Dining rotation question

[dixielandings]

I know I'm inexperienced! If we have ressies at Palo, how will this affect our rotation? Do they know about our reservations and schedule us accordingly? And when do we find out when and where we eat - it's on the Navigator, right?

Thanks.

[atruman]

Palo's just takes the place of where ever you would be eating that night. We got tickets once we were on board detailing where we would be eating, and Palo's took the place of our night at Animator's Palette. I went down to the area they had set up for dining changes, and they moved us to a different table, so we would be missing Parrot Cay instead - I definitely didn't want to miss the Palette. That was for the 4-night cruise, and we ate at Animator's Palette two nights - once for the normal dinner and once for the Pirates in the Caribbean dinner.

We didn't have a dinner at Parrot Cay, as it was taken up by our Palo's dinner on Valentine's Day.

[TammiMcMan]

Unfortunately, it's a bit of a guessing game if you make your Palo reservation before you board. You will not know your dining rotation until you actually check-in and receive your keys to the world (you'll see something like APPT Table #53 6:15 printed on them). If your Palo night conflicts with a restaurant that you wanted to dine in, you need to go to the Wave Bands once you get on board and try to change your reservation.

Palo doesn't replace your rotational dining. So you could end up with a schedule like this (I'm guessing you are on the 4 night):

Sunday - Animators Palette
Monday - Parrot Cay
Tuesday - Parrot Cay (Pirate menu/party)
Wednesday - Tritons

If you schedule Palo for Monday, you would still have your assigned table at Parrot Cay and you could stop by for an appetizer if it coordinated with your dinner reservation at Palo. Otherwise, you can simply skip Parrot Cay that night altogether and just go to Palo.

On DCL, you never have to go to the main dining rooms if you don't want to. Your table will always be there for you, but you can choose to eat at the buffet, room service or counter service instead. It's entirely up to you.

[DisneyDudet]

When we went in Jan, we learned our schedule when we checked in at the terminal. If you get there early enough, you will get a boarding group number. If you are early on (we were 6 I think) you'll have time to sit down and figure everything out.

Unless they change their schedules, you can figure out the special dining nights (ie, Pirate Party, etc) and how it correlates to your night. You really don't want to miss Animator's Palette the first night you are scheduled to eat there because of the show. While you are waiting to board, you can figure out which days will be best for your Palo's night, and as soon as you board, head to the area designated for Palo's reservations. I had the rest of my family get a table at Parrot Cay for lunch while I did that. If you are flexible in times, you should be able to get what you want.

We weren't able to book online for Palo's but it turned out to be best that we didn't, as it gave us time to pick out when we could eat there.

They do not arrange your rotation if you schedule a Palo's before you leave. You will still have the normal rotation, just Palo's on one night. And as Tammi said, if you scheduled it right, there is a chance you could visit both, but we ate more at Palo's than any restaurant there!! If you are wanting to do the shows, you may not be able to see both. They always have two shows, one during early dinner, and one during late.

Hope you get what you want. And make sure you try the chocolate souffle

[TBone]

The restaurants are very mediocre so you shouldn't worry about which one you'll miss, in my opinion. Animator's Palette is downright annoying to me. The food was bland and the servers very fake friendly. So enjoy Palo and don't worry about missing anything!

[TammiMcMan]

Oh, now I know everyone forms their own opinions, but I loved Animators Palette and the outright zealousness of the staff. I can't imagine being that perky all the time , but they did it. I guess that's what I chocked up to be part of the "Disney difference" as mentioned in another thread. Of course, we probably would have been labeled Disney crazy ourselves, because we dressed for each restaurant. I wore black and white to Animators Palette, tropical for Parrot Cay and a cocktail dress for Tritons .

I wouldn't disqualify any one restaurant, especially if you haven't tried them. If you're on the 4 night, you're lucky, because you will have 1 repeat restaurant. If you have children, you may want to plan on the Pirates Night dinner, so just choose the other night for Palo.

Personally speaking, I wouldn't miss going to Palo. We had the pleasure of dining there all 4 nights on one of our cruises. It was incredible.

[dixielandings]

Thanks for the replies. I've been so paranoid about getting all the ressies we wanted, since I missed the Dolphin Encounter! If we get on board and find that our Sunday Palo ressie conflicts w/, say, our Animator's Palette night, how easy will it be to change it? Oh, and we've totally bought Pirate "stuff" for the Pirate party, so we don't want to miss that either. I.E. - we want to do it ALL!!

[TammiMcMan]

If we get on board and find that our Sunday Palo ressie conflicts w/, say, our Animator's Palette night, how easy will it be to change it?

Basically, the sooner you can get there to change it, the easier it will be. Just check your Navigator to be sure, but they normally have the reservations desk in WaveBands or one of the adult lounges from 1-3pm. Each time we've cruised though, we've seen people lining up at noon time.