Late Dining pros and cons

[ToyStory3]

Hi - just wondering what people think about the pros and cons of late dining. We are going on our first DCL next week and I requested late dining. I felt like it would give us more time through the day and we wouldn't feel as rushed to start getting ready early. We tend to stay up a little later and sleep in a little later so I thought this would be a good fit for our family. We will be going to a couple of the shows (Tangled and Wishes) but not all. So, I thought that would, again, give us more free time on the ship. But, everyone on the boards seems to overwhelmingly prefer the early dining. And, when I was booking the DCL agent stated that people sometimes "lose it" when the early dining is not available. It doesn't really matter at this point and we are generally pretty easy-going, so I'm not overly concerned. But, just beginning to wonder if I'm missing a huge advantage to early dining. Thanks for any input!

 

[cruisehopeful]

I've always done late dining, but am going to early dining next time.
What I liked about late dining: Never have to hurry from any port or any activity. Easy to bring multi ages together without disrupting activities. More relaxed pace, waiters not in a hurry to get us out. I always assumed less younger, crying children.

Why I am switching to early: I kept getting hungry around 5 or 6 on my last cruise and I'd eat and then not have an appetite at dinner time. I get up at 5am every day now and tend to go to bed early and I don't like to eat and then go directly to bed. The ship seems to pick up speed at night and I tend to feel it more. I don't like to eat while rocking.

 

[hubbard53]

early dining is EARLY! we did it on our first sailing and felt like we were way too rushed. We've done late dining on all subsequent cruises and it just fits our lifestyle better. Our son LOVES to quickly eat and be whisked away to Kids club - and too love it b/c we dont have to worry about finishing up and taking him upstairs.

 

[ToyStory3]

early dining is EARLY! we did it on our first sailing and felt like we were way too rushed. We've done late dining on all subsequent cruises and it just fits our lifestyle better. Our son LOVES to quickly eat and be whisked away to Kids club - and too love it b/c we dont have to worry about finishing up and taking him upstairs.

Thanks - so they only come through and take kids to the Kids Club for late dining? Is that because the shows are over? Thanks!

 

[hubbard53]

Thanks - so they only come through and take kids to the Kids Club for late dining? Is that because the shows are over? Thanks!

I think it's only for late dining but now that you ask, I'm not positive as to whether they do it for early (he was only 9 mos old on our first cruise so no kids club) or the reasoning behind it. All I know is that he thinks it's kind of a big deal

 

[TrySomethingNew]

Kids ages? Your normal eating time? For some people this matters.

We've done late (with 5yo and teen), and it was too late. 5yo fell asleep 2 out of 4 nights during dinner. We felt uncomfortably full when we went to bed a few hours later. Our servers were s.l.o.w. And we would be one of the last few tables left in the entire dining room when we finally would get dessert at 10 pm or so (we sat by ourselves so no other party influencing the flow at our table).

We've done early, kids were older then so no one would have fallen asleep if we had been on late dining. We had to rush 1x to get back from excursion to dinner. Positives: we were not full at bedtime, enjoyed a snack or two later in the evening. Flow was better and servers were more on top of things (and motivated to move dinner along in prep for second seating).

But, only you know how early or late you might like to eat, how late do you think you'll stay up, etc. how slow or fast do you like things? More kids at main seating typically and tables on the Dream and Fantasy are a bit closer together so even if you sit by yourself, it may seem like you have table mates depending on where your table is located.

 

[LizGirl]

We had late dining on our first cruise and I requested it again for our next cruise. I like not having to rush away during daylight to go and get ready for dinner. The pools and, more importantly, AquaDuck, really emptied out so we could ride multiple times.

My kids were 8 and 6. The 6 year old only fell asleep the first dinner because he was just tired from traveling. The rest of the week was great.

Next time, we will have to plan a little better to catch the shows. We didn't do a great job of being ready for those. We will also be skipping the long dinner a couple of times and enjoying burgers and fries on deck watching a movie. I can't wait!

 

[Mr. Drauer]

we have done late on all 5 of our cruises - kids are now 9 and 13, but started with 4 and 8 and they did fine. they only come to pick up the kids from the late dining, not early, as the kids club has dinner at the same time (5:30 - 6:00 i believe). It gives us more time in the day so we don't have to rush to get ready (2 DD's + DW) and we like to attend the shows as a family at 6:15. It works for us to have a snack around 5 and the kids would rather spend time in the clubs or pool in the afternoon and then after dinner.

 

[gotomu212]

We love late dining for all the reasons you stated, plus early dining is just way too early for us (on non-vacation days we're still at work when early dining starts so our heads are not used to eating that early). The meal is more relaxed and we aren't rushed through the evening.

The kids club pickup is only at late dining- I think because they number of kids at early dining just make it too hard to accommodate.

