I'm of the opinion that Palo is the best meal on the ship, so I book dinner there when it makes most sense (i.e. for a birthday or something like that), then let everything else work itself out. In other words, we work in the dining rooms around our Palo night(s), not the other way around. I've said before that I feel people worry way too much about which night to book Palo. Just pick a night and go, it will always be better than the dining room. We've gone to Palo on formal night, tropical night, small world night, and never though we'd missed out on anything in the dining room.
Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.....