Late Seating - any thoughts?

[Southern Disney Bell]

Finally, I convinced my DH to take the DD cruise for May 2010....Now we just have to figure out how to pay for it - LOL!!!

We normally eat around 6:30 at home.I just booked late seating just because I figure with excursions and making the most of our days (only 5) and getting ready for dinner would be a bit much to come in around 4:15 to start getting family ready. However, after reading more post from other folks.... I am thinking I should have NOT gotten late. I would appreciate anyones thoughts on this based on prior experiences. My little ones ages are 5 & 9.

Thanks as always in advance for your responses

 

[erinlees_mommie]

We just took our first cruise and did late dining and LOVED it!!
Our 4 yr old didn't have any problems either with eating later.
We got to see some of the characters/watched the 6:15 show and whatever before supper.And all without stains on clothes
We will do late dining again for sure next cruise!

 

[mmouse37]

16 out of 17 DCL cruises and we have had late dining by choice. First cruise was early seating and we just felt too rushed. We always choose late dining now.

MJ

 

[barney4liz]

I don't have little ones (DD is now 14), but we had early dining for our first 2 cruises and felt very rushed. At home, we rarely eat dinner before 7-7:30. I am looking forward to having late dining on our upcoming cruise.

If you have not already, do a search for the threads on the "Dine and Play" option for families of young children who have late dining.

 

[kcashner]

The only downside we've felt with late dining is that you are not at all hungry for the pirate or dessert buffets. We typically ate a late afternoon snack.

We love late dining...however, with little children I can see the advantages of early.

 

[sharen24]

We had 8:15 dining last time and were very tired by dinner time. We enjoyed seeing the show first with our 3 year old, but were bored between the show and dinner. What were we missing? I know there are activities in between, but any that a 3 year old would enjoy? What time does the Oceaneer's Club open in the evenings? Thanks!

 

[erinlees_mommie]

We had 8:15 dining last time and were very tired by dinner time. We enjoyed seeing the show first with our 3 year old, but were bored between the show and dinner. What were we missing? I know there are activities in between, but any that a 3 year old would enjoy? What time does the Oceaneer's Club open in the evenings? Thanks!

There were family shows at Rockin Bar D that we went to in between the 6:15 show and dinner at 8:15 *7 night cruise*.It was just enough time to have fun and if they let the kids dance or whatever when it was over she would dance a bit and then we would head to dinner.
I am one that has to have things organized so we took highlighters with us and highlighted things in our Navigator that we wanted to do daily.That way we never were running behind.
As far as Pirate Night.We ate a later lunch and a light supper.But the only thing from the buffet we had was a shared plate of nachos and some pineapple.

 

[jilljill]

We've had late dining on every cruise but 1 and loved it. Our first cruise was when DD was 5 and she did fall asleep one night at the table but that was after a day at Castaway Cay, and she had finished her dinner.

We will sometime get ready for dinner before the show and after the show we will get pics with the characters, go the family show in Studio Sea or just relax on deck and people watch. Other times we'll see the show and then get ready for dinner, just depends what we've done that afternoon.

The clubs/labs don't close, they are open from morning until around midnight, but there are times when sign in's/out's can't be done if they are transitioning from activity to another or going to/from dinner.

 

[barney4liz]

The only downside we've felt with late dining is that you are not at all hungry for the pirate or dessert buffets. We typically ate a late afternoon snack.

We love late dining...however, with little children I can see the advantages of early.

I have to say -- after waiting in line once for the dessert buffet, I would not find it a hardship to skip it. And I adore sweets. We found that the dessert buffet is beautiful to look at, disappointing to eat. Even the young teens with us thought the desserts on the buffet were disappointing. The desserts in the dining rooms are much tastier, IMHO.

 

[sharen24]

Does anyone know what time the Oceaneer's Club starts taking new ones after the dinner "transition"?

 

[Mickey moos]

I have to agree with most of the PPs. The late dining was easier for my gang. We could wear our shorts and casual clothes to the early show and then "dress up" for dinner.

On a side note,Which 5-day are you taking? We are looking at doing the June 22.

Scott

 

[kcashner]

I have to say -- after waiting in line once for the dessert buffet, I would not find it a hardship to skip it. And I adore sweets. We found that the dessert buffet is beautiful to look at, disappointing to eat. Even the young teens with us thought the desserts on the buffet were disappointing. The desserts in the dining rooms are much tastier, IMHO.

