Early vs Late Seating

[MNrae]

Our group is currently assigned the early seating for our 4/8/06 Western. We have 3 7yr-olds and one 4yr-old with six adults (two kidless). I've read a couple of post that suggest maybe the late seating is the way to go. I'm torn and need some DCL experienced assistance. I'd appreciate any input and will pass the info on to our group.

This board is so awesome for newbies!

 

[datadoc5]

Our experience on the last cruise is that you either have sleepy kids at dinner or at the shows. We chose the early seating and was very pleased with it. The kids sometimes fell asleep during the shows but that was better than having them cranky during meal times.

 

[Talking Hands]

I'd say you need to decide on what the children are used to. When do they normally eat and go to bed. My girls as children would have been fine with late seating because we normally didn't eat until 7:30 or 8 and bed was around 10 (night owls and didn't need a lot of sleep) on the other hand I had friends whose children were in bed by 7pm and a late dinner would have been horrible for them. Use your own best judgement as to your own children.

 

[Az Pirates]

I agree that it really depends on the kids and what they're used to.

We chose late seating.
It was a little tough for my 9 yr. old, but my 6 yr. old loved it.

DS is an early to bed, early to rise kind of kid.
DD is a night owl.

That said, I knew I wanted them to experience the shows... I didn't feel dinner every night was as important.

Of course DS was old enough that I was OK with him grabbing a bite to eat early and skipping dinner if he was too tired, or leaving dinner before dessert to go to the cabin and climb in bed while we lingered in the dining room.

I did see little ones being carried out of late dinner sleeping on their parents' shoulder - I imagine that probably happens in the late shows as well.

Good Luck deciding.

 

[KewlxPink]

No, late seating is alot better. And many other people say that, too. If you can, change to late seating, not early. Because you never make it back to the ship in time when the dinner starts. And also, its better not too rush. Just relax, and then you won't miss the 8:30 dinners. I have heard many other better things about the 8:30pm dinners as well. Go With That..

 

[staceymerrill]

if they will be sleepy and cranky, I would recommend early

Our kids are night owls, and 1/2 the evenings they preferred to eat dinner at Oceaneers anyway, so late seating was great for us.....By now we even had a routine....630 show, 730 shopping, bingo, or cabaret act, 830 dinner, 1000 show, back to stateroom...

also, we found the late seating to be less rushed, quieter, and overall less chaotic

 

[castlegazer]

I have not been yet, but we chose early seating for our 4 yo. Here's why. We eat at 6:30 at home and we looked at when most of the activities are in the clubs and by doing early seating he could still participate in a lot of the really fun activities at night. We also can see many of the big night shows in a matinee during the day. We plan to allow him to leave dinner before we are all finished to go to the clubs if he chooses to.

Just remember to pre-look at some kid's navigators to check when the big events in the clubs are. It may be an important consideration for you. We could never do late seating due to sleepiness, i.e.total crankiness, and for stuff in the clubs.

 

[HooKooDooKu]

What ever you do, don't give up your Early Seating at this time.

Your cruise is almost a year away, and if you rush to switch to late seating and change your mind later, early seating will more likely be filled.

To my knowledge, Late Seating never "fills up" and you should have no problem switching to Late Seating at a later date should you still decide months down the road that that is the better way to go.

 

[floridaminnie]

I love late seating. This way I don't feel rushed trying to get back to the ship, showered and dressed. We've gone with DD being 3, 4, and 5 and always had late seating except for the first cruise. DD almost never ate with us b/c she LOVED eating in the kids club. I always gave her a nap in the afternoon and she would stay up to wee hours of the nig ht.

 

[windermerejudy]

MNrae---we are with you on the April 8 th cruise and also have a 9,6,3 (as of sailing) We had late the first cruise we went on and the kids were miserable which was not fun. They were in meltdown by the time we finally got out of there at 10-10:30. You are going to miss alot of the fun kids activities as already mentioned.

One thing we enjoy doing, is eating in Key West and Cozumel anyway since the Magic is in port so late. Often those are the nights they have parties in the kids club so we check in kids and go back into eat. We can have a nice quiet romantic meal somewhere. Grand Cayman and CC do not matter since we leave before either of the dinner seatings.

Come on back over to the thread for our cruise and lets start chatting.

