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Question about dining at Palo on Disney Dream


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Hi Cruise Critic Community!

 

I'm new to cruising and we're taking a 4-night cruise on the Disney Dream, and I want to make sure my family and I get to experience as much as we can.

 

My question is if we book a reservation for Palo, is there a way we can also dine at one of the rotating dining experiences we missed on another night? If not, is it possible to view the schedule of the dining rotation and live shows ( in case we have to book dinner during one of the live shows, I'd like to choose which one we'd miss)?

 

Any insider information would greatly help. Thank you!

 

- Topheriscrusin

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There are only three MDR restaurants and you have four nights. So do Palo on whichever night is repeated. Unfortunately while you can request a certain order of MDR, I don't believe you can get it guaranteed. Just make sure you don't schedule Palo on pirate night. That would be a shame to miss. :)

 

 

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No, you cannot just change your dining assignment for one night.

 

With 4 nights, you'll have the signature menu in each of the three dining rooms and the pirate menu in the repeated room. If you schedule Palo late and have early dining, you can go to your MDR assignment and just have a beverage. You can do the same thing if you have late dining and an early Palo reservation. You can schedule Palo for what you believe will be a repeat night and if you don't like what you have when you check in, go to "Dining Changes" and ask them to either change your dining assignment or your Palo night. We've put it exactly that way--"Here is the conflict. Is it easier to move the Palo or the dining assignment?" They always take care of it.

 

Of course my standard suggestion is to skip Palo on your first cruise. Do the full MDR experience. Then you'll have an idea as to which you don't mind missing on a future cruise.

 

We usually schedule Palo on pirate night--we don't care for the pirate menu as much as the others, and can easily be finished in Palo in time for the show!

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Gotcha. I forgot about pirate night and I don't think we want to miss that! Is there a way to see the dining schedule in advance of the cruise? I'm not sure if I'm overlooking information on the Disney cruise site.

 

Thank you for your advice!

 

There are only three MDR restaurants and you have four nights. So do Palo on whichever night is repeated. Unfortunately while you can request a certain order of MDR, I don't believe you can get it guaranteed. Just make sure you don't schedule Palo on pirate night. That would be a shame to miss. :)

 

 

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I like the idea of at least experiencing the rotational dining even with just a beverage AND going to Palo earlier or later in the evening.

 

Thank you for all the suggestions! It gives me some options on what we can do.

 

Many thanks,

 

Topheriscruisin

 

 

No' date=' you cannot just change your dining assignment for one night.

 

With 4 nights, you'll have the signature menu in each of the three dining rooms and the pirate menu in the repeated room. If you schedule Palo late and have early dining, you can go to your MDR assignment and just have a beverage. You can do the same thing if you have late dining and an early Palo reservation. You can schedule Palo for what you believe will be a repeat night and if you don't like what you have when you check in, go to "Dining Changes" and ask them to either change your dining assignment or your Palo night. We've put it exactly that way--"Here is the conflict. Is it easier to move the Palo or the dining assignment?" They always take care of it.

 

Of course my standard suggestion is to skip Palo on your first cruise. Do the full MDR experience. Then you'll have an idea as to which you don't mind missing on a future cruise.

 

We usually schedule Palo on pirate night--we don't care for the pirate menu as much as the others, and can easily be finished in Palo in time for the show![/quote']

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Gotcha. I forgot about pirate night and I don't think we want to miss that! Is there a way to see the dining schedule in advance of the cruise? I'm not sure if I'm overlooking information on the Disney cruise site.

 

Thank you for your advice!

I'm not sure what you mean by "dining schedule".

 

Do you mean the actual rotation? On a 4 night cruise the rotation is 1223, usually. With the order being Enchanted Garden, followed by Royal Palace, followed by Animator's Palate, etc. 1/3 of the guest complement begins in each dining room (their #1). You won't know your specific rotation until you check in at the port. It will be printed on your KTTW card.

 

The menus in each dining room are specific to that dining room, so that's 3 nights, and the 4th night will be the Pirate menu. Well, actually, night 3 is pirate night, so you get the rotational menus on nights 1, 2, & 4 and the pirate menu on night 3.

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Ah yes, I meant the dining rotation. I knew that staterooms are assigned different dining rooms each night and that it's printed on your key to the world card. I was hoping there was a way to find out my dining rotation in advance, but I see there is not. Good to know that pirate night is always the 3rd night of a 4-night cruise!

 

Thank you for your help!

 

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "dining schedule".

 

Do you mean the actual rotation? On a 4 night cruise the rotation is 1223, usually. With the order being Enchanted Garden, followed by Royal Palace, followed by Animator's Palate, etc. 1/3 of the guest complement begins in each dining room (their #1). You won't know your specific rotation until you check in at the port. It will be printed on your KTTW card.

