HELP! Disney Cruise Main/Late Dining question

[Tmorte]

I know many people prefer main dining opposed to late dining. We are leaving in 28 DAYS!! We have main dining, BUT I have been debating changing our dining to the late dining. We have three kiddos that are 7, 6 and almost 2 years old. AND we leave in Utah, which is TWO hours earlier than Florida. SO... if we have the early dining at 5:45pm, that is 3:45pm/4:00pm our time. I would LOVE anyones thoughts on this and see if anyone has even ran into this problem before. I also know that most "families" go to main dining as opposed to late dining. So I wouldn't want to be the only family with young children at the late dining. i might be thinking too much into this, but I would love anyone and everyone's insight on this topic.
TIA!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I know many people prefer main dining opposed to late dining. We are leaving in 28 DAYS!! We have main dining, BUT I have been debating changing our dining to the late dining. We have three kiddos that are 7, 6 and almost 2 years old. AND we leave in Utah, which is TWO hours earlier than Florida. SO... if we have the early dining at 5:45pm, that is 3:45pm/4:00pm our time. I would LOVE anyones thoughts on this and see if anyone has even ran into this problem before. I also know that most "families" go to main dining as opposed to late dining. So I wouldn't want to be the only family with young children at the late dining. i might be thinking too much into this, but I would love anyone and everyone's insight on this topic.
TIA!

You wouldn't be the only family with young kids at late seating. If you're unsure whether early or late works for you, I'd suggest stay with the early seating until you get onboard. If you feel that it's not going to work, it's much easier to switch to late from early than the other way around, once you're onboard.

Personally, I do early seating for much the same reasoning that you use. We eat early at home (we're west coast, so 3 hours difference), and late seating just doesn't work for my tummy.

 

[Sytrace]

We enjoy the second seating and have seen MANY families with younger kids there.
Something to keep in mind, with the second seating, your 6 and 7 year olds can be taken to the kids clubs after they finish dinner by a counseler who comes to the door of the MDR's to take the kids.
If you do this, tell the servers that you are sending them to the kids clubs after dinner, so they can get your kids meals out sooner.
Then you could either take the youngest to the nursery or enjoy some time alone or the three of you could enjoy dinner.

We also like second seating because we have a later breakfast time on debarkation morning. My kids are teens...it is not pleasant waking them up at 5:30 or so to get ready for breakfast at 6:45. None of us are really early morning people though. lol

 

[Tmorte]

You wouldn't be the only family with young kids at late seating. If you're unsure whether early or late works for you, I'd suggest stay with the early seating until you get onboard. If you feel that it's not going to work, it's much easier to switch to late from early than the other way around, once you're onboard.

Personally, I do early seating for much the same reasoning that you use. We eat early at home (we're west coast, so 3 hours difference), and late seating just doesn't work for my tummy.

Thank you so much!!! Do you think we could possibly try the main dining the first night and if we feel it isn't working for us, would they let us switch after that first night? We have already decided we will skip the EARLY breakfast the last morning and go to the buffet. We will say our goodbyes to our servers the night before.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Thank you so much!!! Do you think we could possibly try the main dining the first night and if we feel it isn't working for us, would they let us switch after that first night? We have already decided we will skip the EARLY breakfast the last morning and go to the buffet. We will say our goodbyes to our servers the night before.

Certainly you can ask to switch after you've given it a try.

Also, it's possible, even with early dinner seating, to have the late seating for breakfast the last morning. Just ask your head server if you can do it. We've been able to change to the late breakfast option twice, when we needed to.

 

[Marc D]

Also consider at what time do you think you family will go to bed. We prefer our son not to sleep on a full tummy so we do early seating, than go to the show then he goes to bed. If your kids are going to be staying up late, like many do, it's not a problem with late seating.

Also, because of the breakfast and lunch schedule, you'll have to adapt a bit. Can your kids eat lunch around 12-1PM and dinner at 8:30 ? We don't let our son snack between meals, but many parents give the kids a snack (read hamburger, pizza, ice cream, etc.) around 4PM to hold them until late seating. Contrary to Sytrace, we are early risers so we hit Cabana's around 7:30, lunch at noon then dinner at 5:45.

 

[Tmorte]

We enjoy the second seating and have seen MANY families with younger kids there.
Something to keep in mind, with the second seating, your 6 and 7 year olds can be taken to the kids clubs after they finish dinner by a counseler who comes to the door of the MDR's to take the kids.
If you do this, tell the servers that you are sending them to the kids clubs after dinner, so they can get your kids meals out sooner.
Then you could either take the youngest to the nursery or enjoy some time alone or the three of you could enjoy dinner.

We also like second seating because we have a later breakfast time on debarkation morning. My kids are teens...it is not pleasant waking them up at 5:30 or so to get ready for breakfast at 6:45. None of us are really early morning people though. lol

Thank you! I had heard about having the kids finish dinner and go to kids club! It isn't a bad idea!! Aren't the first showings of the shows not as busy then the late showings? Like the Golden Mickey Awards and such?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Thank you! I had heard about having the kids finish dinner and go to kids club! It isn't a bad idea!! Aren't the first showings of the shows not as busy then the late showings? Like the Golden Mickey Awards and such?

I've found both show times tend to be about the same attendance. Remember 1/2 the ship is eating early dinner with the show afterward, and the other 1/2 seeing the show first, then eating dinner.

 

[Sytrace]

Thank you! I had heard about having the kids finish dinner and go to kids club! It isn't a bad idea!! Aren't the first showings of the shows not as busy then the late showings? Like the Golden Mickey Awards and such?

