Late or Early Seating ???

[Soccer Princess]

Is Late or Early seating better for dinner? We do not want to miss out on the nighttime events but do not want to have to rush in the day.

Thanks

 

[DisneyKids]

We like late...gives us more "day" and doesn't cut into the nightlife. Even with our kids (9 and 5 last cruise). We have 2 more booked and requested late for both. BUT, it's a personal preference. You can find arguements for both on this board.

Keep this in mind...if you plan to see the shows, you will see the show and then eat or the reverse. So timing is about the same.

All in all...it doesn't matter too much...you're cruising DISNEY!

 

[mcnuss]

A lot of people seem to get really worried about this, but I think that the answer completely depends on your lifestyle and how flexible you & your kids are.

We have a DD8 and have chosen the late seating. I did this despite the fact that normally we would not eat that late, but because I noticed on our last Disney vacation in May, the nights we had early dinner reservations made for more stressful afternoons. I simply want to enjoy my vacation and not rush to dinner, which I feel we would do if we had the early seating. In addition, depite the fact that DD would normally be in bed by 9 at home even on weekends, I am pragmatic enough to know that there is no way in h**l that she will be in bed at that hour on a cruise! The other consideration is that there is so much food on these ships that if my child does not want to dine with us, it is not going to be a problem.

Having said all of this, if your kids are really little, then your decision making process will be different. Bottom line though is that you should not get stressed making a decision about your vacation. For my family, this will likely be a once in a lifetime trip, and I cannot imagine wasting valuable "psychic" energy worrying about dinnertime!

Happy cruising!

 

[prymsu]

we normally go with the early seating. My nine year old is just too wore out after being active during the day in ports, or swimming and play on sea days. There is no way he would be able to stay awake through a late seating meal.

of course it does depend on your child, and what they are used to. I for one would not want to skip dinner in the dining room because by 8:30 my son is usually in bed.

 

[disneyholic family]

it doesn't really matter....
if you go to late seating you go to the early show and vice versa....
we had late seating and liked it....
it also means you get second seating for breakfast on the last day....(before you get off the ship).....
i liked having no little kids eating with us...
even though there are families with little kids who eat in the second seating they try to keep them in a different rotation....

 

[SDAngel101]

Our family had Late seating at 8:30. It wasn't that bad, i thought that it would cut in with the teen activities at night, but it didn't. The group who came with us was kids ages 10-18 and adults and then my grandma(shes special, i dont feel like calling her an adult). Our family is used to eating late (between 8-9 usually) so dinner at 8:30 was prefect. Since me and my two friends usually didn't eat dessert, we were usually out by 9:45. My parents still got to see the shows they wanted to, and if there was a day at sea and everyone was tired, there was enought time to take a short nap before dinner.

 

[inkkognito]

We don't have children, and we like to have as much time as possible to do things during the day, so we always go for the late seating. We are from Chicago, so for us 8:30 is 7:30 anyway. We usually skip breakfast and have a later lunch, and goodness knows there is always something to snack on if you get hungry before the meal (chicken fingers with honey mustard...mmmm!).
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[hokie5cruiser]

Like everyone said...it depends on your style. We loved late seating even with our ds8 and twins-12 because we were not hurrying to dinner during the day. We did miss a couple of shows-but so what, another reason to return.LOL

 

[lespaul55]

It is really a personal choice and you have to look at your own family and habits. You don't miss anything since each show is shown twice opposite each sitting, plus the all time favorite, Disney Dreams even has a matinee.

Don't forget about time zones, if you are a West Coast person, your body time clock will think the 6 pm dinner is really 3 pm, at least for the first couple days. We did the early dinner our first cruise and changed to late on our second, it just works better for us.

How do you other parents get your children to sleep early of the cruise???? Our kids outlasted us every night, though I must admit the kids didn't have breakfast most mornings and we did. Of course our kids are older but even our 10 year old lasted til midnight every night.

Leslie

 

[bennett]

We had early seating and to tell you the honest truth, we never felt like we had to rush to dinner-we really like eating early-gosh by the time you get done eating for the late seating its about 9:30-hate to feel so full so late in the evening-

you will definately get all types of opinions on this question-