West Coasters: Early or Late Dining for Caribbean cruises?

[genki3]

Just seeking input from those of you that are from the West Coast. Did you choose early or late dining for your Caribbean/Bahamas cruises?

I've been wondering this for a while. I am going on the Fantasy at the end of April and since I booked pretty late, I was assigned late dining. I will have my toddler with me so I was thinking maybe I needed to try to switch to main dining. BUT since I am from California, my body clock is naturally 3 hours behind. So a 8:15p dining will be like 5:15p for me which is perfect. Right??!?! Is this logic correct?

Any input please!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Just seeking input from those of you that are from the West Coast. Did you choose early or late dining for your Caribbean/Bahamas cruises?

I've been wondering this for a while. I am going on the Fantasy at the end of April and since I booked pretty late, I was assigned late dining. I will have my toddler with me so I was thinking maybe I needed to try to switch to main dining. BUT since I am from California, my body clock is naturally 3 hours behind. So a 8:15p dining will be like 5:15p for me which is perfect. Right??!?! Is this logic correct?

Any input please!

We always go with early dining. Because eating late and then going to bed isn't easy on my tummy.

You'll get lots of heated debate about the "3 hours earlier means that it's 5 o'clock to us" thought process.

Generally, most people will adjust to the "new" time zone they are in within a day or two. But, in my experience, traveling with young children, their bodies take a little longer to adjust, making for some miserable nights as we tried to get them on the "new" time. And then it's time to start adjusting back to "real" time. It would be your call as to how your children would handle it.

 

[KBinCO]

I don't think that is totally legit logic, but we are from mountain time and 5:45 was too early for us to eat. We never eat that early anyway, and then with the time change and cutting activities short to rush to get dressed for dinner was just not favorable to me. My 4 and 5 year olds would have been okay with second seating. I think if you are "stuck" with second seating, you'll be able to make it work, and being from a different timezone may work in your favor.

 

[genki3]

But, in my experience, traveling with young children, their bodies take a little longer to adjust, making for some miserable nights as we tried to get them on the "new" time. And then it's time to start adjusting back to "real" time.

I guess I'll have to see how my little girl is the day before the cruise, as we are flying in to MCO a full day before. If she's able to eat dinner at 6p Orlando time, then I will decide to seek a dining change. This is all on the assumption that I CAN switch.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I guess I'll have to see how my little girl is the day before the cruise, as we are flying in to MCO a full day before. If she's able to eat dinner at 6p Orlando time, then I will decide to seek a dining change. This is all on the assumption that I CAN switch.

If you think you'll be wanting to change, I'd suggest that you ask to be placed on the wait list for early seating. If the time comes through, great. If not, ask again onboard at the dining changes desk.

 

[closetmickey]

We are from California and have always had late seating- even when our kids were as young as 3. We loved it and wouldn't do it any other way! Our littles loved the shows and we appreciated that they always were still awake for what they enjoyed most. And second seating is awesome for dinner with kids because of the dine and play option. Your tired kids will rally once they are in the clubs with the counsellors and you will love finishing your meal in peace, if they do decide to go to the club.

 

[mom4fun]

To me it only makes sense to stay as close to normal eating time as you possibly can for your family. 7 nights is not long enough to adjust to. There are activities to do still after late dining and I would imagine you would want to sleep in the next day.

 

[Ravenne]

The good thing about cruising is there is food all.the.time. If kiddo is grouchy from being hungry, or just doesn't want to eat when you're eating, then just get them food when they want. You can always pop up to the pool deck and hit up one of the counter service places for a slice of pizza, or call in some room service. Same for adults, really. If you feel like you'd have better peace of mind getting the early dining, then try to switch it. If not, go with the flow and snag some food when you're hungry. We originally had a late seating with the same thought as you, OP, but I ended up changing it to main dining just because mentally, it seemed more fitting for some reason. I think either way, it worked fine and I was happy with main dining. I do think, however, that the late seating has its benefits in terms of feeling rushed. With the early seating, I always felt like we were rushing back to get ready for dinner. I mean it worked out fine, but I certainly wouldn't have minded having more time to just chill before dinner after a tiring day of fun.

