Late Seating

[soccermomrn]

My 12 year old son and I are going on the 4 night Wonder July 18th. We will be travelling with a group of 27!! All but 5 of us have early seating. One of my sisters and her two kids - 15 and 14 and my son and I have late seating. We are going to try to get it changed when we get on board. I have a few questions:

What are the chances of getting it changed?

If we have to keep late seating, will it be a total disaster because we'll be seperated from the rest of our group for the entire evening and have to do all shows/activities seperate, etc.

Would my son miss out if he ate all his dinners with the "club" at the Beach Blanket Buffett instead of enjoying the rotational dinners? He has a cousin his age that he'll be hanging with most of the time that will be doing early seating!!

He'll be turning 13 a week after the cruise -- if we can't get it changed would he be better off signing up for the teen club and hanging out in the evening with his older cousins (a little aprehensive about this option even though he'd probably love it!!)

Thanks a bunch for your help!!

 

[webray]

dinner is dinner/shows are shows...you see the same/eat the same no matter what seating. The only thing you would be missing is dinner conversation with your group..and you can't all be seated together anyway. I am guessing your teen would like hanging out on his own and enjoy choosing one of the may other dinner options available to him.

 

[traycie2201]

Phone your TA / DCL and explain that you are travelling as part of a large group, get your ressies linked so that you get dining together

 

[soccermomrn]

I tried call the TA, and explained the situation -- all they will say is that we're on the "wait list". So, all we can do is keep calling and try once we get on board.

 

[JC Butterfly]

I agree with the suggestion to contact DCL and alert them that you are with a group of 27. Since there seems to be soooo many more people requesting early seating than late, if the rest of your group was open you'd probably have an easier time switching everyone to late seating.

But also, it's not like you can sit as a group of 27 all together anyway. I'm not sure if this would work but within your group could you trade off who has the late seating? Disney is telling you that 5 people need to sit at late seating but maybe you could trade with some of your other group members so that you could visit with other people? Maybe that's more trouble than it's worth.

Good luck!

 

[tkd lisa]

My answers might sound a little weird, because I actually know this person in real life, so I know all the people involved.

My personal advice would be to have everyone switch to late seating so that you can all eat together. You won't have anyone coming in after you, so if you all get to chatting, you won't have to rush to finish dinner because they have to set up for the late seating. I think it would be best for all of you to have dinner together, and it's almost always a given that anyone can switch to late seating, while some people say they haven't been able to switch to early seating.

Failing that, I think the two families would still have fun on late seating. It's not the end of the world if the boys want to eat with their clubs, but I do think you'll enjoy the time together. Late seating will give you more time for activities in the late afternoon, instead of rushing to get ready for dinner.

Even if you do end up on split seating, there are some family type activities between the two seatings, such as walk the plank where both groups could get together. I think those activities are usually in Studio Sea at about 7:45. The early diners would come after they ate, but before their show, late diners would come after the show, before the meal.

Take care and have a great time! Lisa

 

[tkd lisa]

Just thought I'd link the meet thread for your cruise, in case you haven't visited it yet. Click on the link, and it will have the people going on that cruise from DIS.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=490778

 

[soccermomrn]

Hi Lisa!! Thanks for your suggestions! We're getting really excited! Can't believe its July already!!!

TTYS, Lou Ann

 

[kcashner]

With 27 people, you will have to be in 2 groups no matter what (each server can only handle 24 ish). However, you may want to try to be at late seating together. There are goods and bads to this as the younger kids programs have "good stuff" during late seating, but things like "family time in the lab" during early seating.

My DD had her 13th birthday on the Magic. I would strongly suggest that your turning 13 would be happier in the teen program than in the 10-12 group. However, you can only move him once. THerefore, he may want to try the 10-12 in the lab, and then if he's unhappy there, move to the teen group. The teen programming runs from noon to midnight/1am (suits DD's sleep hours perfectly!)