Dining time with 2 small children?

[Butterfly~kisses!]

I'm wondering if I could get some input here. We have a cruise booked and will be travelling with our 2 year old and 5 year old children. My 5 year old has already been to Camp Carnival on our last cruise and loved it, so I have no worries there, but it will be my 2 year olds first camp experience and of course we are not sure how she will do.

 

For months now I planned (and have already 'requested') for the late dinner seating. My theory was/is to feed the kids before 7 (either at the buffet or room service), drop them off to kids camp and then my Dh and I could go for a nice/quiet dinner. Of course, since it is a X-mas cruise, the kids will go to dinner with us a few nights as well. The problem I am finding with this theory is that we do want to go see the show every night, but we also don't want to leave the kids in camp past 10pm. Having no clue when the shows will be (we had early seating last time), I'm not sure how this will work out.

 

So, now I'm thinking a better idea would be to pick the early seating, let the kids eat their dinner at the beginning and drop them off to kids camp at 7pm. Would this work better for us parents to have some time to ourselves after dinner is over before we pick up the kids at 10pm? Would the early seating also work better with the show times etc?

 

We do eat late here at home, so one issue we do not have is that our kids will be hungry by the time we have the late seating, should we choose that. Our kids also don't have a strict bedtime, due to their schedules and naptimes at home, so they also won't be falling asleep in the middle of dinner at the late seating.

 

Oh boy, I'm sorry this turned out to be so long. I'd just really like some input on what other parents' experiences have been with the dining times and camp Carnival.

[canttanman]

I don't have young children, so i may not be qualified to offer an opinion, but I will anyway. :)

 

Get the early seating if you want the kids out of camp before 10 pm. The one time DW and I had late seating for dinner, we were never out of the theater before 11:30.

[cb at sea]

If you are feeding them separate from you, you can dine anytime! If you want them to eat with you, then do the early seating. Late dining doesn't end until after 10pm, and they will be missing most of the evening "kid" stuff.

Late seating shows are generally BEFORE dinner, so you can feed the kids early, drop them off, and have the evening to yourselves!

[CeleBrat]

Having been on multiple Carnival cruises with our kids who are roughly the same age apart as yours, I can share that we had EARLY seating every time. That way, we could all eat together. Following dinner, either the kids went to Camp and we dashed off to the show or bar, or we all went to the show together.

 

I can't imagine trying to juggle the late night dining with them and us, and feeding them early. Plus, you'd have to pick them up from Camp by 10pm, or there's an extra fee. And, if on the off chance they don't like to go to Camp, then what do they do while you're eating a late dinner?

 

CeleBrat

[scorpiomum]

we were on RCCL with my 5 & 9 yr old and we had early seating. they ate with us, and the waitstaff were brilliant at bringing their dinner quickly so they were up at AO by 7.15pm. sometime, if we werent quite finished, i would race the boys up and then enjoy desert with my dh in peace. it was great as i wouldnt leave the kids past 10pm and this way we at least got a few hours peace together. really worked for us and now even thought they are 1 year older i will be doing that again in a month.