First cruise, Palo on the last night?

[DJP1201]

This is our first cruise, and we have Palo dinner booked for the last night. I’m thinking having dinner on the last night with the whole family would be the way to end the cruise. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[mkh531]

Pablo is a great lunch or brunch too, maybe have lunch there and dinner in the MDR for last night

 

[Dug720]

I prefer to be in the MDR on the final night to say good-bye to my servers. (Yes, there is the following morning, but it's not as un-rushed as the last night.)

 

[Maggie'sMom]

Pablo is a great lunch or brunch too, maybe have lunch there and dinner in the MDR for last night

Brunch is only offered on sea days and on many Caribbean cruises, the last day is CC.

OP, I would lean towards planning dinner with your family in the MDR on the last night. How long is your cruise? On shorter cruises, I usually recommend just skipping Palo dinner for first time cruisers.

 

[ukintheus]

We did Palo on the last night of our first cruise and I regretted it. 1) We really got to know and enjoy our servers and we would have liked to have seen them again on the last night; and 2) we dressed up for Palo and by the time we got finished we felt rushed to go and change clothes and get our suitcase out by 10:00 pm. This also applied to us, but may not to someone else, but we were somewhat ready to not eat so much by the end of the cruise, and so we didn't really enjoy Palo as much as I think we would have earlier in the week when waistbands weren't quite so tight!

 

[Dug720]

We did Palo on the last night of our first cruise and I regretted it. 1) We really got to know and enjoy our servers and we would have liked to have seen them again on the last night; and 2) we dressed up for Palo and by the time we got finished we felt rushed to go and change clothes and get our suitcase out by 10:00 pm. This also applied to us, but may not to someone else, but we were somewhat ready to not eat so much by the end of the cruise, and so we didn't really enjoy Palo as much as I think we would have earlier in the week when waistbands weren't quite so tight!

That is a good point about the final night and luggage. Unless you have the earliest seating possible at Palo and/or are planning to do self-disembark (where you handle all your own luggage without assistance), you're either going to be putting your dress clothes in whatever you plan to carry off or you're wearing them home because your other luggage would need to be out before going to Palo.

 

[DCL Repeaters]

Our family always ends the cruise with Palo dinner On the last night. With a 6pm Palo reservation you have plenty of time to pack your dressy clothes & get your bags in the hall. We say our good byes to the serving team the night before as we prefer Cabanas on debarkation morning.

 

[hanscarlet]

We prefer to say goodbye to our servers so we always do MDR final night... however I could see doing Palo on the last evening as being a wonderful way to end a magical cruise. We have little ones so they aren't in Palo so that's another reason why we end in MDR

 

[bumbershoot]

Even for the cruise veterans that last night can be hard. Packing etc causes time crunches.

I personally wouldn't be able to do a fancy dinner that last night. At least not without writing out a detailed plan on how to prepare luggage etc so it was down to a science.

 

[gatordoc]

We always do Palo on the last night. We find it to be less crowded and a relaxing way to end the cruise. We don't like to miss any of the standard MDR menus, but are not fans of the last night "Til We Meet Again/See Ya Real Soon" menus. On the last morning, we just grab a quick bite at Cabanas and do express walk off (even on our 11-night cruise - we're light packers) so we say goodbye to our servers on the next to last night, and don't really have to worry about being packed at a certain time on the last night.

 

[bumbershoot]

At least not without writing out a detailed plan on how to prepare luggage etc so it was down to a science.

I'm quoting myself rather than editing. I'm now on a computer with more time...

Even with a written plan you can still get messed up.

We were in concierge, I had it all planned. After multiple cruises of arguments with the husband during that last night packing crunch (and we pack as we go each day, so I don't know what happens there), I thought I had it worked out. Came down to shoes. I had the shoes to be packed here, and the shoes for the next morning there. We figured out over time that what happened was....a combo of a lack of *speciic* communication on our parts and a too-helpful room attendant. The room attendant didn't see what I felt was a very clear delineation of shoe zones, and put them too close together. DH asked about the shoes, I didn't think to look to see that it was all still the same and just answered "shoes over there are for checking". He didn't think to look at the shoes he was packing vs the shoes he wasn't to see if I had any shoes. All my shoes but the flipflops on my feet were packed and left outside in the checked bags. And we had the luggage service where it went straight to the plane. And it was January, going home to Seattle. Sigh.

 

[over50visits]

I prefer to be in the MDR on the final night to say good-bye to my servers. (Yes, there is the following morning, but it's not as un-rushed as the last night.)

I disagree, I don't feel I have to say "goodbye" to the servers on the last night, or on the last morning. I'll give them the courtesy of telling them when I won't be there, and say our "goodbyes" the last time we see them, but it's not like they are close friends (even though they will make you feel like that!)

I think the OP idea of a wonderful family dinner at Palo is a great way to end a cruise. What a memory!

 

[Sytrace]

We have done Palo on the last night and are doing so on our next cruise in a week. It is actually our anniversary so the kids will dine in the MDR that night while my husband and I have dinner. We typically attend breakfast the next morning and say goodbye then to the team.

I am going to be honest, we don't usually bond with serving teams on the shorter cruises so it is not that hard to miss the last night or even the next morning. It is not that they are less friendly, but you just don't get the same warm fuzzy feelings that you do when you have spent 7 nights with a dining team and had time to find out about their families back home etc.

I pack up and get organized after we get back from CC anyway, so it is not a big deal to leave the garment bag ready to be packed last after dinner and then put out for luggage pickup with the other bags.
I always have a carry on/off bag for those last minute items that did not make the cut off in the luggage pick up....pajamas from the night before, toiletries, etc, so I never feel like I have forgotten anything.

 

[carolina_yankee]

This is our first cruise, and we have Palo dinner booked for the last night. I’m thinking having dinner on the last night with the whole family would be the way to end the cruise. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Palo is great and a last night dinner there would be a great way to end the cruise. Honestly, we’ve always enjoyed our Palo servers more than we’ve enjoyed the MDR servers. We do a brunch on Sunday and dinner during the week, so we get the same server and have a great time. We’ve even had two dinners on occasion, in addition to the brunch - just depends on length of cruise and availabity of reservations.

The advantage to booking Palo for the final night is that if you do really bond with your MDR servers and get a great rotation so that you want to have your farewell dinner in the MDR, you can change your plans and do that.

A huge plus for a last night Palo dinner, too, is that you great to choose your dining time. You don’t have to dine later if you’re second seaters and you can dine a little later if you are first-seaters. It’s up to you!

We don’t like to do Palo on the first night so that we can meet our MDR servers and establish the relationship. On a shorter cruise, we might, though.

Dirk

 

[cvjw]

We just took our first cruise last week. 7 nights on the fantasy. We tried to get Palo reservations from home, but could not. When onboard the ship, we managed to get a reservation for Wednesday night. We loved it so much, we made another reservation for our last night.

We had a 7:30 reservation on the last night. We packed up all our bags before dinner. After dinner, we had a nice drink at meridian, went back to the room, changed clothes, put our nice clothes in the bags and put them out into the hall. Was it ideal? Probably not. Would I do it again? Absolutely. We loved palo that much!

We ate breakfast with our servers the last morning, so we said goodbye to them then.