Early or Late dinner?

[tidelover]

Got to pay final payment this week, which do you like best & why? Were thinking late so were not rushed after going to ports.

[Tatka]

Got to pay final payment this week, which do you like best & why? Were thinking late so were not rushed after going to ports.

I think late is a better choice...specially if you don't have kids with you.

 

1) You already said about not rushing from ports .

 

2) On Sea days you can enjoy pools later ... They're usually closed after the dinner.

[flagger]

I personally think it depends on where you are cruising and where you are from. Your location states you are the east coast. If you take an Alaskan cruise, on the third day, at 8:30 you would be eating at 12:30AM body time.

 

Personally it was just too late for us and we live in Texas. However, we have chosen late seating for our Carib cruise for the above stated reasons about not rushing back, etc.

[tuggers]

All the listed reasons plus it gives you time for a drink or just to listen to some music and people watch before dinner. Late dinner is always better because no one is following you in the dining room so there is no rush. And until my Galaxy 9/17 I would have told you 'no children'. On Galaxy we had a wealth of very small children, like under 3, at late seating. Of course, the parents thought, how nice, the matre d's are carrying them around, playing with them, when in reality they were just trying to shut them up! (I feel the flames already!) Even happy they were sqealing and causing lots on chaos. Not what I have come to expect at late dinner.

 

Where is Douglasville? I'm in Valdosta.

[RSteele]

I, personally, like early seating...I've had both and I've done "personal choice" (on another cruiseline). When we did personal choice we always were eating no later than 6:30 anyway. First seating gives me the opportunity to see the early show...DH would sleep through the late one (as he proved when we did late seating)..we then are through with the show around 10:00 pm and have time to enjoy the rest of the evening....As far as port days...normally there are no special occasions (ie. formal nights) to get ready for...so a quick shower and change of clothes gets us there on time. Whatever makes you comfortable..... :)

[Druke I]

My wife and I prefer 1st Seating for dinner, as the time matches more closely our eating habits at home.

 

Neither of us are night people, so 1st Seating and 1st Show is early enough for us to still turn in early.

[rjack22]

I prefer early seating. That is more like my normal time to eat. At home we eat at 5:45. I cannot wait until 8:30? to eat and then go to bed on a full stomach. I am not a late night person so by 11:00 I usually am in bed. But then I get up early.

 

On my upcoming itinerary the ships sails most days from port at 5:00. So 6:15 or 6:30 is plenty of time to relax and get ready for dinner for us. It also helps if you don't wait to return to the ship until the last minute (smile).

 

It is really a personal preference you have to base upon your own habits and schedule. If you are a night owl then the late seating makes sense.

[tidelover]

tuggers Douglasville is 30 miles west of Atlanta. The county next to Six Flags as most people know whwere that is.

 

It is so neat to be able to ask a question and get other peoples opinion.

Thanks everyone

[teedee]

I always have late seating. I agree with rjack, it depends on your habits and schedule at home. I rarely eat before 8:00pm so late seating works best for me.

tidelover - I work off Fulton Industrial, not too far from you. Heck of a drive from McDonough though.

Terri

[Luckyroot]

I was wondering (since this is an early vs late dinner) when does the Captain have dinner?

 

We were on the Zenith this past summer (our first cruise) and never saw the Captain, except for the welcome toast while he was onstage the first formal night. We had early seating on that cruise.

 

We're looking to book a cruise next spring for my 50th birthday (and DH's 59th) and would love to try and have dinner with the Captain. But I don't see us having late seating either.

 

Anyone know?

[Bruin Steve]

Look, it's personal preference...

 

Neither is "better"...

It's what's better for YOU...

 

Personally, we always do the EARLY seating...here is why:

1. We don't like to wait until after 9 at night to eat...

2. If we're hungry again late night, there are always other things to eat then, but, if we get hungry waiting for dinner, yes, there are other things as well...but we ruin our appetites...

3. There is so much to do on the ship AFTER dinner (Show, Karaoke, dancing, casino, bars/lounges, etc.) that we don't want to be FINISHING dinner at 11:00...We'd be limiting our nighttime choices and feel like we're missing out...

 

In answer to the seemingly omnipresent quote from Late dinner afficianados, we scarcely ever feel "rushed" in port...Check out your particular itinerary...If the ship is setting sail at 6:00 or before, there is no way to be rushed...You don't get back to the ship just as it's taking off...You get back at around 5:00...Then you have a full hour to dress for dinner (they usually put the formal nights on "at-sea days", so it's not even an issue then)...Early dinner, depending on the ship, is usually either 6:00 or 6:30...and, if you're running late, they'll still seat you up to a half hour after the called time...

