Need Help: Which restaurant to skip on 3-day cruise + Palo reservation

[Flossbolna]

I would skip Royal Court dinner. My reason is that Royal Court also serves a sit down breakfast and lunch (however, the Fantasy 3 nighters has two Castaway Cay days, you will most likely not go back to the ship for lunch). So you have another chance to experience the restaurant.

Alternatively go to Palo on the last night and breakfast the next morning before disembarkation wil be in the restaurant you missed.

 

[hardis5]

2) The Signature (rotational) menus will be served in each dining room every night. That is, each dining room will serve it's own Signature menu every night. On a 3 night cruise there is no Pirate menu.

This is the real trick for if you know the menus of each dining room, you can always ask for a dish from another and then rather than choosing your least favorite menu as the long shot to try and avoid (not knowing ones dining rotation with certainty unless Concierge) chose your least favorite venue for a Palo night.

IMHO as a first time cruiser, I'd try and take in the ambiance of each dining room and do a later Palo reservation if having main seating dining as a PP recommended. There are as many opinions of which is the best dining room/menu/night as there are posters out there and though input always useful, I like to experience myself to confirm an opinion or position.

 

[imbelle]

When we did a 3 day Dream cruise we requested a rotation with Enchanted Garden on the 2nd night (Pirate night) and did Remy instead since the menu is the same in all the rotation restaurants that evening. We had our embarkation lunch in Enchanted Garden to at least experience eating there.

 

[TestingH2O]

You mentioned this is your first time on the Fantasy. Have you done other DCL cruises before? If so, I'd suggest skipping Royal Palace/Court. When I look at menus, that is the one I think looks like it transfers most directly to all the ships and, as pp mentioned, you can be in that dining room for breakfast or lunch. The AP experience is different on the Dream class ships with Crush. While I don't think the theming at Enchanted Garden is the strongest, it has my favorite entree so there's that.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

When we did a 3 day Dream cruise we requested a rotation with Enchanted Garden on the 2nd night (Pirate night) and did Remy instead since the menu is the same in all the rotation restaurants that evening. We had our embarkation lunch in Enchanted Garden to at least experience eating there.

Except that, on a 3 night cruise, there is no Pirate menu. Each dining room serves their own Signature menu every night on a 3 night cruise.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

We do what others have said. Take the kids to dinner so we get to experience it and they eat (we do not eat). Then drop the kids off and go to palo for 8 or 8:30.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Except that, on a 3 night cruise, there is no Pirate menu. Each dining room serves their own Signature menu every night on a 3 night cruise.

Is this true? I do not remember that. We did a three night a few years ago and I thought there was a pirate menu in the mdr one night. I hope you are right because we have a three night coming up and I would like to skip the pirate menu.

 

[erionm]

Is this true? I do not remember that. We did a three night a few years ago and I thought there was a pirate menu in the mdr one night. I hope you are right because we have a three night coming up and I would like to skip the pirate menu.

No pirate menu on 3-night cruises. You will dine in each of the 3 dining rooms once and they will have the standard rotational menus based on the dining room. You will however still have pirate night on night 2.

 

[Trera]

There is a pirate buffet on a 3 night after the fireworks!

 

[MyDisWorld]

I must say I'm a bit puzzled by those stating to skip Royal Palace/Court. Of the three MDR's, this was our favorite. This is based on just food options, quality and presentation.....NOT theming, décor, or ambiance. Based on the same criteria, AP would rank 3rd of the three, for us. Don't get me wrong, we thought the food at all three were very good. We also enjoyed the show in AP. But, if we were able to choose which one to "SKIP" it would be AP, again just based on the food. If you have kids, and the AP show is important, by all means you should go, it's still very good.

 

[TestingH2O]

I must say I'm a bit puzzled by those stating to skip Royal Palace/Court. Of the three MDR's, this was our favorite. This is based on just food options, quality and presentation.....NOT theming, décor, or ambiance. Based on the same criteria, AP would rank 3rd of the three, for us. Don't get me wrong, we thought the food at all three were very good. We also enjoyed the show in AP. But, if we were able to choose which one to "SKIP" it would be AP, again just based on the food. If you have kids, and the AP show is important, by all means you should go, it's still very good.

Food taste is so different from person to person. I have one favorite dish on each MDR menu and each one is a different course. If left to my own devices, I would have an app from AP, an entree for EG, and a dessert from RP/RC. However, I do think the RC/RP is least exciting in terms of theme. My recommendation was based solely on the fact that the RP/RC/Triton's/Lumier's menus are all about the same. If you are looking to try new foods, that is the one to skip.

 

[MUN]

We are booked on the Fantasy for a 3-day cruise. (This is our first time on the Fantasy.) We have a reservation for Palo on one of the nights. Since this is such a short cruise we will not be able to experience all of the restaurants in our dining rotation. So which of the other two restaurants are MUST dos? Thank you in advance for all of your advice.

It doesn't matter. All the MDR's have a variety of good choices at dinner time.

 

[bobbiwoz]

I have a 3 nighter next week and decided to just chance it, picked Palo for day 2. Want to meet tablemates day 1, and want to see our waitstaff on day 3 to give them gratuities.

 

[KermitRocks]

This is the real trick for if you know the menus of each dining room, you can always ask for a dish from another and then rather than choosing your least favorite menu as the long shot to try and avoid (not knowing ones dining rotation with certainty unless Concierge) chose your least favorite venue for a Palo night.

You mentioned this is your first time on the Fantasy. Have you done other DCL cruises before? If so, I'd suggest skipping Royal Palace/Court. When I look at menus, that is the one I think looks like it transfers most directly to all the ships and, as pp mentioned, you can be in that dining room for breakfast or lunch. The AP experience is different on the Dream class ships with Crush. While I don't think the theming at Enchanted Garden is the strongest, it has my favorite entree so there's that.

I've cruise many times with Disney but this is my first time on the Fantasy and I have some family cruising for the first time on Disney so I want to make sure they can get the most out of all of the yummy food. Experiencing all the restaurants for a first cruise is very good advice, but I LOVE Palo and have to have it. The family wants to go because I can't stop talking about the souffle (and the tuna carpaccio--but now that I've been looking at the most recent menus online I see that it's no longer on the menu). Now I'm trying to figure out which restaurant would be ok to miss on this trip. I really love the early dinner idea. We have a late Palo reservation so we could make it work. But then I also had a thought: we will be the first cruise on the Fantasy fresh off of dry dock. They usually switch up menus during dry dock so all of my planning may just be wishful thinking.