Will the 8:30 dinner seating be ok with kids?

[spotncleo]

We are just booking now for the Dec.17 western sailing and the main dinner seating is sold out. We are waitlisted for it but what are other people's experiences with the second seating with kids. I would appreciate any advice!

Thanks!!
Laura

 

[StuartMI]

Yes, 'by. Everything should be fine as long as your wee-ones don't take to falling asleep early.

You may have some success in changing seatings after you board, too. Good luck!

 

[poohssmum]

We personally love late seating and won't choose early seating if we can avoid it. Our children are now 5 and 8, but they were 3 and 6 on our first cruise. Here are a couple of reasons that late seating worked for us ...

1) we never felt "rushed" to get to dinner.

2) the Mickey pool clears out around 4:30 - 5:00 as other families are getting ready for early seating dinner.

3) when the shows are before dinner ... we never had to worry that our kids would fall asleep during the show.

4) there were some nights our kids want to eat in the club with their friends, and this gave DH and I an opportunity to eat without our kids even if we weren't at Palo.

5) My favorite reason for loving late seating ... not eating dinner until 8:30 at night gives you a GREAT excuse to stop by Pluto's for Chicken Fingers and Fries in the late afternoon

 

[mrsltg]

We loved late seating. DD was 3.5 at the time and she did great with it. It gave us ample opportunity for an afternoon nap, playtime in the pool, and/or a pre-dinner show without rushing. We usually got a snack around 3:30-4 to hold us over and we all did fine.

Enjoy!

Erin

 

[pdarrah]

We LOVED late seating with our DS5 and requested it again this fall. As others have mentioned, we didn't have to rush back from shore on port days, the Mickey pool clears out when the early seating folks have to leave to get ready and the early show is nice with kids.

Our DS really enjoyed the club and chose to go to the club all but one evening. His prefered scenario was eating dinner from room service while DH and I changed for the evening (he LOVED room service) and then he would either go to the show with us or go straight to the club. The one evening he chose to dine with us was at Animator's pallette - he watched the whole "show" and then asked DH to take him to the club (skipping desert which amazed our servers!) I know some families feel they HAVE to eat together, but we felt that we always eat our meals together at home and since we were spending most of the day with DS (unlike at home with work, school, activities, etc.) that not eating together was OK on the trip and it was nice having some adult only meals!

pdarrah

 

[my3kids]

We had the first seating the first Disney Cruise and when we rebooked actually picked the late one for the next trip. We hated having to go get ready for dinner so early. If we missed a show prior to dinner it wasn't as big a deal for us.

 

[emememem]

On our 1st cruise my DS was 8...we had the late seating for dinner, he fell asleep every night at the table....

 

[princessmomma]

Hi Laura,

I think late will be fine as well, there is a rush to get ready for early, I think we may even switch to late as well, if I can convince DH to go. He wants to cancel and do Christmas 2007 instead. I say, "why not both??"

Here is a link to the cruise meet thread.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=592402&page=1&pp=15&highlight=any1

 

[mickeyboat]

On our 1st cruise my DS was 8...we had the late seating for dinner, he fell asleep every night at the table....

We had early seating, and our DD's (3 and 4 at the time) fell asleep at dinner several nights. They fell asleep in all the shows, too - even the matinees.

We were also waitlisted for early seating, and found out we got it when we boarded.

I am sure it will work out no matter what you decide.

Denae

 

[JJsmama]

There is no way my kids (or DH) would make it to the late seating. We are an early rising family though.

On a positive note, we were wait listed for the early seating and did finally get it just before the cruise.

 

[Tiggeriffic]

It really depends upon your children. We've cruised twice - once when my kids
were 6 and 10 and then again when they were 8 and 12. We had the late dinner
seating both times and we thought it worked out great for us. We were
generally staying up much later than we normally do at home, so it wasn't a
problem for us. If we didn't have a good lunch, we'd make sure to get them
some kind of snack between 4 and 5. This worked out great for us, but I'm sure
there are alot of people who would not like it.

