late seating

[huckster]

we could only get late seating we are wait listed could we get bumped to 6?? grands kids 4 and 11 will they be misrable? can they still have time in the clubs they are some what night owls (kids size any way) what time is dinner done?







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[LAMPSKIES]

Huckster......we had early seating on our first sailing in 2000. On our second we were "forced" to take second.....we loved it!!! Remember, you are from the midwest, you have a time change for Florida and another if your sailing on the Eastern....so 8:30 is 6:30 Central time......I've told this story MANY times.....after a perfect day of shore excursions and relaxing I took a stroll (with my beverage of choice in my hand) to check on DD at the internet cafe at around 6. I was at the bottom of the stairway when a family of about 8, mom dad Grandma Grandpa and kids came running down the stairs yell "come on, hurry up we are going to be late again!"

 

[mommasita]

I agree with Lampskies, you will most likely love it...I am torn now between the two..Love the late dinner for relaxation before getting ready, I just miss a lot of shows this way...I do not like the early dinner, because I find it a rush to get all of us ready...You can always waitlist, if you find you may prefer it, and then go straight to the changing areas once you board....

HTH

 

[ncmouselover]

We had late seating and loved it. We saw kids crying as parents took them out of the pool to go to dinner. My kids 11,9,7 continued playing or went with us to the shows then dinner. The shows were optional, dinner was not. They also have burgers, hot dogs and chicken tenders by the pool on deck 9 all day so if you think hunger might be an issue you can always snack during the day. I would ask for late seating next time. Dinner is done about 9:30 I think. You'll have a great time either way.

 

[poohssmum]

I prefer late seating for some of the reasons already mentioned. Something else to remember is that the kids can eat with their clubs too. That way if there's something special going on that they don't want to miss, they still eat, and you get an uninterrupted dinner. This is just me, but I mostly gave my kids their choice if they wanted to eat with us or with their friends from the club/lab. I only make dinner w/the family mandatory on Formal and Semi-formal night, and they do choose to eat with us the first night in AP, so they can see the *show*.

 

[tvguy]

When dinner ends really depends on how fast you eat. Most late seating diners are there for the relaxed pace that early seating doesn't offer.
We normally were done by 10 pm, but that included time for our waiters (and my DS) to do a number of magic tricks after dinner. We probably could have been out of there by 9:30 or 9:45.

 

[allears]

Another vote for late seating! We've always picked late seating and when we first went, my youngest was 4 and then our middle son was 10. They had no problem with the time and we all enjoyed not being rushed to dinner during the day. We also tend to really relax, enjoy the meal, the company of our table mates and our serving team. We often closed the dining rooms.

 

[webray]

Just remember..with late seating you won't be getting dinner until 9pm easily.

When you get on the ship go to the suggested area (listed in the embarkation navigator you receive at check in) and ask for your seating time to be changed...be persistant. There will have been plenty of people wanting to switch so early dining could easily open up.

good luck

 

[allears]

Just remember..with late seating you won't be getting dinner until 9pm easily.

When you get on the ship go to the suggested area (listed in the embarkation navigator you receive at check in) and ask for your seating time to be changed...be persistant. There will have been plenty of people wanting to switch so early dining could easily open up.

good luck

We always compensated for this by ordering a fruit and cheese platter from room service, or getting chicken fingers late in the afternoon. Though with all of the food on the ship, we were just about never hungry, except the day we boarded before the embarkation buffet.

We also like the fact that late seating dinner gets you late seating breakfast on debarkation day!

 

[NYGiantsRule!]

We had early seating on our first cruise and have had late on the following 3. With early we always felt rushed and like we were losing part of the day because we had to get ready for dinner. We also order the cheese platter or mac and cheese for DS's to snack on around 5PM so they are good to go until 8:30PM. The server's will help too if you had children who are anxious to get to the clubs and will bring their food out ASAP. The kids usually didn't want dessert so they left when they were finished eating. As for missing time the clubs are open to midnight or later on most nights.

 

[jrabbit]

I would ask for late seating next time. Dinner is done about 9:30 I think. You'll have a great time either way.

On our last cruise with late seating we were never done by 10pm. We still love the late seating - I just think that 9:30 is a bit unrealistic. With the children - the servers bring them their food at a much quicker pace than the adults. This might be dependent upon the kiddos ordering from the childrens menu (but I am NOT sure of this). If you worried about the kids being hungry, there are many options for afternoon snacks to hold them over.

