Difficult to Switch to Late Dinner Seating?

[travellady]

We live on the West Coast and our youngest, coming with us on this trip, is 11. My TA automatically booked us for the 1st dinner seating - I assume she did so because that seems to be the hardest one to get so better to reserve it early. However, as I think about it, the 2nd may be better for us. We won't be acclimated to the time change as we will have just arrived in Florida the morning before the cruise. And, based on our April trip to WDW, we don't acclimate much at all - stay pretty much on our body clock time. And to top it off, we don't usually eat dinner until 7:30 most nights anyway.

I'm thinking of keeping the 1st seating for now as I want to find out more about kids activities as I know my son will want to be involved. But, I suspect we may lean towards the 2nd seating. Is it difficult to switch either way? What about if I wait until the day we board?

 

[Masonpips]

I think most will agree it's easier to switch from early to late. Last cruise, after 2 nights of early, we asked to be switched to late. They did it immediately and were able to keep our same servers! It worked out great for us!

 

[makaylee]

This shouldn't be a problem at all since the wait list is always for the early seating not the late.

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

there is almost always a wait list for early seating. so switching to late will be a breeze

 

[travellady]

I expected this would be the case but wanted to see if I was mistaken. It sounds like waiting to decide until we get on the ship shouldn't be a problem.

 

[kcashner]

Early seating always fills, so it is easy to switch from early to late. Yes, you can even wait until you board (you go to "Dining Changes" which is usually in Sessions). You can save yourself the hassle of that trip if you make the change by phone even a few days ahead.

 

[jodifla]

This is good to know. I'm seriously considering switching to late seating if I can get DS, 2, into Flounders while we eat. He's not much for any dinner that takes longer than 20 minutes!

 

[OJulie67]

switching to late seating would not be a problem! We switched one night to accomodate a spa ressie.

 

[webray]

Remember, if you switch to the second seating..you won't be eating dinner until 9:30 or later.

The first seating would probably keep you right on your tummy's schedule.

 

[tkd lisa]

webray, late seating starts at 8:30. We always had a bread basket out by around 8:45-8:50, and appetizers by 9:00. Maybe the main course was closer to 9:30, but there will be food there well before then.

If they are on the west cost schedule, they'll be coming to dinner at 5:30 according to their body clock with late seating. And if they go into the central time zone on their cruise, it will be an hour earlier. Early seating would have their main course on the table at 7:00 eastern (assuming that it is a full hour after seating for the main course to get to the table). That would be 4:00 their time, and would be considerably earlier than the average family eats. I think late seating will be fine for them.