Early or Late Dinner?

[gemduncan]

We are going on our very first cruise on Feb 29 for 4 Nights to Bahamas. We are traveling with our daughter who will be 6 yrs old. She and I typically eat dinner around 5:30-6pm at home and she is in bed around 8:30-9pm. (She wakes up early -6:30-7am). My husband eats dinner at 9pm.

I currently have our dinner rotation scheduled for the early time because I figured the late show would be a good way to relax and enjoy some entertainment before bedtime. However, I've been reading the early time is crazy crowded and noisy. Now I'm worried. Am I making the right decision by doing the early dinner time for us?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We are going on our very first cruise on Feb 29 for 4 Nights to Bahamas. We are traveling with our daughter who will be 6 yrs old. She and I typically eat dinner around 5:30-6pm at home and she is in bed around 8:30-9pm. (She wakes up early -6:30-7am). My husband eats dinner at 9pm.

I currently have our dinner rotation scheduled for the early time because I figured the late show would be a good way to relax and enjoy some entertainment before bedtime. However, I've been reading the early time is crazy crowded and noisy. Now I'm worried. Am I making the right decision by doing the early dinner time for us?

Not at all. We always get early seating, if we can. I'll just ask - what's your time zone compared to the time zone the cruise will be on. For a short cruise, trying to match the actual "body time" that you may be on could be better than trying to match actual time. That is, if you are from the west coast of the USA, late seating will actually match better with your body clock.

Although, there are some people who feel that it makes no difference (the time zone difference thing), I've found it does (especially with younger children).

 

[gemduncan]

Not at all. We always get early seating, if we can. I'll just ask - what's your time zone compared to the time zone the cruise will be on. For a short cruise, trying to match the actual "body time" that you may be on could be better than trying to match actual time. That is, if you are from the west coast of the USA, late seating will actually match better with your body clock.

Although, there are some people who feel that it makes no difference (the time zone difference thing), I've found it does (especially with younger children).

We are currently on East coast time so there will be no time difference for us.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

We eat around 5:30-6 at home, but on the cruise we prefer the late dining. There is so much food during the day that we just aren't hungry until 8. And if we ate earlier we would fall asleep at the show Plus we like to have a pre-dinner drink...

 

[gemduncan]

We eat around 5:30-6 at home, but on the cruise we prefer the late dining. There is so much food during the day that we just aren't hungry until 8. And if we ate earlier we would fall asleep at the show Plus we like to have a pre-dinner drink...

That is exactly my other concern...that we won't be hungry at 5:30 because we'll have eaten all day. Decisions, decisions.

 

[xlxo]

I currently have our dinner rotation scheduled for the early time because I figured the late show would be a good way to relax and enjoy some entertainment before bedtime. However, I've been reading the early time is crazy crowded and noisy. Now I'm worried. Am I making the right decision by doing the early dinner time for us?

For the little one... I recommend staying with main dining.

For myself, I prefer late dining...

• catch the early show... before the food stains
• extra time in port.... no need to rush back for the first meal.
• get to sleep in on debarkation morning for the later breakfast, or just extra time to pack
• I can go to the buffet for a light snack if I can't wait that extra hour or so for my second dining.

 

[anricat]

Ah the age old debate. You may wish to read through some previous threads about late vs. early seating. They may help you get a feel for the various opinions folks have and why they prefer each. I searched and found a few that may be helpful:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/advantages-to-late-dining.3456523/
http://www.disboards.com/threads/main-vs-2nd-seating-please-share-your-thoughts.3401772/
http://www.disboards.com/threads/west-coasters-early-or-late-dining-for-caribbean-cruises.3398305/
http://www.disboards.com/threads/dining-seating-time-reasons-you-chose-1st-or-2nd.3380884/

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

I think it also depends on how flexible your family is. Does your daughter respond to change well? Our son is very easy going and has no problems eating at 8 on vacation when he eats at 5:30 at home.. We can change his routine for a week and he will go with the flow. However.. I know some kids (and adults too) do not like changing things not even on vacation. If you think your family can easily adapt then I wouldn't worry about late dining. Our son's food was always brought to him early and he was done eating by 9 at which time the youth counselors were at the entrance to the restaurant to take him to the clubs. The adults were still eating for a good 1/2 hr .
DS goes to bed at 8 pm at home, but on vacation is up past 11 sometimes. I would stay that's just as of lately, and he's the same age as your DD.

 

[bumbershoot]

Well, the dining rooms are ALWAYS noisy, and even at late seating I don't notice tables where no one is seated, so I don't know how one seating is more crowded than another. Seems they are about equal, in my experience.

With her having such an EARLY dinnertime, I wouldn't change it on her. Since you know you'll be eating at the earlier hour, just temper what you eat during the day. After all, she has dinner that early at home, despite having had breakfast and lunch, right?

I used to be all about the late seating, because it works best with our body clocks (DS and I take ages to get on east coast time, and DH seems to be able to get used to it fast only when on a work trip). But then we realized that it seems to bisect our evenings too much to have late dinner. Late dinner you still have to get ready so you can go to a show (if you're a show-goer), then from there to dinner, then you fit in something after, but if her bedtime is by 9 anyway, she's not going to have much energy after dinner. Early dinner you can change how you eat during the day (or just realize you won't be stuffing yourself at dinner, if you like lunch and snacks more than dinner food) so you're hungry, you get ready for dinner, you have dinner, and then the evening is all yours. If a show is in your cards, go to that. If she wants the kid's club, she can have a few hours there before bedtime. It seems to allow more time to do what we want, than having dinner later does.

That's for us, at least. And it's a weird place to be, for me, since officially I like late seating better. But early gives us more fun-time. And we aren't big snackers on everything onboard before dinner so we're hungry for that earlier dinner if we know we have it.

 

[gemduncan]

Ah the age old debate. You may wish to read through some previous threads about late vs. early seating. They may help you get a feel for the various opinions folks have and why they prefer each. I searched and found a few that may be helpful:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/advantages-to-late-dining.3456523/
http://www.disboards.com/threads/main-vs-2nd-seating-please-share-your-thoughts.3401772/
http://www.disboards.com/threads/west-coasters-early-or-late-dining-for-caribbean-cruises.3398305/
http://www.disboards.com/threads/dining-seating-time-reasons-you-chose-1st-or-2nd.3380884/

Thank you everyone and thank you for the other old posts! These were really helpful. After reading comments, I was leaning towards 2nd dining but then I started reading some comments about early timing. I don't like going to bed on a full stomach. And we are early to bed and early to rise people. Husband and I recently went on vacation alone (not a cruise) and the latest we ate dinner was 7pm. 8:30pm is much too late for me and our daughter. I'm not worried about being rushed to get on ship because we only plan to do half day excursion at Bahamas. No excursion on CC. I also think daughter will be worn out and cranky if she stays up late and play and gets herself more wound up. So, I'm going to stick with early dining and see how it goes. You all have been extremely helpful!

 

[tvguy]

You really are going to have to make an educated guess what is best for you since this is your first cruise. The best part of a cruise, if you eat early, there are plenty of snack options at 9 pm if someone is hungry......and if you eat late, they are plenty of snack options at 5 pm if someone is hungry.

 

[MunFam]

If early works out to be too early for you...its not mandatory that you eat in the MDR. There were many nights on our WBPC that we opted to stay by the pool the whole night and order food poolside. Sometimes its nice to not be on a schedule at all.