Early or Late Dinner seating...and why?

[Love2Cruz]

For our first cruise we booked early seating since I was unsure of a late seating with my 5 y/o DD...but I felt the dinner was rushed....Our wait staff, while nice, was not impressive to me, nor did they dote on my DD as I've heard others have done.

Next time around (Halloween 2015), we're going to do a Late Seating as I'm going to try to squeeze in a nap (for both of us) so that we can stay up later. I usually always do late on other cruise lines so I'm hoping that rush feeling was because they needed to get us out on time for the next bunch.

Am I incorrect in my assumption?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

For our first cruise we booked early seating since I was unsure of a late seating with my 5 y/o DD...but I felt the dinner was rushed....Our wait staff, while nice, was not impressive to me, nor did they dote on my DD as I've heard others have done.

Next time around (Halloween 2015), we're going to do a Late Seating as I'm going to try to squeeze in a nap (for both of us) so that we can stay up later. I usually always do late on other cruise lines so I'm hoping that rush feeling was because they needed to get us out on time for the next bunch.

Am I incorrect in my assumption?

We've done early seating on most of our cruises, and a few late seatings. I never felt rushed to finish, but I could see where someone could "feel" that they might be being rushed.

Late dinner is just too hard on my tummy (eating that late = not good).

 

[Love2Cruz]

Oh, another perk is a late dinner means late breakfast on the last day.

 

[Kenny1113]

We have done late dining with our kids and it has always worked out fine. At home we usually eat around 6/630 so this was definitely a change for us. But it worked well.

 

[Love2Cruz]

We have done late dining with our kids and it has always worked out fine. At home we usually eat around 6/630 so this was definitely a change for us. But it worked well.

I thought about that too as that's the time we usually eat at home, but I figure if we're too famished to wait, we can always just order an antipasto from Room Service or get a quick bite at Flo's.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Platinum cruiser Main dinner or no cruise it's a deal breaker. Never rushed, eat at a sensible time, meal then show logical, and health wise you should let your food good have a good time to go down before bed.

Most people who have late spoil their dinner by having snacks to fill them up around normal dinner then have spoiled the good stuff.

 

[Savikins]

You could always try late dinner and see what you think.

Reasons we choose late dinner seating, always:

-Less people in general, and far less kids.
-Less people = less noise.
-Easier to get a private table, since there are less people.
-Early show is far less crowded than the later show. Far less children at the early show, as well, so way less "little voices" at inappropriate times in the show. We had out Palo Dinner at 6:00 on the last cruise, so we ended up seeing the later show. The amount of noise during the show and the fact that it was sooo much harder to find a seat was astonishing.
-We're young, we stay up late hanging out in the room and watching movies. We don't particularly want to eat dinner at 6.

 

[Pens Fan]

We did early seating on our first cruise and hated it. It seemed we were always rushing to get ready for dinner. We normally eat around 6:30 - 7:00 at home, so it just seemed too early for us. We have since crused twice with late seating and would never go back to early. Though, I will point out that we took our first cruise when our son was 11 (now 16), so that definitely makes a difference.

We don't always go to the shows, so during early seating we either relax in the cabin or have a nice, quiet drink at the bar. My son also liked to hit the Aquaduck at that time when we were on the Fantasy. Any of those options beats rushing to get ready for a dinner none of us are ready to eat in my book!

Pretty much any vacation we take, we end up eating later than normal, as we want to optimize our time during the day. Only you know how flexible your family is and whether changing your dinner time by an hour or so is a big deal. It's not for us at all, but it obviously is for others. No right or wrong answer, but count on our family to be late seating every time!!

 

[JustCallMeMommy]

DD(12) and I chose late dining last time and would so it again. We didn't want to be rushed to get to dinner, and we wanted to be able to enjoy an afternoon snack on occasion and not be full for dinner. It worked out well for us.

 

[Heard02]

We always do late dining. For us, its no rush all the way around...no rush to get out before the next crowd comes in.....no rush after the afternoons activities. Seen majority of the shows, so no need to necessarily go.
I will say our experience has been screaming kids during later dining more often than not. And I'm sorry, but if it were my kid that did that, I would leave and not disturb everyone else.
Hopefully you can enjoy late dining.

 

[princesspwrhr]

We have done early seating on both of our cruises as it works out VERY well for our family. We never felt rushed, in fact this most recent cruise, we rarely got out of dinner before 7:30, nothing dragged, it was just well paced. The only "hiccup" would be that the kids meals usually come out with the appetizers, which means that a family could have a child who is finished eating and ready to go before the rest of the food comes out, and well before dessert. During late dining they offer "dine and play" where kids club staff picks the kids up after their food is served. For early dinners, a parent could slip out with the kids and check them into clubs and be back before the next course.

