Magic 1st or 2nd Sitting For Dinner - 26/5 question re times of meals

[jjgarv]

If it was just DH and myself, then we'd definitely go with late seating to avoid having to leave ports/relaxing/activities early to get ready for dinner.(Although I must say that I HATE feeling stuffed from dinner at 10:00PM...I should just learn to pace myself!). We've done early seating for the past three years with DD. Now that she's 7, we're considering moving from main seating to late seating for our October cruise. (When she was 3, she fell asleep at late dinner for the first two nights...)

Decisions, decisions...

 

[Anal Annie]

Late. We've no desire to cut our days short at 4:30 so we can shower & change for dinner. Plus we usually eat around 8:00ish at home so it's perfectly normal for us to do late.

 

[eeyorefanuk]

Hello

At home we do eat early ................ but when on holiday we do tend to eat later - when we go on our "sun" holidays we tend to make the most of this and eat later .............. wondering if the later sitting would be better. Hopefully in August in the med the weather will be still hot.

1. Do not have to keep eye on the time to ensure meal finished to see show if earlier sitting.

2. So I assume if have later sitting you see the show first - thinking about the pictures of the food might be better to have the food after the show !!

 

[TanaL]

We prefer late, we always eat later when on vacation and even with kids, we just had a snack delivered to the room while showering before the shows. The only drawback was not getting a good spot for the fireworks and as a previous poster mentioned, you're not hungry for the 2 late night buffets. I never even saw the pirate buffet and the dessert one looked fabulous but I wasn't hungry enough to enjoy it.

But if you are an early eater or you are not sure, book the early seating because it usually fills up faster and it's easier to switch to the late seating if you change your mind.

 

[eeyorefanuk]

We prefer late, we always eat later when on vacation and even with kids, we just had a snack delivered to the room while showering before the shows. The only drawback was not getting a good spot for the fireworks and as a previous poster mentioned, you're not hungry for the 2 late night buffets. I never even saw the pirate buffet and the dessert one looked fabulous but I wasn't hungry enough to enjoy it.

But if you are an early eater or you are not sure, book the early seating because it usually fills up faster and it's easier to switch to the late seating if you change your mind.

Oh thanks for that, maybe that is what we will do then, book early but change later.

 

[DMMarla07860]

I think it matters what time you usually eat at home. We eat early at home(dinner never past 5pm) so we would have died with late seating even with food available throughout the day.So for us, we love early!

I'd agree with it matters what time you eat at home, but for me I know it doesn't. At home I eat most of the time between 5:00pm-5:30mpm, if I eat later I know I won't be working out that night. On vacation I could eat both times really

 

[nfowife]

here's a question- if you have early seating and miss it one or two nights (due to port visits), can you still go to the dining room for late seating that night and see if there is room? Would that be a faux pas? If they say no, where do you go? Can you set it up ahead of time?

 

[dsnydaddy]

For me early seating is nicer. I get crazy hungry and have difficutly waiting until late to eat. (and I'm from the west coast and normally eat late, crazy huh?) I don't like to snack too much before a meal so I'm ready to chew the walls by the time late dinner comes. I can always snack on things later if I get hungry.

Problem with early dinner is that if you like to stay out as late as possible at port you may miss your dining time. I don't know that you could change to late seating for that night, you may just have to eat at topsiders or room service.

 

[NancyIL]

here's a question- if you have early seating and miss it one or two nights (due to port visits), can you still go to the dining room for late seating that night and see if there is room? Would that be a faux pas? If they say no, where do you go? Can you set it up ahead of time?

I haven't asked on DCL, but if I miss my assigned dining time, I eat in the buffet, or would order room service.

 

[Becx N Gav]

Hello

At home we do eat early ................ but when on holiday we do tend to eat later - when we go on our "sun" holidays we tend to make the most of this and eat later .............. wondering if the later sitting would be better. Hopefully in August in the med the weather will be still hot.

1. Do not have to keep eye on the time to ensure meal finished to see show if earlier sitting.

2. So I assume if have later sitting you see the show first - thinking about the pictures of the food might be better to have the food after the show !!

If you're doing a Med cruise I would eat later. As others have said you can snack in the afternoon/early evening. We went to Diversions a couple of times and they had nachos with jalepenos, hot cheese, salsa, soured cream and hot dogs and ribs or chicken wings - a lovely pre-dinner snack to enjoy with a drink!

Oh and we were so exhausted (lots of port days) so we didn't make either of the late night buffets - the dinners were filling enough though.

here's a question- if you have early seating and miss it one or two nights (due to port visits), can you still go to the dining room for late seating that night and see if there is room? Would that be a faux pas? If they say no, where do you go? Can you set it up ahead of time?

For the first Med cruise early diners could be seated as late as 7.30pm - they made announcements on the days where the excursions came back late

 

[Erikas4228]

Until recently me & dh have been doing the early sitting with our daughter who is now seven. The cruise that we will be taking shortly we opted for 2nd because we felt to rushed in the past with being ready for dinner that early. We just figured if anyone is hungry before that time we could always get a snack. Now I have not done the shows before dinner so this should be interesting. I plan on skipping the toy story show this time so I will have lots of extra time.

 

[dflyer]

We always do late seating, with and without the kids. I agree, there are less children at the late seating.

 

[caseyk20]

i would suggest 2nd. 1st is just to early we have almost missed dinner one time because our excursion ran a little late

 

[eeyorefanuk]

Thank you all for your thoughts.

Can I ask please. If early sitting, what time is breakfast and dinner and if late sitting what time is breakfast or dinner.

Also I believe on the day you leave you have breakfast, what time again would this be for early or late sitting.

Many thanks