First seating or second seating and why?

[E ticket rider]

Trying to decide what seating we'd like better. It'll be myself and DS12.


Please share which you chose for your cruise and why.

Personally, I like late seating. I'm not a early to bed person and usually stay up until midnight or later. I'm also not a show person, so the show before dinner doesn't bother me.

When my kids were younger, we did early seating and I always felt so rushed in the early evening.

 

[Meghatron]

I agree to check your itinerary, but ours has us leaving Nassau at 5:30 and the excursion we are doing will have us back to the ship right before we leave if we choose to stay that late Having a day swimming with dolphins and being on the beach and then having 15-30 min to get 2 kids and myself ready for dinner-no thanks!

Like I already said, I was pointing out that it's not a universal con to early dining, yet it tends to get listed as such when people ask the question. It depends entirely on the itinerary and the family who's trying to decide. The way it's presented when the subject comes up may make it seem like everyone who has early dining rushes to get ready but that's something they're willing to deal with in exchange for the pros of early, when in fact they may not end up rushing at all.

 

[Silver Queen]

The age old question.....well do you like to eat early or later. We prefer later dining because we don't normally eat early at home. We also like late dining because I don't like to rush to dinner. Eating 5:45-6:00 is too early for us. I prefer to see the show at 6:00 ish and then have a drink between show and dinner at 8:15 or maybe catch a game show between show and dinner.

Early dinner has more children than late dinner. If you are one to linger long over your coffee after dinner early may not be the best choice. Early dinner has to be done in time to allow the servers to clean up and reset all the tables for late dinner.

Late dining is not at all rushed.

MJ

We always choose second seating for the same reasons that mmouse37 described.

 

[Fadog]

We think the biggest advantage of late seating is not having to rush back to the ship after a day in port in order to get showered and dressed. It doesn't matter if you are late or miss the show. But it all depends on you and what you like.

 

[AnnaS]

We are on the east coast and dinner for us (unless we are going out which won't be much later) is usually between 5 and 5:30. It is very rare when we eat anytime after 7PM.

We are all adults and have no small "children" and most of us prefer early dining. If you want to see any of the shows, especially if it is your first cruise, you would need to be ready anyway.

It is really a personal decision and a few factors that apply to you need to be considered - there is no right or wrong time/good/bad time.

 

[Magic3forme]

we eat at 6 at home, so I like to keep that schedule. (and we live in the same time zone.) and I personally cant eat that late.

our son for years would fall asleep by 930 so late dinner he would not have lasted, and he would have been the ultimate grump!!

 

[Stitch'sCousin]

Plus, it helps us get in our 4 meals a day....breakfast, lunch, 4 pm heavy snack, 830 pm dinner.

With room service, pizza, burgers etc, my kids think of the cruise as just being 1 continuous meal!

 

[LasseKjus]

To me, it depends on a couple of factors:

1) Where you are cruising
2) Where you are from
3) When you typically eat

For a Caribbean cruise, things are at earlier times for most (we're from the Central time zone), so immediately things are bumped an hour up. Second, when we go to the Atlantic time zone if on an eastern route, that's two hours, so a 5:30 p.m. dinner is like 3:30 p.m. to us.

Although, when we did Mexican Riviera we still did late seating because we are used to eating later, but I think we snacked more on that cruise than most.

In my opinion, late seating is better because the early seaters are busy eating and it gives you a couple of hours to do stuff with a half empty ship. Of course, on DCL, that is mostly going to the show, but if you want to enjoy the deck and pool area, it will be far less congested. Not to say that it won't be after dinner either, but, for us, we use dinner as a wind down to our day.

We've got three kids 9, 6, 4 and they've been at various stages of life on our cruises. The kids 3-under, will usually sleep anywhere and we find two chairs to put together if they don't make it through dinner for them to sleep on.

 

[Ancaster]

Got 2nd seating by default (booked 1 month before) and it worked well.

-less kids
-not hungry late at night so no need to order room service
-watched the shows before dinner
-kids had naps if they needed in the afternoon
-no need to rush back after a port day

But maybe not for some if your home routine is always earlier. Ours varies.

