Dinner Questions

[Lumee23]

Hi Everyone! We are going on the Fantasy in Dec of next year potentially as a decent sized group. I had a couple of questions on how Disney does their main dining rooms versus what we experienced on another cruise line a year ago.

1. On average how long do the dinners go? There was a large variance on our other cruise but the average was over two hours, which did not work well with my 18mo daughter at the time. One dinner went as long as three hours. We ended up primarily eating at the buffet for dinner for the majority of the cruise due to the length of dinner. My youngest will be 3 and I expect will be able to sit through longer dinners but I was just hoping to get an idea as to how long they are on average.

2. If our cruise reservations are linked will they automatically sit us together? Or do we have to separately request that?

3. We currently have two rooms booked and are in the early dining time. Some of my family are procrastinators and/or think they can get a better deal last minute. It is my understanding that the early dinner is more desirable and will fill up. If our reservations are linked will they put us in the same early dining time or will we have to switch to late dining if we want to eat together? Would our best bet be to wait to see if the other cabin(s) can be switched to early dining on the first day and if not switch everybody else to late that day or is it so unlikely that we might as well just switch to late before the cruise?

3b. For anybody on late dining with young kids (ours will be 3 and 6) how did that go? Did you do late lunches and/or snacks to tide them over? On the one hand having extra time between returning from excursions and dinner would be nice and it may help keep the kids going for some of the later activities I know they will enjoy. I am just worried the late time will end up in very grumpy kids but I would prefer our group has the same dining times.

4. If we have Palo/Remy reservations do we need to inform our servers ahead of time that we won't be in the MDR or is this something done automatically in the system?

Thanks in advance! Happy planning

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Hi Everyone! We are going on the Fantasy in Dec of next year potentially as a decent sized group. I had a couple of questions on how Disney does their main dining rooms versus what we experienced on another cruise line a year ago.

1. On average how long do the dinners go? There was a large variance on our other cruise but the average was over two hours, which did not work well with my 18mo daughter at the time. One dinner went as long as three hours. We ended up primarily eating at the buffet for dinner for the majority of the cruise due to the length of dinner. My youngest will be 3 and I expect will be able to sit through longer dinners but I was just hoping to get an idea as to how long they are on average.

2. If our cruise reservations are linked will they automatically sit us together? Or do we have to separately request that?

3. We currently have two rooms booked and are in the early dining time. Some of my family are procrastinators and/or think they can get a better deal last minute. It is my understanding that the early dinner is more desirable and will fill up. If our reservations are linked will they put us in the same early dining time or will we have to switch to late dining if we want to eat together? Would our best bet be to wait to see if the other cabin(s) can be switched to early dining on the first day and if not switch everybody else to late that day or is it so unlikely that we might as well just switch to late before the cruise?

3b. For anybody on late dining with young kids (ours will be 3 and 6) how did that go? Did you do late lunches and/or snacks to tide them over? On the one hand having extra time between returning from excursions and dinner would be nice and it may help keep the kids going for some of the later activities I know they will enjoy. I am just worried the late time will end up in very grumpy kids but I would prefer our group has the same dining times.

4. If we have Palo/Remy reservations do we need to inform our servers ahead of time that we won't be in the MDR or is this something done automatically in the system?

Thanks in advance! Happy planning

1) Typically dinner runs about 1 1/2 hours. But you certainly can ask your server to speed up your service, if things aren't going well.

2) As long as your reservations are linked, you'll be seated together.

3) If you book an additional room later, and early dining isn't available, that room will be on late seating. And ask to be placed on the wait list for early seating. I can happen that the later reservation will be switched to match up. If not, you can go to the dining changes venue once onboard and see if they can make the change then. Otherwise, you'll have different dining times, unless the early dinner people switch to late. It's easier to do that than switch from late to early, in many cases.

4) The information is "in the system", but it's nice to personally inform your server, as well as others at your table (unless they are going with you) that you won't be at dinner the next evening. That way they won't wait for you.

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

How many people is decent-sized? We had 9 and there was no problem sitting us all together. I have heard reports on these boards of larger groups being sat together too, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Your issue is that not everyone has booked yet. (prices usually go up on Disney, not down, especially in December, and the boat could fill up...) I've never seen that question addressed, but I can tell you a few things based on my experiences.

Once they book, you can link your reservations, but will they still have room in early dining? I don't know. I do think that one usually fills up first, but not always. You can probably switch your existing reservation from early to late ON THE SHIP, so for now, I'd keep your early dining reservation in place. When we sailed, we were not able to get early seating ahead of time, spent 8 months on the waiting list, but once we were on the ship, we went to the proper Dining Room, stated our request, and all 9 of use were moved to early dining.

As for the length of dinner, I want to say it was under two hours, definitely not three. And if you want to speed it up a little, tell your server. Though the three courses come out at about a certain time for all tables, we definitely saw some tables around us finish like 30 minutes faster than us each night. So maybe they asked to move more quickly, where as we were more laid back.

Also, the late dinner has a program where the kids get served quicker and then go off to the kids club with some CM members at a certain point. This could be a good option for you, especially if there are a lot of kids in your party. This is not available for the early seating.

Oh, and you asked about what the kids will do for food until 8:00 plus. It is a cruise ship. You have a ton of options. Fast food on the pool deck (you don't have to eat it there if you don't want to, you can bring it back to your stateroom or wherever, or something from room service at the right time. You can order things in advance and request delivery at a certain time. No one needs to be too hungry.

