Standby for early seating

[ATCMickey]

For anyone with experience,

We booked an Oct 05 eastern cruise and were told that the earlier seating was not available and that DCL would put us on the standby list for the earlier seating. We have 2 younger kids (8 & 5) and the later seating will be tough to work with the kids. Does anyone have any experience with being put on the wait list and what success have you had with ultimately being switched to the earlier seating? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

ATCMickey

 

[Lloyd Dobler]

The waitlist does often come through, especially when you're on it this early. However, you can also check in from time to time to see if anything's opened up. The list is only consulted once a day, so if you call to check for an opening, and it is there, you can have your dinner seating switched.

I used to call once or twice a week just to check. If you haven't been able to switch by the week when final payment is due (75 days out?), call every day during this week. This is when most cancellations happen, and you're most likely to find an opening.

If all else fails, once on board, you can request a change from the dining manager. This person is available on embarkation day to field requests such as this, and they do their best to accomodate you.

 

[cristit14]

we were waitlisted for early when we sailed in july. On board I did find out that we got earlyseating. Next time we are trying late seating. I think it will work better for us.

 

[jon46]

In Dec we were on waitlist for 1st sitting, but expected 2nd. KTTW card said 2nd sitting, so ok. We had four adults and one child (8). When we got to our room the tickets said we were on 1st sitting. That was a big surprise. John

 

[E&BMom]

We sailed in Nov 03 and were on the waitlist. When we got on the ship we went to where you sign up for Palo's ressies. They also had a line for switching seatings and we got switched to 1st seating. We were there early and one of the first few people in line too. Hope this helps.

 

[MrsMork]

We were waitlisted for early dining on the 10 day cruise. Was just DH and myself and I was told that it would likely not happen since they move people with children first, which sounded like the right thing to do to me. We did get a call about 3 weeks before the cruise and were moved to early seating. A real surprise

 

[Magic3forme]

We were scheduled for late seating and asked to be put in the early seating. They recommend we call every few weeks and ask if we were changed. I called 2 weeks ago and we were moved!

 

[makaira]

We were on the wait list for our Nov 6 cruise and I checked every couple of weeks and still did not get early seating. Once we boarded we went to where the navigator said for dining changes (same place as Palo ressies) and were able to switch to early. We had to change our rotation to get it, but with 3 little ones it was more important to get that early seating. BTW we were also at the terminal early and boarded with the first wave. Don't know what would have happened if we boarded later. Good Luck

 

[HooKooDooKu]

Once you are onboard, there will be a place you can go to request Palo reservations and request dining seating changes.

Since you are going during off season, perhaps you will be sailing with less than a full ship. If that is the case, you shouldn't have a problem requesting a change to early seating once you get on board if you can get in line for dining changes early.

On our last cruise in a late October time frame, we too booked too late for early seating. The ship sailed at only 75% full, and despite being waitlisted, we never go assigned to early seating because they were trying to maintain a balance between early and late seating. But once on board, I had no problems getting changed to early seating.

 

[llyolf]

ATCMickey: looks like we're together on the 1st seating waitlist on the same cruise.... I have 2 DDs (will be 3 and 5) and prolly would rather have early seating... I have seen a pretty lengthy discussion here about the ups and downs of 1st/2nd seating... and if I have to stay with 2nd... it's ok... we will prolly eat dinner then up at plutos with the kids and then bring them to dinner to eat an appetizer and maybe dessert.... or not at all.... the plus of 2nd seating (as I have read) is that you don't have to get up on the last day early because your breakfast is at like 8:30 instead of 6:45....
I guess my take is.... figure on 2nd seating and if you get 1st seating... then great... but if not... great too....

Thanks,
Paul

hope to see ya on the 10/15

 

[disneyfan551]

Good luck on getting the seating of your choice. We were able to change our dining rotation on our 1st Disney cruise with no problem, when we boarded. However, we had requested late seating, and we loved it!! We had a party of 3-2 yr olds, and had no problems adjusting to the time at all. It was so perfect, that we have again requested it for our 10/22/05 cruise! (This time with 3-4yo's & 1-5yo! )