So, for our New Year cruise we are hoping to book Palo brunch for one of our three sea days. We will be a party of four but we are on two separate cabin reservations. Can I book Palo for four people even though only two of the four are in my cabin? Do I need to say who the other two are and/or which cabin they are in? I’m sure this must come up fairly frequently when two or more families are travelling together but it’s never been an issue for us before now. Any help is greatly appreciated!
If your rooms are linked you should be able to see and select anyone from any of the other cabins to book any reservations, Palo included. And if you don’t see them all together, book them separately and then the first day talk to the dining team to have them combined to one reservation.
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What exactly do you mean by linked? We have two separate reservation numbers but both reservations show up in my DCL account though I have to click on one or the other to see details.
Thanks for the assistance!
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When DH & I first booked it was through a travel agent and she got us linked the first time and ever since then whenever we’ve done the final step to select guests for the rooms we’re booking, we can see the names/profiles of each other and all our kids (and most of the extended family who booked that first cruise with us) on a dropdown and the system appears smart enough to know we’re linked from then on.
To initially link, I think it’s as easy as adding the reservation in your account, but it sounds like you can already see that, so it may have been automatically done. Especially if it’s your family or friends that Disney already knows you travel with and you’re booking at the same time. You can also call DCL to confirm if you’re wanting to be extra confident.
But me personally, I would consider your reservations linked and then if for whatever reason when bookings open you are two separate parties, make a reservation for each room and then on the first day talk to the Palo dining team when they setup their table and let them know you’re one party. They will happily consolidate you to one table since all the tables seat 4 at a minimum.
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Okay, thanks. It sounds like our travel agent linked us then when she booked it for us. I might contact her to confirm. If the reservations are linked, does that mean I can book all four of us for excursions without having to do each cabin separately? That would be so much easier.
DH and I were thinking we’d need to have two computers going each on a different reservation and try to coordinate our bookings! Would be way simpler if one person can book us all together.
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For excursions for sure you’ll be able to book everything all together. And my husband and I have been in separate rooms all the cruises we’ve done (since we are the only two adults in our family of 6 that always needs 2 rooms), and the last 2 cruises where we finally were actually able to book Palo when our booking window opened, I had no issue selecting us from different rooms.
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When doing online check-in to get your Port Arrival Time/Boarding Group you will definitely want to be prepared to work on 2 different browsers or devices to get a close time because in that instance you do have to work through each room separately without anyway to connect them to apply the same port time or selections to both rooms. But excursions and bookings the app works really well.
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Does the app work better for booking excursions and dining or will it work just as well from the website on a laptop? I always prefer to use the computer rather than my phone for this sort of thing but could use whichever is better.
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I like the computer better for it too, but if it’s a competitive booking that will go quickly I try on both and use whatever gets in faster because if the connection is lagging, it’s nice to have the app to fall back on if it’s doing better than my laptop browser.
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For one of my cruises some people could use the phone and not the app and some people were the opposite. IT can be strange. Try your preferred method first, but be prepared to switch if necessary.
Edit: Phone w/ app vs computer w/ browser.
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Had my booking window open last night at midnight. Thanks @lolabear_la for all of your advice. I was able to book Palo brunch for all four of us at exactly the time and date I wanted, but I had to do it as two groups of two. It wasn’t an issue of being in separate cabins since it would let me do any two of us as a pair, but it blurred the other people once I selected two! I’ll have to go the first day to see if they can merge us to one reservation.
Otherwise, there were surprisingly slim pickings for our port excursions. We couldn’t get our first or second choices at either port! That’s never been an issue for us on previous cruises. I’m still satisfied with what we got but I did not expect it to be so difficult.
Also able to book Rainforest passes for me and the girls for the length of the cruise. I’m glad they let you do that online now. One less thing to try and do on embarkation day!
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So glad you got Palo for when you wanted it. So weird that they had you do it as 2 groups of 2. I’m pretty sure they will gladly put you as one once on the ship.
Bummer about the port excursions. I think I remember you’re going on the Fantasy, right?
If so, the itinerary for that New Year’s Eve cruise on the Fantasy looked amazing!! And not a very often done route so while I am surprised as you that it was difficult, it does make sense why there was more demand among those higher CC levels to scoop up excursions. But I’m glad you found something you do want to do!
And yay for one less thing to do on embarkation!! I love that!
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It really does. We’re super excited to see St Maarten and Puerto Rico. We’re doing something called the Aerial Explorer and Zipline in St Maarten. It’s like a chair lift up a mountain which is supposed to give you an amazing view at the top and also has a zipline over the mountain ridge. In Puerto Rico we’re going to learn to scuba.
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Both your excursions sound amazing! Are you going to be able to see any of Old San Juan when you stop in PR? DH & I loved that area when we went to PR (not on a cruise, but we did see the port right there by the Sheraton) and every time we look at cruises, we do check what DCL ships are going to PR and they are never good times for our schedule, but one of these times, we will make it to PR!!
Probably not. I’m not sure of the timing of the excursion. But unless we drive through it on our way to scuba, I don’t think we’ll get there. It’s too bad. It would have been really interesting to see.
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