One of the benefits of the late seating is that you get to go to the early stage shows. The kids are able to watch the show if they want without falling asleep (because with early seating the shows are at 8:30 and after a nice meal - everyone feels sleepy - and the theater has comfy seats, its dark, and ooooh so easy to slip off to sleep. Yes that is the voice of experience talking!!)

The other bene of late seating is late breakfast on the day you have to leave the ship. 8am breakfast instead of 6:30

 

[mmouse37]

I agree with jrabbit....late dinner usually get out by 10:00 or so....9:30 is pushing it. It feasible can be done if you servers rush through everything....but typically it is closer to 10:00. We sometimes skip dessert if we feel we need to get to something.

We love late seating, though!!!

 

[tuckermom]

Loved the late seating. Booked early enough for our next cruise to have our choice and we picked late seating again. Our children were 9 and 11 on our last cruise and made it just fine. The only drawback.. I think we gained more weight by snacking on burgers, hot dogs and chicken fingers every afternoon and then eating a big meal in the dining room. I think next time I will try to practice a little more restraint in that area!!!!

 

[ljql_5969]

I have cruised twice (never DCL) and we had early seating the first time and late the next time. We preferred the late!

 

[myboysmom]

OK, we are thinking of switching our early seating to late seating because we are from the midwest, and the time change will make it bearable and because we don't want to be rushed after a day playing. I do know you get a later breakfast on departation. Does that mean we can't get earlier breakfast or get off the boat earlier?

We are planning on driving, and we will want to get as much driving done during the day as possible. Would we be able to be on our way by 9:00?

 

[allears]

OK, we are thinking of switching our early seating to late seating because we are from the midwest, and the time change will make it bearable and because we don't want to be rushed after a day playing. I do know you get a later breakfast on departation. Does that mean we can't get earlier breakfast or get off the boat earlier?

We are planning on driving, and we will want to get as much driving done during the day as possible. Would we be able to be on our way by 9:00?

You can't go to the dining room for early breakfast, but you can eat at Topsiders and get off the boat a little earlier. We've found that we can have late breakfast and be off the ship by 9 or 9:30 at the latest. By the time we're done breakfast, the crowd that has been lining up waiting for the ship to be cleared, has disembarked and we've walked right off the ship. We've been on the bus and headed to the air port by 9:30, so you can get a pretty decent jump on driving.

 

[poohssmum]

On the morning they kick you off the ship ... well, that's how it feels to me cuz I never want to leave ... you have your choice of eating a sit-down breakfast, or heading up to Topsiders and grabbing something off of the buffet. There have been conflicting reports about whether or not you'll get hot foot that morning or not ... like I said, I like to drag my feet and stay on the ship as long as possible, so I go for the sit-down breakfast

 

[myboysmom]

Thank you! Everyone here always seems to be very helpful. I know I will not want to run off the boat either. We took a long time leaving our resort at WDW last spring, but still were on our way by 10. I figure with the extra hour from port we would need to be on the road by 9 or so.

 

[newfamilyman]

This thread is different from previous ones on this topic in that here, almost everyone has favored late seating where previous posts gave pretty good reasons why families with young children are better off with early seatings. I will pass along advice given in another post which worked out for me: Go to the cruisemeets board and try to find someone traveling with you who has an early seating and would be willing to attach your reservation to theirs. Good luck!

 

[twinsyippee]

We hated the late seating! We were also put on a waiting list for early seating, but we ended up stuck with late. It didn't work for us at all. We have twin daughters that were 3 1/2 when we traveled. Even though we shifted their schedules so that they could stay up late (at home they go to bed at 7:30pm), they still didn't want to be sitting at a table from 8-10pm or later. Dinner service was slow.

The late seating also impacted our girls in the kids club. The activities are scheduled around early seating dinner. This is an example of what I mean: Because our girls were staying up late, they were sleeping until about 9:30am. We would get up and go have a nice breakfast and then drop them off at the club around 10:30am. The club went to lunch around 11:30am! My girls had pretty much JUST eaten! After lunch, they have quiet time with a movie and all the kids sit or lay on cots so that some kids can nap. As you can imagine, my girls were ready to play, especially after having to sit at the lunch table for 30-45 min.

Also, we found that the late seating didn't give us any extra afternoon time because if you want to go to the show and then the character appearances and photos and then dinner, you have to start getting ready at the same time as the early seating dinner folks.

We made things work for us - because what else can you do if you still want to have a good time?! And, we did have a good time. But, we'll be early seating people next time.