Early Seating Waitlist

[Jimbo]

We just got back from the Halloween cruise, and now we're thinking about going next October. We probably should have rebooked onboard, but didn't. Anyway, the cruise we'd take has no availability for early seating dining.

That would be a deal breaker for us, I think. What are the odds of us being able to get early seating if we book now, 11 months out?

 

[lrodptl]

We changed from late to early seating this past October while onboard! Then we decided to use room service instead for the convenience and benefit of DD3 and DD4. I'm one of those who thinks eating at the restaurants is overblown!

 

[JJsmama]

I too think the restaurants onboard are over rated and liked the buffet for the kids sometimes. I would like the option of the early seating however and understand how you feel since my kids would have never made it to the late seating.

We booked 11 months out too and were waitlisted for the early. We were part of a family group of 26 and believe it or not, by cruise time we were ALL early seating. Your chances are good.

 

[jel0511]

Originally posted by Jimbo
We just got back from the Halloween cruise, and now we're thinking about going next October. We probably should have rebooked onboard, but didn't. Anyway, the cruise we'd take has no availability for early seating dining.

That would be a deal breaker for us, I think. What are the odds of us being able to get early seating if we book now, 11 months out?

Are you thinking of rebooking for October 29th? We just rebooked on that sailing and are waitlisted for Early Seating. My TA said at this late time, we're almost guaranteed of getting it. If we don't, we'll deal. My kids will be 7 and 4, and were relative night owls on our 11/6 cruise. They had no problems staying up until 10:30 or 11:00, we had them take afternoon naps every day. If 8:30 works out to be too late for them, there is always roomservice nightly for them while DH and I get dressed for dinner, or eating in the clubs. We felt 6:00 was a little too early on our 11/6 cruise, but 8:30 is too late, so we'll just go with the flow.

 

[tvguy]

As has been pointed out there are some great options if you don't get the seating you want.
We're west coasters, both work full time and with two kids active in soccer and baseball, dinner time around here usually isn't until at least 7 pm pacific. So late seating on the east coast is almost too early for our body clocks. We even had late seating on our Alaska cruise and that wasn't too late.
I won't tell you that by the time everyone got home last night, it was 10:30pm when we ate dinner!!!!
My kids are 13 and 17, your's must be younger. Just you wait, you have a lot of McDonalds, Burger King and Taco Bell dinners in your future!!!!!!

 

[Jimbo]

Originally posted by jel0511
Are you thinking of rebooking for October 29th? We just rebooked on that sailing and are waitlisted for Early Seating. My TA said at this late time, we're almost guaranteed of getting it. If we don't, we'll deal. My kids will be 7 and 4, and were relative night owls on our 11/6 cruise. They had no problems staying up until 10:30 or 11:00, we had them take afternoon naps every day. If 8:30 works out to be too late for them, there is always roomservice nightly for them while DH and I get dressed for dinner, or eating in the clubs. We felt 6:00 was a little too early on our 11/6 cruise, but 8:30 is too late, so we'll just go with the flow.

We're looking to go on the 10/22 cruise because we wanted to try some different ports. Plus the grandkids are off much of that week for teachers' convention. They are 10 and 7 now, and made it through the show after dinner without any problems. So I actually think late seating would be OK, but their mother disagrees. And she oughta know.

I guess every family is different. We thought the dinners were the highlight of each day. It helped that our servers were real charmers (we're planning to ask for them again), and the girls really loved them. The kids were so well behaved each night, and believe me, good behavior at the dinner table isn't exactly their style. We actually cancelled our Palo's dinner ressie because we didn't want to miss dinner with the kids.

 

[ISCRK]

We cruised in 2002 on the Magic, and our boys were 9 and 7 at the time. Our group chose late seating for several reasons:

We wanted to enjoy adult time with the group at dinner. We fed the kids at Topsiders, went to our scheduled evening show, then put the kids in the Oceaneer's Club (where they wanted to be anyways). We ate a great dinner with adult conversation, then had the kids join us for dessert. Most of the Oceaneers Club "cool stuff" always took place during the late dinner seating, so we had no problems with our kids wanting to go there. Two evenings, the kids joined us for dinner and that was fine by us. It just gave us an extra opportunity for adult time while on the ship.

With late dinner seating, you don't have to rush back from touring the ports of call. We did skip one show in order for us to feed the kids and get ready for our late seating, but that fit our Central Time Zzone schedule better.

 

[Donnainnj]

Jimbo,
We were also on the Halloween cruise, and we were wait listed for the Main seating from when we booked in January. We didn't make the cut. When we got onboard we tried to switch, but never got it done. My little one was asleep during dinner most nights, and a bit cranky when she wasn't. It did not work for us. That was one reason when we booked onboard we choose to go in 2006, I knew we would be able to get Main seating for that far out. (note - I think we may not have gotten Main because we were booked with a AAA group, and when I asked about being switched while making my REAS reservations with Disney, They told me that the space would have to become available for the entire group for them to switch us, something to know about group bookings, and something our travel agent didn't mention.)
Good Luck!!
Donna

 

[lrodptl]

Originally posted by Donnainnj
Jimbo,
We were also on the Halloween cruise, and we were wait listed for the Main seating from when we booked in January. We didn't make the cut. When we got onboard we tried to switch, but never got it done. My little one was asleep during dinner most nights, and a bit cranky when she wasn't. It did not work for us. That was one reason when we booked onboard we choose to go in 2006, I knew we would be able to get Main seating for that far out. (note - I think we may not have gotten Main because we were booked with a AAA group, and when I asked about being switched while making my REAS reservations with Disney, They told me that the space would have to become available for the entire group for them to switch us, something to know about group bookings, and something our travel agent didn't mention.)
Good Luck!!
Donna

We are booked for Western 10/06 and main dining is booked!

 

[Jimbo]

Originally posted by lrodptl
We are booked for Western 10/06 and main dining is booked!

Do you mean October 2006 is already filled?

 

[kplatt]

We have cruised 3 times on DCL and been assigned late seating every time. But on every cruise they were able to accommodate our request to change to the earlier time.

Karen
Wonder 11/01
Magic 3/02
Magic 11/02
Carnival Destiny (don't ask) 12/03
Magic Eastward Repositioning on the calendar 8/05

 

[dis4me]

We were on the Halloween Cruise to and the 11/01 last year both times waitlisted for main seating and didn't get it either time. I was really bummed this year though because the girls 2 people in front of me were able to find availabitity for 26 of them in their group so the girl in fron of me and I were both told we would be called if it became available. I even offered o change for 1 night if itshowed available or halfway through but I never got a phone call or acknowledgement.
If you are OK ith not getting then go for it but if you wil be miserable then I would find anther date. Feeding my kids somewhere else was not an option or us. Family meals are very important especially on vacation.
Good Luck