Dining time? Which do you prefer?

[Luv2trav]

Again first time cruiser with lots of questions. Do you prefer the early or late dining time? Right now we have the late time secured but was wondering what the pro's and con's are? Our children are not young (14 and 12) so late dining doesn't matter.

 

[dclpluto]

Again first time cruiser with lots of questions. Do you prefer the early or late dining time? Right now we have the late time secured but was wondering what the pro's and con's are? Our children are not young (14 and 12) so late dining doesn't matter.

I like main dining. You will get hungry later on in the night. Lots of times I will be in the club and will have to leave and get some pizza. Pizza usually closes at midnight I believe. Than once I get the pizza I don't feel like going back to the club.

Late dining people usually get food around 3 or 4!to hold them over until dinner.

 

[lorimay]

We do that the late seating, we felt rushed, especially on port days when we had the main dining time.

 

[JMHDisney]

Pick the time closest to when you normally eat at home (even if there is a time change). We like early because my son would not make it until late dining, but I personally also like doing dinner then the show rather than vice versa. And I know if we did the show first, my son would be hungry and want popcorn and then wouldn't eat dinner.

Edited to add that lorimay makes a good point. Check the port schedule. We never felt rushed on a Caribbean schedule because we usually left port before early dining but some schedules may have later departure times. We've chosen to do early dining anyway and if we are having fun in port will just skip the formal dinner, but it's something to consider.

 

[Bumbling Bee]

Late dining people usually get food around 3 or 4!to hold them over until dinner.

That's actually part of why I like second dining! You can much more easily fit four meals into your day! that means a lot more room for trying more things (room service, quick service, etc.). Or it could just mean I like eating too much.

I like second dining because it tends to be calmer with fewer small children. I also don't feel like I'm missing out on any daylight on deck. I never feel rushed to change for dinner.

 

[daisyx3]

We did early seating (which was 6 then) on our cruises in 03 and 04, but the kids were young then. Now we are just going to have my son who is almost 18, and he and my husband are night owls, so I chose late seating. I hope it doesn't drag out, though!

 

[kem717]

I had main dining, I was with a group of 21 people and didn't get a say in the matter. I would've preferred late dining. My kids are 7 & 3 and they stayed in Oceaneer's Club until midnight every night. I would've preferred to eat some snacks prior to dinner and see the early show. As it was, we picked them up for dinner, dropped the kids off for 30 minutes, then picked them up for the 8:30 show and then dropped them off again for the rest of the night. It felt rushed to get to the show and to get ready for dinner if we were just coming back on the ship.

 

[cheermom2four]

I was worried about late dining our first cruise (just hubby and I) but actually liked it better.We relaxed and took our time getting ready for late dining and just ate lunch later is all. We actually chose late dining with our kids this second cruise (dd 5 and ds 16) and will just do the same thing. I'm liking the idea of Dine and Play for our youngest that is only offered during second dining. Also, we didnt feel like the dinner was dragged out by having late dining. Our servers were great and kept it rolling.

 

[Snowwhyt]

I've had both dining experiences.
My first I had no choice but to eat late we had to see the show before dinner. I felt like I was missing out on things.
My second cruise my mother needed to eat earlier because of acid reflux. That was the worst, we always had to rush away from desert to get seats at the theater. After having first dining in reflecting back I can see I totally did not miss a thing by going second dining. However with first dining I often got to events too late so seating was unavailable for bingo or whatever comedy show I wanted to see.
I also felt the dining room was so much louder at first seating. Not because there were screaming kids, but perhaps adults need to speak louder to hear each other over the children.

 

[steves100]

We ONLY choose Main. This allows us to go to diner, have something light with family and still go to Palo

 

[CamColt]

While we eat early at home, we always get late dining on the ship. Having to get 4 of us ready for early dinner would cut into our day too much. We don't always go to the show so on those days we have even more time to enjoy the ship.

 

[DnA2010]

Late, no way we want to wrap up the day when we would need to to get ready for early. Our DD was 11 last year on the fantasy had had no issues with late dining

 

[dsdeleon]

Late - really glad I read up on this before the 1st cruise so I knew what a pain it would be to rush away from relaxing. One thing I didn't expect was how much my kids (7 and 10yo) were doing their own thing when it came to activities and meals, they only joined us the first night. I am pretty sure that they ate earlier most nights anyways. We would get pizza/chicken fingers late (11PM) if they were hungry again.

 

[Luv2trav]

thank you for all the feedback... This really helps me figure that we are late dining family.

 

[joannamet]

First time cruiser here. Thanks to everyone for the comments. For our upcoming trip, first I booked early then I changed it to late. I was still uncertain until reading this thread but now I feel much more confident that late is a better choice for us. We're normally early dinner people but I hate feeling rushed and scheduled on vacation and late dining seems like a more relaxing choice. I also prefer a more leisurely breakfast on debarkation morning.

 

[TeaBee]

Again first time cruiser with lots of questions. Do you prefer the early or late dining time? Right now we have the late time secured but was wondering what the pro's and con's are? Our children are not young (14 and 12) so late dining doesn't matter.

We loved late dining. My kids were 10 and 14 and didn't have a problem with it at all. My youngest probably would have been a little hungry by then, but ate so many ice cream cones every day that it was never a problem! We didn't feel rushed to get to dinner or to finish dinner.

 

[Drusilla99]

We've always done main dining, at home we eat between 5-5:30. Everyone but me feels rushed to make pictures & then dinner. For our upcoming Alaska cruise we went with late, so I hope I can make it! We already have a couple excursions booked that don't get back until 5:30, so main just wouldn't have worked. My teens also say that most of the other teens eat late so they don't have their friends to hang out with if we eat early. We will have just gotten back from two weeks in Hawaii, so our eating clocks will be off, hopefully we can keep them that way & no one will feel rushed.

 

[Luv2trav]

We loved late dining. My kids were 10 and 14 and didn't have a problem with it at all. My youngest probably would have been a little hungry by then, but ate so many ice cream cones every day that it was never a problem! We didn't feel rushed to get to dinner or to finish dinner.

This will be my youngest as well. He will find food to hold him over. LOL

 

[scootch]

I don't feel rushed with main dining either which makes me wonder each time these threads come up is, "why does early dining fill fastest and usually has a waitlist that many people don't get put through, if all these people love late dining??" IDK

My daughter has reflux, so we need early dining for medical reasons too.

 

[GrandmaFullofSurprises]

so, I just want to be sure...we are going at Christmas time on the Dream cruise and we are leaning toward the late dinner seating but, will we miss out on any activities? It sounds as if you go to late dining, then you go to early show, etc.?