Timing of dinner and shows

[katstoy]

We're getting ready to book our spring break 2007 cruise (I have a TA waiting for those bookings to open!). My question is, early vs. late seating? Our last cruise (her first) we had a late dinner seating. We enjoyed the late seating as we had more pool time and didn't feel rushed to go eat at 6:00. The only problem was that with the late seating we had the late show for the entertainment. We only made it to the first night of shows as we were too pooped to go the other nights after dinner. If we went to the first show we would have missed the lovely dinners (the optional "cafe/buffet" sucked so it really wasn't an option)

 

So on the 7 day western caribbean, if you have the late dinner seating are you watching the second show, or are you watching a show while the early diners are eating?

 

Also, the last cruise had a kids activty center. We did not partake as all the activities occurred during the late dinner seating. Is DCL the same or are there kids programs all night?

[mom x4,grandma x4]

Howdy,

When you have early dinner you go to the late show, and if you have late dinner you go to the early show. That way it's not too crowded for the show, it splits the crowd. The shows are great, not to be missed.

The kids clubs start at 9 a.m. and go until midnight on some nights and until 1 a.m. on other nights. There is lots of free time that kids can just come and go with unstructured activities and they have their own newspaper, called a Navigator. They will receive a new one every evening and it will have the next days events listed, so kids can choose what they want to do and sign up for it and plan their entire day if you want. Adults will have their own Navigator too and there are also lots of family activities for you to do as a family in Studio Sea. So be sure and check that out to before planning your day.

If you want the kids can even eat with the kids clubs if you want a quiet night to yourselves at dinner. They go to the buffet. One side is set up with kid friendly foods: pizza, fruit, hot dogs, fries, jello, fish sticks,veggie sticks etc...

Our grandkids stayed until the clubs closed everynight and didnt want to leave even then. Hope this helped you some.

mom x4,grandma x4

[katstoy]

Yes yes yes, that's helps a lot! Thanks. I think that we will change our preference to the early dining so that we are not tied to a particular "start" time like a show. I trust that you can arrive for dinner up to about 1/2 after the start time and still get served? It was that was on our last cruise, we showed up about 9:00 for the 8:30 seating with no problem. That way we can dine between 6 to 7 ish and watch the shows later.

[mom x4,grandma x4]

Some people do arrive later than their assigned time, but keep in mind that it takes about 70 to 90 minutes to go through dinner with all the courses.

So it will be to your advantage to arrive on time as that is when your wait staff will be expecting you and ready to serve you. Later they will have others who have later seating, plus you so they will be much busier than they had planned and it may take longer to get through dinner. But they certainly will not turn you away if your late.

mom x4,grandma x4

[sdf89]

I think that we will change our preference to the early dining so that we are not tied to a particular "start" time like a show. .

It is probably easy to switch from early to late, but will soon very hard to switch from late to early... So you may want to get early and decide later?

[plantocruise]

Is it possible to go to the late show if you have late seating or does the show start while late seating is taking place?

Thanks

[NCmom]

The shows start at the dining times, so it is not possible to attend the early show and early dining or the late show and the late dining.

 

 

katstoy: showing up late for dinner is not recommended, particularly is you have table mates, or if you have early dining. The dining room must be cleaned and ready for the next dining. Also, the shows are generally about 45 minutes long, so you would actually be arriving 50 minutes to an hour later than the start of dinner. I would recommend topsiders, room service or Plutos is you don't want to get to the dining room at the correct time.