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Early or Late Seating for Alaska


LisaH

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We are early risers even when we cruise and we also like early seating. But on an Alaskan cruise should we opt for late seating since this will be a shore excursion intensive cruise? I do not want to have to worry about rushing back for early seating. Would appreciate some expert advice and opinions to those who have gone before us to Alaska.

 

Thoughts?

 

Thanks!

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We always have 1st seating, Traditional. We eat early at home, and 1st best suits our patterns.

 

I don't think it has negatively impacted our sightseeing,etc., in Alaska, or on other itineraries.

 

If you know you are going to be late on a particular day, you can always tell your tablemates/wait staff that you will be skipping that meal; and then grab a bite up in Horizon (or whater they call the lido area on the particular ship).

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We always have 1st seating, Traditional. We eat early at home, and 1st best suits our patterns.

 

I don't think it has negatively impacted our sightseeing,etc., in Alaska, or on other itineraries.

 

If you know you are going to be late on a particular day, you can always tell your tablemates/wait staff that you will be skipping that meal; and then grab a bite up in Horizon (or whater they call the lido area on the particular ship).

 

Excellent idea...on the advanced notice depending on our excursions. I am especially wondering about Juneau as we want to see Mendenhall Glacier (not sure about the helicopter part yet) but I do want to take an excursion to it. Is it far from the port in Juneau?

 

Thanks again

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Consider that sunset's not till 10PM or later in Alaska.

Consider spending every last possible minute on shore to explore and enjoy the wonder that is Alaska.

Then consider late, or Anytime, seating.

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We are early risers too. We like early morning excursions so we can spend time in the ports afterward and not feel like we are rushing back to the ship. So we decided to try late seating for the Alaska cruise. Not a good idea for us. It put us to bed too late and therefore the food was sitting in our stomachs when we went to bed. We could have changed to early seating but we were really enjoying our dinner companions. On our recent cruise to Hawaii we decided to try early seating and it worked out great for us. We were able to stretch our legs after dinner, talk some more with our wonderful dinner companions and go to bed at a close to normal time. We were able to keep somewhat of a normal sleeping schedule so it wasn't that hard on us to adjust after we returned.

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We are early risers too. We like early morning excursions so we can spend time in the ports afterward and not feel like we are rushing back to the ship. So we decided to try late seating for the Alaska cruise. Not a good idea for us. It put us to bed too late and therefore the food was sitting in our stomachs when we went to bed. We could have changed to early seating but we were really enjoying our dinner companions. On our recent cruise to Hawaii we decided to try early seating and it worked out great for us. We were able to stretch our legs after dinner, talk some more with our wonderful dinner companions and go to bed at a close to normal time. We were able to keep somewhat of a normal sleeping schedule so it wasn't that hard on us to adjust after we returned.

 

Thanks Cruiserjanet...that is my concern as well. We are normally early to rise and early to bed. I imagine we may stick with early seating and do as another poster suggested if we decide to take a later excursion, then do Horizon court and let our tablemates know the night before. We cruised Hawaii in 2003 and did early seating and it worked out perfectly then. What excursions (if you remember) were you able to do in the morning?

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A late-seating advocate checking in ...

 

I like to spend as much time in the port as possible.

 

Then I get back on the ship and like to watch the sail-away. Hopefully have time for a nap then get cleaned up and ready for dinner.

 

I did find however that I got hungry when I got back onboard .. so hit the pizza place about 4:30pm for a couple of slices .. then the other things as planned. Worked GREAT for me.

 

BTW .. depending on where you are from, Alaska time zone being one (or two?) hours off the West Coast [not sure they switch to daylight savings] may impact this decision more than anything. Early seating to an east coaster will seem like VERY late seating for a few days.

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I opted for early seating. I did this because few excursions are still out after 5 pm. Only one or two are even offered in the evening and they are offered during the day as well. I still have plenty of time to shop and don't plan to have dinner on shore. 1st seating seemed to be our best choice and gives us more time for on board evening activities.

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I opted for early seating. I did this because few excursions are still out after 5 pm. Only one or two are even offered in the evening and they are offered during the day as well. I still have plenty of time to shop and don't plan to have dinner on shore. 1st seating seemed to be our best choice and gives us more time for on board evening activities.

 

Awesome...thanks for this. I was wondering if most of the excursions started in the morning. I thought they might. I think we really want to stick with early seating. It just fits our lifestyle as we usually get up early to work out.

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I just made it off the waitlist for early traditional on the Diamond's May 20th sailing. Does anyone know what time Princess does traditional dining on the Alaska cruises?

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We are early risers too, and our normal dinner time is around 6pm. But, I always pick late traditional on cruises. I really like having time to wind down after a day on shore. We will shower, have a cocktail on our balcony, and then dress for dinner.

For some reason it didn't bother me to eat late. I think it is because life on ship is so different for me, that my body just accepted the late dinning as part of its new environment.

