early vs late dining ?

[Travel luv]

I continue to go back and forth between my decision to do early vs. late dining. We did late dining on our last cruise and found that we were usually exhausted by the end of diner and did not attend many shows or do much after dinner. My concern with early dining is that we will be too rushed to get to dinner and then to finish dinner. Has anyone had the experience of feeling rushed during early dining? What is your preference and why?

[unforgiven]

Our experiance has been on port days that don't leave until later afternoon is being rushed. Sometimes after a long port day a nap is in order before heading to dinner. Also I get to see more sunsets (usally) by taking the later seating.

 

On sea days sometimes it does seem like dinner time if a long time off. With the late seating you usally don't leave dinner until around 10:00 which is quite late for somepeople.

[gowensricks]

Well, I prefer early, because I cannot stomach the thought of having all of that heavy food, after 9pm, for seven days straight.

 

However, it is certainly a matter of personal preference.

 

As long as you're on a cruise, you can't go wrong...

[DukeFamily]

I had done early seating on all prior cruises, until this last time. While it's true that on SOME days (first and second nights? Last night?) the show time for late dining pax was 10:30, on the other nights we had the earlier show at 7:00, which is nice. On our port days, we could take our time getting back to the ship and still have time to take a dip or relax a little before we had to get cleaned up. I liked that. On sea days (we had 3) when I got a little rumbly in the tumbly and dinner still 3 hours away, I'd slip into the Windjammer and snag an "appetizer". I really felt like I got the best of both worlds! I'm not one who feels compelled to attend each and every show, so I skipped the "revue" shows and maybe even another. If I had enough steam left after dinner, I had the rest of the night to play around in the casino or hang out in the Schooner Bar. SO.....I recommend the late seating; if for no other reason than the ability to take your time getting back to the ship on port days.

[DHADEN]

I continue to go back and forth between my decision to do early vs. late dining. We did late dining on our last cruise and found that we were usually exhausted by the end of diner and did not attend many shows or do much after dinner. My concern with early dining is that we will be too rushed to get to dinner and then to finish dinner. Has anyone had the experience of feeling rushed during early dining? What is your preference and why?

 

 

As someone who has done both, I can tell you the pros and cons of each (in my opinion, of course):

 

Late Seating - - We always booked this so we wouldn't be rushed getting ready for dinner. 8:30 was a little later than normal for us to eat, but we always went to the Windjammer around 4 or 5 for a snack. The bad thing was finishing with a very heavy dinner around 10:15 or so. My wife and I both like the night-life at sea - dancing and seeing the shows. The bad part of late seating was we missed a lot of that.

 

Main Seating - - We tried main seating on our 8th or 9th cruise and found out that 6:30 was not too early to have time to get ready. (One of our cruises had the Main seating starting at 5:30, and that was WAY too early). We are usually back on board from the ports by 4 or 5:00 and have plenty of time to relax and be at dinner at 6:30 on time. And when dinner is over (around 8:00) we have all night to enjoy ourselves in the showroom, lounges and casino.

 

Hope this helps.

[Calicruisefamily]

We had late seating last year on Voyager and it was good. after we got back on the ship from a port we would get a snack and then have some time to get ready. The only thing I did not like was we had our 9 year old daughter with us and would of loved to sit with someone who had a older child as us and instead we had to sit with all adults.I have to wonder if we can request to sit with another family with older children. As far as the shows go I did feel like we missed some of the shows do to our late seating.

Voyager Western Caribbean 12/16/06 "Our First AFT"

Voyager Eastern Caribbean 11/05

S.S. Azure Seas Baja 11/90

[Ella2]

It depends on the ship. In MOST instances we prefer early dining at 6:00 pm as we do not like to eat late, and dinner is not the main event of the evening...we like to go play. :)

 

BUT, I discovered that early dining is at 5:30 :eek: on the Monarch of the Seas for our August trip, and that is just TOOOO early. Since it will be just me and the husband this time, we opted for late (8:00 pm) dining. That is a better hour for us to eat rather than the normal late seating time (8:30), considering that the food is not at your table until at least 15-20 minutes after you sit down.

 

Point being, check to be sure what the dining times are on your ship and plan accordingly. :)

[masterbaker]

We used to prefer late seating when we first started cruising but recently have changed our opinion to early. Late seating used to always mean a leisurely return from port with no rush to get ready for dinner, and a show after dinner. Now it seems that unless it is a formal night, the evening show is scheduled before diner for late seating. The show is after dinner for early seating and that's the way we prefer it to be.

