Early vs Late Dining??

[KathyT]

I am interested in bringing my DD14 and DS15 on a 3 night cruise in August and trying to decide which dining time would be better. Does anyone have any opinions and could give the pros and cons of each? I think this may have been talked about before but I can't locate the thread. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Lisa F]

What time do you normally eat at home? With teens, late dining might be better as it will give you more time to do "daytime" stuff without having to cut it short to get ready for dinner. You won't have to worry about them falling asleep at the table like if you had little ones. But if you normally eat early at home, it might be an adjustment for you!
Lisa

 

[hydster]

I agree with Lisa. I know when I cruised with my parents as a teen we had late seating then I stayed up all night and slept in in the morning...for a teen it was a great time!!!! I think since your kids are older they would do just fine at either dining. I looked at some of the 3 day navigators and it doesnt seem as though they would miss out on much with either dining times so it is just more a matter of preference if you want to eat early, get stuff done early in the evening and then go to bed if you get tired but give up maybe a little time at the pool for early or if you would rather eat a little later to stay at the pool a little later or some other activity before dinner and you can stay up that late.

I hope that makes sense..been up all night with a sick child so I am a little bleary today!

Heidi

 

[jiminy579]

We had it on our last cruise, and LOVED it. Our kids were 8 and 10 last year, and it really worked out perfect for us.

Heidi,
I hope your child feels better soon!

 

[hydster]

Dee Ann..thanks! I think he is on the mends now...a little (not really little actually) touch of the stomach flu I think....fortunately he is now old enough to warn me first!!!! I am going to give us both some tylenol and take a nap before the older kids get home from school!!!

Heidi

 

[jiminy579]

Heidi,
Cute tag! I am counting the days until that DVD comes out!!!

 

[hydster]

You and me both!! I pre ordered it from Amazon.com and I cant wait to get it!! We have seen it as a family 4 times now! Our kids just love it!!!! I think the theatre and Disney love us to love it too!

I just LOVE Johnny Depp in that show!!!! I havent been a huge fan of his until then and now I think he is hilarious!!
His sarcasm was great!
Heidi

 

[jiminy579]

Originally posted by hydster
You and me both!! I pre ordered it from Amazon.com and I cant wait to get it!! We have seen it as a family 4 times now! Our kids just love it!!!! I think the theatre and Disney love us to love it too!

I just LOVE Johnny Depp in that show!!!! I havent been a huge fan of his until then and now I think he is hilarious!!
His sarcasm was great!
Heidi

We have seen it 4 times too!!! My kids couldn't believe I would take them that many times to the theatre for the same movie, but seeing it on the big screen is something else!!! I agree, Johnny Depp has never been one of my favorites, but he truly deserves an award for this performance!!!

 

[hydster]

Of course now our kids are HOPING (in vain) that they will put Cpt. Sparrow in the ride at DL and WDW before we go again. They dont know we are going in 200 days (EWWW to long to wait) but they are hoping that they somehow put him in it! I am too actually!!!!

Our kids were shocked that we took them that many times as well! We usually dont take them to that many shows in one year (our 4 year old is a little difficult to take sometimes) so one show 4 times in a span of 2 months was unreal to them!

 

[jwann]

Thank God! I thought I was the only 30-something mother to have seen Pirates of the Carribean 4 times!! And I loved every minute of it!!


P.S. On the whole late v. early dinner....we have done both and my family prefers the early dinner. The late one takes WAY too long and really put a damper on our evening's activities. Our kids and my sister's kids (who went with us both times) ages are 4, 5, 7, 8. We booked the early dinner on our next cruise - a 7-day eastern!

 

[mnmomof1]

We had early dining on our first cruise and late dining on our 2nd cruise. We are going on a 3rd cruise and we booked early dining this time. My daughter is 12 and our family absolutely preferred early dining. We did not get out of our late dining until sometimes after 10 but my daughter would often leave early because there were activities she wanted to get to. There wasn't anything we liked about late dining. Kim

 

[goodfaerie]

We don't have any children, and we had late dining on our last cruise. It does get out very late, so if someone has little ones who require a lot of structure in their sleep schedule, I would rec. early seating. Your teens should be fine.

I didn't notice that we really missed anything by having late dining, but then, we were pretty laid back about a lot of it, and it was just the two of us.

Hope this helps!

goodfaerie

 

[Tesabat]

Pirates of the Carribean

I really liked the movie...it had Nothing to do with Jack Sparrow...I swear!

Late Dining -

We have a DS 12 and our TA recommended late dining...and starting spring when I began reading about early dining, late dining...I really began doubting it. She didn't tell me it was 8:30PM at night!!! I'm dubious...not sure if it is going to work out or not...but...we have (I'm afraid to admit) often eaten dinner at 8:00....so....we'll see. We all tend to be night owls...so my problem will proabably be getting my DS back onto a school schedule instead of a stay at the lab until 12:00 schedule!!! My fear?? That he'll want to eat early and hang out with the other kids instead of us!!!

 

[Thumpersmom]

Late for us!

We are coming from the West Coast so late was closer to our actual dinner time at home. It worked out great for us but I do agree my DS missed a few things in the Club. He didn't seem to mind too much.

We were able to go to the show, return to the cabin to get dressed for dinner and still be on time. We are going again and picked late again!

 

[rae519]

We've had both and prefer the early one. We go to bed early and it's uncomfortable to sleep on a full stomach - after all that's only during Thanksgiving we succumb!

Rae

 

[dianthus]

We are trying late on our upcoming cruise too.

We found that we were so rushed to dress for dinner at the end of the afternoon, with the early dining rotation. We really couldn't relax. The early dining is filled with small children, as it should be. Since our DD is 12 & our normal dining time is 7:30 at home, we figured we could do without the toddlers & see how it works out. We are late night people, so it should be OK eating a bit later.

 

[WDWLVR]

Best advice do what you do at home. If you are a morning person who eats dinner early - then do main seating. If you are a night owl who likes eating late do late seating. It really is as simple as that. We tried late seating once and didn't care for it - too late for us. For others it works great.