, including children:
$4 per night - Server
$3 per night - Assistant Server
$1 per night - Head Server
$4 per night - Stateroom Host
Guests still pay gratuities no matter if they dine in the main dining restaurants at all because no matter where you dine, some of Disney's servers will be taking care of you (whether they are your assigned servers or not), so please do plan to budget for those gratuities for the entire trip. My family usually adds additional amounts to the traditional gratuities because our servers always go well above and beyond to make our experience onboard more than magical each time. Should you want to change the gratuity amount for whatever reason, simply visit Guest Services and they can assist you.
Have fun planning, Natalie and enjoy your cruise!