early dinning verses later dinning

[happygirl]

Is there any really big differences bewteen the two

 

[pppiglet]

Well, since we didn't finish til 10:15 everynight with late seating, we were too miserable to sleep at night. Next time we are getting main seating!

 

[zcubed]

we tried to get the early seating but were told that we could not. But our travel agent (my mom ) requested that early time. Still, she told us not to expect it.

Then when we arrived, and I had really planned the first day thinking of the the late dining, we saw that we were moved to the 6:00 time. That first day, it was almost a rush to get changed and ready before dinner because our luggage did not arrive until around five.

I think that either would have been fine. My kids were five and seven at the time, and I had decided that if they were too tired, there were always other meal options... Beach Blanket Buffet... room service... we would figure it out.

 

[lindakmonty]

Depends if you have children and their ages. I have had both seating times and personally prefer the earlier seating since my son is 4 and his bedtime is 8pm. He is use to going to bed not ready to eat and watch the show "at animators palate" which is awesome!! We could only get the later seating last time and I just asked my head waiter and he said they could check on a nightly basis to switch us to the earlier, which they did almost every night. Also, you can go to Topsiders buffet, or grab something quick by the pool if you dont want to wait they try to do what they can as always!!

 

[TiggerKing]

I agree with Linda. It depends on if you are traveling with kids, and how old they are when you sail. DW and I (no kids) had late dinner seating for our 11/28/04 cruise and it worked out wonderful for us. We never felt rushed during the day to make it to dinner. We would finish eating around 10:00 or so, and then go for a walk around the deck, so it was perfect for us.

 

[linco711]

On our last cruise we had early seating. We always felt rushed, and were still full from lunch at that time. This time we're doing the late seating...so we'll see. If there isn't a choice I'm sure both would work out with minor adjustments. Have a great cruise!

 

[pogopossum]

another advantage to late seating is not having to rush back from excursion or port to get ready for dinner. a disadvantage is that you and servers do not rush to get finished and any nighttime activities, such as pirate party on deck begin pretty close to end time for dinner. the other side of that is that you and your servers do not rush to get finished and it can be very relaxing. if you want to experience those other activities, i guess you could just rush a little bit, and tell your server about the situation. our ds (3) did get sleepy a couple of times and i had to take him to the club a couple of times so that we could enjoy our dinner, but he didn't mind that. but being from the central time zone, we like the later seating.

 

[kcashner]

There are several issues including ages of kids and what time zone you are used to. If you are on the east coast doing an east coast cruise with little kids, you'll probably function better with early seating. Remember that if you don't get early when you make ressies, you can always go to "Dining Changes" after you board and make your request again. There is no guarantee, but they do try to meet requests.

If you are a west coast family travelling with little ones, you might find early seating to be too early!

DD is now a teen. That said, we really like the late seating. If you get hungry earlier, you can always grab a snack on deck 9 or get a cheese plate from room service. One of the reasons we enjoy it is that there are many fewer young children acting out at late seating (yes, mine was young once, but it's nice not to listen to it at this stage in my life....and mine was never allowed to exhibit the behavior that some children show!) Late seating is 8:30. You can eat and be out by 9:45 without rushing (if your server is anything other than totally slow). Sure, you can linger much longer if you'd like.....

If you are stuck with late and it is just too late for the kids, feed them earlier on deck 9 (either on your own or with the programming group), and then put them in the programming while you enjoy dinner. Some of the best kid programs occur during the late seating dinner, and in the club, the kids can sleep if they want to.

 

[pppiglet]

Our dinners always went late (10:15) because our tablemates were always late or a no show (2 different nights) and our waiters were waiting for them before we could start.

 

[crisi]

If you are traveling with kids and want to eat with them, some of the best club/lab stuff is during 2nd seating. But that is also when they'd see the show....choices, choices.....

With our kids they didn't really enjoy dining, and we let them eat in the kids clubs several nights. But since I don't eat well after nine (I know what you mean pppiglet), I wouldn't get late seating even if it were just DH and me traveling alone. We are in bed by 10!

 

[mamalle]

we like the early as we like to go to bed early. we only saw one show last time and other times just went dancing after dinner for dd.

 

[tvguy]

You really have to try to guess what will work best for your family on your first cruise.
It is a highly individual decision with no right or wrong answer.
It's sort of like asking someone which is better, a Democrat or a Republican?
An American car or a Foreign Car? Coke or Pepsi? Eastern or Western?

Having said that, it APPEARS repeat cruisers are more likely to pick late seating. That is all we ever have had, but we're west coasters, however, even on our Alaskan cruise we had late seating and loved it.
And with two working parents, and two active teens, our NORMAL dinner time at home is about 8 pm, 7:45 if we make something quick like spaghetti or a box of Macaroni and Cheese.
I'm 48 years old, and when I was a kid we rarely ate much earlier. I am CONSTANTLY baffled by folks who manage to eat dinner at 6 pm every night at home.