Palo Brunch on Disney Cruise Line

ETA 7/10/17: I have written an updated post about Palo brunch which you can read here.

Palo brunch is one of the things I really look forward to on a Disney cruise.  For those not familiar, Palo is a restaurant for adults only (18+) and it is on all 4 Disney ships.  They serve dinner every night and brunch on select days (typically sea days, but this could vary by sailing).  You must have reservations and there is an additional charge per person, plus gratuity.  Before I go into detail about our most recent Palo brunch experience, here is the basic information that you need to know:

As I mentioned, you need a reservation.  This can be made online (when your booking window opens) or after you board the ship.  They always hold back some reservations for people to book onboard, so if you are unable to get one online, try and get one as soon as you board the ship.  The location will be in the Navigator that you get when you check in at the port.

Brunch is served as a buffet, with a few items you can order from the kitchen, while dinner is a multi-course meal.

Brunch is currently offered on sea days (or sometimes days with a late port arrival) on cruises of 4+ nights.  The times available are usually from about 10:00 am -2:00 pm.  I have heard rumors that it will soon also be offered on 3 night sailings on the Dream, on Nassau day.  This has not yet been verified that I know of.

The cost is currently $30 per person, plus gratuity if you choose.  The Palo waiters are not part of the automatic gratuity program, so they don’t get tips from a tip pool somewhere.  They only get tips from their Palo guests.  Also, the $30 includes all you can eat, plus non-alcoholic drinks.

Included in the brunch price is one glass of champagne (or a champagne cocktail).

Palo is located at the top of the ship, all the way at the back.  It has 180 degree views of the ocean.

There is a dress code for both brunch and dinner.  Here it is, straight from the DCL website:

“To preserve the elegant atmosphere, you are asked to adhere to a strict dress code when dining at Palo. Dress pants and shirt are required for men and a dress or pantsuit is required for women. Please no jeans, shorts, capri pants, flip-flops or tennis shoes.”

I have heard that they do enforce the dress code, so if you plan to try and sneak something by (dressy flip flops, fancy capris, etc), I suggest you have a backup in your room.  I usually wear a dress with sandals and my husband usually wears a nice polo shirt.

 Now, on to our most recent Palo brunch.  We were on the Wonder in November (trip report here) and actually did Palo brunch twice.  We were only able to reserve one ahead of time, and managed to get the other one while on board.  I love how they still send an invitation to your room.  This is one of those things they could easily do away with, but they do it anyway:

When you first get up to deck 10, you immediately notice that everything seems a bit fancier:

And then you see this:

We were a little bit early, so I stepped inside the bathroom right next to the entrance.  Even the bathrooms are fancy!

Here is the entrance to the restaurant.  It has an Italian theme and there are masks along this wall:

Our server met us at the door and showed us to our table.  He took our drink orders (one mimosa or bellini per person is included with the price) and offered to give us a tour of the buffet and kitchen items.  There is no menu for brunch, but everything is labeled well.  It is still helpful for your server to give you a quick tour as he/she will give you additional information about the items and make recommendations.  When we were on the Wonder in November, we were allowed to serve ourselves from the buffet (and have been all 5 times I have done brunch on the Magic & Wonder), but I have heard reports from the Dream and Fantasy about the servers filling your plate for you from the buffet.  I would be prepared for either.

I didn’t remember to take any pictures of the buffet spreads or kitchen items available to order, but a quick internet search for “Palo brunch” will bring up tons of pictures.  The displays are beautiful.

We filled our plates and returned to our seats.  Here was my plate:

I think my favorite parts of the buffet are the cheese spread (lots of unique and very fine cheeses) and the seafood options.  I got shrimp, crab and scallops.  If you do not like seafood, don’t worry – there are still plenty of options for you.  There are also a lot of delicious breads available as well as a caviar bar.  I don’t do caviar, but you can see some on my husband’s plate in the background.  I think those are marinated artichokes and mushrooms at the back of my plate.

This was my buffet plate from later in the week.  It looks like I got pretty much the same things:

After we enjoyed our buffet items for a little while, our server came back and asked us if we would like anything from the kitchen.  I can’t remember the exact names of everything and there is no menu for me to reference, but we chose a pesto pasta dish, a veal and prosciutto dish, and some baked oysters.

Later in the week, we chose our all-time favorites – the grape & gorgonzola pizza and chicken parmigiana with risotto:

Then we were ready for dessert.  Here is my plate from our first brunch:

That is tiramisu on the left, a raspberry panna cotta in the back, an espresso panna cotta on the right, and some sort of cream puff in the front.  Here is my husband’s plate:

In the back are berries with champagne jello and what I think is a peach/raspberry meringue.  In the front are some type of nutella cake and a fruit tart.  Later in the week, I repeated my favorites and tried some new things:

We also decided to try one of the almond croissants:

There are dozens of items which are not pictured here – this is just a tiny selection of what it available and you can get as much as you like and stay as long as you want.  We usually end up being in Palo for about an hour and a half for brunch, but you could be faster or slower if you prefer.

I have only had dinner in Palo once and it was a long time ago, so I don’t remember a whole lot about it.  I do remember that the food was great and that we were there for a really long time, but that is about it.  I urge you to try either or both on your next cruise – I don’t think you will be disappointed!

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