Loooong meals.....

[Wishing on a star]

Okay, after seeing several recent comments, I have a question / concern.....

We have requested late seating, as we do not want to be rushed to our cabin at 4:30-5:00 every afternoon to shower and get ready for supper.... Especially when we are off the ship, on shore day... Our time zone is one hour earlier than the ship. There seems to be plenty of food onboard to tide us over. And, we do not plan on seeing every show, so this early evening time would then be real free-time for us.

Here is my concern - NOT only that the seating is later - but that perhaps it takes quite a bit longer? I hear of main entrees not being served until well after 9:30. Many parents mention 'inhaling' their food, or having to skip desert.... Is this the normal procedure? Why would Disney take such a long time to serve families with kids ( and some adults too, for that matter.) I know when we dine out, after about 30 minutes or so, we start to look over our shoulder towards the kitchen, wondering when our meal will come....

Thanks for any input and details!

 

[westjones]

I never had a problem getting our food late. They seemed to be quite efficient. I enjoyed late seating, and we did tend to stay up later than usual on the cruise. Midnight was a common bedtime for us (and we didn't go to the clubs, we were just enjoying the ship and some of the family activities).
DJ

 

[taswira]

If you have an efficient serving team (as <I>most</I> of them are) and tablemates who arrive on time and eat at about the same pace as you, you should have your appetizer/salad around 8:45, probably receive your entree around 9 or shortly after, then have dessert, and leave the dining room around 9:45. Sometimes kids will chow down a pizza or spaghetti and leave the dining room early to head for their clubs.

BUT, if you have an inefficient serving team (as I had on my last cruise and <I>some</I> others on the DIS have experienced) it MAY be around 9:30 when your entree arrives, and you may finish with dessert around 10:15. <B>This is NOT the norm</B>, but it DOES happen.

 

[tkd lisa]

We had late seating and really enjoyed it. I was worried, because I'm an early to bed kind of person, who's normally out like a light at 9:30, and I certainly didn't want to go to bed on a full stomach.

But I agree with other posters that your timetable is just different on vacation. I never felt the need to inhale dessert or anything. Sometime the kids were in the lab, and sometimes they were with us. We were alway finished early enough to do the late evening activities if we wanted. Usually, we just wandered around after dinner, sometimes hitting the hot tub. The kids really enjoyed late nights in the lab, so we normally had to wait up for them (lol)!

Seeing the shows earlier in the night was a really nice thing, since we were wide awake and ready for the entertainment. There was also lots of food to snack on (including the free room service) if you got the hungries waiting on dinner.

 

[pal2pluto]

I second what the above posters said about 2nd seating. I almost forgot how on our first cruise, we had early seating and when we would go to the shows afterwards, we were so "fat and happy" we would feel sleepy! Can you believe that !

Our second cruise, we ate at the later seating, and each late afternoon, DH and I would order something from room service and take it to secret deck 7 for a quiet snack time.

Our servers were great both cruises, but I would still opt for the later seating if we sail again. We have 2 kids (11 and 3) and I think we would make sure the youngest had something to eat earlier and stay with us for fruit/dessert at the seating. But that's my opinion.........

 

[jel0511]

Now, I had early seating, but I did think that dinner was a little drawn out, especially since we had small children. Our servers were VERY good at bringing out the kids meals very quickly and trying to keep them happy and occupied. It just seems to me that a meal with three courses, which you want appropriately spaced, takes approx 1 - 1 1/2 hours. Now, if I didn't have kids climbing all over me, I would have throughly enjoyed the drawn out meal. But usually DH or I were running them up to the clubs so we could finish. Not my idea of a realxing meal!!!! I'd say that we usually got our appetizers around 6:20 and main courses about 20 or so minutes later. Then desert followed after finishing up our main courses. As you can see, it is entirely possible to not get your main courses after 9:00, which is entirely too late even for me!!!!

 

[BethC1952]

We were just about the last table served on our cruise last month, and we were still out of the dining room by 9:45 every night.

I would never have early seating (if I can avoid it). We eat very late at home, and we enjoy lingering over our meals. Plus, like others have said, we're wide awake for the shows!

Beth

 

[twhipple]

We had late dining with our last cruise and it was great. We eat pretty early and go to bed early at home, but wanted to avoid more of the children during the early dining so opted for the late dining. If we were hungry in the late afternoon, we'd get pizza or ice cream or fruit. I don't recall one night where we weren't ready to leave by 9:30. Sometimes we made our dessert last a bit longer, but we could have been done sooner. I think our main dish was always there before 9:00. We also had two very prompt table mates so that helped matters!

 

[allears]

On our first two cruises, we're a month away from our next one! We had late seating and have once again booked that way. Our youngest was four on our first cruise and we were a little worried about the him being sleepy. Not a problem. We have never had a problem with food taking a long time coming out, not that we noticed. In fact we enjoy the slightly less hurried pace of the late seating. There is no pressure on the servers to get ready for another full meal. We did tend to linger and enjoy conversation with our table mates and our serving team. Actually come to think of it, last year our table tended to be close to the last people to leave the dining rooms, just because we took our time.

I think you'll enjoy the time. Plus on debarkation day, you get the later seating for breakfast. This was a big deal to us!

 

[rae519]

After Main Seating for previous cruises, we opted to go Late Dining so we could sit with our DIS Board friends. First night, we didn't get dessert til nearly 10:15 - my son (7) was half asleep. He opted to stay in the Club and eat with the other children the next 3 nights.

I don't think I'd go Late again, it's just too much out of our routine since we are an "early to bed, early to rise" family.

Rae

 

[Wishing on a star]

Thanks everyone! I do think we might be glad if we stick to the late seating. Just hope we have some fairly prompt servers!

 

[Windermere]

DH and I go for late seating so we can linger over dinner. We hardly ever get out until after 10:30. Sometimes even 11 or 11:30. Tablemates sometimes want to get out earlier and mention it to the servers but have yet to be done earlier than 10:30pm.