Dining Waitlist -- Do I stand a chance??

[seafarer71]

I recently booked the Wonder for a December 2008 sailing. Was told by TA that only the late seating was available, but would be waitlisted for the main seatings. I am new to DCL, and it suprises me that such a family oriented cruise line cannot better accomodate families. I booked anyway, but there is no way the late seating is going to work for my kids (1yr and 3yrs).

What are my chances of getting the main seating? Should I be worried? Does anyone have any advice/tips to better my chances of getting an earlier seating? Any info would be appreciated, as I would like to experience the dining rooms with my kids!

 

[MagicMe]

I'm not sure how often but I do know that people have been able to switch occassionally. We like the late seating but don't have children that young so it works great for us.

As far as the comment about a "family oriented cruise line cannot better accomodate families", it is probably mostly families that have already gotten the early seatings.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Keep asking, and also on arrival at port go straight to where they amend dinner reservations and ask. Alternatives on the Magic include Topsiders in evenings.

 

[Luckymomoftwo]

I have to agree with Andrew...just be persistent, call every chance you get to see if they can switch you to the early seating and if you haven't had any luck, make sure you ask when you check in at the port. By the way, when are you going? We are booked on the Wonder on 12/4/08.

I've also seen other suggestions to let the kids take naps during the day so they will be able to stay up later. If you are bringing a stroller onboard, you may be able to take that into dinner if your 1 year old might need to sleep during dinner. I don't recall if they were allowing strollers into the dining areas last time we were on board or not.

Good luck...I'm sure you'll enjoy the cruise either way, but I hope you DO get switched to early seating because I know that IS late for 1 & 3 year olds to be up. Unless you're in the Pacific time zone...then late seating is really only 5:00 your time!! (I believe the ship stays on Eastern time zone...someone please correct me if I'm wrong)

 

[bertalander]

Be persistent for sure!!!!!!

Get this, we were a party of 16. When we checked in we were told we were still on late dining.

I hustled to RBD as soon as we boarded. And guess what? We had been moved to earlier dining since we had checked in!

So, it can happen. Just keep trying.

But have backup plans just in case it doesn't work out for how you'll handle it.

 

[Deweysgirl]

We booked the 4 night Wonder back in October for this March, we are a party of 10. We also had to go with late dining and wait-listed main dining. A tip I was given here on the DIS was to call in right at the time balances were due - 75 days out to see if we could get switched as people change plans or cancel. Sure enough! My TA called DCL and then she notified us that there was availability and we had all been moved to 1st dining, we were thrilled!

 

[dlz]

I have a question about this question. I am brand new to DCL and was wondering why everyone wants the early dining reservations? I booked today for August and they threw me off guard when they asked me if I wanted 5:30 or 8:30 dining reservations. I said, "I guess 8:30, so we can swim, etc.", not even knowing why they were asking me already. Is there a good reason for me not to want the later time? We have older kids and was hoping more little kids would be at the earlier time after I started thinking about it. Is the food the same, better, worse???? Sorry to intrude on this question, but just wondering why all the wait listing for the earlier time slot. Thanks for your help.

 

[jeast]

The food is the same. It's just that families with smaller children that have a normal bedtime of 8:30-9:00 have a very hard time sitting down to eat at 8:30. The kids natural sleep cycle makes them flop face-down in their mac and cheese. Kind of funny, but it messes up your own meal when you have to take them back to the room or deal with an overtired kid meltdown.

The earlier seatings generally have families with younger children. Travelers with older children and without children tend to prefer the later seating. Less food throwing and meltdowns.

 

[dlz]

Well I'm glad I left an earlier slot for the families w/ the little ones. I was there not too very long ago it seems, and now I am turning 40, and taking my little ones, who are all of a sudden 17 and 13 w/ me!

Good Luck to the lady who needs the earlier slot!

 

[tksbaskets]

I have a question about this question. I am brand new to DCL and was wondering why everyone wants the early dining reservations? I booked today for August and they threw me off guard when they asked me if I wanted 5:30 or 8:30 dining reservations. I said, "I guess 8:30, so we can swim, etc.", not even knowing why they were asking me already. Is there a good reason for me not to want the later time? We have older kids and was hoping more little kids would be at the earlier time after I started thinking about it. Is the food the same, better, worse???? Sorry to intrude on this question, but just wondering why all the wait listing for the earlier time slot. Thanks for your help.

We don't have small children but if we have dinner at 8:30 at night I'm afraid I'll also eat something around 6 when I'm really hungry . We are waitlisted for early dinner as well on our upcoming cruise.