 

[poohssmum]

I agree that it does depend on your children and what they are used to. On our first cruise our boys were 3 and 6. I was nervous that late seating would not work for us ... I was wrong. It worked out very well and now I prefer late seating. There's no stress to be ready early for dinner ... you can attend the shows in shorts and there is time to head back to the stateroom to change after the show for dinner. If the kids want to eat dinner with the club, or grab burgers/chicken fingers at Pluto's and then head to the club, it gives DH and I a few extra Adults-Only dinners ... something that rarely happens at home. We also find that the pools clear out around 4:30/5:00 when families with early seating head in to dress for dinner, so it's a great time to get in some swimming without the crowds.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[TootyJane]

The only time we had early seating was our first Disney cruise. I felt so rushed trying to get our three boys ready for dinner especially coming back from excursions. We vowed to pick late seating from that time and it's been so much better. They don't mind eating later and if they get hungry they can order room service or go get chicken fingers, pizza, ice cream, etc. Another factor is we live on the West Coast so eating at the early seating (6pm) was like eating at 3pm in the afternoon for us. The only drawback is there are some activities that coincide with late seating. HTH and good luck with your decision.

 

[HooKooDooKu]

The only drawback is there are some activities that coincide with late seating. HTH and good luck with your decision.

We did Late Seating as a couple, and switched to Early Seating since becoming parents. I had forgotten about this aspect of it, so I'm now convinced more than ever that Early vs Late is really a toss-up and you should just let your personal schedule decide.

As an example, a couple in the cabin next to use on the Repo cruise had an infant and late seating. But they said it worked out just fine for them because they were from Washington State, and so East Coast Late Seating was normal dinner time for them in Washington (just like what's stated above about earling seating feeling like 3:00 to them).

 

[mickeyboat]

My kids (3 and 4) were exhausted, even at early seating, even after afternoon naps. They fell asleep several times during dinner and every night in the show. They also fell asleep during the matinee show. They were just plain whooped! We were never up later than about 9PM (I think they lasted until 9:30 one night).

I think the best thing to do would be to base your decision on how your kids tolerate being up later, especially after a lot of activity suring the day.

Hope you have a great time!

Denae

 

[Azptcruiser]

As all have appeared to state, it is really up to those you are cruising with...possibly your kids. I am certain that there are benefits to both. But as we have done only the late seating, I can say that the one big benefit, is that you are not rushed to get out of the dining area unless you want to be. We have stayed around until 11:00 or later. The servers have had to work around us as they are setting up for the next day and still are providing us service while this is going on.

BUt, the big question to ask, is what everyone can tolerate as it relates to the time.

Good luck on your choice.

 

[tvguy]

Like others have been mentioned, you really have to decide based on how your kids are.
Having said that, Early Seating seems to be the popular option for first time cruises....Late Seating with repeat cruisers.

 

[allshookup]

Actually we took the advice of people on the DIS and did late dining for our first cruise. We are usually late eaters and we didn't want to feel rushed. However, by the time we were done eating, the kids were ready for bed & we missed having some adult evening time together...alone! On a recent non-Disney freestyle cruise, we tended to hit the dining rooms early in the evening & we were able to put the kids in the kid's clubs for a few hours before retiring for the evening. Even though my kids can tolerate late nights, early dining works much better for us.

 

[MNrae]

Lots of advice - thanks to all. I'll for sure keep the early seating for now as suggested since the late won't fill up. I have pretty good troopers and think my kids will do well with late but don't know about the others. It can be difficult having such a large group. Maybe we should split up...who knows.

Thanks again!

 

[pppiglet]

Another note about late seating....we could not sleep at night due to eating so late. We are use to eating no later than 7:00 at home and here we were eating still at 10pm and were miserable every night. Had to sit out on the veranda in the wee hours of the morning. Next time we are doing main seating!

 

[tvguy]

Another note about late seating....we could not sleep at night due to eating so late. We are use to eating no later than 7:00 at home and here we were eating still at 10pm and were miserable every night. Had to sit out on the veranda in the wee hours of the morning. Next time we are doing main seating!

Not to nit pick, but if you're from California, and eating at 10 pm eastern, you WERE still eating at 7 pm according to your body clock.
My wife and I both work, and we have two active teens, just getting everyone home before 7:30 each night is a challenge, let alone getting dinner started before then.