dinner question with kids

[pigget74]

We are going in March and my question is this: My kids will be 10 and 7--I know that they will be fine at either dinner--(night owls) anyway they will also be going to the childrens clubs, but I want to have dinner with them--is there a better time to eat for them---early or late--are there any special things that they do only at night in the kids clubs? Thanks

 

[kcashner]

We personally like late dinner, but it interferes with some of the kid activities in the club/lab.

If the kids have their hearts set on an activity, they can always eat with the kid groups earlier, then do activies. We have made dinner a family time...which occasionally resulted in missing something they wanted to do. There are not the "really fun" activities during early dinner as most of the little kids dine then.

We like late dinner because it is less crowded, MUCH less noisy, and many fewer young kids.

 

[Masonpips]

if you specifically want to have dinner w/your kids and not have them miss any major club activities, choose early dinner seating.

The club typically eats earlier and is transitioning back during early seating so there isn't much going on. On our first cruise we would bring the kids to dinner with us, they'd eat and one of us would take them upstairs at 6:30 or so to check them in. We couldn't check them in beforehand because of of the transitioning (moving clubs or moving from dinner to the club) and our servers brought their food/dessert first. We then finished dinner or dessert in peace.

Since yours are a bit older they could probably make it through the entire early seating and be at the club around 7 which is the earliest the "night" activities start. They might miss the shows however, but my DS (6 on last cruise) always chose the club over the shows anyways.

 

[pigget74]

Thanks. I guess we will stick to the early seating.

 

[crisi]

You can check out the kids navigators at www.dcltribute.com.

We had early seating, but our kids were younger. We were only on the four day and they ate with us twice and twice elected to eat with the clubs and spend their evening there, so it didn't matter when we ate.

 

[Monstro]

We have three kids. 9, 11, and 16 This will be our third year cruising with them. We prefer the early seating for reasons expressed by Masonpips above. We have no regrets and will continue requesting early seating.

 

[mketting]

Early seating is great. Sometimes you feel a little rushed to get there but it is then a great time to relax and get geared back up for evening activities. My DD would eat with us and if she finished early we just walked her up to the kids club and then finished dinner.