Early or late dinner seating w/kids?

[Red71]

I need help from experienced cruisers . I was given the choice so I picked early 6PM dinner seating. THe children are DD6 and DD7. The girls go to bed early at home but have a magic transormation on vacations (WDW, Beach) to stay up late 10PM or 11PM and still wake up by 7:30 AM the latest. They aren't cranky either, they just don't want to miss out ( me either )

--Should I see if I can switch to the latter dinnner time. so we can get in some uncrowded time at the pools?

--Will there be shows or something exciting going on at 8PM that we will miss if I change to latter time?

--Whats the best choice for kids that can handle being up late? I'm not worried about them being hungry because I realise there will be food for them to eat all day long before dinner.

I really appreciate your telling me your experience, I feel like this is a major choice. All of the planning stresses me out!!

 

[clh2]

The shows are shown at 2 times every night. So, while some folks are at the early dinner, the late diners see the early show. Conversely, the early eaters see the late show while the late diners are eating.

 

[MiaSRN62]

We had early seating on our last cruise but opted for late seating this year (but my kids are older now---11, 13 & 17). The only thing I didn't like about early seating was feeling rushed to get back from our excursions in order not to miss dinner. I'm hoping we feel a little more relaxed while sightseeing during the day. We also didn't like having to get up so early for breakfast on disembarkation day. We felt we couldn't really enjoy our last night because we had to get in bed early in order to make breakfast the last morning.

 

[Mickeyhugger]

I would advise you to switch to later seating, especially since you said your DD's are able to adjust while on vacation.

We didn't have a choice when we booked our first DCL, as late seating was all that was left. We enjoyed it so much, it's been our choice (two cruises later) ever since. Oh, and our DD was 7 on the first cruise, a real stickler to an early bedtime at home, and she did just fine.

If you had toddlers or preschoolers, I wouldn't suggest it, but at the ages they are now, I don't think you'll have any regrets.

 

[debm]

We love the late seating and we have 4 kids ranging from 10 down to 20 months. They usually have had snacks or something up on deck throught the late afternoon so waiting is not a problem. Plus you are so busy with activities you can almost forget to eat. Plus I like being hungry by that hour so I can enjoy the great food. Plus you are not so rushed and we don't have to go to the shows as dressed up. Plus you have more time to enjoy your dinner because they don't have to get you out for a later seating. Plus if the kids finish early they can go to the clubs and stay there while you finish eating. And you don't have to rush back and take them back out to see a show (that's if they want to go). I'm sure you get the picture. Go for the late seating if it doesn't matter to you. Enjoy!!!

 

[tinkerbellmagic]

I dunno, Red71, I would keep the early seating. There were times we didn't finish eating until 10 PM with late seating. By that time, after a day of activities, I was wiped. We did see some children sleeping on their chairs at the late seating also.

It is a pain to have to rush back from excursions. I do agree with the other posters on that one. We also really loved watching the sunset on an empty deck 10 with late seating too, but because of the childrens ages, I would stick to early seating if I were you. You can always go to Topsiders on disembarkation day. That's what we do.

Good luck whatever you decide and have fun!
Tink

edited to add that we have done both, early and late seating

 

[tvguy]

What is your "home" time zone?

I'm in California, and for our body clocks, late seating on the ship is EARLY seating. My wife works until 5:30 pm, so by the time she gets home and one of us cooks dinner, it's 7 to 7:30 pm pacific........so even with late seating on the ship, we're done with dinner before we would even start it at home.

In my opinion, expressed on these boards repeatedly, Disney needs to rethink the shows. Other cruise lines always have the shows after dinner, no matter if you have early or late seating.
On Disney, Late seating has their show before dinner. Now, one show they did 3 performances, a 6:30, an 8:30 AND a 10:30 pm....that was great and really opened up the options, and you didn't have to rush back from excusions to see a show, or if you loved the show, and wanted to see it again, you could.

 

[WhenUwishUponAstar]

I just booked my cruise today and I have a 6 year old DS so I chose early seating.

The reservationist explained to me that there was a kids dinner my son could goto around 5 and then he could go again with us later.

I don't know if I'm explaining this right , if there is anyone who has actually done this, maybe they could explain it better???

