Late to dinner?

[hckyten]

How long past your dinner time is acceptable to arrive? I am a very punctual person but there is one night we might be late for dinner and was wondering how long past the scheduled dinner time do we throw in the towel and eat at cabanas?

 

[Disneygal19]

How long past your dinner time is acceptable to arrive? I am a very punctual person but there is one night we might be late for dinner and was wondering how long past the scheduled dinner time do we throw in the towel and eat at cabanas?

Well for our last cruise many people were late due to a late port time in Victoria. For the late dinner seating at 815 you can show up until 9pm and be served entree and dessert

 

[Gigi22]

Are you at the main dinner seating, or the late seating? In practical terms, if you are at the main seating, there's not a lot of leeway--the people at the second seating will be arriving at their appointed time (I think it is 8:15 p.m.?) and you have to be finished dinner and gone before then.

Your servers will do their best to ensure you are accommodated if you come in late, but if you know in advance when you will be able to arrive, it would be helpful to let your servers know the night before. (Otherwise, they may assume that you are not coming in to dinner at all). Also, if you arrive seriously late, you should consider just ordering a main course, rather than "the works".

 

[gotomu212]

How long past your dinner time is acceptable to arrive? I am a very punctual person but there is one night we might be late for dinner and was wondering how long past the scheduled dinner time do we throw in the towel and eat at cabanas?

If you have early dining and know you'll be late, the head server can book you into late dining. I think they like to know the day before, but really they can do it on the spot since late seating has more flexibility. You'll be at a different table, and may not have the same serving crew but we did that when we had a late excursion once and it worked great.

 

[TXDCLfan]

How long past your dinner time is acceptable to arrive? I am a very punctual person but there is one night we might be late for dinner and was wondering how long past the scheduled dinner time do we throw in the towel and eat at cabanas?

If I was going to be more than 10-15 minutes late I would just go to Cabanas.

 

[ilovetexas]

If I was going to be more than 10-15 minutes late I would just go to Cabanas.

Me, too. These servers are doing their best to serve several tables at once. It's important to keep everyone at the same "place" in the meal, whether that's drinks, appetizers, entree, etc. Showing up late will throw them off.

They certainly aren't going to turn you away, but just to make it easier on them I agree that 10-15 minutes is as long as I would push it.

 

[peachygreen]

It really throws off the whole dining team when you are late. 2 tables in our section were late (like 30 minutes late) for dinner one night on our cruise. It actually delayed the rest of our dinner due to the accodmodations for these 2 tables. Its not only the servers but the kitchen that gets messed up because everything is laid out in courses and it is not easy to go back.

 

[jsolar]

For early dinner we always showed up by 6:00. On the Fantasy, Our server made a point to tell us we had to be on time (5:45) for Animators Palate so our drawings would be part of the show.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[bceagle76]

i have always have late dining
We usually arrive on time but we tend to take our time and are usually some of last people out of the room.
We dont like to rush thru and tell the servers to take their time.
But as long we stay I have seen some peole on their main course when we are leavin who knows when they arrived. But the staff seems fine with it.

 

[hckyten]

Thanks for the help. We have first seating and should be able to be there by 6 but we are not appetizer people (usually) so I think we will be alright from what everyone seems to be saying.

 

[kcashner]

If this is due to a late DCL excursion, the ship will know about it and the dining team may be prepared in advance. If so, they will let you know.

As to "throw in the towel and go to Cabanas..., " I find that an odd way to view dinner at Cabanas. Dinner is a sit down meal with the same food as in the main dining rooms. It has a more casual atmosphere and a better view. It is a "training restaurant" so no tipping is expected (they are on a decent salary.) We found both the food and service to be better than the MDR as the food is freshly cooked (they don't know how many to expect!) and our server only had us and one other 2 top. It was totally EXCELLENT.

 

[jilljill]

Talk to your servers the night before you anticipate being late and see what they suggest to you. It's always a good idea to give them a head's up, especially when sitting with others, so they don't hold up taking everyone's order at the table while waiting for you and your family to show up.

 

[MKwatercraftPilot]

How long past your dinner time is acceptable to arrive? I am a very punctual person but there is one night we might be late for dinner and was wondering how long past the scheduled dinner time do we throw in the towel and eat at cabanas?

As a PP has stated, I think 10-15 minutes is pretty acceptable. Any longer than that and I think it would be an inconvenience.

It's also important to mention that if you are sharing a table with other people (ie, other families, couples, etc) you should let your servers and tablemates know the day before that you may be late.
The servers tend to try to serve each course to everyone at the table at the same time, so if your tablemates are on time and you are 10 minutes late, they will be twiddling their thumbs for 10 minutes, but if you have told the servers not to worry about it and go ahead and serve your tablemates, it will be no problem.
If you plan to skip the appetizer then all the better, as you will "catch up" since they will probably be just finishing their appetizer when you arrive.


