Late dinner seating?

[WonderlandsMostWanted]

Well, to get the cruise I wanted the most; I had to book with the second dinner seating. So far, I’m not too terribly concerned about it, but as it’s my first cruise, I don’t really know what the impact is or what this will mean for me. We don’t mind eating later, but what does this mean for the rest of the activities and such? Will we be missing out on anything? Are there fewer people at the later seating? Any input you have would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Turk82]

I had initially requested the late seating, but later changed my request to the earlier one, mostly because of other people I'm traveling with don't like to eat late (something with you gain more weight if you eat anything after 7pm or some other nonesense....I plan to eat whenever I like on this crusie...I can diet later!!).
As far as the schedule goes...those who are scheduled for the later dinner seating see the evening show BEFORE dinner (during the first dinner seating, I imagine). This is then flipped for the early dinner seating.
I personally see a number of advantages to the late seating:
1. On your port days if you just LOVE where you are...you can return to the ship later and just skip the show (as opposed to skipping dinner, which would be a tragedy, though I doubt you would starve).
2. There is no "wait" between dinner and evening activities.
3. Most children eat at the first dinner seating, so you can expect it to be a little quieter (but maybe you have children so that may not matter).

Besides....who cares!!! You get to go on a DISNEY cruise....does it matter when you eat???

[Tinkermom]

We had the late seating on our cruise last month. Our kids are ages 6, 11, & 13. We were placed on the waitlist for the 1st seating. We got a call on the 3rd night to ask if we wanted to bump to the 1st seating but by then we had fallen in love with our wait staff and did not want to change.

We enjoyed the 2nd seating for many of the reasons Turk listed. We liked that we did not feel rushed to leave the pool or ports early so that we could get back in time to dress for dinner. We would watch at about 5pm or so as many of the people were gathering their stuff up from the pool area to leave to get ready for their early seating. They offer an early show usually around 6:30pm. I enjoyed have some time before dinner to hang out in the Promenade Lounge with a drink and dance. The kids even joined us for this, it was great famiily time:
Dancing with the kids

The later dinner is not less crowded. All of the tables in our dining room were full. As for kids, our server told us that DCL sets up your dining rotation based on the ages of your kids. There are 3 start times for the late seating - 8pm, 8:15, and 8:30. (I am not sure what the early seating is but I think it is 6pm, 6:15, and 6:30) He told us that DCL usually places families with young kids at the earliest of the rotation seating and then up from there. We had the 8:30 seating and there were mostly adults and families with older kids. It was very pleasant.

I know 8:30 sounds late but it worked out nicely for us. The kids usually had a heavy snack (think chicken nuggets and fries) around 4pm. The older 2 were not sleepy at all yet and our DD6 was a little sleepy but she did great!

We enjoyed late seating so much we requested it for our next cruise.

Hope this helps!

[WonderlandsMostWanted]

Thanks! I suppose I should add a few more details if it helps. I'll be celebrating my 30th birthday on my first cruise ever! My boyfriend, dad and a couple friends of ours, and possible a couple friends of my dad's will be joining me. So, we won't have any actual kids in our party, just adult kids at heart.

[ElenitaB]

We had late seating (8:30 pm) on our last cruise (me and DS-12). It worked out quite well for us, as we had the opportunity to participate in some of the family actitivies like Mickey Mania that we had to skip last time in order to be able to see the shows. And speaking of the shows, they are offered twice each evening to make sure that everyone has the chance to see them, regardless of their seating time.

The later seating was well past when we normally have dinner, but a late afternoon snack greatly helped.

I don't think we'll ever ask for main dining again.

[Ed]

We've had the late seating on all our cruises so far, and it's worked out well for us. There are fewer children at the later seatings, and we aren't rushed to get ready. Our all-adult groups can stay at the pool (which gets a lot less busy when the folks with early seating leave) and enjoy an 'adult beverage' or two before dressing for dinner. The only slight drawback that we've found is on the Pirates In The Caribbean party night; the party is usually well underway before we finish dinner and head topside.

[WonderlandsMostWanted]

The only slight drawback that we've found is on the Pirates In The Caribbean party night; the party is usually well underway before we finish dinner and head topside.

Ooh, did you still make it up in time for the fireworks?

[JMTStone]

We just set up our first DCL trip and chose late seating. Our last cruice, we had 6 PM seating and with 4 people coming off of an excursion, that means 4 showers. It takes a lot of time for my 15 year old to get ready. This way, we shower/get ready first, then she can take as long as she likes while we go to see a show with DD6 and she'll meet us at dinner.

15 year old girls need a lot of time.

[Ed]

Ooh, did you still make it up in time for the fireworks?

Oh, yes! Only came close to missing them on our last cruise; we had terrible experiences with our servers , and had to skip dessert in order to get topside on time, but we made it! That's something not to be missed.

[LoriR]

Even with my young kids (8 and 5) I wish we'd had the later seating in some ways. Our time was 5:30 (the early seating is 5:30, 5:45 or 6) which is early, and I did feel a little rushed a couple of times. But more importantly, my kids really wanted to see the shows, and an 8:30 show was too late for my 5 year old. He ended up sleeping through two of them! We would have been better off with a poolside dinner at 4:30 or 5, then going to a show, then letting them have an appetizer or dessert or even more dinner at 8, or just skipping the meal and getting something from the buffet or room service. But the entertainment was more important to us than the food (not the rest of our party, though).

[brdavis]

We just got back from our 2nd Disney cruise (7 day). The first one we ended up with late seating due to scheduling late, while this one we requested it. With kids, the 2nd seating seemed ideal - the kids (&, for that matter, the adults) were wide awake for the wonderful shows, and we were hungry again for the dinner (8:00 PM in our case). Truthfully I think I'd rather miss a dinner rather than a show, but that's personal preference (We love the shows... and while I love the meals, I'm not known for a discriminating sense of taste), but in any case we always had time to make both, with lots of pictures / characters in between. We too had slight problems with the Pirates party, but missed only a little of the start (5 minutes?).

--
Brian Davis

[JerseyDad]

....even with a few younger children in our group, the later dinner seating worked out quite well for us. With all the "days activities"...no one wanted to feel rushed to get back to their cabin to clean up for an early dinner. Additionally...with all the eating / snacking during the day....the later seating was perfect timing to cure a case of "the hungries".

[Pixie Power]

Late seating is the best imho. Wouldn't have it any other way. We actually had to be wait-listed to have late seating for our Panama Canal Cruise next month. We were finally confirmed for it just recently.

[Donald_Quackers]

I have the 8pm seating on my first cruise in December this year. I'm looking forward to not having to rush back to ship to get ready for dinner. I'm also looking forward to the Pirates in the Caribbean party.

I don't think it'll be a problem -- like others, though, I don't want to miss the fireworks.

[Kenny1113]

We had kids ( 6 and 3 ) on the late dinning last year and would most likely do an earlier seating next time around- for the kids. Since you guys are all adults I think you'll love it for all the reasons mentioned. You will have to rush for pirate party though, we skipped dessert and made it we missed maybe the first 5-10 min of the show. One reason not mentioned- you get the late breakfast on your last day.