Is there a best dining time

[CocaCola19]

Booked for the first time on Carnival. It is a last minute cruise and 8:15 was the only option for dining other than my time dining. What's your opinion on dining times? Early or late seating? What's the pros and cons of each? She did give me the option to be added to a standby list. Opinions? The time itself does not affect us, but I'm just wondering how each affects quality, entertainment, etc.

[jkneern]

We like my time as we go to the dining room when we want and can choose the show we want to go to either early or late. The set time dining only gives you the option of either going to a show before dinner for 8:15 or after dinner for 6p. If you like to dine with the same people each night then set time is for you. If you like to dine alone occasionally and with others occasionally the go with my time. You can request the same wait staff too.

[cefm]

I liked the late setting myself as I travel solo and it was nice talking to the same people. It also let me do the hot tub at sunset.

 

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[A&Jfamily]

We prefer ATD if traveling 4 or less - we can push it back from our standard 6 if we are ashore or there is something going on onboard. When our kids were younger we always did the fix 6 pm seating so that they had consistent waiters who knew what they wanted (milk and fruit) right when we arrived. We cruise to relax and often are in bed by 10 and up with the sun, so late just wouldn't sit well.

 

 

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[sanger727]

If you can eat at 8:15, it's a good time. Won't have to worry about getting back from port early. You will usually just go to the show before dinner rather than after. I wouldn't choose late dining simply because I can't eat at 8:15. Even on vacation I'm generally headed to bed between 10-11 (I'm a morning person) and I just can't eat that late and go to bed in a couple hours. But if you can, I'd stick with it.

 

 

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[coevan]

Booked for the first time on Carnival. It is a last minute cruise and 8:15 was the only option for dining other than my time dining. What's your opinion on dining times? Early or late seating? What's the pros and cons of each? She did give me the option to be added to a standby list. Opinions? The time itself does not affect us, but I'm just wondering how each affects quality, entertainment, etc.

 

 

When do you like to eat at home? We like the flexibility of YTD. We are late eaters and have never waited for a table.

[cb at sea]

We usually do late dining, as we eat late at home. I like to drink BEFORE dinner, and catch my buzz, so if I start around 5, I've got a good one going by the time we eat! I do think 8:15 is a bit late....since that's when you're SEATED....I'd do ATD if that was the only late option.

[beans79]

I like the late dining because I find if I eat earlier I'm ready for bed to early! If we later I will stay up and party lol.

 

 

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[beachbum6264]

We've tried both traditional seating (usually late, early is too early and there's usually less or no children at late seating) and YTD - we found that we like the traditional. Reasons are that we like having the same wait staff that know we want iced tea and have it ready, or having the remainder of our bottle of wine on the table, not having to wait for a table, being able to just go straight to our table, not having to decide when to eat (sometimes a problem!). I know you can ask for the same wait staff in YTD, some nights that doesn't happen tho.

[riclop]

Booked for the first time on Carnival. It is a last minute cruise and 8:15 was the only option for dining other than my time dining. What's your opinion on dining times? Early or late seating? What's the pros and cons of each? She did give me the option to be added to a standby list. Opinions? The time itself does not affect us, but I'm just wondering how each affects quality, entertainment, etc.

 

Everyone is different.

[Tiger0613]

With the exception of my first cruise, I have always done early dining. I had late dining on my first cruise because I was 13 and had no say in the matter. It worked out just fine for me.

 

One reason for choosing early dining is that my mother has diabetes and needs to eat at around the same time every day. If she doesn't, she feels like crap.

 

Most of the time I think I would prefer late dining, but it would have been a problem for me on the Inspiration and Fantasy. The Playlist Production shows were at 8:15pm and 10:15pm. One starts when you are seated in the dining room, and the other starts soon after you finish eating dessert. Seats without something obstructing your view could be hard to find. That's what I had to deal with if I wanted to see the 8:15pm show since early dining usually ended at about 8:00pm.

[CocaCola19]

When do you like to eat at home? We like the flexibility of YTD. We are late eaters and have never waited for a table.

 

We have no set schedule or usual dinner time. I ate dinner at 8 tonight.

[Micahs Grandad]

We like early so as to have the whole night for entertainment

[jayscore]

I prefer early the early dining for two reasons;

One, because I eat kind of early at home

Two; This allows me to digest my meal enough to make room for the drinks I'm anticipating later that night! :rolleyes:

[tandemcruzr]

Everyone is different.

 

Brilliant! :):)

[Anthomaniac]

we like your time dining so we can choose depending on the night. if we are late getting back from port we can eat late, if we are hungry at 5:45, we can eat then. also, since there are only two of us, we order quickly and can usually be out of the dining room before the "entertainment"

 

YMMV

[spleenstomper]

We prefer late so you can come back from excursions and relax a bit and cat nap before going to dinner.

 

Our experience with ATD was an hour wait, so we never tried it again (no hard feelings/not for us)

[DebJ14]

We prefer late dining. That way we can stay longer in port and not have to rush back to shower and change for dinner. We often take a shower and a nap before late dinner. We head out of the cabin around 7pm to have a pre-dinner cocktail and listen to some music or play the slots for a while. We go to the 10:15 show after dinner and then are ready for bed.

 

The one time we had early dinner we found ourselves bored to tears with not much going on after the show. It cost us more money because we spent more time in the casino for lack of anything better to do. After a few days we found ourselves back in the cabin by 9pm watching TV.

[easyboy]

We prefer YTD so we can be flexible for any evening activities that we might be interested.

[joltfreek]

1st timer as well. I seen in some videos and heard that the staff dance or do something like a little sideshow thing. If so would any time dining make you miss that?

[TheTravelista]

When I did traditional only late seating would suffice. I had early once and it was awful. We always rushed back from ports, were exhausted because there was no time to unwind and we weren't even hungry then as we usually ate a nice local lunch in port. Never again.

 

These days I do YTD but I barely make it to the dining room anyway. Too many other things I'd rather be doing and I love the specialty restaurants.

[CJHAN]

As many have said it depends on the makeup of your group. If you have young kids and a larger group (5+) early seating is nice. We are normally a group of 3 with a teen so we do ATD because more often then not the kid wants to eat with his new friends and the wife and I can get a table for just the two of us.

 

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[sunshine002]

I have done both and given the choice I will always take early. I find eating late is just too late, many times we don't finish until 9:30 or 10pm. I feel like half the evening is gone.

 

Enjoy your cruise