 

The menus in each dining room are specific to that dining room, so that's 3 nights, and the 4th night will be the Pirate menu. Well, actually, night 3 is pirate night, so you get the rotational menus on nights 1, 2, & 4 and the pirate menu on night 3.

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Ah yes, I meant the dining rotation. I knew that staterooms are assigned different dining rooms each night and that it's printed on your key to the world card. I was hoping there was a way to find out my dining rotation in advance, but I see there is not. Good to know that pirate night is always the 3rd night of a 4-night cruise!

 

Thank you for your help!

As noted, you can call DCL and request a specific rotation. But it's just a request, not guaranteed, unless you're Concierge.

 

As to Pirate night ALWAYS being night 3----usually, yes. But it can change, primarily for weather reasons. Our 4 night Dream cruise they switched Halloween and Pirate nights because the weather report for the 3rd night was not favorable to outdoor activities and fireworks.

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Here's what we did. We scheduled Palo for 6pm and then had late dining, so while our son was at the Edge club, we ate, and then we finished our Palo dinner and took him to the main dining room for his dinner. We didn't eat, of course, but we just had a fabulous meal at Palo so I don't feel we missed anything. Another option is to reserve a Palo brunch and then you won't miss anything or have to rush around. Some people prefer the Palo brunch to the dinner and vice versa.

 

You didn't ask, but Remy is a little tricky. Remy dinners last around three hours, so it's almost impossible to make it to the MDR without cutting your Remy dinner short, and that would be a real shame.

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instead of dinner, reserve a brunch at palo...

i believe they offer brunch on your sea day....

 

with brunch, you'll get to see what you're not missing...

i'm not a fan of palo at all....

even less on the dream than on the smaller ships..

 

not worth the extra money, or the time, or the effort...

 

stick with the rotational dining rooms....certainly on your first cruise..

 

.

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I do prefer Palo on the smaller ships...but as you've seen from above, there are lots of ways to make the schedule work for you if you want to do it on a 4 night cruise.

 

No, you will not know your rotation till you check in, but you can alter either your dining rotation or your Palo reservation after you board if you are not happy with what you have. You can see on your reservation on line whether you have main or late seating and schedule your Palo dinner appropriately...meaning that you can go to the assigned restaurant before or after Palo. You can choose to do Palo brunch rather than dinner. As noted, some people prefer brunch, some prefer dinner. Or just do the rotational dining on your first cruise and save adult only dining for future cruises.

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Hi Cruise Critic Community!

 

I'm new to cruising and we're taking a 4-night cruise on the Disney Dream, and I want to make sure my family and I get to experience as much as we can.

 

My question is if we book a reservation for Palo, is there a way we can also dine at one of the rotating dining experiences we missed on another night? If not, is it possible to view the schedule of the dining rotation and live shows ( in case we have to book dinner during one of the live shows, I'd like to choose which one we'd miss)?

 

Any insider information would greatly help. Thank you!

 

 

Topheriscrusin

 

IMHO the brunch is better than the dinner. If you have a day at sea where you can enjoy the brunch do that. That way you can still enjoy Palo and have the full MDR experience.

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it's not just the menu....whichever dining room you're in, the staff will be dressed up as pirates, and will do a bit of pirate shtick..

 

even my very anti-disney mom and sister enjoyed the pirate meal in the dining room...

i can't remember which one we were in that night, but it doesn't matter...

and our waiter, assistant waiter and head waiter all really got into it..

 

personally, i wouldn't want to miss anything that's even remotely 'disney' on my first cruise... (but of course, i'm a total disneyholic)..

 

that's why you're paying the big bucks to be on a disney cruise....for that disney je ne sais quoi

 

as i've already said, we had brunch in palo...(twice, once on the wonder, once on the dream - to see if we'd been wrong the first time)...

 

it was ok....nothing i would go out of my way for....and nothing i'd pay the upcharge for again...

 

we have lots of better restaurants within walking distance of where we live (granted we live on the mediterranean, but still, just regular cafes)...

 

as they say, your mileage may vary...

 

.

.

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Gotcha. I forgot about pirate night and I don't think we want to miss that! Is there a way to see the dining schedule in advance of the cruise? I'm not sure if I'm overlooking information on the Disney cruise site.

 

 

 

Thank you for your advice!

 

 

 

No. Unfortunately not. But you could call the reservations line maybe a week before sailing and see if the have any info. If they don't know, you can always request an order to the rotation although not guaranteed. I like pirate night during our time in the Animators Palate for some reason. We like to go all out and dress up for the occasion. But you don't have to. They provide bandanas with pirate Mickey on them for you. Here is a pic of us all decked out for the night. 9d54bf9a41e226ce0c2563cc4e6f5c16.jpg

 

 

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