WEST Bound Panama Canal - Main or Late dining...? *POLL*

[SeaSpray]

I'm trying to figure out if there are pros or cons to the 2 dining times on a west-bound Panama Canal cruise. We're from the east coast, and we'll be experiencing the adding of 3 hours during the course of the 14-night cruise.

We usually have dinner between 6-8pm at home. We're currently booked in Main dining seating; I'm thinking that might seem too early, especially as we head west.

If you've done the WBPC cruise before, which dining/seating did you like? We are a party of 2 adults, so no small kids to have to take into consideration.

P.S. We've always done late dining on our previous cruises and found that to work well for us, most nights.

 

[ludari]

I too have always done the late seating whenever I cruise only because I find the early seating too early for me. Although it's not a big deal there are fewer children during late seating which is perfect for me as a solo adult cruiser. Finally traveling westbound (I've done it twice before on my transatlantic cruises) with the time change I would prefer late seating.

 

[GoofyNewfie]

We loved main dining on the WBPC in 2015. We've done both in approximately even amounts. This next WBPC in 3 months will be main dining too. I somewhat prefer main dining. It feels odd to me, for some reason, doing the show first and then dinner. And I don't like eating so late as late dining. I need to find room for some late night snacking after all.

 

[Flossbolna]

On our WBPC we had late dining and grew a bit tired of it. Our servers were not quick and we often were among the last 20% in the dining room. Not by choice but because of slow service. We did not like that and were tempted to try main dining on our next cruise. But then realized that we would not be happy with that either. We usually skip a few shows and I really love the early evening time when everyone else is busy with show and dinner. We watched some sunsets and enjoyed the empty pool. We also ended up skipping some dinners and just ate earlier on those days.

However, the only thing that might make me consider early dining for a PC cruise is that for us they closed one dining room for second dining (less people on the ship than normal) and this made the dining rooms that were open very crowded. I would have preferred if those people spoiled have been spread out more. But I don't know if this happens on all the PC cruises or was special to ours.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

On our WBPC we had late dining and grew a bit tired of it. Our servers were not quick and we often were among the last 20% in the dining room. Not by choice but because of slow service. We did not like that and were tempted to try main dining on our next cruise. But then realized that we would not be happy with that either. We usually skip a few shows and I really love the early evening time when everyone else is busy with show and dinner. We watched some sunsets and enjoyed the empty pool. We also ended up skipping some dinners and just ate earlier on those days.

However, the only thing that might make me consider early dining for a PC cruise is that for us they closed one dining room for second dining (less people on the ship than normal) and this made the dining rooms that were open very crowded. I would have preferred if those people spoiled have been spread out more. But I don't know if this happens on all the PC cruises or was special to ours.

On our Hawaii cruise in 2012 the second seating for one of the rotations (ours as it turned out) didn't have any one on it. Our servers then were only getting tips for 1/6 of the passenger load (instead of the typical 1/3 with two seatings).

 

[jrabbit]

If you're good with second seating, then that's what you should do.

I am NOT a believer of trying to stay on your "home timezone". I've been with people that try to do this and it seems like a lot of work to me. The ship moves, and the daylight moves accordingly. Day is Day, Night is Night, and it does NOT matter what time it is at home.

Try to stay on local time. Because otherwise you are "fighting jet (ship?) lag" for two weeks vs. just going with the flow and letting the day be a day and "adjusting" only three times. We are west coasters, so going to Florida is a three hour change, and going to bed that first day usually isn't too bad because flying sucks and is tiring (and we probably have been going since 4am Pacific). Getting up that first morning blows, but then we are acclimatized to Eastern Time. Jet Lag hates sunlight and fresh air!

I have transited the canal twice, one each direction. Yes I like traveling west better - getting an extra hour 3 times vs loosing 3 hours. On the PC Cruises, DCL will try to make the timezone changes on a sea days so that you are not having to get up earlier for shore excursions.

