Main vs late dining for adults?

[Sir William]

Two adults without kids and we've always done late/second dining but DW thinks she'd prefer early/main seating since it's closer to our usual dinner hour.

Since we've never done the earlier seating, what should I expect compared to the later seating? Are they pretty much the same, or should I expect more kids, more noise, and a sense of being rushed?

 

[wallawallakids]

Two adults without kids and we've always done late/second dining but DW thinks she'd prefer early/main seating since it's closer to our usual dinner hour.

Since we've never done the earlier seating, what should I expect compared to the later seating? Are they pretty much the same, or should I expect more kids, more noise, and a sense of being rushed?

IMO, there are most definitely more kids with main dining. It is louder and more rushed as well. They have to get you out of there and everything cleaned up before the second seating. That said, I like 1st better, but I have 4 kids and they fit in with the chaos. If it was just hubby and I, I would probably opt for 2nd. Gives you more time in port, more time to relax before dinner and also, second has the dine and play, so lots of kids do not stay for the entire dinner, making it even quieter towards the end. It probably comes down to personal preference. Good luck!

 

[emilymad]

We are two adults with no kids and we prefer the first seating. We didn't find an issue with kids but it feels a little rushed when they are changing the table covers at the table next to you. I think our real issue was that our servers assumed to we wanted to linger and were slow with the service. We only did a 3 night cruise so by the time we figured this out it was time to go home. We are hoping our Fantasy sailing in a few weeks is a little smoother. We are still sticking with the early seating since it is more our schedule. We are early risers and early to bed people even on vacation. It is hard to shake the work schedule.

 

[FindMeAFishingSpot]

Have done cruises with and without kids. If it was just adults, I would prefer the second seating. I agree with the additional noise in the main seating. Also found that we pushed everything back when it was just adults. Had a late breakfast, late lunch and late dinner - worked out nicely.

That being said, we've got kids this go around and will be doing the main seating!

 

[jdb in AZ]

We prefer main dining because it gives us more time to digest all that food before going to bed.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

While there will be kids at 2nd seating too, it appears that nearly everyone with young kids wants the main seating. So there will probably be more kids. With the kids comes the noise.

 

[Snowwhyt]

I'm less than 3 days off the Magic. 5 years ago I had second seating. This time we started on second seating but because my mother has developed an acute acid reflux problem and is 72yrs old, I asked for a change to first seating to accommodate my mothers delicate system.(my Mother was sick all night the first night and slept the entire first day of our cruise) I'm so thankful that Disney was able to accommodate us out of medical necessity. But I have to say by comparison it was so loud. And to be honest I don't think that the courses flowed like they did in the second seating. There always seem to be a large period of time that would occur between one of our courses. Plus there was always something fun to do at 7:15 that we as a family wanted to do together. Our dinner started at 5:45 and we could never make the smaller shows usually at fathoms or bingo. Eventually one of us would leave the dinner table before dessert came, the other three would bring desert to the person who left had to save us a seat for the show. Each time we went as a family to the show the seats were gone. Although if you're going on a less than peak periods of time, that may not be an issue. Both of my cruises were sold out.

 

[cedricandsophie]

It's. Really a personal choice. I hate early seating and have only done it once...regretted it the whole cruise. At home we try to eat no earlier than 7 and I would actually prefer later. Eating around 8 30 is fine with us. No rushing to get ready. We have been on 15 Disney cruises so we have the system down. My husband still likes the shows...me not so much. He gets ready to take the grand kids to the 6 30 show. I may or may not join them. Often I'll just go have a drink somewhere and meet them in the 7 45 game show. Then we Go to dinner. And after dinner the kids do their thing and we usually go dancing. Works for us.

 

[tvguy]

Personal choice with what time you eat at home and your home time zone.

Another factor for us was we normally eat later on vacation (and on weekends at home). Usually about 8 pm if we are going out. Since we are west coasters.....on a Caribbean Cruise, late seating is like eating earlier than we do at home during the week, and much earlier that we would on other vacations.

Which is why we miss not having a nightly Midnight to 130 am buffet on Disney.

 

[Donna M]

We have been on 4 cruises so far as adults only, and our next cruise will be the first time we have not had early seating. We usually eat around 5:30 so that was good. We noticed there were kids, but they were all over the ship! The noise wasn't overwhelming, maybe on the Wonder in Animator's it was on the loud side, but the Dream's dining rooms were not bad. We didn't see any poorly behaved children. We didn't feel rushed at all.

I'm concerned that on our next cruise dinner will be too late for us. I can't wait to find out!

 

[Sir William]

Thanks to everyone for their excellent responses. I will certainly take all comments under consideration.

We have our 9th cruise coming up but this is the first time we've had the early seating. We've never cruised with young children (I don't think our adult children count in this instance), though we've usually had kids at neighboring tables when on Disney. So, I'm gathering some additional information for her to make her decision. I know there is a waiting list for early seating so I doubt I'll have any problem changing to the late seating.

While the 2nd seating is late for me, I don't mind as I usually grab a quick bite about 4pm or so to tide me over, go to the show, return to the room to change and have a glass of wine before dinner. DW, however, feels like its too late and she is eating too soon before bed. She is also very conscious of noise and I know will complain if she feels the volume is too loud for conversation.

Snowwhyt, I had acid reflux for many years so understand completely what your mother is going through. I couldn't eat anything within 4 hours of going to bed, and there wasn't much I could eat to begin with. I was pretty miserable until I had corrective surgery.

 

[mcd2745]

IMO, there is only one negative with the late dinner seating. That one thing being that your show time is before dinner. A show and then dinner is just backwards to me. If they had another show time after the late dinner, I would see no downside at all.

 

[BK2014]

My wife and I traveled on the Fantasy in October with another couple, all in our early 30s and without kids. We had the early seating, and I don't remember anyone in our group wishing we had done the later seating. The first night we dined was at Royal Court. They had us in a smaller room in the back of the restaurant. Until we left after dinner, we had forgotten how large the restaurant was and how many families were there. The noisiest restaurant was Animator's, but I think that is to be expected given the theme and the show(s). We never really had any problems with the noise level or being bothered by children.

What we liked about the early dining (since we didn't go to all of the shows) is that we could go back to our room and relax after eating all the food, before heading out on deck to enjoy the near empty adult ares and aquaduck.

 

[Sir William]

IMO, there is only one negative with the late dinner seating. That one thing being that your show time is before dinner. A show and then dinner is just backwards to me. If they had another show time after the late dinner, I would see no downside at all.

Agree it's backwards, but on the other hand I can see the show then have plenty of time to change before dinner and enjoy an adult beverage. DW doesn't usually to the shows, though she looks forward to the lounge entertainment after dinner.

 

[Sir William]

Double-tap.