Second sitting with a 3 year old

[Mtm103]

Hi all

There will be 5 of us on the Disney Wonder leaving Miami on 17 October. Me, my OH, and our 3 year old are going concierge, plus another 2 people in a normal room. I am hoping all the adults will be able to sit together for dinner, but we are all on the second sitting. We are coming from the UK, so I haven't yet worked out how to adjust our 3 year old (who currently is in in bed by 7pm every night) to the time difference. I saw that the team from the kid's club come and pick up the children on the second sitting at 9pm, however can you drop them off before? As I think we will probably have him eating earlier and then we eat? I actually have no idea as I have never been on a cruise, so any tips would be helpful. I can't imagine him getting up early and then staying up so late, so need to try and plan plenty of naps throughout the day. Thanks!

 

[chocolatecake]

Our 2 1/2 year old did just fine with second seating last year. We did get a 2 hour nap in every afternoon - and the nap was a little later than usual. We took him with us to dinner though. There is usually so much going on that they are so distracted that they do well.

 

[Melissa S]

We always have main seating so they don't offer dine and play so this is what we do. We instruct our dining team on the first night to have DD's meal brought out right away each night. When we arrive to dinner her food is brought out and she eats. We then order our food and eat our first course. Then one of us checks her into the club. We have dinner and then the other one of us brings her back for dessert and to see the dining room entertainment that usually starts around 7:15 (I check with head server each night).

You can always have your child eat with you and bring them to the club on your schedule or have them eat quick serve or room service and check them in before dinner. The club serves dinner much earlier in the day, before main seating.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Swap to main dinner it will cause considerable problems. Kids adapt to the time change quickly, faster than adults, they will be up with the sun and will have breakfast local time, go to bus or the port stop local time have lunch local time so guess when they want to eat dinner? A cruise isn't the time to swap bed time too much, so 7 pm bed doesn't add to late dinner starting at 8.15 pm

What will happen is that one of the adults will end up being a babysitter in the stateroom if your on late dinner as after an exciting day on the ship in the clubs etc young children are overtired and will just fall asleep by mid evening.

11 DCL cruises and from the UK and my children started going to Florida when they were two, so seen it, done it and seen the kids asleep at late dinner.

 

[wajones2]

To OP we only had 1 hr time difference on DD first cruise. So I thought her 7:30 bed time at home would mean at least 8:30 on board the ship. At the time she wasn't napping well at home. In the ship she took long late naps, so u would think later bed time...nope didn't happen she was a melting mess after 8 each night needing to be in bed.

Point is just wait and go with the flow.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Yes and the UK is +5 hours on Florida.

 

[zooya]

Hi all

There will be 5 of us on the Disney Wonder leaving Miami on 17 October. Me, my OH, and our 3 year old are going concierge, plus another 2 people in a normal room. I am hoping all the adults will be able to sit together for dinner, but we are all on the second sitting. We are coming from the UK, so I haven't yet worked out how to adjust our 3 year old (who currently is in in bed by 7pm every night) to the time difference. I saw that the team from the kid's club come and pick up the children on the second sitting at 9pm, however can you drop them off before? As I think we will probably have him eating earlier and then we eat? I actually have no idea as I have never been on a cruise, so any tips would be helpful. I can't imagine him getting up early and then staying up so late, so need to try and plan plenty of naps throughout the day. Thanks!

My son turned 5 during our last cruise. I too was excited about the dine & play offered at the second seating. However, I will not do it again.

Since he was taken care of, my dinner usually lasted till about 10 pm. After we get back to the stateroom, we all needs a bit of time to wind down. Next thing I know, it is midnight. Then we slept in and didn't get up until 10 am. Missed a lot of morning activities.

I would definitely do main dining in the future, until he is much older.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

My son turned 5 during our last cruise. I too was excited about the dine & play offered at the second seating. However, I will not do it again.

Since he was taken care of, my dinner usually lasted till about 10 pm. After we get back to the stateroom, we all needs a bit of time to wind down. Next thing I know, it is midnight. Then we slept in and didn't get up until 10 am. Missed a lot of morning activities.

I would definitely do main dining in the future, until he is much older.

