This is an ongoing topic. I copied a post from awhile ago. It sums up our experience, but it is different for everyone
Late is the only way for us
We have cruised 4 times - we were stuck with late the first time, tried early the second, and went back to late for the last two and any future cruises. We love late dining and my kids eat between 5 and 6 at home ( east coast time). The first cruise the kids were 4, 3, and 1. Last cruise they were 10, 9, 7, 4, and 2. Here are my reasons:
1. They are hungry at 5ish anyway. With late dining you can get them a snack and then they are hungry again for dinner. Particularly if you have a napper - at home they sleep 1-3; on the cruise it is usually more like 3-5. Giving them a snack and feeding them later works well
2. The extra 30 minutes are priceless, especially if you have a napper. Early dining I believe is 5:45. First show is 6:30 and we don't care about being the first in the theater - we've never had a bad seat!
3. We had more time for the family activities and pictures with characters between the early show and dinner than we had between the first seating and late show
4. On busy port days or if we choose not to go to the show, we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE going to the Mickey pool during that time. The kids have the pool to themselves and we can have a drink and relax. Then at about 7 (often pushed to 7:30) we head back to the room and do the mad dash to get ready for dinner. We love doing this. It was particularly great on the Med cruise when our extended family would have the pool to ourselves after a busy port day - the kids had a great time and the adults all had a drink and caught up on what everyone did during the day. Some of our best memories come from that extended family time.
5. If you want to relax with a cup of coffee after dinner, you want to do late seating
There is a downside
1. My younger kids who do not nap have fallen asleep during dinner. I don't mind that. It's a happy tired - they are not whiny, crying tired - they just put their heads down and sleep. This does not bother me. I love picking up a sleeping child and putting them to bed after a good day.
2. people say their kids miss out on activities in the kid clubs during late dinner - this has never been an issue for us. They know once the evening starts, it is family time.
3. You do have to rush a bit on pirate night.
This is just my opinion. You have heard mostly from the late crowd here, but you'll hear from the early crowd too. I just wanted to put out there that if you have little kids, you are not necessarily stuck with early dining and don't panic if you don't get it. Late works for us - it doesn't work for everyone
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Late is the only way for us
We have cruised 4 times - we were stuck with late the first time, tried early the second, and went back to late for the last two and any future cruises. We love late dining and my kids eat between 5 and 6 at home ( east coast time). The first cruise the kids were 4, 3, and 1. Last cruise they were 10, 9, 7, 4, and 2. Here are my reasons:
1. They are hungry at 5ish anyway. With late dining you can get them a snack and then they are hungry again for dinner. Particularly if you have a napper - at home they sleep 1-3; on the cruise it is usually more like 3-5. Giving them a snack and feeding them later works well
2. The extra 30 minutes are priceless, especially if you have a napper. Early dining I believe is 5:45. First show is 6:30 and we don't care about being the first in the theater - we've never had a bad seat!
3. We had more time for the family activities and pictures with characters between the early show and dinner than we had between the first seating and late show
4. On busy port days or if we choose not to go to the show, we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE going to the Mickey pool during that time. The kids have the pool to themselves and we can have a drink and relax. Then at about 7 (often pushed to 7:30) we head back to the room and do the mad dash to get ready for dinner. We love doing this. It was particularly great on the Med cruise when our extended family would have the pool to ourselves after a busy port day - the kids had a great time and the adults all had a drink and caught up on what everyone did during the day. Some of our best memories come from that extended family time.
5. If you want to relax with a cup of coffee after dinner, you want to do late seating
There is a downside
1. My younger kids who do not nap have fallen asleep during dinner. I don't mind that. It's a happy tired - they are not whiny, crying tired - they just put their heads down and sleep. This does not bother me. I love picking up a sleeping child and putting them to bed after a good day.
2. people say their kids miss out on activities in the kid clubs during late dinner - this has never been an issue for us. They know once the evening starts, it is family time.
3. You do have to rush a bit on pirate night.
This is just my opinion. You have heard mostly from the late crowd here, but you'll hear from the early crowd too. I just wanted to put out there that if you have little kids, you are not necessarily stuck with early dining and don't panic if you don't get it. Late works for us - it doesn't work for everyone
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