Dinning Second seating Pros

[AZMermaid]

Plus on the first night it helps with "first dibs" at the shops since they usually don't open until early seating has started.

We are on the second Treasure sailing and this is 50% of the reason we are trying second seating!

 

[sponica]

We had second seating on our honeymoon 10 years ago, and enjoyed eating at that time. Since we travel with little people, who by day 3 are pretty wiped, we do first seating...I think maybe if we were without the little people, we would do second seating so the day doesn't feel as rushed.

 

[jimmymc]

Second seating is great. You don't need to rush back to the room after port days to get ready, there are fewer people and children in the shows and restaurants, and I like having the night free once dinner is finished.

 

[katyringo]

My opinion means nothing since it will be our first cruise, but after reading a lot of advice I decided to switch us to second seating based on a lot of the advice above. My kids are 8 and 12 and when we booked last winter I was worried about my youngest- and the summer happened this year and my kids became total night owls without school.. hahah! So we are going to give it a go!

 

[auntlynne]

I'm actually in Albuquerque, which, while hot, has the advantage of being at 5000 feet above sea level

Still pretty warm for this time of year, though. Balloon fiesta's gonna be toasty this year.

Does NM opt out of DST also? I knew AZ and HI did, having lived there. Your MST was what made me think AZ. At one point, it seems like a part of Indiana also said no thank you to the clock change.

Is the balloon festival going as strong as it did pre-Covid?

Do you take the effort to watch? Is it fairly visible from a wide area?

 

[Carohs]

Another vote for late dining! Between the abundance of food available, sleeping in, and activities, we're just not ready to eat at 5:30.

 

[DisneYE]

Good points on all the replies. We've done second sitting for about 80% of sailings due to our DD18 who loves it, because of what most ppl on here have said.
The only drawback I find on the late sitting is personal: I usually stop eating ~6pm at home for health (gastro issues) and sleep issues (my sleep is really bad when I eat after 8pm) - if I ever sailed solo I'd do early dining every time but when we cruise as a family I like to accommodate to our DD's Wishes as much as possible.

 

[Liastaob]

Does NM opt out of DST also? I knew AZ and HI did, having lived there. Your MST was what made me think AZ. At one point, it seems like a part of Indiana also said no thank you to the clock change.

Is the balloon festival going as strong as it did pre-Covid?

Do you take the effort to watch? Is it fairly visible from a wide area?

I wish, unfortunately we still do DST here. It never bothered me until I had kids, but now it's super annoying

The balloon fiesta seems bigger than ever! I think it bounced back pretty well. We usually got to one of the balloon glows at night. There were tons of folks last year.

 

[Kit Jackson]

I’m trying to think positive about our assigned second seating on our 7 night western Caribbean cruise on the Treasure. I know I can try and change it but I’m thinking I’d like to give it a try. ( by the way no children are sailing with us).
So I’d like to hear about positive experiences or thoughts about second dinning

I did the second seating for my first cruise and I have no complaints about the experience. It worked well for us.

However, it is your vacation and you should do what will work for you/what will make you happy. So here are some helpful questions to consider: Are you okay eating dinner late? (Because not everyone is; some people like to eat dinner earlier and that's totally okay.) Will you be able to get to sleep if you have dinner at that time? (Some people can't fall asleep or have issues if they have a big meal too close to the time when they need to sleep).

 

[Nicnicnic.nic]

Going on our second cruise in June 2025. Had early dining for the first cruise when my kids were 1.5 yo and 4 yo but considering switching to late dining this time around. The kids will be 3yo and almost 6yo. They both stay up later but don't know if the 3yo can stay up quite that late but we want him and all of us to be able to see the shows before the fussiness sets in. We figure if he gets fussy at dinner one parent can take him to the room and the other parent can stay with our older child plus bring food to the room.

We are currently still signed up for early dining though. Anyone done late dining with littles? Seems to be against the tide for a family with small kids to be late dining so I'm a little hesitant to switch. Also at home we are on EST and eat dinner anytime between 5ish to 7ish.

 

[Dug720]

We figure if he gets fussy at dinner one parent can take him to the room and the other parent can stay with our older child plus bring food to the room.

Or your servers may make a chair bed for him. I've seen that happen too. Because there ARE families with smaller kids at late seating. It's not all adults and older kids.

 

[sponica]

Going on our second cruise in June 2025. Had early dining for the first cruise when my kids were 1.5 yo and 4 yo but considering switching to late dining this time around. The kids will be 3yo and almost 6yo. They both stay up later but don't know if the 3yo can stay up quite that late but we want him and all of us to be able to see the shows before the fussiness sets in. We figure if he gets fussy at dinner one parent can take him to the room and the other parent can stay with our older child plus bring food to the room.

We are currently still signed up for early dining though. Anyone done late dining with littles? Seems to be against the tide for a family with small kids to be late dining so I'm a little hesitant to switch. Also at home we are on EST and eat dinner anytime between 5ish to 7ish.

