On Fantasy: Stuck on second seating. How to get first?

Darn. What should we do now? We didn't realize that we needed to sign up so early. My husband just got on the site and said they put us into the second seating -- is that 8 p.m.? -- and that there was no option.

Again, we'll be on the Fantasy in early Dec.

Any suggestions for fixing this situation?

Thanks!

Alley

1. Call DCL or your TA and ask to be switched or waitlisted for early.

2. If you still haven't been able to get on early dining when you get aboard, go to dining changes (ask the CM who directs you to lunch or where things are, and ask again.

3. Hope they switch you!

ex techie

If pre-cruise changes are not possible...When you get onboard... go straight to guest services to find out where dining changes can be made. On the Wonder, I was directed to a restaurant for changes.

The earlier you get to guest services, the easier it is for me them to make changes. Or be waitlisted for changes.

Personally, I love second dining...

• meal is less rushed, and I can eat slower
  
• clothes are free of food stains for the show as you feed afterwards
  
• you get to sleep in for the later breakfast for debarkation day
  

It is a common misconception that you need to book early to get main seating. Not true. DCL attempts to "balance" the seatings so that they constantly keep the same numbers at each time.

But back to the question of how to get moved to main seating.

1) ask to be waitlisted for main

2) call DCL at least once a month and ask if you have been moved yet (remember the squeaky wheel--it only takes one CM to be willing to make the change)

3) if still on "late" when you check in, go to "Dining Changes" as soon as you board and again ask to be moved.

Normally steps 1 and 2 will work and you will be moved before check in. You will not be notified when you are moved.

All that said, we like late dining much better.

It is a common misconception that you need to book early to get main seating. Not true. DCL attempts to "balance" the seatings so that they constantly keep the same numbers at each time.

 

But back to the question of how to get moved to main seating.

1) ask to be waitlisted for main

2) call DCL at least once a month and ask if you have been moved yet (remember the squeaky wheel--it only takes one CM to be willing to make the change)

3) if still on "late" when you check in' date=' go to "Dining Changes" as soon as you board and again ask to be moved.

 

Normally steps 1 and 2 will work and you will be moved before check in. You will not be notified when you are moved.

 

All that said, we like late dining much better.[/quote']

 

When DCL switched to the "new" website, the option for dinner seating selection disappeared. The default for anyone making a reservation (online) is "late". If you want to get main seating, you have to then call DCL and have it changed. Or be put on the wait list.

When DCL switched to the "new" website, the option for dinner seating selection disappeared. The default for anyone making a reservation (online) is "late". If you want to get main seating, you have to then call DCL and have it changed. Or be put on the wait list.

Can you explain how eating later would work? I was making an assumption that we'd miss shows if we eat at 8 p.m. I'm very show-oriented and don't want to miss anything.

Plus in daily life, my family tends to eat at 6 anyway for dinner.

Thanks for all the help,

Alley

The shows in WDT are run twice nightly, so early diners see the late show whilst late diners eat, late diners see the show whilst the early diners eat.

You won't miss a show unless you choose to.

Your daily regular eating time may be stretched with a late seating, but late dining was the advantage of not being so rushed to get back from shore excursions and get ready for dinner to make the early dining time, and you can always get a quick snack from the quick service outlets or room service to hold you over.

ex techie

When DCL switched to the "new" website, the option for dinner seating selection disappeared. The default for anyone making a reservation (online) is "late". If you want to get main seating, you have to then call DCL and have it changed. Or be put on the wait list.

I wonder if that was deliberate by design or an oversight that maybe corrected with feedback?

ex techie

The shows in WDT are run twice nightly, so early diners see the late show whilst late diners eat, late diners see the show whilst the early diners eat.

You won't miss a show unless you choose to.

 

Your daily regular eating time may be stretched with a late seating, but late dining was the advantage of not being so rushed to get back from shore excursions and get ready for dinner to make the early dining time, and you can always get a quick snack from the quick service outlets or room service to hold you over.

 

ex techie

You make really good points. But let me ask: if you eat at 8 p.m. aren't you somewhat rushed to make the pirate/fireworks show they do towards the end?