 

[CarolAnnC]

I have noticed many times that early seating seems to sell out first, so I assume that is the most popular.

That being said, we always choose late seating. My girls were teens when we started cruising and the late schedule just worked better with our habits. Now it is just DH and I most of the time, so we prefer late for several reasons.

We can remain at the pool while others have to run and get ready for dinner. We feel like we have a longer day that way. Sometimes we may sleep in a bit later, so that lines up with our meal times, too. There is no rush at late seating as you don't have to vacate for others coming in. However, we always keep in mind the staff has to complete cleanup and setup for the next day so we don't linger too long, lol.

 

[lovetotraveltx]

I agree with the majority of the posters that it is personal preference. We are a family of 4. Our daughters are 20 something's! We are late dinners at home, 7:15 - 7:45. We've done both seatings and thought we would prefer late. But actually don't. We don't like getting ready for dinner and doing an early show. Although 5:45 is early for us we like looking forward to to the show afterwards. Also on pirate party we are hungry to enjoy the buffet. On late seating we don't want to go to bed at 9:30 and there isn't much to do then.

Just our opinion!

 

[rentayenta]

Great insights every one, thank you.

We're coming from SLC and generally eat by 6:00. We really want to take advantage of room service and I'm thinking that the late seating wouldn't allow for that. Pizza in the cabin before bed sounds heavenly......which leads to an entirely other question, how not to gain a ton of weight.

He says early but I'm not allowing an 11 y/o to decide.

My natural instincts say early but the thought of rushing after a day in port doesn't appeal to me. What if we miss our early dinner seating due to time or not being hungry, is room service the only other option after that?

 

[lovetotraveltx]

Do you have late days in port? Port days are usually cruise casual and though they don't like it I believe you can arrive up to 6/6:15?

You can eat dinner upstairs in the buffet which becomes a sit down for dinner. All the fast food options out on deck will be open too, if you feel rushed for dinner.

We have an eight-night cruise. The first day and the cc day we will be somewhat rushed. But, to us it's still not worth doing late. Even my girls agree. It's a little early for my husband but he also enjoys having the whole night free!

 

[jfugina]

We did first seating on our first cruise with kids that were 7 and 3 at the time. It turned out to be too early for us. We're late eaters at home, but figured with the time zone switch, the earlier would feel more normal. Well, that turned out to not be true. We all adjusted to the time zone difference quickly, and were eating breakfast and lunch around 10 and 3, and first dinner was just too early.

DH and I (without kids) did second seating for our last cruise, and it worked out much better. Our next cruise (March 9th) will be second seating again, but with kids this time. We still think it will work better for us, because we'll be sleeping in, and doing breakfast and lunch late. Plus, we expect the kids to get fed and be whisked away to the kids club most nights, which means a nice long leisurely peaceful dessert and cordial for DH and I.

 

[Boos14]

We do 1st seating. It's too late for us. Nice to eat then relax at the evening show. Kids then have time to go back to clubs and have fun for a few my hours.

 

[neg58]

If you miss your 1st seating dinner, you could go to Cabanas/BBB/Topsiders to have the MDR menus served to you, go to the quick serve places, or room service.

I'll bet you could also go see your head waiter and ask if he can squeeze you in to the late seating for that night. With only 2 people, I'm sure it can be done. A party of 10? Less likely. You may not have your same servers and you may be at a large table for just two of you, but they are very nice about accommodating requests.

Second seating usually has fewer people. Even on our Christmas cruise which was full, there were several empty tables every night at the second seating. I'm sure they could figure something out.

Nancy

 

[rentayenta]

Do you have late days in port? Port days are usually cruise casual and though they don't like it I believe you can arrive up to 6/6:15?

You can eat dinner upstairs in the buffet which becomes a sit down for dinner. All the fast food options out on deck will be open too, if you feel rushed for dinner.

We have an eight-night cruise. The first day and the cc day we will be somewhat rushed. But, to us it's still not worth doing late. Even my girls agree. It's a little early for my husband but he also enjoys having the whole night free!

