Trying to book for March on the Wonder but the problem is that all of the first dinner seatings are booked up. I have a 4 year old so that would be bad. If one has the later dinner seating, how easy is it to switch for at least some of the nights to the earlier dinner seating?
We are generally early diners at home, and have tried both seatings on the ship.
When our son was 5, we had the late seating. It worked out better than I expected; however, it took some planning on our part (naps, snacks, etc.). A couple of times, he fell asleep at the table. Out Head Server put 2 chairs together and covered him up with a table cloth. Sounds weird, but it was really ok. We loved our tablemates and serving team, so overall it was good.
The next cruise we were waitlisted for early dining and found out at check in that we had gotten it. I will say, that for us, early dining was easier. Our third cruise, we did not clear the wait list and went to WaveBands once on board. We were lucky, they were able to move us into early dining.
Since then, we've either gotten early dining at the time of booking or have cleared the waitlist prior to the cruise. I do feel like we've been really, really lucky with the changes. I know that they cannot make it happen every time for every one. We're a small family, so that may make it a bit easier.
If you decide to go, hope for the best, but keep an open mind. Had we moved out of late dining on our first cruise we wouldn't have met the absolute best Head Server we've ever had and the wonderful tablemates who we are still in touch with 4 years later. If you can't get into main dining, there are other options if you need a night or two "off" from late dinner. We really enjoy Topsiders/Beach Blanket for dinner. It's table service, but casual.