Dining questions

Our dining is cross referenced with two other groups. Can only one of us request a reservation at Palo for the group?

Also are we limited to one meal at Palo, or just one dinner? Wondering if we can do a dinner and brunch at Palo in the same cruise.

Thanks!

You can book one dinner and one brunch per guest in each adult restaurant in advance. If all reservations are not taken, you can book additional reservations after boarding.

Whether you can make all the reservations for dining depends on how the reservations are joined. DCL has 2 systems--one is "cross referenced for dining" which is commonly called "linked." This means that you will be seated at the same table in the MDRs only. You do not have access to the other cabin's reservations or financial information. The other is "fully linked," which allows each cabin to have access to all functions of the other--making reservations, booking excursions, etc. Obviously this is the common one when a nuclear family has 2 cabins booked. Also, each cabin can only book when their window opens based on the castaway club status of that room. If you are platinum and your friends are first timers, you can book your reservation at 120 days, but cannot book their reservation until 75 days from embarkation.

It is the choice of the people in your party how the reservations are joined.

OK, a hint. Assume you are linked for dining only but want to book Palo together. Have each cabin book on the same night, as close to the desired time as you can get. Then once on board, talk to the Palo manager. He will put the reservations together for you at that time.

We were cruising with two other couples on our last cruise and had our reservations linked. They were both Platinum so were able to book Palo's dinner before us (we're Gold). So they booked first at the same time and then we booked as close as possible to their time once we were able to. Then an opportunity opened up to book all six of us at the same time - so I cancelled ours and one of our friends booked for the six of us. Same thing for brunch. Then another couple booked a couple of months later and was linked to our reservation. They were able to book the same time for dinner and close for brunch.

Once we boarded, one of our tablemates went to Palo's and was able to arrange for all 8 of us to have the private room for dinner but was not able to book that for brunch at the time that we wanted. There are no tables for 8 in the main part of the dining room so they placed 6 of us at one table and the other two at a table close by at the same time. They will accommodate as much as possible once you board but it's much easier for them if you already have a reservation and as close to everyone else in time as possible.