Why hasn't Disney solved the main/late dining debacle already?

[Caboosey]

We've been on all the ships except Wonder and the only MDR entertainment I remember is in AP. What have we missed?

The Wonder has Tiana's Place with Tiana singing with a live band. The Magic has Rapunzel's Royal Table with a show.

 

[lilsonicfan]

We would LOVE a buffet option but I don't see that happening either. We've been on all the ships except Wonder and the only MDR entertainment I remember is in AP. What have we missed?

It's certainly not every night, the entertainment. But on say a 7 night cruise on the Magic, you get AP colour change 'show' (Sorceror mickey comes out), AP animation magic show (your own drawings), Rapunzel Thugs/surprise birthday, Rapunzel lanterns show. Hmm, I guess Lumiere's lacks a show. But anyway that's four nights. So perhaps "entertainment" isn't quite the right word, but I guess I'm also referring to the general theming that is present as well. The servers dress up differently on different nights, the menus can be themed (pirates, Frozen, etc). I think DCL just places enough of an emphasis on the MDRs that they don't have much interest in establishing a regular dinner buffet. But I hope I'm wrong.

 

[bcwife76]

We actually really like the later dining time, it means we have time to do all the things we want during the day and still have time to go get showered and dress for dinner. Once dinner is finished we go straight to cocktail time. Not everyone wants earlier dining.

This.
We've always had second dining because that works for our family. We don't eat dinner at home til usually 7pm, plus we live on the West coast. Dinner at 7:30pm is 4:30 in our body clock, no thanks. So yeah, you're welcome - this family of 4 gives leaves space for you early diners

 

[Happy99]

And I recall seeing a man flipping out at guest services on day one because his travel agent apparently didn't explain dining times to him and he had a baby and toddler who couldn't wait until 8:15.

While this could have happened it could easily be a person throwing their TA under the bus and figured if they said they didn't know, were loud enough, etc. they would get what they want. I have seen this at hotel check in and then the guests walk away all happy with themselves when they were accommodate to the point that I mentioned to a person once, it was so nice for them to accommodate you and they responded, oh we do this all the time if we don't get what we want. I stood there with my mouth wide open for a while. Why anyone would do that is beyond me. It could have easily been their travel agent but in most cases it is the person trying to get what they want. Information on dining time is clearly noted on Disney's website and if that person didn't ask, if the TA really didn't say anything, what is late dining or how does dining work on a cruise then they really didn't care to begin with.

 

[Happy99]

While we were strict with bed times when the kids were little, when on vacation we did relax the rule. Personally we didn't want the children missing out on some of the evening activities and we as adults didn't want to be in the room at 8pm ready for bed. Just my 2cents. Each family has to do what is best for them but for us vacation was time to spend together and have fun.

 

[CamColt]

I eat very early at home (4:00-4:30), however when I cruise I want late dining and 8:15 works fine for me. My kids are now adults but even on our first cruise (they were 8 months and 3 1/2 years old) we had late. I wouldn't want early dining, and I wouldn't want late to be earlier, pushing the show earlier.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I think it would be nice if Cabanas was buffet style rather than a lesser version of the MDRs. The trouble is I don't see this happening, given DCL's emphasis on the MDR entertainment being such a huge part of the experience.

That involves a LOT more staff as well, which is an issue. Cabanas works for breakfast/lunch because all the MDR staff work it.

 

[squirk]

or 2, add more tables.

But the MDRs are packed pretty tight as it is, especially Enchanted Garden, no?

I’m not a particularly big guy, and I find squeezing past tables and chairs in EG to be a little “close”. I cannot imagine what it would be like if they made the table density even higher.

 

[FigmentSpark]

But the MDRs are packed pretty tight as it is, especially Enchanted Garden, no?

I’m not a particularly big guy, and I find squeezing past tables and chairs in EG to be a little “close”. I cannot imagine what it would be like if they made the table density even higher.