And, most ports, I often find myself returning to the ship well in advance of the departure time...there's only so much I want to do in some ports anyway...

 

If there's a late port (such as in Santorini on the Millennium), well, that might be the night I eat in port...or in the specialty Dining Room...which is what we did on the Millennium...with the ship in port late and wanting to try the Olympic anyway, we just made a 9:30 reservation for dinner in the Olympic...

 

The other thing I hear from the "late crowd" is there are too many kids at the early seating...Well, this actually depends on the cruise as well...When school is in session, there aren't that many kids at EITHER seating (and they don't put them at YOUR table anyway no doubt)...But, when we were on the Millie, all of the kids were at the LATE seating (most were Europeans...and they ALL eat late...in fact, all of the obnoxious French people were at the late seating--sorry to the NON-OBNOXIOUS French, this is a particular reference to a particular group booking of French folks who just happened to be incredibly obnoxious and not meant to be a generalization regarding ALL French people, many of whom are quite nice)...

 

But, in the end, everyone has a preference...everyone has their own reasons for that preference...there is no hard and fast rule...Time is time...it runs the same for everyone...somewhere withing that time, you've got a 2.5 hour window for dinner...place that window late and you have more time before...place it early and you have more time after...

[gunner22a]

Neither my wife or I are night hawks. As a military officer I am in the office no later than 0530 every day. My wife is a nurse who works steady days and has a 30 minute commute to be at work for 0700. I finish at 1630, her at 1500 so we tend to eat early. No later than 1730. For us the early sitting works best. If I had to wait for the late one I would be eating everything on the menu. What works for you is the best way to go.

[tuggers]

No matter what your seating for dinner, when you eat with the Captain you eat at the late seating. You meet for drinks with the other folks having dinner at his table that night. Usually that's in the bar closest to the dining room. The SH will be there to introduce you and tell you how this particular Captain or officer handles things. Some come there and meet you, then you proceed into the dining room (big deal procession!), some meet you as you are seated after the procession. She will tell you any quirks you should know. Once you are seated they take the picture of the table and then it's just dinner. After dinner, he leaves and the SH escorts you to the show (usually).

 

In a day or two you will have a photo of the table sent to your cabin with a listing of everyone's name. Some ships do 8 x 10, some do the smaller ones.

 

You can request your ta to ask about this because it's a special occassion or just chat up the SH. No garantees either way, but possible.

[tinykygal]

My husband & I are mid 50's. We have cruise 2X and last time we had late seating. Our daughter & son-in-law are accustomed to late dinners @ home, we are not; therefore, my advise is to follow your regular dinner routine.

I do know that we almost missed our tender @ Belize...not our fault but that of the excursion we booked. We probably would have missed our seating that night or had to go to Windjammer.

[Lois R]

Good morning:)

Another vote for late seating.......

Another reply for whatever is comfortable for you.

 

It doesn't matter if I am on a land vacation or a cruise.....when I am on vacation I always prefer to eat late......doesn't matter to me if I have a late breakfast and then lunch in the middle of the day, so dinner is fine on the late side.

And for me...( I cannot speak for anyone else) it is just too early to be getting ready for dinner in the 5:00 hour.....I prefer to maybe start getting my shower, dress, etc...about 6:15-6:30 at a leisurely pace.....and have a drink in the Rondeveau Lounge before dinner as well:D

 

Yep, it is all personal preference!

[sunpsyche]

We always do late seating for several reason the most important being that we never eat before 8 pm at home so for us it allows for a more leisurely transition from afternoon to evening; can (hopefully) avoid too many children in the dining room; able to nosh on those delish sushi appetiziers (yes...you have to show restraint and not have them ruin your dinner);

[MSBYRDY]

When you say final payment is due and you need to make a decision, I'm wondering if you didn't select when you booked. That would be the normal routine. If you haven't made a decision yet, you may not have a choice but to take whatever has openings.

 

We always prefer late as we are on vacation and move at a slower pace.

Marilyn

[DrKoob]

We vote early for all the reasons above but the biggest really is, what you are use to. We get up at home at 5:00 am. We are in bed by 10:00. There is no way we could completely change our schedule for the cruise and not die coming back to work. Even on weekends we beat restaurant crowds by eating at 6.

 

So go with what is comfortable for you and least disrupts your routine.

[JennyT]

Once again, I agree that it really is what works best for you. For DH and I, it's late seating. We tend to eat later at home as well (usually more like 7:30 though).

I do have a couple of quick comments:

1) There have been many occassions where the big "show" time for late seating was before dinner rather than after (not every night, but some)

2) On the one occassion that we had early seating, we felt rushed to finish up and get out of the dining room so they could turn it (re-set) for the late seating. Not a good feeling.

