During a recent sailing on the Disney Dream, we started off the sailing with dinner at Palo, one of two adult only restaurants.
In our trip report, I mentioned the overall Palo dinner service changed following a recent menu update. I get to the service change in a bit, but first, let’s take a look at the menu. Overall, the changes are subtle with a number of dishes simply receiving a slight alteration, while other mainstays remained untouched. There is one noticeable change that sheds light on the change in the service. Can you spot it?
Our server did share there was new way of doing things in Palo on the Disney Dream. This was evident with the first surprise. Palo is taking a page from the port side of deck 13 by adding a new amuse bouche which is always a fun way to start dinner at Remy.
Palo’s bite-sized hors d’oeuvre was a fried potato gnocchi on a mushroom sauce.
The bread service remains a mix of seasoned flatbread, crisps, and grissini.
Can a Palo Dinner experience really begin without the antipasto cart wheeled to your table and your server crafting a plate of the deliciousness?
Well, this is the point where the service at Palo changes. The antipasto presentation is no longer an automatic offering at the table. Instead it has been moved to a menu item as A Selection of Antipasto served table side. Did you spot it on the menu?
The good news is that the offering is still available. However, it’s odd as they used to make such a big deal about it making is seem like a special start to the evening. Ok great, I am sure there is a lot of waste going on each night, but it was just odd. Do you want to know what’s really funny? We didn’t order the antipasto, so the house won. If they would have served it to us as usual, I would have happily enjoyed it, but now that it was a choice, I was like, “I don’t need to eat an extra course tonight…”
On top of that, our server continued into more of the service changes. No more sharing dishes/splitting dishes or ordering of half portions. If you want something just order it, in fact, order everything on the menu if you want. He was quite adamant that they will no longer split orders, no sharing. I am not sure where I’m going with this, but it was just really off putting to have our server explaining the changes.
Time get back on track. We tried some of the newish/revised items. Emily ordered a lovely shaved seasonal vegetable salad with citronnette, and tupelo honey drizzle.
The baby arugula salad caught my eye and it was indeed enjoyable with roasted walnuts, pears, and shaved pecorino.
We really enjoyed the revised soft potato gnocchi. The gnocchi is now served with roasted tomatoes, pine nuts, basil pesto in a Prosecco Wine sauce. For me, this was such lovely improvement on the Piennolo tomato sauce, kale and caramelized grape tomato version.
The evening sunset as we sailed away from Florida kicked off the transition to our main courses.
However, before the main courses are delivered, we must cleanse our palates to better enjoy what’s to come. The Lemon Sorbet Palate Cleanser with a single blueberry is a light and refreshing way to prepare for the next course.
The Sea Scallops, a guest favorite, was also changed up from a celery root puree, baby vegetables and crispy leeks with a Prosecco and Black truffle sauce to lemon, artichoke, lava beans, Pinot Grigio risotto.
I do not recall the last time I ordered something different for my main course because the Piquant Dover Sole is so darn good. The fish has always been perfectly prepared and each bite is packed with flavor and butter. Its actually a good thing we didn’t get the antipasto because the Dover Sole is a huge portion.
I’m not sure why I’m bothering to cover dessert, since I know most of you are ordering the Chocolate Souffle. Full disclosure, the Chocolate Souffle ranks 3rd on my list of Disney Cruise Line’s soufflé offerings behind the Grand Mariner and the Amaretto.
The Amaretto Souffle is served with vanilla sauce and a scoop of espresso gelato.
Remember when I said the Dover Sole is a huge portion and I was glad I didn’t order the antipasto? Well, when someone has the guts to put Formaggio on the dessert menu, I going to order it. This new cheese “dessert” is a selector of cheese with honeycomb, date almond cake, and fig orange chutney. I applaud the effort, but the cheeses were nothing to write home about.
To close out dinner, we received the traditional digestif, a mix of Prosecco, lemon sorbet, and apple brandy.
While the dinner service has changed, it really is subtle once I had a chance to sleep on it for a few weeks. At first, I was taken back like, :wow, this is another small cutback,” but I’m going to go with it was a way to reduce waste because it didn’t speed up dinner service, as in it was not an attempt to turn the table for another seating. Overall, we had a wonderful date night dinner at Palo.
It was implied the dinner service was being rolled out on the Disney Dream and will become the new standard across the fleet, but only time will tell. It seemed to me they were going out of their way to explain the changes, but they never touched on the why. Again, I applaud the effort to change things up, but sometimes if it isn’t broken…
I am interested to hear back from you to see if these changes are permanent, tweaked, or even abandoned all together. Let us know what you think about the service and menu changes in the comments below.
When did they make the change? We were at Palo on Nov 1 and it was business as usual aboard the Magic.
This was/is being tested on the Dream. I have not heard about the other ships yet.
We dined at Palo on the Dream on the 11/4/19 sailing, and greatly enjoyed it. I had heard of the changes and was ready to bring a critical eye. To my relief, it was fantastic!
Service was amazing and we felt the changes were all very positive. The amuse bouche was very good (and I dont even like mushrooms). 😄 All this to say, Palo lovers, don’t worry…. its still a magical delicious experience!
I was on the Dream 2 weeks ago, They gave me half portions on several items.
Good to hear this is not being enforced.
I hope the sharing thing is abandoned. I honestly can’t eat a lot but my husband will usually eat some. It lets him try something else and I feel less guilty about not eating.
Won’t the procedure of not allowing half portions just add to the waste? I usually stick with the steak so I only order one item anyway, but I could see ordering half of two different items instead of two full orders if I wanted to try two things. I could never EAT two full orders though so half orders would be the way to accomplish this. Also, is the charge for Palo up to $65?
The $65 printed on the menu is for the wine experience up-charge.
There is no reason to worry, they are not going to manage what you do with your food once it is delivered to the table. Share away.
Scott, I’m with you on the soufflés. My top-three rankings are the same as yours, but the top two switch some times.
We were on the Dream for the 10/18 sailing. Similar changes and also noted the atmosphere was far more formal than past. Dinner took 3 hours which seemed excessive.
Three hours? We like to attend the show after a 6 pm Palo reservation. That would get us out at 9 pm and I would NOT be happy. I will be sure to tell our server that we plan to attend the show after we eat.
From our experience, our servers have asked if we are in any sort of hurry to get to a show, even during brunch.
dined in Palo on 10/21/19 and noticed the change with the antipasto and was glad cause I only wanted the cheese but my husband wanted all of it.
Our server did ask us if we wanted it or not