Dining Times

[Buckleybunch]

HI,
I have requested to have the late dining time, and now that I have been reading information on the http://www.castawayclub.com./ website, I don't know if I want to do the later sitting.
And the reason being, is I don't know if I want to see the shows at 6:30.
We will be traveling with my parents, and 4 children.
Any one have thoughts about this?

 

[GenieDana]

I think with kids, especially younger ones, you may be happier with the early seating. Check out the Navigators on Dave and Barb's website, and you can decide for yourself if it worth missing the activities that take place during late seating. The schedule favors kids for early seating.

Remember, late seating will be from 8:00 (you have to arrive a few minutes earlier) until 10:00 P.M. It has been our experience (or it seems that way) that they serve slower during late seating, taking the full allotted time, so you'll be there up until 10:00 if you want dessert. I guess they are dealing with the dishes from main seating???

Of course some prefer late seating with their kids. It will depend upon you, your eating habits, biological clock (when you and your family normally eat wth respect to local time), etc.

 

[Buckleybunch]

I orginally didn't want the early sitting time, just because if we were at port I didn't want to fill rushed to get back and get dress. This might not even be a problem.
We normally eat at home anywhere between 5 or 7. WE are in Central time zone.
My kids will be 13, 8,8, &6.


I would like to hear people's experience if they have done both times with children

Thanks
Linda

 

[Werner Weiss]

You might want to think of it as "dinner first" or "show first."

For those with 1st Seating:

• 6:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m. — Dinner in one of the three rotation dining rooms
• 7:45 p.m.-8:15 p.m. — Family shows in various lounges
• 8:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. — Show in the Walt Disney Theatre

For those with 2nd Seating:

• 6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. — Show in the Walt Disney Theatre
• 7:45 p.m.-8:15 p.m. — Family shows in various lounges
• 8:30 p.m.-10:00 p.m. — Dinner in one of the three rotation dining rooms

The end times shown are approximate.

In addition to the family shows, there are other scheduled activities between 7:30 pm. and 8:30 p.m. — or it could be a good time to relax.

The times shown are the ship's time, which is based on the time zone in which you're traveling. When we took the Eastern cruise on the Disney Magic in March 2002, for most of the cruise it was two hours later than in Chicago (Central Standard Time). So our 8:30 p.m. dinner was like eating at 6:30 p.m. back home.

We're doing 2nd Seating again on our next cruise.

 

[takemeaway]

We have two loud but adorable boys ages 5 and 7. There is no way these kids could have waited for second seating. They were usually hungry by 6pm and tired by 9 pm.

I think when considering your dinner times, you should consider the children. I personally think, the younger your kids, the eariler your dinner seating.

 

[jilljill]

DD was 5 on our first 2 cruises and we had late seating both times. I liked that because we could get her a snack before the shows and if she fell asleep while we were eating I knew she had already eaten and enjoyed a show. She would have been mad had she fallen asleep and missed even part of a show.
Our cruise last year we had early seating and did not like being rushed in the afternoon to get to dinner. Missed out on pool time when it wasn't crowded. Also, some of the kids at the later shows were a bit loud and cranky.
But ultimately, only you can be the judge of how your family will react to eating at strange times.

 

[Grumpy's Mom]

It really depends on your servers -- we had late seating this past week, and were the LAST table out every night - sometimes 10:30 - which meant we missed the early portion of the Rockin' D Bar shows, which were really good - John Charles was awesome!

We are booking early seating next time around -- even with Teens!

Bonnie

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Originally posted by Buckleybunch
I orginally didn't want the early sitting time, just because if we were at port I didn't want to fill rushed to get back and get dress.

This is the main reason we chose late dinner time for our 2005 trip. We didn't want to be rushed back to eat.. rushed to get ready also since we're all not used to dressing up much- even resort casual (ie: no shorts or jeans) is considered "dressy" to us. LOL Okay so we're Texans- we're either wearing jeans, shorts, or going somewhere special like church, out to eat (not often), etc. LOL

BUT.. now I am rethinking that decision because we'll have to rush back just the same to see the shows, right? And we'd need to change before that- right? I mean we don't have time to go to the shows (nor am I sure it's appropriate especially on formal nights) and THEN go change before eating- ???
So then we'll end up missing some of the shows or else rush anyway?

Also our children are used to eating later- and early seating would be even earlier for us- atleast the first few days (we're in CST also) until they get in the "groove" of things. But we figured if they got hungry earlier- they could eat something somewhere else on the ship- and eat again at late dinner seating if they were hungry again? Also thought that with late dinner seating there might be the possibility of them eating at the clubs (should they desire to stay there- hoping they like them!), see the shows with us, and if they AREN'T hungry and want to go to the clubs again- then we'd have dinner alone! Wouldn't that be a treat!

Plus I thought if the shows were after eating- they'd end up falling asleep during the show. My children are funny that way... movies tend to put them to sleep. (That's why anytime we ever take them to the theatre- we have learned to always take them to matinees! Or else we're wasting our time/money for them to see it! LOL)
So even though they'd normally stay up that late- if they sit down to watch a movie/show.... and they are out like a light (they also fall asleep constantly whenever we get in the van to go ANYWHERE -poof.... out quickly LOL) I can see them staying up late with us at dinner or in the clubs- but sitting watching a movie, they'd miss it anyway. PLUS we'd have to have them in our laps like lumps of sand while WE tried to continue watching the movie/show. That didn't seem attractive to us.

But I'm afraid we'll end up missing shows on ports of call days... not wanting to rush back to the ship in time for those.

Tough decision! For now I'm sticking with the late dinner seating- but still thinking about it. Our children aren't always well behaved EVERYWHERE- but fortunately we have ingrained in them the proper behavior when eating out at restaurants- so they are very well behaved in that situation. So even though we'll have a pretty wide range of ages on the "young" side (not quite teen for the oldest)- I think they'll behave fine with the late dinner seating. If not, I would rethink that and have us early seating with the higher % of children (as I have heard)

But.... now I'm wondering... what activities are going to be going on that we'll be MISSING with the late dinner seating? I had only thought of the movie/show situation and it can be seen either way... are there activities only going on during late dinner seating that we'll totally miss?

 

[KathyTX]

BuckleyBunch-

I think Werner phrases it well- just think of the evening as a block of activities, and think about whether you prefer dinner then show, or show then dinner. You'll be up late either way!

The ages of your children may be a factor, and whether they will spend the entire evening with you.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Buckleybunch- another thing that factored in our decision (if I don't change my mind LOL) was breakfast. We're not early risers (at all)- and those with early dinner seating get early breakfast seating for character breakfast and breakfast on disembarkation day.