Pros and Cons to early vs late dining

[bahacca]

Any advice for a West Coast family going out of Miami? We usually eat dinner at about 6pm PST and bed for the kids at around 8:30pm. We picked early seating, but now i'm second guessing myself. That will be like eating at 3PM our time and they won't go to bed until 11:30 EST. Should I call to switch it or leave it as is?
It is a 4 day out of Miami, but we'll arrive in Miami the day before the cruise.

 

[tvguy]

Any advice for a West Coast family going out of Miami? We usually eat dinner at about 6pm PST and bed for the kids at around 8:30pm. We picked early seating, but now i'm second guessing myself. That will be like eating at 3PM our time and they won't go to bed until 11:30 EST. Should I call to switch it or leave it as is?
It is a 4 day out of Miami, but we'll arrive in Miami the day before the cruise.

West coast family here. Early never would have worked for us, especially on only a 4 day cruise, your body will still be on west coast time. Through high school my kids were active in sports, so dinner at home rarely was before 630, and often was after sunset during Little League season (like 830 pm). So LATE seating was really like eating early for us......and my kids missed having a nightly midnight buffet on disney like other cruises had.

 

[tvguy]

I tried late dining for the first time on a Disney cruise and hated it. Give me "anytime dining" (on other cruise lines) or early dining.

Let's hope Disney never ever ever does that. Freestyle is a mess.

Okay, went on HAL in June, you had a choice of early or late or anytime, that was okay. Anytime only on NCL. MESS. Long wait, rushed meal.

 

[Brittmarie04]

We haven't done late dining before (this is our 2nd cruise) but we will be doing it for the first time in Jan. The kids in our group range from 5 to 13. We ended up with late dining because early dining was full, but I think we are actually going to like it better.

Our kids are night owls so shouldn't be a problem, and I think our only plan will be to make sure they have a healthy snack late afternoon/early evening. I think as long as they aren't starving, the staying up won't be a problem.

What cruise are you on in Jan? We are also on a cruise in Jan and early dinning was full. We are on dream jan 20th

 

[jpz2000]

It depends where you live and what cruise you are taking see if you where taking a carribiean cruise and you live in the moutain time zone you would want dinner same gose for pacific time zones and some times centeral.

 

[princess aleya]

We enjoy having a later dining time. It gives us the freedom of not having to rush during the day.

 

[closetmickey]

Another perk of late dining for littler ones, in my opinion, is I prefer them to be wide awake during the shows- as they really are more enjoyable for them than dinner. If the fall asleep at the end of dinner, they aren't really missing anything.

 

[NancyIL]

Let's hope Disney never ever ever does that. Freestyle is a mess.

Okay, went on HAL in June, you had a choice of early or late or anytime, that was okay. Anytime only on NCL. MESS. Long wait, rushed meal.

I haven't sailed on NCL, but have had anytime dining on Princess, HAL, RCI, and Celebrity. I love it.

 

[believinthemagic]

What cruise are you on in Jan? We are also on a cruise in Jan and early dinning was full. We are on dream jan 20th

We are on the fantasy Jan 19th .

 

[NancyIL]

When I travel, I try to adjust to a new time zone as quickly as possible. I think the time you eat dinner at home is more important than the time difference between home and the Caribbean. I don't eat dinner at midnight or 1 a.m. when I'm in Europe - just because it's 6 p.m. at my house!

 

[sayhello]

When I travel, I try to adjust to a new time zone as quickly as possible. I think the time you eat dinner at home is more important than the time difference between home and the Caribbean. I don't eat dinner at midnight or 1 a.m. when I'm in Europe - just because it's 6 p.m. at my house!

This! Unless you plan to get up at 10am or 11 am every day, and go to sleep at 2 to 3am, eating dinner in the Caribbean at the same time as the West Coast is pretty meaningless. It will only cause your body to be upset & jetlagged for the entire cruise!

Sayhello

 

[bahacca]

We leave in the middle of the week, so I can just start adjusting our time to East Coast time little by little since the kids are out of school for Spring break. Seeing as my kids seem to ALWAYS be hungry, I think we'll wind up OK either way.

 

[Anal Annie]

We love the extra time to have around the pool in the afternoons. I would really hate having to rush to the room to shower at 4:00 every day. There's still so much DAY left to enjoy! The pool finally empties out at 4:00 when all the early diners leave to go shower. Prime lounge chair time for moi!!

We also keep a very late schedule at home all year long (often don't eat dinner until around 10:00 due to busy practice schedules etc) so we're used to having late lunches to match. (I often don't have lunch until around 2:00.) Simply cannot imagine HAVING to eat dinner at 6:00 when it would be just after my lunchtime.

 

[bahacca]

After further thought, I had my MIL change our dinner time to the late seating. I liked what someone said about the kids being awake for the show. If they fall asleep at dinner, not like they are missing a huge part of what a Disney cruise is about for a little kid.

 

[lsenquiz]

After further thought, I had my MIL change our dinner time to the late seating. I liked what someone said about the kids being awake for the show. If they fall asleep at dinner, not like they are missing a huge part of what a Disney cruise is about for a little kid.

 

[kbceman]

We currently have late dining, wait-listed for early dining. It seems like most people prefer the late dining. My concern with the late dining was that my 5 year old would be so worn out by the activities of the day that he would be cranky and tired by the time we get to late dining. He typically is a night owl, so maybe this won't be a problem. Do kids usually do well with the late dining?

 

[Zeppelin]

We love the extra time to have around the pool in the afternoons. I would really hate having to rush to the room to shower at 4:00 every day. There's still so much DAY left to enjoy! The pool finally empties out at 4:00 when all the early diners leave to go shower. Prime lounge chair time for moi!!

We also keep a very late schedule at home all year long (often don't eat dinner until around 10:00 due to busy practice schedules etc) so we're used to having late lunches to match. (I often don't have lunch until around 2:00.) Simply cannot imagine HAVING to eat dinner at 6:00 when it would be just after my lunchtime.

and if you're on the Fantasy the lines for the Auquaduck really drop as you get closer to the 1st dining, which leaves more opportunity for 2nd diners...

 

[tvguy]

I haven't sailed on NCL, but have had anytime dining on Princess, HAL, RCI, and Celebrity. I love it.

It's fine as long as they leave the option for set dining too, which is what HAL does. We worked around it on NCL by making a reservation for the next night at dinner each night. We only made the mistake of doing walk up dining once, and had the long wait. Although on NCL the staff said the big issue they are having is more people than expected are choosing the main dining rooms over the extra cost dining rooms and they didn't make the main dining rooms big enough.

 

[chateau]

We currently have late dining, wait-listed for early dining. It seems like most people prefer the late dining. My concern with the late dining was that my 5 year old would be so worn out by the activities of the day that he would be cranky and tired by the time we get to late dining. He typically is a night owl, so maybe this won't be a problem. Do kids usually do well with the late dining?

We are all night owls around here, but long exciting days cut into that quite a bit. Kids are up first thing and ready to do more Disney... keep that pace all day. Nearly all the young children at late dining fell asleep somewhere during the meal (those that stayed, can not account for Kids Club ones). This has just been our experience on a few late dining DCL cruises. Our children don't peacefully fall asleep, there's a period of extreme crankiness when they continue to be stimulated by their environment beyond what they can handle. All that being said, it's a personal choice based upon circumstances (west coast residents, for example), and the characters (your family, not those of the Disney sort) involved.

 

[Pinocchio #1 Fan]

I'd just like to add that the late dining creates a need for a between meal snack. This makes for a perfect time in the mid afternoon to enjoy the All Hands on Deck platter. Just sayin'