For me it would depend on the cruise length, for a 3 or 4 night, I wouldn't push it with my kids, the younger one (currently 4) is a mess by day 3 or 4 of a vacation even with early dining. I might be inclined to try with a 7 night because there would be more time for her to get adjusted, but that could also go sideways.

 

[Carohs]

Going on our second cruise in June 2025. Had early dining for the first cruise when my kids were 1.5 yo and 4 yo but considering switching to late dining this time around. The kids will be 3yo and almost 6yo. They both stay up later but don't know if the 3yo can stay up quite that late but we want him and all of us to be able to see the shows before the fussiness sets in. We figure if he gets fussy at dinner one parent can take him to the room and the other parent can stay with our older child plus bring food to the room.

We are currently still signed up for early dining though. Anyone done late dining with littles? Seems to be against the tide for a family with small kids to be late dining so I'm a little hesitant to switch. Also at home we are on EST and eat dinner anytime between 5ish to 7ish.

We did it with then 5 and 7 yo but then switched to early. What we learned was that late worked better but we just had to make both kiddos take a little (30ish min) nap. Not only are they busy playing all day at kid's clubs or in the pool, but also they're experiencing new things which is tiring for your brain too. With early dining there wasn't the time to carve out nap time, so the kids weren't able to enjoy the evening activities as much when they were both tired and full from dinner.

 

[juxtapose]

My opinion means nothing since it will be our first cruise, but after reading a lot of advice I decided to switch us to second seating based on a lot of the advice above. My kids are 8 and 12 and when we booked last winter I was worried about my youngest- and the summer happened this year and my kids became total night owls without school.. hahah! So we are going to give it a go!

We have done a single cruise when my kids were 7 and 10 and had early dinner. My son who had consistently gone to bed at 7:30pm for years decided that 10:30pm was a better bedtime on the cruise. I've never seen him love anything as much as that cruise lol. We will cruise again next year, they'll be 13 and 10, and booked the 2nd dining this time.

 

[CaseyCruiser]

We always do 2nd dining. One time our grandsons were with us and the younger one started to fall asleep. The servers immediately made a chair bed for him. They are so awesome.

 

[llachance]

Thanks for reminding me that with late seating you have breakfast later - you would think after 20+ cruises I would remember. Switched from early to late on my next cruise because we are in no hurry to get to the airport.

 

[dancin Disney style]

For us, we find early is too early and late is too late. The biggest issue we have with late is that it's too much food so close to bed time. It ends up that we stop eating, around the third day we are only having an appetizer and a salad. It freaks the waiters out, they think we don't like the food.

 

[Spiffy MacSpiff]

We've always been Team Late Dining! We were unsure about it on our first cruise, but as things turned out it worked really well for us even when our kids were little. No rush to get ready, and it's a little quieter, a little less crowded, the pace is more relaxed. Our older DS would head off to his club, and younger DS would fall asleep with his head on my lap while DH and I could have dessert and coffee with adult conversation. I've heard that you have a better chance at getting a private table with late dining -- we always have -- but to be honest, many times a "private table" is only inches apart from another "private table." Luckily when that happened to us we always had good neighbors.

 

[dancin Disney style]

We've always been Team Late Dining! We were unsure about it on our first cruise, but as things turned out it worked really well for us even when our kids were little. No rush to get ready, and it's a little quieter, a little less crowded, the pace is more relaxed. Our older DS would head off to his club, and younger DS would fall asleep with his head on my lap while DH and I could have dessert and coffee with adult conversation. I've heard that you have a better chance at getting a private table with late dining -- we always have -- but to be honest, many times a "private table" is only inches apart from another "private table." Luckily when that happened to us we always had good neighbors.

LOL…that 6 inches that they separate the tables is more than enough to prevent awkward silences. For me, I have a high stress job that requires a lot of taking. When I go on vacation I don’t want to have to be ‘on’ and talking. So I don’t.
Our last cruise the couple sitting at the next table were clearly meant to be our table mates. The space between the tables was not even wide enough to walk through. They barely spoke to each other, ordered everything on the menu, took a few bites and then immediately left. Actually…maybe they would have been great table mates for me

 

[Goofy1932]

LOL…that 6 inches that they separate the tables is more than enough to prevent awkward silences. For me, I have a high stress job that requires a lot of taking. When I go on vacation I don’t want to have to be ‘on’ and talking. So I don’t.
Our last cruise the couple sitting at the next table were clearly meant to be our table mates. The space between the tables was not even wide enough to walk through. They barely spoke to each other, ordered everything on the menu, took a few bites and then immediately left. Actually…maybe they would have been great table mates for me

That is me. I am a Substance Abuse Therapist and all I do all day is talk to people. I really do not want to do it while on vacation. Most people want to know all about addiction when I tell them what I do and I REALLY do not want to talk shop while I am on vacation. I would prefer to have a private table where my wife and I can eat, talk, and relax.