I am not really sure about the shows as we don't see them anymore. Our first few cruises, we did see them, but we had early dining back then. It was only at our 4th or 5th cruise that we started requesting second seating when we made our reservations.
I would imagine though, that seatings are evenly balanced so that both early and late diners can enjoy the shows with the same level of comfort and crowd.

 

[Tmorte]

Certainly you can ask to switch after you've given it a try.

Also, it's possible, even with early dinner seating, to have the late seating for breakfast the last morning. Just ask your head server if you can do it. We've been able to change to the late breakfast option twice, when we needed to.

THAT is excellent advice! To request the late breakfast! Thank you!

 

[mom4mad]

We live in California, two kids aged 7 and 11, but cruising since oldest was 2. We prefer the late seating. It kind of keeps us on California time, and we don't feel rushed to get to dinner. Also, we tend to ge a snack in the late afternoon on deck or a cheese platter thru room service at that time, so no one is hungry in time for main dining. Our kids love the dine and play option as well, and that is only available with late seating. Also, they are up later which means they sleep in the next day. We tried main dining once and didn't like it due to all of the above. There are lots of kids at second seating too. Have a great cruise!

 

[bumbershoot]

I also know that most "families" go to main dining as opposed to late dining.

Just to add, from our experience this is in no way true. There are plenty of families who have late seating for all sorts of reasons.

 

[cmph]

We really liked late dining for our NYE 7-nighter. Our kids are 8 and 11, so older, and we are also west coast time zone. Mine were only up before 11am if we woke them up (for our Nassau excursion and b/c I insisted on Castaway Cay day). They were never tired until midnight. So if we had main dining, we would have been hunting down a second night time meal for them anyway. As it was, we basically had lunch, then a 4pm-ish pool deck snack time, then dinner most days. I wouldn't at all worry about little ones there, we even saw strollers. We did also see one little guy passed out ON the table while the rest of his family ate, but that was the first night LOL!

Our 6:15 (6:00 for Frozen) shows were generally easy to find seats for. Frozen did fill up (which everyone expected) but not, like, immediately when the doors opened. Disney Dreams on the last night was the only really full one, with people even sitting on the aisles. A lot of main dining families must have skipped the MDRs that night.

Truthfully, you'll be fine either way! They stay up late and sleep in and you don't switch to late seating? MDR is just meal #2 and you'll still find snacks on-deck and have room service at 10pm! For us, I think we'd only pick main if we had a lot of early morning excursions on a port-intensive itinerary.

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

Personally, I think the choice of main or second dining should be more about your activities schedule and preferences there than your eating schedule.

Eating is easy. Wide time ranges for breakfast and lunch can easily mesh with early or late dinner. And room service or the quick serve restaurants by the pool can fill in during the late afternoon or evening if someone gets hungry. It just isn't like a regular vacation where eating is a big production and only happens a couple set times a day. Your family won't starve unless they try really hard!

On the other hand, different dinner times can make a big difference on your activities schedule. We didn't find it hard to get ready in time for 5:45 dinner, after all, if you are going to the shows you'd have to be there by 6 or 6:15 anyway, not much different. But some people do find that extra time helps. Also the time afterwards is different too. We had early dinner, and so even after the main show, the evening seemed longer. More time to do this, catch entertainers or for the kids to go to the clubs, or for us to just hang out as a family. Likewise, as mentioned by PP, if you have a lot of early mornings, early seating might be helpful.

Either way will be great, but if you really want to make the "best" choice for you, look at some Navigators from previous trips on your itinerary, and see when the various evening activities were, and decide what dinner works best with the way you want things to go.


Have fun!

 

[CM Dad]

For my wife's 60th birthday we travelled with our adult children and their families and had main dining. Our grandkids ranged from 12 weeks to 6 years. Dinner was fine, but they had a hard time staying awake for the second show. We are travelling again with everyone for our 40th anniversary this summer. Currently have main dining but are considering switching to late so that the kids could enjoy the shows. We can always get them something to eat before dinner if they get hungry.

 

[Djscarlette]

Anyone with the late seating have trouble getting to the deck for the pirate party? Or have trouble finding a spot for the pirate party on the deck?
TIA

 

[cmph]

Anyone with the late seating have trouble getting to the deck for the pirate party? Or have trouble finding a spot for the pirate party on the deck?
TIA

We had no trouble. I think so many people skip it, you'll find spots no matter what. The difference between the NYE deck party crowd and Pirate party crowd was startling! I don't think I had a firm grasp of how many people skip the pirate party until I saw that in person.

 

[Dug720]

No issues here. Of course I don't try to get on the "dance floor" but on the deck above so I can watch everything.

 

[AnnaS]

All good advice. Keep Main Dining. Easier to change to late than the other way around. We have always chosen Main Dining (even when we had no young "kids"). I have wanted to try late Dining BUT for us, we are very early risers which means, early breakfast (by 8am usually), early lunch (noon/1pm latest). Dinner at home usually is between 5:30/6 pm. Because we are early risers, we don't get to bed late. We try to stay up much later than usual but we more or less try to follow a close schedule as home.

What works for one family might not work for another. No good/bad, right or wrong. Have a great cruise and enjoy!!!

 

[bumbershoot]

For my wife's 60th birthday we travelled with our adult children and their families and had main dining. Our grandkids ranged from 12 weeks to 6 years. Dinner was fine, but they had a hard time staying awake for the second show. We are travelling again with everyone for our 40th anniversary this summer. Currently have main dining but are considering switching to late so that the kids could enjoy the shows. We can always get them something to eat before dinner if they get hungry.

The change is so they can watch the shows. So what happens if they see the shows and then have a hard time being awake at dinner? Talk it through, have a plan.