Also, we have 12 year old boys -- aren't a lot of the kid activities crammed into the afternoon? We thought eating at 5:45 would give us the evening to do a show and plenty of time in the afternoon to do movies, kid-activities etc.

The only real excursion we're into is the Castaway Cay day. That day is big for us.

On that note too, can you recommend excursions on Castaway Cay for 12 year old boys? I think one wants to do the stingray "meet".

Oops, didn't mean to hijack my thread. :o

Thanks for all your help,

Alley

You make really good points. But let me ask: if you eat at 8 p.m. aren't you somewhat rushed to make the pirate/fireworks show they do towards the end?

 

Also' date=' we have 12 year old boys -- aren't a lot of the kid activities crammed into the afternoon? We thought eating at 5:45 would give us the evening to do a show and plenty of time in the afternoon to do movies, kid-activities etc.

 

The only real excursion we're into is the Castaway Cay day. That day is big for us.

 

On that note too, can you recommend excursions on Castaway Cay for 12 year old boys? I think one wants to do the stingray "meet".

 

Oops, didn't mean to hijack my thread. :o

 

Thanks for all your help,

 

Alley[/quote']

 

No worries!

The deck party is scheduled for after dinner finishes, I want to say around 9:45/10pm? so you won't miss it.

 

It's been years since I've been back to CC so I'll leave recommendations to others.

 

The activities are generally planned around dinner times, so again you won't miss them.

Check out the navigators on disneycruiselineblog.com and see some previous cruise activities. They do change, but usually not by a lot and often.

 

ex techie

 

Edit. Buccaneer Blast is at 10.30pm so plenty of time to change if you are bringing costumes and don't want to wear them to dinner.

Go to the dining host and tell them your diabetic and have to eat early or you get sick. Works every time!

Go to the dining host and tell them your diabetic and have to eat early or you get sick. Works every time!

Please don't lie. Use medical reasons only if they are legit.

You won't miss the pirate night festivities or anything else by having late dining. Kid activities are scheduled all day and all evening, as are family activities. We've found that a late afternoon "healthy snack" makes late dining very do-able.

Please don't lie. Use medical reasons only if they are legit.

 

You won't miss the pirate night festivities or anything else by having late dining. Kid activities are scheduled all day and all evening' date=' as are family activities. We've found that a late afternoon "healthy snack" makes late dining very do-able.[/quote']

 

 

I was going to do that! But then I just continued living my life....

Go to the dining host and tell them your diabetic and have to eat early or you get sick. Works every time!

My MIL has tried this before (she is diabetic) and no it does not work every time. The reality is if you are diabetic with late dining and cannot wait there are other choices around to eat, whether it is having a late afternoon snack, room service, or eating in another venue like Cabanas. Obviously accommodating the request to eat at your normal dining time will increase the enjoyment of your cruise. Its in Disney's best interest to want to make that accommodation. But to say that someones health is at risk because they have late dining is just not a valid argument. No one is being put in a bad medical situation unless they just refuse to eat anywhere else but the main dining room.

We love late dining. Our dd was 12 at our last cruise, and she had plenty to do to fill up her time, before and after dinner. She pretty much ran all day with kids from her club, met us for dinner, went back to the club, and came back to the room at midnight or so.

We often had a snack late afternoon, since eating that late was a bit of a stretch for us. That said, I loved that we were not rushed to get to dinner from whatever we were doing that day, nor were were eating a big meal sometimes just hours after we'd had lunch.

Yes, all the shows, etc are the same, set a few hours apart, so no one misses anything they don't want to.

And FWIW, please don't lie about medical conditions. Dd has a real and life threatening condition that is more difficult to manage when restaurant and hotel staff aren't sure what's real and what's "convenient."

You make really good points. But let me ask: if you eat at 8 p.m. aren't you somewhat rushed to make the pirate/fireworks show they do towards the end?

 

 

When I was on the Dream in 2012, we had late seating. On pirate night, our dinner ran late and we almost missed it. It wasn't the whole dining room, just our server. We excused ourselves from dessert so that we would make it in time.

Pirate night with late seating. That would mean two hours or more to eat dinner. There is a kids pirate show between meals and then the fireworks are at 10:30 (at least that was the case on the Fantasy) We always have late seating and never miss what we want to do.

