Dinner sitting

[ScotFi]

Hi

 

Have booked second sitting at dinner. Just wondering when this is likely to end. A friend had this recently and did not get out of the dining room until after 11.00. Wondering if we should have asked for earlier sitting as we have our 7 year old grandson with us.

 

Thanks for any advice :)

[petel]

Hi

 

Have booked second sitting at dinner. Just wondering when this is likely to end. A friend had this recently and did not get out of the dining room until after 11.00. Wondering if we should have asked for earlier sitting as we have our 7 year old grandson with us.

 

Thanks for any advice :)

 

Your grandson will probably want to eat with his friends in the kids area rather than sit thru the dinner with the grown ups. There is so much to do and so little time you might appreciate the break as well.....just a though. I do understand that every minute with a DGS is priceless.......

 

OTOH: first seating is the way to go if you and the DGS are going to turn in early. There is always the Wind Jammer if late dinning doesn't work out. and chops and pizza and room service and lots of choices depending on the ship. I Enjoy :)

[wild0826]

I myself have never taken second seating, but my mom just went on a cruise in May and she did. She told me that she will never take it again because they finish real late. I think 11:00 was about the time she said. She said that she thinks that because there is no other seating after the late seating everyone in the dining room takes their time. She told me that it took so long to eat and many times she missed many of the other activities going on after dinner. It could have been only her ship she was on, but on the other hand it could be all ships. As I say I don't have personal experience. Good luck

 

 

 

[JanineM]

If the seating is at 8:30 (as it has been when we've had late seating), you'll be out between about 10 and 10:30, unless you REALLY linger over coffee. Dinner service is normally about 90 minutes to 2 hours.

 

If everyone at your table eats relatively quickly and at the same pace, you could be out sooner. When DH and I are seated with just the 2 of us, we're normally through dinner in probably 1:15.

[Cruiser-T]

We always do late seating as we do not want to be rushd when coming back from an excursion. Plus we enjoy a LOOONG cocktail hour before dinner. Early seating just doesn't work for us.

[honeywell]

I would say to choose the seating time that closely resembles what you do at home. We had late seating on our last cruise and even though my kids often ate with the kids club, my dining time of 8:30 was just too late for me to eat a heavy meal. This cruise, we booked early seating, knowing that we can be flexible if running late from a day in port by choosing Windjammers. We can then do shows, casinos, dance, etc. and still pick the kids up from Adventure Ocean at a reasonable time. All considered, early just works best for my family.

 

If your cruise offers it, you might consider "my time dining" but I don't know if this conflicts with the show schedule...

[srsimpkins]

I have had both seatings and prefer the early...you can still grab a show afterward or wander around the ship or turn in. I am not a night owl though and do not like to wait until 8:30pm for my dinner. If you are traveling with children I would recommend the early especially because some activities might interfere with the later seating. As a child I loved eating in the main dining room with the adults! But the advantage of choosing late seating is that you have more time at ports and are not as rushed to get ready for dinner.

[cb at sea]

All of the children's activities are geared around main (early) seating. We generally finish late seating around 10:30pm--pretty late for a 7 yo.

[Landlords1]

Hi

 

Have booked second sitting at dinner. Just wondering when this is likely to end. A friend had this recently and did not get out of the dining room until after 11.00. Wondering if we should have asked for earlier sitting as we have our 7 year old grandson with us.

 

Thanks for any advice :)

 

It's a really personal choice on which you prefer or which suits your family better.We have always had late seating 8.30 or 9.00 and our daughter ( now 10 ) has always travelled with us, i just found that when she was younger she ate with kids club or i would take her to the buffet pre kids club( which starts at 7pm) therefore leaving me and DH to have a quiet drink together or a go in the casino before getting with our tablemates at dinner, i then would leave dinner for 5 mins (whilst waiting for my pudding) to fetch her from kids club so she would be with us for the last 30 mins of the meal.That just happened to suit us. Now at 10 she is old enough to sign herself out of kids club and meet us at the dinner table so she has the best of both worlds,kids club for an hour or 2 and then dinner with the grown ups, can't be bad can it.:p i don't think either choice is better or worse, which ever you choose you have to work around that time.In all your friends are right about the time dinner finishes( i think 10.30pm is more of an average) but that is still late. If your grandson would want to be in bed before that time this is obviously a no go but on the other hand if he is a child that likes to take an late afternoon nap and stay up later at night either seating would suit you.:) hope this helps your decision.

