If you’ve read my blog for a while now, you probably know that one of my favorite parts of traveling (maybe THE favorite part) is food. We’re always looking for the best dining experiences we can find wherever we go. So it was only natural that when we set sail on the Disney Dream, we knew that dining at Palo was an absolute must-do. We ended up eating there for dinner on day 3 of our cruise and it was one of the best dining experiences I’ve ever had!
While most of the dining on board is included in the cost of the cruise, Palo is considered a specialty dining experience that comes at an extra cost. They offer brunch on sea days and dinner every night, each costing $30 per person. All things considered, that $30 seems like one of the best deals we’ve ever come across on vacation!!
It’s an adults-only dining experience and has a dress code, so we made sure to look the part!
I wrote about the theming of Palo in my post where we took a tour of the restaurant, but as a recap – the overall theme is fine Italian dining. It’s reflected in the style and decor inside, starting with the glass lighting fixture at the entrance meant to represent spaghetti and meatballs!
But our experience actually began outside the restaurant, where the night before we had received a special invitation on our room door confirming our reservation.
On the day of, we waited in the nearby lounge to be called for our meal. We peeked at a preview of the menu while we waited (I took a better photo later!)
We had the 6:00 seating and were called back right on time. They actually greeted us by name and we were the first guests in the restaurant for the evening!
The inside is stunning, with several tables right up against tall glass windows so you can look out over the ocean during the meal. We were lucky to receive a window seat!
We were greeted right away by our AMAZING server, Marian! She was so excited to learn it was our first time at Palo. She also confirmed that we were celebrating two birthdays this trip – we had a hunch we were in for something special!
Marian started us off with some assorted breads and Palo’s charcuterie selection while we browsed our food and wine menus.
We LOVE charcuterie in this family and Palo had an incredible selection!! It was brought around on a rolling cart so we could look at everything:
Immediately we could tell that everything was going to be amazingly delicious, just from how this assortment looked!! We asked to try a little of everything and she prepared a few plates for us to share.
It was SO delicious!! You can see everything well below:
We had meats (I asked for a bit extra because I LOVE prosciutto), cheese, a balsamic vinegar sauce, artichoke hearts, peppers, olives – everything was so good. Like I said, we knew we were really in for a great meal as soon as we started digging in to this!
We placed our dinner orders and also each ordered some wine off of their extensive menu. Chris, Sarah and I all got a moscato d’asti (my favorite!) and Grant got a chianti at Marian’s recommendation.
Our appetizers started coming out soon after we finished our charcuterie!
Here’s the Tuscan white bean soup:
Tomato mozzarella caprese:
And the fried calamari:
Everything was great but my favorite was definitely the calamari! I actually made Chris order it for me because he wasn’t going to get an appetizer (to save room for the entree, lol) so we ended up with two orders of it for the table to share. This turned out to be a good decision anyway because we all loved it!! A few pieces of calamari were noticeably still octopus-shaped though…kind of weird haha:
But very authentic I suppose!
After our appetizers we had an amuse bouche as a palate cleanser to get ready for our entrees. It was a very light and delicious lemon sorbet:
It was finally time for our main courses!
Chris and Grant both got the osso buco, which was really a lot to take in:
Sarah got caramelle di vitello, which was a pasta stuffed with veal, mushrooms, and pancetta:
And I got the pappardelle pasta with lobster and white truffle oil:
We also got the scallops to share! Marian said normally the plate only comes with three scallops, but since we said we were splitting she made the chef give us four haha:
Everything was great but the scallops ended up being my favorite! They had a celery puree and the sauce was prosecco and black truffle… all things I love. It was one of my favorite dishes we had anywhere on the cruise. And like I’ve mentioned previously, this meal was a flat rate of $30 per person for ANY food we wanted to order, so we could literally order one of everything and it would still be the same price. That’s why we decided to order things we wouldn’t normally get on land (like the osso buco) or an extra entree just for us to share. I love cruise dining!!!!