 

[MickeyAnne]

While I did not travel with children, I can share the experiences that my table mates had during the 8:30 seating. On the first night, DBF and I were left by ourselves before our server could even offer us dessert because the two families with us had to take their children back to their rooms because they were literally falling asleep at the table! The second night, one of the families didn't make it to dinner at all because their child was already asleep, the other family though, their children both made it through dinner and dessert. On the third night, both families, kids and all, made it through dinner and I did see them at the Pirate's night festivities. The final night, both families left before desert again because the kids were so tired.

Thats all I can share with you! Hope it helps!

 

[one princess]

We had the late seating for our 4 day. My dd4 is not one to fall asleep anywhere except her bed especially if she might miss something. So our problem was not keeping her awake. Our problem was that her manners tend to go out the window at about 8:00. It was really hard to keep her in line. I did manage to get the early seating for our 7 day next April but now I am worried about getting dh to dinner on time! He is not going to want to eat that early!
I am sure you will find a way to make it work and either way you will have a blast!

Jackie

 

[Tay N Evie's Mom]

We had late seating for our 2nd cruise and hated it, our kids were 3 1/2 at the time. They fell asleep every night at the table, and so did the other child seated at our table. I personally would not go on a cruise if 2nd dining was the only thing available. Since our kids fell asleep at dinner, we would head back to the cabin for the night. The first two nights I was very sick to my stomach from eating such rich food then going to bed soon after. The second two nights I had to walk around the decks for about an hour before I went back to the cabin. I like early seating better since there are things to do after dinner to help digest those great meals.

 

[tvguy]

I may be making a gross generalization, but from these boards I gather that first time cruisers with kids prefer early seating.
Repeat cruisers with or without kids seem to prefer late.

As West Coasters, late seating for us is really early seating for our body clocks. However, even on our Alaska cruise we had late seating.

I think the key to a successful cruise with very small children is an afternoon nap, and afternoon snack at Pluto's, probably the same routine you would use in the parks with small kids.

 

[the kabuki]

Haven't been on a cruise yet..our first one's in Jan 06' (yea!!) but I went back and forth about this and finally decided on the late seating. I figure since we don't eat until 7:30 pm at home usually, and my kids' are all night owls that this will work well for us. Guess I'll have to wait and see

 

[spotncleo]

I certainly appreciate all the opinions! The sound of not having to rush around to get ready for the early seating sound nice. How long does dinner usually take and then do most people just retire for the night?

Laura
Disney Magic Dec.17-24, our first one!!

 

[Skatermom23]

This makes me "wonder" if I made the right decision...I picked early seating for our 2006 Dec cruise and my two kiddos will be 13 and 15 at the time. I guess I have lots of time to think it over and it sounds like I could change it with no problem.

 

[lbgraves]

I just don't see where you get that much more time by having late seating...unless you don't plan to go see the shows. There are still character appereances in the atrium & deck 4 to go to. The show starts at 6:30 then there are more appearances before dinner. I will still need to get myself & two kids ready. Maybe it works if you are traveling without kids?

 

[pdarrah]

I just don't see where you get that much more time by having late seating...unless you don't plan to go see the shows. There are still character appereances in the atrium & deck 4 to go to. The show starts at 6:30 then there are more appearances before dinner. I will still need to get myself & two kids ready. Maybe it works if you are traveling without kids?

I think it depends on your families interests. Our DS5 isn't that interested in the character meets. He has seen them a lot (10 trips to WDW) and knows they are costumes. He still enjoys more spontaneous interactions with the characters like at a character meal or a surprise encounter without a line - but he has no interest in going to wait in line to see one.

We also didn't see all the shows. I believe DH & I saw 4 of them and DS skipped one of those. For the casual evenings, there was plenty of time for us to change after the show and before dinner. It usually takes the 3 of us 1/2 or 3/4 of an hour to get ready. Whenever DS didn't dine with us (most of the time!) he didn't even usually need to change - his shorts/t-shirt were fine for the club. For the 1st formal night we got ready before the show (Golden Mickey's) but for the 2nd one it was just DH and me dressing up and we did in after the show and still had time to stop by the bookiing desk before dinner and book our next cruise!

pdarrah