Early or Late Seating Dining?

[Sleepyluke]

I have an add on question. For those of you that like late due to the more relaxed getting ready for dinner, do you skip the show that night? Or do you change after the show? Seems like you still have to get ready, but I agree, late seems less rushed. We have done late without kids, and early with. This next trip will be late with.

 

[DynamicDisneyDuo]

I have an add on question. For those of you that like late due to the more relaxed getting ready for dinner, do you skip the show that night? Or do you change after the show? Seems like you still have to get ready, but I agree, late seems less rushed. We have done late without kids, and early with. This next trip will be late with.

We do late seating. If it's just a regular night, we'll wear our dinner clothes (slacks/khakis and shirt for me, slacks and top for her) to the show. If we are dressing up like for formal night, we get ready between the show and dinner. That's if we go to the show. We don't always. We don't have kids so it's just the 2 of us.

 

[dvcdisney]

When our children were younger, we had early seating but as they got older, we chose second seating. This is in line with what we usually do at home....when they were younger, we ate dinner at 6pm and as they got older and sports, dance, swimming classes and practices came into play, we had our dinner later.

We've chosen second seating for the past few cruises now and we prefer it even if it's later than we usually eat at home. Another factor is the excursions, as they got older, we were choosing longer excursions and time off the ship, so it made more sense to have a later dinner. With a later dinner, we would eat breakfast and lunch a little later. Or if that's not possible, there's always snacks available if we're hungry.

 

[dvcdisney]

I have an add on question. For those of you that like late due to the more relaxed getting ready for dinner, do you skip the show that night? Or do you change after the show? Seems like you still have to get ready, but I agree, late seems less rushed. We have done late without kids, and early with. This next trip will be late with.

We always get ready before the show. We share one stateroom and, it takes a bit of time for everyone to have their shower (especially for my son who never realizes that we need to take quick showers). There just wouldn't be enough time between the show and dinner.

This would ensure we are not in a rush out of the show with the other hundred people. We're dressed already and would take some time walking through the shops or just relaxing before our dinner. It's far less hurried.

 

[AndreAggie]

We do late and we have a kid. We've done both and will not go back to early. I like having the option of taking it easy and skipping the show if we choose. Our son LOVES the clubs, so often we take him to the clubs, go have a drink in one of the lovely lounges and usually spark up a conversation with other adults. Then we'll go grab him from the club and have dinner as a family. We're a group of 3 and the last 2 cruises, we've been seated with another family. It works out beautifully because the kids will go to the clubs with the counselors that come to the dining rooms, and the adults will usually have a date night. It's great to not be rushed, enjoy our dinner and dessert and conversation. Bedtimes are usually out the window on a cruise, so we don't usually go get our son from the clubs until sometime after 11:00.

 

[Jennifer777]

For a romantic, adult-only cruise - especially that time of year, I would do late seating so I wouldn't miss seeing the sunset every night. Having a private table would also be very important to me and that's more likely to happen at late seating. Fewer small kids in the shows and the MDR would be a bonus. Enjoy your anniversary cruise!

 

[dvcdisney]

Not to put a damper on those who are expecting less children disruptions during the second seating, but our worst experience with a family of chaotic children was during the second seating. Unfortunately, I believe the parents thought that they were on a date night while their children was still there.

This is also, likely, because the children are quite tired by the time second seating comes around that they were very cranky and miserable.

I'm not trying to sway anyone from choosing second seating. I think it's important to know that although there may be less children, they are still there and it could get quite loud if you are within close proximity of the chaos and theatrics.

 

[cruiser21]

I have an add on question. For those of you that like late due to the more relaxed getting ready for dinner, do you skip the show that night? Or do you change after the show? Seems like you still have to get ready, but I agree, late seems less rushed. We have done late without kids, and early with. This next trip will be late with.

I rarely go to the shows, but you will have an hour or so between the show and dinner. If you're on a Caribbean or Bahamas cruise with the normal 1200+ young kids most of them will be in early seating. If you're on a longer or more exotic cruise with fewer children you won't notice the difference as much.

 

[FSU Girl]

We like the first seating and haven't sailed with kids. The second seating is just too late for us. We normally eat around 6:30/7 at home, but they don't have that time on the ship.

 

[southerngirl528]

I have an add on question. For those of you that like late due to the more relaxed getting ready for dinner, do you skip the show that night? Or do you change after the show? Seems like you still have to get ready, but I agree, late seems less rushed. We have done late without kids, and early with. This next trip will be late with.

Like a PP said, we get dressed for dinner before the show. We go to the show, and we love the Disney stage shows, then go to one of the lounges for some relaxation and a beverage before heading for a dinner. It's all very nice, at least for us.