Yes there is a knock on effect like that,

• Food has to go "down" from eating to before sleep, it leads to upset tummy otherwise.
• Extending the day will tire the young child out and they could be wrecked the next day when you might want to get off in port.
• Kids are great at swapping times zones, sometime in the sun resets the body clock.
• You eat local time for breakfast, say 7am> 9am lunch , 12 noon > 1pm, then waiting till 8.15pm to go in, not served is too long for a young chid who will then hit the fast food places.
• OP is in concierge and there is snacks in the concierge lounge from 7am to 10pm. To fill up but not spoil dinner.

 

[cruisingmom1977]

We do the main seating but I feed my DD4 before and she goes to the kids club while we enjoy a nice adult meal...she would prefer to be in the kids club than at dinner with us so it is win/win. Sometimes she wants to stay in after dinner while we go to the show. If she gets tired and wants to lie down they offer her a cot. If she falls asleep I just carry her back to the room at the end of the night and put her straight to bed. We prefer main dining mostly because I would prefer to see the shows after dinner instead of before. That being said...main dining is probably full this close to your cruise,,,

 

[Weedy]

Yes you can drop your child off at the kids club before you go to dinner. We did this when our children were younger and it worked well for our family,

For dinner for your child you can get food from the quick service restaurants on the pool deck. They have pizza, chicken fingers, hamburgers and hot-dogs. There is also fruit, cheese and sandwich wraps available.

You can also order room service and no additional charge (but you should tip a few $$). Room service is usually quick but at dinner time you may want to allow 30 minutes for you food to be delivered.

If you call Disney and have your reservations "linked" they will seat your group together at dinner. Disney sometimes sits other families at your table (maybe one with a child the age of your child) so if you do not want this to happen request a table for just your group.

As far as time change and bed time, it's hard on vacation. There is so much going on and lots of changes. The kids do better than the adults they can fall asleep anywhere and grab a quick nap and then they're ready to go again.

Enjoy your cruise.

 

[egesicki]

Our experience on two cruises was our boys couldnt make it til second seating, and neither one tolerate a long sit down meal well. We were better off getting them some chicken tenders by the pool and sending them to the club and DH and I would eat. You know your kids best, evaluate your first night and make adjustments the second if you need to.

 

[alagille]

It has gone both ways with our 5 year old in second seating. Most times, he was fine until 9 or 10pm even with a usual bedtime of 7:30pm. One day, after Blue Lagoon, Nassau, he was wiped. I knew he was hungry but wouldn't last to eat a whole plate and it was just he and I for his 5th birthday 3 day Dream cruise. I asked the waiter for a couple of yogurt cups and milk and he polished those off. He fell asleep in his chair and laid his head in my lap while I waited for my meal. He isn't one to cause a fuss when tired, so it worked and I just carried him to bed after dinner. He hasn't done that since, I think it was just a long, long day for him. He can sleep anywhere though, even middle of the day- including on the open air truck bouncing around Monument Valley and the RIB boats down the Colorado River on this summer's past ABD trip too. I'm building an album of him sleeping around the country.

 

[dcassetta]

There are always plenty of children at the second seating, so clearly that does work well for some families. It may just be a little bit of trial and error for your family. If on the first night you discover that second seating doesn't work for your child, other arrangements are easy to make on the following nights. Room service, and the quick dining options on the pool deck are always available.

 

[Capt_BJ]

There are always plenty of children at the second seating, so clearly that does work well for some families.


When we traveled from the west coast to PC for Disney cruises, second seating dinner meant the kids basically stayed on their regular dinner schedule! Sleep in, brkfst late, lunch late and the kids stayed up late .... they loved it and no reverse adjustment when we went home .... but does require moving west of the Rockies!

When they were small and we lived east .... mom and dad still liked second seating and the kids when very young had no problem just curling up on their dinner chair and snoozing. The kids wanted to be at the big folks table . . . The servers loved it.

 

[Mtm103]

Thanks all for your replies, I think the TA recommended the second seating as then our son could go to the earlier shows and then to kids club, we will have to review when we get on the boat I suppose! Thanks again

 

[elcasar]

I cruised two years ago on the Fantasy with my family, at the time DS was 4, DD 4, and DD 3. We had the second seating for dinner and it worked out fine, although once or twice one or more of the kids fell asleep while at dinner. I feel like we would have been rushed in Port on a couple of occasions if we had the main seating. We brought our stroller for the kids to sleep in just in case and they were quite happy with that.