I agree, but I was thinking they'd have to increase the size of the dining rooms. Maybe for the next ships... or the ones after that?

 

[71 Truck]

We have been 11 Disney cruises since early 2001. If my memory is correct did Disney change the main dining times once in the past. I remember them being a little later.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We have been 11 Disney cruises since early 2001. If my memory is correct did Disney change the main dining times once in the past. I remember them being a little later.

Time was that the MDR dining times were staggered, but basically at the same time frames as currently.

If I recall correctly it would work like this:
One MDR would serve dinner at 5:30 & 8:00
Another would serve at 5:45 & 8:15
The third would serve at 6:00 & 8:30

The theory at the time was it would relieve the load on the various kitchens & servers.

But they changed it all about 5-6 years ago putting all dining times the same in all dining rooms.

 

[Savagekids]

I agree with disney's first come, first serve for main dining.
If you book last minute, why should your family have preference over a family without kids who booked 6 months to a year earlier than you booked?

I don't book late because I'm lazy or not "in the know". We book late because we are military and can't predict future vacation time. I imagine people in other career fields have the same problem. There are already enough penalties for booking reservations late, it would be nice if dinner was removed from the penalty list.

 

[squirk]

I agree, but I was thinking they'd have to increase the size of the dining rooms. Maybe for the next ships... or the ones after that?

That brings up a great question: we know the next ships are all Dream-class in terms of overall size. But how Dream-class are they in terms of layout? Will there be three MDRs? Will they be in the same locations and of the same size as the existing Dream-class MDRs?

Hopefully, they will give us some more details at D23 in August.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I don't book late because I'm lazy or not "in the know". We book late because we are military and can't predict future vacation time. I imagine people in other career fields have the same problem. There are already enough penalties for booking reservations late, it would be nice if dinner was removed from the penalty list.

Whereas the people who book early get, as a "perk" the option of selecting their dining time.

Really, as with most things in life, there are privileges for doing things early or first not accorded to those who do them late or last.

That being said, every DCL cruise that we've booked that we "had" to take late dining on, we asked to be placed on the wait list. That would be 9 cruises. And every one of them came through, without extra contacts to DCL. Some came through within a couple of weeks of making the booking, others not until embarkation day, but they came through.

 

[ajo]

We're also a family that loves late dining. We did early dining on our very first cruise and the two littlest members of our group (ages 2 and 3) feel asleep during dinner. Every. Night.

For the next cruise, we switched to late dining (same kids were 3 and 4 on this cruise). They had no problem staying awake. We loved it and haven't looked back!

 

[ember1205]

I'm currently dealing with the stress of hoping to be moved off the waitlist for main dining. Every time I get some version of "no we can't tell you where you are on the waitlist, but everyone wants main dining because everyone has small kids." Two people in my [social media not-to-be-named] group actually cancelled the cruise because they could not get main dining before PIF. And I recall seeing a man flipping out at guest services on day one because his travel agent apparently didn't explain dining times to him and he had a baby and toddler who couldn't wait until 8:15.

So since this is a known issue for every cruise, do you think Disney should move the dinners earlier? 5pm and 7:30 would be so much more manageable for families than 5:45 and 8:15. What do folks think?

Or (more controversially) do you think main dining should be reserved for parties with children age 5-and under? Let's be real, if I were sans-kids I would pick main dining too if given an option, even though I don't really need it. 6/7pm-ish is when I eat at home, plus I'd much rather enjoy a show and entertaining after dinner than watch one before and go to bed straight after eating. But realistically, if the only option for me was an 8:15 dinner, I could live with that, unlike my kids who, the last time a late flight to WDW made us eat after 8, were sobbing their eyes out because they felt so bad, couldn't eat a bite, and then fell asleep in their chairs.

First world problem to be sure. This actually made me literally laugh out loud as I basically pictured a couple of adults having a temper tantrum.

