Early Dining Advantages???

[LuvTravelToo]

My DW, DS11, and DS6 are taking our first cruise on Sept 11 to the WC on the Magic (!!!) and are hoping for some help...

First of all, thanks to everyone that's replied to numerous postings regarding early vs. late dining. I read a lot of positive comments and reasons for the late seating. Unfortunatlely there were very few comments regarding advantages to the early seating. Other than that it's a more "normal" dining time, are there any other advantages to the early seating? We are from the West Coast so my kids probably won't be use to the time change anyway (any thoughts on this?). We're currently booked for the early but are leaning toward a change. I'm looking forward to your responses...

Thanks,
Greg

 

[inkkognito]

We don't have children, but having met many families with little ones over the course of so many cruises, the "normal eating time" reason seems to be the big one. The only other reason we've run into is the time of some of the activities in the kids club. We dined with a family whose little girl ended up leaving late seating dinner after only a couple of bites because she was so anxious to get to an event (I think it was a party with Lilo and Stitch). Her dad took her, and when he returned, he said they had met Lilo on her way to the party, too, so his little girl got to walk to the club hand in hand with Lilo! Since the majority of kids are on the early seating, I'm guessing the schedule is geared to that.
Barb

 

[GenieDana]

The schedule in the clubs for kids does seem to favor early seating. For example - the early seating kids get to make the flubber, the late seating kids got to clean up after it. Late seating - your chidren might not get searved until around 9:00 P.M. When we have had late seating we often didn't get out of the dining room until 10:00 P.M. Do they want to miss dessert, or activities in the clubs?

 

[CB4U]

We had early seating on both cruises we have taken. It works out well for us. We can sit with the kids at dinner as a family, have a drink or appetizer and catch up on the day. After dinner when the kids are off doing their own thing, we can enjoy Palos at a reasonable time.

 

[NJ Cruisers]

When we didn't have a child we would never have considered the early seating - on over 15 cruises. But with a 4 year old, eating dinner until 10:00 is not an option. We've had early seating twice and there are definite advantages

1. You don't go to sleep on a full stomach
2. There's a lot of activity after dinner so you can roam around the ship, working off the dinner. After 10:00 there isn't anything for kids to do
3. Club activities (as mentioned) are geared around early seating
4. You aren't getting dressed THAT much earlier than the late seaters who are going to the shows (6:00 vs 6:30)
5. You're hungry for the midnight buffets when they are available. Well, maybe not hungry, but not so stuffed.
6. Adults can enjoy shows or listening to music while the kids are in the clubs after dinner and still pick up the kids at a reasonable hour.
7. On the Eastern cruise you aren't rushing back to the ship for early seating. I don't think we stay past 5:00 at any port. I don't know about the Western.

If I didn't have kids would I go back to the late seating? Maybe - but it will be a few years before I have to think about it.

Diane

 

[kcashner]

The biggest reason for early dinner with kids is that there are good activities in the club/lab during late dinner...which your child will miss is he/she goes to late dinner. However, you can always feed the kids on deck 9 and dine as adults in the dining room.

If you decide to switch to late, there will be no problem as there are always families on the waiting list for early seating. Since you're not sailing till September, you might consider making your decision before boarding....someone on the waiting list would be delighted to get a phone call from DCL. Besides, it's one less thing for you to do upon boarding.

 

[mobetsy]

We had early seating on the Eastern cruise, 2 families with a total of four parents and two kids age 9 and one age 5. We thought it was great! Some people talk about rushing back to dress for dinner, but I never felt like we were having to leave something early or hustle excessively; I gather that would be even less the case on the Western. Dressing for dinner...we dressed up a lot for formal and semi-formal nights (including my two sons in suits and ties), but it still didn't take us hours and hours, so again, rushing wasn't an issue. We are from CA and I did worry a little that early seating would seem way too early for our stomachs, but once we were on board I never thought about it again. I guess the food and the service were great enough to wipe out our sense of time We went to matinee shows, so there never was a problem with needing to change after dinner to be comfortable at the shows. We enjoyed after dinner hours as time to wander around, shop, and/or collapse (even with the time change in our favor at night, we were pretty darn exhausted at the end of every day). I think that not only would the kids have had a hard time waiting for a late dinner, but the adults would've been pressed to stay up and cheerful as well! The kids didn't really take to the clubs, so the timing of activities wasn't relevant for us.

 

[Jestocost]

You get finished earlier?

 

[suz72]

Thank you all for the other point of view. I read a post last week (or two) that was heavily in favor of late seating. It made me start to think that we would want late seating, (kids will be 4 & 6) at time of cruise.

LOL we aren't cruising to Oct 2006, so I guess I have a while to decide, but I wanted to know so I was ready to tell my TA which seating when 2006 rates come out.

I guess from what I read, those who are undecided should book early seating, because you can always switch to late seating later. (But not vice versa)

TY
Susan

 

[vossjemi]

Our first Carnival cruise we had late seating (just DH & I). I was soooo worn out after dinner and the late show that I had to go to bed afterwards. I felt like I didn't get to experience much of the ship.

