Early vs. Late Seating

[newfamilyman]

We're traveling this summer on a West Coast, 7-day itinerary. Our children will be four and one. Because we booked so late, only the late seating was available. Does anyone know whether it will be possible to change to an early seating once we get on the boat, or is it better to keep the later seating to see the earlier shows? I would think it would be easier to see the later show w/our one-year-old, since he would be more likely to sleep through it. Any suggestions or help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[ennisb]

Once you board the ship you can ask to have it changed and they will do their best to do this for you. On our first trip the kids were older than yours but we did get early seating which worked out very well for us. The kids wanted to eat near their normal time and just as you said we got to enjoy the shows but on our case the kids wanted to hang in the room.

 

[musicgirl]

And if you get the early seating, if the kids doze off or get a little cranky, you can watch the main shows on your room tv. They will show them a number of times.

 

[twinsyippee]

Hi,

My family just returned from a 7-day Western cruise on the Magic. We had late seating for dinner (due to booking only 2 months in advance) and it did NOT work for us at all. When we boarded the ship and went to make reservations for Palo's, they had people in the same place that were changing dining reservations for people. I got the impression that we might have been able to change at that point. Wish we had...

We have 3 1/2 year old twin girls. They are used to going to bed at home at about 7:15pm. We thought we could just shift their schedules and they could make it to the late dinner. Well, we were able to shift their schedule and they slept later and went to bed later. However, going to bed at 10pm meant their last hour and a half was supposed to be spent sitting still at a dinner table. They were tired and strung out by that point. Basically, we ended up feeding them chicken fingers from Pluto's each night around 5:30pm and putting them in the kid's club every night after the show and going to dinner just me and my husband. That was ok, except I was disappointed that we never got to eat dinner together. Our timing was also off with the kid's club activities during the day because we would have breakfast around 10am and the kids club went to lunch at 11:30 and had a quiet time movie after that, when our girls were ready to play. Our girls would get bored and ask the counselors to page us to pick them up pretty much every time.

Oh, and the two shows that interested our girls, Disney Dreams and Golden Mickeys each had matinee shows because they were during days at sea!!! Our girls didn't have the patience to sit through any of the rest of the shows to the finish. So, early seating would have worked the best for us. Obviously all kids are different, but I saw lots of tired and cranky toddlers at the late seating. IMHO, a ship catering to kids ought to have dinner seatings at 5pm and 7:30pm, but I'm sure there are reasons they don't do that. I think 8:30pm is just too late if HALF the ship has to have that seating time.

Just sharing our experience!

 

[dizneykids]

On our first cruise, we had early seating. With our boys being 4 months, 5 and 6 at the time, that worked well for us. But by our second cruise, the older boys preferred to eat with their new friends in the clubs, so they only dined with us the first night. The baby didn't care as he slept through most dinners anyway. Now that all three boys are older, they still don't eat with us except on formal nights (because we require it).

For our third cruise, we requested late seating and have had late seating ever since. We prefer it because with late seating, there tend to be fewer young kids at the early shows, and thus fewer kids at late dinner. Most families with the really young ones do tend to go to dinner early and shows late. So, all in all, late seating works well.

 

[newfamilyman]

Thanks, Colleen. You've definitely increased my motivation to try to get the seating changed, if at all possible. While my daughter is used to going to bed on the relatively late side, 8:30 is definitely past his bedtime! Carl

 

[JimmyJackJunior]

Family Man - we just got back from a Disney Cruise with a 1 and 5 year old. The late seating was an absolute disaster, we tried our best to change it but could not. Several nights the kids did not even make it to 8:30 there usual bed time or fell asleep during the meal. We will never do it again without a guarantee of the first seating.

 

[newfamilyman]

Thanks for the comments. What efforts did you try to do to get an early seating which were unsuccessful? I just called Disney to get my name put on a waiting list for the early seating, though the sales agent tried her best to talk me out of it. Did you ask for room service to make an exception and deliver the dining room food to your cabin instead of their limited selections? I know these summer Mexican cruises will be packed. In a pinch, did anyone have luck trying to take out the food from the dining rooms, given the limited room service menus?

 

[JimmyJackJunior]

New Family Man - we called in advance but with no luck. Same routine as you tried to talk us out of it, tried to tell us all the advantages of late. The first thing I did when I got on board was to go and try to get them changed(I believe this was done on Deck 3 forward but they will tell you when you check in). The Dining Room Manager told me the wait list for changing was already huge and I had no chance(well at least he was honest).

We also tried with the waiting staff. One day when one of their early parties went to Palos they phoned us right away to tell us we could have 6:00. The Head Server and our Server both called and left messages which was really nice.

The dining rooms were all so nice especially Animator's Palate that we didnt want to miss out. We tried giving the kids a late afternoon snack which meant they never went to bed hungry but they didnt always make it to dinner either. For the 5 year old we ordered room service twice when it became clear he was not going to make it.

 

[JimmyJackJunior]

Also, we didnt want to do room service because at 6:30 we wanted to take in the shows. Three of the seven - a screening of the Incredibles, Dreams and Hercules were excellent for kids and adults.

 

[tvguy]

If you treat it just like a trip to Disneyland.....with an afternoon nap, and a snack, you should be fine with late seating. There is just so much going on that kids tend not to drop until you put them in bed.

We have traveled extensively with our kids starting when they were about 7 months old.........almost always to different time zones, and keeping them full and rested seems to work best.