Around the time that our entrees started coming out, Marian popped by our table to check on us and asked about dessert. It was a little early, but she explained why – she quietly asked if we “knew about the soufflé”? We didn’t know what she was referring to so we said no, and her face literally lit up like she had a secret haha! She explained that one of Palo’s specialties in terms of dessert is their soufflés. They’re super popular and special but they require some prep time, so we had to let her know if we would want them for our dessert earlier in the meal. Of course we were intrigued and said yes bring us anything! She said they came in two flavors – almond and chocolate – and that she would bring us two of each so we could all split!!
Midway through the meal I took a bathroom break, which normally would not be something I’d blog about but the bathrooms for Palo and Remy were among the fanciest I’ve ever been in:
It was positively opulent. In case it’s not obvious, that’s a peacock made of hand towels sitting there. Amazing.
By the time I returned it was just about time for dessert!! Marian brought us our promised soufflés and we were SO thrilled to try them. The almond one came with a scoop of coffee ice cream:
While the chocolate came with vanilla:
And in the little containers next to it was a sauce that was poured on top. She demonstrated how it worked – first she poked a hole in the soufflé with a fork, and then poured the sauce inside. It was so cool! The sauces provided were chocolate/vanilla for the chocolate one, and Amaretto (!!!!!) for the almond!
Now listen. I know I have a tendency to say “this was one of the best things I ate” a lot but I swear to you. These were legitimately the best things I ate on this cruise. Honestly the almond is up there as one of the best things I’ve ever eaten period. It was so good. I was so happy she brought us two of each because I could have eaten an almond one all by myself. It was unbelievable. I cannot stress to you how much I loved this soufflé haha
At this point we fully trusted Marian’s recommendations and she asked what else we wanted for dessert – I don’t even think we saw a dessert menu, she just said she would bring us a few of her favorites. That ended up being everything on the dessert menu. Again I love cruise dining!!!!
In addition to our soufflés, we tried…tiramisu:
Vanilla panna cotta:
And a limoncello tart:
Needless to say at this point – we thoroughly enjoyed all three.
And then as if our meal wasn’t special and perfect enough, Marian had ANOTHER surprise up her sleeve for us!
It’s a chocolate plate for mine and Sarah’s birthdays!! It was so wild. I’ve never had a birthday dinner like this before!
I didn’t know if we were supposed to scrape the chocolate off and eat it…but we did.
At the end of the meal as a little parting gift Marian also brought us out some shots (LOL) of some kind of apple/lemon slush thing. I don’t fully know what it was. I wasn’t asking questions at this point.
We left the restaurant EXTREMELY satisfied with everything but also stuffed more than we had ever been! We only had one destination in mind after the meal, and that was our bed to sleep off all the food we just ate.
If you can’t tell – we absolutely loved every second of our experience at Palo. And here’s a hot take – I actually liked the meal overall better than our meal at Disneyland’s Club 33. We LOVED eating at Club 33 obviously, and it has the exclusivity factor going for it, but the biggest difference between that and Palo is that I didn’t feel like I was too poor to be eating at Palo, lol. I also preferred the overall experience of it being on the cruise ship because like I said before, we could order whatever we wanted! That’s of course no fault of Club 33, it’s just the nature of the experience and the advantage Palo has of being on Disney Cruise Line. Nevertheless, Palo was truly an amazing meal and I honestly cannot BELIEVE it only cost us $30 per person (plus the wine)!
Palo was unbelievably good and I know it’s going to end up being a must do for us on our future cruises! I also can’t wait to try out their brunch, which I hear is fantastic as well. I would honestly recommend it to anyone – it’s a really great value if you’re interested in some of the best food on the ship! Have you been to Palo for brunch or dinner (and did you love it as much as us??)
I hope you enjoyed this review of our time at Palo! The rest of the fun things we did on this day are all listed in this post. You can also make sure you’re caught up on the rest of my cruise posts or my other trip reports of past vacations! Thanks very much for reading!
xo,
