First seating or second seating and why?

[rentayenta]

Trying to decide what seating we'd like better. It'll be myself and DS12.


Please share which you chose for your cruise and why.

 

[SnipsNSnails]

First but my kids are younger - only 6 and 3. Last cruise we were unable to change to first and they both fell asleep at dinner! 5:45 is right on schedule with out usual dinner time as well.

 

[Meghatron]

Depends on you two, really, and not age. DH and I are grownups and we prefer first, regardless of kids, because it feels weird to us to go to the show before dinner. Not to mention the fact that the one time we had late seating (on our honeymoon) we were still full when the pirate buffet was served, so we missed out.

 

[dznystar]

We always do late seating...even when DS was 3...it gives you the whole day to do as much as you can fit in and not have to rush to get to dinner. Plus, we're always so full after dinner, you pretty much can't do anything but relax. I just feel like we've wasted a good bit of the day with early seating.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Trying to decide what seating we'd like better. It'll myself and DS12.


Please share what you chose and why.

We prefer early dinner. Eating that much food that late (at late seating) and going directly to bed is hard on our tummies. We've earlyish to bed people.

 

[mmouse37]

The age old question.....well do you like to eat early or later. We prefer later dining because we don't normally eat early at home. We also like late dining because I don't like to rush to dinner. Eating 5:45-6:00 is too early for us. I prefer to see the show at 6:00 ish and then have a drink between show and dinner at 8:15 or maybe catch a game show between show and dinner.

Early dinner has more children than late dinner. If you are one to linger long over your coffee after dinner early may not be the best choice. Early dinner has to be done in time to allow the servers to clean up and reset all the tables for late dinner.

Late dining is not at all rushed.

MJ

 

[scootch]

We like early as it is what we are used to at home. We usually have dinner at home by 430pm... so waiting until 6 is hard for us. Never felt rushed despite going on multiple excursions.

 

[Stitch'sCousin]

We normally eat early (5:30 or so) so it is a no-brainer for us to get main seating.

 

[jcjen519]

First Seating for us because of our 3 year old. We'd be lucky if he was awake for the second seating.

 

[wehavesix]

We are a family of night owls so late seating is our choice. Last cruise we went on we had early seating and I didn't like feeling like we had to hurry our day for dinner. I'm hoping late seating will work better for us.

 

[tvguy]

Really depends on your home time zone, what time you normally eat at home, and if you alter your dinner time on vacation.

West Coasters here, normally eat at 530 pm, but tend to eat later on vacation and weekends. So on a Caribbean cruise late seating is really about the time our bodies are used to eating, and a little earlier than we normally eat on vacation.

Plus, it helps us get in our 4 meals a day....breakfast, lunch, 4 pm heavy snack, 830 pm dinner.

 

[HollandmillerFamily]

We eat on the late side as well so we've done late seating. We're from California so when cruising from the east coast we DEFINITELY want late seating. Be sure to factor in any time zone changes...

 

[bahacca]

We haven't actually done it yet, but I changed from early to late seating with 6 and 7 year olds. Here are my reasons:
1. We live on the West Coast. SInce our cruise is 4 nights, I wanted us to be able to stay on West coast time as much as possible. Dinner at 8:15 would mean to us, dinner at 5:15. Yes, I fully realize the kids would go to bed at 11 or 12. I'd actually prefer this as there are late night things I'd like to do. And I don't care if we miss breakfast. Only issue I see is we may be awakened early by people in the halls, etc.
2.Someone here mentioned "If you do late seating, your kids will more than likely be awake for the early show. I'd rather have my kid sleep through dinner than a show they'd enjoy." I agreed with this.
3. Reading about people having to hurry back from shore to get ready for dinner wasn't appealing to me.

 

[rentayenta]

So many great points! We're in SLC so we're Mountain Standard Time. I'm guessing that Cozumel/CC is Eastern time or more ahead?

I didn't think about the time difference. The early seating would be like eating at 3:45....hmmm....and we do love our pool time and don't want to be rushed. The later seating just sounds so late. And we're all about room service....earlier would allow us a nice snack in the room.

If I choose early, can I change it to later if there's room? My guess is that the early fills up faster.

 

[Meghatron]

Reading about people having to hurry back from shore to get ready for dinner wasn't appealing to me.

This depends on the ship's port schedule, as it has NEVER happened to us. But we've only been on MRs. Just wanted to point out that it's not a given, even though it tends to get listed as a universal con to early dining.

 

[NWmom]

We're on Pacific Time

We did a back to back late seating on first cruise, main dining on second.

Whole family voted and we are late seaters. Our tummies are just not ready for dinner so early. We ended up snacking more late night when we had main dining.

Also the looks of disappoinments on the servers when you don't order all the courses was hard. They so wanted to please.

 

[kiford]

Late seating for us. We usually get home from work about 6 pm so don't eat until about 7:30 normally. Early seating is way too early for me.

Fewer children at second seating. Time to have a drink in one of the bars or on deck before dinner. Early dinner time is perfect for going to the adults only pool. I don't feel like I have to vacate my seat to allow another seating after me. Feels more leisurely.

 

[Zeppelin]

always did second seating on our cruises, including the first one when my daughter was 4YO....this way we could relax getting back from excursions or spend the entire day on Castaway Cay....we would eat, go to the shops, hand around a bit then we'd be ready for bed...

 

[JackieO]

We chose the early seating and were very glad that we did, we will do early again for sure. 5:45 is a little earlier than our normal dinner time but we found that you don't actually eat at 5:45. We were seated at 5:45 but were never done before 7:00-7:30. We couldn't see starting at 8:15 and getting done eating 9:30 or later. I guess it depends on your normal eating schedule.

 

[bahacca]

This depends on the ship's port schedule, as it has NEVER happened to us. But we've only been on MRs. Just wanted to point out that it's not a given, even though it tends to get listed as a universal con to early dining.

I agree to check your itinerary, but ours has us leaving Nassau at 5:30 and the excursion we are doing will have us back to the ship right before we leave if we choose to stay that late Having a day swimming with dolphins and being on the beach and then having 15-30 min to get 2 kids and myself ready for dinner-no thanks!