I am just off of the Wonder as she moved from Galveston to San Juan (then other passengers took her onto Port Canaveral). This was a 6 night cruise with two timezone changes. We had late seating (8:15) and most of the time we were done close to 9:45. Two families at the table. This is easily 45 minutes faster than on other cruises where we had late seating and were lucky to get done by 10:30. On this cruise it appeared to me that lots of people were getting out in that time frame.

 

[MickeyEarrings]

I'm on this spring's WBPC as well, and we decided on our last cruise that we really are early diners at heart. Truthfully, we are 7pm diners, but since that's not a recognized dinner time, we chose to be early.

It's so hard for us (late 50's) to eat a four-course meal late at night... we intended to walk the deck or go to a club but we never did. We went back to our cabin for comfortable shoes and fell into bed in a food coma instead.

However... I've read about the "mid-cruise crisis" on some of the longer cruises, where one simply cannot tolerate the thought of another huge meal. That's our opportunity to eat in Cabana's, watch the sunset, etc.

 

[OKW Lover]

We did WB and had the late seating. Late seating is our normal practice on all cruises because we typically will take a break in the cabin mid-afternoon, have some nibbles and wine on the veranda, and perhaps a nap. This works out well on the Canal cruise also. On sea days, its really no different from any other cruise. On port days you don't have to hurry back to the ship to get ready for dinner. On Canal day, you can see the entire crossing without being worried about getting ready for dinner.

 

[o&smom]

We have always done main seating. I cannot imagine late dining since I am still full from early dining by the time I go to bed.

 

[MunFam]

On our WBPC we had late dining and grew a bit tired of it. Our servers were not quick and we often were among the last 20% in the dining room. Not by choice but because of slow service. We did not like that and were tempted to try main dining on our next cruise. But then realized that we would not be happy with that either. We usually skip a few shows and I really love the early evening time when everyone else is busy with show and dinner. We watched some sunsets and enjoyed the empty pool. We also ended up skipping some dinners and just ate earlier on those days.

I could have written this myself. We had a 4 year old (and are West Coasters)...but we loved late dining because we skipped most of the shows and stayed at the empty pool a lot of the nights...we had dinner on deck quite a few nights too. It was also nice to not have to rush to dinner after excursions or transit day.

PS, we did a tour with Dora the Explorer in Cartagena and it was incredible!! She was recommended to us on this board and it was cheaper than DCL and we got to cover what DCL offered in 2 separate excursions in her one tour. Also...the coffee at the port is AMAZING...definitely stop in there for a frozen coffee.

 

[Lunarias]

I'm having the same conundrum, we normally do late seating (but eat early at home, 530ish) so we don't have to worry about being back from Port, although on this trip it's mostly sea days, and all aboard is 330 to 430. So with that not being a worry, early may be better? But honestly I struggle with time zones, being west coasters it usually takes me almost 5 days to adjust to a 3 to 5 hour difference.... I know weak, but that makes late at just the right time for my brain early on and I could adjust slowly..... Ahhhh I'm over thinking it

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

I'm having the same conundrum, we normally do late seating (but eat early at home, 530ish) so we don't have to worry about being back from Port, although on this trip it's mostly sea days, and all aboard is 330 to 430. So with that not being a worry, early may be better? But honestly I struggle with time zones, being west coasters it usually takes me almost 5 days to adjust to a 3 to 5 hour difference.... I know weak, but that makes late at just the right time for my brain early on and I could adjust slowly..... Ahhhh I'm over thinking it

Try to stay on local time. Because otherwise you are "fighting jet (ship?) lag" for two weeks vs. just going with the flow and letting the day be a day and "adjusting" only three times. We are west coasters, so going to Florida is a three hour change, and going to bed that first day usually isn't too bad because flying sucks and is tiring (and we probably have been going since 4am Pacific). Getting up that first morning blows, but then we are acclimatized to Eastern Time. Jet Lag hates sunlight and fresh air!