 

Sometimes we skip the dining room completely and just eat whatever and whenever we want elsewhere. This way we skip the singing and dancing waiters, photographers interrupting formal dinner, and pirates trying to put a knife to our throats. ;)

[producegirl]

As someone who has done both, I can tell you the pros and cons of each (in my opinion, of course):

 

Late Seating - - We always booked this so we wouldn't be rushed getting ready for dinner. 8:30 was a little later than normal for us to eat, but we always went to the Windjammer around 4 or 5 for a snack. The bad thing was finishing with a very heavy dinner around 10:15 or so. My wife and I both like the night-life at sea - dancing and seeing the shows. The bad part of late seating was we missed a lot of that.

 

Main Seating - - We tried main seating on our 8th or 9th cruise and found out that 6:30 was not too early to have time to get ready. (One of our cruises had the Main seating starting at 5:30, and that was WAY too early). We are usually back on board from the ports by 4 or 5:00 and have plenty of time to relax and be at dinner at 6:30 on time. And when dinner is over (around 8:00) we have all night to enjoy ourselves in the showroom, lounges and casino.

 

Hope this helps.

I agree with you! We did late seating once and found that it was just too late to eat and digest all that food before bed time. Also, we are not late owls and like to be in bed between 11 and 12....so, we go to the show after dinner and still have some time to do other things before bed time.

[Sports Mama]

My family and I prefer the early seating for the same reasons a lot of the other posts stated: too hungry to wait, don't want a full stomach that late, etc. I love eating around 6 or 6:30 and then going to a show. A lot of the times we had some time after dinner before the show and we would go to the casino and make our contribution. :eek: I have never felt rushed coming in from port and going to dinner early. If it was a late port we would just go to the buffet. On most of the cruises we have been on, there has only been maybe one late port.

 

Wow, what decisions we have to make to cruise: early or late sitting, what shall we do when we are in port, shall I have the drink of the day or go with something else, etc. etc. Darn I hate these decisions. :D :D

[lakette3]

We like late seating for port days and the sea days we go to Porofinos, Chops or windjammer if we don't want to eat late.

[jeff Schaber]

One thing that I noticed no one has said is that a lot of the families with younger children and the older crowd take the early seating. I have found this to be the case each time I chose the early seating. Since my group tends to like the young adult crowd we have since started to go with the late seating.

 

This may not be true with all ships and destinations as I'm sure itinerary plays a part in the crowd dynamics. For this and the reason's from the other posters above we like late seating better than the early.

[mikesterr]

Everyone is missing another very important fault with the late seating. When you get done dinner at 10 pm your hardly hungry when the midnight buffet roles out. LOL , as if we needed another excuse to eat on a cruise.

 

funtravelor having done both I prefer the early seating. But its a personal choice. If you are a night owl then the late dinner is for you. If not then the early seating is better and allows you to see a show before bed.

 

My in-laws last year had late seating and about 2 days into it decided it was not for them. They talked to matre'd and were able to switch to early seating. I suppose that would only work if room is available in the other seating but just wanted to let you know it might be an option.

Have fun !!!

[Inshape]

We have done both and I love late. Yes it is totally unhealthy for us to eat that late... since we are not late night owls also this is bad.... But it gives the day time activities more time to enjoy. On sea or port days we like to go to the pool later and then hot tub before dinner. Just makes it more relaxed not having to watch the clock. I enjoy the after dinner shows more than the before dinner since i then have to watch the clock. As for snacking... always at 5 I grad a coffee and one of the wonderful pastries in the cafe promonade on the Voyager class ships. we have never done midnight buffets which is just fine by me. We even have our kids with us , and it is fine for them also. We tend not to restrict there ice cream intake at 5 or snack of pizza. When we did early I was always saying no it will spoil your appetite for dinner. We do sit at a table for 4 since I feel it is not right for our kids to be at a large table with other adults who took late seating to sit with adults.

[seamagic]

Until this last cruise on Freedom, we had always chosen the late seating. We decided to give the early one a try, since I still haven't forgotten the memories of late night indigestion following a dinner that didn't end until after 10pm.

