First or second seating for Alaska?

[erin1715]

My husband and I have taken 3 DCL cruises to the Bahamas in the past and we've always chosen second seating because it was just the two of us (no kids) and we want a table to ourselves. We also like going to the show before dinner.

We are booked for an Alaskan cruise in 2018 and I'm wondering which seating will be better? Are there some beautiful sunsets that we will be missing if we choose second seating?

 

[ladyofthetramp]

Following... Booked as well and having the same question.

 

[bbel]

It depends what you are planning on doing in port. The all aboard times in Alaska are a lot later than the Caribbean, around 7pm, so if you want to make the most of your port time, then later would be better.
as for sunsets, I saw some good sunsets but I couldn't tell you around what time that was, and it probably varies from the start tot the end of the season.

 

[cruisehopeful]

I did late dining the first time and thought I'd like late dining for my second cruise. First time it was fine. We watched the sunset around 10:30pm out the windows. It was gorgeous. My second Alaska cruise was only a couple years after that, but my internal clock changed a lot. I was hungry by 6:00pm every night (we were extremely active on that cruise and that probably made me hungry earlier). I ended up eating on deck a couple nights. When I would wait to eat until second seating, I would get full really fast. I can't eat much late at night. I'm planning on doing earlier seating for now on.

There does tend to be a lot of clouds/fog/rain and the sunsets aren't something you can count on. I'd look at what time you like to eat at home and figure out the timechange and go with that.

 

[anricat]

We did second seating our first two cruises and then I suddenly got a bee in my bonnet and HAD to have main dining for Alaska because I was worried about the time change. 8:15 dinner in Alaska is like 11:15 central time! My daughter has a hard time adjusting to time zones, but in Alaska, she did a lot better than she had previously and we were really not fans of early dining. A lot of the port days are later and we really could have used a little more time to get back and turned around before dinner.

The only night that I really liked early dining was the night they showed the movie. We didn't need to see it (it was Finding Dory and we had already seen it) and we were glad to eat and be done and get to bed early. Otherwise, it really didn't work out for us. If you're used to late dining and generally find it works better for you, I recommend sticking to it.

 

[Pooh2]

We are two adults and went with the early seating (requested and received our own table) because it was the same time as we eat dinner at home. We came from the east coast so the late dinner would have had us really off schedule.

On our Ketchikan day, we got back to the ship after our early seating started so went to Cabanas. Worked our well for us!

 

[Geomom]

I'd stick with whatever time you'd normally eat. For us, we eat around 6PM, and we were coming from the east coast, so we did the early seating. I can't eat a full meal at 8PM. As far as sunsets--our cruise was the 8/8 one last year and we only saw 1 sunset after the second show--which was the lastest sunset we had--the rest of them were either during our show or behind the rainclouds... Sunset times change drastically over the sailing season, and you also have a 1 hr time change during the cruise that affects it as well. The closer your sail date is to June 21st, the later your sunset. I went to a sunrise/sunset website to figure it out ahead of time...mainly to have an idea of when the sun might wake us up...or how late the sun would be out in general. Here is one I've used, just pop in a couple of Alaskan towns. http://www.sunrisesunset.com/USA/Alaska.asp

 

[erin1715]

I must be missing something because I'm confused by those of you saying you chose the early time because you are coming from the east coast. West coast is 3 hours behind us on the east coast so wouldn't it make sense to pick the 8:15pm time cause it's really 5:15pm back home?

 

[Dug720]

I must be missing something because I'm confused by those of you saying you chose the early time because you are coming from the east coast. West coast is 3 hours behind us on the east coast so wouldn't it make sense to pick the 8:15pm time cause it's really 5:15pm back home?

Not for east coast going to Alaska. 5:45pm in Alaska is 9:45pm in NYC.

 

[TestingH2O]

I must be missing something because I'm confused by those of you saying you chose the early time because you are coming from the east coast. West coast is 3 hours behind us on the east coast so wouldn't it make sense to pick the 8:15pm time cause it's really 5:15pm back home?

Dug is correct. At 5:30 in Alaska, it will be 3 hours later busy time.

We chose late dining despite the time change because of ports. If it's a problem, we will just eat on deck or something like that.

 

[xlxo]

I love the 2nd feeding...

