Dinner time selection advice

NikNakNY

Earning My Ears
Joined
Nov 19, 2018
Messages
13
We will be going on our first Disney cruise in August. At the time of sailing our daughters will be 14 and 3.5 At first, I selected the early dinner time. However, now I am starting to second guess it. I don't want to be rushed getting ready for dinner; especially on port days. For those who have cruised with a younger child, which time would you recommend?
 
We always do early dining and have never felt rushed to make it to dinner, we'll be going on our 5th cruise in 14 days!! I wouldn't change your time right now even if you decide to change it to later. Early dinner time fills up first and if you change it to later now and then want to change it back to early, you might not be able to do so. Much easier to change it to later dinner as it gets closer to your cruise. Which time is closer to the time you eat at home? I wouldn't like eating a big dinner later at night. We eat early at home, so my dd is used to eating early. She's older now, but when we went on our first cruise with her, she was already getting ready for bed by the time second dinner was going on.
 
We will be going on our first Disney cruise in August. At the time of sailing our daughters will be 14 and 3.5 At first, I selected the early dinner time. However, now I am starting to second guess it. I don't want to be rushed getting ready for dinner; especially on port days. For those who have cruised with a younger child, which time would you recommend?

Keep your main dining. You have plenty of time to change your mind to late dining. Late dining should be easy to switch to. I like main dining late dining is too late to eat imo. I did it once to get a great server we had before. Had to switch to get her. Didn’t mind it that one time but rather have main dining.
 

Never felt rushed getting ready for early dining. I've never heard of anyone not being able to shift into late dining, so you should be able to bail out at any point. If you shift to late you might not be able to change back later.
 
We’ve never felt rushed to go to dinner on main seating. You usually have at least 1 hour after the all-aboard time to get ready. You still have to prepare for dinner if you want to catch the early show. With such a small kid, we prefer that to finishing eating around 9:30PM and having our child sleeping on the table.

When our son was younger, we would do early seating, then make him take a bath and go to the show in PJ’s. He was ready for bed just after the show.
 
I agree with the above posts, not to change it yet until you are sure you want later as changing back will be more difficult. With that said, I have always had late dining, even with younger kids, and would not want early. I eat dinner very early at home(4:00 on weekdays and 5:00 on weekends) however on a cruise our schedules are much different than a regular day at home and late dinning just fits in better. We are never hungry as there is food available all day. ;)
 
We much prefer early dining when with kids. Dinner, then show, then maybe grab an ice cream and bed.

If you do late seating the show is first before dinner so you are getting ready anyways.

And remember dinner takes a while so a 8pm searing is really like 8:30 before dinner comes out.
 
Some positives of second seating:

As you see the show before the meal, smaller kids may be more alert and engaged.
If you do not go to the show, the pools and Aquaduck are less crowded during early dining.
Fewer children at second seating makes it a little quieter.
Second seating offers dine and play where the kids are served more quickly and then club CMs come to the MDRs to pick them up - some have reported that this may also be available during first dining, but I have not personally seen this.
 
We have been Team Late Dining since our first cruise (which featured two kids, aged 36 mo and 16 mo). We have always been more interested in the kids being alert and engaged for the stage shows than for dinner. Our lives have never been such that we have the option of eating at a "set" time at home anyway, so variability from the norm may be easier for us than others.

It is definitely true, however, that you would almost certainly be able to switch to late on board, whereas the opposite may not be true, so unless you're certain, don't make the switch. I would see what you want to do as far as excursions and figure out what the timing of those is going to be prior to making your decision.
 
Some positives of second seating:

As you see the show before the meal, smaller kids may be more alert and engaged.
If you do not go to the show, the pools and Aquaduck are less crowded during early dining.
Fewer children at second seating makes it a little quieter.
Second seating offers dine and play where the kids are served more quickly and then club CMs come to the MDRs to pick them up - some have reported that this may also be available during first dining, but I have not personally seen this.
Agree with everything here. DS is 10 now and have been on plenty of cruises and all but 2 have been late dinner. He loves the dine and play option. It has always worked better for us, even though we usually eat about 5-6 when not cruising. Even when he was 4 on the 14 day Panama Canal Cruise he only nodded of once during dessert.

