tell me pros and cons about late dining...

[daniluvsdisney]

booked on 4 nite Wonder in less than 2 wks. and have late dining... wanted early as that is what we had before and it worked well... 5 yr.old dd will probably eat with kids club but we are on OK time and not used to eating late... will make the best of it no matter but wishing for early seating...
what are your experiences?

 

[Footnotegirl]

I probably can't be much help, hubby and I are night people, and the early dinner was way earlier than we would normally eat. From what I can tell, we had a much quieter experience than early diners, as adults without children and families with older children are more likely to be given late dinners. On the 7 night cruise, your character breakfast is based on your dinner seating. I cannot /imagine/ having to get up in time for a 6:45 a.m. breakfast. That would be torture for me, and not any part of a relaxing vacation! I think it's somewhat the same with the disembarkation breakfast?

 

[traycie2201]

HI, don't stress too much about the dining, get waitlisted and if still no joy see dining room host when you board, if they still can't swap you , topsiders is restaurant style now and open from 6.30 so you could always dine one or two nights there if it gets too much for you or dd
Benefits are you don't have to rush to get ready for dinner or when coming back from a port call. You'll have a wonderful time

 

[tvguy]

We listed no preference on our first cruise and got late seating and loved it, and 5 cruises later, that is all we request. As west coasters, it's closer to our normal dinner time when cruising on the east coast. But even to Alaska it was a better time. Our kids seem to like it too.

 

[MaryKatesMom]

I had late dining with DD's 3 and 5 and we loved it. No rushing to get ready for dinner. We ate and then walked or went to a little show, and then bed. We normally eat dinner later. My children are used to a snack after school at 3:30 - 4 and then dinner later.

Worked well for us. Don't stress.

 

[amymouse]

We did the early seating on our first cruise and ONLY our first cruise. We learned the hard way that the early seating diners have to be at breakfast at 6:45 a.m. on debarkation morning! Never again.

I also prefer having more time to be ready for dinner after visiting a port. No rushing for me.

 

[webray]

Don't forget..if you really want the early dinner so you can dine with the 5 year old at a reasonable hour..then check the welcome navigator and head over to the place to get your dining time changed when you board the ship.

Enjoy!

 

[disbigkid]

Originally posted by daniluvsdisney
... 5 yr.old dd will probably eat with kids club but we are on OK time and not used to eating late...

Hi! Some random thoughts that we considered in our decision to cancel our early seating and switch to late (so it does happen if you really do want to get early seating ...

We're travelling with a 1 yr old and a 3 yr old. In case it
helps I think there are several bennies to sticking with the late
dinner:

--The kids will still be awake enough to see the 6:30p shows, which I know our 3yr old will love.

--Allows more time to get ready for dinner since you can go to the
show completely casual and then get dressed for dinner during the hour btwn the show and dinner. If you have early seating you'd get dressed in dinner clothes first & go to dinner at 6p, which cuts your day shorter, then go to the show at 8:30.

--We can feed DD (3) at one of the other casual spots (and get
ourselves a snack) before the show, then she can go to the Oceaneers Club while we eat dinner (on nights we choose to do this, which will likely be most if she enjoys it).

--I've read, "The Oceaneer's club had major activities scheduled
every night during the late dinner seating (things like an unbirthday party with Alice, a Buzz Lightyear adventure, and "Professor Goo's Magical Experiments")" ...so if we did early seating she'd have to choose between the show or the playroom...with late seating she can have the benefit of both!

--There will likely be less little kids at the late seating so us
adults can have a bit quieter time and the kiddies may have the
benefit of even more extra attention from the servers.

Anyway, in case you don't get your early seating maybe it will work out for the best.

Best of luck,
Heather

 

[princesspumpkin]

I had late seating on the 4-day last year with my DD then 6. We are late "everythingers" anyway, so having dinner at 6pm would have been a struggle. Like a previous poster said, we did the shows while DD was bright and energetic enough to enjoy them. At dinner, she did get tired 2 nights, but I probably could have planned it better. Having the CM bring out her meal first and then allowing her to go to the clubs (where she would be busy and therefore not have enough "sit still" time to get sleepy) would have been much better. Because of all of the activities that she did all day long would have made her tired in the evening regardless of which seating we had. So I guess it was better that she got tired during dinner rather than have fallen asleep during one of the shows. When I go again in February, we have late seating as well and I'll make sure that DD gets fed first then off to the Clubs.

 

[AladdinsPrincess]

I preferred the late seating for the most part. I loved how my DH and I would have the pool practically to ourselves as of 5 pm every day because most people were getting ready for dinner! It gave us extra time for a cocktail before dinner as well. The only think I didn't like was that we were never hungry enought for the dessert or other late night buffets they had!

 

[musicgirl]

We had the late seating for the 3 night and the 7 night. Having done the 3 night twice before the 7, we really wanted the late seating.

However, after doing the 7, if I did the 7 night again I would go for early seating. Every night we were starved by dinner. Yes, I know about all the food around, but we tried to be good about over eating. Plus, we wanted to be able to enjoy dinner. Well, we were still stuffed before dessert even when we were good before dinner!! LOL!!

One reason that we liked the late seating on the 3 night was because with trying to get in as much as we could during the day,
we felt that it gave us more time.

Well, on the longer cruise you obviously have more time and you don't feel as rushed.

Also, we missed alot of stuff with the late seating on the 7 night. There were often activities/later shows that started before we were done with dinner. Now, I don't mean the regular shows, but rather the shows in the bars.

On the shorter cruises, I think it is easier to eat late for a few nights. But on the 7 night, it just seemed to late for all seven.

If I am lucky enough to go on another 7, I would do the early, but I wouldn't be upset if we had to eat late.

Lorie

 

[WDWLVR]

I would say match as closely as you can to what you do at home. We are fairly early eaters and have had early seating on 4 of our 5 cruises. On one of our 4-day cruises (the DVC Member Cruise) we picked late seating to give it a try. It was nice to take longer to get ready and to see the shows first, but dinner was just way to late for us. Breakfast the last morning wasn't an issue for us - we skipped it.

So go with what you think works best for you. On our upcoming cruise we are staying with early seating.

 

[FL_Librarian]

We liked late seating for the most part.

But...We did notice that there were photographers coming over to the tables during early dinner and we did not see any at late dinner.

 

[daniluvsdisney]

thank you for your replys...guess we'll give the late seating a try and see how it goes... as we all know there is no chance of going hungry on the boat and we could always order room service if we choose to have an early nite and watch movies in the cabin... come to think of it that sounds really relaxing!

 

[colaboy29]

The only problems you might run into doing the late dining are:

1) being full when they do the occasional late-night buffet on deck 3

2) if your dinner runs late on the final night you might miss the gathering in the lobby when all the characters come out

 

[*Fantasia*]

We are not morning people, so waking up at 6:30 in the morning is not good for us...so I guess late seating is good for us.