Should I change to late dinner seating?

[2112]

I will be taking our 2 year old on the Carnival Destiny in May and I signed up for early dinner seating thinking that the late seating would be way too late. Well, having found out that there is no nap time in Camp Carnival, I am thinking about changing to late seating. We plan on leaving our son in Camp Carnival 2 or 3 days on port days, so he would not get an afternoon nap. I am now thinking that he may need a 2 hour minimum nap about the time as early dinner. Does anyone have opinions on this? His normal schedule is up at 8:30, naps for between 1-3 hours starting around noon, then goes to bed at 9-9:30. This of coarse is California time (4 hour time difference) so I'm not sure how much difference that will make. We will be flying in 1 to 2 days early, and will likely be on a red eye flight. OF particular concern is the day in Dominica where we are in port until 6 pm (and we probably won't be back on-board until 5:30) and that is formal (lobster) night. Any experiences you would like to share on this issue?

[abolanowski]

I will be taking our 2 year old on the Carnival Destiny in May and I signed up for early dinner seating thinking that the late seating would be way too late. Well, having found out that there is no nap time in Camp Carnival, I am thinking about changing to late seating. We plan on leaving our son in Camp Carnival 2 or 3 days on port days, so he would not get an afternoon nap. I am now thinking that he may need a 2 hour minimum nap about the time as early dinner. Does anyone have opinions on this? His normal schedule is up at 8:30, naps for between 1-3 hours starting around noon, then goes to bed at 9-9:30. This of coarse is California time (4 hour time difference) so I'm not sure how much difference that will make. We will be flying in 1 to 2 days early, and will likely be on a red eye flight. OF particular concern is the day in Dominica where we are in port until 6 pm (and we probably won't be back on-board until 5:30) and that is formal (lobster) night. Any experiences you would like to share on this issue?

 

I take DD3 back and forth to MD every month for a couple of weeks and I have started just keeping her on Cali time. We wake at 8-9 (instead of our usual 6am :eek: ) and then eat lunch around 2 or 3 and nap afterward for 2 hours, then eat a late dinner and try to have her in bed by 10:30 or 11. It seems to work better for her (and me) although it drives DH nuts (since he has to be up at 4:30 to go to work)

I plan on doing this on our DCL cruise later this month and so we are going to keep our late dining for just this reason (I was originally going to try to switch). The only problem might be if we want to get up early for anything, but I don't really forsee that happening:D

[crusinmama06]

Since you are on West Coast time, late seating would work for you because that is what would be closer to your normal dinner time. Usually I recomend early seating with lil ones, but your lil one is used to a different time schedule.

 

I have to advise though, although I KNOW many people leave the child on the ship while they are in port, you know that if there is a medical emergency, they won't be able to contact you.

 

And this is not meant as a judgement against you :) I just unfortunatly have been in the situation where my youngest needed a medical evacuation from a cruise ship. It's not like when they are at daycare/school and you can drive to the hospital if god forbid something happens. On a ship, your child could be flown to another country before being sent back to the US. :(

[Suzanne74]

On my last cruise my dd just turned 5. Normally she doesn't nap anymore but when we vacation she is too tired by dinnertime not to. She napped everyday from 4 to 5:30pm (usually me waking her) making 6pm dinner sometimes very rushed. We are doing late seating because of this and the fact that she hated sitting down for a meal for 2hrs with not much to do gives her the opportunity to go to the kids club while we eat.

 

For 2yrs old that is a hard decision. I think it will be too hard for him to go all day long at the kids club because it is non stop running around and fun. There is a good chance he will be melting and then over tired to where the point of napping can't even be reached when you get back to port. Then 2nd seating wouldn't work. I think you should keep early seating and plan around a set nap and dinner time for him each day - give or take an hour or so. Otherwise your vacation might not be as enjoyable as you like because kids that young tend not to like change. This is just my opinion though

[NoelsCat]

We just returned from our cruise with our 2-year old son. We had the main seating at 6 -- and I spent a lot of the cruise wishing I had chosen the later seating. We are not "schedule" type parents and my son normally sleeps until about 9 or 10 in the morning and naps in the late afternoon and then goes to bed for the night around 10. The early seating seemed to fall right after naps but before he was hungry. Additionally, all of us adults felts a little rushed too! I wish there was a seating between 6 and 8:30. A 7:30 seating would be perfect for us!