I'd like to point out that reserving early dining for ONLY those with children within a certain age range is equally problematic (probably more so, actually). What about those with dietary restrictions that require specific meal times? What about those with children outside of whatever specific age-range that still don't fit usefully for late dining. What about those traveling with adults that ACT like four year olds (tongue in cheek, here)?

There are two other realities here:

1) Disney makes every effort to accommodate pretty much every request a guest might make that's reasonable. And, just because all things Disney are "Magical", they aren't literally magicians. If DCL were to grant every single request as soon as it were logistically feasible, the sheer volume of churn of information would drag the web site and booking processes to a halt. Wait until you get on this ship and go make the request THEN. Directly. With the folks that are taking dining requests. On that ship. For that sailing. With the absolute most up-to-date list of passengers and requests. There is a very good chance that your request can be accommodated then. We switched from late to early when we boarded and we also got a private table at the early dining (even though we were told THAT wasn't guaranteed when we made the switch).

2) If you absolutely can't get main dining at the time you feel you really "need", go to Cabana's or order Room Service. Same food!

People really need to stop "stressing" about things like this way ahead of actually experiencing a problem and understand that this absolutely isn't the end of the world to not have your EXACT dining time know 9 months before you sail! What's next? Needing to know your exact table number? The other guests you're seated with? Their hometowns?

Deep breath. You can handle this. I promise. Adults and children are quite adaptable and resilient.

 

[diznymom]

I don't see it as a debacle. Except for just a few people that complain about the dining times (some want early, some want late), it seems to work out for most everyone. Plus, there are other dining options.

 

[deanimal]

We had late dining just once (booked about 8 months out) with a 6 and 7 year old and while it didn't "ruin" our cruise or anything, it did significantly decrease our enjoyment of the cruise. Dining is usually a highlight for us when we cruise and it's just no fun to have kids falling asleep in their meals every night.

One thing that really contributed to the problem for us was the lack of food options on Disney in the 3-5pm time slot. Sure, Cabanas opened at 530 pm every night, but if we let the kids eat at 530 or 6, they weren't interested in eating at dinner. But there weren't really many options for a substantial, healthy snack in the afternoon. We did later dining once on a different cruise line and they had part of the buffet open all afternoon. I'd pop up and grab a big plate of fruit and veggies, cheese, bread sticks and a few small treats at about 4pm and that would keep everyone happy until second dining. I did try ordering room service once at about that time when we had second dining on Disney, but they said they were very busy and we ended up waiting in our room for an hour before the food came which sort of defeated the purpose.

I do understand that there will always be people stuck with 2nd sitting who would prefer 1st. It's just a space and demographic issue. What bothers me is that there are things Disney could do to give 2nd dining people more options but they don't do it.

 

[squirk]

I don't book late because I'm lazy or not "in the know". We book late because we are military and can't predict future vacation time. I imagine people in other career fields have the same problem. There are already enough penalties for booking reservations late, it would be nice if dinner was removed from the penalty list.

It’s not a “penalty”. It’s how business works.

If you have customers ready/willing/able to commit right now to giving you their money and their business, what company would not give those people “first dibs” on their product preferences?

Further - almost everyone who books late but wants Main seating will probably say they have a really good excuse for not booking sooner. I highly doubt DCL wants to get in the habit of evaluating which reasons are “good enough” to get a bump to Main and which reasons are not.

People who had their reasons turned down will just ***** that the review process wasn’t fair, wasn’t consistent, wasn’t logical, etc. It’d be a lose-lose situation for DCL.

 

[ArielRae]

ArielRae - I wonder if your family would be the only ones dining at a seating at 3:30pm!

With many families with young kids on board. I think many would choose the 3:30pm main dining room dinner then have to keep their kids up for an 8:00pm dinner they got assigned.

I also like those posting the idea that they keep one side of cabanas open all day for all meals. Can go and grab a meal anytime you like to have your meals. True anytime dining with food that’s better then pool deck food.