March, 2004 Eastern DCL questions!

[Dean]

OK, I'll admit I'm OC and if I don't plan every detail, I'll go crazy. Once I'm on the ship I'll be fine. I have some questions and though I'm sure all of them have been answered at one time or another so please bear with me. This is for the 20 March, 04 Eastern Cruise on the Magic. I've read over a ton of info on this Board but am just overwhelmed withe info right now.

1. What are the adult and family dining rotations in terms of which restaurants when?
2. Do they do all rotations for the early and late dining times?
3. When do they do the various special dining events like the Animator Palate show? I've seen Small World, Master Chef's, Character Breakfasts, tropicali....
4. Is breakfast too early for the early dining times?
   [/list=1]
   
   I trying to decide when best to do Palo both dinner and brunch. It'll be 3 of us with our son who's 17.
   
   I did order the passporter but at 9 days out it's still not here yet. Thanks for any info supplied.

 

[kajohn]

This chart should answer most of your questions, someone here at the DIS did it, but I can't remember who at the moment. It was so great I had bookmarked it!

http://community.webshots.com/photo/52061656/61958854UutNks

 

[Kimnicki]

Thanks for the link Kelli. That's just the visual I needed for it to stick in my head! I'll put it in my Passporter!

 

[mobetsy]

Dean, I think you'll find better answers from other people, as I've not been cruising yet...but the 3/20/04 cruise will be our first too! And you are in good company as an obsessive planner; there's already a thread going (it will be back 4-8 pages by now, I think, possibly further, with a title of something like "3/20/04"), and plenty of us are seeking info about the smallest details

I am pretty sure that breakfast is open seating; you can go to the restaurant of your choice anytime when it's being served.

 

[Werner Weiss]

1. What are the adult and family dining rotations in terms of which restaurants when?

There are three possible rotations on a 7-night cruise: APLAPLA, PLAPLAP, and LAPLAPL, where those letters represent the first letter or the restautant name. In theory, they're allocated to familes with young children, familes with older children, and adults (or familes with older teens), respectively. But there are no guarantees, so if you're planning ahead, you need to plan for any of these three possibilities.

2. Do they do all rotations for the early and late dining times?

Yes.

3. When do they do the various special dining events like the Animator Palate show? I've seen Small World, Master Chef's, Character Breakfasts, tropicali....

For an excellent overview, see mmouse37's chart, Disney Magic Dinner Rotations, Eastern Itinerary.

The Animator's Palate "color event" takes place when you're in Animator's Palate on a "restaurant's menu" night.

I would also recommend looking at the 7-night Navigators at Dave from Marietta's DCL Tribute Site — there's a lot of other useful information at that site too.

Of course, any of this information is subject to change — especially for a cruise that's almost a year away.

4. Is breakfast too early for the early dining times?

Your dinner seating only has an effect on your breakfast time on the final morning and for the optional character breakfast. Otherwise you're free to choose from buffet, full-service, and room service options, at your convenience, within a wide range of breakfast hours.

I trying to decide when best to do Palo both dinner and brunch. It'll be 3 of us with our son who's 17.

I highly recommend dinner and brunch at Palo. We had PLAPLAP, so we picked Sunday for brunch and Wednesday for dinner. That worked out well — no conflict with the character breakfast, and we didn't miss any of the dinners that were important to my kids. You're undoubtedly aware that your 17-year-old will only be able to join you at Palo if he's 18 by the time you cruise.

 

[strawberryblonde]

Something tells me 3/20/04 is going to be the OC cruise . It will be our first cruise as well and I am very much a part of the OC club . Keep searching for any and every question here on the DIS, this is where I've found all of my answers. The passporter is a great read, should occupy you for a few days, then you will be right back here like the rest of us, lol............

 

[Dean]

Thanks all, this is helpful. Werner, my son will be 17 for the cruise and I'm aware he won't be able to join us, actually I'm counting on it, LOL. I didn't know that the breakfast times were open seating other than the 2 you mentioned, I hadn't gotten that impression from any sources.

I guess we'll need an extra meeting in addition to Friend's of Bill W. for those of us that are OC and may have a breakdown planning this trip.

 

[Padre Disney]

Dean,
We will be on the 3/20/04 cruise. For our 3/15/03 cruise we had a 17,15,13, & 10 and picked late seating. We had the APLAPLA it was WONDERFUL. We were all so very busy every day that the early seating would not have worked very well for us. We had done a 3 day 2 years earlier with early seating On the last day of the cruise we had to drag the kids up at 5:30 a.m so they would be ready for the early breakfast. On our recent cruise we wanted to sit down and order breakfast (you could go to topsiders). This year after we had slept in a little and walked to the later breakfast the line for leaving the ship was huge. It was similiar to the long line we had been in 2 years earlier. When we finished the late breakfast this year the line was almost gone and we only had about 15 people in front of us. So if you have a teen I would suggest picking the late seating. It gives you more time to enjoy everything.

 

[DVC4US]

Dean,

Well, I'll pipe in also. I think most people on this board are OC, so you are not alone. We will also be on the 3/20/04 cruise along with DD (14), DD (8), and both sets of grandparents. We were on the 3/15/03 cruise with PadreDisney (Hi Bev) and our two 13yo became best friends. I agree with PadreDisney and we like the late seating for dinner. We has early for this last cruise and we will never do that again. Like someone else posted; dinner, character brunch, and breakfast on the last day are the only scheduled eating times. Breakfast and lunch are open seating and a certain dinning room will be open for full menu breakfast and buffet lunch along with Topsiders buffet everyday.

It is always difficult to determine when to do Palo. I will be waiting until it gets a little closer to check out the navigator's and make sure they have not change any special evenings to decide what nights to do Palo and what day to do brunch. Brunch in Palo is only done on sea days so that narrows it down a bit. Also, because you will not know your dinning rotation until you get to the port, you might want to be a little flexible. For this last cruise I had a tentative plan for each dinning rotation. Is that OC or what. LOL

I am not sure any of us would claim to be experts (see Barb & Tony's site at www.castawayclub.com) but there are a few of us on the 3/20/04 cruise that have been several times. If you have any questions please ask away, and we will see if we can help. Like mobesty posted try to find the thread we have going for the 3/20/04 cruise and add your name so Kathy can put you on the list when she gets it done. Okay, now I am done rambling. Not only am I OC, but I can talk Disney all day long so my DH says.
LeiLani

 

[Cara]

Let's face it. If we were not OC, none of us would be a part of this board!! IMO, OC is a normal state of mind, and planning is half the fun. Thank goodness mobetsy and I have each other to talk to about this trip. Otherwise, we would be driving our husbands crazy!

Cara

 

[Dean]

Great, thanks. I just got my passporter after I posted this and am still going through it. I was thinking about plans for Palo for each option. Glad to hear that the late option seems to work well for those with older children. I'm sure it'll work better for port days as well.

 

[Dean]

I'm starting to get a handle on this stuff but need to check out the info I'm getting. We are Eastern, 7 day for March of 2004. We have a then 17.5 y/o. If we have the adult only rotation we would start at Lumiere's, have the "Best of" the second night at AP (Formal night) and then have the show at AP on Wed. The semi-formal night would be Thursday (Gala). Does this seem correct.

If that's correct it looks like my best bet for Palo's for dinner is Monday night (first Parrot's Cay night), Tuesday (second time at Lumiere's, Tropicali) or Friday night (small world, third time at Lum.). We'd then try for Brunch on any of the days we could get.

At least if I have the info down then I can plan the various options of the restaurant rotations.