Main dining vs. Late Dining?

[PrincessShmoo]

Me and my wife have settled on main dining but have debated this. If the first night you don't like it can you switch?

You certainly can ask to be switched. Sometimes it's do-able. Others not so much (particularly on very full cruises).

 

[disneyairforceguy]

You certainly can ask to be switched. Sometimes it's do-able. Others not so much (particularly on very full cruises).

Thank you, we probably won't switch but just wanted to know.

 

[KingRichard]

Me and my wife have settled on main dining but have debated this. If the first night you don't like it can you switch?

You could almost always switch to late dining, but not likely switch to early unless ship is empty.

 

[hanscarlet]

yup agree with others, likely much easier to switch to late than to switch to early

 

[jdb in AZ]

Late dining is quieter. Families with toddlers/pre-schoolers like to eat early so they can get the kids to bed. Not all of them do this, but 2nd seating is definitely quieter than main seating.

Regardless of the noise, I still prefer main dining because it's too uncomfortable going to bed on a full stomach.

 

[jimmaher69]

We have done both. Normally eat before 6 at home. Prefer late dining. Seemed more relaxed.

 

[JW9DVC]

I know this may sound boring, but your health is important!

Current views on eating, weight gain and avoiding high cholesterol, and high blood sugar, is to eat within a 12 hour window, and go by the old saying:- for breakfast eat like a king, for lunch eat like a prince for dinner eat like a pauper. We all eat too much on a cruise, and that does cause issues on acid reflux and weight gain. Whilst one " takeaway " at night may not upset you metabolism, eating late more than once a week causes weight gain. Eating late the Body can't process blood sugar or fat and it rises for hours, whereas in the morning, you go back to normal very fast.

Your Body kicks off its day on two things sunlight and breakfast/ first meal, includes coffee and tea or toast.

Your metabolism resets to local hours by sunlight, so do not eat to the time zones at home, but the cruise ship hours.

Now you need time for good to " go down" post any meal, minimum should be two hours, aim for three hours and try to fast over 12 hours overnight, people who do this loose up to 5% body weight. And cholesterol and blood sugar is lower.

So late dinner is very very bad for you.

Add that fizzy soda is bad for you, sugar and calorie free, as they take out healthy bugs " down below" so even calories free soda gets you to increase blood sugar, you will know why many visit the ships medical centre of acid reflux at night.

Try to avoid the free soda.

So " one" night at Palo late doesn't effect you, eating post 8 pm regularly will take a toll on your body, with added soda, and a few try to blame the ships water.

All evidence to support this is just a Google search away.

Depends on what schedule your body is in first of all. Where an east coast person may see your view. My body feels I'm eating dinner at 5pm because in on the west coast.


You are on vacation and a week is not going to ruin anyone to live on the edge a little. Maybe on non vacation your post would make a better argument.

JW

 

[diznymom]

We normally eat early - between 5:30 and 6 pm. Therefore, we opt for main dining.

 

[TeaBee]

We live on the west coast and eat dinner around 7pm so late dining was perfect for us. We weren't usually hungry until then anyway.

My kids are a little older (10 and 14) and they were fine with eating later. My 10 year old took advantage of the shorter lines for the aquaduck during the main seating time (and ate so many ice cream cones every day that she wasn't even that hungry at the late dining time!). Both kids enjoyed their respective clubs, so it was nice to have a good break point during the later dinner to see them and check in on how things were going. Otherwise, I feel like we wouldn't have seen them for the entire evening!

 

[Karebear13]

We prefer late dining... We feel it's more relaxed and not as stressful for time constraints. Our regular lives are pretty hectic so dinner is never at the same time, so it never really bothered us eating late.
Plus, if we were ever hungry earlier, it was easy to just grab something from the pool deck before the show!!!

 

[moremouse]

At home we generally eat between 5 & 5:30. We like main dining.

We're gonna try out 2nd this time. I hope I'll be able to stay conscious for the late adult stuff. Not very confident though.

 

[jane01jp]

Not that it matters, but why does everyone refer to the "First Seating" as the "Main Seating"?

