Any advantage to adults eating early?

[Bestdisdad]

On an adults only cruise is there any advantage to eating in the early dining seating or do most adults eat in the 2nd seating? Any advantage for adult only entertainment later in the evening? We always have kids and have always taken 2nd seating.

 

[gismo1554]

The entertainment over the dinner slots themselves is repeated so if you are on late you go to early shows etc. The evening adultish entertainment tends to start around 10pm onwards so I guess it depends on how quick/slow you eat. I've made most activities with the late dining but sometimes if you are chatting and enjoying the food you can miss a few start times.

 

[randumb0]

There isn't an advantage that I can think of

 

[dreynolds1982]

My wife and I are going in late March, no kids. We have the late dining. We are late eaters in general, but my thinking is that most families take the early dining, so by taking late dining, we're going against traffic instead of with it. Meaning that families doing early dining will likely follow a similar schedule for going to shows, bars, etc., anything that might be impacted by dinner times. So by going against the traffic, we might be avoiding some of the cluster. Also, I would imagine less families at late dinner means likely a more quiet dinner, but who knows haha.

Like I said we're late eaters anyways so the early dining option would not have been considered regardless, but that's my thinking.

 

[ironz]

Personal preference for early seating for DH and me.
a. We typically eat around 6 pm, so pushing that back to 8:15 as we tried on one cruise meant eating lots of snacks late in the day so we aren't hangry in the last 2 hours before dinner. My husband has a pretty good metabolism, but the timing wasn't good for us.
b. One time we were with several other adult tables for late dining on a cruise ('met' via a social media group)-- it took forever to eat. We could be one of the first groups in the dining room, but partly due to the size of our group, we never made it out of the MDR before 10:30 and missed a lot of shows that started at 10pm.
c. We'd rather eat early, THEN relax for a bit, THEN see the main show, and then if we want to treat ourselves to a nightcap or extra dessert, we get that before retiring. When we ate late, it was like, ugh, that's finally over, let's flop into bed and call it a night.

I realize this is mostly just our experience, but that's what you were asking for, correct?

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Eating earlier means you can go to bed earlier which means you can wake up earlier which means you can eat breakfast earlier which means you can get off the ship earlier which means you're first in line for shoreside activities (i.e. the best beach chairs).

 

[dreynolds1982]

Eating earlier means you can go to bed earlier which means you can wake up earlier which means you can eat breakfast earlier which means you can get off the ship earlier which means you're first in line for shoreside activities (i.e. the best beach chairs).

Whew. I'm exhausted just reading that.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Whew. I'm exhausted just reading that.

#strategery

 

[mullysisters]

What snacks are available during the afternoon? I mean between lunch. BTW how long is Cabanas open for actual lunch. Could we eat later in the afternoon? We are scheduled for late dinner.

 

[DCLCrazy64622]

I would leave the early seating to families with young children as a courtesy.

 

[GlassAct]

I can't think of time restricted snacks, but all the quick takeaway foods on the pool deck are open, snacks at Cove Cafe all day, and room service.

We snacked on fruit, small salads and fries on the pool deck after lunch.

Oh, and soft serve ice cream!

Edit: tried to quote you @mullysisters

 

[nancipants]

What snacks are available during the afternoon? I mean between lunch. BTW how long is Cabanas open for actual lunch. Could we eat later in the afternoon? We are scheduled for late dinner.

I think Cabanas usually closes sometime between 2-3 pm. All the quick services places near the pool will be open, including the ice cream, and you can get snacks from the coffee places as well. Also, room service is available 24/7.

Whenever we had late dining, we would eat breakfast and lunch at normal times, and have a late afternoon snack/smaller meal around 3-4. We never went hungry, haha. In fact, we usually ate TOO much, so we now prefer early dining.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

On an adults only cruise is there any advantage to eating in the early dining seating or do most adults eat in the 2nd seating? Any advantage for adult only entertainment later in the evening? We always have kids and have always taken 2nd seating.

The "advantage" for me is that I'm not heading for bed immediately after eating a big meal. My tummy doesn't appreciate me doing that.

We're typically early dinner eaters at home, so that's what we do on cruises.

 

[princesscinderella]

The "advantage" for me is that I'm not heading for bed immediately after eating a big meal. My tummy doesn't appreciate me doing that.

We're typically early dinner eaters at home, so that's what we do on cruises.

I agree we eat at 6 at home and to wait until 8 my stomach won’t be happy with me. That said we have late seating in both of our upcoming cruises and I’m really hoping our waitlist for early seating comes through.

 

[tvguy]

Eating earlier means you can go to bed earlier which means you can wake up earlier which means you can eat breakfast earlier which means you can get off the ship earlier which means you're first in line for shoreside activities (i.e. the best beach chairs).

As West Coasters on Caribbean cruises we never turn out body clocks around, so the exact opposite is true for us. We are on vacation, so no hurry. Up late......one of my favorite memories of our cruise on the Magic was being up in front of the windshield in front of the basketball court at midnight with my kids, warm breeze, a sky full of stars, and lights from islands in the distance. So leisurely dinner, plenty of time for my tummy to digest dinner before bed, sleep in, than a leisurely breakfast. And the excursions we took all had Noon or later starts so no conflict there.
Only time is was a problem was when there were kids screaming and running in the halls at 5:45 am.......ON A SEA DAY. But THAT is the parents fault.
My kids are grown now, but as I have said before, I tip my hat to those parents who can work, get kids home from school, do after school activities, do homework, and have dinner on the table at home at 5pm. In soccer season we weren't done with practice until 630 pm and home by 6:45 to START the meal prep process. In Little League season, say in May, it over was 8:45 pm. So on a cruise, late seating was actually eating early for us. And on other cruises, our kids loved the Midnight buffet.

 

[insureman]

We have always done the early seating. My problem is I have no willpower and if went to the late seating I would up on the pool deck grabbing a slice (maybe 2) of pizza or something else and wouldn't be hungry for dinner.

 

[loislane]

We did the early seating last time and have it again for our upcoming cruise. We eat around 6 at home and like many others said, we'd be cranky waiting so late to eat. Last time were there kids around? Of course. But honestly it was nothing that was annoying. It's a Disney cruise, I kind of expect kids to be around. And actually it was very sweet watching kids interact with Crush during our dinner at Animator's Palate.

 

[Travel60]

We always did late dining even when kids were younger. Gave us more time for excursions, swimming, to get ready etc. But for WBPC coming up (only us), DH asked me if we could try main. He is seriously trying to lose weight (medical reasons) and part of that is eating only two meals a day - breakfast around 10-11 and dinner 4-5. I'm proud of him for sticking with it so main it is. I'll probably be snacking a bit earlier/later but we'll see. The itinerary is not port heavy so excursions should not be a problem.

 

[AquaDame]

Count us in with the early eaters! Its all about the amount of time to digest before bedtime for us.

 

[Calantha]

My mom has severe reflux so even if we went without kids, we would have to eat early. She can’t recline for 2-3 hrs after eating.