Anyone Feed kids first, eating dinner alone?

[graysladymurphy]

My husband and I would really like to have an intimate dinner on the cruise, NCL Sky, in the specialty restaurants. So I was thinking of feeding the kids at the buffet earlier, and then letting them go to the kids club. Anyone do that? What works well?

[Cruise or Lose!]

How old are your kids? Are they usually clingy? Do they make friends easily?

 

I think your idea is a good one, and your fellow passengers who are not parents will probably thank you for it. However, all things considered, is it in your children's best interests?

[CeleBrat]

We've done this a few times via the buffet or room service. The kids actually get a bigger "kick" out of being allowed to order from room service and eat in the cabin. For them, it's like breaking the rules!!

 

CeleBrat

[lmg1230]

We never have in the past but are going to on our upcoming cruise. We leave on the Eurodam on Saturday and will be celebrating our 14th anniversary next Wednesday. Grandma and Grandpa are travelling with us so they are going to eat early and then babysit while we try one of the specialty restaurants. My daughters are keen to have room service so we'll either feed them in the room or at the buffet before we go out. As long as it isn't going to traumatize your kids - go for it - you deserve a nice, intimate dinner!

[jam82]

It's a great idea and appriciated by everyone.

[brenderlou]

We did on our last cruise in Feb. Our daughter who is 4 1/2 loved the kids club on the Celebrity Century and when asked if she wanted to go there always said yes (and that's asking her with option to hang out at the pool with Mom and Dad which is high up there if favorite activities!!)

She made alot of friends at the club so we would take her to the casual/bufffet area around 6:00 so she could eat and then take her to the club around 7:ish...

We had the late seating so between dinner and dessert, I would run down to get our daughter because the waiters would always make napkin animals for her and give her a scoop of ice cream with candy toppings on the side.....it was our nightly ritual for the entire cruise and it worked out perfectly!!!!

If your children enjoy the kids club and want to go, take advantage of it. They have a blast and you and hubby get some much needed free time....it's a win/win situation!!!!

[tink24]

We did this 6 out of 7 nights on DCL. Our son would beg to go to the "playground" instead of the dining room with us. He had just turned 3 at the time and had never been to daycare or preschool. This is our plan for all cruises unless he requests otherwise.:D

[brazilgirl]

That is what we do on all of our cruises! We spend have breakfast together as a family , go to the ports as a family , have lunch together as afamily , but dinner is our adult time!!!

 

The kids don´t love sitting for long dinners , so we feed them from the buffet , which is much more their style , then DH enjoy a leisurely dinner together while kids are having so much fun at the kid´s club!Best of both worlds.

 

 

Good plan for all.

Kim

[graysladymurphy]

My kids are 6, 10, and 11 so I think they will do just fine. I like the idea of having breakfast and lunch together as a family and having a "date" for dinner.

[Garn]

Also, most lines have a "Kids Club Dinner night", where they will feed the kids, and you're free to eat by yourselves entirely, without even worrying about the buffet.

[CKEA_Cruising_Family]

We did this on our NCL Gem cruise last year. The buffet has a great selection and we enjoyed our date nights in the dining room.

[jemy70]

This will be our first cruise, but that was our plan. The kid are o.k. for a short dinner, but they eat fast and then get bored. Not exactly a relaxing dinner for us! We will feed them early at the buffet or something, and then have our dinner after dropping them off at the kids club when it reopens at 7 p.m. That is the plan anyway, we'll see how it works out when we get there! :D

[cb at sea]

Many, if not most, parents will do this!

[chapichapo]

We did this 6 out of 7 nights on DCL. Our son would beg to go to the "playground" instead of the dining room with us. He had just turned 3 at the time and had never been to daycare or preschool. This is our plan for all cruises unless he requests otherwise.:D

Same thing here. My son loved the kids club, he allways likes those kind of places and has the time of his life. He also had fun with us playing in the pool or going to port, of course, but I think since he was an only child (not anymore :D) and he is very communicative he also enjoyed playing with other kids. So we took him to the main restaurant some nights, other nights we went the three of us to the buffet and took profit of some more pool, and for 2 or 3 nights (we did a 12 night cruise) he stayed in the kids club while we had dinner. We also did this because in the first evening we were in a table with a lot of older people and it seemed to bother them. I felt like he wasn't warmly welcomed in the main dining room. Maybe it was just my impression. We later got a table for 4 but we still avoyded taking him with us. But of course I like to have dinner as a family so we kind of varied through the cruise.

Since we had booked early dinner (because of him) it wasn't too easy to feed him before - either he would eat at 5 or to have the time to get ready for dinner it wasn't easy. So, sometimes we gave him a snack, had dinner at 7 and then picked him up at around 8 for pizza and a stroll around the boat. :) Either way worked well and he was always really happy around the boat, doing the activities - he really loved the cruise.

