Just back from the 7-19 sailing!! A few thoughts..

[misseulalie]

I guess since this is my 11th sailing, I'm a little spoiled about things on DCL, so here are a few things that kinda bothered me this time...

Why did they change the kid's graduation? It's now a Camp Rock theme. I really don't like it. Why change a good thing? Plus, why didn't anyone on the boards warn me of this???!!!!

Is it me or are they really rushing dinner? I personally like the leisurely dinner, with a good 10 minutes between courses to really enjoy my food and be able to talk and relax. This sailing, it seemed that my next course was coming before I was even finished my previous course. They were handing out dessert menus while we were still eating our dinner!
I thought, well maybe it was our servers, but I looked around and it was happening with everyone.
I talked to our server and the last evening was better, but are you noticing this to???

Here's something that will NEVER happen, but it becoming a HUGE pet peeve of mine...
So, I am relaxing on the deck 4 lounges. Going back and forth between napping and reading. I have fellow cruisers next to me doing the same thing..Life is good....All of a sudden, some loudmouth decides to park next to me complaining, yapping, laughing, etc..to her husband/sister/friend. Here we are all perfectly quiet, trying to relax and nap, and this woman decides to recreate her entire conversation about tips and how the head server doesn't do anything and shouldn't get tipped, etc...

DCL needs to make one side of the deck 4 loungers a "quiet zone" where you are there to either nap or read. If you want to hold loud conversations
about absolutly nothing, then go to the other side (perferably the smoking side) of the ship.
Ok, I'm off my soapbox...

Final thought... have we come to a final conclusion on how much to tip at Palo??
We went to brunch, had a server we had on our very first sailing, great food, etc. Then we got the bill. $30. So how much do we tip? Do we tip on the $30 or how much the bill would have been? We ended up tipping 20% on the $30. So did we tip too little? Too much? Not knowing how much to tip always bothers me...

Thanks for listening!!!

 

[Ourtwoprincesses]

I've never taken the kids to the graduation so I didn't miss that part and neither did the kids.

As far as the loud mouth I would've turned to the person next to me and say "so much for the peace and quiet" LOL!

For tipping Palo we always tip what the bill would've been at a 5 star restaurant.

Our meal wasn't rushed, actually I thought it took too long. I loved our servers but we were always the last set of tables to leave and it would be almost 10 or after! Several nights we requested our dessert to be delivered to our room.

 

[Olga]

To the OP regarding Palo gratuity, it is my understanding that of the $15pp:
10 for food
1 to head waiter
4 from each guest is pooled then divided among the servers
Add to that an automatic 15% for alcoholic beverages.

Palo is not 5 star in my experience, a 5 star in my area would serve dry aged filet mignon, imported cheeses, Maine lobster tail, Blue lump crab cakes, etc. Others may differ.

You tipped the amount you felt comforatble with and that's just fine.

 

[Candy Apple]

Several nights we requested our dessert to be delivered to our room.

Did they actually deliver it to your room, or did you just ask for it to be packaged to take with you?

 

[enchanted72]

We were on the 7/12 with late seating~4 adults and 2 kiddos (8.5 and 9.5 YO) and our meals were very leisurely. The only time we felt rushed is when we asked to eat quicker than usual on Pirates nite so we could get a good spot on deck. Sorry you felt that way.

My kiddos were on one of the last grad nite cruises (with tee and grad ears) and also did the friendship rocks ceremony. Honestly, they seemed like the exact same program. Well, except that the tees were different and you didn't get ears. But how many ears can you possibly own???? I guess for us it wasn't a disappointment.

 

[misseulalie]

We were on the 7/12 with late seating~4 adults and 2 kiddos (8.5 and 9.5 YO) and our meals were very leisurely. The only time we felt rushed is when we asked to eat quicker than usual on Pirates nite so we could get a good spot on deck. Sorry you felt that way.

My kiddos were on one of the last grad nite cruises (with tee and grad ears) and also did the friendship rocks ceremony. Honestly, they seemed like the exact same program. Well, except that the tees were different and you didn't get ears. But how many ears can you possibly own???? I guess for us it wasn't a disappointment.

I could care less about the ears, but the actual music, program and the shirts were much better. The new t-shirts doesn't even say "Disney cruise".

Maybe because we had main dining we felt rushed...

 

[lbgraves]

The kids show was changed after drydock last year and there were threads about it with pictures of the kids in different colored shirts according to the age group. Actually, the thread with this has been linked in the DIS DCL FAQ thread under KID CLUBS since January. Sorry you didn't see it there, hasn't been a topic of conversation on the boards for a while now.

 

[woody73]

. . . Here's something that will NEVER happen, but it becoming a HUGE pet peeve of mine...

So, I am relaxing on the deck 4 lounges. Going back and forth between napping and reading. I have fellow cruisers next to me doing the same thing..Life is good....All of a sudden, some loudmouth decides to park next to me complaining, yapping, laughing, etc..to her husband/sister/friend. Here we are all perfectly quiet, trying to relax and nap, and this woman decides to recreate her entire conversation about tips and how the head server doesn't do anything and shouldn't get tipped, etc...

How irritating!

Woody

 

[DisneyCruiser83]

My husband and I never know what to tip at Palo either, but we assume the bill "in real life" would be about $100, so we tip 20% of that. I have no idea if that is too much or not, but that is what we feel comfortable with. If you were comfortable with tipping 20% of $30, than I think you did the right thing. I really wish there was some kind of official information from DCL that could give better instructions, but as long as you are comfortable with what you give, it is fine. I hope this helps.