Early or Late seating for dinner???

[the kabuki]

Would like to know what seating most people prefer and why, especially those with kids. Our 3 are 11,7, & 3 but they're night owls. This past Jan. at the parks, none of them had any trouble staying up till 11pm or so.

Going on the Wonder Jan 8th, and looking for some opinions

Thanks

 

[staceymerrill]

definitely go for the late seating...less hurried, less noisy, and seemingly less stressful....also, youll get more time to prepare for evening activities....

 

[dizney-cruiser]

i would suggest late seating also - if they hungry earlier there is plenty they can eat - see the early show and then go to dinner! as the previous poster said - less rushing!

 

[poohssmum]

Another big fan of the late seating. The first time we cruised our kids were 3 and 6. Although dinner the first night was a little tough due to travelling since early morning with no naps, it was totally fine after that. One trick that we learned was that regarding the pools. A lot of families with smaller children do prefer the early seating dinner. That means they clear out of the pool area around 4:30 - 5:00 to get ready. We found that to be a GREAT time to get the kids some quality time in the pools. HTH

 

[NYGiantsRule!]

Another vote for late seating. We usually have a snack around 5-5:30 (cheese platter, chicken fingers, etc.) and head to the show at 6:30. We then have an hour to get ready for dinner. Much more relaxed. Had early seating on our first cruise and would not choose it again.

 

[Melrosgirl]

I prefer main (early) seating. I just don't like to eat late. I won't book a cruise unless I have confirmed main dining.

 

[lbgraves]

Early seating works the best for us. We are not looking forward to the next cruise if we get stuck with late.

 

[Favorite Auntie]

We love the early seating as well... I hate to eat late, and the kids would never make it through the late seating... Plus, then we have time after dinner to relax a little. If I were to get late seating I would eat at Topsiders every night, which if very good BTW.

 

[marycaym]

I am a fan of the late seating, although we have done both. My girls were 6 & 8 on the last cruise when we did late seating and it just seemed to work out better for us. We got a snack around 4pm, swam - pools not too crowded late in the day, took a cat nap if we needed too and the girls were still up and about for dinner at 8:30pm. The first time we did late seating, I just felt like we had to end the day early to get ready for dinner. Also, there was no rush to get us out of the dining room for another seating.

You know your kids better than us, if you think they can stay up late, go for it

 

[TADsMommy]

We had main seating on our last cruise and I felt very rushed to come back early from excursions and rushed to dress to get to dinner. We are booked for late seating on our upcoming May 14th cruise and are so excited to be able to have those extra hours of daytime fun. We will probably have cheese trays from Room Service and/or Chicken Fingers by the pool around 5pm (when many families of little ones will be getting dressed so we will dodge some pool crowds) and then will hit the early shows and be able to take our time to dress for a relaxing late dinner. No hassles, no rush, just a relaxing end to our day. My children are 9, 10 and 12. I might have a very different opinion with toddlers.

Karen

 

[R&J]

We had late seating on our cruise. Our kids were 4 1/2 & 1 1/2. We had been waitlisted for early seating, but didn't get it (there was a LONG list of people who wanted to get early seating).

With late afternoon snacks & naps, it worked out OK for us, but the kids were still tired by 8:30. We also found that after dinner we needed to walk around for a while because we couldn't sleep with a big meal sitting in our stomachs, even though we were all tired.

We have early seating for our next cruise. If undecided, select early seating when you book - you can always change from early to late seating, but changing from late to early is much more difficult.

 

[the kabuki]

We had late seating on our cruise. Our kids were 4 1/2 & 1 1/2. We had been waitlisted for early seating, but didn't get it (there was a LONG list of people who wanted to get early seating).

With late afternoon snacks & naps, it worked out OK for us, but the kids were still tired by 8:30. We also found that after dinner we needed to walk around for a while because we couldn't sleep with a big meal sitting in our stomachs, even though we were all tired.

We have early seating for our next cruise. If undecided, select early seating when you book - you can always change from early to late seating, but changing from late to early is much more difficult.

Thanks for the tips. How hard is it to change from early to late? Don't they have the tables and everything already set for a certain amount of people?
Wouldn't the waiter for the changed seating then not have people at his table?

 

[bucky1023]

I go for late seatings. When I'm at home I don't usually get home until after 7pm each night and my niece and nephews (who I take with me) are use to eating later also.

 

[jerry112]

We had been waitlisted for early dining for three months and when we checked in, we still did not get it.(We had a full ship). Directly upon boarding we went straight to the dining changes area(Wavebands, on the Wonder). Alain(France) told us that we had another hour before they would open but because it was such a gorgeous day, he could help us.

He pulled out his palm pilot and took all of our reservations (Palo) and told us he saw no reason not to get changed to early dining as we were the first to request it. Sure enough, we had a message waiting saying to be in the dining room at 6:00!! It was a great start to a fabulous cruise!!

Go directly to dining changes and make your request!!!