We use the cruise as a vacation and completely different day from our normal routine. We never have a big buffet breakfast at home, or lunch and rarely do we get to just chill by the pool or watch a movie or live show. Having the late dinner allows us to not rush and makes the late dinner a more special event in itself.

As a side note one of the early dinner crusises was with the cousins. We figured it was better for them since they were a little younger, but they played most afternoons and then took a nap that butted up against early dinner. Cranky kids at dinner was the result. Would have worked better to have the late seating and let them nap.
 
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I wanted to note that on our cruise on the Fantasy a week ago they offered dine and play for both early and late seating. We had early seating and our server asked us if we wanted to participate in it so he could time the kids meals accordingly. We ended up not trying it but if you're interested in dine and play for certain nights, it might be available to you in early dining as well.

It was also listed in the Voyage Navigator we received at the beginning of the cruise under youth activities info and highlights. It said:
A convenience for families, during your dinner, our Youth Activities counselors will be available at 6:45pm or 9:15pm at the entrance of Royal Court and Enchanted Garden and at 7:00pm or 9:30pm at the Animator's Palate dining room to bring registered children to join the fun in Youth Activities areas.
 
Some positives of second seating:

As you see the show before the meal, smaller kids may be more alert and engaged.
If you do not go to the show, the pools and Aquaduck are less crowded during early dining.
Fewer children at second seating makes it a little quieter.
Second seating offers dine and play where the kids are served more quickly and then club CMs come to the MDRs to pick them up - some have reported that this may also be available during first dining, but I have not personally seen this.

These are the reasons that we enjoy second seating with our daughter. She is also capable of staying up late and sleeping in when on vacation, so it works well for us. On evenings when we plan to see the show, we get ready, go to the show, take DD to the club to burn off some energy, go to the adult pub trivia, pick up DD for dinner, then head to our stateroom to relax. If we don't go to the show, we typically hang out by the pool and watch Funnel Vision since it is so much quieter. This would not work for a lot of families, who need to eat earlier, but it is great for us.
 
What time do you normally eat? For us, we normally eat at 6PM and can't eat a full meal after 8PM; so we've done Main (early) dining both cruises and it works well for us. If you're going to see the Walt Disney Theater entertainment--that is opposite your dining time--so you're not really gaining much time if you want to see the shows. We enjoy having dinner and then the show vs. show and then dinner.
 
Team Late Dining here. If your kids are adaptable when it comes to eating and sleeping while on vacation, it can work very well. When our boys were small, older DS would eat and then do Dine n' Play, younger DS would eat and then fall asleep with his head on my lap while DH and I took our time with dessert and coffee. MDRs are -- at least in our experience -- quieter and more relaxed during the second seating, and we liked being able to swim and ride the AquaDuck in the late afternoon when the pool deck was less crowded... but everyone's kids are different! Do what works best for your family, it'll be fine either way. In any case, I wouldn't change your dining time just yet since it's easy to switch to late dining. Early, not so much.
 
I wanted to note that on our cruise on the Fantasy a week ago they offered dine and play for both early and late seating. We had early seating and our server asked us if we wanted to participate in it so he could time the kids meals accordingly. We ended up not trying it but if you're interested in dine and play for certain nights, it might be available to you in early dining as well.

It was also listed in the Voyage Navigator we received at the beginning of the cruise under youth activities info and highlights. It said:
A convenience for families, during your dinner, our Youth Activities counselors will be available at 6:45pm or 9:15pm at the entrance of Royal Court and Enchanted Garden and at 7:00pm or 9:30pm at the Animator's Palate dining room to bring registered children to join the fun in Youth Activities areas.

It seems to me that everyone who has reported it being available have been on the Fantasy. Recent Navigators from the other ships only list it available for the second seating. Maybe it's a test, and they are monitoring how many people use the service during early dining. Of course, you can also just take your kids to the club yourself during dinner.
 
You made the right choice. You'll discover that rather quickly. Enjoy.
 




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