Palos- high tea, brunch, dinner times

[imgoingtodisney]

How do they give out ressies for high tea, brunch and dinner? What times are each available? Only on sea days? or all week?
Trying to decide on our preferred times but dont know when each is available.

 

[Señor Ferrari]

Palo takes reservations on the first day of the cruise, usually starting at about 1:00pm, sometimes a bit earlier. Get there early to have more choices.

Palo is open for dinner each night of the cruise, usually from 6:00pm-9:00pm on port days and until 10:00pm on sea days. To my knowledge, brunch is offered only during sea days on the 7-day cruise and is not offered on the 3- and 4-day trips.

I didn't go to high tea, but I believe it was on afternoons of sea days on the 7-day. I have no idea about the 3- and 4-days with high tea.

When you arrive to make reservations, they generally have a board showing each night of the trip and which times are available for dinner. You're given a slip of paper to list your name, cabin #, and three preferred dinner days/times. They collect these and confirm your reservation time later that day, or early the next. I always try to arrive about 10-15 minutes before the scheduled reservation time, and I've always been able to get my first choice. There is a separate table for brunch reservations, where they have a single master list of what times are available, and you'll get confirmation of a time right then. It appeared to me that they made high tea reservations the same way.

This is my experience on the Magic. I think that on the Wonder, there are different tables for each night of the cruise, and you get in the line for the night you want. I've actually never sailed on the Wonder, so I'll leave it to someone who has to be more specific here.

 

[imgoingtodisney]

so we have to wait on line 3 different times if we want one of each? guess i'll also have dh in a line.
and since they dont assign you your time while youre still in line you can end up with brunch, high tea and dinner all on the same day? id rather have them spread out over the 3 sea days

 

[Señor Ferrari]

Actually, the way it works on the Magic is that when you enter Palo for reservations, you're in the dinner reservation line. While you're in this line, they'll give you the aforementioned slip of paper, which you can fill out while waiting in line. When you get to the head of the line, they'll collect your slip and then you can proceed to the brunch table, and then on to the high tea table. The process is not nearly as tedious as it sounds. On our last cruise, in December, I think I made dinner and brunch reservations in less than 10 minutes, and there were maybe two people in the "high tea" line when I finished.

You can avoid having any of these on the same day pretty easily. For example, say you want to have dinner on Tuesday night, brunch on Monday morning, and high tea on Thursday. For your three dinner choices, list "Tues 7:30," "Tues 7:45," and "Tues 8:00". Then just schedule brunch and Tea on other days.

There are far more dinner spots on the 7-night trip, so you can usually at least get the night you want. I've always gotten my first choice for time, too. If you arrive for reservations shortly before the scheduled time, you should have no problem getting what you want.

 

[imgoingtodisney]

thank you