Help for a first time cruiser for Pirate Night?

[mrswillson]

My husband and I will be spending our honeymoon on the September 9th Fantasy sailing coming up in two weeks (yay! ) and the only night I could book for Palo ended up being Pirate Night. Neither of us have seen the show as he is a first time cruiser and I haven't sailed since I was about 12. So, what I am wondering is:

1) What does Pirate Night entail aside from dressing up and fireworks? I've heard about a buffet but know next to nothing about it. (I have food allergies and cannot have gluten/dairy - does anyone also know if the buffet is sensitive to food allergies?)

2) Is there any reason that I should look to rebook Palo for another night instead? I know that it's recommended that we see everything at least once, but since I am not well-versed on Pirate Night, I'm not sure of the pros and cons and if it's worth the hassle to try and rebook once on the ship since online reservations are all booked.

3) If we do choose to rebook, since online is booked solid, will making the reservation once onboard be the best option (and what night would you recommend instead?)

Thank you!

 

[Dug720]

1) The "buffet" is a feeding frenzy at the best of times. I walked through ONCE before I was gluten-free and I was terrified of the insanity. Now that I am gluten-free I would not even attempt as there is no way to avoid cross-contamination in that mess.

2) Honestly I am LESS than impressed with the GF options on the new Pirate Night menu, so that IS my preferred night for Palo. I felt like I had better options with the older Pirate Night menu.

3) You can keep checking online to see if anything becomes available. But if it doesn't you can certainly check at the Palo desk (or where they are handling dining) once you are on board.

 

[elvispursley]

We've never done the buffet--although we did walk through before and took pictures of the amazing fruit sculptures they had (which I doubt we would've been able to see if we'd gone through at the actual buffet time). I personally would not cancel my Palo reservation (those are hard to come by) and personally, I'm not that impressed with the menu on Pirate night. We like to dress up (in fact, I probably go a little over board ). But depending on what time your reservations are for, there's no reason why you can't go up to the buffet (it's late as I recall) and see what all the fuss is about. Whatever you choose to do, you'll have a great time!

 

[Rabb it]

We tried to rebook Palo for another night on our last cruise, and the people at the Palo desk looked at me like I was crazy and said "no, everything has been completely booked for months, I would not recommend cancelling your reservation.." meh

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We tried to rebook Palo for another night on our last cruise, and the people at the Palo desk looked at me like I was crazy and said "no, everything has been completely booked for months, I would not recommend cancelling your reservation.." meh

A better option would be to keep the Palo reservation. Once onboard, if there is availability, it's easier to switch an already existing reservation than it is to make a new one. If OP still wants to cancel, you can cancel Palo up to 24 hours ahead with no penalty.

Regarding Pirate night, there's a special Pirate menu on that night. You can look that up here (as well as any other menus you might be interested in):http://disneycruiselineblog.com/menus/

Following the first dinner seating there's a family friendly pirate show with Mickey and friends on the pool deck. Then, following the second dinner seating there's a more Jack Sparrow-type show followed by the fireworks.

The Pirate buffet is immediately following the fireworks and only lasts about 45 minutes. It's worth it to just take a walk through and see it, even if you don't get anything to eat. Basically it's a taco bar, with turkey legs (usually) and desserts.

 

[gotomu212]

We specifically book Palo for Pirate night. The pirate menu is our least favorite (I like none of the soups, salads, or entrees). We eat at Palo while the kids are in the Club, then grab them for the deck party and fireworks. It's the best of both worlds for us.

The only things you potentially miss is dressing as a pirate. Depending on your dining time you can still get pictures with the characters in their pirate garb.

 

[nikkyluvsmickey]

I also do not care for any of the choices for pirate night does cabanas serve something different on pirate night?

 

[Dug720]

I also do not care for any of the choices for pirate night does cabanas serve something different on pirate night?

Probably not much since its menu is usually an amalgamation of the MDR menus - which are all the same on Pirate Night.

 

[nikkyluvsmickey]

Oh ewww lol..i guess we are eating at one of the poolside quick services then

 

[mrswillson]

Thank you everyone for all of your help and suggestions! At first I was a little upset that Palo fell on Pirate Night, but after hearing that the buffet is sub-par and nothing to be excited about, I'm glad that it turned out the way it did.

