Why do you choose your dining time?

[Slugsta]

We eat early at home, so used to opt for 1st sitting. However, it could mean being a bit rushed to get ready for dinner after an excursion or activity. Also, on formal night (which we love and enjoy dressing up for) we could find ourselves getting changed for dinner very early. We also tend to start the day later when on holiday (although not so much now that we are both retired :) ).

 

So, we now opt for mytime/anytime/freedom/whatever the cruiseline calls it when we can, or 2nd sitting on the few lines that don't yet offer open dining.

[A&Jfamily]

We used early fixed seating when the kids were younger. It was a huge plus for them to have the same staff each night who could be prepared with their milks and a fruit plate to start off snacking. They were done by 7 so never missed any camp. Once the youngest turned 12 or so, we switched to YTD for convenience of a late port and not having to rush to get ready. The older kids tend to have activities later, and now they are more likely to want to hang with us for a comedy show or such before meeting up with friends. We still tend to eat around 6/630 though as that is our dinner time at home. I agree about going to bed too full...yuck. We have also learned that once we find a good wait staff team, we can request them in the following nights, so it is the best of both worlds.

[sparks1093]

As a newbie to this forum, I am loving the multiple (and often passionate!) opinions on the same subject. I find myself changing my mind multiple times (and feeling more simultaneously imformed & empowered! ).

 

So do you prefer early or late dining, and WHY?

 

We tend to eat early at home so i choose 6pm. I am also not a night snacker and like many hours between dinner and bedtime. But there are 4 others to consider...

 

Our kids will be 16, 14 and almost 12 when we cruise CCL. What are the pros and cons about early vs. Late seating?

 

Side note...DS requested the late seating ...On a DCL voyage 2 years ago, our oldest (who is now 16) never ate in MDR (although we made him sit with us) because he ate all afternoon at the free spots and wasn't hungry (BUT would continue to hit the pizza place after 8...). I think he just preferred fast food and freedom over MDR food?

 

TiA

 

When we started cruising it was with NCL which is all Freestyle dining. We let the kids fend for themselves. When we moved to CCL we chose early dining because it is closer to when we eat at home (and on NCL we would go to the MDR when it first opened for the same reason, which also reduced our wait for a table). We sail mostly the two of us now, but did sail with two of our adult children and some friends in February. We all agreed on early dining and all ate together at one table since our reservations were linked. On our upcoming cruise with Royal we had to chose late dining and are waitlisted for early. If early doesn't open up then we'll likely change to their version of anytime dining. FWIW if we were sailing with the teens on CCL we would probably sign up for early dining and let them choose whether to eat with us or eat at the buffet.

[Gamecock_Cruiser]

We prefer late dining, but will still take early of YTD. I feel that we never receive the same service with YTD, mainly because you don't get to know your waitstaff. I also don't like waiting. A few times that we had YTD, we went and received a buzzer, and it seemed to much like a land vacation of going to a restaurant and waiting.

 

Late dining give us time to get back from port, relax awhile if need be, get showered and change and not feel rushed. Plus we can still catch the late shows.

[Badfinger]

As a newbie to this forum, I am loving the multiple (and often passionate!) opinions on the same subject. I find myself changing my mind multiple times (and feeling more simultaneously imformed & empowered! ).

 

So do you prefer early or late dining, and WHY?

 

We tend to eat early at home so i choose 6pm. I am also not a night snacker and like many hours between dinner and bedtime. But there are 4 others to consider...

 

Our kids will be 16, 14 and almost 12 when we cruise CCL. What are the pros and cons about early vs. Late seating?

 

Side note...DS requested the late seating ...On a DCL voyage 2 years ago, our oldest (who is now 16) never ate in MDR (although we made him sit with us) because he ate all afternoon at the free spots and wasn't hungry (BUT would continue to hit the pizza place after 8...). I think he just preferred fast food and freedom over MDR food?

