Late Seating with 15 month old - nursery?

[Berlioz70]

Hi! I'm looking for insight from experienced cruisers with toddlers.

This is our third Disney Cruise, during our second cruise DD was 14 months and a bear during the first seating. Each night one of us had to step away to tend to her for the meal.

Fast forward, we're sailing again and now DD is 4 and DS is going to be 15 months. We just booked today for a Jan cruise, the main seating is full. DS is much more laid back than his sister, but dinner falls right during bedtime, he goes to bed between 8-830 (Eastern time).

So my question - I'm toying with booking the nursery for two of the nights, but I'm curious how it's worked out for others. Did your kids fall asleep alright, did you have regrets about sending them away during family time, should we try to move to the main seating (7 of us and it could impact small world reservations). I'm not worried about DD, she's a night owl, so late seating is fine for her.

Thanks!

 

[Lilbunnyk]

We were just on a 5 night cruise on the Wonder with our 18 month old daughter and had late seating. We choose late seating on purpose because we wanted to be able to enjoy the early shows and did not want to start getting ready for dinner super early. We did put her in the nursery one night when we had dinner at Palo and she screamed and cried as we left. That was heartbreaking but they told us she was fine and played after we were gone. We had instructed them to put her in her PJs and put her to bed if she was tired but when we returned at 10 PM she was still awake and playing. During the other dinners she did well but we had to hurry through dinner because she can't sit still for more then an hour. The servers were great about serving us fast and getting us out in under an hour! I don't think the early dinner would have make any difference, she just can't sit still. We did always make sure she got a nap during the day which usually ended up being from about 4-6 pm and this gave her enough energy to watch the show and stay up late. She did really enjoy the shows and actually sat through and watched them. This was our first cruise with a toddler and it was way less relaxing then when we had gone before just hubby and me but we still had a blast and have already booked our next cruise.