Pros and Cons to early or late dining

[stacied68]

My husband and I are trying to decide between the 6:00 or 8:00 dining. I know part of it is just a preference thing, but would love to hear some pros and cons to each that you have found from experience.

 

Thanks

[oskidunker]

Early dining positives. You can eat before a show,usually. Eating later makes it harder to sleep. Most of the time the ship leaves port at least 30 minutes before dinner.

 

Also I find I dont snack as much and generally eat a light lunch. So I dont gain weight on cruises.

 

Late dining advantages: none for me,although it is usually easier to get. Preferable to any time. I would take it if given that choice

Edited March 25, 2016 by oskidunker

[MarcelLucSell]

We liked late dining. We would do the show first, then dining, then comedy club, then piano lounge.

[jenms2000]

We do Your Time now but we always did late before because we found that early would sometimes make it hard to get back from excursions and be ready in time.

[SpartaninTX]

Typically my wife and I choose early dining. We have tried anytime as well. Here is some of the advantages: 1) If dinner is bad still time to go to the lido deck 2) Get to see the first show 3) typically not much going on the ship at this time Some disadvantages 1) miss a lot of sunsets 2) Depending on port, you miss sail away. On our Freedom cruise we actually never went to dinner in the main dining room I know weird for us too but that was our relaxed cruise.

[Savlamara]

it depends on how you are naturally. I dont like eating late usually so we always choose early dining. And it gives me time to get a second wind and get activities in before going to bed. We did late dining before and I dropped right into bed after coming from dinner.

[evandbob]

I prefer late dining. I don't have to rush back to the ship and change right away. I can watch sailaway and sunset from outside deck or balcony.

 

I can play in casino for an hour after dinner and then go to comedy club if there is a show.

 

I miss a lot of old folks (I'm 65) and families who seem to prefer early dining. Very few kids in late dining.

 

Either early or late preference you can see shows, but I'll skip Hasbro, marraige and talent shows anyway.

 

Whichever time floats your boat is the right time for you!

Edited March 25, 2016 by evandbob

[crewsweeper]

I prefer late dining, for reasons EnB mentioned. Also, if you're coming East from the Plains States or West Coast, it'll be closer to your usual evening dining time.

 

DW prefers early dining because it's harder for her to go to sleep when she eats too late.

 

I think Any Time Dining or Your Time dining, what ever it's called now, would be the preferable way to go on most ships. Peak times seem to be 6-7ish, especially on elegant nights.

[AZmike480]

We've done both and actually now prefer anytime dining. It gives us the freedom and flexibility to show up when we want, or skip it to do something else. The only down side to this is you have to wait a little longer to get a table and you don't get to see the same people at your table like you do with assigned times. You also get different servers but you can request to sit in a certain area.

 

AZmike480

[bar1068]

No pro's, only con's for us with either of the set dining times. Since we've started doing YTD, we'll never go back to set time if we can avoid it. We'd almost prefer dining on the Lido then having a set time for dinner.

[KPfromCT]

We do the your time dining now.

Early dining we always found ourselves rushing back from port, and that wasn't fun.

Late dining, in our opinion, was just too late.

Love the freedom of going when we want.

Yes, sometimes, they will give you a pager and you may have to wait 5-20 minutes, but we've never waited longer than that.:D:D

[cruzeluver]

We prefer late for most of the reasons others have listed including that we have plenty of time to get ready for dinner and have a pre-dinner cocktail after a day on shore and we can dine at a more leisurely pace. We also have found far fewer young children at late dining so it tends to be quieter.

[pjhootch]

We've done it all 3 ways. There are pros and cons to each:

 

Early dining: Pros- dinner is early enough that we don't feel the need to snack on something before dinner. Cons- Sometimes it is a rush to get ready for dinner after shore excursions. Sometimes we miss the beginning of moves on deck- it varies. Pro- fewer kids if that bothers people (we've never had a problem with kids in the dining room so it makes no difference to us).

 

Late dining: Pros- don't feel as rushed and the wait staff seems to be a bit more relaxed, plenty of time to unwind or nap after a long day ashore- Con- sometimes we are starving by 8 p.m. and snack and then feel stuffed at dinner. Late dining always interferes with movies on deck.

 

Anytime dining- Pro- we like having lots of flexibility about when to eat and don't miss movies, or shows or have to rush back from an excursion. Cons- SOMETIMES there are lines and you have to wait for a table. We have not always found this to be true. If you show up between 6:30 and 7- you usually have to wait. In our experience they assign us to an area so without asking we frequently have the same wait team again and again.

[Out of Iowa]

We like to eat early, retire early and rise early....this cruise, it's Early Dining.

 

If it hadn't been available, we'd have chosen Anytime and been in line right when they open. That works well - you can wind up at the same table with the same servers. And be done before the Early seating finishes, no less!

[Hoosierpop]

We usually get early dining. The only downside for me is I tend to not eat a lot for lunch, though. But I like to eat on a cruise. Doh!

[bobsfamily]

Late for us...

 

Not many kids

Mostly a laid back crowd

Servers seem to be not as hectic

don't miss sailaway/sunsets

we usually miss 1-2 nights either for specialty venue or busy doing something else and it's easier to get a 2 top late seating.

 

What everyone else said about late seating!

