Late Dining - How is the timing?

[ajgardner]

We will be on our 6th cruise and have always done first seating and always took a good hour and a half. This cruise is a Northern Europe cruise on Magic and we have chosen second seating. I just noticed that instead of 8:15, the seating is 8:30. I know it’s only 15 minutes but it seems like just enough that it’s going to make dinner run very late. My husband and I really like the adult entertainment and it typically begins at 10. I don’t see that we will be able to get there and get decent seats with late dining. Any experiences to share? Should we try to get first seating instead?

 

[mmouse37]

Just tell your servers you want to get out early every night. We just had 8:15 seating and we were typically out of the MDR by 9:30 ish.

MJ

 

[ajgardner]

Just tell your servers you want to get out early every night. We just had 8:15 seating and we were typically out of the MDR by 9:30 ish.

MJ

Did you feel rushed? We want to enjoy our dinner, but don’t want to miss out on entertainment...

 

[mmouse37]

Nope, not at all. We were with another couple and we had all the courses including dessert. We went to most of the entertainment at night and always got a seat.

MJ

 

[cedricandsophie]

We always do late seating and never miss a late show.

 

[ajgardner]

For some reason I just feel like starting at 8:30 rather than 8:15 is going to make things tight. It’s only 15 minutes, but yet seems like a big difference.

 

[Deb T.]

For some reason I just feel like starting at 8:30 rather than 8:15 is going to make things tight. It’s only 15 minutes, but yet seems like a big difference.

We've done several European cruises with the late dining time. If you are concerned about it, then it would definitely be best to switch back to early seating. You can't predict how fast your dining experience will be because some things are out of your, and your server's, control. Dining delays can occur with things such as your tablemates arriving late every night (this happened to us one cruise). Or, you might be assigned a new serving team who hasn't quite developed a seamless routine yet. We've also often had such good dinner conversation with our tablemates that we've lost track of time and been late leaving the MDR. My best advice is switch to early dining so you can enjoy your dinner each night and not feel anxious or rushed. Have a great cruise!!!

 

[ember1205]

Late seating is typically a little less busy than early (which is usually pretty full). We were never there (early) for 90 minutes on any night, but we also had a private table. If you get a private table at late seating, I suspect you'll be fine. Besides... Adult activities and dining aren't that far apart.