 

[2tinksmom]

We originally had early seating, but then changed to later seating because of being less rushed getting ready and I liked the idea of dressing after the shows in order to be more comfy. Our girls are 11 and 6 and gottaluvEeyore's girls are 9 and 7. This is our first cruise, so we'll see how it works!
Michele

 

[webray]

I would stick with the early..since the later seating, the kids wouldn't be getting any dinner until near 9:30pm..that is late for a kid to eat.

 

[MiaSRN62]

I would stick with the early..since the later seating, the kids wouldn't be getting any dinner until near 9:30pm..that is late for a kid to eat.

Really ? It takes an hour from seating time ? I don't recall this with the early seating ? Is this everyone's experience with the late seating ? Just curious........

 

[TheWog]

My DS6 also can adjust his bedtime to suit his situation, but there were some nights he was so wiped with being so excited, all the swimming, sun, excursions, beach, clubs, whatever, that he was asleep rather early. We had early seating and found it to be perfect with him. Others he was fine but we were glad we had the early seating. Plus a better chance to have other children at your table for them. Didn't feel rushed in port, but others have said they feel rushed, so that may depend on your activity choices.

 

[tinkerbellmagic]

Originally posted by MiaSRN62
Really ? It takes an hour from seating time ? I don't recall this with the early seating ? Is this everyone's experience with the late seating ? Just curious........

Well, you have to get through those delicious appetizers first.
I'm not positive, but I'd say the actual dinner arrived between 9-9:30 pm with an 8:30 pm seating. Then, if you haven't rolled off your chair after your scrumptuous meal, there's dessert.

Tink

 

[Red71]

Wow , now it's as if I have too much information . I'm guessing at this point that my girls will have been in the pool at least part of day and need to have a bath before we went to either dinner or a show. I can't even get a comb or brush thru their hair after they have been swimming. And the port days, I hadn't even taken that into consideration. So much to figure out...

 

[newms]

I have a 10 and 7 year old and I like the early seating. Only once did I have to rush through a spa visit, which was my fault for making a 4:00 appointment. We especially liked eating, then going to the shows, and then eating again if we weren't too tired after the show! My kids thought that was a special treat, and since we weren't supposed to do anything after the shows, it wasn't hard to decide what to do.

 

[kcashner]

We've cruised the Magic 10 times...and had both early and late seating. As my daughter gets older, I like late better. However, when she was younger, I liked early.

Reasons...., there aren't toddlers at the late dinner...or not as many. With an older kiddo, I don't want to sit around and listen to little ones whining any more (those days are done!)

You can choose to dress before or after the shows with late dinner...it really doesn't matter.
The only downside to late is that I don't really feel like doing things afterwards. I eat, then in short order, go to bed.

As to the "kids dinner" at 5...what they are referring to is the buffet on deck 9. If your child is in the club/lab at that time, the counsellors will take them to dinner. If you wish, you can take a child (or adult) to the buffet at any time...or to pizza or hot dogs/hamburgers, etc. Your child can eat whenever!...so no worries about being hungry waiting for late dinner. We usually hit the ice cream/fruit bar about 4:30, knowing that dinner would be awhile.

We usually saw food about 15 minutes after sitting down. The entree came as soon as we'd finished our appetizer. However, our favorite server is known for being fast. We were eating dessert before some people had entrees!

 

[tvguy]

If you're trying to pack 9 meals a day in, you better go late seating.
Room service muffins for breakfast, a little breakfast buffet run, maybe sit down breakfast. Then sitdown lunch, buffet lunch, ice cream, then pizza, then a burger or hot dog, more ice cream, a 5 pm pizza or hot dog snack, dinner at 8:30, and then maybe another burger at 11 pm.

 

[Mickeyhugger]

Well said tvguy!

(We're you watching me on my last DCL trip?

 

[HLFDZN]

I have 6 children ages 9-17. We had late seating for the reason stated, not to have to rush. HOWEVER, my kids ate wtih the kids clubs at 5 or 6, and then did NOT want to go with us for dinner..EVER!!! I had to fight to get them to go the one night for the BD cake they had for them. None of them wanted to stay the whole time either, they had more interesting things in the lab for them to do, than sit and eat with us when they were not hungry.

I will agree that we were not served right away either..the food took a while to get there. We were not finished until 10 pm each night and then at 11 they started setting up the buffet, which we were never hungry for.

SOme people do not sleep well if they eat late either.

Melissa