8:30 dining, yuck!

[dannyb]

With 8:30 seating how does that affect attending the Pirate Party - my 5 1/2 year old nephew travling with is mother would be VERY DISAPPOINTED to miss it. Thanks for any advice to these first time cruiers.

You'll have plenty of time to make the party

 

[TiggerStac]

We were not able to change ours, even when we had checked onboard. We had booked in June for a February cruise and we were waitlisted. My TA would also periodically call and double check. We checked once we were onboard...no luck and we had DS 2.5 with us. He only came to 2 or 3 meals with us (7 night) the other nights he was in Flounders. We would get him chicken fingers by the pool or rooms service before he went.

We got early seating for our 9/06 cruise that we just booked and I was shocked! We are very happy as DS will be able to dine with us and he is much better now than he was at 2.5..of course, he probably won't want us to take him out of oceaneers....

 

[4campers]

We had second sitting (8:15), with our 5 and 3 year old. It was great like some others have said. No rushing around. Just have a snack after nap time and go see the show (6:15), and you good to go! I would ask for second next time. Plus, they fall to sleep right quick and sleep all night! Remember....the no rushing part!!!

 

[CamColt]

I got late and was waitlisted for early. It came through, but in the end I realized we would be too rushed and switched back to late once we were on board. We had an 8 & 5 yo with us and we usually eat very early at home (4:30-5:00), plus we were hours later as we did the West Coast cruise. Surprisingly it worked great. The kids didnt dine with us 3 nights and the nights they did, they did fine. And I was still able to enjoy the sailaway party and other late afternoon events without rushing off to get ready. I would definitely request late next time.

 

[Stephres]

Wow, thanks for the information about the shows. My kids are early-to-bedders and would be devastated to miss the shows. They could care less about dinner. We are waitlisted for an earlier dinner time but I think I'll have DH cancel the waitlist. I would rather have them awake for the show than dinner!

 

[scottie]

I cant recall, prior to the change to staggered seatings...what were the early and late seating times?

 

[westjones]

My twin DDs are 12 now, but we have been going on the Disney Cruise since they were 5yo.

I agree about seeing the shows early. Sometimes my kids would want to go to the Club while we ate because they found dinner boring. Not now, but when they were younger. Now they love the fancy food, but before, they preferred getting room service or something up on deck 9.

They ate with us some nights, but other nights they just wanted to go play, so DH ate alone on those nights. We just kind of went with the flow depending on what they wanted to do.

DJ

 

[wdwstar]

we loved the late dinner, i have a 7 year old and if she got hungry we let her get a snack to hold her over for dinner. we were surprised she ate all her dinner evry night and then some, i think with all the activity going on and the walking, swimming and playing she really worked up an appetite, she ate more food on the cruise then she has ever. another plus eating late, when your in port you dont have to rush back to the ship to eat dinner right away.
the down fall, pirate night, we just finished dinner and after the pirate show they had a spread of food, we werent hungry.

 

[lbgraves]

The times use to be just 6 & 8:30.

 

[makelab]

isn't there a buffet always open, too?

 

[aprilgail2]

isn't there a buffet always open, too?

On the magic you can eat at topsiders. We chose to eat there on formal night since we did not want to get dressed up. I twas very nice there. If we ever got stuck with late dinner I would eat at topsiders every night. Its not even having anything to do with my daughter eating so late...I personally could not eat a big dinner that late and go to sleep 2 hours later with all that food sitting in my stomach, no way no how.

 

[Tink!]

We had 8:30 dining on our last cruise and loved it. Being from California, you're actually eating at 5:30. If you have the late seating, you're are not rushed and have as much time as you want.

 

[scottie]

We had late seating on our last two cruises and did really enjoy the freedom that we had up to dinner time. We also did not feel rushed and enjoyed our evenings. For the second cruise, the kids loved the programs so much they ended up eating dinner with all kids group anyway.

 

[Priorityonecb]

We chose late seating (dd's will be 9 and 15) because we did not want to be rushed on port days. Our girls will enjoy seeing the shows before dinner...and we have problem letting them order a late afternoon snack from room service to get them to dinner...in fact, they will *love to do that!!

 

[jblb1020]

We are leaving on the Magic on Feb 4, 2006 and we also had late seating and I was on the waiting list for main seating. Well last week I checked my reservation on the Disney Website and we had been moved to the earlier seating. My children are 2.11 and 5 and knew that the late seating would not work for us. So don't give up hope!!!!

 

[stampinshauna]

We were waitlisted for early dining, so as soon as we boarded the ship, we went to find out about changing to early. It turned out that we had already been changed to early and we just didn't know it. Good luck getting early seating, just check as soon as you get there and you should be okay.

 

[meandmad]

We booked a year out and requested late seating. DD7 is always has no problem staying up late and is usually hungry all the time. We loved it! As others have said, you don't feel so rushed to get ready for dinner. You can go to the shows casual, then go back and dress for dinner since there's plenty of time between the two.

As for your little one going hungry... we were never hungry!! You can always grab them a later afternoon snack from Pluto's, or get them something to munch on during the shows. And at dinner they usually bring the kids' meals out QUICK.

Late seating didn't mess up the pirate party except that we weren't particularly hungry. That was fine because the food didn't look overly appetizing anyway.

Unless your child has trouble staying up until 10:00 or so, don't let the idea of a late seating ruin your trip.