Dinner Seating??

[susan137]

We will be traveling on our first cruise with our 5 yo DS. He tends to get quite "antsy" during a long meal. I'm wondering if we can request to have a table by ourselves and that way be able to eat at a quicker pace than other diners? I can't imagine his sitting through a two hour meal. If this can be requested, do you do it when you book or after you are on the ship?

Thanks in advance!!
Susan

 

[SueEllen]

If you have a good server they will accommodate your dinner to a faster pace for the child. We had one last year that got my 2 year old's food out fast every night. It made dinner much more enjoyable that it didn't drag on and on.

Sue Ellen

 

[traycie2201]

You can request this when you book along with your dining time, if you're not succesful with either request you can then ask your dining manager when you first board for a change and this is sometimes possible.

 

[CarolJean]

OR......
You could feed your son before your dinner, take him to the club for some fun, energetic playtime while you and spouse enjoy the calm, grown-up meal you so, so deserve!!!

 

[clh2]

Some preivous cruisers requested that the kid's meals come out about the same time as the appetizers, and the kids are all done eating dinner and dessert and in the clubs before the parents are starting the entree.

 

[lbgraves]

That's what we did. We let the server know when we sat down that DS would be leaving to go the club & his dinner & desert were done within 30 minutes. I dropped him off at the club & returned in time for the entre.

 

[Debbie1967]

My DS6 and I were seated with three slightly older adults who had no children. At first I felt nervous that my DS would be antsy. Dinner lasts for about an hour and fifteen minutes. This may seem like a long time, but I was very surprise how fast the time flew. I had not problems with my DS. Our tablemates were great they were very child orientated (Barbara is a teacher and Steve is a designer for Disney) They even said that they enjoyed cruising with children.

If you want to request a table for yourselves, go to Wavebands. (between 1:00 - 3:30) In the doorway there’s a person taking request for changes in dining assignments. Ask to speak to a dining room manager, they are set up inside. A good thing to remember is that they work on tips.

Enjoy your cruise.

Debbie

 

[susan137]

Thanks for all the great advice!!

Susan

 

[CAMICKEY]

If you get a real good server, they will also amuse your child with walks or magic tricks when they get bored. Our server Alex was wonderful to our DS6 and I was thankful to Alex at the end of the cruise with a very nice gratuity. - Mike

 

[disneyholic family]

in any case, there's no such thing as a two hour meal for anyone...
for those in the early seating, they have to get you in, fed and out of there in time to clean the place and have it ready for the second seating....

we were in the second seating.....i don't think any of the meals took longer than an hour...and i think it was much shorter than that.....

 

[CM_Mom]

Our experience was a two hour meal. We were in second seating (8:30) and I don't think we ever got through with our dessert before 10:30. We were all adults in no real hurry so that was fine.

 

[CarolJean]

I'm glad Beth brought up the 1st seating rush thing On our first dis cruise we had 1st seating and the whole time we were there I felt like our server was almost "throwing" our food at us in an effort to get us out of there! He wouldn't even take dessert orders he just brought us something and said "here, you'll like it. It's the specialty." When I would try to say "I hate bananas" when he brought out flaming bananas, he just turned and said," I have another seating coming, you don't have time to order something else." I felt guilty if we didn't know what we wanted for dinner before we sat down! I swear he literally ran us out every night.
Our 2nd dis cruise we had 2nd seating. WOW what a difference! Even having 3 kids at the table (all mine) the serving staff took time to play with them and gave us the best service we have ever had! Stepe and Putu even would bring out things we didn't order but they thought we would enjoy.
This cruise (7/3 W.) we have 1st again mostly because of my in-laws (82 & 83) who usually eat at 5:00. I don't think they could last til 8:30.
My question IS(about time, eh?) who do I speak to and what should I say to ensure we don't have a repeat of the former?
I don't want to come off b****y, or insulting. THANKS!!

 

[ivanova]

fortunately we never had that experiece with the early seating

If you find yourself in a repeat situation, ON THE FIrST NIGHT, talk to the head server for your section or the maitre 'd. I'm sure they can "fix" things with your server, or move you to a different serving area.

 

[crisi]

If something like that happens again (it shouldn't), talk to your dining room host. Tell them what is happening and ask to be reassigned. Not getting the dessert you want is unacceptable!

We had first seating (6:00) Second seating doesn't begin until 8:30. That's two and a half hours - and they can turn that dining room quickly. We were out around 8:00 several nights (which did mean we were leaving while watching them start to turn tables), but were never rushed. We were often the last table served out of our section - so we were often having our dessert orders taken as dessert for the surrounding tables was arriving.

One of the problems can be getting served promptly. Show up within a few minutes of the dining room opening - showing up at 6:20 throws a wrench in the whole process. And if your tablemates don't show up - the server may wait to see if they do. They should welcome you and get drinks - tell them you don't want to wait for your tablemates (unless you do).

To the OP - the dining rooms are all pretty convienient to the clubs - and they will "rush through" your kids dinner if you ask. We had a table for eight - our family of four with a four and five year old and another coupll with their five and six year old. The kids did eat in the clubs - but did eat with us a few nights. There really wasn't much of a need to rush through dinner...potty trips, constant food arriving, the parades the waitstaff had, Animator's Palate changing colors and music ("Mom - look Ariel!"), meant the two hour dinner moved pretty quick.

 

[CAMICKEY]

On both DLC cruises we have been on, we have early seating and never felt rushed. There were a few occasions when they did rush but it was at our request. Was it possible you were late getting there for your first seating - this might give you the feeling you were being rushed? - Mike