Seating time for dinner….tough question for a Disney expert!

[blondie511]

Ok, so I fully acknowledge that I am late in booking the Wish! I want to do a four night cruise, but there are toddlers in my party that always are in bed by 7:00pm, so the second dinner seating just doesn’t work at all! I am looking on the Disney cruise website at 4 night cruises and there are a handful of rooms available. What are the chances that they have any first seating dinner times available? Am I wasting my time? ( these amazing dinners on the Wish are a MUST for my family, so eating somewhere else on the ship and skipping the experience is not an option.). Part two: can a travel agent tell me in advance which sailings have the first seating available?????

 

[Marc D]

To avoid everyone booking the first seating without really needing it, DCL only makes a small portions of first-seating places available for booking at first. Most reservations default to late seating, and they distribute early seating spots on a request basis, either through the waiting list or once guests get onboard.

Therefore, whatever the cruise you are looking at, your odds of getting an early seating table are excellent as long as you are not trying to move a very large group. Book your cruise then call or chat with a DCL agent to ask to be placed on the early-seating waitlist. Know that the agent on the phone is not able to move you unless there is an open spot at that exact moment, something you would see in your reservation on the website. They can only add you to the waitlist.

The dining managers only goes through the waitlist a couple of times before the cruise, so there’s no need to call again and again. If, with bad luck, you are not moved to early seating by sailing date, go to the designated spot after boarding and meet with the head waiters. They will usually be able to move you then, either on the spot or before the muster drill.

 

[lodge]

And folks like us that have no real preference will gladly switch for someone in your situation.

 

[Quellman]

I know all kids are different. 730 is bed time at our house. Vacations tend of have allowances and stretches for this time. We will often toss in an extra nap break and still make late dinner without issue. But yes, getting first seating isn't usually too terrible, even if you wait list or have to wait to sign up when you get on board.

 

[mmouse37]

When we cruised when our kids were young we found it was very hard to keep to a regular "at home" schedule. There were so many things to do day day and night. As mentioned above we would try to give them a nap in the afternoon and then they were udually fine for dinner (late). If you really want to keep them to their schedule and in bed by 7:00 it will cut out several hours of activities for the person staying in the room with them. Even with our grandkids, we started taking them on DCL when they were 1 year olds and we always got late seating. Of course you know your kids best. My feeling was always to get cues from them if they needed downtime but to also try to get the most out of our vacation as well.

MJ

 

[tvguy]

I hope you get the seating you want. And are your kids in bed, or in bed and asleep by 7 pm? I'm impressed. We could get both our kids in bed by 8 pm usually, but they never were asleep until at least 10 pm. And I worked graveyard shift, and frequently had two faces in bedroom windows waving goodbye to me as I left for work at 10:45pm!

 

[pascalspal]

While I did not request to switch to early dining on my cruise, I did speak to a customer service representative on the chat feature of the DCL website. She was supper accommodating in adjusting a few things on my reservation and adding some notes to our reservation. Try that and see if they can check on switching you to early dining! We typically have not had a problem switching ours whenever we chose to!

 

[MomOTwins]

We have gotten main dining from the waitlist twice, but both were regular Dream sailings where the ship was not very full when we booked. The early wish sailings in the summer are pretty full so waitlist may be more competitive. I guess I would just recommend picking a cruise with as much room inventory as possible.

 

[dwg]

Reading through this thread and I am a little confused. Is the defaulting to late seating something new or only happens when booking online? I have two cruises coming up next year. One in May 22 and the second in November 22. I never had a problem getting early dining at the time of booking. I have always booked the cruises by calling Disney as opposed to booking online. My latest experience was last week when I called to book the Wish for a November Merry Christmas cruise. The only issue I ever had was after originally booking we changed the reservation to add a person and a second room. We had to go on the main dining wait list but that came through.

 

[MomOTwins]

Reading through this thread and I am a little confused. Is the defaulting to late seating something new or only happens when booking online? I have two cruises coming up next year. One in May 22 and the second in November 22. I never had a problem getting early dining at the time of booking. I have always booked the cruises by calling Disney as opposed to booking online. My latest experience was last week when I called to book the Wish for a November Merry Christmas cruise. The only issue I ever had was after originally booking we changed the reservation to add a person and a second room. We had to go on the main dining wait list but that came through.

Booking online. When you call, the CM on the phone can book main dining at the time of booking if it is available. Online, you have to book the cruise and then go in and change from late to main--you're not given a choice prior to making the booking.

 

[dwg]

Thank you!