Above all, a Vacation is supposed to be relaxing and fun, so don't kill yourself trying to get to dinner on time. You will still have a perfectly lovely meal if you eat in Cabanas and you won't have all the stress of rushing and worrying about apologizing to servers or tablemates or anything like that. You could even hop into your pajamas and order room service while you enjoy a nice Disney movie on TV and just unwind from your port and excursion.

If you are on a cruise longer than 3 days, you'll repeat restaurants anyway. It may be a good idea to try to change your rotation so that the restaurant that you may "miss" will come around again on another day.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

As a PP has stated, I think 10-15 minutes is pretty acceptable. Any longer than that and I think it would be an inconvenience.

It's also important to mention that if you are sharing a table with other people (ie, other families, couples, etc) you should let your servers and tablemates know the day before that you may be late.
The servers tend to try to serve each course to everyone at the table at the same time, so if your tablemates are on time and you are 10 minutes late, they will be twiddling their thumbs for 10 minutes, but if you have told the servers not to worry about it and go ahead and serve your tablemates, it will be no problem.
If you plan to skip the appetizer then all the better, as you will "catch up" since they will probably be just finishing their appetizer when you arrive.


Above all, a Vacation is supposed to be relaxing and fun, so don't kill yourself trying to get to dinner on time. You will still have a perfectly lovely meal if you eat in Cabanas and you won't have all the stress of rushing and worrying about apologizing to servers or tablemates or anything like that. You could even hop into your pajamas and order room service while you enjoy a nice Disney movie on TV and just unwind from your port and excursion.

If you are on a cruise longer than 3 days, you'll repeat restaurants anyway. It may be a good idea to try to change your rotation so that the restaurant that you may "miss" will come around again on another day.

Yes, you may eat in the same MDR more than once. However, the menu will be different each time you eat there.

 

[hckyten]

I didn't realize cabanas is a sit down meal as well, I thought it was buffet like the other meals. Sorry for my ignorance but this is my first Disney cruise, every other cruise line I have been on have been buffets at night also.

 

[erionm]

I didn't realize cabanas is a sit down meal as well, I thought it was buffet like the other meals. Sorry for my ignorance but this is my first Disney cruise, every other cruise line I have been on have been buffets at night also.

Cabanas is buffet for breakfast & lunch and then table service for dinner.

 

[quirty30]

i have always have late dining
We usually arrive on time but we tend to take our time and are usually some of last people out of the room.
We dont like to rush thru and tell the servers to take their time.
But as long we stay I have seen some peole on their main course when we are leavin who knows when they arrived. But the staff seems fine with it.

The first 2 nights of our recent Fantasy cruise. our table mates showed up 20 minutes late, and it totally threw off the timing of the meal for the servers. They either have to delay the rest of the meals at the table, or handle the latecomers as if they were a separate table (which means subpar service for everyone.) My son is mildly autistic to boot, and he got really upset because he had things he wanted to do at Vibe after dinner. And this was late dining. I think it's common courtesy to be on time, especially if you have table mates. Our servers were very nice, but it was pretty much impossible for me to enjoy the meal at all under the circumstances.

For the record, we asked to change tables after the 2nd night; it was handled with some reluctance from the staff, but ultimately we were moved to our own table with different servers - and our meals were much better after that.

 

[MKwatercraftPilot]

Yes, you may eat in the same MDR more than once. However, the menu will be different each time you eat there.

I've never eaten at Cabanas for dinner, but isn't the menu at Cabanas supposed to be a compilation of most of the items from all 3 MDR's for the evening?

I could be misinformed, but that's what I based my suggestion on. If this is the case, they will not miss the food from the MDR but just the atmosphere for the night that they are not there.

Did I not read that correctly? Is the cabanas food different? Like I said, I've never had a dinner there.

 

[jilljill]

I've never eaten at Cabanas for dinner, but isn't the menu at Cabanas supposed to be a compilation of most of the items from all 3 MDR's for the evening?

I could be misinformed, but that's what I based my suggestion on. If this is the case, they will not miss the food from the MDR but just the atmosphere for the night that they are not there.

Did I not read that correctly? Is the cabanas food different? Like I said, I've never had a dinner there.

I wouldn't say Cabanas menu is most of the items from the main dining rooms, especially on a night the main dining rooms are serving their rotational menu. Not sure what Cabanas offers on the nights the main dining rooms all serve the same menu.
Cabanas has a salad bar and then you order your entree from the menu and that is plated and served to you.

Keep in mind that Cabanas is not open the first or last night of your cruise.