Late seating with young children - our experience

[coleland]

I think that makes sense for you living on the East coast to take the earlier seating. For us, however, living in WA it is perfect for us to do the later seating - I can't picture my daughter snacking all day and then being ready for the early seating of dinner which would essentially be 3:30 pm our time. Taking the later seating will work well for her bedtime to remain consistent while we are on vacation, figuring we will get out of the restaurants by 10:30 and taking a stroll around deck, 11pm bedtime is still 8pm at home - I think it will work out just fine for us.

 

[lmschwabby]

First, thanks for all the great tips here! early vs late seating has been something I've been pondering about for sometime now. When making our reservations, only late seating was available. With 3 young kids (6, 4 and 1), I've asked to be on the waiting list for early. Anyone have experience re: whether it's even possible we'll get the early seating? or are we gonna be stuck with the late dinners?

 

[hopelea]

We were put on the waiting list for 1st seating. As soon as I got on the ship we went to check and see if we could change. Come to find out we had already been moved to first.

I would say your chances are pretty good to be moved to first seating.

Good luck.

 

[ladypoo]

We have just returned from our cruise and had early seating. We had a 4 year old in our family and she still fell asleep during dinner. There was another family at our table with a 2 & a 3 year old. they also fell asleep at he dinner table. We are going to have late seating on our next cruise.

 

[cristit14]

Originally posted by lmschwabby
First, thanks for all the great tips here! early vs late seating has been something I've been pondering about for sometime now. When making our reservations, only late seating was available. With 3 young kids (6, 4 and 1), I've asked to be on the waiting list for early. Anyone have experience re: whether it's even possible we'll get the early seating? or are we gonna be stuck with the late dinners?

When we booked our trip in July we were on the late seating. We got on the wait list for early dining and when they sent the docs we had been switched. We only booked about 4 months out too.

 

[Denine]

We have always had late dining, but that was without kids. When we booked our cruise almost 2 years ago, DD was going to bed late. We stupidly booked late dining. We have been waitlisted for a few months to get early dining on our upcoming cruise. Her bedtime is 8PM. Who knew? Not I as a 1st time mom.

DD just turned 2 on Saturday.