Last thing, if you plan to go to the live shows each night, be advised that the show for the late dinner seating is BEFORE dinner, so in practice, main seating of dinner might start at 5:45, but the show for the late dinner might start at 6:15, and if you want to get there 15 minutes early so you can all sit together and not be on the sides, you really won't get much extra time to get ready. Personally, our group of 9 (in two staterooms) never felt too rushed to get to the 5:45 dinner. Though sometimes one of us would use the showers up in the locker rooms associated with the Fitness Room. They are adult only, but they have free lockers, free towels and robes, big sinks, mirrors, and hair dryers, and were generally not crowded. Much easier than a crowded stateroom, especially on formal night. My wife and I traded off, one of us down in the room with the kids, the other upstairs in the locker room by themselves. One less person in the stateroom shower too.

Have a great trip!

 

[Lumee23]

Thank you both for the information! Very helpful and exactly what I was looking for Great tip on the locker room showers too!

Right now we are at 6 booked. We are expecting between 8-11 and could get as high as 17 but that is unlikely. Sounds like the dining time can be a definite complication if people wait too long to book and not everyone wants late seating. We are the only ones with young children though so I would say it probably impacts us the most out of the group. I can at least pass the info along to those that haven't booked yet.

Thanks again to both of you!

 

[wcw57]

not sure where the question is but I'll take stab at it:

You might impress upon people what you just wrote above....IF it's important for people to eat together.

Once you have informed everyone, the onus is upon them. If they get boxed out of the group dining, oh well..................

If that helps at all.....

 

[MunFam]

We cruised 15 nights with our four year old. We found that our schedule shifted a bit and we really liked the later dining and many nights DD would head to the club halfway through second seating when the counselors would come in and pick the kids up.

We enjoyed late dining because we always had the show first (when you need a little "chill time" before dinner and we also enjoyed it because the pool area seemed to clear out as people headed off to get ready for dinner and we would stay longer because we had second seating.

 

[NewYorkcruiser]

I just booked the Fantasy for next December as well. Not sure what date you are going, but i was waitlisted for the first seating.

 

[Shanti]

Hi Everyone! We are going on the Fantasy in Dec of next year potentially as a decent sized group. I had a couple of questions on how Disney does their main dining rooms versus what we experienced on another cruise line a year ago.

1. On average how long do the dinners go? There was a large variance on our other cruise but the average was over two hours, which did not work well with my 18mo daughter at the time. One dinner went as long as three hours. We ended up primarily eating at the buffet for dinner for the majority of the cruise due to the length of dinner. My youngest will be 3 and I expect will be able to sit through longer dinners but I was just hoping to get an idea as to how long they are on average.

2. If our cruise reservations are linked will they automatically sit us together? Or do we have to separately request that?

3. We currently have two rooms booked and are in the early dining time. Some of my family are procrastinators and/or think they can get a better deal last minute. It is my understanding that the early dinner is more desirable and will fill up. If our reservations are linked will they put us in the same early dining time or will we have to switch to late dining if we want to eat together? Would our best bet be to wait to see if the other cabin(s) can be switched to early dining on the first day and if not switch everybody else to late that day or is it so unlikely that we might as well just switch to late before the cruise?

3b. For anybody on late dining with young kids (ours will be 3 and 6) how did that go? Did you do late lunches and/or snacks to tide them over? On the one hand having extra time between returning from excursions and dinner would be nice and it may help keep the kids going for some of the later activities I know they will enjoy. I am just worried the late time will end up in very grumpy kids but I would prefer our group has the same dining times.

4. If we have Palo/Remy reservations do we need to inform our servers ahead of time that we won't be in the MDR or is this something done automatically in the system?

Thanks in advance! Happy planning

1. Dinner length varies, probably based most upon the number of people at your table. We had a table for two during late dining on our last cruise, with one of us needing special allergy accomodations, and we never ate for over an hour. We never asked them to speed things up, but nevertheless I think our servers picked up the vibe that we aren't the types to linger long over a meal (& we also never wanted appetizers). We were never rushed- simply prefer it short & sweet.

For a big group of big eaters, two hours will probably see you through an MDR dinner.

2. I don't know.

3. If you want early dining, get it now. You can always change to late dining later to accomodate family, but early dining won't have availability forever.

4. Yes, it's polite to tell your servers when you won't be there the next evening.

 

[kiford]

1) Typically dinner runs about 1 1/2 hours. But you certainly can ask your server to speed up your service, if things aren't going well.

Typically early dining tends to be shorter (1-1.5 hours) and later dining can take longer. Second seating is more heavily weighted to adults and many people linger a bit more over dinner because of that and also because you don't need to worry about the servers having to clear everyone out for the next seating. We, however, have been subtly (or would you consider flashing the lights and all tables but yours set up for breakfast already as "subtle"?) ushered out after about 2.5 hours when we've got along really well with our table mates.

 

[Shanti]

Typically early dining tends to be shorter (1-1.5 hours) and later dining can take longer. Second seating is more heavily weighted to adults and many people linger a bit more over dinner because of that and also because you don't need to worry about the servers having to clear everyone out for the next seating. We, however, have been subtly (or would you consider flashing the lights and all tables but yours set up for breakfast already as "subtle"?) ushered out after about 2.5 hours when we've got along really well with our table mates.

If second seating takes longer for some, it's only due to those particular diners & not the overall pace of the MDRs at late dining. We aren't the big eating, long-lingering types, and tended to have relatively short (hour or less) dinners during of both of our late dining cruises on the Fantasy and Magic.