Which restaurant rotation on the Wonder?

We are sailing on the Wonder on Jan 21 for a 7 night Southern Caribbean cruise. I talked to shore-side concierge and they told me what the three different rotations are and will let me request one but I'm not sure which one I want as all the restaurants sound good. The three restaurants are Tiana's Place (Tp), Animator's Palette (A), and Triton's (T). We are eating at Palo the first night and the Pirate's night is the 5th night. The three rotations are:

1. T-A-Tp-T-A-A-Tp

2. A-Tp-T-A-Tp-Tp-T

3. Tp-T-A-Tp-T-T-A

So since we are doing Palo the first night, we are going to do one restaurant once and one restaurant thrice (one night being Pirate's night). We have a group of 8 with my parents, my wife and I, and our children (11, 6, 4, 2). Any advice?

There are people who like to eat in the fanciest restaurant on formal night or in the most casual on pirate night. I honestly find that to be a little silly, especially as the theme changes in the restaurants mean that none really fits with the pirate night concept. By the end of the cruise, each person will have been able to experience all of the same menus provided they have not opted for adult dining.

Tiana's is new and for that reason alone, I would not miss the signature menu night there. Each restaurant will serve the signature menu, typically on the first night you are assigned there. The remaining nights will be themed nights where all restaurants will serve the same menu. The Animator's show runs the same night as the signature menu normally. I guess I'd take the first one because I don't want to miss the Animator's show and I don't want to miss Tiana's signature menu. In reality, I would not have done Palo on the first night. I would want to eat in the MDR on the first night to meet my serving team, get the children used to them and to the ship, etc. That way, they can do the MDR under the supervision of the 11 year old on your Palo night if you wish with the toddler in the nursery, obviously. I'd do Palo later in the week....but that's a personal choice issue and you may well have a reason for first night Palo.

There are people who like to eat in the fanciest restaurant on formal night or in the most casual on pirate night. I honestly find that to be a little silly' date=' especially as the theme changes in the restaurants mean that none really fits with the pirate night concept. By the end of the cruise, each person will have been able to experience all of the same menus provided they have not opted for adult dining.

 

Tiana's is new and for that reason alone, I would not miss the signature menu night there. Each restaurant will serve the signature menu, typically on the first night you are assigned there. The remaining nights will be themed nights where all restaurants will serve the same menu. The Animator's show runs the same night as the signature menu normally. I guess I'd take the first one because I don't want to miss the Animator's show and I don't want to miss Tiana's signature menu. In reality, I would not have done Palo on the first night. I would want to eat in the MDR on the first night to meet my serving team, get the children used to them and to the ship, etc. That way, they can do the MDR under the supervision of the 11 year old on your Palo night if you wish with the toddler in the nursery, obviously. I'd do Palo later in the week....but that's a personal choice issue and you may well have a reason for first night Palo.[/quote']

 

Thanks for the thorough reply. The reason we did Palo the first night so we could go a second time for brunch.

Obviously brunch is on sea days....not sure how that interferes with dinner other than not wanting to go to brunch the day after dinner (or the reverse).

What you might want to do is to look at the menus. The signature menus are (or were) on the DCL site for each restaurant; the menus for the theme nights can be found on line. We do Palo on our "least favorite" menu night. Another way to handle the kids on your Palo night is to make your Palo reservation during the seating that you are not assigned to. For instance, if you have main seating (early) for dinner, make your Palo reservation at 8:00. You can take the family to the main seating dinner, meet your servers, etc. and explain that you are not eating because you are going to Palo. The kids get fed, you get to see how things work, etc. They will "expedite" the food for the kids if you ask. Then take the kids to their programming areas/nursery and head up to Palo. You can get food for the kids from room service, heavy snacks in the concierge lounge, or from the outlets on the pool deck also. I guess I can't wrap my head around not going to the dining room on the first night on DCL.

Obviously brunch is on sea days....not sure how that interferes with dinner other than not wanting to go to brunch the day after dinner (or the reverse).

 

What you might want to do is to look at the menus. The signature menus are (or were) on the DCL site for each restaurant; the menus for the theme nights can be found on line. We do Palo on our "least favorite" menu night. Another way to handle the kids on your Palo night is to make your Palo reservation during the seating that you are not assigned to. For instance' date=' if you have main seating (early) for dinner, make your Palo reservation at 8:00. You can take the family to the main seating dinner, meet your servers, etc. and explain that you are not eating because you are going to Palo. The kids get fed, you get to see how things work, etc. They will "expedite" the food for the kids if you ask. Then take the kids to their programming areas/nursery and head up to Palo. You can get food for the kids from room service, heavy snacks in the concierge lounge, or from the outlets on the pool deck also. I guess I can't wrap my head around not going to the dining room on the first night on DCL.[/quote']

 

The reason I decided to do that was that I had received an email from DCL saying that I could book Palo twice if I booked it the first night. Apparently they don't get a lot of people at Palo the first night, I guess for the reasons you listed.

The reason I decided to do that was that I had received an email from DCL saying that I could book Palo twice if I booked it the first night. Apparently they don't get a lot of people at Palo the first night, I guess for the reasons you listed.

OK. let's be clear on that. EVERYONE can book 1 dinner and one brunch. Since you are concierge, you'd have no problem getting a brunch reservation. What the e-mail was talking about was that if you booked dinner on the first night, you could book a second dinner. At least that's the way it was about a year ago.

Also, we've done several cruises where we got 2 dinners in Palo. They do not open all the reservations on line; they hold back about half of them for bookings after boarding. If you are in a standard cabin, go to Palo Reservations location and let them know you'd like a second Palo dinner. They will wait list you and let you know if there are openings available. If concierge, just talk to the on board concierge.

The restriction is that you can book one of each type of meal in advance; additional meals are on an "as available" basis and are not advertised. Again, things change...this is the way it has always been up to and including my last DCL cruise.

Animator's Palate for sure !

We were on Wonder for Halloween and loved all of them but AP was a lot of fun.

Tiana' s was fun too, and Princess T goes to each table greeting people..

My niece and I, (She is 48, and has ALS. I'm 71) were together this sailing. Loved AP.

Patti

i would NEVER book palos the first night...

well in all honesty i would never book palos again ever (we didn't like it, and we tried it twice just to see if we'd been wrong the first time), but certainly not on the first night of a disney cruise...

the first night is very important - you meet the serving staff..

also, the first night in animators you'll have a show...and i assume in tianas you'll also have a show on the first night..

by the way, if you're concierge, you can pretty much get anything you want...we even ate in palos with our 17 year old son (you're supposed to be 18)...so concierge gets away with a lot of stuff they're not supposed to...

didn't change our opinion of palos however...

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