[dwdwnurse]

We always choose late seating for dinner and are usually out anywhere from 9:45 to 10:15. We also don't like rushing back from excursions and enjoy having a cheese platter delivered to our room and sitting out on the balcony just relaxing :) !

 

Happy cruising!

[katiel53]

Late seating is what we choose when traveling with adults only. We are going on a cruise in October with several children, including a 3 year old. We have decided that early seating would be best. Ten thirty or so is too late for young kids.

 

Somehow I think the 3 year old, the 10 and 12 year old will want to go to Adventure Ocean so they will eat quite hurriedly. I also believe the kids will want to go to dinner with Ocean Adventure when they go.

 

The nights at OA would be great for the adults to go to Portofino and/or Chops. Most of our group will play it by ear for that, but I know my husband and I will go then as we will choose a later time as we don't eat dinner early at home.

 

Enjoy!

[aloha of the seas]

In May I sat at a table of 7 late seating. We talked and had a great time; never in a rush. Latest we were out was 10:30-10:45.

 

I have always dined second seating. Lately talked to my niece about taking a cruise with her family. The would mean 2 children under 10 years of age. We both agreed they could not wait until 8:30 to eat. I don't think there are many children who could wait that long to eat, even though they could eat something earlier during the day.

 

As far as not being a nightowl, that too would be a reason for not dining second seating. You just can't go right to bed after eating such a big meal.

 

Good Sailing, Murf

[popeye0429]

:D The four of us on the Empress last September chose the late seating. This allowed us to have the entire day for sightseeing, loungeing at the pool, card games & all the other fun things that would fit in the day without the pressure of returning for the early seating. Yikes! We pretty much ate most of the time..anytime we wanted and there was never room for the midnite buffet.

We could catch a little nap before dinner and then walk the decks after to help settle it all. We're not "nite clubber's" or "show" inclined so we were never feeling rushed to get through the meal & out & about. Typically we finished about 10:15. Our waiter & helper were the best & we had our own "show" with them every nite.:p

[Seatravelers]

We always do late seating, hate to rush in from port and rush to dinner, etc. We are on a cruise, rushing not allowed. However, with children I would definitely think early seating the best, really too late for dinner on 2nd seating for them, imho

[Cruiser Forever]

We have always taken first seating. First it was because when we first started cruising our kids were young. As the years went by we didn't want to finish eating at 10 PM. We have no problems with early sitting it works for us. And no waiting list.

[Jake2008]

Not to be rude, but a lot of people choose the late seating specifically because there are fewer children in the dining room at that time. On all of our cruises we chose the late seating primarily for this reason. There are more families during the early seating and the kids we did encounter during late seating didn't always enjoy it (except on formal night when everyone enjoys it!) because they were usually too sleepy to stay at the table that long. Yes, you do end up at the table until past 10 especially if you choose dessert and coffee. If you have chatty tablemates it is possible to be there until 11. ;)

[Happy ks]

We've always chosen late seating because the early seating is just too darned early. To get ready for dinner at 6:30 I have to stop what I'm doing by 5 pm, it just takes longer to get ready to go out when on vacation.

 

The later seating is late, but it doesn't have to go until 11pm, we're generally out of the dining room by 10, even lingering over coffee.

 

I do have to disagree with those who state there are fewer children at the late seating. Perhaps it is just our luck, but we always seem to get stuck between two tables with kids who are whining or running around with no parent involved with correcting their behavior. More than once we've witnessed the servers making beds out of the chairs and tablecloths for the little ones.

 

We don't mind the kids on cruises, quite the contrary we love kids, they are adorable. We do mind the neglectful parents. Then again, we mind them anywhere in public, not just in dining venues.

