Dining Time Seating later than 5:45 PM?

[DCLMP]

What time zone are you in? We’re in central, so everything seems to start a hour earlier compared to eastern. I’m not a big TV viewer, but I know that our late afternoon news comes on the TV starting at 4 pm, and the network broadcast nightly news is at 10 pm. One local station has nightly news at 9 pm. Our local high schools start at 7:30 am, so bus pick-ups are between 6:30 and 7. Some of those high school students start lunch between 10:30 and 11:00 am. They end classes by 2:30 pm or so. For many folks in this part of the country, the so-called 9-to-5 day is more likely to start by 8 am. The end result is that a 5:45 or 6:15 dinner time is not all that strange.

Mountain. Its nothing to do with time zones. It has to with your work hours and commute time which obviously varies from person to person. I’m not really sure eating at 5pm would mean going to bed earlier. It might increase late night snacking if your a night owl.
Like I said Im glad early seating is popular. I wouldn’t cruise if I had to eat that early. I really liked my time dining on Royal you could eat between 7 and 8 which seemed ideal.

 

[Karin1984]

In the Netherlands 'standard' dinner time for families is 6pm on average. You work 8 hours, somewhere between 8 and 5.30. You go home, make dinner and at 6.30 young kids watch sesame street and then off to bed.

There was a riot when the tv station wanted to delay sesame street to 7 a few years ago.

 

[Iris1974]

I usually eat early if I can. I have main seating at dinner on my February cruise because my stomach has a hard time digesting rich, fried or spicy food if I eat it later. I take a supplement called Papaya Enzyme that helps with all kinds of digestive and stomach problems. I actually heard of it here on this board on a packing list. They are like Tums but much better than Tums for your system. No bad stuff. All natural. I'd hate to be trying to sleep and having indigestion or heartburn on the ship. I used to take Zantac, but since it's been discontinued I use the papaya enzyme. It works almost instantly. Just chew 3 and you feel better. They have peppermint flavor and papaya flavor. I'm bringing a whole bottle of them with me in February. All the rich food will be a bit of a problem with my stomach so having these chewable tablets will be great. They really have saved my enjoyment of food.

When my mom cooked and I ate with her it was always ready by 6pm. She had 7 daughters, 2 brothers, a Sister-in-law and her niece to cook for every night so she learned to have everything ready at 6pm. I guess that stuck with her.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

Mountain. Its nothing to do with time zones. It has to with your work hours and commute time which obviously varies from person to person. I’m not really sure eating at 5pm would mean going to bed earlier. It might increase late night snacking if your a night owl.
Like I said Im glad early seating is popular. I wouldn’t cruise if I had to eat that early. I really liked my time dining on Royal you could eat between 7 and 8 which seemed ideal.

Yes, work hours have a major impact. Now retired, but when I was working, I was typically at my desk sometime between 7 and 7:30 am. Ate lunch at some point between 11:30 and 1:00 pm, and was ready for some dinner by 6 pm, even on days when I returned to work for an evening session, which was typically once or twice a week. You definitely get used to a particular dining schedule, to the point that even now, more than 7 years into retirement, I‘m still on a similar schedule most days. Old habits die hard.