MAIN or LATE SEATING...which do you prefer?

[In Luv with Disney]

I just booked a 4 Night Cruise on the Wonder for President's week 2010. I am REALLY excited!!!!

I booked Main Seating and realize it might be TOO early (5:45pm). At home, we usually eat dinner at about 7pm/7:30pm. I also don't want to miss my sit down dinner if I am running late in port.

So....opinions welcome! Which seating do you prefer and why?

THANKS SO MUCH!

 

[newbydisney]

Early is too early

 

[msmith07101]

I've only cruised once and we had late dining. Some nights I felt it seemed a little late, but for the most part it was fine. I too, feel like early would be just a bit too early for us. I am a late lunch eater, so early dinner wouldn't work. I think you should stick to a time that is closest to when you would eat dinner at home. For us, that is late seating...now, if they had a 7:00 seating that would be perfect!

 

[tvguy]

Late here. But we're west coasters and we never seem to completely get our bodies turned around to eastern time. But even on our Alaskan, and Hawaiian cruises we either had late seating, or with Freestyle, ended up eating about 8:30 or 9 pm

Our kids played little league and soccer, and during those seasons it was rare that dinner was before 8 or 8:30 pm. DS has a few high school baseball games where he didn't even get home until 10:30 pm, and then he had to eat, do homework, and get some sleep before the alarm clock went off at 6 am.

 

[poohj80]

We've now done both and prefer the late seating. We missed all the sunsets with the early dinner. Also, the Wonder doesn't leave Nassau until ~ 7 PM so you'd have to be back early for the first dining time. We did the scuba diving excursion off Nassau and would have missed an early dinner.

 

[Queenofthecastle]

We're two adults("adults" ) and we prefer late...less kids and not rushing back from excursions to make dinner.

 

[cats mom]

Main seating is much more difficult to get, so we're all certainly bucking the trend by being fans of late seating... but that's my preference too.

 

[firstcruise]

Is the early dinner the most popular? Would seem to be with kids on board.

 

[dolphingirl47]

We are two adults travelling and we prefer the late seating. For us it means less rush to get back to the ship, a more adult environment and a more leisurely dinner. As we come from the UK and it takes us a few days to adapt to the different time zone, we are actually coming in three days prior to the cruise so that we no longer want to go to bed by 8 pm by the time we get on the ship.

Corinna

 

[addicted_to_WDW]

Definitely late for us. At home it is rare that we eat before 7:30 or 8:00 and I'm never hungry before then.

 

[kcashner]

I prefer late.

Early (main) is more popular with families with kids....and many people with little kids are scrambling to get early!

I don't have issues with "getting back to the ship on time" because I'm going to be there for the shows anyhow. However, I do find late to be more relaxed (the servers don't have to get ready for another seating, and generally more calm and quiet. There are not as many small children at late, and many are eating quickly and leaving for the programming. I have more flexibility with late--if I want to request a particular server or rotation, I'm more likely to get it at the less crowded seating.

The downsides to late--you're never hungry for the buffets, and you're still quite full at bedtime. A late afternoon snack is a good idea (but there's always lots of fruit available!

 

[camarks1234]

haven't read all of the replies yet, but I LOVE main seating. I just can't wait until 8:30 or so to eat though. I guess everyone is different. I like to get it out of the way, it almost seems like such a huge waste of time in the dining room when I could be out doing things.

Also, for us, having kids main definitely worked out better.

 

[DLW8]

While we haven't cruised yet (first one in December) we have 2 childeren that will be almost 8 and we have chosen late dining. The kids will be more alert for the shows (before dinner) and as others have said, with them being in sports and whatnot, we often don't eat until after 8 anyway.

If there are no sports, we eat around 6:30 - 7, and 5:45 would be just too early.

And, I like how they will take the kids to the clubs after the kids have eatned with late dining...they can have their fun and the adults can have a leisurely meal.

 

[acourtwdw]

We prefer late for most of the reasons already listed. The only bad part of late is that we're not hungry for the big late buffets pirate night for example.

 

[Keggy]

We prefer late seating. We do not have children, however we have sailed with children and we still prefer late seating with them. In our opinion early is too early. I feel like we are rushed to make it to early dinner in time.

It is a totally personal preference though and there is no "right" answer. Just what will work best for your family.

Have fun!

 

[Carol G]

Definitely prefer late seating. Able to enjoy excursions and own time at a port or any type of activity on deck. . .especially by the pool basking in the sun. You don't have to worry about rushing to get ready for dinner.

 

[MarcyIn Florida]

I'll be the sole dissenter. We prefer early seating for a variety of reasons, some of which will change as our kids get older. Our kids are 9 and 6, and when we've done late seating, they fall asleep during dinner, and often end up eating a pre-dinner because they're starving by 8:15. Our kids go to bed by 9 p.m. during the school year, so late seating occurs during the witching hours for us, and dinner was not at all fun.

Although early seating is really early for me (I never eat dinner before 9-ish), I found a personal perk to main seating. I was far less likely to snack before a main seating dinner. Plus, I found that I wasn't going to bed on a full stomach, which was quite nice.

Getting ready for dinner was often a rush, but we tended to get off the ship on port days very early, so we returned long before dinner.

 

[traveljen1027]

It depends on which coast we're cruising on - I like to eat dinner about the same time I would at home, so we always take the change in time zone into account. SO that being said, we typically choose the late seating...I also like the late because we are able to spend more time at the pool, in port, etc. w/o having to worry about rushing to get ready...although with going to the shows before dinner we still have to be back at a reasonable time if we want to be ready on time. I kind of wish DCL did the shows after dinner (both early & late) but with so many children my guess is this isn't feasible like it might be on other cruise lines.

 

[traveljen1027]

I'll be the sole dissenter. We prefer early seating for a variety of reasons, some of which will change as our kids get older. Our kids are 9 and 6, and when we've done late seating, they fall asleep during dinner, and often end up eating a pre-dinner because they're starving by 8:15. Our kids go to bed by 9 p.m. during the school year, so late seating occurs during the witching hours for us, and dinner was not at all fun.

Although early seating is really early for me (I never eat dinner before 9-ish), I found a personal perk to main seating. I was far less likely to snack before a main seating dinner. Plus, I found that I wasn't going to bed on a full stomach, which was quite nice.

Getting ready for dinner was often a rush, but we tended to get off the ship on port days very early, so we returned long before dinner.

I will say that when we had early seating, it was great becuase we happened to have a table right next to the windows and it was lovely watching the sunset while enjoying our dinner (this was our first cruise on HAL) - and when we took our first cruise with our DD, I found the late to be too late for her...she was just too tired to wait that long.

 

[ldalvarado]

My DDs and I have cruised twice before with early seating and both times it seemed early. We felt rushed getting back from the pools, beach, excursions, etc., since we had to change and shower. Plus, we always seemed to be snacking late at the pools.

I am going to late dining in May 2010 to try it out. I am thinking that some of the shows may be ones we have seen, so we will probably have other activities that we decide to do that won't impact our schedule so profoundly.

I will have to report back to you when we get back.