 

TiA

 

We have always selected the 6pm seating with our two teenage boys. That way everybody knows to be ready to go to the MDR at 5:50 at our cabin everyday. On sea days (usually three of them) it can be the only time we see them. And we typically don't stay in the ports right up to he last me, so no real "rush" in having to get ready on port days (and we are generally pretty hungry as well). Equally as important is I really dislike eating right before I go to bed...and I try to be sleeping by 10:30 (yeah my wife and I are two of those weird people who get up about 6am to get in our workout, watch the sunrise, etc.). The "con" to early dining is that if you have a slow wait staff, or take forever to order/eat, it can be tough to get to the shows/comedy that start at 7:30. We have had to rush...but have never missed one. On our last cruise, we were out of the MDR after eating desert before 7pm every night but one.

 

I am glad there are a lot of people who choose YTD or Late...helps ensure we can an early slot!

[Havingfun2010]

Most times in my life, the game plan for a date was go to dinner, with a movie or show after or some other entertainment. Kind of a normal process. At home, we eat at the same time 95% of the time Which is about 6:00. I never feel "rushed" to get back to the ship, because it takes me 5 minutes to get dressed for dinner. I enjoy evenings on the ship as part of my cruise. Dinner is the transition between day time, and night time activities. It just makes sense to have dinner at 6.

[serene56]

Most club activities start at 7pm activities shut down at 5 for dinner so taking a late sitting will give kids much downtime.

Figure when dining late-- most of those kids are done eating and out enjoying the ship.

 

We tried late once- by the time we were done its time to get to the show lounge so we "lounged" after eating that heavy meal. No time to move that food to get it to digest- sleeping was rough. Never hungry for breakfast.

 

We now only stay with the early time 6pm. I like to get to know the wait staff. They get to know my likes and dislikes stuff is waiting when we are sitting down.

[Melissalcsw]

We have only ever done Early Dining. We like to eat early, plus my spouse has diabetes; we just don't want to go to bed stuffed.

I have never tried YTD, I'm not sure why. I like a fixed schedule for dinner, maybe it's my OCD lol

 

Enjoy!

[dmdiver]

We used to always do early dining, since we eat around 6 at home. Now that anytime dining is available, we choose that option. That way, if we have a late lunch & want to go to dinner later, we can. Also, if we decide we just want to eat something up on lido deck, we don't worry that our waitstaff or tablemates are waiting for us to show up.

 

If you like your waitstaff with anytime dining, you can request to be seated with them - we did this on Freedom when we had John Alex & his team. The only time we waited more than 5 minutes was elegant night & that wait was 25-30 minutes. We had a cocktail in the lobby while waiting.

[siestakeys04]

I choose late because I like taking a nap before dinner and I don't have to rush back from port to get ready.

[Saint Greg]

YTD so I can get there when they open and be done in time to catch the early show in the main lounge and late night comedy.

[moondog73]

We choose YTD dining. Early dining makes us feel too rushed when in port. Late dining is so late and slow that we seem to miss some of the nightly activities we wanted to attend. YTD seems to work perfectly for us.

[Djptcp]

We always choose Your Time Dining and a table for two and we usually go eat when the dining room opens. It's faster than the set times dining and we get to the casino sooner. After 46 cruises, we aren't interested in sitting with a group of strangers and making small talk. We used to do only the late seating when we were always getting off in the ports and doing excursions, but we don't do that so much anymore. We started doing YTD when it first became available and requesting only a table for two. Love it!

[elcuchio24]

we do anytime dining. To be honest we stopped cruising CCL around 2005 because we were sick of set table mates/dining time. Its just not for us. We cruised NCL for a while, but once CCL started ATD, we came back on board.

[cruising maniac]

We chose ATD for years until our last cruise. We were on another cruise line and you had to prepay gratuities for ATD so we picked early dining. We absolutely loved it and have it picked out for our next 2 cruises. It was wonderful just walking in to your table and having a seat with a waiter who knows what you want to drink. We sail with another couple and no kids so the choice is easy.

[BENHANDEL]

When you made your reservation, did you put in a request regarding table size? If you did and chose large table, then you'll get put at an 8 or 10 top with a family like yours. If you didn't, you'll probably be put at a table for 6 and it'll be just the 5 of you. But, it all depends upon how the pieces are put together by the Maitre D.

