Early or late seating with little kids

[kimberwing]

We have two boys, age 5 & 1.5 yrs. We have late seating and are wait-listed for early. Should we fight for early, or forget it?

We were kinda planning on putting the 1.5 yr old into daycare in the evening anyway (he's not great at mealtimes, and falls asleep anywhere between 7 & 9 UNLESS there's much activity around. The 5 yr. old will probably opt to stay in his group and not eat with us anyway.

I'd love your comments.....

 

[taswira]

If the 1.5 year old goes in daycare and the 5 year old stays in his group, then it won't matter. Otherwise, I would try to push for main (early) seating if I were you, since most adults without kids opt for later seating.

 

[inkkognito]

I agree with taswira. It's nice to be on early seating if you will have little ones with you, but if not, it won't matter much. Hubby and I don't have kids, and personally we like late seating because we feel like we have more free time to do things before having to worry about getting ready for dinner.
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[Gina]

I think it would depend on what schedule you're most used to anyway, and for us late seating was the best. (It's just me and my just-turned-6 year old.) We're both nightowls by nature anyway, and I didn't like the idea of cutting my afternoons so short to get ready for dinner. Most nights he came to dinner with me, but some nights he just wanted to stay in the club, which was fine.

I was afraid it would be just adults at the late seating, but boy was I wrong! There were 3 infants at the table next to us, another little boy my son's age on the other side of us, a 3 year old at our own table, and plenty of other kids everywhere else. And of course, you have to weigh the last-morning breakfast time -- early seaters have to be at breakfast by 6:45! We barely made it at 8.

Just my .02!

-gina-

 

[bcburgner]

My family just returned from the Wonder 4 day and we had late seating. My kids are 3, 9 & 10. We are not late night people, but rather early birds. So the late dinner did not work out that great for the kids. My wife and I ate alone every night. My three year old would be in the kids club and the older two in the room or at a movie. All three kids were too tired by dinner time to eat. My wife and I would eat and, after dinner, be a bit tired oursleves. So, we are plannnig ealry seating for next year (Feb 2003 MAGIC!!!). Hopefully the kids will eat with us a bit more and also we're hoping that my wife and I won't be as tired after dinner because it won't be so late for us.

So as you can see, it really depends on what you are used to. Late seating works for some better than others.

 

[mom2grace]

We had late seating with DD 8 months and it worked out fine.

We are not late night people, but she adjusted pretty well. If you are planning to use FRN and the club, you will have more "day time" if you have late seating.

If you son will sleep in his stroller, take it with you to the dining room!

It is generally very difficult to get early seating if your cruise is near, I wouldn't sweat it (we did for a while and these boards eased our minds and we will always do late in the future because we didn't feel rushed to leave the sun!).

Either way, have a terrific trip!

Susan

 

[Steve H.]

We pushed for early seating (got wait-listed) and got through the wait list recently. I think it depends on your children -- in our case, DS (18 months) usually is in bed by 8:30-9:00 pm, so late seating would definitely not have worked.

I'll let you know how it goes -- leaving in 9 days!!

 

[LanaJayne]

Try to take your 5 year old to Animator's Palate. The "show" is something he'll really enjoy.

We booked about a month in advance and were wait-listed for the early seating. (We were booked with the late seating). When we checked in we had been switched to the early seating!

We had gotten used to the idea of late seating and had planned to have a mid-afternoon snack/meal at the pool or room service to help make it through to dinner.

We were 5 in our group, seated at a table for 10 which was empty! The 1st night we booked Palo's. The second night our servers told us that the 1st night the whole table was empty! The 3rd night we had it to ourselves again. The 4th night a family a 4 joined us. They had a baby and a 3 year old. They said this was the 1st night they had in the dining room as they also had late seating and couldn't make it to dinner as the kids were too tired. The last day they checked with the head server and were seated with us.

If you really want early seating, keep checking with the head servers as something may open up.

Good Luck and Enjoy your Cruise!

 

[DisneyKids]

We have had late seating on our 2 cruises (ages 2/6 first, 5/9 second). Requested late for our 3rd, as well. Only one night can I remember the kids getting sleepy at dinner (last night of a 7 day...I was too!). We prefer the late so that we have more day time. The days/time on the cruise seem to go different then at home with all of the activity so typical hours never seem matter with us. We like the flexibilty of not having to wrap up the day as early.

Obviously, it's your call. If your kids are prone to be tired or follow a very set schedule, then you might prefer early. If not, and your kids "go with the flow", you'll be fine with late. Whichever you end up with, you'll have a great time!

 

[bcburgner]

When we had late seating we were still having to go back to the room at 5:30 to get ready for the shows and dinner. If we had early seating we would have had to go back to the room no later than 5pm. So I disagree that you will lose any considerable time in the sun because you have early seating. I still think it is a matter of when you prefer to eat and when your kids are used to going to bed and getting up. Not getting the "sun time" is a less important consideration for us.

 

[DisneyKids]

The time gained during the day (and I certainly didn't mean to imply it was a considerable amount) was mainly because we didn't have to rush back and get all ready. You can go to the show in your bathing suits if you want or just get quickly cleaned up. There would still be time between the show and dinner to get ready or put on the finishing touches. And, if you don't want to do the shows, you have even more time.

But, I TOTALLY agree, it's all personal preference. Another point for the late seating, with all of the food you eat on the cruise, we were rarely very hungry at 6:30. 8:30 was better in that regards and it also held us through the night with less temptation to snack. To each his own!

 

[bcburgner]

Really, I'd be happy to eat at 10pm as long as I'm on that boat. But given the choice, we are choosing 6pm seating.

We didn't really want to go to the shows in our bathing suits, but rather we preferred to be dressed up and showered when we attended the shows. Then after the shows we could go to Family Dueling Pianos, Bingo and other activities before dinner.

Also, when 5:30 rolled around we were starting to get hungry and we ordered room service before the show to hold us over until 8:30. The cheese and crackers, tuna sandwiches and giant cookies were great.

So for us I'm still convinced early seating is the best, but I'll let you know for sure when we return.