May 19 - 24, 2014 San Diego to Vancouver

[RweTHEREyet]

Which is better for Palo? I want to do brunch, but see that people are always trying to get dinner reservations. Is it easier to get a brunch reservation?

If you do brunch, the chicken parmigiana is fabulous. Not something I normally order when dining out, but I had heard how good it is at Palo that I ordered, and it was amazing.

If you do dinner, the lobster ravioli was probably the best thing I have ever put in my mouth and next time, I will order two of these, and I won't be a bit embarrassed to do so. And, I don't think I even need to mention the souffle for dessert.

Granted I had these meals on the Fantasy, but I am guessing the food would be equally as good on the Wonder.

I agree, go for both brunch and dinner if you can work it in to your schedule.

 

[taaren]

Which is better for Palo? I want to do brunch, but see that people are always trying to get dinner reservations. Is it easier to get a brunch reservation?

I prefer brunch, but will be booking one of each.

Dinner will be easier to get ... since you can book dinner every night, but can only book brunch on sea days, there are more bookable time-slots for dinner than brunch.

This will be the first time I'll be trying to take some friends who are not CC members ... we'll be aiming for a table of 7 adults for at least one of those meals (probably brunch), 4 of which are silver castaway club members, the other 3 have never sailed before. Wonder how that will work out? The other 3 adults will be in separate rooms though we all will have linked dining.

 

[Huney]

So if you're a CC member, you have a better chance of getting a reservation? Aside from being able to book earlier? I'm just trying to understand the process . I won't be heartbroken if I don't get a reservation, and I know that I can try when we get on board as well. Though my first priority after we board will be to book hours for YDD at the nursery

 

[RweTHEREyet]

So if you're a CC member, you have a better chance of getting a reservation? Aside from being able to book earlier? I'm just trying to understand the process . I won't be heartbroken if I don't get a reservation, and I know that I can try when we get on board as well. Though my first priority after we board will be to book hours for YDD at the nursery

They hold a portion of the reservations back for on-board bookings. When we sailed on the Fantasy last summer, I was not able to book either brunch or dinner before we sailed, but I had no trouble booking both once we got on board and I didn't even try until the second day of sailing. And even at that, there were a lot of empty tables during both meals. I can't say that is the case with every sailing, but that was ours.

 

[luvdamouse91]

If you do brunch, the chicken parmigiana is fabulous. Not something I normally order when dining out, but I had heard how good it is at Palo that I ordered, and it was amazing.

If you do dinner, the lobster ravioli was probably the best thing I have ever put in my mouth and next time, I will order two of these, and I won't be a bit embarrassed to do so. And, I don't think I even need to mention the souffle for dessert.

Granted I had these meals on the Fantasy, but I am guessing the food would be equally as good on the Wonder.

I agree, go for both brunch and dinner if you can work it in to your schedule.

Love the Chicken Parmigiana and Cinnamon Rolls myself. Not at the same time, of course. Yum!

 

[RweTHEREyet]

Oh Happy Day. Got an e-mail today from DCL that final payment was coming due for our September 2013 Alaska sailing. Problem is that this was for a sailing that was supposed to have been canceled and the deposit moved to May 2014 Alaska sailing. So, once I got on the phone with DCL a little while ago, we figured out that the CM I spoke to before had only canceled one of the two cabins we had booked. They got it straightened out and moved the deposit money to my May 2014 San Diego sailing. So that makes my portion of the San Diego sailing almost paid in full (sailing with just SIL on that part of the trip).

Not sure how I didn't figure out I was missing that deposit money, but it all got a bit muddled when I changed everything and the new deposit amount was different. Feels like found money now and it sure made my day...

 

[RweTHEREyet]

Love the Chicken Parmigiana and Cinnamon Rolls myself. Not at the same time, of course. Yum!

Oh yeah, forgot about those cinnamon rolls. Our server said they were famous for them, and I thought they were very good, but not sure about the famous part.

 

[NicoleKristal]

Just wanted to say hello! I'm coming with my DH (rounderjd)!

 

[NicoleKristal]

PS This is one of my DH's many strategies of convincing me to not cancel. We'll see how it goes

 

[Kidlette]

PS This is one of my DH's many strategies of convincing me to not cancel. We'll see how it goes

lol, why would you want to cancel?!? Have you ever been on a Disney Cruise before? Nah - probably not. If you had you wouldn't even say that! Well - welcome!