What is more "main" about eating at 5:45 vs. 8:15?

 

[KayKayJS]

We did late dining on our first cruise last year. We did like it but the problem was we could never make it anywhere after. We'd fall asleep after all that food and never made it to the late activities.

This cruise we're going to try main dining and see if that helps us.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Not that it matters, but why does everyone refer to the "First Seating" as the "Main Seating"?

What is more "main" about eating at 5:45 vs. 8:15?

That's what DCL calls it. Most mass market cruise lines call their later seating "Main". I think it has to do with the fact that DCL caters more to families with young children, and a more average time for dinner for those is earlier. So, on DCL the dinner seatings are "Main" and "Second", while on most other lines the seatings are "Early" and "Main".

 

[CarolinaDD1997]

Late dining is amazing for us. We generally eat around 7-8 always at home, so its perfect for us. Also we like to get ready at 6 for the theatre, then wander around the cruise between 7-8:15 until the dinner is ready. This means taking nice pictures with nice clothes, be in the atrium lobby, meet characters etc. Then we'd go to Late dining at 8:15, have dinner and then my brother and I would go to the clubs. This summer that we go back there will be no club for me Ill be 19! But still i'll go to the bars/clubs or bingo/more activities with the rest of the adults! It'd be a more relaxing dinner cos normally when I had to go to vibe I would try to rush dinner. But your kids are little, they will be just fine eating without rushing and then being taken to Oceaners club! When they're taken is usually when the games begin as both the kids from main and second dining are there.
So id say late dining If your MIL gets hungry early they're still loads of options for her to eat before? Such as the snacks at the theatre or maybe ordering from Room Service All Hands on Deck?

 

[TrySomethingNew]

We are main dining camp. We just don't like eating late and when we had late dining on first cruise, we were all tired and youngest (5) fell asleep each night during dinner. In part Bc it seemed to take a long time to get our meal, maybe because we were all very hungry by then. Anyway, youngest would eats few bites and would be hard pressed to eat more Bc she was so tired.
We did main dining on last sailing. The service seemed quicker, so that was a plus. The negatives for us: a few nights we were not so hungry by 6 pm, and a couple of days our shore excursions got us back close to dinner, so we rushed to change (but, then again, were very hungry for dinner those days).
Good luck!

 

[gruffudd242]

We prefer late dining, for us it's closer to the time we usually eat and it seems to be more relaxed. The next cruise (extended family, not just us) we are on we have main dining. I'll be curious to see how it differs.

 

[Saimaeve]

We walked by early seating a few times and it was very lively and boisterous. We prefer late dining. We are closer to the west coast so first seating is closer to late lunch for us. (late dining is actually a bit early to us) We also are night owls and are up for several hours after.

We also like the Eat and Play program so our daughter can head off to the clubs once she is done, giving my husband and I the chance to take our time and linger and then walk around the ship/grab a drink after.

Our servers last time, usually knew what our daughter would order so they put that in right away, she could eat and then they let her know when the counselors were there.

 

[Winston Wolf]

We just did late dining, but next time will opt for main. Reason is that by the time you're done with dinner after late dining, it's time for kids to go to bed. Everyone is wiped out. Plus, there is a lag between the show and dining. I'd rather eat early, then go to the show and be done with everything by 9pm.

 

[Lunarias]

We have always done late dining in the past, gives us way more time in port, (I really push it some days while still making it back for a nice dinner. What is funny is we normally eat at 5:30 - 6 for dinner but on vacation really don't mind the late seating because we are commonly still full from lunch/snacking. That being said for our upcoming cruise we are contemplating main time since we are not doing a port heavy cruise, and we have a really hard time making the early shows, (first time on Disney, so really don't want to miss them) we are always doing something...even on sea days, our first cruise (8 day) we made one show and the second (7 day) made two, well one and were 15 min late to a second....So i'm just conflicted, and to add to that my previous cruises were all here on the west coast (Alaska and Mexico) so no time change....I know i'm over thinking it but still....