Press Release on new dining times

[Kristaia]

Hi all, I was just on Deb's Unofficial Cruise Line Info and was looking at the latest news/press releases.
In there it shows an August press release changing all of the dining times to the newest trial times.
I also was talking to a DCL cast member the other day, booking excursions, and she said the head of dining had just had a meeting and news would be out shortly on what they had discussed.
What do you all think?
Any other news?
Krista

 

[prymsu]

well, it is pretty disappointing to me. If you do the early dinner, then you have problems with getting back from excursions and trying to get ready for dinner on time. Also I just think that is too early and cuts off your day's activiites in general. On sea days when you dine in the dining room, will you be that hungry to eat a big dinner? I guess i would not be able to consider dining early seating again, and would have to hope that my son could last until the later seating for dinner.

 

[Kristaia]

I just called the castaway club line and Cynthia told me that the dining times had not permanently been changed, AS PER HER KNOWLEDGE.
She did state that they continue to move the trial dates later and later.
As of now, she states that the trial dining (5:30/7:45) are through the September 28th cruise on the Magic and through the October 3rd cruise on the Wonder.

HMMMM, now what to think,
Krista

 

[SweetSpot]

I'm really not too upset about the time switch. I already have early seating and thought 6:00 was too late for us as we always eat early and when we go out to dinner with the kids it's usually fairly early. My kids are early sleepers so even though I was hoping they would be better at staying up late while on the cruise at least we have a better chance of them making it through the show without falling asleep. I sure we will be some of the few happy with the change but I can imagine it will be difficult getting ready for dinner, especially formal night, that early.

 

[taswira]

I'm hoping they keep the new dining times because I always choose LATE seating but would like "late" to be a little earlier. Of course, if they do this it will probably mean that late seating will become the one with a waiting list!

 

[shmoogrrrl]

It will be a bummer on the first day when early seaters won't be able to linger on deck and watch the ship sail, but other than that one day, I'm not opposed to it!

Kathy

 

[Señor Ferrari]

I agree with shmoogrrrl, the only time I found the early seating interfering with something else I wanted to do was on the first day. You'd now have to leave the sailaway party even earlier to make a 5:30 dinner seating. As it is, I'm usually a bit late for the 6:00 seating on the first night.

 

[FOJMO]

I don't know for sure, but I would think if they are changing the dining times, and probably throughtout the trial period too, they are also going to change other activities/events to accommodate these new dining times. The sailaway party may be changed to accommodate this, as well as show times, etc. Wouldn't you think...?

 

[DawnL]

I had always liked the early seating, but it was enough of a rush to get the 4 of us showered and dressed for 6:00 p.m. - I can't imagine making it any earlier than that - it will definitely be the late seating for us from now on.

 

[Kelsie]

I am on the 9/21 cruise and we have the late dining. I like the idea that it might be little earlier but my on-line reservation is still showing the later time. We will see

 

[Gillian]

When you have late dinner, what time are the shows?

5:30 is too early, but 7:45 is a little late. We usually feed our 2 year old around 6:30, so I don't know what to do! We would prefer late seating if it was just the adults.

 

[my3kids]

I just called and they said it has not been extended past the end of September, but they (reservationists) hope it will be. I had the cm check with a supervisor who confirmed it has not been made into a new policy yet.

 

[Señor Ferrari]

Originally posted by FOJMO
I don't know for sure, but I would think if they are changing the dining times, and probably throughtout the trial period too, they are also going to change other activities/events to accommodate these new dining times. The sailaway party may be changed to accommodate this, as well as show times, etc. Wouldn't you think...?

I would agree with this, except in the case of the sailaway party. They can't start that until the lifeboat drill is complete. They shut down all the ship's services from 3:30-4:30pm for the lifeboat drill, and the party starts afterward. Unless they move up the time of the drill, thus moving up the time that everyone must be on board, I don't see how they could change it.

 

[disneyholic family]

i guess that means you would go straight from the early show into dinner, with no break in between as there was when we sailed in july....

 

[scottie]

I just got off the phone with DCL reservations…its OFFICIAL…our 9/22 sailing has been adjusted to the news times. I am happy with the change, as we have the late seating but I can understand where the early seating guests might have an issue. Why time are the shows at with the adjusted dinner times?

 

[MarkRG]

Can you go on the 'it's official' part? Is it official for all cruises or just the 9/22 one you're on?
We might be on the phone with DCL as well as DVC tomorrow if that's the case, that new early seating time is just TOO early now

 

[Spud]

Originally posted by scottie
Why time are the shows at with the adjusted dinner times?

Just got off the Wonder and the show times were 6:00 and 8:00 with the new dinner times.

 

[Gillian]

It's going to be tough to have a 2 year old eat at 5:30, stay awake until at least 9 (if we want to go to any shows) and not have him be hungry again by bedtime

Thanks for the info!

 

[MarkRG]

We don't have kids, but we don't want to miss sailaway, or have shore excursions cut short by such an early seating time, and we have one 7 day booked, and, hopefully a 4 day tomorrow that we're going to ask for late seating right off the bat either way.

 

[Mjasp]

I hope they go back to the regular time. I am currently on the early seating for May. But will definitely change it to late if its at 5:30. We always rushed and barely made the 6:00 seating.

Joanna