 

[LisaT91403]

We are Californians, and always do late dining. We pretty much stay on West Coast time (DS doesn't wake up until around 9:00am when we are on the ship, and stays up until around 11:00pm...which is a pretty normal schedule for him if you subtract 3 hours). We don't mind sleeping "late" because we don't feel like we miss much of anything in the early morning hours. And by staying up late, we don't miss any shows, Pirate Night, fireworks, etc. We liked having the kids club counselors come collect DS from dinner.

In addition, we just aren't ready to eat at 5:45. It's too early. We don't want to "end" our day's activities by 4:00 just so that we all have time to shower and get dressed in time for dinner. Instead, we got dressed in time for the show...and really enjoyed seeing the show before dinner so that DS could have club time after dinner.

If I had to do Main Dining on DCL, I wouldn't go on the cruise.

 

[Saamh]

We are from Arizona (pacific time half the year; mountain time the other half) and always do late seating. We tend to stay on our local time so late seating works perfectly for us and our kids. (A plus is the pools are great to enjoy late afternoon when the early diners head in to prepare for dinner!)

 

[xlxo]

In addition to your native dining time.... think about your final breakfast.... late dining means you can SLEEP IN for the later breakfast!

 

[Keith Barrow]

I would imagine you would want to sleep in the next day.

 

[Ofinn]

We are west coasters and always late. I'm always shocked people eat that early. We never eat until 8pm at home.

 

[Eeyorebabies]

We are Californians. Last year we did WDW for 3 days then the cruise for 3 nights. We tried the Early seating because we thought our kids would have adjusted by the time the cruise started. NOT AT ALL! They were still on CA time up until the day after the cruise and seemed like they adjusted right before we were due to head home. That was no fun at all. We were all hungry at what seemed to be odd times for everyone else on the cruise lol. We woke up early for port excursions. But weren't hungry when we woke up. So we grabbed some stuff from the concierge lounge while heading out. We didn't get hungry for lunch until 3 or so. Which was not so great when we had early seating, the kids were never hungry for dinner. Then one of us would have to walk the kids to the clubs and go back to dinner. Then by the time the shows were over, the kids were starving for dinner at 9 pm
This time we are doing the later seating. We are doing 3 days at WDW followed by a 7 day cruise this time, so that will probably help adjust the kiddos. But I definitely like the option of having the counsellors take the kids for us. They are not slow eaters, and they get bored quickly. MDRs definitely draw out the length of time it takes to eat. My family can sit down for dinner and be done in 15 minutes, on average it was taking about an hour to eat in the MDRs which was rough on the kiddos.

 

[Meriweather]

We were from WA and now AZ and have always done late dining on all cruise lines.

 

[daneenm]

We are west coasters who have not cruised before, but we have been to WDW with dining reservations every night. At home we are early eaters for several reasons, the biggest being that eating late does not settle well with us. When we go to WDW, we have dining reservations that land between 5:30 and 6:00 every night, from the first night of our trip. We adjust to this quite easily. I assume that we will have the same experience on the cruise.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

This is a terrible myth spread by a few, dinner time should be set by the time you eat at home not home time zone.

So you go to Florida maybe days or a week pre cruise and go onto local time. On the ship you and your kids get up with the sun, have breakfast local time go off to port local time eat lunch local time in port or local time on ship or local time in castaway , see where this is going,,,,, then swap to a different time zone for dinner so a gap of maybe seven whole hours.

Your body clock is on local time then you eat off a different time zone and go to bed straight away post a big dinner.This myth comes every so often spread by one or two trying to be clever. It doesn't work, PS If I was on the ship and eating dinner in my home time zone my MDR would be 2pm does that make any sense at all?