But, except for our Alaska cruise, as California residents we have the opposite problem, everything is too EARLY for us. By the time my kids get home from soccer and baseball, it's usually at least 7 pm pacific time, so dinner usually isn't before that.......on our Eastern cruise on the Magic we had late seating, which is 8:30 eastern, but 5:30 pm for our body clocks. And since Disney doesn't do a nightly midnight buffet, we found it necessary to snag fruit from the lunch buffet to keep in the cabin for those midnight munchies.

 

[newfamilyman]

OK, thanks again for the info. Given how crowded the cruise will be, I doubt we'll have much luck, either, but thanks for the tips.

 

[Joel110]

We did the Eastern on 1/22/05. We booked 8 months in advance and still got put in late seating. We had 14 in our party. Nine adults, two 6 year-olds, two 4 year-olds and an infant. I put us on the wait list to get bumped up to the early seating, but my mom & dad (grandma & grandpa) really preferred to stick w/late seating, so we took our names of the wait list.

To sum up, try and get the early seating. We really had a hard time with it, and my dds are used to stayin up until 9pm at night, so I thought it'd work out. However, they were tired and grumpy and, w/14 people, our dinners were going until 10:15pm at night. I bought the stories of "you don't have to rush to get to dinner" and "the kids will want to play in the kids club." You still end up rushing to see the shows and our kids didn't really enjoy the kids club that much.

I was also disappointed that our wait staff didn't seem adapt at helping families with young children at late dinner. I figured they'd be a little quicker for our table, but it was generally 15 minutes into dinner before drinks arrived and our table was generally last to receive each course (again, we had 14, so maybe that was why). On the 3rd or 4th night, the wait staff asked if they could do anything better and at that time we requested that they at least have juice and milk wating on table for the kids when we arrived to help. On pirate night, we were to suppose to receive a cake for my father's b-day. Most of us forgot because we were anxious to see pirate show and at 10pm, most of us decided to skip desert and got up and left for deck 10. I felt bad when we got back to the state room and there was the cake.

I think if with older kids and/or adults, the later seating definately be our preference, but just a lot to ask for a 4 year-old to sit from 8:30pm to 10:15 for dinner.

 

[DVC Mary]

Just wanted to ring in on talking to your servers for help, if DCL doesn't help in advance or once you board. One of my son's was not feeling well one night, they remembered I was a vegetarian & what foods my son usually liked. The asst. server (forgot the title??) delivered the food himself in between the two seatings when he had a break--including chocolate dessert (talk about remembering what people love). I was soooo grateful not to be eating room service that night. I was really hungry after a busy day.

The room service menu is not all bad. You can get adult food for the kids too. There are menus available at castawayclub . com--please not I did not type it as a link, b/c the DIS seems to block it for some reason. I'm sure you can figure out the proper punctuation. My DSs my later in the cruise also requested to eat in the club w/ their friends & not miss the COOL events happening in the evening.

 

[DVC Mary]

Samples from the room service menu:

TUNA SANDWICH:Tuna, lettuce and tomato, on white or wheat bread.

ROASTED TURKEY SANDWICH: ASliced roast turket breast in an onion roll with basil mayonnaise.

TRADITIONAL GRILLED HAM AND CHEESE: Grilled ham and cheese sandwich.

CHEFS SPECIALTIES - Pizza and Pasta:

TRIPLE CHEESE: Fresh tomato with provolone, mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

MEXICAN FIESTA: Fresh tomato with black beans, spicy sausage, cheddar cheese, and sour cream.

VEGETARIAN DELIGHT: Fresh tomato, mozzarella, cheese (optional), and plenty of vegetables.

GMANICOTTI AL FORNO: Baked pasta tubes filled with ricotta cheese, marinara sauce, and mozzarella cheese.

ALL HANDS ON DECK: Enjoy a special selection of international cheese. Served with crackers.

FIRST MATE SELECTION: Steamboat Willie's Macaroni & Cheese, Captain Hook's Chicken Tenders (served with honey mustard or BBQ sauce and potato chips), Catch a Wave PB&J (with potato chips).



I know I asked them one night if they could get some cooked veggies from the dining room and they were happy to oblige. We also ordered fruit every morning. We took some with us (probably not allowed--shhh! ) if we were going on an island & had it in the room for quick snacks. Please tip the room service people too. They REAALLLY appreciate it. I found out that many of their deliveries are to teens and people who think free means no tips. I started tipping them to be nice & our service became even better than it was. One guy who delivered it seemed overwhelmed w/ a $2 tip--I asked him about most people & that's when he told me many people don't tip them.

Have a great cruise. Stay positive. You can make anything magical happen on DCL.

 

[twinsyippee]

Regarding room service with food from the dining rooms. After the first night we tried to take our girls to dinner and our servers saw how difficult it was, our head server suggested we call the dining room head guy and said he could arrange to have meals from the dining room brought to our room for the girls. We didn't try that because our kids were happy with chicken fingers from Pluto's. (They don't eat a large variety of foods at this point.)

However, I do have a different experience to relate. On pirate night, we kept the girls up really late and the next night they were just collapsing around 7pm. Too much even for the kids club. So, my dreams of the Captain's Gala dinner went up in smoke. I saw that they had a buffet dinner at Topsiders from 6:30-8:30pm. (This may have happened every night - I don't know.) So, we went up there and they had pretty nice choices. We asked if we could do carry out and they said no - due to safety concerns because they only had china, etc. But, they were more than willing to take our order off the menu and deliver it via room service. So, we got an appetizer, steaks with baked potatoes, and dessert. It worked just fine and was better than most choices on the regular room service menu.

So, if you can't get early seating, I think there are some other options besides chicken fingers or turkey sandwiches!