Kids and Main Dining Room dinner

[moesyk4]

My oldest has been on 2 cruises and is very easy going. He did great during the dinners, but as with any child, 90-120 minute long dinners did get really long for him. He sat nicely with plenty of coloring pages and toys, but it did involve a decent amount of planning and distractions on our part. Now, we will have 3 children, including our middle son who has some special needs on top of being one of the most active children I have ever met. He is also not one for coloring, crafts, etc. which makes distraction at any restaurant a little bit of a challenge. He knows what is expected as they all do and does his very best most of the time, but the dinners are one of my husband and I's favorite parts and I was pretty clear in the beginning I did not want to have any of us "suffering through" long dinners that weren't enjoyable for everyone.

We have only sailed with kids on other cruise lines so I was quite disappointed to find out the kid's clubs are closed during prime early dinner times! I know they open at 7, but we have shows scheduled several nights and early bedtimes the nights we can that will make that time unfeasible.

What do others do to make dinner work and enjoyable? Our tentative plan is to aim to eat at 6:15 pm, get the kids their food first, and be willing to take them to kid's club if they get antsy. That seems like a lot of shuffling around for them though as we plan on them attending most of the shows with us. Our kids are definitely not the "stay in the clubs all day and beg to never leave" types...they will go the times we want them to willingly and enjoy themselves, but would probably never ask to go on their own.

We are on the Allure of the Seas if that makes a difference and we do plan on doing 2 "date" dinners at the specialty restaurants regardless. Buffet for the adults at least is not a dinner option, blech.

[Luke gs Daddy]

When our son was younger we just let the waiter know when the food is ready please serve it. No need to wait.

Usually in and out within the hour.

I hope this helps.

 

[taglovestocruise]

Royal has My Time Family Dinner.  It is only for early traditional dining.  Kids are served quickly and picked up in the dining room by kids club staff 45 minutes after dinner has started, it is designed to allow adults to stay for the 2 hour dinner, or be able to see a show. 

[rimmit]

There is kids dinner available sporadically throughout the cruise.  Anywhere from all the nights to about half, but never the first nightx.  They take them from the kids club around 6 to the Windjammer.  You have to drop them off before 5 and on some ships some reservations are required.   

[coastalpleasures]

I don't have any brilliant answers for your circumstances, but I wanted to thank you for being aware of how your issue might affect other diners. Most people I've seen cruising with children only expect everyone else to deal with it. You're looking for answers and that's commendable. Thank you.

[rimmit]

Which ship are you?  I can guesstimate how many kids dinner nights there are based on your cruise, length and ship based on past experiences and we have been on everything from 4-16 night cruises with our kids.  I will say that they always have the kids dinner on formal nights for any RCI cruise we have ever been on.

Edited March 17, 2019 by rimmit

[twitterpated31]

We have only done one cruise (Disney Wonder). My kids did much better than I had expected during the meals. It was helped that our serving team was AWESOME!!

 

For my oldest and youngest, it wasn't a problem and won't be on our upcoming cruise (my youngest loves colouring and my oldest has his cousins with him) but for my middle guy (who also has special needs), long meal times can be tough. 

 

We bring our phone. Even if we don't have internet there are games he can play. He keeps it on silent (or very low volume) and plays to his heart's content. He is happy. We are happy. And nobody near by is bothered. 🙂 I like to remind myself it is his vacation too!

 

I was surprised on his first cruise. He usually eats very little but our team brought him double helpings of mac n cheese/French fries after the first night because he was eating everything in site (that kept him busy as well).

 

You might be surprised. Many things that might normally be challenging for my son went quite smoothly on the cruise ship and he is super excited for our next cruise. 

[M-H-B]

I’m just off the Explorer and we did MDR every night. The dinners were quite long with slow service at times. 

I’d recommend talking to your waiters on night one and asking for their help in terms of speed of service and anything else that will help. 

Once we got the routine down with serving the kids it was a lot better. 

[rimmit]

22 minutes ago, twitterpated31 said:

We have only done one cruise (Disney Wonder). My kids did much better than I had expected during the meals. It was helped that our serving team was AWESOME!!

 

For my oldest and youngest, it wasn't a problem and won't be on our upcoming cruise (my youngest loves colouring and my oldest has his cousins with him) but for my middle guy (who also has special needs), long meal times can be tough. 

 

We bring our phone. Even if we don't have internet there are games he can play. He keeps it on silent (or very low volume) and plays to his heart's content. He is happy. We are happy. And nobody near by is bothered. 🙂 I like to remind myself it is his vacation too!

 

I was surprised on his first cruise. He usually eats very little but our team brought him double helpings of mac n cheese/French fries after the first night because he was eating everything in site (that kept him busy as well).

 

You might be surprised. Many things that might normally be challenging for my son went quite smoothly on the cruise ship and he is super excited for our next cruise. 

 

Disney cruise dining is much more entertaining for kids than the RCI MDR.   Disney has lots of things in the MDR to keep kids occupied.   Character greets,  talking turtles, etc.  Plus While the RCI wait staff is excellent with kids, they still aren’t quite as good at Disney with keeping kids occupied. Some are better than others in making napkin animals and tricks,  but the dining staff is spread thin and they often do not have time to entertain the kids as much as they’d like.