We have had late dining twice and it really worked out better than I expected. Less crowded, less noisy, more relaxed.

But next cruise is with my Mom and she needs to eat early so enough hours pass between dinner and bedtime because of GERD. I hope we do get early dining because we enjoy the MDR more than other options.

If you are still looking to change to first seating- here are some notes I had taken from my attempts to change to first seating. It is easy peasy! Some people are happy with late. but we eat at 5;30 at home, and my kiddo is in bed at 8. So starting dinner a half hour later wouldn't work. Even I am in bed by 9:30-10. So late seating is not for me! AND I have never ever felt that first seating was rushed, or that the servers didn't have time to chat after... Just my experience!

So- here are the notes I had saved because this question comes up a lot!

I have had to move my reservation twice. Our January cruise will be my 3rd time scheduled for late and requesting early. I am definitely less concerned than I was in the beginning. I am just confident that I will get moved. It is just a matter of when. So, for the 2 cruises that I needed to be moved I booked REALLY last minute- the week before one trip and 3 or 4 weeks before for the other trip. I put it in my reservation both times. Both cruises were 7 nights on the Fantasy. For the last cruise, which was this past summer, we were moved before we set sail! yay! I was actually able to log into my account and see that I was moved before we left to go there! What a nice feeling! For the previous cruise, booked one week before we sailed, I requested early seating. Upon boarding the ship I had to go to the dining room Royal Court (it is in the Navigator telling you where to go) and request that I be placed in first seating. I was like 15th on the list (we didn't board until like 2:45 pm). I was told I would be notified that night- they really didn't notify us. Then we just ordered room service and ate in the room. The whole thing was disappointing. BUT in the future- I will just eat quick service which is open then and eat sandwiches, pizza, salads or whatever outside on the pool deck. They even have high chairs for my little guy. That would have worked out much better which is why I am not longer concerned. On that first cruise, we were moved to first seating by the 2nd day. They notified us around 10 am. Honestly- the other option would not have worked at all. We would have eaten at cabanas each night- but cabanas isn't available the first or last night... So that is when quick service would come into play. My kiddo is sleeping before 2nd service begins, so that seating is just not an option right now for my family. smile emoticon But like I said, with the other options. I am just not worried at all anymore!

We booked this cruise less than 4 weeks before the departure date. As a result we were forced into second seating for dinner which just wouldn't work with my toddler. [Dinner would have started a half hour after his bedtime.] We were placed on a wait list and I am very happy to report that our request was approved and we were moved into main/early dining before the start of the cruise. [i was able to confirm this by logging into my account and reviewing the cruise details. Under the cruise details it indicated we were in main dining.] I received this information about 3 days before the cruise. This took so much stress away for that first day. Had I not secured main dining before the cruise we would have had to go to the designated area the first day of the cruise to make the request one more time. The one time we experienced this in the past we were moved, but not until the second day of the cruise.

On my next cruise, where only late seating was available, I was moved about 2 months before our cruise to early seating. So just put yourself on the wait list for early.

You don't need to keep calling- once you are on the list, you are on the list. Disney will take care of it. But if it isn't done before cruise, go to the restaurant where they are taking changes and change your cruise.

You make really good points. But let me ask: if you eat at 8 p.m. aren't you somewhat rushed to make the pirate/fireworks show they do towards the end?

 

Also' date=' we have 12 year old boys -- aren't a lot of the kid activities crammed into the afternoon? We thought eating at 5:45 would give us the evening to do a show and plenty of time in the afternoon to do movies, kid-activities etc.

 

The only real excursion we're into is the Castaway Cay day. That day is big for us.

 

On that note too, can you recommend excursions on Castaway Cay for 12 year old boys? I think one wants to do the stingray "meet".

 

Oops, didn't mean to hijack my thread. :o

 

Thanks for all your help,

 

Alley[/quote']

 

The eating times are a weird thing.. and I say that because you really don't know which one will work better until you get into the situation. When I booked our last cruise. I got late seating and just rolled with it. It was me and DH and our 11 year old son. DH and DS were fine with the late seating. It was a total disaster for me. I was almost ready to fall asleep in my food, my stomach HATED getting fed just an hour or two before bedtime. But, I had no idea that would happen.

