Second seating was GREAT

[S. C.]

On "finding snacks"...I think the problem isn't finding something to eat..the real problem is NOT eating everything you find!

Isn't that the truth. I gained 6 lbs while on vacation last year.

We are another late night family so late dinner is perfect for us.

 

[sopandbass]

We had late seating on the Wonder in April and we had early seating on the Magic just a couple of weeks ago. Our DD was 3 in April - she's now 4. She did well at both dinners - I was afraid she'd faceplant into her Mickey-shaped pasta at the late seating but that only happened one evening.

There were a couple of little glitches with early seating for us. One was that we weren't very hungry by 6pm a couple of nights (when we had late seating, we enjoyed ordering a cheese plate from room service and relaxing in the late afternoon - we couldn't do that with early seating). Also, we had High Tea at Palo one day and I was still full by dinner time.

Also, some of the kids' evening activities start at 7 or 7:15 and we weren't finished with dinner by then so we either had to skip dessert or quickly take her to the club and come back for dessert, which made us some of the lastest people to leave the restaurant. I'm sure our servers weren't thrilled because they have so little time to turnover the place for second seating (they, of course, never made us feel this way - it's all my perception).

Just my thoughts.

 

[salbythec]

We like late seating so much that when we go to wdw we always make our Ps"s for late too. Doing the double digit dance!!

 

[*Fantasia*]

On "finding snacks"...I think the problem isn't finding something to eat..the real problem is NOT eating everything you find!

There's tons to eat on Deck 9. There's also this buffet style called Topsider (?). We were going to eat there once, but the line was too long, we decided to just have pizza from Pinocchios. It's a promise...you'll never go hungry!

 

[mommykeg]

I have early seating booked right now for our West Coast Cruise. Ihave 2 children...DD8 and DS4. Being from the West Coast, that would be our normal dinner time. But after reading this thread, I'm having 2nd thoughts! I would think that not having to rush in the afternoon to get ready for a 6:00 dinner would be a good thing...but isn't the show for the late seating at 6:30? So wouldn't you be getting ready anyway?

 

[faireygod mother]

We leave Thursday and have late seating. We requested early. You have all made me a little more comfortable. I hope DH does not mind. I will get him a snack then around 4 and he will be good to go.

 

[ClarabelleCow]

It doesn't matter what cruise I take, we always book late seating, you don't feel rushed to be back on the ship during the day, sometimes we get in a late nap before dinner, so that we can stay up at night!!

 

[Yankee914]

We had main seating on our first cruise and found it very rushed. The next cruise we took the late seating and will for our upcoming April cruise as well. The late seating is less rushed and we still had time to see everything we wanted. The only downside to the late seating is that the better and more interesting kids activities are scheduled directly after Main Seating. My kids always got the "Storming the Lab" activities because they never made it back to the kids club before 10pm. Did anyone else find this to be true?

 

[2timecruiser]

Our family has been on 2 Disney cruises and going on our 3rd in May 2005. We have had late seating both times previous, & have requested it for the 3rd. We throughly enjoy it. We kinda dreaded it the first time, but after we got there, we would not have changed it for anything. Our first cruise, our sons were 7 years and 5 months. The youngest slept the entire time during dinner, so that worked out wonderfully. During the second cruise, we were worried that this might be a problem, but we found that it worked even better. We didn't have to rush to do anything. We have requested it for our 3rd cruise.

 

[jrabbit]

I hope DH does not mind. I will get him a snack then around 4 and he will be good to go.

What! He can't get his own food My DW is one that tries to keep me out of all of the food that I find

 

[mmouse37]

Don't forget about room service....it is available 24 hours a day...we often get the cheese platter or a nice tuna sandwich to tide us over until dinner at 8:30....our very first DCL cruise we had early seating but the 12 since then we have requested late and love it!!!


MJ

 

[Miss Jasmine]

We love second seating. Granted it's just DH and me, but really it seems so much better timing-wise.

 

[pdarrah]

Our DS5 had no interest in eating "grown up" dinners with us. Since we eat as a family at home and spent time during the day with him, we did not require him to dine with us. He LOVED room service and ate chicken strips for dinner around the same time the club was eating (he didn't really like eating with the club - we never found out why.) He also ate once or twice at Plutos. After he ate, he would decide if he wanted to see the show with us (he went to 3 of them) and would go to the club either before or after the show. He "dined" with us only one night (Artist's Palette) and surprised our table mates and servers by quickly eating his entree (chicken strips again!) and choosing to skip desert so he could go to the club.

Since we basically didn't have a small child with us, we LOVED late seating. We had wonderful tablemates (DISBoard friends) and were able to take our time and enjoy our meal and conversations. I think we were among the last to leave every night.

For all who are concerned about their small children coping with late seating, why not just avoid the issue - Spend time with them as THEY eat at an earlier time (still family time, you just don't have to actually eat) and then let them go to the club while you enjoy a pleasant meal. Although the servers can be fun, I don't feel like my son missed something vital to the cruise by skipping the dining room - he had a wonderful time at the club and is still talking about it and making his plans for our next cruise.

 

[CarolAnnC]

Another fan of the late dinner seating here!

 

[LAMPSKIES]

Hey guys........SSShhhhhhhhhhhh......the second seating is one of the "best kept secrets". We too had a first seating on our first sailing Feb. 2000. We requested and got it for our second sailing.....the I'll fated 11/30/02 cancelled Eastern.....I rebooked the Dec. 1 Wonder and "had to" take late seating.....We LOVED IT!!! We requested late on our last two and also on our 05 Thanksgiving Magic and 06 Christmas 10 day.

 

[suesings]

Pdarragh,
We have late seating for our upcoming cruise (first is sold out) and your idea would work with our will-be 5 year old but it won't work with our will-be 22 month old. You have to be 3 years old to go in the club. I believe we can only request Flounders Reef (Nursery) one or two times the whole cruise?

I am hoping both kids can stay up late enough to enjoy dinner. I am kind of glad that we will be able to see the shows earlier because I KNOW neither kid would make a 10:00 show and we would never be able to see anything