[Crosboro]

Go with the early. We only take late as we like to take our time eating and chatting with our table mates. But, if you do late, you'll just end up worrying about "the kid" and won't enjoy yourselves.

[Hobiecat01]

In my humble opinion, late seating is the only way to go. To get ready for a 6 or 6:30 dinner, especially on formal nights takes you back to the cabin by 4:30 or 5:00 PM. Sometime earlier if the wife and I are moving slow.

 

BUT... a late sitting enables one to add a meal! We call it 4 rats. That makes 4 meals day, which is the minimum most avid cruisers expect. Also there can also be mid rats (old Navy term) for a midnight or after meal.

 

Ah Hah... After writing this I now know why I gain weight on cruises...5 meals a day??!! :D

[BadBoysDriveAudi]

Hi

 

Have booked second sitting at dinner. Just wondering when this is likely to end. A friend had this recently and did not get out of the dining room until after 11.00. Wondering if we should have asked for earlier sitting as we have our 7 year old grandson with us.

 

Thanks for any advice :)

 

I've been on four cruises now and have had late seating on all of them. You can find yourself leaving the DR after 11 if your table lingers between courses or during dessert and coffee. As for myself, I enjoy spending time with my tablemates and socializing, so dinner did run long for us (especially on the Freedom). Of course, we also had the head waiter come sit with us later during dessert when most guests were already gone or leaving.

 

If your tablemates arrive on time and you all eat at the same pace, you can get through all courses in less than 90 minutes. I've seen this on all four cruises, so I know it can happen. I just prefer it to not happen to me.

 

I've also seen some people excuse themselves from other tables if they wanted to leave before everyone was finished. I can't speak for whether they all got along with each other or not, but I've seen it happen, for what that's worth.

[Chumway]

I agee with with most, first sitting would be the better choice for you. Also as soon as you get your sea pass, check your table number, more to the point, check that you actually have one! Last year on LOS, our table allocation was '000' on our sea pass, meaning no table allocation at all, despite all our documentaion stating out preferred second sitting. It took ages to sort out. There were many guests with the same problem, all waiting to see the Maite'd and wasting their valuable first few hours on the ship.

[Cruiser-T]

Not to be rude, but a lot of people choose the late seating specifically because there are fewer children in the dining room at that time. On all of our cruises we chose the late seating primarily for this reason. There are more families during the early seating and the kids we did encounter during late seating didn't always enjoy it (except on formal night when everyone enjoys it!) because they were usually too sleepy to stay at the table that long. Yes, you do end up at the table until past 10 especially if you choose dessert and coffee. If you have chatty tablemates it is possible to be there until 11. ;)

I beg your pardon - We have NEVER chosen late seating for the reason you state. We simply do not want to cut short our day to make dinner at the early seating, therefore that is WHY we choose late seating, not because of the children as you imply.

[surreymum]

We have recently returned from a med cruise on the Brilliance with our 3 children (15, 13 and 8) and for the first time picked the late seating so as not to have to rush in for dinner straight after a port day. We found this worked exceptionally well and never finished later than 10:30 unless we choose to linger. We allowed the youngest one to bring a book with him so as not to disturb anyone else if he found the conversation boring. He didn't go to adventure ocean much and I wouldn't really want him eating with them as we prefer to eat as a family. The later time allowed him to have a while to chill out after a full day.

Eating together in such an environment is a fantastic lesson in manners and conversation and were very gratified to receive so many compliments as to how polite and well behaved our children were. Try the later time and if it really doesn't work you can always ask to move to main dining. We were fortunate to be placed on large table with very convivial company and feel we would have really missed out if we had used "my time dining"

[ajgx4]

Just returned from Navigator of Seas East med trip. The late dining sitting was 9.15 to 9.45pm. We did talk alot but never left dining room before 11.15/11.30pm (although we were last to leave)

[Jake2008]

I beg your pardon - We have NEVER chosen late seating for the reason you state. We simply do not want to cut short our day to make dinner at the early seating, therefore that is WHY we choose late seating, not because of the children as you imply.

 

 

Oh, I'm sorry if I specifically mentioned you by name. My apologies.