Reasons to pick late seating BESIDES meal time

[professorandmom]

Top reasons to pick late seating BESIDES the time of the meal (In my humble opinion):

1. Since the later seating is less popular, there are less people – and even when a table has been assigned, it seemed to me that more people skipped the formal restaurants. So, our server had more time for the tables he had. Also, the noise level was less with fewer people.

2. More opportunity to try the room service cheese tray and other snacks

3. Less crowds at the 6:30 show. The boards had suggested getting to the theater at least 15-30 minutes early….but the fewer late diners meant that good seats were still available even after the theater went dark…

4. I think the late dinner stretched the days – I wanted to fill all the time on board and enjoyed knowing there was more ahead later in the day

5. Of course, the late breakfast seating on the last day is pretty wonderful but that is obvious!

[Dancind]

We liked late seating for all the reasons you've mentioned. The only drawback I could see is that a lot of activities in the lab started during our dinner time, and DD would have to go in the middle of them, or miss them entirely. On our next cruise, she will be a teen, and their activities start later! Diana

[nicki dahling]

OK . You convinced me , were going with late seating.

[ducklite]

Less younger kids, more time to get ready after daytime activities, and no rush through dinner because there's another seating behind us.

Anne

[jlawall]

Less hectic when returning from excursions! Also, better for adult entertainment shows!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Buckaroo's Dad]

Good morning professorandmom.

good seats were still available even after the theater went dark

I thought when a theatre went "dark," ALL seats were available...


More opportunity to try the room service cheese tray and other snacks

In my opinion this applies more to early dining. Greater probability for a late-night snack.


enjoyed knowing there was more ahead later in the day

Isn't there more "more ahead" with early seating???...

[cindala]

What are the two seating times?

[Gina]

Another reason: During early seating time is a *great* time to go swimming -- most of the kiddies have gone to dinner! My 7 year old DS loves that time at the pool... he doesn't have to wait in a long line for the slide. :)

-gina-

[watshakinranch]

First cruise and we got late seating (which I like!) but got DS3 who is Dennis the Menace reincarnated. He is the creation of being the last child/grandchild of a very large family!

How many children are usually at late seating? Are the staff well versed in how to determine whether to entertain the child or scare the heck out of them to be good?:smooth:

[xABearx]

Originally posted by cindala
What are the two seating times?


They are either 6:00pm or 8:30pm.....Andy

[Michelle]

For us it's just the opposite, early seating with a child is the ONLY way to go. I'm just not a big eater and dinner is not the highlight of the evening. My DD wants to get to the clubs and we want to enjoy the evening games and entertainment. I'd MUCH rather be done with dinner by 7:30 than be done with dinner by 10:00 pm. We're always back on the ship in plenty of time for showers and changing clothes for early dining, it's not a big deal at all.

To each their own. :)

[Werner Weiss]

During the majority of the Eastern Caribbean cruise, the Magic's clock is set to Atlantic Standard Time (AST), which is one hour later than Eastern Standard Time (EST).

If you're coming from places such as Chicago that are in the Central Standard Time (CST) zone:

The 6:00 p.m. AST dinner feels like 4:00 p.m. CST (or 5:00 p.m. EST).

The 8:30 p.m. AST dinner feels like 6:30 p.m. CST (or 7:30 p.m. EST).

So a late dinner isn't really that late, according to your body's clock — but the early dinner is darn early.

That's one more reason why my wife, kids and I prefer the 8:30 p.m. dinner time.

The above applies when it's not daylight saving time. During daylight saving time, the Magic's clock stays on AST — but Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) and AST are the same clock time.

[mnmomof1]

We had late dining for our August 23rd cruise and no one from my party liked it. We did not get out of dinner until after 10 each night. We did not find our servers any less busy at the late dinner, in fact ours was busier and had more tables than our earlier dining last year. Also, the dinners ran so long that if their was something the kids wanted to do in the kids club they had to leave dinner before it was over. We did not find the dining room less crowded than when we had early dining. We also didn't like that Topsiders closes so early for lunch (2:00) because lots of the time my husband wanted to eat there instead of Pluto's or room service but they were already closed. This would be OK for early dining but not for the late dining. We hope, in the future, to be able to have early dining again as late was just not for us. Our servers were great though and our cruise was wonderful besides our dinner complaints. Kim

[Verandah Man]

We hate late dining and all six in our group loved it, we did not feel rushed at all, we got to see the shows and movies we wanted to see, then afterward would still have plenty of time to get ready for dinner. Granted, we are back home now, and we are back to our regular dinner time at 4pm (most nights), but we enjoyed a little afternoon snack that held us over until 8:30 on the ship. We booked for next August, and have already selected late dining.

[allshookup]

Hmmmmm now we are just the opposite. Thought we would love late dining because we are normally late nighters but getting out of the dining room between 10:00 & 10:30 every night meant the kids wanted to go right to bed and skip the clubs because they were so exausted (actually we were too). Because of that we missed seeing a lot of the night time adult entertainment i.e. dueling pianos. Plus we still had to "rush" to get to the 6:30 show so I don't think that 1/2 hour will make that much of a difference. Oh and the dessert buffet was being served within a half hour of the time we finished dinner and we were too full to even try a bite of anything. I was very dissapointed about that because it all looked sooooo heavenly.

BTW almost every table at the 8:30 seating, as far as I could see, had young children and every table was full.

[Verandah Man]

We are not what you would call late night people (DW and I, that is) at home, but on the cruise, all but one night, we didn't get to bed until after midnight, a couple nights it was near 2am before we got to bed, I guess that's from having a pre-teen in the house, most nights she didn't get back to our cabin until 1 or 1:30, she was having such a good time with the other teens, we didn't want to rain on her parade. Besides, I did a lot of my trip report notes and going through the digital camera writing captions for the photos I took each day, after we got back to our room each night. All that, kept me very busy. A couple of nights, I fell asleep as I was writing my notes!!! Made for some interesting reading when I got back home as well!!! LOL!!!

[jlawall]

Late seating works for us because the teen daughters stay up late, so we stay up late. We just make a point of getting up later in the morning and taking afternoon naps.

[Verandah Man]

Originally posted by jlawall
Late seating works for us because the teen daughters stay up late, so we stay up late. We just make a point of getting up later in the morning and taking afternoon naps.


Been there, done that, on the cruise as well!!!

[westjones]

There is usually a 'major' activity at the Kid's Lab at about 9:45 pm, just after dinner.

We like to go to the shows in 'casual' clothes, and then go and dress for dinner.

When we were on the 7 day last year we felt we had to 'rush' back to the ship for our early dining time (this year we are doing the late dining instead).

Honestly, I wish we could pick day-by-by which we wanted to do, but I know that isn't possible :D . There are times I would like late, and times I would like early.

We are probably going to stick with late for now on because we don't have to rush, and if we want to skip dinner we can just order room service.
DJ

[mnmomof1]

The problem with this for our August 23rd cruise was late dining was never done by 9:45, at least not for us or any of the people we saw around us. Hope it works out for you, KimThere is usually a 'major' activity at the Kid's Lab at about 9:45 pm, just after dinner.