 

[Mitura]

We have always done late. This will be our fourth cruise. Our cruises started when the kides were at ages 10 & 6 years old now 14 & 10. We have always cruised around Thanksgiving.
Dinner is more relaxed. There is no rushing to get ready for dinner. No rushing from shore excursions.
The shows, we don't always go to them. If we miss them they are on in the cabin TV.
Late dinner usually has more empty chairs so waiters spend more time with us, give us more attention.
Aquaduck at 5 or 6, during early dinner ... no line. Same with movies in the theater. My oldest loves the afternoon movies and he gets the whole theater to himself when its late afternoon.
5 pm events in the atrium we mingle around, get photos, look at art work...
We are late risers and late to bed family.

Hope this helps.

Joe

 

[DCLDVC1]

Unless people skip the shows, I don't think there's much difference in "feeling rushed" to get ready for early dinner or the early show. You're looking at a difference of 15 minutes or so. We usually head to dinner a little before 6 and depending upon the show, get in line around the same time.

 

[Geomom]

Sounds like your family would be fine for late dining. And yes, if you're not doing all the shows, you'll have that time free and it shouldn't be crowded in other parts of the ship.

We normally eat around 6PM, and just can't eat a full dinner after 8PM--so we prefer early dining. Also, our first cruise this past August, we were 3-4 time zones west of where we live...which means we're eating later than usual if we hadn't adjusted to the time zone.

 

[ajo]

We've done both main and second seating dinner with kids from ages 2 to 12. We all liked second dining better. The younger kids fell asleep during the early dining, but not the late dining. For our group, the second seating worked better with what we wanted to do on the ship and the flow of our activities. I don't think there is a wrong answer here. You just have to figure out which one works best for your family.

 

[clten]

We had early seating once, we much prefer late seating. You asked for pros and cons to late seating and the previous posts cover a lot of the reasons we enjoy late seating.

The one con in my opinion is that the schedule of night time activities seems to be geared to early seating diners. They have the shows opposite so everyone has the opportunity for them but the other activities I feel late diners have a disadvantage. For the 7:45 activities/shows, they run right up until late dinner starts so if you have late dinner, you have to hustle to the MDR to show up on time while early diners have a cushion before their show starts. Same with activities starting at 9:45. Very rarely do we make it out of the dining room by 10 so there is no way to get to a 9:45 activity, even the cabaret shows that start at 10:15 it is difficult to get out of the dining room in time and once you are there, it's difficult to find seats as the early diners have had a nice cushion between the end of the show and the start of the cabaret. We don't do Pirate Night up on deck anymore but the servers do make an effort to get dinner served on a schedule for everyone to be finished in time for the deck party but if you're leaving dinner 5 minutes before the party starts, good luck finding a spot.

Now I know there are diners leaving the dining room before us (we are sometime amazed when we see desserts walking by when we are just finishing up our salad, just don't know how they get through the meal so fast) so you could adjust the pace of your dinner if the other activities are important to you. I just think DCL should adjust the times slightly to accommodate those that are in late dining and do not want to have to rush through dinner.

 

[hubbard53]

... and i never neglect to mention that eating upstairs in Cabanas for table service is a GREAT alternative. We've often enjoyed that more than the MDRs

 

[scootch]

We go to the shows everynight, so even with late dining we had to be ready at the same time as the early dining people.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

We go to the shows everynight, so even with late dining we had to be ready at the same time as the early dining people.

The early dinner starts at 5:45 and the early show at 6:15 so it's 1/2 hr later. I'm not sure if that's every cruise, but I think most.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

We prefer late dining for these reasons:
- don't have to rush in ports
- enjoy the pool deck and Aqua duck with virtually no lines from about 4:30 pm on
- kids club staff picks up the children from late dinner about 9:00-9:15 so we can finish our meal in peace
- kids more alert for the first show
- 8 am breakfast on the last morning instead of something crazy like 6:45am
- we often enjoy a pre-dinner drink in one of the lounges after the show.

On a sea day we tend to stay in the pools, ride the aqua duck until about 5:30, well I will leave first to go shower and DH and kid ride the aqua duck and then get come down about 20 min later and we go to the show.

Just as a sidenote we usually eat dinner around 6 at home and DS is in bed by 8:30. Yet late dining works for us.

 

[PlanoNana]

We've done late dining both of our previous cruises, liked it and asked for it again on our post Thanksgiving cruise. DD and I decided we wanted late dining so DGD5 could enjoy the show. No clue how DGD1.5 will do for the show and both girls may fall asleep at dinner. If they do, then they do. We'll get the girls a snack around 5, go to the show then walk around the ship a bit and go to dinner.

 

[scootch]

The early dinner starts at 5:45 and the early show at 6:15 so it's 1/2 hr later. I'm not sure if that's every cruise, but I think most.

But to get a good seat, you need to arrive 20-30 min ahead of time.

Also for breakfast the next morning, you can go to Cabanas later if you don't want early breakfast.

Just stating why late dining didn't work for us personally. Everyone has their own preferences.