 

[scrapshappen]

Late dinning for a slightly different reason. It's easier for my kids to sit quietly through a show earlier in the evening. With late dinning, they can eat a little more quickly and head to the kids club.

 

[jetskigrl]

We like late dining because we aren't ready for dinner at 5:45 (which means getting ready up to an hour before that if we need to shower, etc).
We like to watch the sail away on the first day and from the ports. Plus my DS used to always do Dine and Play (he is older now so just leaves when he is ready).

I did early dining once and really felt like I wasn't ready to stop what we were doing to go eat.

But it really depends on each family. Our family tends to push back meals on vacation (later breakfast, later lunch, etc). So later dinner works out fine.
We also stay up later so no worries about going to bed on a full stomach.

 

[aprincessatlast]

Never rushed, .

I can't argue with your other points however the Never rushed had me I always feel rushed with first seating. It is all we have ever done and I hate running from the islands to the room then rushing to dinner and being rushed while eating and then rushing to the show. I always say the next cruise we are trying second seating. Finally after many we are. We booked GT and I really do not feel like rushing to get on the ship to try to change it to first. Determined to try it this time.

 

[Scillycruisers]

We did late dining for the first time last cruise and are doing it again next month! Don't need to cut the day short to get ready for dinner, more time for family activities and photos before dinner - we are not that bothered about seeing the main shows but do enjoy the variety acts in the theatre and bars - if you get a bit hungry can always have a quick snack late afternoon - no need to go mad and spoil dinner! DS (now 8) will sit happily (and quietly) through dinner at whatever time as long as he has something to make a game out of, and we are holiday so it doesn't matter what time we eat, sleep or wake up!!

 

[tvguy]

I can't comment on early seating since I only had it once, on my first cruise 35 years ago....and it wasn't early seating, it was the ONLY seating. No room service or alternate dining options on that ship. And dinner was a formal, 12 course 3 and 1/2 hour event all 14 nights. AND a FULL buffet from Midnight to 2 am.

Now that the kids are grown, and DW and I have to be in bed at 7 pm due to early work hours, we eat at home during the week the earliest we have in our married lives, about 5 pm. But our normal pattern on weekends is to eat about 8 pm, and that is a pattern that extends to all our vacations.
Thus, in the Caribbean, Alaska and Hawaii, our cruise seating has always been late.

I don't have trouble eating close to bed time, but I sure would have indigestion if I had to rush back from an excursion, get cleaned up, and make it to early seating.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

I can't argue with your other points however the Never rushed had me I always feel rushed with first seating. It is all we have ever done and I hate running from the islands to the room then rushing to dinner and being rushed while eating and then rushing to the show. I always say the next cruise we are trying second seating. Finally after many we are. We booked GT and I really do not feel like rushing to get on the ship to try to change it to first. Determined to try it this time.

Never ever rushed...... Starting at 5.45 and out by 7.45 that's a full two hours for dinner, I have it at home in thirty minutes.

I have never been rushed by any server on any DCL cruise.

Even with port calls never running from the ports of call to dinner.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

I can't comment on early seating since I only had it once, on my first cruise 35 years ago....and it wasn't early seating, it was the ONLY seating. No room service or alternate dining options on that ship. And dinner was a formal, 12 course 3 and 1/2 hour event all 14 nights. AND a FULL buffet from Midnight to 2 am.

Now that the kids are grown, and DW and I have to be in bed at 7 pm due to early work hours, we eat at home during the week the earliest we have in our married lives, about 5 pm. But our normal pattern on weekends is to eat about 8 pm, and that is a pattern that extends to all our vacations.
Thus, in the Caribbean, Alaska and Hawaii, our cruise seating has always been late.

I don't have trouble eating close to bed time, but I sure would have indigestion if I had to rush back from an excursion, get cleaned up, and make it to early seating.

Any doctor will say it's not good for you.

Some people smoke and swear that it makes them healthy.

 

[Justacruiser]

Platinum cruiser Main dinner or no cruise it's a deal breaker. Never rushed, eat at a sensible time, meal then show logical, and health wise you should let your food good have a good time to go down before bed.

Most people who have late spoil their dinner by having snacks to fill them up around normal dinner then have spoiled the good stuff.

Same for us! And.... if I have late dinner, I would have pizza or burger on deck 11. With Main dinner, I can pizza or a burger/fries after the show AND enjoy the buffet at 10:30 on Pirate Night (not to miss)

 

[LisaT91403]

We just got off Fantasy and did late dinner. It was perfect for us. We are West Coasters, and stayed on PST. We therefore at late breakfast, late lunch (if any), and late dinner. We liked going to the shows early. We liked not having to watch the clock to make sure we were ready for dinner in time. We also like the Dine & Play for our son...he was done with dinner in an hour or less, and off he went to play for a few hours. We stayed up late every night (midnight or 1:00am), so we weren't going to sleep right after eating.