Thank you! That's great because on our Cozumel day it says 7:30-5:45, does that mean the ship takes off at 5:45? I'd hate to arrive at 5:00, not be ready in time for dinner, and have no options aside from room service.


Can I ask another dining related question......what's the rotation for restaurants, who chooses the rotation, and does it matter what order they're in or what you get?

 

[rentayenta]

If you miss your 1st seating dinner, you could go to Cabanas/BBB/Topsiders to have the MDR menus served to you, go to the quick serve places, or room service.

I'll bet you could also go see your head waiter and ask if he can squeeze you in to the late seating for that night. With only 2 people, I'm sure it can be done. A party of 10? Less likely. You may not have your same servers and you may be at a large table for just two of you, but they are very nice about accommodating requests.

Second seating usually has fewer people. Even on our Christmas cruise which was full, there were several empty tables every night at the second seating. I'm sure they could figure something out.

Nancy

Thank you Nancy. What's MDR? We'll be on the Wonder.

 

[neg58]

MDR is Main dining rooms. Each night at BBB (the buffet restaurant on the Wonder) they'll have dinner from about 6-8 with a selection of the same items that are on the MDR menus for that night; not every item, but a selection. You don't have to dress up, you don't need a reservation.

You are way overthinking this! If you are in a port an all aboard is 5, you WILL be on the ship by 5 because it will pull away immediately. You can look at your iterary and see the All Aboard times and most are well before the dinner time of 5:45. Only you know if you'll have enough time to get ready for dinner. My family? We could get on board at 5:30 and make a 5:45 with three showers and an outfit change. We're fast. If you are on a Disney excursion, they'll get you back. If you are on your own, YOU'LL be back long before the All Aboard.

You'll get your restaurant rotation when you check in. You'll be assigned to an order of restaurants, like APPTTA (Animator's, Parrots, Parrots, etc.) and you'll have the same waiter and table mates throughout the cruise. It will be fine! If you are running late or just don't want to dress but do want a nice sit-down dinner, just go to BBB on your schedule.

Don't freak about these things. You won't go hungry, you WILL miss something at some point because you can't do it all, but you may not even know you missed it. My daughter and I did a 4 day cruise and never ordered room service, didn't eat at the pirates buffet, never went to the munchies outside the bars and we still had more food than we should have and fun. We liked our main dining room servers and just ate as scheduled.

Nancy

 

[rentayenta]

MDR is Main dining rooms. Each night at BBB (the buffet restaurant on the Wonder) they'll have dinner from about 6-8 with a selection of the same items that are on the MDR menus for that night; not every item, but a selection. You don't have to dress up, you don't need a reservation.

You are way overthinking this! If you are in a port an all aboard is 5, you WILL be on the ship by 5 because it will pull away immediately. You can look at your iterary and see the All Aboard times and most are well before the dinner time of 5:45. Only you know if you'll have enough time to get ready for dinner. My family? We could get on board at 5:30 and make a 5:45 with three showers and an outfit change. We're fast. If you are on a Disney excursion, they'll get you back. If you are on your own, YOU'LL be back long before the All Aboard.

You'll get your restaurant rotation when you check in. You'll be assigned to an order of restaurants, like APPTTA (Animator's, Parrots, Parrots, etc.) and you'll have the same waiter and table mates throughout the cruise. It will be fine! If you are running late or just don't want to dress but do want a nice sit-down dinner, just go to BBB on your schedule.

Don't freak about these things. You won't go hungry, you WILL miss something at some point because you can't do it all, but you may not even know you missed it. My daughter and I did a 4 day cruise and never ordered room service, didn't eat at the pirates buffet, never went to the munchies outside the bars and we still had more food than we should have and fun. We liked our main dining room servers and just ate as scheduled.

Nancy

I'm so over thinking it. We're fast like your family. Thank you for the reality check. I'm a huge planner and then end up only doing about 1/4 of what I think we'll do. Last October in WDW, I made 9 ADRs and I think we made 4 of them.

I'm sure we'll eat WAY more than we should. He's ecstatic over the room service.