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Hi LisaH

We visited the botanical garden in Hilo, the Arizona Memorial and Mighty Mo in Honolulu, the Fern Grotto in Kauai, the Iao Valley in Lahaina (near Lahaina) and a tropical plantation in Kona. We didn't want to be gone too long on an excursion otherwise we would have gone on the ones with the volcanoes. We did a lot of sightseeing around the ports when we got back and enjoyed the rest of the time just being on the ship before dinner. We only got rained on briefly in the Iao Valley but had great weather the whole time except when we got about 1-1/2 days out of California coming back.

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For Alaska we have Late Seating booked. We don't want to rush getting ready for dinner after sightseeing in Alaska. It's not like the Caribbean where our shore excursion was "lying on a beach" :D

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I assume you live in the Central time zone. We live in the Eastern time zone and it took us several days to adjust to the time change. Despite our best efforts, we were awake by 5 am the first few days and ready for bed by 930 or 10. So the early dinner worked better for us.

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There is so much to see from the ship in Alaska...some of the most beautiful scenery was in the evenings, and we really enjoyed the narration by the naturalist as well. It would be a shame to miss all of this because of early seating dinner...for us, these relaxing evenings on deck or in horizon court or on our balcony were the highlight of the cruise. This was when most of our best whale sightings occured as well! I am a very early riser, but still would not opt for early seating in Alaska.

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As others have well said, there is so much to see and do in Alaska that either the early or late seating can be a problem. Last August we cruised on the Sun Princess (Inside Passage) and the anytime dining worked very well for us.

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If your cruising in late May, June or July, the sun won't even set until 10pm or later and darkness first at midnight. You will have plenty of time to still see Alaska from your balcony, or on deck, with early seating.

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As others have well said, there is so much to see and do in Alaska that either the early or late seating can be a problem. Last August we cruised on the Sun Princess (Inside Passage) and the anytime dining worked very well for us.
LOL-- perhaps the answer is just to skip dinner altogether:D -- no matter when you eat you end up missing some spectacular scenery...we ended up dining in Horizon Court some nights because we just couldn't tear ourselves away. If we cruise again I will opt for personal choice (which we prefer anyways), so we can decide when to eat on a day-by-day basis.
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LOL-- perhaps the answer is just to skip dinner altogether:D -- no matter when you eat you end up missing some spectacular scenery...we ended up dining in Horizon Court some nights because we just couldn't tear ourselves away. If we cruise again I will opt for personal choice (which we prefer anyways), so we can decide when to eat on a day-by-day basis.

 

LOL! Skip dinner...riiiggghhhttttt. Too funny. I appreciate ALL the advice as we are experienced with the Carib and Panama Canal but Alaska will be a first for us. We have opted to stick with our early seating as usual and then we can still enjoy the scenery on our balcony if we so choose after dinner or a nice walk around the wonderful promenade deck of the Dawn.

 

I just can't believe I have 15 months and I am already so involved. The planning for me is half the fun though.

 

Thanks all! All is well in Plano, Texas today - rain was falling this morning and we need it badly.

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Another late seating fan here. We cruised Alaska last May with friends who insisted on early seating which on the Island Princess was at 5:30 PM. We absolutely hated it because we had to rush all the time. We even had to leave in the middle of dinner one night to attend the Captain's Circle party.

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We had Anytime last year on Diamond and will next year ... just prefer flexibility. Even if you are on ship with "set" dining time there is always Horizon Court, pizza etc.. Alaska is "the" destination and you can plan your meals around shore time etc., not vice versa IMHO. I don't like early sitting bec. we like a drink before dinner so would opt for late regardless. We had some in CC group last year and I am sure will also next year who opted for traditional dining and just used other options on port night (Juneau, Skagway) if there weren't back in time

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Excellent idea...on the advanced notice depending on our excursions. I am especially wondering about Juneau as we want to see Mendenhall Glacier (not sure about the helicopter part yet) but I do want to take an excursion to it. Is it far from the port in Juneau?

 

Thanks again

 

You will LOVE Alaska. We lived in Juneau for 7 years about two miles from the glacier. It's about a 20 minute trip from the downtown area. Do everything you can and see everything you want to see because you will never forget it. I left part of my heart there. It doesn't get dark until midnight or later in the summer so enjoy! ..... also bring a rain coat! LOL:p

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Personally I liked having late seating for Alaska. I was only 30 at the time. Alaska tends to have a much older crowd than other cruises. Since older crowds tend to lean more towards early seatings, the early seating was impossible to get into. But that left the ship pretty empty around 6pm which was a perfect time to relax and enjoy the spa and hottubs between coming back from excursions and getting ready for dinner. After the late dinner, the ship was pretty dead too. One night around midnight I actually walked the ship for 15 minutes video taping and didn't run into another soul.

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