[CruisingChick]

In answer to the seemingly omnipresent quote from Late dinner afficianados, we scarcely ever feel "rushed" in port...Check out your particular itinerary...If the ship is setting sail at 6:00 or before, there is no way to be rushed...You don't get back to the ship just as it's taking off...You get back at around 5:00...Then you have a full hour to dress for dinner (they usually put the formal nights on "at-sea days", so it's not even an issue then)...Early dinner, depending on the ship, is usually either 6:00 or 6:30...and, if you're running late, they'll still seat you up to a half hour after the called time...

.

On my next two upcoming cruises we only have 1 "sea day" on each. For 3 people to get ready for dinner in one stateroom we need to start at least 90 minutes ahead of the time we want to be ready, so we would have to start at 4:30 PM. Therefore, we'd have to at be back on the ship by 4:15 PM. Why would I want to cut into my time in port just to rush back, and yes it is rushing back, to be ready for dinner?

 

There would be no time to rest and relax before dinner and no time for Sunset Happy Hour. To me there is really no other seating except second seating on a cruise. It never seems too late to eat and at home I eat at 6:30 PM, so it's not like I'm use to eating at 8:30 PM. They always have 2 shows, one for each dinner seating, so you never miss anything. At least I've never missed anything I've wanted to do on a cruise because of second seating dinner.

 

As for being seated up to half hour after call time, if you have other people at your table that arrrive on time, I feel it's rude to keep them waiting up to 30 minutes for you to show up for dinner.

 

Okay, that's my 5 cents on the subject

 

Anne Maria

[joramrose]

My last five cruises have been with the same friend. She likes early, I like late, so we alternated.

 

Finally, on our most recent cruise in June, we decided we did not need to eat together. On the second night out, after trying to eat dinner with the sun stuck in mid-sky (we were in the Baltic Sea), I gave up and asked for a change.

 

It worked great for us from then on.

 

So yes. It is what works best for you. I have found the company at table at both times delightful! And never have I had children sitting with us.

 

love

joan

[lstrong]

Whatever your dining time, please don't arrive late - it's very hard on your servers and delays your table mates. I speak from experience - one cruise our table mates were always 15-20 minutes late - causing the rest of us to delay our dinners [and eat way too much bread LOL]

[Bruin Steve]

Okay, friends...I mentioned the half-hour late rule, not because of etiquette or lack thereof, but because that IS the line's rule...

 

I am not telling anyone to habitually show up late to dinner...

It's just in that RARE port where your shore excursion gets back at 6 and dinner is at 6...

 

When we were on the Millennium, Early seating dinner was scheduled for 6:30 each night...it really wasn't a big problem...except in Naples...

 

The ship was set to sail at 7:00 pm...

We were on that 10 hour Capri, Sorrento Pompei excursion and it ran LATE...

We got back to the ship right around 6:30, hot and sweaty...we took quick showers and changed and ran down to dinner and got there about 6:55...

As it were, no one at our table got there at 6:30 (one other couple walked in as we did), no one had a problem with us...We still had a 2 hour window for dinner and had a nice dinner...

 

Hey, I wouldn't show up late as a rule, but, to be honest, it is very rarely a problem...In all my years of cruising and always with early seating, that was the ONLY time we ever showed to dinner late...

 

BTW, remember, everyone does not push through the dining room doors at precisely 6:00...When they're seating 1,000 people at dinner, the process of everyone getting to their seats takes a while...

 

Also, whoever said they need 90 minutes lead time to get ready for dinner and therefore need to be back at the ship at 4:15 for early seating, well...you take far too much time...

 

Did you ever take gym class in Jr. High or High School? They give you like 5 minutes to shower and dress...and it isn't that hard...

 

It's "Casual night"...I get in from port at 5...jump in the shower and I'm out at 5:05...throw on some dockers and a sports shirt and those slip-on Merrill shoes and, by 5:10 I'm ready for dinner...My wife can take her shower while I'm dressing (Who says you must do all this one-at-a-time?)...We're ready for dinner with time to kill...

[Lois R]

Hi Steve......nice that you can and want to shower in 5 minutes.......I have no desire to rush in and rush out. When you made the comment about 90 minutes taking way too much time to get ready....that would just be your opinion right?

 

Who is to say how long is too long to get ready? I usually take about 45 minutes to an hour....from start to finish...but I wouldn't tell someone else how long it should take for them to dress for dinner. We all have our own routines.

 

Why is the issue so controversial? There are 2 seatings and it looks like there are enough folks who enjoy both times to keep the dining room full!

[eileen & jay]

Late seating works best for us. After a day's excursion in port, we like to take a short nap to refresh our energy level, shower and leisurely get ready for dinner, evening activities, etc. Afterall, we are on vacation.:)