 

I'm happy to say that switching to the early seating worked out well for us. On port days we were back in plenty of time to make the 6:30 seating, and every evening we were able to take in the shows, casino, and dancing. I expect we will be choosing early dinner for all of our future cruises.

[sal7202]

We too have done both early & late dinner in the past. For us, finishing dinner after 10:00 pm was unacceptable. We found it quite uncomfortable heading off to bed around midnight with a full stomach. The occasional inconvienience of early dinner on a day that we return late from a port can be easily worked around by simply eating in the Windjammer, or using room service. Besides, I don't know about all of the rest of you, but when we are at home we typically sit down to dinner somewhere around 6:00 pm, I personally see no reason to drastically change my routine just because we are on vacation.

[KarinaGW]

I'm a night owl and want early and my husband is a morning dove and wants late. I want to be able to eat a leisurely meal and go off and see shows and play and be able to collapse whenever the urge finally strikes. It seems to me that with the late seating, just when I get into the playing, show-watching, I have to quit and go have dinner (oh, woe ;) ) And with our port stops (San Juan sail-away at 3, St. Thomas pretty much closing down at 6 (and I don't want to be there after dark anyway) and my policy of being back on board an hour before the ship sails taking care of our one sane sailaway time of 6) it's not like it would be a huge rush to get ready for dinner.

 

I have no idea why he wants the later time, but I've been hornswoggled into going along with it, although I still have time to try to change his mind.

[teacherkim]

Another thing to consider when trying to figure out what is best for you is how early you like to get going on shore activites/excursions. We have to get up very early for work, before 6 am, and therefore on vacation sleeping in for us is about 7. So we do early excursions, usualy 8 or 8:30 and are often back on board by 2 or 3, which gives us plenty of time for early seating and would make late too late.

[bmvcanton]

when do you choose your dining time?:confused:

thnks

[LuvMyVette]

Early and late seating has their pros/cons. DH/I have done both and favor late seating.

Pros - late seating (for us):

1 - Don't have to rush back to the ship to get ready for dinner; especially since I take forever! LOL

2 - Most of the time we can watch the ship leave port (of course this depends on your itinerary).

3 - We can take a nap in the afternoon if needed.

4 - Spend more time by the pool, do a late afternoon activity or catch up on some reading.

5 - Watch the sunset.

6 - Have a drink before dinner.

7 - Not as many children.

8 - Staff doesn't rush around as much as the first seating.

9 - Still can see most shows that we enjoy. Due to some of the adult entertainment starting late at night, it works out good for us.

10 - Can get a snack in the afternoon if we're hungry.

11 - Can take a walk on the deck after dinner and enjoy the peace/quiet since most passengers are inside the ship.

Cons - late seating (for us):

1 - Definitely not hungry for the midnight buffet.

2 - Having to get up very early the next day due to excursion, departing ship, etc.

Early seating is good for those that are not night owls, have children, traveling with older adults or prefer not to eat late. It all depends on what you/those traveling with you want to do as well as your cruise itinerary. Some things may be more important to one person and is not to the other person.

If you have time, check over the itinerary, excursions (if you're going on any), etc. and get an idea of how you'll be spending your day/evening. This may help you decide. You also have other options for dinner (specialty restaurant, Windjammer, room service and Johnny Rockets) if you can't make it to early seating.

 

Whatever you choose to do, have a wonderful cruise and enjoy!

[Travel luv]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm thinking we might have to stick with the early dining. Although I can stay up rather late, my husband tends to be ready for bed around midnight. You would think that we were older than we are. I'm 29, he's 32. I was disappointed on our last cruise because he was'nt in the mood after our late dinners to do much of anything. My struggle is wanting the option to take a nap after returning from excursions before dinner. I hate to feel rushed. I guess if I am too enjoy some night life this time around..we will have to settle for early.

[sal7202]

Fun, we never feel like a slave to the dinning room. In most instances, especially sea days, making it to main seating is no problem. Even on port days I generally do not feel rushed. If my wife decides she wants to take a nap in the late afternoon, or hang out by the pool listening to the band and enjoy sail-away, that's fine with me. I'm on vacation, and if I'm enjoying myself, hey that's what I'm there for. If I wanted to be bound by a schedule I'd go to work. Besides, there are always alternatives to the dinning room. Frankly, I never worry about going hungry on a cruise ship.