Sorry, but I am so confused which dining time to choose HELP!

[mickeymom629]

I have had us at the later seating since booking last spring because we are used to eating about 7 at home at didn't want to feel rushed. Now, after reading these boards, I realize that we still will have to get showered and ready for the 6:30 show anyway. My kids are 15, 13, 11 and 8 and I don't want them to feel like they are missing something with the kid's clubs. Is it better to try to switch to early seating (if it's not already filled) so that each kid can decide whether they want to see the show or go back to their club after dinner? We are on the 4 night cruise, so there isn't a lot of evenings to "do it all". Do you all make your kids see the shows, just like you'd like to sit at dinner all together? My main concern is the kids and missing fun activities--advice anyone?!

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

This probably isn't going to solve the problem but here is what we did. On our 3 day kids were 8 & 10 - we had early seating and actually didn't make any shows! This was early into the DCL experience and our show time was 10:30! Yes folks at one time the shows ALL started after the dinner seatings.

On our second cruise (4 day this time) we once again had early seating even though kids were older - 10 & 12. We saw a couple of the shows and let the kids choose what they wanted to see.

On our upcoming kids will be 13 & 15 - 7 day - and after many long discussions around seating time, what to do if the experiements became permanent and so forth we opted for early. For us walking into the diningroom at 8:30 is just too late. We'd rather get cleaned up, go to dinner, and then head off into our various activities. We're just hoping we won't be too rushed on some of the port days!

Deb

 

[mickeymom629]

I am now probably going to call DCL tomorrow and see if we can switch. Not just because of what you said, but it sort of confirmed my recent thoughts. I still would like to hear from others, but the more I think about it, 8:30 is pretty late. It doesn't seem so bad when you are running around the parks all day, but being on a cruise ship in Jan. when we are not planning excursions (although the rate I'm going, nothing's in stone) it just seems like it might be better to do dinner a little early and go on to other things. I think I thought that this would be relaxing to go late, but I think we'd rather be doing what the majority with kids might be doing. This is just as mind boggling as planning our WDW trips------but I love it!!!

 

[tstobb]

I think, more than anything else, it comes down to what you & your kids are used to. We generally tend to eat later and if the kids are going to fall asleep, they would rather snooze at the dinner table (they wound up snacking all day anyway) than at the show.
As far as them missing anything in the clubs, there's always SOMETHING great going on there & they're not going to be able to get to all of the activities anyway so, just plan on taking another cruise so they can get to what they missed on the 1st one!

 

[mickeymom629]

but, is 8:30 just getting too late, is what I'm wondering. I guess you are not really getting served until 9 and will not be done until 10. We are used to eating around 7/7:30 at home, but that's when we actually start eating.

I don't think my kids will be falling asleep during the show or dinner, but how long are the shows?

 

[tstobb]

The shows are mostly 1 to 1 1/4 hour.