We do late seating. If it's just a regular night, we'll wear our dinner clothes (slacks/khakis and shirt for me, slacks and top for her) to the show. If we are dressing up like for formal night, we get ready between the show and dinner. That's if we go to the show. We don't always. We don't have kids so it's just the 2 of us.

This.

 

[Eeyore54 fred]

We always do second seating. If we are going to the show, we change for dinner ahead of time. We find it more relaxing. Our very first cruise we did first seating and when we wanted to sit at the table and talk with the other family we were with, they sometimes had to ask us to leave since they had to set up for the second seating. We never found that the finish time for the second seating impacted us when getting up for excursions, except for my DS who never goes to bed early anyway and never likes to get up in the morning.

 

[Lilsia]

We always do second seating. If we are going to the show, we change for dinner ahead of time. We find it more relaxing. Our very first cruise we did first seating and when we wanted to sit at the table and talk with the other family we were with, they sometimes had to ask us to leave since they had to set up for the second seating. We never found that the finish time for the second seating impacted us when getting up for excursions, except for my DS who never goes to bed early anyway and never likes to get up in the morning.

I think that if you are done with your dinner and they are breaking down and cleaning the dining room then a person should take their conversations to the bar/lounge and let the staff do their job. Most of these servers need to get up early the next morning and start on breakfast. They work long, hard days and want to get their jobs done. I am sure most people would not want to have to stay extra late at work all the time because of a few inconsiderate people. I am sure no one is intentionally trying to be rude but we all need to be more considerate of other's time. It's not like they are getting paid overtime if they have to stay late.

 

[Eeyore54 fred]

We don’t hang around if they are cleaning things up. We realize that the servers have work to do and need to get up in the morning. But we seem to be a little less rushed after the meal..

 

[ludari]

As a solo cruiser with 10+ cruises I always select the late seating. Although I don't mind children they are less kids during the late seating. I also think that the early dining is too early for me to eat and finally I feel like I'm not rushed during the late seating (although I've never tried the early dining).

 

[Jenlynn3]

We just got off of the Fantasy western sailing. I liked dinner late seating not feeling rushed to get ready for dinner. However, we were late or didn’t get good seating for some of the adult night time entertainment

 

[kiford]

We typically eat dinner at home no earlier than 7 pm and usually closer to 7:30 pm so second dining time is more normal for us. It gives us more time to get ready for dinner especially if we've been out all day. We find fewer children at the second dining and we can linger after dinner at the table if we get along with our table mates (we've basically been kicked out several times - very politely - because we've lingered so long). Also because more children are at the earlier dining, that means more adults are at the earlier dining so the adult pool tends to be less crowded during early dining time and it's not too late or too chilly to spend time out there. If we go to the show, we find that the earlier show tends to be a little less crowded and often also has fewer children.

Whether you prefer early or later will depend on your own eating habits - do you eat late, are you OK going to bed relatively soon after dining (unless you are a night owl), do you like to take your time, etc. It's definitely easier to get second dining time since many people with young children prefer earlier.

 

[kiford]

I have an add on question. For those of you that like late due to the more relaxed getting ready for dinner, do you skip the show that night? Or do you change after the show? Seems like you still have to get ready, but I agree, late seems less rushed. We have done late without kids, and early with. This next trip will be late with.

Sometimes we get ready for dinner and go to the show (whether formal, semi-formal or casual - I don't care what I'm wearing in the show). Sometimes we change between the show if we even feel that we need to change if it's a casual night. Sometimes we go to the pool instead of the show and go back to our room in time to change for dinner. Sometimes we get dressed and just go to a lounge or go to a lounge between the show and dinner. Or nap until it's time for change for dinner. Kind of whatever we feel at the time. No set routine. But no kids.

 

[StlZNF]

We have done late seating on three cruises thus far out of PC and Miami which we loved, it allowed us to enjoy the port days leisurely then go to the show and then get ready for dinner. And being from the Midwest, the timing worked well too. However, we are sailing out of San Diego in March, and the Navigators from this year's cruises show that the Edge icebreakers are actually during the late seating. Blows my mind that would happen, but we currently are scheduled for early seating which matches closer to our home dinner time but will potentially rush us on our two port days. Both kids will be in the Edge and love meeting new friends, so I'm torn between the choices at the moment. Just my experience thus far.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

Adult only here. I used to insist on first seating because I am an early riser, and I felt like second was eating too late for me to digest and get to bed.

We tried second seating a few ago however, and even though I generally do not like eating that late, I make an exception now. The shows are less crowded and generally less little kids (since they are at dinner) and the dinners are more relaxing. Even though as 2 adults, Disney has never paired us with a table with little kids, in general the atmosphere is a little less noisy and rambunctious on the second seating. Plus second seating has the later breakfast at disembarkation.