 

There are a lot of great reasons to do late dining. The shows are shown twice so that's not a problem. Dinner was well over before pirate night began. You do get to shower and maybe get a nap or something in before dinner on port days, and of course, there's sleeping in a little on debarkation day. AND if you are from the west coast (which I am not) it's basically dinner time for you anyway.

 

I got main seating this time so I'll have a better comparison when I get off the ship in February!

 

As for excursions on Castaway Cay. My son disappeared with the Edge club for a majority of the day while hubby and I biked and walked around the island, did some swimming, had lunch, etc. It was great to share stories at dinnertime! We were booked for the jet skis and parasailing but both were cancelled due to windy weather that day. We are going to try for the parasailing this time, but won't be too disappointed if it doesn't happen. Honestly, CC isn't the place to run screaming for the excursions. There's plenty to do on the island without having to sign up for anything. You'll have a great time no matter what you end up doing!

 

One word of advice, if your boys do go off with the Edge club, tell them if they sign themselves out, DO NOT GET BACK ON THE SHIP. If they get back on the ship looking for you, they cannot get back on the island. I won't go into detail (unless you really want me to), but that was an issue when we were on CC the last time.

 

Cheers!

One word of advice, if your boys do go off with the Edge club, tell them if they sign themselves out, DO NOT GET BACK ON THE SHIP. If they get back on the ship looking for you, they cannot get back on the island. I won't go into detail (unless you really want me to), but that was an issue when we were on CC the last time.

 

Cheers!

This is not totally accurate. First, if you choose, a parent can sign an authorization allowing a minor to get off the ship without an adult. Secondly, a kid CAN go to the gangway without checking in and ask security if their mom is back on the ship. Security can type in the room number and tell them who from that room is on board. I've done it when looking for another adult in our group as well. If you ask the "Is Mary Jones in room 5468 on board?" they will look it up and tell you.

As to whether you should call DCL to ask about moving...at some point, a CM will "work" the wait list, moving as many people as possible to the dining time they have requested. But if you call, the CM on the phone can do it for you right then IF they choose to. Or they can just tell you that you are on the list but there is no action yet...or you have already been moved. Do you have to call more than once? No. But if you get that CM who does it for you, you just solved the problem.

This is not totally accurate. First' date=' if you choose, a parent can sign an authorization allowing a minor to get off the ship without an adult. Secondly, a kid CAN go to the gangway without checking in and ask security if their mom is back on the ship. Security can type in the room number and tell them who from that room is on board. I've done it when looking for another adult in our group as well. If you ask the "Is Mary Jones in room 5468 on board?" they will look it up and tell you.

 

 

As to whether you should call DCL to ask about moving...at some point, a CM will "work" the wait list, moving as many people as possible to the dining time they have requested. But if you call, the CM on the phone can do it for you right then IF they choose to. Or they can just tell you that you are on the list but there is no action yet...or you have already been moved. Do you have to call more than once? No. But if you get that CM who does it for you, you just solved the problem.[/quote']

 

For real? You can sign a paper saying your 10 year old can get off the ship without an adult? Like in Nassau? or is it just in CC? I never saw an option for that, but it would have been fine with me for CC but not another port. That's good to know that you can ask the security guard. I'll tell my son that for next time. Thanks!

For real? You can sign a paper saying your 10 year old can get off the ship without an adult? Like in Nassau? or is it just in CC? I never saw an option for that, but it would have been fine with me for CC but not another port. That's good to know that you can ask the security guard. I'll tell my son that for next time. Thanks!

A parent or guardian staying in the same cabin with a minor can obtain an authorization form at Guest Services, take it to security at the gangway, and sign it in front of the security people. This allows the minor to get on and off the ship without an adult. It is valid for that day only; if you wish to authorize another day/port, you repeat the process.

Now, my personal opinion--you'd have to be a little crazy to allow a 10 year old to get off in Nassau on their own. Castaway Cay, maybe. Obviously, the older the kid is, the more likely I would be to authorize it. Do remember that there is a great big ocean out there and not everyone who cruises on DCL is a "nice" person.

If you want to be sure anyone in your party is on board when you are returning from Castaway (or wherever), it is easy for you to ask Security as well.