Main Dining Room - Skipping a night or two

[rchristiansen]

We've done one disney cruise before and it was a short one. I think it was only 4 nights. We did Palo one night and I felt bad leaving our server that night. I think we told him ahead of time, but I don't remember

How do you handle it? If you can't make it, should you let them know?

 

[MichelleCanada]

We told our server the night before we had a Palo reservation. We also had to miss one night because our DS7 was sick. We stopped by and told our server. He was so awesome about it - he asked us what we wanted and delivered it to our stateroom. I don’t think anyone should expect this - but it was very nice of him to do!

If you are sharing a table with another family I would tell you server so they can take the other family’s order right away.

 

[Racer X]

That is very courteous. A lot of times i think it is an afterthought, but you are spot on in that servers will often wait for everyone to assemble before starting their evening menu explanation and order taking. A simple alert in advance if possible is a nice gesture.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We've done one disney cruise before and it was a short one. I think it was only 4 nights. We did Palo one night and I felt bad leaving our server that night. I think we told him ahead of time, but I don't remember

How do you handle it? If you can't make it, should you let them know?

We always let at least the server know the night before when we're going to be missing dinner. Especially if we're seated with other guests. That way they don't delay service waiting for us.

 

[DCLPrincess]

We never go to the breakfast on the last day and we always let the servers know the night before that we won't be there.

 

[Flossbolna]

We like skipping the MDR and we just tell the servers that this is something we do on our first night. We are upfront that this has nothing to do with them and that the gratuity will not be changed because of us skipping meals. We also tell them which nights we will definitely miss because of other reservations. Especially on longer cruises the standard dining room routine just isn’t something we need every night. But I also don’t want my server to be concerned about what they did wrong when they provided good service.

 

[TortoiseTaughtUs]

It’s weird to me that the head servers aren’t given a list of people who have Palo/Remy reservations.

 

[DynamicDisneyDuo]

It’s weird to me that the head servers aren’t given a list of people who have Palo/Remy reservations.

Probably because it isn't really necessary nor is it really their concern. People miss dinner in the MDR for a multitude of reasons, as long as it's not service related they don't need to know why. If it is service related, I would hope the guests spoke to them before choosing that option as they really need to know that.

 

[ladyofthetramp]

We let them know. As someone who wrote in a previous post on these boards trying to obtain main dinning seating and needing it for a medical reason and having a hard time doing so-if you let them know, they often make room for those the could not accommodate with a switch by offering them someone's place that is not attending their dinning due to other reservations etc. Plus we see it as a courtesy to our dinning team that takes good care of us.

 

[lorenni]

Actually they do know who has Palo reservations. The head servers use these lists to help match families who want private tables.

On our last cruise DCL had no record of our request for a private table (thanks for that DU) and they were not able to accommodate us. We mostly skipped the MDR except for the nights the head server was able to slip us in to a table where the adults were at Palo and the kids were at the kids club.

(And before anyone gets judgy, we were 2-3 hours past usual dinner time due to time zone - even at early seating- and DS was NOT having it. Dining alone was the only acceptable way of being in the MDRs that cruise).

 

[coast2coastmickey]

Our little one passed out maybe an hour before dinnertime on embarkation day on our cruise in December. We ended up just eating some pizza on the pool deck when she woke up, then went to the show that night. We didn't think to tell the waitstaff anything, but in hindsight I should have. They probably would have appreciated the transparency if only to not delay the other family sitting with us.

 

[Capt_BJ]

one one DCL cruise, we too did tell server we would be PALO the following night and kids would be doing the club dinner. The following nite was lobster night. He showed up at our cabin door around 11 PM with a tray of lobster .... thought we might still like some.

Telling the server and your table mates (if any) is something I believe was once called courtesy or good manners. Was and still is in my house anyway and proud that the kids (now adults) have 'caught the virus'.

And YES I do understand that something can come up and make you miss with no time for a warning ... I'm not talking about that ..... if you HAVE time, it is the 'nice thing' to do.

 

[bumbershoot]

It’s weird to me that the head servers aren’t given a list of people who have Palo/Remy reservations.

They knew when we had palo reservations.

 

[Lilsia]

We go on the cruise for the food. Missing MDR would make our heads explode. LOL

 

[TortoiseTaughtUs]

They knew when we had palo reservations.

We had dinner at Remy on the last night of our first cruise and we didn’t think to tell the servers because we assumed they’d be informed, but when we saw them at breakfast the last morning they said they were surprised that we hadn’t shown up. (I will also be brave and admit that we didn’t talk to our tablemates about it because we really only ever exchanged pleasantries.)

 

[lanejudy]

It’s weird to me that the head servers aren’t given a list of people who have Palo/Remy reservations.

They still shouldn’t assume the party will be absent - maybe if it’s just a couple or all adults, but many families have the kids eat at the MDR anyway. I guess that may depend on age. Too much room for error for the serving team to make assumptions.

Enjoy your cruise!