I'm not belittling anyone's personal experiences or preferences, but I think jrabbit has the right idea here. To alleviate/minimize jet-lag, you need to try to get your body on local time ASAP. When I board the first plane I set my watch to the destination time, and start behaving like that time is THE time. Eat on the new time, and most importantly, sleep on the new time. That will help your body reset to the new time. When the clock says it is time to sleep, go to bed. When it says time to get up, get up. Depending on how hard it is for you to "sleep on command" this might mean one night of tough sleep, but that will make it extra easy to sleep/wake at the proper time the next day.

Actually, I find that a lot of people who are badly effected by jet-lag also have trouble sleeping/waking when they want to even on normal days. This is a separate issue that you can practice even when you aren't travelling. If you get better at sleeping/waking when you want to, you may find your jet-lag gets better too.

 

[dclpluto]

Main dining you get some food at night to hold you over until breakfast.

Late dining you get some food around 4 to hold you over until your late dinner.

At least this is what I do.

 

[jrabbit]

...fell into bed in a food coma instead.

However... I've read about the "mid-cruise crisis" on some of the longer cruises, where one simply cannot tolerate the thought of another huge meal. That's our opportunity to eat in Cabana's, watch the sunset, etc.

My problem is that I enjoy food too much and eat too much at dinner, so with late seating - I have this huge lump o food in my stomach and can't sleep comfortably, food coma or not.

On the cruises that were 10+ nights I've tried cutting down on how much I eat

• Before Breakfast - walk two or three miles on sea days.
• I started cutting back on breakfast - If I want a little of this and a little of that and the other stuff as well I try to make the portions as small as possible. I was surprised at how much I ate when it was a scoop of this and a scoop of that etc. Those scoops will last you the whole day
• Then Lunch: I usually only eat lunch for the first 3 or 4 days - especially when breakfast was the "scoop of this, that, other" vs. teeny tiny portions. After those first days on board, lunch is a snack and not much more. I grab a few treats out of Cove Cafe instead of eating healthy (sad, I know). Sometimes i will get a small wrap or salad from one of the poolside venues. I try not to go to Cabanas for lunch except on embarkation day - too much food - even for a short cruise.
• Dinner: Usually two of the appetizers and a soup, entree and a dessert (usually two but try not to eat it all).

These things have helped me not feel so full all of the time.

Our last cruise a week or so ago - I did not follow the above and after 6 nights onboard, I felt like I didn't want to eat for a week!! But that didn't stop me either. Keep Moving, Climb the stairs vs. elevators and self regulate portion control will help you feel better. I've noticed over the past couple of years that the portion sizes for entree's are getting larger again. Try not to be part of the clean plate club. Us eating everything (or not eating everything) will not help the starving children around the world (thanks mom)

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

Try not to be part of the clean plate club. Us eating everything (or not eating everything) will not help the starving children around the world

Food on your waist is also a waste.

 

[mom4fun]

We did the WBPC and we are on Eastern Standard time. It sounds like you are confused. If you have the 6:00 dining time, it slowly gets later. Most of the time, that will be our 7:00 time. Toward the end of the cruise it bumps up another hour and then a day or 2 later it bumps up another hour. On our last night of our cruise it would have been eating at 9:00 EST. At that point I realized I would need to acclimating back to EST so I ate room service, went to the early show and went to bed. I did get use to the 1 hour change but since the other 2 hour changes happen so late in the cruise, I never had time to get use to it. So basically for you, if you have an 8:00 dining time, by the end of the cruise you will be eating at 11:00.

 

[jrabbit]

All I Know is that I got an extra hour of sleep 3 times when doing the WBPC

So basically for you, if you have an 8:00 dining time, by the end of the cruise you will be eating at 11:00.

But when it is 8pm in Miami, it's only 5pm in San Diego. But on the other hand after the first time change you've gone 25 hours between dinners.

I am usually good at math!!

 

[MunFam]

Food on your waist is also a waste.

Ha! I gained 17 pounds on our WBPC in 2015. I lost it within a few weeks, but dang!!!

 

[SeaSpray]

OP here

Thanks so much for all of the votes and the comments. They're all helping me to think this through