Leaving rotational dinner early for Palo

mitsguy2001

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 27, 2006
I'll be on a 4 night cruise soon. We have Palo booked for the 4th night. We have late dinner seating, and our Palo reservation is at 9:00, which is about 30 minutes after the start of the late dinner rotation. From what I read here, it appears that adults usually get Animator's Palette on the 4th night of a 4 night cruise. That means we'd unfortunately miss the light show. Is it considered acceptable for us to go to our usual rotational dinner that night, watch the first 30 minutes of the light show, and then leave AP to go to our Palo reservation? Is it common for people to do that, or will we look rude or out of place? I don't want to appear rude, but we also want to see at least part of the light show. I'm thinking that maybe on the first night we can tell our waitstaff and tablemates that we have Palo on night 4, so that they know we booked it in advance and aren't offended by it. Is this a good idea? Thanks.
 
At AP the show is throughout the meal. The big finale is obviously at the end. When we had Palo ressies we didn't realize they didn't do the ending every night. We had a 13 yo with us and he was fine with dining by himself (great servers kept him entertained). We had late seating and an early Palo. Well out of our group of 10 adults 8 of us went down to sit the the 13 yo and keep him company. Anyhooo my DH and our friend actually sat down and ate ANOTHER meal!!! Ok, my friend and I ordered a dessert and split it . We got to see the whole show. We talked it up to the 2 who didn't want to keep the boy company. The last night--no show. The 2 who didn't go were PISSED :furious: . One made a big embarassing fuss. We all wanted to die. They did a mini little parade at the end to please him. It was lame without everybody there.
 
I wouldn't bother with going at all. It would probably just make for an awkward situation, leaving dinner early and all. To be honest, the light show isn't really "all that". Really not too much happens until right before dessert (& even that is not that amazing, IMO). So in the first half hour you're not going to get to experience that much, except for appetizers. And you DEFINITELY want to save your appetite for Palo!
 
mattmommy said:
At AP the show is throughout the meal. The big finale is obviously at the end. When we had Palo ressies we didn't realize they didn't do the ending every night. We had a 13 yo with us and he was fine with dining by himself (great servers kept him entertained). We had late seating and an early Palo. Well out of our group of 10 adults 8 of us went down to sit the the 13 yo and keep him company. Anyhooo my DH and our friend actually sat down and ate ANOTHER meal!!! Ok, my friend and I ordered a dessert and split it . We got to see the whole show. We talked it up to the 2 who didn't want to keep the boy company. The last night--no show. The 2 who didn't go were PISSED :furious: . One made a big embarassing fuss. We all wanted to die. They did a mini little parade at the end to please him. It was lame without everybody there.

Unfortunately, the way the timing works out for us, that won't be possible, since our Palo resevation is 30 minutes after the start of our rotational dinner time, so the most we'd be able to see is 30 minutes of the light show. Is it worth seeing the first 30 minutes, or will it be considered rude when we leave?
 


BrianD said:
I wouldn't bother with going at all. It would probably just make for an awkward situation, leaving dinner early and all. To be honest, the light show isn't really "all that". Really not too much happens until right before dessert (& even that is not that amazing, IMO). So in the first half hour you're not going to get to experience that much, except for appetizers. And you DEFINITELY want to save your appetite for Palo!

So then, I assume that Palo is more important than the AP light show?

It is unfortunate that AP is the one restaurant never open for lunch (according to my friend) so I'll never get to experience it at all. I wish that the rotations were done differently. With the current rotation, if you want to do Palo, you're forced to miss either one restaurant completely, or miss one of the theme nights. It would have made more sense if Nights 1 and 4 were the repeats so that you could book Palo on one of those nights without missing anything major. But I guess DCL has their reasons for doing things. It would also be nice if each restaurant was open at least once for lunch so that you could experience each restaurant once even if you miss it for Palo.
 
Keep in mind that you may not get that dining rotation. Before our recent 3 night cruise, I had read that couples typically get the rotation with Parrot Cay on the last night. Well, sure enough, when we boarded we found that we were given the rotation with AP on the last night. (We had Palo booked for the last night) But, you can fairly easily change your dining rotation once on board, especially if you board early enough. That is what we did and were able to change it just fine. So don't really worry about it. If you want to experiece AP, you should be able to change your rotation. In fact, you may not even have to change it in the first place.
 
