Late Dining

[stretch]

We are scheduled for late dining. Having kids 3 and 5. I am thinking about being waitlisted for early dining but not so sure I want to. Figured I would rather have them awake for the early show than the early dining since I'm not sure they would enjoy sitting still for a couple of hours in the dining room. Wouldn't they be more happy eating fast food, see the show, then spend the rest of the evening at the kids club where they could relax (nap?)? Anyone care to share their good or bad experiences with late seating? Should I be doing everything possible to get this changed?

 

[Jsme]

We have cruised two times with our children. We have had both the early and late seating. For us, the first seating was too rushed and we had to watch what all we did in order to get back to the room and clean up before eating. The second seating was nicer. If my children were hungry they just went up and got some chicken fingers, which they loved! This way we could take our time about what we did and be a little more relaxed. With the later seating you do not have to get up as early if you are going to St THomas for customs, plus you get to eat later on debarkment day.

I asked my children a week ago when booking our 11/06 cruise which they wanted, first or late seating and they both said late. My children are older then yours though. Not sure if this would make a difference to us. I have also read if you are on central or west coast time you would prefer the late seating due to the change/shift to east coast time zone.

 

[stretch]

Your idea about feeding them chicken fingers is exactly what I was thinking. I'm figuring (maybe incorrectly) that by 9:00pm they'll be tired. I would rather them miss dining than miss the shows. I just get the feeling (from past experience) that sitting there in the dining room for a couple of hours would not be fun for them or me. Am I wrong here?

 

[lbgraves]

We found that the kids were really good at the early seating and enjoyed the shows every night. On both of our cruises there was a night when we dressed the kids while they were sleeping and put them in a stroller to go to dinner. They napped another 30-60 minutes while we enjoyed our dinner and when they woke up our server brought their dinner right out. They were then rested to enjoy the rest of the evening. We are really hoping that our waitlisting comes thru this time. We are not looking forward to late dining at all and in fact decided to book our 2006 now so that we would get early. Eating dinner that late doesn't appeal to us and we are early risers so we usually go to bed soon after the show, so that would be right after dinner with late seating.

 

[poohssmum]

My boys were 3 and 6 the first time we cruised. Had late-seating and it worked out great for us. We never felt rushed, we could grab snacks (chicken fingers or a hot dog) in the late afternoon while hanging by the pool without the fear it would "ruin dinner", and the kids were awake for the shows. We would bring them to dinner with us, but were ok with them eating a salad and/or fruit before their Mickey Bar. And they often left for the "club" before we were done eating. Plus, I like the later breakfast time on disembarkation morning.