[Drazil65]

Early, we usually eat at home between 5:00 & 6:00 so it fits into our normal routine. We get a table for just our family (3 of us) as we prefer not to have to wait on others and we enjoy the quality time at dinner for just us. We don't enjoy eating late and would rather have the time to do the evening things around the ship.

 

This timeframe gets us out at about 7:15 so we can catch just about any show coming up or go and get an after dinner cocktail and relax until a later show.

 

Your dinning time could also be affected by the time of year, during the winter when it gets dark much earlier there are limited things to do after dark on deck or in port so chances are you will be back on the ship earlier.

 

If we do get back on the ship too late to get ready for dinner then we will just eat somewhere other than the MDR that night. Generally we plan accordingly and it has not been an issue.

[mzloolue]

We used to like late dining.

With late the afternoon is longer and more relaxed.

On embarkation day and port days it can be a rush to be ready for early dining.

And late is good when sailing with a group as it gives everyone time to be ready.

 

We have been doing early dining for the past few trips as we have not been sailing with our e ycrew anymore.

And it is nice to have longer evening.

Since there is no longer lunch in the main dining room, then we might as well eat earlier.

 

As for ATD, we do not like it at all.

We had to wait to be seated.

The whole atmosphere seems rushed and hectic.

 

And I hate those little two tops that used to be for six or eight people and they are actually a long table that has been broken into sections.

 

So I am sitting right next to someone who is technically at another table.

I'm not sure if I am intruding if I speak with them, but I can hear everything they are saying because I am sitting right next to them!

And I feel strange talking with my table partner knowing that the people right next to me can also hear everything that I say.

Whatever I do seems rude and it is just uncomfortable for me.

[bakersdozen12]

I've only been on one cruise so far, and we had early dining, but I didn't care for it. First of all, we missed every sunset. Although that may have had to do with the time of year we sailed (last week of October).

 

And there was one day that we didn't get back on the ship from our Carnival excursion until 5:45. So we had 15 minutes to change. And it was elegant night. Needless to say, I didn't feel elegant at all. We probably would have skipped the MDR that night, but we were sailing with a group and didn't want to be rude.

 

Also, on the other two port days, due to our excursions, we really didn't have much for lunch so we would eat when we got back on the ship in the afternoon. Which meant we weren't really hungry for dinner at 6:00. I never even eat that early at home.

 

For our next cruise, we are trying Your Time Dining. I'm looking forward to the flexibility.

Edited March 25, 2016 by bakersdozen12

[Saltz]

We like anytime dining because it always seemed like a show or an event would happen around our dinner time. However, if ATD wasn't available, if probably choose early.

[Newbea11]

We had early dining and missed every show because dinner took at least 2 hours. The first night was almost 3 hours.

[Tripper10]

We always choose late dinner. Eating at 6pm isn't for us. You would have to get ready at 5pm and most ship and shore activities are still going on. Late seating is more laid-back. We find having a seating rather than anytime dining is much better service.

[hftmrock]

if you choose anytime dining , you can have the early dining when it makes sense and late dining when it makes sense.

 

If you like early dining, you can do that and on the days you are in port, you dont have to worry about rushing back because on the port day you can eat a little later.

 

same for the late dining.

 

also you are more likely to get a table just for yourself (if you want that) with anytime dining

 

the only issue with your time dining is that sometimes you might have to wait a little bit

[sjn911]

I think especially on Carnival now....assigned seating where you can bond with a good waiting group is better. You can always learn and navigate with anytime..but it took me much longer and I decided for my Carnival beautiful budget cruises it is best to eat at dining room at a set time and then when activity comes up and you know...give your table and waiter notice if possible.

 

Now Early is too early and late is too late..they just need a 25 hr day on cruising to hit the all the shows, music etc. and relax. On a port intensive cruise I would choose late assigned...on a beach cruise I would choose early. On each cruise I like to work in a steakhouse or different restaurant or really looking forward to Chef's Table one day..and one or two BLT and coke dinners in the room..next time by the window or on the balcony!!! My room is always my sanctuary, even an inside..... and I rest alot on cruises.

Edited March 26, 2016 by sjn911

[65stang]

So, my two cents.

I have only been on one cruise so far, however, we chose early dining. We enjoyed that time and the ports that we went to were over before this time. Yes we missed a couple of sunsets because we chose to go line up for dinner. We did also stay on our balcony on a sea day and drank wine while watching the sunset. Our whole family was on the balcony. Then we went down to dinner. Yes we were a few minutes late for seating, no we didn't get turned away.

One of the main factors in us choosing early is that we have kids. The kids program takes a break around the early dinning time and then opens up again before the late dinning. Our kids wanted to go have fun at the club so we made sure that they would have as much time as they could at it. We are booked again in a few months and have already gotten early dinning.

Ultimately it is a personal decision. Look at the ports and times. Look at the show times and club times that may help you. The biggest part of the decision maybe what time do you eat dinner at home and do you want something different? Even on the ship that we were on there was a wait to be seated for YTD so I guess that if you want more of the restaurant feel that is a choice because you can go put your name on the list and wait to be called. We personally liked having the same table and waitstaff for the entire cruise. They got to know us and what we liked and had fresh sodas waiting for the kids each night and water for all of us.

I hope this helps a little.