Palo Brunch vs Dinner?

[owensmomma]

Needing some hard core advice. My family has just booked their 2nd cruise and on the last cruise my husband & I did the Palo dinner and it was by far without a doubt one of the best meals we have ever had! Now we are debating if we should try the brunch this go around.....needing thoughts!!! Thank you

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Needing some hard core advice. My family has just booked their 2nd cruise and on the last cruise my husband & I did the Palo dinner and it was by far without a doubt one of the best meals we have ever had! Now we are debating if we should try the brunch this go around.....needing thoughts!!! Thank you

They are different and brunch is well worth going to.

It is of course a mixture of breakfast and lunch, so much food there.

Breakfast items, breads, cheeses, muffins, seafood, hams,Pizza*, Main course* desserts and even more desserts, all with champagne*. Tea and coffee.

Anything marked * is served all the rest is buffet style. Each as much as you like.

Photos in my fantasy and wonder links below.

 

[Joanna71985]

I've done both, and both are really good. But I LOVED brunch! I hope to do it again on a future cruise

 

[nuermk]

My husband has a suit but what type of dresses do woman wear? It says gowns/cocktail dress? Thanks

 

[garlandfarm]

I am very interested in knowing how dressy people get on formal night as well. I am not a glam gal.
Carrie

 

[owensmomma]

Hey guys, I always bring at least 1 maybe 2 smoking awesome dress when we went to dinner @ palo last time I wore am awesome cocktail dress and my hubby just wore nice dress pants and shirt!

 

[ladyKderby]

I LOVED Palo!!! We actually went 2 times for dinner! I wanted to go for brunch - can you only choose 1? If so, what was your fav part of brunch?

 

[southerngirl528]

Wow. Are you forcing yourself to choose one over the other?? If possible, you should definitely do BOTH. They both are divine experiences, but quite different. I think one thing I really love about brunch is the gorgeous light in the restaurant since it's early in the day, and you can actually SEE the view. Notso when it's a later dinner time.

The food selection is incredible at brunch. As said before, much of it is buffet style, but believe me, it ain't your typical buffet! LOL Gorgeous seafood, delectable pastries of all sorts, antipasta items, lox, lovely hot items. Plus you can choose from about 3 different types of eggs benedict, a couple of soups, omelets, and a few entree items. They are ALL luscious!

 

[mtchurchmonica]

That is a hard decision. We have always been able to do both on our cruises, but if I had to pick one over the other, having experienced both multiple times...I'm not sure I could.

In your situation, however, since you haven't tried the brunch, I strongly suggest you make a reservation for the brunch. You can always ask to be put on the wait list for dinner if you want to possibly do both.

As mentioned, the brunch is an amazing dining experience unique from the dinner experience. In some ways I enjoyed it more because it's a "lighter" experience. I don't mean that in terms of the menu but in terms of the formality and the ambiance of the occasion.

 

[SerenityNowGirl]

We did just brunch on our first cruise (NYE 2013) and it was AMAZING. It was the BEST meal we had on the ship; heck, it was the best meal we'd had in months. SO many delicious things to choose from. I took 1 tiny portion of each item that appealed to me from the buffet and wasn't able to finish it all. THEN we ordered entrees and I actually split the grape/gorgonzola pizza (on a disboard memeber's recommendation) with my daughter and it was FABULOUS. I'm still fantasizing about that one. I thought it sounded strange, but holy smokes...nom nom nom...

For brunch, I wore a fairly casual khaki skirt and a peasant top with sandals and I fit right in. My husband worse slacks and a button down shirt. Can't remember what my daughter wore, but none of us struggled with our wardrobe (and I'm a major tomboy).

Enjoy! I am SO jealous. Still trying to figure out when our next Disney cruise will be.

 

[cisobe]

We did both on our first cruis. We had brunch first, and loved our server Toni so much we requested him as our server for dinner. He really made our two meals special, and his service was excellent.

The food at brunch was great, but I think our dinner was even better.

As far as dress code goes, for dinner, I wore a jacket and tie and my wife wore a a simple dress (something she'd wear to a nice restaurant where your meal would cost between $100-200). We did see some people in tuxedos and gowns and some who were not dressed up at all. It's up to you how dressed up you want to get. For brunch my wife wore a nice sun dress and I just wore a button down shirt and slacks.

I would also suggest doing both brunch and dinner if you can.

 

[kittylady1972]

We enjoy both as well but give the edge to brunch. I just like that it was a little more casual, but still sophisticated. We did brunch on the Wonder in the Fall of 2013 and the Magic last month and both times we just really enjoyed it. The edge has to be given to dinner at least in terms of dessert because that can't be beat for dinner. However having unlimited desserts at brunch is a nice concession.

 

[Lepidoptera]

I logged on to the DCL site and tried to reserve Palo on the first available day for first-times, but every brunch and dinner was showing sold out. I wonder if that's typical?

I hope I might be able to a reservation once on the ship?

 

[ImDMous]

I logged on to the DCL site and tried to reserve Palo on the first available day for first-times, but every brunch and dinner was showing sold out. I wonder if that's typical?

I hope I might be able to a reservation once on the ship?

Depending on how long your cruise is, it's pretty common. Brunch is only on sea days so that limits the number of reservations.

They do save reservation spots for on-board booking. In the Navigator when you board will be a location to make dining changes and requests. Head there when it opens and you should have no problem making a reservation.

 

[OKW Lover]

Needing some hard core advice. My family has just booked their 2nd cruise and on the last cruise my husband & I did the Palo dinner and it was by far without a doubt one of the best meals we have ever had! Now we are debating if we should try the brunch this go around.....needing thoughts!!! Thank you

They are both different experiences, and each is worth doing. You might find the review I did for FoodieTales to be helpful. You can find the link in my Sig below.

 

[wld4mky]

They are both different experiences, and each is worth doing. You might find the review I did for FoodieTales to be helpful. You can find the link in my Sig below.

Thank-you for that great review. We did the Palo brunch on our first Cruise on the Magic in 2010. Loved it. Now we are going to try the Palo dinner in March.
So excited!