BrianD said:
Keep in mind that you may not get that dining rotation. Before our recent 3 night cruise, I had read that couples typically get the rotation with Parrot Cay on the last night. Well, sure enough, when we boarded we found that we were given the rotation with AP on the last night. (We had Palo booked for the last night) But, you can fairly easily change your dining rotation once on board, especially if you board early enough. That is what we did and were able to change it just fine. So don't really worry about it. If you want to experiece AP, you should be able to change your rotation. In fact, you may not even have to change it in the first place.

How do they decide who is a couple? I am male and the friend I am cruising with is female, but we are not married. Does that consider us to be a couple? I've never been on a cruise, but the friend I'll be with has been on two (a 3 day and 7 day, but we'll be on a 4 day), and she got the "adult" rotation both times (TAP on a 3 or 7 night cruise), but she was with a female friend both times, so they were clearly not a couple. Which is the "couple" rotation on the 4 night cruise?

I have also heard that they assign rotations based on the age of the youngest member of the party. If you don't mind me asking, how old was the youngest member of your party? I am 26 and my female friend is 27. Which rotation are we most likely to get?

As for changing rotations: I think my friend and I want to try to avoid that, since we assume that Disney is better at choosing rotations than we are, and we want whichever rotation we fit in the best demographically. Ironically, I think her first choice would be PTTA, since even though we'd miss the light show, she feels that from a wardrobe perspective that rotation works out the best, whereas she said that TAAP or APPT would be more complicated. APPT would be bad anyway since then we'd miss Triton's, which I assume is probably the best.
 


By couples I meant adults. I expected to get that TAP (the one "adults only" groups are supposedly more likely to get) rotation on the 3 night, but instead got the PTA rotation. So, I changed it to the TAP rotation once onboard, so that we would miss Parrot Cay on our Palo night. Disney tries to match like parties together, but it is not an exact science, so sometimes couples (or adults) get tables with a family w/ children (as we did). I'm sure there are parties of "adults only" at every restaurant on every night and at both seatings.

Oh, and my wife is 27 and I am 30, but again, I don't think DCL is thinking that hard about it.
 
On a four night cruise you will get to experience all three restaurants one time and one of them will be repeated.

The AP show is only on the first time that you are seated there (not every time). So, no matter which rotation you get, there will not be a show at AP on your fourth night on the cruise and you can feel free to dine at Palo's.

It is customary to tip everyone on your last night so if you are planning on not going to your regular rotation restaurant at all, you may want to give them their tips on night 3.

If you did want to just join your tablemates on night 4 you could just have appetizers and then excuse yourself to Palo's but again, not necessary to see the show.
 
Since Pirate night has been introduced with the fireworks on the Wonder the dining rotation on the 4 day has been switched from 1231 to a 1223 rotation. It is now possible for someone to be in AP the 4th night & miss the light show.
 
lbgraves said:
Since Pirate night has been introduced with the fireworks on the Wonder the dining rotation on the 4 day has been switched from 1231 to a 1223 rotation. It is now possible for someone to be in AP the 4th night & miss the light show.

Thanks, Lbgraves. Since you seem to know a lot, maybe you can answer a few questions. If we leave after about 25 minutes of dinner at Animator's Palette to go to Palo, will we look rude or out of place? Can we maybe explain it in advance to our tablemates and waitstaff so that they know we aren't trying to be rude? Is it worth seeing the first 25 minutes of the show? Also, as a 26 year old male travelling with a 27 year old female, which rotation can we expect to get? I assume PTTA? Do you agree that Palo is worth missing the AP light show for?

Thank you very much.
 
It wouldn't really be rude to leave the dining room but then I wouldn't think that there would really be any point to going in the first place. You can relax getting ready for Palo or take a stroll on the deck or participate in one of the other activities going on at that time. In 25 minutes you would be able to be served a drink & appetizer in the dining room. IMO if you don't have kids, I would just miss the show in AP. You aren't going to see very much...just a few pictures colored at a time & a cartoon or two. Yes, we make a point to be there & enjoy it...along with the music...but we also have DD5 & DS7. They loved the addition of Sorceror Mickey coming out at the end last year. That's another thing you could do...get a picture taken when most people are at dinner or the early show. A dinner at Palo can't be beat. :) I really don't worry about what rotation we get. We have been in all the dining rooms for formal night & tropical/now pirate night & enjoyed every single meal. There are guesses for which rotation everyone could be assigned but there are always exceptions. Do you know that you can go to the resie location when you board & request to have your rotation switched if you don't like it? They will try to accomodate your request or perhaps you can switch your Palo resie then. Either way, if you board early, there should not be a huge problem adjusting everything. Try not to stress too much about it. :)
 

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