West Coast people - time change + late seating + WBPC?

[KalamityJane]

We are booked on the WBPC in 2017 and have late seating. We are on mountain time, so 2 hours behind FL, so I figured late seating would be nice, plus we could utilize dine and play. My kids will be 4, 6 and 8.5 on the cruise. We normally eat about 6 MT so it would be similar on the cruise.

Then I got to worrying about the time changes headed west... Is it going to be too late? Will it mess the kids up royally on sleeping?

Any opinions are welcome.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Do not take time zones into account, it doesn't work.

Eat at the time you eat when you are at home, so if when your none on vacation, you eat at 6 pm, book 6 pm on the ship, if at home you eat st 8.15 pm every night book that.

It's a misnomer this old wives tale.

On ship you and children adjust quickly to the sunlight, so the family is excited you will be up early on ship or in port say 8 am hsve breakfast, lunch on ship from noon to 1.30 or in port or castaway from 11.30 to 1.30.

So you are on local time for them, but then switch back to home time for dinner, IE a gap of 7 hours from lunch to 8.15 pm.

Eating late is bad for people's health, we over eat on a cruise, well we all do it, but then add unlimited soda, that needs to go " down" bodies process food better in the morning, worse in the afternoon, and badly at night. The old saying is, have breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper.

Acid reflux, upset tummy, diabetes, are all made far worse the later you eat at night, so main dinner then a show allows your body to process food, but later dinner eating up to 10.15 lays on your tummy.

Now yes in Spain they eat late that's thier culture, if you like eating at 8.15 at home, do it, but do not adjust for time zones that never ever works.

With your children's ages, IMHO eating other than on main, will mess them up, they are used to eating at 6pm, they will hit the pizza and buglers at 6 pm, messing up a good meal, and then at 8.15 will be far too tiered to eat, messing thier evening up, they would gave been up from 7 am/8 am eaten breakfast and lunch ship time, so Late dinner is too long for them. Late is for adults and old teens only, and ask yourself, why, MAIN dinner always sells out first, as those with children avoid late and meltdowns.

On a Panama cruise you get an " hour" change on certain nights, so it's gradual and not noticed, west bound that's a short lay in, or the kids are still up early anyway and even more burnt out the following night, bring up an extra hour.

 

[Ofinn]

We are booked on the WBPC in 2017 and have late seating. We are on mountain time, so 2 hours behind FL, so I figured late seating would be nice, plus we could utilize dine and play. My kids will be 4, 6 and 8.5 on the cruise. We normally eat about 6 MT so it would be similar on the cruise.

Then I got to worrying about the time changes headed west... Is it going to be too late? Will it mess the kids up royally on sleeping?

Any opinions are welcome.

We are late eaters so we do late seating. I dont even notice the time change going to the east coast. I notice it when I get home Im usually in bed by 8 the first couple of nights. I would problbly stick to your normal schedule especially since youll be losing a hour.

 

[jetskigrl]

We are from the West Coast and do late dining but that is more about our vacation style than the time zone. We tend to shift everything later (sleep in later, lunch later, dinner later, bedtime later, even when we are in the same time zone) so second seating has always worked well for us, even when my kids were younger. The time zone from west to east coast never really bothered us much (we adjusted within the first couple of days anyway). Since your kids are younger, you may want to stick with what is closer to their regular routine (unless you anticipate them staying up much later than usual).

 

[MunFam]

We are West Coasters, did the WBPC with a 4 year old and it worked out SOOO great! We skipped breakfast most mornings though in lieu of an early lunch, afternoon pool deck snack and late dining. We loved staying at the pool later (when it was empty) because most of the shows were more adult-centric in nature. I would do it again...and FWIW, we eat dinner at 5pm at home.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We are West Coasters, did the WBPC with a 4 year old and it worked out SOOO great! We skipped breakfast most mornings though in lieu of an early lunch, afternoon pool deck snack and late dining. We loved staying at the pool later (when it was empty) because most of the shows were more adult-centric in nature. I would do it again...and FWIW, we eat dinner at 5pm at home.

Also west-coasters here. We pick whatever dinner seating works best with what we want to do. Generally, it's early, but we have done late seating also. Doesn't mess up any sleep or eating patterns for us.

 

[closetmickey]

More West Coasters here. We always do late (kids were 3, 6, 7 on our first cruise) - adjusting for the time zone works well for us. And yes...our kids stay up later onboard and then sleep later as well

 

[bumbershoot]

I"m just going to say "I DISAGREE" to just about everything in Disney Fantasy's post. And talk about old wives' tales with the "eating late is bad for you" thing. And you haven't met my family if you think that excited people get up early and get used to time zone changes etc etc.

I'm happy for DH, that his family works in a way that works with his sensibilities, but it does NOT work like that for many other people. Best to figure out how YOUR family works, and go with that, instead of some other family.