But I think it really depends on the kids.

[chapichapo]

And another thing: I think it's also great for them to have dinner in the main dining room (at least once in a while) because it really impresses them. My son started "playing restaurant" in the cruise. While we were playing monopoly in the game room, he picked up the monopoly board and impersonated the waiter - we could tell he had caused an impression on him! :D hehe

[lamolesky]

Definitely the best idea. We spend so much time with our kids on the cruise to begin with at breakfast, lunch and shore excursions. Don't forget all the "togetherness" in the cabin! My kids are very young so they really don't enjoy sitting at a nice, quiet and long dinner. We do take them sometimes and they behave but I don't think they enjoy it too much. I feed them at the buffet, the kids area, and they love that the best. They can't wait to get to the kids club and we really enjoy a peaceful dinner. It is the best for all of us so there is no reason to feel guilty. Have a great time!

[timothy998]

On our HAL ms Westerdam cruise last month, one night DW & I had an early 15th anniv dinner at the Pinnacle Grill. We gave the kids the option of room service or eating in the Lido and they chose the mass quantities of immediate food in the Lido! They had fun at Club HAL and we had a no-worries dinner. We set it up so that we dropped the kids off at 7pm and our dinner was at 7:30p, that way we didn't feel like we had to rush our meal. Our DD (7) cried when she had to leave Club HAL and go to bed!

[mom2girls]

My kids have eaten a few times with the kids club. I don't have them do this every night it's available, but usually allow them to do this once or twice on a cruise. It's nice to be able to have some adult time every once in a while.

[KRN]

When my son was 6 and my daughter 10, we had late seating. My son never ate dinner with us (it was too late and he preferred the kids club) and was happy as could be. My daughter had a tough time each evening deciding whether to go to the kids club or eat with us. She wanted to do both.

 

The next cruise, when they were 8 and 12, we had early seating and ate together every night but 1, when we went to the specialty restaurant. Once again, everyone was happy with the arrangements.

[cruizer4life]

We did this 1 or 2 nights on every cruise. We would take the kids to the buffet for dinner about 6-6:30p and then take them to kids club after about 7p and we'd go for a date night at one of the specialty restaurant. They also go to dinner with the kids club when it's offered. The rest of the time is family dinner at the MDR during Main or early seating everytime.

[Lady_Jag]

Next month will be my daughter's (age 3) first cruise, so we have early seating. My plan is to have her eat with us in the dining room on Carnival Glory until the kids' camp opens at 7:00. Then, if she's restless, one of us will take her to the camp and return to the dining room for the last course or two.

 

If she's not restless and enjoying herself, of course, we'll just let her stick around and dine with us. :)

[jam82]

My husband and I would really like to have an intimate dinner on the cruise, NCL Sky, in the specialty restaurants. So I was thinking of feeding the kids at the buffet earlier, and then letting them go to the kids club. Anyone do that? What works well?

 

 

Yes, we have and we will again. It works out great. I think it is appreciated by everyone.

[german_mom]

My husband and I would really like to have an intimate dinner on the cruise, NCL Sky, in the specialty restaurants. So I was thinking of feeding the kids at the buffet earlier, and then letting them go to the kids club. Anyone do that? What works well?

 

We are just back from the Celebrity Solstice and had very very good dinner times. We feeded our toddler from the buffet, took him to sleep, used a good monitor that works on ships... and enjoyed all courses.

If the kids are older they can eat WITH the kids from the kids club or join the dinner if they are relaxed and not running around because this is not just bothersome but also dangerous with the waiters carrying 12 or more plates.

[graysladymurphy]

I'm the original poster and here is what we did. The first night, the kids club wasn't open until 8:00 pm. (why I don't know, seems crazy when we boarded the ship at noon). So, we had dinner in the main dining room with the kids. They loved being able to order whatever they wanted, even dessert and appetizers, etc. I think they are so used to us being so stingy at restaurants that it came as a total shock to them to have us not care what and how much they ordered or what it cost! The other two nights we ordered the kids room service, and went to the specialty restaurants alone. My oldest being almost twelve, this worked well. (I would never do this with little kids.) High School Musical was one non-stop 24/7 so they were fully entertained and loved having room service. My kids didn't want to go to the kids club...so we didn't make them. In fact, it looked really small and boring. I understand why so many aren't fans of NCL. I don't think we will cruise with them again.

[amjebrown]

You didn't put your child to bed and then go to dinner while listening to the monitor right? I know I'm misreading it but it's just not making sense to me.