My last concern is about the fireworks show and deck party. Our reservations are from 8:00 - 10:00 pm, and I did read that we can see the fireworks from Meridian if we don't make it back to the main deck; can you give me some insight into what is in the deck party and if we'd even be able to make it based on our dinner time?

 

[hanscarlet]

We specifically book Palo on pirate night because we don't like the pirate night menu. We still dress up the kids and feed them in the stateroom and drop them off at the club while we go to Palo. You can still enjoy the fireworks show after Palo and there's usually a fun music party after the fireworks.

 

[mrswillson]

1) The "buffet" is a feeding frenzy at the best of times. I walked through ONCE before I was gluten-free and I was terrified of the insanity. Now that I am gluten-free I would not even attempt as there is no way to avoid cross-contamination in that mess.

2) Honestly I am LESS than impressed with the GF options on the new Pirate Night menu, so that IS my preferred night for Palo. I felt like I had better options with the older Pirate Night menu.

3) You can keep checking online to see if anything becomes available. But if it doesn't you can certainly check at the Palo desk (or where they are handling dining) once you are on board.

Dug, may I ask what your experience was with GF on the cruise? I've heard nothing but good things so far, and I see that many cruisers had great options for dinner - how did you fare at Cabanas and some of the pool bars/food stands and Cookie's on CK?

 

[Dug720]

Dug, may I ask what your experience was with GF on the cruise? I've heard nothing but good things so far, and I see that many cruisers had great options for dinner - how did you fare at Cabanas and some of the pool bars/food stands and Cookie's on CK?

I had a great experience on the Magic. My servers took care of me in the MDRs - even getting me GF Mickey Waffles when we ate in an MDR for breakfast and GF chocolate chip pancakes on the last morning. I did ok in Cabanas as well - I did have them make me chicken fingers and fries once, and the rest of the time I did salad or other things I knew were GF. Breakfast I tend to eat eggs and stuff that are GF anyway, but they also had GF donuts (Knickinick or however it's spelled) I did have someone walk me through the first day, but since mine is not celiac related (my allergy shows up in reduced airflow which can be corrected with an inhaler if necessary) I don't freak out too much about cross-contamination, but I avoid it when it is obvious (as in the aforementioned Pirate Night feeding frenzy - people are so crazed there is no way that things aren't going to get all mixed together). They made me a GF pizza on deck, but I didn't eat at the other places as I really tried not to eat between meals. And I didn't get the pre-plated thing on Castaway as I knew we would be at the SB food location and they have steak there. I've honestly never eaten at Cookies even before I was GF as we don't do the family beach.

 

[GPaLarry]

Been to several pirate nights and can't believe that people frantically line up for the buffet like they hadn't eaten since, gee, maybe and hour or two earlier. We, too, pass up the food but take pictures of the cool carved watermelons and other fruit. I don't know if you can wear your pirate outfits to Palo. I'll have to give that a try. This whole thing is a dilemma that can easily be resolved with resulting fun which ever way it goes.

 

[Neptune's Fork]

Been to several pirate nights and can't believe that people frantically line up for the buffet like they hadn't eaten since, gee, maybe and hour or two earlier. We, too, pass up the food but take pictures of the cool carved watermelons and other fruit. I don't know if you can wear your pirate outfits to Palo. I'll have to give that a try. This whole thing is a dilemma that can easily be resolved with resulting fun which ever way it goes.

This is exactly what I've been wondering when reading these posts about pirate night buffet. I mean it sounds nice, but unless you skipped dinner, why would there be such a frenzy? I forgot all about it as I was checking out all the happenings on deck or I might have at least gone to look at it. But at no time on board ship was I ever hungry enough to behave like a starved shark.

 

[Dug720]

This is exactly what I've been wondering when reading these posts about pirate night buffet. I mean it sounds nice, but unless you skipped dinner, why would there be such a frenzy? I forgot all about it as I was checking out all the happenings on deck or I might have at least gone to look at it. But at no time on board ship was I ever hungry enough to behave like a starved shark.

I don't think anyone understands it. But it was INSANE the one time I walked through.