Dining Rotations

[SnowW's Mom]

I remember reading somewhere that your dining rotation will be decided based on the make-up of your party, ie: families with children may recieve a certain rotation and all adult parties will have another. Does anyone know how this is scheduled? We are sailing in Feb. 04 with three families. We will have a total of
6 kids ranging in age from 11 to 17 and are on the late seating.
Thanks!

 

[Firefighter Mickey]

Your dining rotation is usually selected based on the ages of your children - however, it doesn't always work that way (our DD's were 14 & 15 so we should have gotten either the Family or Adult rotation, but got the younger children rotation, which we managed to change after the first night).

As I understand it, The 3 rotations are:

Younger children (APL)
Family (PLA)
Adults (LAP)

 

[Cara]

This is interesting! What determines whether you are placed in the "younger children" rotation or the "family" rotation? We will be a party of seven, with four adults, two children age nine, and one child age five. It doesn't matter to me, but I am curious!

Cara

 

[Firefighter Mickey]

The impression I get is that the family rotation is given if you have older kids as well as younger kids.

Based on our first dinner with the APL rotation, I can't recall seeing a single child older than 10 (or if there were, there weren't many other than our two DD's).

I was very glad that Chris in Guest Services was able to work with the dining room manager to get us on a different rotation - I think if we'd not been able to change from that rotation we (our DD's included) would have elected to do Topsiders or room service the remainder of the cruise.

I'm told you can also have your TA note a rotation request on your reservation.

 

[Cara]

Thank you, FF Mickey. So, since we have no children under 10 in our party, I guess we can assume we will likely receive the "younger children" rotation. I will be interested to see if this is the case!

Cara

 

[Firefighter Mickey]

I'd say there's a good chance that's where you'll end up, but as we found out, it's not a sure thing. I had a conversation with the Hotel Director related to a different topic and asked about the rotation we got, and he was a little surprised that we were assigned the younger rotation.

Apparently everyone wants first seating and a table to themselves. I guess we're the odd ones; we wanted second seating and hoped to be seated with another family (even the dining room manager had a tough time believing the "seated with another family" request).

 

[mmouse37]

I just got off the phone with DCL to pay off the remainder of our cruise...I asked about the dining rotation request (I knew you could not, but just wanted to check again). Well, you still cannot request a dining rotation. The CM even put me on hold to check with her supervisor...she said there is nowhere in their database to add that request except under comments and that section of the ressie does not get forwarded to the dining room.

So I doubt requesting a rotation thru a TA would help at all.

MJ

 

[Firefighter Mickey]

That's interesting, as the hotel director on the Magic was pretty explicit that this was a request that could be made - guess even he doesn't know all the answers.

Thanks for clearing up that aspect!

 

[imgoingtodisney]

guess the chances of aplap on the 11/8 western are slim? We have an 11yr old. I also called to request and was told they noted it but the dining crew most likely wont see the request.

 

[Firefighter Mickey]

Well, don't forget that you can also try to change your rotation or seating once on board.

So if you'd rather have the APL rotation and you don't get it, check in your navigator for the location to go for making a request to change.

 

[roelongo]

Help me understand this please! I have a 9DS and a12DS will we be with all young kids. I think I will go insane if this is the case. I would prefer some older kids to be in the dining area with my kids. Maybe someone could explain the difference between older and younger according to DCL

 

[DVC4US]

I think it is just luck of the draw. Disney has not set policy for dinning rotation. When people on the boards talk about what you might get it is just based on what they have seen in the past. I agree that Disney probably tends to put families with small children in the APL rotation it is not always the case. On our cruise in March we requested the LAP rotation (not guaranteed but we could do this since we were in a concierge suite), it was the rotation we received and there where plenty of families in the dinning room with small children. I really do think that they try to put a mix in each dinning room, but this may not always happen like Firefighter Mickey explained with his situation.

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

We've cruised twice before, first time kids were 8 & 10, second time they were 10 & 12. Both times we were on first seating and started with Lumiere's. (Back in the days before Wonder launched so shorter cruises were on Magic).

We're actually hoping for the APL as it would put us in Lumiere's on Monday and Thursday for formal and semi-formal night on our upcoming Western. (At least if I've got those itineraries figured out correctly!) and this with a 13 & 15 year old! It seems that they mix groups up anyway. I'm guessing you tend to notice people like your group anyway.

Firefighter Mickey - we too are hoping for tablemates!

Deb