[airbus_guy]

Question for all family cruisers - do you take infants (8 month to 12 month olds) to the Formal dinners??

 

Thanks!

[sbhdmh]

We cruised with dd for her first birthday and again at 4 1/2. Both times her schedule went right out the window. No naps. Staying up late. Very little sleep. She is very social and just would not close her eyes to miss any of the activity going on around her. You know your child best. For us early seating dinner worked best so we could get her to sleep as early as possible for the night. And yes, she was in the dining room on formal night. How could we deprive everyone of the opportunity to ooh and aah over a little one in a formal dress? One of the highlights of the trip for us...

[cb at sea]

Yes, many will take their young children to the "formal" dinners---it's perfectly fine! Little ones do NOT need to have "formalwear"!!!!!! Party clothes/Sunday best is fine!

[kasil]

Does your ship offer "your choice" dinning? (I can't remember what each line calls their version.) If you need flexibility, it's a good option. Good luck!

[isk8]

I will be taking our 2 year old on the Carnival Destiny in May and I signed up for early dinner seating thinking that the late seating would be way too late. Well, having found out that there is no nap time in Camp Carnival, I am thinking about changing to late seating. We plan on leaving our son in Camp Carnival 2 or 3 days on port days, so he would not get an afternoon nap. I am now thinking that he may need a 2 hour minimum nap about the time as early dinner. Does anyone have opinions on this? His normal schedule is up at 8:30, naps for between 1-3 hours starting around noon, then goes to bed at 9-9:30. This of coarse is California time (4 hour time difference) so I'm not sure how much difference that will make. We will be flying in 1 to 2 days early, and will likely be on a red eye flight. OF particular concern is the day in Dominica where we are in port until 6 pm (and we probably won't be back on-board until 5:30) and that is formal (lobster) night. Any experiences you would like to share on this issue?

 

 

We just got back from the Freedom of the Seas with my 4 year old son. We sailed out of Florida, so we had a three hour time difference. We tried to keep him on Pacific time during our trip. He normally wakes up between 630 and 7AM and goes to bed between 815-845PM. If he naps at preschool, it's 1245-215PM. While on the cruise, he woke up around 8 or 830AM, took a nap about 330 or 4PM, woke up between 5 and 545PM, and then went to bed about 1030 or 11PM.

 

Your son will nap on the cruise. My son is a spotty napper at home, and always fights it, but we had no problem on the ship. A day in port or a day running around at the H2O zone ensured a nap for us. There were maybe 1 or 2 days where we had to wake him from his nap at 545pm to get him ready for our early seating dinner at 6pm.

 

I think the early or late dinner could have worked for us. With the early dinner, my son was able to go to Adventure Ocean after dinner for a few hours. He usually needed a snack before bed, but that was OK.

 

The late dinner would have been fine too, but he probably would not have gone to Adventure Ocean in the evening because dinner would have been over so late.

 

Really, I think you'll be OK with either. But to be frank, on our next cruise, I will stick with early dinner.

 

On our port days, we went to the beach in the morning, and then came back to the ship after lunch. We didn't have to deal with a late return to the ship. I would seriously advise this type of schedule. 4 hours in port was our max.

[Julienatul]

We do early seating because our little ones are used to 6pm eating and 8pm bedtimes. It does feel kind of rushed some days though because naps get pushed later.

 

Our 8mo old did formal seating and wore a tux. He looks adorable doesnt he?

[2112]

Funny how this thread (over a year and a half old) got bumped up. That cruise was long since passed.

 

To be honest, I don't remember if we moved our dinner seating or not. I do know (and that is why I'm posting) that although Camp Carnival does not have a scheduled nap time, but they will let your child nap if they want to (the child can just find a quiet corner himself).

 

And yes, we have taken our son to formal night on every cruise (even when he was 6 months old). We do dress him up (we only buy inexpensive outfit) and it is fun. Funny, we usually hate formal nights, but somehow we find it fun with our son. Those are the only pictures we ever buy on a cruise ship.

[crusinmama06]

Question for all family cruisers - do you take infants (8 month to 12 month olds) to the Formal dinners??

 

Thanks!

 

Yep, of course. :D That's a great age cause you can dress them all up and they can't say NO. :p