Late or Early Dinner Seating?

[jsmla]

I will be sailing with our just-turned-6 gran daughter in February. We’ll be 4 nights on the Magic sailing out of NOLA.

I just booked this and the early dinner seating wasn’t available. I joined the wait list but am rethinking. We’ve never cruised before but I’m pretty sure we care more about the shows than the restaurants. The problem is Dilly has a fairly strict 8:00 bedtime and I’m worried that she’ll be too tired for the later shows/dinners. She doesn’t nap.

What do all of you who go with younger kids do? Are the shows worth possibly missing a meal?

Thanks!

 

[Dug720]

The biggest issue is if you skip dinner you will be left with possibly some of the pool deck food or room service as there is no other option. (Well, the adult-only restaurants, but that leaves the issue of what to do with the grandchild.

I personally love the shows and would say stick with late dining. If she falls asleep during dinner, the servers are well versed in doing things like turning chairs into beds for sleeping children.

 

[Mango7100]

We have always had late dining, starting when our daughter was 5. It actually wasn’t a problem for us (and we eat earlier at home normally and she normally had a 730 bedtime at that age). she enjoyed the shows and did fine with dinner being later, right after dinner she was ready to go back to the cabin and sleep. I think if we had early dinner she would have fallen asleep during the shows after eating. And it was nice to not feel like we had to rush and clean up after pool time or excursions to make an early dinner. Now she is 10 and we actually request late dining.

 

[jsmla]

Thank you, I’m definitely leaning toward keeping the later time.

 

[Husker Mike]

When people ask this question, they never mention the child's home time zone, because that's a HUGE unknown. If your granddaughter is coming from the central time zone, it is a concern...if she's coming from the eastern time zone, it's a big problem. (8 pm NOLA time is 9 pm eastern)

If she's coming from the west coast, it's the opposite. 8 pm NOLA time is 6 pm pacific time...and the early dinner is at 3:45 in the afternoon on her clock.

 

[auntlynne]

I think I would stick with late dining. The shows are better than the food; make that the priority. If needed, grab some chicken fingers from the pool deck before the show to cut the hunger.

And they bring out the kids’ plates quickly. I have seen many children resting during the meal - even the early seating.

 

[Peaseblossom36]

Take into account the time any time changes too.

Maybe consider having an early pre dinner? Grab something on the pool deck for her before the show, go to the show and then keep late dinner where she can eat if she's awake but if she's tired someone could take her back to the room so she can sleep or can rest at the table.

We haven't done a cruise with our kiddo yet but did do Disney recently. At home we have a pretty strict schedule with sleep but found that our child at two was able to be flexible on vacation with sleep.

 

[CamColt]

We have always chosen late dining, since our kids were 8 months and 3 1/2. While we ate very early and went to bed early at home, on vacation those schedules went out the window. Late has always worked out well for us. The kids are now adults and turned out just fine.

 

[BStieers]

No kids, but we prefer early dinning due to our time zones, and sleep schedules. Your mileage may vary

 

[jsmla]

We will not be changing time zones.

 

[Ensusieasm]

We will not be changing time zones.

The shows are great, and with late dining you will go to those shows much earlier before dinner while your daughter isn’t so sleepy, and she will be much less likely to fall asleep in the dark theatre.

 

[jsmla]

She

The shows are great, and with late dining you will go to those shows much earlier before dinner while your daughter isn’t so sleepy, and she will be much less likely to fall asleep in the dark theatre.

Dilly (granddaughter) is more of an early bird and doesn’t do so well with late nights. I definitely want to do the Rapunzel dinner but we’d probably be okay if we don’t make it to the others.

I’m counting on room service being available if we need a meal. Hot dogs, pizza and nuggies are fine dining as far as Dilly is concerned and I’m good with anything if it means she gets her rest.

 

[tvguy]

One other thing to consider, what is the child's normal bedtime when they are on vacation. My kids always ended up staying up a couple hours later on vacation even in the same time zone.
And as West coasters on a Caribbean our issue was that late seating at 830 pm eastern was 5:30 pm Pacific. So LATE seating was eating EARLY. With after school sports my kids during the school year were rarely home before 630 pm for us to START fixing dinner . Which is why on other cruise lines that had midnight buffets, our kids loved hitting the carving station about 12:30 am before bed. Up at 9 or 930 am, hit the breakfast buffet about 9:45 am. And all our excursions were 11 am or later.

 

[jsmla]

Time zones won’t be a factor, we live an hour away from the departure port. We’ve taken Dilly to Disney quite a few times as well as gone on other vacations together. She is not good with late nights. On our August WDW trip I made sure any dinner reservations were early. We were always back at Ft Wilderness for 8:00. If I had to guess I’d say around 9:00 pm is pumpkin time. She will only have turned six in January. I’m pretty sure we’ll have to pick either a show or dinner.

 

[AquaDame]

She

Dilly (granddaughter) is more of an early bird and doesn’t do so well with late nights. I definitely want to do the Rapunzel dinner but we’d probably be okay if we don’t make it to the others.

I’m counting on room service being available if we need a meal. Hot dogs, pizza and nuggies are fine dining as far as Dilly is concerned and I’m good with anything if it means she gets her rest.

There is no guarantee this will work, but if the waitlist does not come through for early dining and you are looking for just one dinner you could ask your head waiter about it. They may be able to fit you in at a table if they know their normal guests that night will not come due to reservations at one of the adult venues or some other reason. I've never done this, but have heard from others who have.

 

[JM_97]

In that case, I'd keep late dinning. Also, if you have early dinning, there's a possibility that you are kind of rushing to get back on the ship just to get to dinner.

 

[jsmla]

In that case, I'd keep late dinning. Also, if you have early dinning, there's a possibility that you are kind of rushing to get back on the ship just to get to dinner.

We won’t be leaving the ship. Our only port is Progresso which is very skippable for us. This trip is 100% about Dilly getting to enjoy the onboard amenities. Food is nowhere near the top of the list for her (she barely eats) and Nana doesn’t care!

 

[Annabell]

On our first cruise, DD was around 5 years old and we had late seating. She fell asleep during dinner, it´s just too late for her. After that I always choose early seating.

 

[mmouse37]

We have been cruising DCL for 25 years and even when our kids were little we always picked late dining. Now we often cruise with our grandkids....ages 2, 4,5,8,8 (littlest was too young to cruise on our more recent one (under 6 mos).

We just cruised with a 4,5 and 8 year old. None of them nap and all did great with late dinner. We love going to the show early....even though we have seen the shows a million times it is still a priority for us. I would much rather they see quality entertainment at the main stage shows than eat dinner which they can get anywhere (all they eat is mac n cheese. pasta and nuggets anyway lol).

Stick with late dining. You will be amazed at the shows and the excitement your granddaughter will have all around the ship. Go by her cues...she may not want to sleep by 8:00 on vacation. Our grands were up to at least 11:00 each night in the kids clubs, etc. Give the dining rooms a try...you can ask your servers to speed up the service and if they can, they will. Don't deny yourself a decent meal either!!

Have a great time and enjoy your cruise....I just love seeing DCL through another generation's eyes!!!

MJ

 

[jsmla]

On our first cruise, DD was around 5 years old and we had late seating. She fell asleep during dinner, it´s just too late for her. After that I always choose early seating.

How did you fit in the shows? This girl LOVED all of the shows at WDW so this is a priority for us.