Best Dinner Time

[even1]

Hi all,

Does anyone know where I can find the pros & cons of each dinner time?

My daughter and I are going on our 1st cruise and although we are both adults I booked 6:00 because I thought if we ate late we'd never be able to order room service in the evening!!! We just have to try the cheese platter that everyone raves about!!!

Any tips?

Eileen

 

[webray]

I think it is whatever time you are comfortable eating at.

We took our 21 year old with us this past March...she was fine with the later seating time. Hubby and I always choose the later, as there are less children in the dining room, since getting your food between 9 and 10 pm is a little late for the kiddies.

We still had plenty of time to order room service..late afternoons, etc. You can always try room service for breakfast, snacks, whatever..or order the cheese plate before dinner with wine in the room while you are getting dressed for dinner.

 

[even1]

That's a great idea!!! I really do prefer the late seating and since this will be my first vacation without children, it would be nice to be around some adults for a change!!!

Thanks Webray.

 

[alexandrew]

We did early seating on our 1st cruise, and late seating on all subsequent cruises

We felt that late seating was less chaotic, both in the diningrooms and also preparing for the evening....We do have young children (now 8 and 3) who did not dine with us however....One ate with the Oceaneers Club, and our younger DS we took to Plutos earlier, and then to Flounders Reef....

 

[TootyJane]

Originally posted by alexandrew
We did early seating on our 1st cruise, and late seating on all subsequent cruises

This is exactly what we did.

We felt that late seating was less chaotic, both in the diningrooms and also preparing for the evening....We do have young children (now 8 and 3) who did not dine with us however....One ate with the Oceaneers Club, and are younger DS we took to Plutos earlier, and then to Flounders Reef....

Our children do eat with us. If you find the kids get hungry and can't wait for dinner, you can always get something to eat somewhere on the ship. Also, we live on the West Coast and besides feeling rushed to get to dinner at 6:00pm we found that eating at 6:00pm was more like eating at 3:00pm to us. As for there being less children in the dining room for late seating there certainly have been a lot when we've cruised. HTH

 

[Rhonda]

We've always chosen the late seating because most families with small children choose the early seating. And, we thought it would give us more time at the ports.

But on our next cruise we are going to choose early seating, because we're always so tired after eating the late dinner that we never enjoy the late-night entertainment! I think if we have early dinner, then we won't feel so much like going to bed right afterwards.

 

[SchultzFamily]

Being from the west coast we chose late seating because of the time difference. Like TootyJane said we would feel like we were eating at 3pm.

 

[S. C.]

We like late dining since we are late night people. Last year we took some sandwich bags with us. What we didn't eat from the cheese tray etc, we put in the baggies and in the fridge/cooler in the room. next day we finished the cheese and fruit.

 

[mmouse37]

10 DCL cruises...10 late dining.....we just love not being so rushed. We always order a late afternoon snack to tide us over until dinner.

We usually are dressed up before the show but sometimes if we are being lazy will be casual to the show and then dress for dinner in the hour between the show and dinner.

Love late seating!!!

MJ

 

[jrabbit]

Dinner Seating: Early vs. Late

Early Pros:
>Ready for the late night desserts
>Won’t go to bed stuffed
>Kids club schedules better timed with early seating
>“You’ve got the whole evening before you”

Early Cons:
>On port days, gotta get back on board to clean up and be at dinner by 6
>Need to make a choice: go to the family cabaret shows and then sit farther back for the main show in the Walt Disney Theater or skip the family cabaret shows
>Stuffed from dinner – hard to stay awake in the nice and cozy darkened theater for the main shows

Late Pros:
>Have an extra 1/2 hour to get cleaned up after a busy day onshore (or onboard)
>Don’t have to be at the main show until 6:30 and you don’t even have to be “dressed up”
>If you do get dressed up for the 6:30 show, you can go to the family cabaret without feeling rushed (you’ve got a reserved seat for dinner)
>Won’t feel like snacking (as much) late at night on the desserts (maybe this is a con)
>Overall, you’re not as rushed (getting ready for dinner and at dinner)
>Less children (if that’s important to you)
>Time to snack at scoops/plutos/Pinocchio's in the afternoon w/o spoiling dinner

Late Cons:
>If your dinner runs long, you’ll miss the “adult” cabaret shows and the sail away parties
>If you’re tired, I’m too stuffed from dinner to go to bed for quite a while
>Interferes with evening kids and teen activities

 

[NYGiantsRule!]

Don't forget that early seating people get 6:45AM breakfast on disembarkation day. Late seating people get 8AM.