Early Dining Two Nights and the Early Show Two Nights?

[WaltsMartini]

Going on 4 night Bahamian from Ft Lauderdale. Departure, Day 2 Castaway, Day 3 Nassau, Day 4 Sea day. We have early dinner seating, kids are 8 and 6. We typically eat dinner between 5-5:30 at home and are early to bed folks, 9 pm is a late night for my kiddos. Because of this, not sure if they’ll make it through the second show.

Must see for us is Tangled, nice to see is Disney Dreams. Good skipping Twice Charmed. Re: restaurants, def want to eat dinner at Animators Palate and Rapunzels. Ok with skipping Lumiere’s or trying to do a lunchtime seating if offered.

I’m thinking that as soon as I board the ship, I’ll check out our dining rotation and the show schedule and try to rearrange to make sure that we have our duplicate or Lumiere’s on the night that Tangled is on stage so that we can catch the 6:15 show. It would be great if I can finagle it to see both shows we’d like to see, but really want Tangled.

Has anyone else done anything like this, and how did it work out for you?

 

[anricat]

If there is a specific rotation that you want, I highly recommend that you contact DCL now (or have your TA contact them if that's how you booked) and request your preferred rotation.

Have you seen Twice Charmed? It's actually a great show! I wouldn't miss it if you've never seen it.

Your kids may surprise you. We are 100% early to bed at home. When my daughter was little 8 PM sharp bedtime. That said, on a cruise, it's all out the window and we never had a single issue or meltdown or anything as a result. We had late dining and she always did great! We caught the first show and she was right there at dinner each night. Since they aren't super little, they will likely be great for both the show and dinner.

It's a vacation! I say "let it go!"

 

[jrez]

Yeah, you should definitely contact Disney ahead of time and they should be able to see if there is a dining rotation that works for what you want, and then put a request for it if so.

Also, agree with the comment on a cruise ship vacation time/schedules can get abnormal.

 

[auntlynne]

Do you live in Eastern Time zone? As Central Time people, our bodies aren’t so prone to recognize that it is an hour later.

That said, people here seem to recommend doing second seating if the kids are prone to fall asleep in the later show. The servers at dinner do bring out the kids food first- and then we see some children asleep in their chairs while mom and dad and the not- so- sleepy sibling(s) finish their meals. And you can take your dessert to the room If necessary.

I have never heard of splitting your seating assignment and wouldn’t expect it to happen.

 

[jrez]

Also to keep in mind is that on some sea days they will do an extra show in the early afternoon.

 

[anricat]

Also to keep in mind is that on some sea days they will do an extra show in the early afternoon.

On a 4-night on the Magic? I've only ever seen that on the longer cruises on the larger ships.

 

[jrez]

On a 4-night on the Magic? I've only ever seen that on the longer cruises on the larger ships.

Sounds like you know better than me. I’ve never paid attention to what cruises/ships it’s happened on.

 

[WaltsMartini]

We have a travel agent - it sounds like I want to ask her to request that we Lumieres or our duplicate restaurant the night that Tangled is showing. I’ll do that tomorrow!

 

[anricat]

We have a travel agent - it sounds like I want to ask her to request that we Lumieres or our duplicate restaurant the night that Tangled is showing. I’ll do that tomorrow!

On a four night, you will have a duplicate restaurant but not a duplicate menu. You'll get each rotational menu once plus the pirate menu on the other night. I wouldn't recommend skipping any of them, but especially not Lumiere's! Pirate night is my least favorite menu (and I think most people agree) but that may or may not be the menu on the night of the Tangled show. On our recent 4-night on the Magic, it was not.

The order of shows for us was:
Night 1 - Tangled
Night 2 - Twice Charmed
Night 3 - movie
Night 4 - Disney Dreams

Pirate night was night 3 for us (the night of the movie).

Honestly, I think you're over-thinking this. The show is only an hour long and your kids may surprise you. Let them sleep in or have an afternoon rest. I think they'll be good to go.

 

[Disneyland_emily]

my 7 year old is always in bed by 8/asleep by 830 but had no problems watching the shows then crashing hard directly afterwards.

it worked great because she slept in “late” (7 am) so wasn’t wanting breakfast before it was an option…

 

[lanejudy]

We also regularly eat dinner at 5pm at home with fairly early bed. On our first cruise DD was 7 with a usual bedtime of 7pm. We did early dinner and second show. We had a good dinner every night and she made it to the show 2 nights (out of 4) that cruise with no problem. Tired and crashed right after, but good for the shows. She may have even worn her PJs to the show, I don't remember.

If you skip the MDR on 2 nights, what are you planning for dinner? The pool-side quick service and room service do ok as lunch; not the best replacement for dinner IMO.

 

[Husker Mike]

Considering how the servers try to choreograph their actions and try to customize their service to each guest, I don't think they can set up a mix-and-match schedule. I think your best bet is to pick what's most important to you... a sit-down restaurant meal for everyone, or the shows. Put the most important thing in the first time-slot and then do the other in the later timeslot, if the family can make it. I suspect the kids will be more resilient than you think, but don't expect (or force the kids to be up super early for breakfast the next day.)

Keep in mind that your "duplicate" restaurant night will also be pirate night with fireworks after the second seating for dinner/shows. So your kids might want to stay up for that anyway.

 

[WaltsMartini]

This is great advice - thanks everyone. We were not going to mix and match dinner times, rather, we were going to skip dinner and do room service or poolside. I think we’ll just power through and have the kids wear jammies to the show - love that idea! Thanks all.

As a side note, this is our first Disney cruise - and me and my kids first cruise ever - so I am SO excited! I have been dreaming of a Disney cruise since they first existed in ‘97 but never thought it was a possibility - dreams do come true!

 

[disneyfaninaz]

For what it's worth. DCL will show previous recordings of the stage shows on the stateroom television. If the kids fall asleep you can at least catch the show in your stateroom.