Please help me understand Dining

[Nick Beecham]

Sorry to be a bit thick but I just don't understand the dining rotation. We are doing the 7 day Eastern Cruise on the Disney Magic. Our two children are aged 9 and 12 and so cannot go to Palo. Also, we would prefer not to have to pack formal clothes for Lumieres.

Will we be able to skip these restaurants so we can dine together as a family every night and without having to worry about dressing up?

Many thanks in advance to anyone who can help.


Nick Beecham

 

[depomas]

Your option is Topsiders, which is casual dining. It used to be buffet style, but word has it, it is full service, but still casual..

You will see on your Key To The World card which dining you have...Example...APLAPLA...

Formal night is not by restaurant, or by rotation. There is one formal night, and one semi-formal. I believe, am not sure, on the eastern, that One is on Sunday, and one on Thursday?????
We always dressed nicely, but never Formally. We never wanted to skip a dinner, just so much fun...

Hope I helped a bit.. Also, jeans are now allowed in dining rooms, except on those two nights mentioned.

 

[mmouse37]

Formal night happens on a certain night, not in a certain restaurant. Depending on what dining rotation you get you could be having formal night in any one of the three restaurants. You certainly do not have to attend formal night and then your option would to eat at Topsiders for casual dining.

Since there are 3 main restaurants, 1/3 of guests each start off in a different dining room the first night and then follow a rotation each night through the 3 different restaurants...then repeating the rotation...all the while keeping your same table number and same wait staff.

So, that makes 3 different rotations onboard. You could be assigned APL which mean that you would start off in Animators Palate, then Parrot Cay, then Lumiere's, then repeat. You could be assigned PLA which means you would start off in Parrot Cay, then Lumiere's, then Animator's Palate. And the third rotation you could possibly get would be LAP which means you would start out with Lumiere's, then Animator's, then Parrot Cay.

Depending on which rotation you are assigned would determine what restaurant you would be in on formal night and semi formal night.

Don't discount formal night though... you do not need tux, a suit would do nicely and it really is a special night around the ship....

 

[VictoriaAndMatt]

Also, you don't have to worry about Palo. If you don't want to go you don't have to. Palo isn't included in the normal dining rotation. You have to make PS there.

 

[jrabbit]

Sorry to be a bit thick but I just don't understand the dining rotation. We are doing the 7 day Eastern Cruise on the Disney Magic. Our two children are aged 9 and 12 and so cannot go to Palo. Also, we would prefer not to have to pack formal clothes for Lumieres.

Will we be able to skip these restaurants so we can dine together as a family every night and without having to worry about dressing up?

Many thanks in advance to anyone who can help.


Nick Beecham

On Formal and Semi Formal nights, DS and myself would wear a dress shirt and tie and slacks. Never felt out of place. Even on those nights you will see the range of clothing from tee shirts to tuxes.

You can skip Palo - It's not on the dinning rotation.

We've never been to Palo for dinner because we have always enjoyed the rotational dinning so much. We have always had enjoyable tablemates and have had good to excellent servers.

Some people have posted that they have gone up to Topsiders for dinner and have had an enjoyable time. And good food too.

On the 7 night cruises there are:
2 "formal nights" (formal, semi formal),
1 Pirate night
4 casual nights (polo and slacks)

 

[Nick Beecham]

Thanks Everyone!