Activities and Early or Late seating?

[disneyagain]

We'll be traveling with 2 12 yr old boys and 1 10 yr old girl. We are currently assigned late dinner seating and waitlisted for early. I've heard that late seating is so nice because you don't have to rush back to port, but....Which will be better for the kids? Will they be missing more activites with the late seating? Are they going to feel like everything is closing up for the evening when we get out of dinner at 10ish???

I'm not sure if I should just leave it alone and just go with it, I'm sure we'll enjoy either way, or if I should check at the cruise desk and try and get switched???

Any opinions out there??????

 

[kcashner]

There are definitely more "good" kid activities scheduled during late dinner...so by eating late, the kids will be missing some of these. On the other hand, how many hours of club/lab will your kids do each day?

Generally, during early dinner the club/activities are not what we considered to be the "good" ones. However, if you have early dinner your kids will probably miss the club/lab in order to go to the shows in WD theater...usually with parents who also want to see the shows.

As to what is better for the kids....if you are from the Pacific time zone, late seating actually keeps the kids more on their home schedule. If you are from Eastern time zon, 8:30 dinner may be late for the kids. Mine always liked dressing up and going to dinner, but you can always have them eat early with the club/lab group, get them room service, or get food from one of the deck 9 outlets...or take them to the buffet yourself.

Alternatively, request early seating. Then, if you don't get it, ask to be waitlisted for it. Finally, if you don't get it by the time you board, go to "dining changes" and ask for it.

The kid programs close at 11 or 12...so there is still time after dinner. Your server can/will bring the kid's food first if you ask, so they can finish eating by 9:30 and go to their programming. You can return after you drop them off and have dessert.

 

[geffric]

My boys were 13 and 10 last cruise. We had late seating and it worked really well for us and the kids. Granted the boys did the eat and run but that was okay with us. Many other kids in the same age bracket were in late seating as the early seating is very much for the younger kids. My kids did not feel that they missed the activities that they were interested in at all.. and made arrangement to meet their friends at a certain time and place..

Since the 12 and 10 year olds can sign themselves in and out , remember to discuss curfew with them..

 

[lbgraves]

The whole "you don't have to rush to get ready for dinner" really only applies if you don't plan on going to the shows. If you have late dining & want to see the shows they start at 6:30 so there really isn't that much of a difference as to when you have to return to the ship when in port.

 

[pdarrah]

However, if there are evenings when you don't care about the show (i.e. we were totally uninterested in the movie that was shown one night as the "show") having late seating does give you more time. We skipped "shows" on 3 nights (2 variety shows and the movie).

pdarrah