Main vs 2nd seating - please share your thoughts

[DIS fever]

We're on the fence for our upcoming trip. 3 kids traveling with us 6, 11, 12. Please shed some light on why you chose one over the other seating time.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We're on the fence for our upcoming trip. 3 kids traveling with us 6, 11, 12. Please shed some light on why you chose one over the other seating time.

We prefer Main (early). Eating a big meal just before bedtime isn't easy on my tummy.

 

[muse7mom]

We love to go on excursions in port and don't want to rush back to take showers before the show/dinner. It's also nice to see the show before dinner. After that food, I fear we'd fall asleep during the show! We are also night owls.

 

[taymorel]

We did 2nd seating on our first cruise and we have picked it again. My son is 9 and it worked fine for him. We just had room service snack at 4 to hold us until dinner.

 

[noahdove]

I have had early seating and I love it, not only am I full from dinner, I have
something to do after dinner. I don't want to miss any of the shows...

 

[A_Princess'_Daddy]

We have always done the first seating, but on our last cruise mildly regretted it, as it cut into the afternoon a bit too much as we had to get ready for dinner. Our children are 10 and 7 and both are night owls, so the later dinner would have worked fine and given us more time in the afternoons without feeling quite so rushed to get dressed and down to dinner.

 

[EastCoastCdn]

We requested main seating (shows on our reservation so I hope that means we have it). It's how we eat at home. Like the PP mentioned, eating a large meal that close to going to bed would not be easy, at least for us.

 

[Weedy]

You won't miss any of the shows if you have late dinner. If you have early dining you see the show after dinner. If you have late dining you see the show before dinner.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

I like the later seating, but we tend to eat later at home. The main advantage in my mind is that you are not so rushed on port days, especially those ports with later all aboard times. Main seating may work better for families with younger children who are used to eating early, and there do tend to be more kids and younger kids at the main seating. If your kids can handle eating later, then I'd definitely recommend the later seating.

 

[MickeyEarrings]

We tried early dining last time so we could walk the decks and see the sunset after dinner. No sunset: it set during dinner... But, I like to sleep late, and we found ourselves eating lunch at 1:00 only to realize we had to eat dinner in another four hours. Back to late dining this time!

 

[disireland]

We had late dinner on our recent cruise asked all those on the reservation how they found it was
Not a problem as we had reservations in wdw after 7 or later most nights. Just do the shows before the dinner. The only night that you will be too full to take part in the desert party is pirate night

 

[Iamaplanner]

For my children, the late seating is too late. To wait until then, they'd have lost their appetites, would possibly be cranky, and I know that I would feel rushed to get through dinner. That being said, they are young and I can't wait for the late seating as it is what my husband and I would prefer.

 

[Sunshine2U]

We didn't eat breakfast before 9:00 am. I would have liked to try some of the MDR lunches but because we ate dinner at 5:45 it was just too much to food to consume in a short time frame. We ended up eating chicken nuggets or pizza around 11:00 pm. Next time it's definitely late seating dinner with a healthy lunch and no late night junk food.

 

[anricat]

We are on central time zone so we sort of just stay on the same time instead of shifting forward to late seating works quite well for us. (Of course, when we do Alaska in 2016, we'll need to rethink). Eating at 8:15 is like eating at 7:15 here in Texas which works out well. Maybe a little later than we would normally eat, but the alternative is far too early for us.

It's pretty easy to snack before (or during) the show so we never go hungry. And there are many activities later at night so that we weren't really eating and heading right to bed, even my 6 year old. Late seating for us in the Caribbean.

 

[pennymike]

We prefer 2nd seating.......especially on summer cruises. We look at time spent inside while the sun is up wasted time. Plus the 2nd seating is a bit quieter. Now we travel without children, so please take that into consideration. Just get us on the ship!!!! We love DCL!

 

[party-of-five]

We went back and forth on this for our upcoming cruise. (Our kids are roughly the same ages 14,12,9,3). Knowing that our kids are very adaptable, we chose the late seating for many of the same reasons given above. For us, it came down to not wanting to feel rushed in the afternoon to get 6 of us ready for an early dinner; sleeping-in, making all of our meals that much later; and the idea of the kids eating and then going to the clubs to play while DH and I finish our dinner. (We'll see if that works out ). Knowing that we are eating dinner late, we will just eat/plan accordingly throughout the day.

 

[Jerzee73]

We prefer 2nd seating.......especially on summer cruises. We look at time spent inside while the sun is up wasted time. Plus the 2nd seating is a bit quieter. Now we travel without children, so please take that into consideration. Just get us on the ship!!!! We love DCL!

Did late dinner for 1st time a couple weeks ago. Answer to the question really is based on diner's ages. If kids are 7 or up, I'd do late dining. My DD was 8 this past cruise, used to eating at 6 & bed on a late night before 10. I did late dining & found it the best for several reasons.
Don't have to rush on port days OR any other days.
Can go to the 6:15 show when the kids are awake & still have 45 minutes before dinner.
Kids adjust quickly, because they're having so much fun. My DD wanted to go to the kid's club or lab after dinner anyway & wanted to stay until almost midnight, which she'd never do at home.
If you're hungry late afternoon, you can always grab something for you or the kids to tide you over until dinner.
Lastly, why rush? It's the parent's cruise as well & you should enjoy everything!

 

[DanielleKR]

We've done 3 cruises all early, and our next one I've selected late. We wanted early because at the time, my son was 3. He's now 7, and I think it'll work much better for us now. We found on our last cruise, we'd be relaxing by the pool, enjoying the sun, and then we'd realize it was time to go get ready for dinner, which was a bummer, as we didn't want to leave, but also didn't want to miss the MDR. Also, it felt like too much food in too little time, with breakfast, lunch and the dinner and we're not early risers. With the later dinner, we'll be able to eat lunch and maybe grab a snack and actually be hungry come dinner time.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We usually have a late breakfast, a mid-afternoon snack (chicken tenders - yummmmm) and then early dinner. Maybe one reason we don't gain extra weight when cruising is we don't really have 3 full meals a day.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

We're on the fence for our upcoming trip. 3 kids traveling with us 6, 11, 12. Please shed some light on why you chose one over the other seating time.

For children of that age it is essential that you have Main. They cannot wait 7 or 8 hours between lunch and dinner at 8.15 and they will hit the fast food at 6pm. It's not good for anyone to eat late then go to bed before the food has gone down, this on particular on young children with a lot more soda and candy in them than normal will lead to upset tummy. I have seen many young children fall asleep on the late dinner and taken out by parents carrying them. You will be working and playing to local time on the ship up with the sun at breakfast ( and the room needs to be made up) so eating breakfast around 8 or 9 local, get off the ship port time eat lunch local time so dinner needs to be local as well.