Question on Second Seating on Wonder

[tmbacon]

We just got our itinerary in the mail for our April '10 4-day Wonder cruise. Looks like we have 2nd seating on there. How hard is it to switch that to the 1st seating time, or should we even bother? My thought is that with two kids ages 3 and 6, the 1st seating is close to their usual dinner time and 8:15 starts getting really close to bedtime. I guess we could always just do a snack somewhere beforehand, or just skip the seating altogether.....does anyone have any experience with this or with trying to switch to 1st seating? Thanks!

 

[lbgraves]

to the DIS boards!

You need to call DCL [or have your TA call if you used one] and have them waitlist you for early seating.

 

[sbag]

My kids are 3 and 4.5. We were assigned the late seating as well, and couldn't change it to the earlier seating. We would feed the kids earlier at Pluto's or Pinocchio's, or we would order room service for them around 5:30 pm. We took the kids with us to dinner the first 2 days, but they were just miserable. So we started feeding them, then taking them to the kid's club right before our dinner seating. They would play or fall asleep there, and we would enjoy our dinner. It worked really well for us. That way we could take the kids to the show at 6 pm as well. They would not have lasted at the 8 pm show. That being said, on our next cruise we have requested the earlier seating.

 

[Dale-n-Chip]

Honestly, it might work better for you to keep the late seating.

Before you decide. . . some stuff to consider:
1. Your kids won't go hungry on this ship. There's plenty of food whenever you want/need it. My kid would have camped outside Goofy's Galley and eaten fruit for a week! If you need a snack to "tide them over" pick something up on Deck 9.
2. Seeing the show first and eating later keeps the kids more entertained through the show.
3. The kids might like the clubs enough they don't want to eat with you, anyway! (They can eat with the clubs.)
4. With Disney's new "Dine and Play" the kids eating during the second seating will be served first, then the counselors come to the dining rooms and pick the kids up to take them back to the clubs. At the first seating, if your kids want to go, you have to leave to take them.

Just some things to think about.

mk

 

[Carol G]

If you still have a balance due on your cruise, I shouldn't see why you would have a problem changing your seating this early in the game. We're cruising in Dec and before we made our last payment we changed to late seating with no problem.

I suggest you try again, if they say no, ask why. There has to be a reason.

Good luck. Have a wonderful cruise.

 

[Minnie116]

If you call you may be able to change to the main seating. We are cruising Jan 28, and just yesterday I was able to change our second seating to a main seating for both of our staterooms.

 

[mylittleprincess]

We loved having the 2nd seating. As mentioned above you do not have to rush to get back from port and get ready. We would just order room service or grab something to eat on deck. They have a sandwich of the day and the one day was a barbeque pulled pork. It was yummy!!

 

[tmbacon]

Thanks all, this is really good information! Maybe I will actually just wait a bit and think about it before request a change to 1st seating.

The "dine and play" program sounds great, that is, only if our kids will be OK with separating from us for a bit. They tend to be a bit reserved about that kind of thing unfortunately....

 

[kerickson]

Thanks all, this is really good information! Maybe I will actually just wait a bit and think about it before request a change to 1st seating.

The "dine and play" program sounds great, that is, only if our kids will be OK with separating from us for a bit. They tend to be a bit reserved about that kind of thing unfortunately....

My understanding is that early dining is usually in high demand given DCL is a family oriented line. If you think you might want early, it might be wise to switch to early now. I think it will be much easier to switch to late at the last minute then the other way around...

Others can chime in with their experiences...

 

[LuvtheEars]

We had Main dining on our 7 day Double Dip last Sept and had a terrible time getting to dinner on time. We felt rushed all the time and the kids were tired and cranky at the shows after dinner. The kids were 4 and 7 on this cruise.

We sailed on the Wonder in May and decided to try second seating and loved it! We ordered a cheese tray from room service while we were getting ready for the show to take the "hunger edge" off. The "dine and play" program had just been announced and worked great for us too! (The kids were 5 and 8 on this cruise)

We are sailing in January and changed our cruise from Main to Second because it worked so well! Can't wait!

Tiffany

 

[whamma]

Here's my two cents...our last cruise my kids were 11 and 5. They were SO tired at second seating one or both of them fell asleep EVERY NIGHT at the table! (I have photos to prove it!) Despite that, our next cruise I'm still going with 2nd seating because I really liked seeing the shows first then going to dinner. (Plus, they are older now!) A lot will depend on your children's usual routine at home but you'll be doing a lot more during the day to tire them out! (tmbacon--I just realized--we're on the same cruise from our cruise meet link!) See you at 2nd seating!