Lisa F
is a very wise woman
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2000
I know a lot of people are stressed and anxious right now about things, but I just got off the 2/22 Fantasy and wanted to share my reviews of the adult dining I did as a solo. I didn't find much except a few references to people who have done Palo Brunch solo, and I figure there will be at least someone else interested in how things went down for me - both from the food/experience aspect and from the solo aspect.
Also I did all 3 of these adult dining experiences and will at the end compare and contrast them for those who are considering which to do (since it's just me it is cheaper to do all 3!)
I also did 3 tastings and will talk generally about how those were and also specifically how they were solo.
I did a 7 night eastern caribbean with SWDAS and 3 sea days.
I did Remy Brunch at 11:30 and then Mixology at 4pm on the first sea day
I did Palo Brunch at 10am and then Wine Tasting at 1:45pm on the second sea day
I did Palo Dinner in lieu of my 2nd Enchanted Garden dinner
I did chocolate and liquor tasting at 3:45 on St. Thomas day after a morning only excursion.
I will devote one post to each experience with photos and thoughts and then offer some final thoughts and comparisons and of course answer some questions along the way. Hoping to bring a little lightness and fun to the board while reliving a completely awesome vacation! So stay tuned, this is just the intro (yes I'm such a tease!)
A little background on me - I am CC gold, having taken 5 cruises prior to 2005 and then I took my son with his grandparents (my parents) on the Disney Dream in 2018, so I have a total of 6 cruises under my belt but my 2018 Dream cruise was my first in a VERY long time and first on the Dream class. I am familiar with Palo brunch and dinner from the classic ships of old, and this is probably the only place in the world where people won't think I'm nuts but along with those "being unprepared for a test in high school" nightmares I also have some nightmares about "not booking Palo in advance" even though it was like, decades since my last Disney cruise. Even so, I did not do any adult dining then, choosing to focus on family togetherness stuff (though I will say that the drink of the day helped immensely with that) but on my most recent cruise, I was really hoping my now highly independent kiddo would allow for me to do some solo adult activities and I booked a bunch.
I really agonized about whether to book Remy or Palo for brunch and ended up at some point saying "what the heck, it's vacation!" and booked both. I worried about whether it would be too much, but they are both such vastly different experiences, it was not remotely too much - so if you're wondering and interested in both, I'd absolutely do both in the same cruise hands down.
I did NOT want to book any dinners because I figured it would be too weird as a solo with other couples dining, but I had such a lovely time at both of my brunches and was made so comfortable I ended up booking Palo dinner for later in the cruise while on board (this actually worked out fine because I could not have really planned something ahead of time until seeing how my cruise was laying out.)
The way my schedule laid out with tastings and wanting to keep SWDAS completely clear for Star Wars activities, I ended up with Remy brunch before Palo brunch and wondered if that would be a mistake... because as a psychotic Disney World planner I worry about stuff like that. It was absolutely not a mistake.
I also wondered if having a brunch and tasting on the same day would be too much but also, that worked out just fine too - I made sure to keep them as far apart as possible (hence the early Palo brunch) but approximately 4 hours was fine - it gave me 1.5-2 hours for the meal then a couple of hours to lay around like a beached whale or a python digesting a small human, take a nap and sober up for the tastings. So if you're thinking about it - I would not schedule it right after but 3:45-4 hours after worked out alright for me.
So that's it for general info. I am waiting for my google photos to sync so I can start writing up Remy! Enjoy!
Also I did all 3 of these adult dining experiences and will at the end compare and contrast them for those who are considering which to do (since it's just me it is cheaper to do all 3!)
I also did 3 tastings and will talk generally about how those were and also specifically how they were solo.
I did a 7 night eastern caribbean with SWDAS and 3 sea days.
I did Remy Brunch at 11:30 and then Mixology at 4pm on the first sea day
I did Palo Brunch at 10am and then Wine Tasting at 1:45pm on the second sea day
I did Palo Dinner in lieu of my 2nd Enchanted Garden dinner
I did chocolate and liquor tasting at 3:45 on St. Thomas day after a morning only excursion.
I will devote one post to each experience with photos and thoughts and then offer some final thoughts and comparisons and of course answer some questions along the way. Hoping to bring a little lightness and fun to the board while reliving a completely awesome vacation! So stay tuned, this is just the intro (yes I'm such a tease!)
A little background on me - I am CC gold, having taken 5 cruises prior to 2005 and then I took my son with his grandparents (my parents) on the Disney Dream in 2018, so I have a total of 6 cruises under my belt but my 2018 Dream cruise was my first in a VERY long time and first on the Dream class. I am familiar with Palo brunch and dinner from the classic ships of old, and this is probably the only place in the world where people won't think I'm nuts but along with those "being unprepared for a test in high school" nightmares I also have some nightmares about "not booking Palo in advance" even though it was like, decades since my last Disney cruise. Even so, I did not do any adult dining then, choosing to focus on family togetherness stuff (though I will say that the drink of the day helped immensely with that) but on my most recent cruise, I was really hoping my now highly independent kiddo would allow for me to do some solo adult activities and I booked a bunch.
I really agonized about whether to book Remy or Palo for brunch and ended up at some point saying "what the heck, it's vacation!" and booked both. I worried about whether it would be too much, but they are both such vastly different experiences, it was not remotely too much - so if you're wondering and interested in both, I'd absolutely do both in the same cruise hands down.
I did NOT want to book any dinners because I figured it would be too weird as a solo with other couples dining, but I had such a lovely time at both of my brunches and was made so comfortable I ended up booking Palo dinner for later in the cruise while on board (this actually worked out fine because I could not have really planned something ahead of time until seeing how my cruise was laying out.)
The way my schedule laid out with tastings and wanting to keep SWDAS completely clear for Star Wars activities, I ended up with Remy brunch before Palo brunch and wondered if that would be a mistake... because as a psychotic Disney World planner I worry about stuff like that. It was absolutely not a mistake.
I also wondered if having a brunch and tasting on the same day would be too much but also, that worked out just fine too - I made sure to keep them as far apart as possible (hence the early Palo brunch) but approximately 4 hours was fine - it gave me 1.5-2 hours for the meal then a couple of hours to lay around like a beached whale or a python digesting a small human, take a nap and sober up for the tastings. So if you're thinking about it - I would not schedule it right after but 3:45-4 hours after worked out alright for me.
So that's it for general info. I am waiting for my google photos to sync so I can start writing up Remy! Enjoy!
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