• more time in port, have a local snack before reboarding and let it settle (eg Crab shack).
• 2nd feeding is less crowded and rushed, it feels more relaxing
• clothes are cleaner for shows and photos as you eat after the show
• kids are taken to the evening program right after the meal
• if you have a cabin near a busy elevator, being a night owl and sleeping after midnight means the corridor is quieter
• you get to sleep in an extra hour on debarkation morning for the 2nd breakfast.
  • more time to pack
  • get to relax and wait in the dining room for your assigned debarkation time
  • really important because all the posted times are Pacific Daylight savings..... you LOSE an hour of sleep leaving Alaskan time the night before

 

[Dug720]

Dug is correct. At 5:30 in Alaska, it will be 3 hours later busy time.

We chose late dining despite the time change because of ports. If it's a problem, we will just eat on deck or something like that.

The two times I've gone to Alaska the group I was with had early, and even with the time change I hated it. It felt way too early for me - and left far too much night to figure out what to do (for someone who isn't anti-alcohol but who doesn't find it fun to drink just to drink and get drunk).

 

[erin1715]

Haha wow, I must have been tired last night. Yes now I get it about the time change!

 

[erin1715]

I think I'm going to stick with second seating. Thanks all!!

 

[Geomom]

Haha wow, I must have been tired last night. Yes now I get it about the time change!

The time change thing can really mess you up. We were using our phones as clocks, and as we couldn't figure out how to change the time on our phones the time stayed in EST. DH went to set an alarm the last night so we'd wake up at 6:30AM debarkation day. He said, 'so I should set it for 3:30'. I yelled out , 'no, wrong direction! Set it for 9:30!'

 

[saxmangeoff]

I live in the Pacific Time zone, so time differences weren't an issue for me. I was worried about late dining, because, well, it's late!

But I found there was no issue. There's enough food on board that I wasn't hungry, and the late dining gave more flexibility while in port.

 

[MamaBear58]

So Disney doesn't adjust the dining times based upon the all aboard times? I have been on both Med and South American cruises where this was done, as it doesn't make any sense to have a 5:45 dinner on board when you aren't even required to be on board until 7:45 (as if the case for Juneau and Skagway for us this summer).

Now I am really torn because we are coming from the East Coast. 8 and 8:15pm are 11 and 11:15pm for us, so having a 10 and 7 year old (plus digestion issues!) concerns me. But if we take early seating are we going to feel rushed, not to mention feel as though we're missing out on port time in in Juneau and Skagway? Hmmm.

 

[JenPinks]

So Disney doesn't adjust the dining times based upon the all aboard times? I have been on both Med and South American cruises where this was done, as it doesn't make any sense to have a 5:45 dinner on board when you aren't even required to be on board until 7:45 (as if the case for Juneau and Skagway for us this summer).

Now I am really torn because we are coming from the East Coast. 8 and 8:15pm are 11 and 11:15pm for us, so having a 10 and 7 year old (plus digestion issues!) concerns me. But if we take early seating are we going to feel rushed, not to mention feel as though we're missing out on port time in in Juneau and Skagway? Hmmm.

I have 4:45 onboard for Juneau for our July 2017 cruise.

 

[Ravenne]

So Disney doesn't adjust the dining times based upon the all aboard times? I have been on both Med and South American cruises where this was done, as it doesn't make any sense to have a 5:45 dinner on board when you aren't even required to be on board until 7:45 (as if the case for Juneau and Skagway for us this summer).

Now I am really torn because we are coming from the East Coast. 8 and 8:15pm are 11 and 11:15pm for us, so having a 10 and 7 year old (plus digestion issues!) concerns me. But if we take early seating are we going to feel rushed, not to mention feel as though we're missing out on port time in in Juneau and Skagway? Hmmm.

I wondered why they wouldn't do the same. I hope they would adjust the time. Do they not at all? We don't have much of a time zone issue, and even if we did, we could always grab something to eat to tie us over till dinner, but I'd hate to rush back for dinner just to sit in dock for 2 hours when I could've been exploring. And with the new MDRs, I don't want to miss out on those either.

Does the second seating fill up pretty quickly as a result of the later all aboard times?

 

[bcwife76]

We chose second seating for our August 2017 Alaskan cruise, but we are already on the west coast so that is closer to our normal dining time anyway.