We do FAR better, on a trip where we haven't yet acclimated (and for MY family that takes a solid 2 weeks of being in a new timezone no matter if we go straight onto the new timezone OR go slowly), if we go with late dining. FAR better. We're staying up later and getting up later, because our bodies do not get used to even 3 hours difference in a heartbeat. And we were zombies for far too long on our England/Ireland trip, and for that one we tried really hard to get onto the new timezone fast.

So I say...stay on your body clock. Especially since you're going west, and you won't be spending time on the east coast after the cruise. Late dining wins, IMO.

 

[Lunarias]

West coaster here too, and for me time change is something that makes a difference in my vacations. I eat at the same time every day, so my body expects food then, regardless of what time the clock says. I have found I personally adjust slowly to time changes unless I'm up for 52 hours straight, crash and wake up at a normal time for that zone (first day in London was rough! ) but seriously that is me, my fiancée is pretty flexible, and honestly will just snack until his body adjusts. Do what feels right for your family, but like some others have said, your kids may like to stay up late on vacation and that may lend itself to later dining as well

 

[ShelleyTaylor]

West coaster here, and while not dCL, when we went to the Bahamas DS was 1, his normal 7-7 sleep became 10-10 on vacation which totally suited what we were doing. We ate dinner at 7/7:30 most nights, and all in all it worked perfectly that he stayed on PST.

Kids are 9/10 now, but we are late seating next month, hoping this will work similar this time.

 

[Ofinn]

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[Ofinn]

I"m just

 

[Ofinn]

I"m just going to say "I DISAGREE" to just about everything in Disney Fantasy's post. And talk about old wives' tales with the "eating late is bad for you" thing. And you haven't met my family if you think that excited people get up early and get used to time zone changes etc etc.

I'm happy for DH, that his family works in a way that works with his sensibilities, but it does NOT work like that for many other people. Best to figure out how YOUR family works, and go with that, instead of some other family.

We do FAR better, on a trip where we haven't yet acclimated (and for MY family that takes a solid 2 weeks of being in a new timezone no matter if we go straight onto the new timezone OR go slowly), if we go with late dining. FAR better. We're staying up later and getting up later, because our bodies do not get used to even 3 hours difference in a heartbeat. And we were zombies for far too long on our England/Ireland trip, and for that one we tried really hard to get onto the new timezone fast.

So I say...stay on your body clock. Especially since you're going west, and you won't be spending time on the east coast after the cruise. Late dining wins, IMO.

Two weeks to adjust to a time zone is highly unusually. I dont think thats the norm it may take us a day at the most. I think everyone is different. We eat dinner at 8pm at home. I would not want to eat at 11 pm because Im on the east coast. Im usually in bed by 11 on a cruise.

 

[KalamityJane]

Thanks for all the opinions!!

We have inside rooms so I'm thinking that the kids would stay up later anyway and then sleep in. Normally on vacation (we go to FL to see my family) they stay up later/get up later as well, and I know they definitely sleep better/longer in the dark.

If late dining isn't working for us, we can change to main, correct? How long do we have after we board to do this? 1-2 nights?

 

[SandyinMonterey]

We were on the Fantasy this past March. We had the earlier seating for dinner and thought about changing it to later. Was thinking like you, we're from West Coast, thought the later seating would be better especially to enjoy more pool time and not to rush but then I really started thinking about the time so we kept the earlier seating. We didn't get out of dinner any earlier than 7:30 p.m. My daughter wouldn't make it for the late dinner.

 

[ludari]

West coaster here as well... Whenever I cruise regardless if it's on the west coast, east coast or even in Europe I always select second/late seating for dinner. I find the early seating for dinner is too early for me, however people with children often prefer the early dining schedule.

 

[helenb]

We're west coasters here, and we like early dining. Then again, we use the cruise to adjust to Eastern time, then go to the theme parks the week following the cruise. Since we're already adjusted to the time change, the early morning rope drops are not a problems!

But we're also early eaters at home, so we always take early dining on a cruise, no matter what time zone we're in.

 

[tvguy]

We are from the West Coast and do late dining but that is more about our vacation style than the time zone. We tend to shift everything later (sleep in later, lunch later, dinner later, bedtime later, even when we are in the same time zone) so second seating has always worked well for us, even when my kids were younger. The time zone from west to east coast never really bothered us much (we adjusted within the first couple of days anyway). Since your kids are younger, you may want to stick with what is closer to their regular routine (unless you anticipate them staying up much later than usual).

This is pretty much us. West Coasters When our kids were in school, with the usual after school activities that often went until 8 pm, that's when dinner was. That would be 11 pm on the East coast, so late seating was usually like eating early for our bodies. Vacations we tend to eat even later, like 9 pm, that would be midnight on the east coast.

 

[aladdin94]

Another West Coaster here voting for SECOND SEATING. Done 2 cruise with early seating, and our last one with second seating. Later dinning worked out much better (3 kids-5,8 and 12), just because you don't feel rushed to get to dinner AND servers in second seating aren't rushed to get people out of dinning rooms to prepare for second dinners.