 

[LJC1861]

We are waitlisted for early dining as well, but relatively recent additions to the waiting list. Lisa is a diabetic and her diabetes has recently taken a turn for the worse. She has gone from being diet, exercise and Metformin controlled to having to test and take insulin 4 times a day. Our Dr. has recommended that we stick to as normal a dining regimen as possible. At home we eat no later than 7 p.m.

So I called DCL and we are waitlisted. We have already faxed in the necessary medical form and hopefully we will get lucky. If not, Lisa will be eating a substantial snack and then a full dinner which would not be good for her either.

Linda

 

[Diznyfan68]

One point not already made - the earlier you book your cruise, the better chance you have of getting the dining time (early vs late) that you want.

To the OP, you posted that you just recently booked - this cruise has been available for booking for about 13 months now, thus the lack of availability for early dining, also you said it was in December - if it is right around Christmas it is probably a very popular cruise and pretty filled up. I believe you said that you booked through a TA - they will have to contact DCL regarding the availbility of moving you from late to early. DCL does have pretty strict rules about doing things to ressies that are held by a TA.

Good luck and I hope you get what you want!

 

[staceys0513]

We were waitlisted for early seating. I called our TA last week to see if she could check on it for us. She contacted Disney and they were able to move us. We have an 18 month old that would be sound asleep if we ate at 8:30. Don't give up hope!!

 

[gonemousin']

Another thing to note - some folks, especially west coasters not used to the 3hr time change, prefer the later seating (an 8pm seating on the east coast is 5pm to their bodies). As a previous poster pointed out, booking your cruise early is pretty much the only way to guarantee the main seating choice. I wouldn't really blame Disney for not being accomodating. They're as accomodating as they can possibly be - they have to divvy up the seating times and it just comes down to first come first serve. Hopefully you'll have luck getting moved to the earlier seating!

 

[HooKooDooKu]

Based on our experience, you will have a much better chance trying to change to 1st seating once you are onboard that you are of the waitlist comething through.

Unless they've changed their procedures, by the day you arrive at the port, DCL has already downloaded all the reservation information to the ship's computers and so the people you check in with at the port can't do anything for you. But usually, DCL will have some computers onboard set up in one of the lounges the day you board and will open the lounge at say 2 o'clock to allow people to come and request dining changes.

So if nothing else, once you get on board, find out when a where you can request dining changes (likely requests for Palo will be in the same place and at the same time). You'll want to be one of the first in line, so you'll want to go to that spot as soon as you get on-board since the 1st ones to make a request are most likely to get them filled.

 

[wdhinn89]

We are waitlisted for early dining as well, but relatively recent additions to the waiting list. Lisa is a diabetic and her diabetes has recently taken a turn for the worse. She has gone from being diet, exercise and Metformin controlled to having to test and take insulin 4 times a day. Our Dr. has recommended that we stick to as normal a dining regimen as possible. At home we eat no later than 7 p.m.

So I called DCL and we are waitlisted. We have already faxed in the necessary medical form and hopefully we will get lucky. If not, Lisa will be eating a substantial snack and then a full dinner which would not be good for her either.

Linda

My son is a Type 1 diabetic and both DCL cruises we were on we faxed in the signed Medical Form showing his diabetes with a big note written across the top saying MUST HAVE MAIN SEATING. Both times it was changed pretty much immediately. You should not have a problem. Keep checking your reservation on-line and call repeatedly if you don't see the change.

 

[JustLorri]

We are waitlisted for early dining as well, but relatively recent additions to the waiting list. Lisa is a diabetic and her diabetes has recently taken a turn for the worse. She has gone from being diet, exercise and Metformin controlled to having to test and take insulin 4 times a day. Our Dr. has recommended that we stick to as normal a dining regimen as possible. At home we eat no later than 7 p.m.

So I called DCL and we are waitlisted. We have already faxed in the necessary medical form and hopefully we will get lucky. If not, Lisa will be eating a substantial snack and then a full dinner which would not be good for her either.

Linda

Follow up with that. We booked our cruise only 3 months in advance and got the late dining. My FIL has health issues and needed the early seating. One call to our TA and within half an hour she called us back with our new earlier seating. We faxed in the medical form after that happened. Don't take no for an answer!

 

[LJC1861]

This is all really recent and I have already been in contact with my wonderful agent at DU. Lisa had her medical form faxed in yesterday and our Dr. put on it that main seating was recommended for better control and such with her insulin use.

I will keep following up with DCL. Thanks for the support everyone.

Linda