 

?????? I booked with Carnival almost two years before our scheduled Cruise. The online reservation my shows early dining. Is this something I could call them back about, to request that our family is seated just together?? It's not that I don't like other people, but I see the Cruise dinner time as precious time with my kids who are getting older. I expect that they'll be doing their own thing during the day and I wants an excuse for us to reconnect every day.

[BENHANDEL]

Thank you to everyone for sharing your preferences and reasons.

 

Question on days we will not be in the dining room... We have two reservations for specialty restaurants during our cruise. Do we need to inform the staff we won't be there, or will they see that link to our account somehow?

 

I scheduled the specialty restaurants on two of the port days. I figured this would give us a little more flexibility after excursions. How soon could we know what the menu is in the MDR that night? I'd hate to miss Lobster or some of the other dining room specialties while we're paying extra at specialty restaurant.

 

While traveling with kids, I think it definitely makes sense FOR US to have a scheduled dining time. I could imagine discussions about when we should eat steLing some of the time to play on the ship, LOL. But I definitely want to make sure that our dinner time is spent with just our family. I will call Carnival to add a note to make sure we are at a smaller table and not a bigger one with strangers.

 

Thanks again. Hoping we get more cruises in to try all of the different options!

[sparks1093]

It's nice to let the staff and your tablemates know so they don't wait for you.

[icicle]

To those that prefer any time dining...how big of a party do you travel with? Does it work with a larger party, say more than 6? We just sailed with NCL and found we needed to have reservations anyway with a party of 9 or the wait was long. Kind of felt like it defeated the purpose of "freestyle" since we were limited by the times available.

 

Our next cruise is on carnival and I picked early dining for our group. I think most of our party will enjoy having the same waitstaff and our schedule is set so we don't have to worry about coordinating plans. Somehow I'm always in charge so it takes the burden off me. :)

[ricew001]

We have always gone with YTD. How do I know what time I will be hungry on Saturday, Nov 22, 2019? LOL

Plus it all depends on what we are doint that day. We've never done buffet for dinner that I can recall but we love YTD

[trvlgirlmq]

To those that prefer any time dining...how big of a party do you travel with? Does it work with a larger party, say more than 6? We just sailed with NCL and found we needed to have reservations anyway with a party of 9 or the wait was long. Kind of felt like it defeated the purpose of "freestyle" since we were limited by the times available.

 

Our next cruise is on carnival and I picked early dining for our group. I think most of our party will enjoy having the same waitstaff and our schedule is set so we don't have to worry about coordinating plans. Somehow I'm always in charge so it takes the burden off me. :)

 

I have cruised with 2-7 people and have always had YTD. Never a problem getting a table for my party size. I've had a couple of minimal waits (less than 20 minutes) and it has not impacted our evening.

[Alaskan Joe]

This is a very subjective question. We choose early dinning every cruise, because we feel late seating is too late. As for which is better I do not believe there is one as far as ship schedules go. For instants, the big production shows they have are done twice a night an early show (for late dinners), and a late show (for early dinners). As for missing things because of your dinning preference your going to miss something no matter which one you choose. So its all about personal preference which is why the question is subjective. YTD well we hate waiting.

[Doggielover68]

We always choose YTD even though we almost always end up eating at the same time every day with the same wait staff. I just like having the flexibility to come at a different time if an excursion runs late or if there's something else I want to do.

 

 

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[Warm Breezes]

We prefer ATD for a couple reasons. First we can dine when ever we want and not necessarily the same time every day. It gives us more flexibility...especially with port days and entertainment options. Second we can sit with whomever we want. We prefer to dine just with our party and not with strangers. And third if we find a wait team or area that we like we can request it again but if we get one we don't like we request not to go there again. I don't think we will ever cruise again on a ship that doesn't offer some from of ATD or Freestyle Dining.

[Nacwolin]

Getting ready for our third cruise in October. First one was just hubby and me. We did late seating and sat with a lovely family of 3. Second cruise was with our kids and we did early. 5 of us so had our own table. This was perfect for the later kids programs and we wanted the kids to experience the traditional dining option. This time we are doing YTD (hubby, me, and another couple). At a stage in my life where I want to have more flexibility in choosing when we go to dinner [emoji6].

 

 

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