 

Like the above poster stated,  a phone or iPad is helpful.  Do not worry about being judged.   We have actually gotten many thumbs up or pats on the back from older passengers as they walk by if our kids are on an iPad.   We have never gotten dirty looks or unsolicited advice.

 

As I previously stated,  you are concerned that there is no kids dinner,  but in actuality RCI has it and depending on the ship and sailing it could possibly be every night but not the first night.

[nelblu]

If you go with traditional, the MDR on Allure opens at 5:30 pm and it will allow you additional flexibility in planning.  Also, as some others have mentioned, talk to you waiter on expediting the time frame to complete your meal, including having dessert later.

[irun5k]

5 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

Royal has My Time Family Dinner.  It is only for early traditional dining.  Kids are served quickly and picked up in the dining room by kids club staff 45 minutes after dinner has started, it is designed to allow adults to stay for the 2 hour dinner, or be able to see a show. 

 

+1 on that suggestion- we did this on Oasis a few years ago and it worked really well for us.  

 

We just got off Indy and did the full MDR experience with our 4 & 11yr old every night.  It went OK, but the thing is we don't normally have three course meals when we eat out at home so it is definitely a longer dinner than the kids are used to.  Family Time dinner collapses the kid's sitting time back down to something they're more used to.

[moesyk4]

I wish I would've known that about family dinner! We actually tried to switch to traditional after we realized how hard it was to get early my time dining and he said even though it showed as available, it wasn't letting him switch us for some reason? If we are MTD and schedule for 5:30 every night, does that work or is it a separate sign up just for traditional?

 

Thanks for your help, so much to learn with our first cruise as a full family.

[moesyk4]

5 hours ago, rimmit said:

Which ship are you?  I can guesstimate how many kids dinner nights there are based on your cruise, length and ship based on past experiences and we have been on everything from 4-16 night cruises with our kids.  I will say that they always have the kids dinner on formal nights for any RCI cruise we have ever been on.

We are on the Allure Eastern.

[rimmit]

3 minutes ago, moesyk4 said:

We are on the Allure Eastern.

 

Every night but the first night is the typical

kids dinner schedule for the Oasis class ships.   So nights 2-7 you can put the kids in from 5-7 to bridge the gap from 2-5 and 7-late night if you want a date night.

 

Keep in mind this can change at anytime but the Oasis class ships tend to have kids dinner every night unlike some of the other class ships.

[rimmit]

10 minutes ago, moesyk4 said:

I wish I would've known that about family dinner! We actually tried to switch to traditional after we realized how hard it was to get early my time dining and he said even though it showed as available, it wasn't letting him switch us for some reason? If we are MTD and schedule for 5:30 every night, does that work or is it a separate sign up just for traditional?

 

Thanks for your help, so much to learn with our first cruise as a full family.

 

You can get in right when the dining room opens with MTd with no reservation without a problem.  Between 6 and 7 is when you would likely need a reservation otherwise wait for 15 minutes or longer.

[cello56]

Ask for a table just for your family. That way if the service has to be 'hurried' along, no one else will be impacted. 

[moesyk4]

1 hour ago, rimmit said:

 

Every night but the first night is the typical

kids dinner schedule for the Oasis class ships.   So nights 2-7 you can put the kids in from 5-7 to bridge the gap from 2-5 and 7-late night if you want a date night.

 

Keep in mind this can change at anytime but the Oasis class ships tend to have kids dinner every night unlike some of the other class ships.

 

That is good to know, thanks! It sounded really odd to me to not have it open during such a prime slot.

[rimmit]

1 minute ago, moesyk4 said:

 

That is good to know, thanks! It sounded really odd to me to not have it open during such a prime slot.

 

No problem.  Keep in mind that the options for food are limited.  Just cheese or pepperoni pizza and that is it.   They eat in the Windjammer but their food options are not the Windjammer buffet.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

DS started cruising when he was 3, and we've never done coloring pages or crafts or anything like that during MDR dinner, because he has no interest in that. What holds his interest for 2+ hours is a tablet with cartoons. movies and games. He uses headphones, so he is not bothering anyone. DS has been called "the best behaved kid in MDR" many times by the table mates and neighbors.... 

We never cruise without his tablet because we want to enjoy dinners and table talk. DS doesn't do kid's club, so he spends the entire cruise with us. Plus, we get to supervise what he eats, so he is not just eating pizza 3 times a day... :) 

Edited March 18, 2019 by Itchy&Scratchy

[nelblu]

19 hours ago, moesyk4 said:

I wish I would've known that about family dinner! We actually tried to switch to traditional after we realized how hard it was to get early my time dining and he said even though it showed as available, it wasn't letting him switch us for some reason? If we are MTD and schedule for 5:30 every night, does that work or is it a separate sign up just for traditional?

 

Thanks for your help, so much to learn with our first cruise as a full family.

 

 

If you are interested in MDR traditional, just go the MDR as soon as you board and speak to a Maitre D's who are there for any changes to their times and or table #.  Lately. whether it's an Oasis or Quantum class, seen many empty tables in the MDR.