to quelch some rumors...

[dizneykids]

i am on the phone at the moment with our dcl reservationist. she's been with the cruise line from day one, so she knows what she's talking about. i asked her whether you can choose your own dining rotation and whether you can pre-book palos. here are her answers:

1. you can NOT choose your own reservation, even if you are concierge (we're in a cat 1 on 3/9/02). you can REQUEST a particular rotation, but there is no guarantee you will receive it.

2. you can NOT pre-book palos. she did say that there are a couple packages on which you can, but ONLY if you on one of those packages (e.g., honeymoon package or certain AmEx packages).

3. people are seated around the dining rooms according to whether they have kids. we have three kids and have always been seated on the outside of the room, towards the wall/windows.

4. the dining room rotations described in other posts (if you have young kids, older kids, no kids) are accurate.

hope this helps others. i just requested the plaplap rotation, so it'll be interesting to see if we in fact get it. she's also requested that we NOT be seated against the wall/windows on this trip (we have 3 boys...3, 8 and 9).

oh, a couple other questions i had that she answered:

1. palos brunch: available only on days at sea

2. high tea: available only on sunday & monday

3. character breakfast: available only on days at sea. you will be given ticket with your assigned day at dinner the night prior.

4. kids' tea: available only on days at sea. you have to pick up tickets outside promenade lounge.

 

[DaisyDebbie]

Very informative, thank you.

 

[cinbis]

Thank you for all that information. We would like to request the PLAPLAP also. Do you think I should call and request that or will the conceirge handle it (we're in a Cat. 3). Our children are 8 and 11. I was thinking that's the rotation we would probably get.

Why don't you want to sit near the windows?

 

[dizneykids]

cinbis...i guess i don't want to sit near the walls as we always seem to be placed there. i have always preferred (in any restaurant) to be more centrally located when seated. i guess it's cause i'm a people watcher. i feel so out of the way when put against the outside of the room.

as for whether to request your rotation in advance...i would (and did). i've always found with disney that if you request something in advance and then point that out upon check-in, you will tend to get it. the cruise is a bit different as you will be assigned when you check in, but you can go TRY to have it changed if it's not what you want once you are on board. i say TRY because we requested the concierge change our rotation in november (we were also in a cat 1 then), but they were unable to accomodate us. fortunately, we ran into the manager of triton's (he was our head server on our previous trip) and explained our situation. HE was able to change our rotation so we had thanksgiving dinner at triton's.

 

[Lori1035]

cinbis

My kids were 8 and 11 on our Wonder cruise in Nov. We had PTAP. Also, we were always seated along the wall.

 

[Chattyaholic]

Sorry, I have to disagree with #3 and #4 on your list. My husband and I went on the Magic last year to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, no kids with us. We were seated with a family of 5, three daughters, the oldest was 13 or 14 I think, the middle around 10 and the youngest (the one that caused problems a few times) was 6. We had been expecting to sit with other adults, so you can imagine our surprise when we came to dinner the first night and saw crayons on the table!! They were a nice family though, and even though we really didn't have much in common with them, we still found things to talk about over dinner and we didn't want to bother trying to change our seating. We are booked on the Magic next January though, and this time we definitely want to be seated with adults only. If there are children, we will ask to be moved.

 

[atigeg]

Although Disney tries to seat adults with other adults, it is dependent on the percentage of kids on board at any particular time. Out of 18 cruises, we have only been seated at a table with kids 3 or 4 times (most on holidays). Happily, it has always been a good experience. The only miserable dining experience we ever had was when we had NO tablemates! I'd rather be with a family than alone any day.
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[cinbis]

I wonder why they put people with kids against the wall??? I was thinking that a window seat would be nice!

Thank you for the information. I'll take Dizneykid's advice and call to request the PLAPAP rotation.

 

[Poohbr618]

We just got off the ship last week and we did High Tea on Thursday............

 

[DISPOP]

cinbis--Tallyho!
We will be on the same cruise as your family. We have two young ones also. Why are you requesting the PLAPLAP rotation?

 

[MickeyCanada]

We have 2 kids and both time have been in the middle and wishing to have window seats. I think this time I will request window seats. We are the opposite, we are tired of being in the middle.

 

[Tluvs2talk]

We have cruised 3 times on Disney and 2 out of 3 were seated with families with children. This was not a problem for us, but I can see where adults would rather be seated with adults.

 

[cinbis]

Dispop-

We've never been on a cruise before so I'm basing my request on what other posters have recommended.

Since Lumieres is the most formal of the three restaurants, I thought being there on the first formal night made sense. Eating at Parrot Cay on Tropical Night sounds like fun.

I thought we would try to get Palo reservations for Thursday which would be our second time at Animator's Palate
(not a show night). But then again, that's the second formal night, I'm not sure if my children may want to join us for dinner. I have a feeling one formal night will be enough for them!

If you are prone to motion sickness, are you more likely to be affected if sitting by the window?

 

[mmouse37]

I personally like the PlapPlap rotation. I like being in the formal dining room on Formal Night and love being in Parrot Cay on Tropical night.

On our last 7-day cruise we were lucky enough to get PLAPLAP by chance. We were travelling with 4 adults and 6 kids ages 17,16,16,14,13,6. We had requested a table for 10 and got it.

This trip we are travelling with 14 people and just 2 are little kids, 3 are teens. We requested PLAPLAP and that we all be seated with the same server, though we know we won't be at the same table. Hope we get it!

It was pretty funny when making the request....the CM had no idea what I was talking about when I said PLAPLAP!!! He said, excuse me....what did you just say? I had to explain about this board and all the terms used for dining rotations. He was very impressed and wants to join the DIS!!!! He was happy that he will know what PLAPLAP means when a guest requests it!

MJ

 

[Diamond_Girls]

All the navigators I've seen show the High Tea on Monday and Thursday, not Sunday & Monday. What's up with that?

 

[DISPOP]

Cinbis,
Thanks for the update...sounds like a good rotation.
We've been on three cruises before (this will be first on DCL).
If you are prone to sea sickness, you will not want to sit by a window. Watching the ocean move by seems to make it worse.
We have only noticed a problem on the first night before. After that, everybody got their "sea legs".