Yeah...that's a typical problem with the cakes on DCL. The better they look, the worse they taste. The more plain looking ones are typically very good.

At DD's graduation luncheon (school function), the food was OK...then they brought out a very pretty cake. DD looked at it and told everyone at the tabke that this was going to taste like (oh well)...one guy asked how she knew. SHe replied that she was an expert on beautiful desserts from the cruise and they never tasted as good as they looked. The best thing on the dessert plate at the luncheon was the 1/2 strawberry!

 

[Southern Disney Bell]

Thanks for everyones feedback...I feel that at this time I will keep it late seating. I am sure the kids will be wired up most of the time each day by dinner from all of the sodas that they will want to drink.

We are actually on the 5 night 6 day...Double Dip @ Castaway Cay. Sorry for the confusion - May 30 2010.

 

[lbgraves]

The OC is open from 9 am to 1 am on sea days and 7 am to 1 am on port days. It does not close during the day except to transition from CC to the ship. You can take your child to the club at any point, though you may have to wait a few minutes if it is during a transition to a different location. The dine and play picks up kids around 9 pm from the dining rooms at the entrance. If your child is not ready then or wants to go earlier, all you have to do is go up to the club and check them in yourself.

 

[sharen24]

The OC is open from 9 am to 1 am on sea days and 7 am to 1 am on port days. It does not close during the day except to transition from CC to the ship. You can take your child to the club at any point, though you may have to wait a few minutes if it is during a transition to a different location. The dine and play picks up kids around 9 pm from the dining rooms at the entrance. If your child is not ready then or wants to go earlier, all you have to do is go up to the club and check them in yourself.

Is this true even when they are feeding the kids at Topsiders? I guess I need to know what happens if I don't want to send him to eat with the group. When do they return from Topsiders to the club?

 

[Ginamarie]

It's really a personal preference thing. DH and I have done late seatings before and enjoyed them, but we found it difficult to do late seating with young children and grandparents. Figure that the young ones may not be able to stay awake each night for both dinner and the show, so whichever one you do second they may sleep through. DD had just turned two on our last DCL cruise and she slept through most of the dinners. We made sure to feed her before the evening show since we knew she wouldn't make it.
We've switched back to early dining for our next cruise, since we'll be in a large group of various ages again.

 

[skoi]

We did late dining the first time last Fall. Our kids were 14, 10, and two four year olds. We really liked it. It gave us time to get ready if we needed it, and if the kids wanted to go to the shows, we did, and they actually got to see them instead of falling asleep. They did fine during dinner. Our wait staff was great and always had a drink for them, quickly brought them out something to eat, etc. The only one who fell asleep during dinner was the 10 year old, practically right into his dessert one night.

The little ones napped in the afternoon if they were tired (often with the 14 year old), sometimes falling asleep right up on deck. We also got them snacks in the late afternoon. At home, we usually eat very early- by 5:30, but everyone did fine. We're doing it again on our next cruise. PP mentioned not being hungry for the Pirate Party buffet- we definitely weren't and didn't eat, besides some dessert-type things.

 

[OurDogCisco]

I think it really depends on your children's habits. Mine are 8 and 11 now and when we do the Carribean cruise we do late because of our time difference of 3 hours and because we don't like feeling rushed.

However, for Europe we did early seating because my kids were WIPED out from all day touring that it worked out best that way. It was nice to be in bed by 9 pm while in the Carribean we were in bed by midnight. Both trips are different. For our next cruise in Baltics I picked early for the same reason.

P.S. My kids are late sleepers. I find that if you have early risers in your kids then, early dinner would be better.

 

[tinkmom2]

The second seating wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We ate a large breakfast then didn't eat lunch until around 2ish. My 3 year old was fine with the later seating too. She is a bundle of energy lol! We originally had planned on doing excursions and thought the later time would be better for us. Now on our bounceback in November we are trying the earlier dinner.

 

[battricia]

we did the late dining for our first cruise and I really enjoyed it. I don't have kids though. The thing I liked about the late dining was that you could spent as much time at the ports as you wanted without having to worry about getting back on the boat and getting showered/dressed in time for early dining.