 

[Kidlette]

Just a note to please add us to the FE list. We weren't going to participate but we've changed our minds. It dawned on us that Lorelai will have just turned 2 for this cruise, an age where something like the FE list might be super fun for her! Anyhow, please add us, thanks!

Cabin #6019

 

[taaren]

So if you're a CC member, you have a better chance of getting a reservation? Aside from being able to book earlier? I'm just trying to understand the process . I won't be heartbroken if I don't get a reservation, and I know that I can try when we get on board as well. Though my first priority after we board will be to book hours for YDD at the nursery

Its not aside from being able to book earlier, but basically because Castaway Club members can book at 90 days instead of 75 there's more slots available. Last fall I booked a cruise last minute (they were running some specials about 5 weeks from sailing) so we weren't able to get any Palo ressies beforehand, but we still got both Palo brunch and dinner when we got onboard. Unfortunately they were the same day ... I only went to the brunch since I sailed without DH and he wouldn't have forgiven me if I'd done dinner without him, but my cabin-mates said it was wayyyy too much food for one day to do them both on the same day and wouldn't take back to back ressies again.

 

[Huney]

Thanks taaren

We're in on the FE too.

We're looking into changing our reservation. As of now were in an deluxe family stateroom with verandah, but I wonder if 2 inside staterooms would be better. We'd need them to be connecting since our kids are young. My TA is looking into it to see if its possible. Any opinions?

 

[Huney]

Ok, we did it. We switched to 2 10B rooms, and it was exactly the same price as our 4E. It'll be nice to have the extra room, bathroom, and we can put the three kids in one room and dh and I can have our own time

 

[taaren]

Ok, we did it. We switched to 2 10B rooms, and it was exactly the same price as our 4E. It'll be nice to have the extra room, bathroom, and we can put the three kids in one room and dh and I can have our own time

Yay! Two rooms is definitely a lot more space ... one of these days I'll sail with a verandah, but in 3 cruises we've yet to spend much time in the room anyways except to shower and sleep (so the two baths will be awesome).

 

[RweTHEREyet]

Things have been kind of quiet around here, so I just wanted to pop in and say hello. I am sure everyone is busy getting ready for their summer plans and all.

Haven't done much trip planning recently, but I sure think about it every day. First order of business will be booking a hotel in San Diego for two nights before the cruise, and then airfare when Southwests schedules upen up for that timeframe.

Later...

 

[VowRenewal13]

Things have been kind of quiet around here, so I just wanted to pop in and say hello. I am sure everyone is busy getting ready for their summer plans and all.

Haven't done much trip planning recently, but I sure think about it every day. First order of business will be booking a hotel in San Diego for two nights before the cruise, and then airfare when Southwests schedules upen up for that timeframe.

Later...

I am still checking out hotels for San Diego. Am waiting for Southwest fares too. Need to call Disney in May to find out if they have hotels in San Diego. Sometimes their rates are better than listed on the web. Only 88 more days till our family cruise on the Dream!

 

[RweTHEREyet]

I am still checking out hotels for San Diego. Am waiting for Southwest fares too. Need to call Disney in May to find out if they have hotels in San Diego. Sometimes their rates are better than listed on the web. Only 88 more days till our family cruise on the Dream!

We will be taking a quick 3-day on the Dream in November. We will be in Orlando for DH to attend a meeting anyway and his meeting is over on Wed, so we might as well hop on the Dream to just relax for 3 days. I am looking forward to it mostly because there will be no "planning" involved for this one--just have to show up and let the good times sail.

 

[kew423]

Hey, we sailed on the Dream a few months ago! Okay, it was just the Carnival Dream and didn't exactly compare but we still had fun. We hope to sail on one of the new Disney ships in the next few years.

We are definitely up for participating in the FE. I'll need a full year just to think of an idea!

-steve

I can't believe the board is so busy and the cruise is a year away.

 

[kew423]

Wonderful, thank you for volunteering to do this.

I will get the roster updated over the holiday weekend, maybe tonight.

So excited we have more folks to chat with.

taaren, we have been DVC owners since 1999 and love our membership. We live on the East Coast, but we do have ponits at VGC as well.

I'll put out a call for the FEs a few months before we are ready to go. I can let folks know that we are going to be doing them so to think about it.