Our RC cruise DH & I had early seating. Frankly, I didn't feel like we missed much of the ports as most pull out times were 4 or 5'oclock anyways. We REALLY liked early seating and didn't even have our kids with us. We'd usually get back to the cabin around 4-4:30. We'd be done w/dinner by 7:30-8. Some nights we saw a show, some nights we did other things. I really felt like we got to do a lot more ship things with the early dinner seating.

We won't opt for Late seating ever again if we can help it. Kids or not!

 

[LuvTravelToo]

Thanks for all the great comments to help make a more informed decision. I'm not sure what we'll do just yet but it's nice to read some favorable comments for the early seating.

Other than the "flubber" (thanks GenieDana) does anyone know what other activities that would be missed with a late seating?

Thanks,
Greg

 

[RickW]

Originally posted by suz72
I guess from what I read, those who are undecided should book early seating, because you can always switch to late seating later. (But not vice versa)

True, but may I suggest that if you are still undecided as you get very close to your cruise, switch to late seating.

Here is my reasoning:
Many times on this board, there have been people who have posted in a literal panic about the fact that they were not able to get a confirmed spot for early seating. These people seem to be convinced that if they end up with late seating the cruise ship will be 3, 4 or 7 days of pure torture.

My feeling is that if there are people who care that much, and if there are other people who don't care, or can't make up their mind, then those people should switch to late seating and free up a spot. (We have always done late seating, so I don't need the spot, but someone else may appreciate it.)

We were considering early seating for our next cruise with our 2 year old, but we were still leaning toward late, so I figured that since we were leaning that way, we might as well take late seating and let someone else have the early spot.

 

[CGC33A]

another aspect of seating times not yet mentioned is how early/late dining affects some of your other meals: Such as debarkation morning & (on the 7 day) character breakfasts. Early dining has to get up really early for breakfast that last morning (or eat in topsiders/beach blanket-which is what I do). The early diners have an 8 AM (or so) character breakfast. It's 9:30 or so for the late diners. Of course the character breakfast is optional & many people skip it from what I hear b/c it is so rushed (compared to ones in the parks)

 

[scrapperjill]

I just wanted to add...we will also be on that 9/11 cruise...and have selected late seating also...as we are from the West Coast and wouldn't be into eating so early (well that was one of the reasons for us pickig late vs early). I didn't realize until sometime this past week what sort of activities my girls (6&11) would be missing...I have to say I was a bit disapointed to see so many of the "fun/good" activites being planned durring the late dinning time. So I figure...the girls may be going to the kids club more than planned durring dinner..just so they don't miss some of these activites.

Some of the activites included...Goofy's giggle gala..Final countdown dance, big screen movies, Boyz and Girlz chill, Camp out...of course...theses activites I have listed are grouped into the age group of my girls.. The biggest activites I think they will want to go to..and not miss for dinner..is the Giggle gala and camp out...Also some of the listed things start at 9:30...so they may just have to leave dinner early. But who knows what will really be planned when we go. I couldn't find it right now...but I think there was a private pool party for the older kids..listed durring late dinning...but maybe it was even later...more like 10:00.

 

[LuvTravelToo]

Everyone's posted such great information! As a rookie to message boards I'm amazed at the help and support. As a first time cruiser I almost feel like a veteran! Based on this info we're most likely going to stick to the early option due to all the kids' activities. Thanks to everyone for your input

Greg

 

[drclaws]

Originally posted by LuvTravelToo
Everyone's posted such great information! As a rookie to message boards I'm amazed at the help and support. As a first time cruiser I almost feel like a veteran!

Just think, afrer your cruise you can come back as a veteran and add to the board's knowledge base!

 

[QuiltTeddy]

We've been on both the eastern and western (we preferred the eastern) cruises. We had the late seating on both cruises. We don't have cuildren and noticed that most of those at the late seating didn't have children with them. The advantages to us were two fold: (1) little to no children at the seating; and (2) we didn't have to cut something short in the afternoon just to go get ready for dinner. (The early seating would have required that.) I think it really comes down to a personal preference as to which seating you choose.

 

[newtodisney]

Just one more point of view...
We did early seating on our 2003 Western cruise with DD's then 4&8. We thought that worked perfectly for us. My sister just came back from a 4 day wonder and had late seating with her DH, DD 6 & DS 4. For them it worked out great because the kids got to see all the shows (at 6:30), and the kids would often eat before hand on deck 9 or room service. This way they were back in the club for the fun night activities, but also didn't have to miss the shows. Since all my kids are going to eat is typical kids fare, we are contemplating switching to late seating for our 1/22/05 cruise. I'm still undecided because I do enjoy having dinner with my kids to hear about their day, but maybe that will become our new breakfast activity.

 

[firsttimemom]

Laura- yes you DEF want to switch to late!

I know some have posted that there aren't many kids at the late seating, but I'd say at LEAST half the tables had kids (of all ages) at our late seating on the 5/23 Wonder.

HTH!

Liz

 

[newtodisney]

But... if you (and your kids) have seen the shows before and don't want to see them again, maybe early seating would make more sense.