 

[KBinCO]

This is a terrible myth spread by a few, dinner time should be set by the time you eat at home not home time zone.

So you go to Florida maybe days or a week pre cruise and go onto local time. On the ship you and your kids get up with the sun, have breakfast local time go off to port local time eat lunch local time in port or local time on ship or local time in castaway , see where this is going,,,,, then swap to a different time zone for dinner so a gap of maybe seven whole hours.

Your body clock is on local time then you eat off a different time zone and go to bed straight away post a big dinner.This myth comes every so often spread by one or two trying to be clever. It doesn't work, PS If I was on the ship and eating dinner in my home time zone my MDR would be 2pm does that make any sense at all?

meh, I don't see how it's a "myth". Maybe "opinions differ" on this topic. When we go to FL, which we do every spring break, my kids stay on Colorado time no matter how hard we try to break it. On the cruise they were up until midnight or 1 every night, depending on the time zone, and slept until 10 or 11. It's just how they were. Ever since we've been back from spring break 2 weeks ago, I have been waking up at 6am when I usually wake at 8. I usually go to the gym after work until 2am but have been far too tired, as I haven't been able to adjust back in the 2 weeks since we've been back, even though it was just a couple of hours.

As I said, since they have later dining, being from the west coast will probably help. And as someone else pointed out, they can eat food anytime if they get hungry.

eta- I fell for the idea that we would adjust, and hated main dining. Because we were having breakfast/brunch around noon, we would have a mid afternoon snack and none of us wanted to eat during main dining, but liked the experience of the MDRs so we would go, but I would have preferred later. We were with family from the east coast who was happy with main.

 

[LisaT91403]

This is a terrible myth spread by a few, dinner time should be set by the time you eat at home not home time zone.

It's not a "myth" if it's what we actually did and do on all of our cruises.

So you go to Florida maybe days or a week pre cruise and go onto local time.

We fly in the day before, and do not go onto local time. This past cruise, we arrived in FL around 6:00pm. We got to the hotel, checked in, had dinner (at around 8:00pm). After bathing my son, and getting all settled...it was around 11:00pm before he went to sleep...and later for us. We set an alarm to wake us at 9:00am the next morning, which was the equivalent of 6:00am for us.

On the ship you and your kids get up with the sun, have breakfast local time go off to port local time eat lunch local time in port or local time on ship or local time in castaway , see where this is going,,,,, then swap to a different time zone for dinner so a gap of maybe seven whole hours.

We have black out curtains, so we don't get up with the sun. We do not have breakfast or lunch on local time, as we don't even wake up until 9:00am. So, breakfast is at around 10:00am, and lunch usually between 2:00 - 3:00. At Castaway, we got to the buffet right before it closed.

Your body clock is on local time then you eat off a different time zone and go to bed straight away post a big dinner.This myth comes every so often spread by one or two trying to be clever. It doesn't work, PS If I was on the ship and eating dinner in my home time zone my MDR would be 2pm does that make any sense at all?

My body clock doesn't know which time zone I'm in. The only way my body clock adjusts to the new time zone is if I make it so (e.g. start setting the alarm clock to wake me up on local time). It's not a myth, because I'm just telling it like it is for our family. It does work, time and time again. I'm not trying to be "clever", just telling it like it is for us...and for many people like us, as we often travel with others.

Having said that, I completely understand that others choose to adjust to local time and be on the new schedule. And it works for them. I'm not trying to convince others that my way is the right way, or that your way is "wrong" or a "myth". How come you aren't able to understand that what works for you might not work for someone else, and vice versa? Instead, you must insist that you are right, and others are spreading a "terrible myth". Very closed-minded, in my opinion, and also quite insulting.

 

[dcassetta]

The kids in my family are all night owls, so late dinner works for us. If you are up at 7 and eat lunch at noon, then early dinner might be better. But, if you are up at 10 and lunch is at 3, then late dinner would probably be better.

And, there is never a need for a 7 hour gap between meals on the Disney ships. Food is available 24/7.