Palo: dinner or brunch?

[Edna Cloud]

Hi

We've booked our first ever cruise to celebrate our silver wedding anniversary this summer. I hope it's a good choice because I persuaded DH that this would be a good thing to do!!

Our two children (tween and teen) will be with us, but we thought about having one adult meal during the cruise, so a dinner or brunch in Palo. If you could only have one of these, which would you pick and why?

Thanks

EC

 

[dcassetta]

Welcome to the boards!

The food is excellent at both brunch and dinner. Brunch is partially an incredible buffet spread, but also includes a menu that you can order hot items from. Dinner is traditional Italian, starting with an antipasto selection, and a variety of courses including pasta. If you're celebrating your anniversary, if you want something a little more romantic I would go with dinner. But, if you could only visit Palo once on the cruise, for the best food experience I think I would choose brunch. No matter what you choose, you'll have a great experience.

 

[CamColt]

Welcome to the Dis and the world of Disney cruising. I think DCL is a great choice for your celebration!

I feel Palo Brunch is the best meal on the ship so I would choose brunch. Plus that way you would not miss a dinner with your kids.

 

[jodifla]

I preferred brunch. Big spread, and great views since it is daytime.

 

[lorimay]

While I love Palo dinner, if you can only choose one, then I say do brunch, you will not be disappointed!!!!

 

[Dug720]

I love brunch, but I would be hard-pressed to give up the chocolate soufflé which you can only get at dinner...

 

[anricat]

I've eaten dinner twice and brunch once and I greatly preferred brunch. Like, way way way preferred. Dinner was good, but I guess, as a vegetarian, I felt like the options were pretty limited (like, one entree). At brunch there were soooooo many yummy things. I did order something off the menu, but I only ate a little of it. The buffet spread is incredible.

 

[sammydent]

It's your anniversary...do both!!! But, if you only choose one, I'd go with brunch. Love, love, love brunch!

 

[Sytrace]

Hi

We've booked our first ever cruise to celebrate our silver wedding anniversary this summer. I hope it's a good choice because I persuaded DH that this would be a good thing to do!!

Our two children (tween and teen) will be with us, but we thought about having one adult meal during the cruise, so a dinner or brunch in Palo. If you could only have one of these, which would you pick and why?

Thanks

EC

I would choose dinner for the romance aspect of it and celebrating an anniversary.
You will have plenty of time for family dinners in the Main dining room with the kids...but some quiet, romantic alone time is pretty awesome too. The view from Palo is amazing, but even more so at night with the moon hitting the water.
Enjoy your cruise!

 

[sandy77d]

I would choose dinner. We went on our first Disney Cruise in May and wanted to do one adult meal. We chose Palo dinner for several reasons: (1) I did not want a buffet for our nice meal. While the food may be wonderful, I wanted a sit-down meal. (2) Everyone talks about the huge amounts of food at the buffet and I did not want a huge meal. (3) I wanted the chocolate souffle.

While I am sure the brunch is wonderful and hope to try it on a future cruise, we loved the Palo dinner and highly recommend it.

 

[jcarwash]

First two cruises, had Palo dinner (Magic and Fantasy). Next two cruises, switched to Palo brunch (both Magic). It is brunch all the way now; we like it better.

 

[joycsk]

I'm not sure if your hesitation is financial or child related. IF it is child-related, in 5 cruises, we have always done both. The experiences are quite different and both tremendous. By the time our DD was 10, she was off and running with a wave phone. Though ymmv, we have never felt unsafe or worried about our kids at all. And, fwiw, if you choose dinner and your kids want to go the the MDR on their own, your servers will take excellent care of them and make sure they have a Great dinner.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

A difficult choice. If you cannot do both, dinner will be more romantic and probably a better "value" for the $30pp upcharge (plus gratuity). I always do a five course menu (antipasto, appetizer, pasta course, entree, and dessert) for dinner while the variety of food at brunch allows for even more exploration.

That said, DW and I were just discussing planning for our EBPC cruise this fall (it's never too early to think about food). Since this is a 14-night cruise, we expect to do Palo for both dinner and brunch. And since it's so long we expect to make a third visit to Palo as well. We decided that a second brunch would be our preference. We really enjoy both, but the brunch buffet is a particular favorite for us. We figure that there will be a number of different dinner menus in the MDRs once we've done the 3 standard rotational menus, so that's also something to look forward to in the MDRs as well.

 

[mevelandry]

Both are so different but awesome!

 

[Donna M]

My vote would be for brunch. I enjoyed it much more than the dinner.

 

[Edna Cloud]

Gosh, thank you everyone for your advice (and for the welcomes!). Seems the vote is in favour of brunch, but maybe I should be trying for both. It is a silver wedding after all...

 

[psac]

We do both when we can, but when we can't (for whatever reason), we make sure we do dinner! It's just more special for us.

 

[ain0004]

We have done both. I seem to prefer Brunch. Dinner seamed to be food over load for us.....

 

[Budzooka]

Did both on Fantasy last summer and preferred brunch. Like all the options and not as stuffy.

 

[mandylovesdisney]

Dinner is good, but brunch is more fun with all the yummy things to try! If you can swing it, I say do both!