Any early eaters experience late dining?

[brentm77]

For unknown reasons, we eat dinner much earlier than most people our age. Frankly, we would fit in very well in those Florida communities that eat dinner at 4:30.

We are planners and almost always book so far out that getting early dining is a breeze. The one or two times we waitlisted, we were moved to early before the cruise. For the first time ever, we booked two cruises just after the paid-in-full date, which puts our odds of getting moved to early dining pretty low, I suspect. I will go to dining services first thing, but the success for that will depend on our boarding time, which may not be great.

I am curious how other early eaters fared with late dining? It won't be very helpful to hear from the naturally late eaters. We don't have young kids - in fact, our daughters are college age - but I know certain members of our family won't wait until three hours after our usual dinner time to eat, and that MDR dinners will be affected. My hope is that they eat light and then eat in the MDR as a family. But what was others experience? Was it as difficult as it sounds form some in your group? Did you end up liking it?

Frankly, if DCL had better non-MDR options, I would be perfectly content skipping the MDR's most nights, but they don't.

 

[jdb in AZ]

It's not fun going to bed on a very(!) full stomach, but we managed.

Good luck getting your dinner time switched.

 

[Lesverts]

Me, this was me on the Disney Wonder. I grew up eating around 4 to 5pm my entire life. Even when I had control I still gravitated to that dinner time. Was on the Wonder and only had late seating so ate at 8:15pm. It was better then I would have anticipated but still I'd prefer the earlier seating. With Disney you have the show and characters and trivia going on during dinner so it made for an easy time to not think about food. Also just ate lunch later.

I was actually most worried about eating so late and not being able to sleep after. But never had an issue falling asleep.

 

[CamColt]

I've been sailing DCL since 2000, so my now twenty something kids have cruised at all ages. We have always eaten very early at home (early to bed, early risers...just early people). With that said, I have always chosen late dining and been very happy with it. Being on vacation, all schedules go out the window. And being on a cruise vacation, it's very rare that I feel at all hungry. I don't think I've ever gone into dinner thinking, I need to eat. There is plenty of food to hold you over if need be.

I hope things work out for you!

 

[bobbiwoz]

I hope you get main dining.

 

[Sophie’smom]

We eat very early at home 4-4:30 pm. We book our cruises on the later side so have been assigned late dining 4 times. It works out ok, but we do not eat as much as we would if we have early dining. We end up skipping appetizers or desserts or both because we don’t want to feel too full at bedtime. The mood in the room is more relaxed than at early dining which is nice.

 

[soniam]

We did it for Alaska, but we are from Central Time. It worked out. We did end up staying up much later and getting up later, when we could.

 

[WDWEPCOT]

I’m a early eater at home but late dining on a cruise - if I feel it may bother me late in the afternoon I just grab a snack to tie me over until dinner - plenty of places to grab something or have it delivered to your room ! I love late dining on the ship and always request it !

 

[auntlynne]

I live in Central Time and a town that eats at 5 or 5:30.

I am okay with dining late in the Caribbean, as it is on Eastern or Atlantic Time.

The bigger issue is that early seating (at my normal dinner time) comes too soon after eating a full breakfast and lunch (which is served later than my usual 11 am.)

Bottom line, it works for me. I also like to watch the late movie in BVT or Funnelvision, so I am not going straight to bed.

 

[Mommb]

I’m a early eater at home but late dining on a cruise - if I feel it may bother me late in the afternoon I just grab a snack to tie me over until dinner - plenty of places to grab something or have it delivered to your room !

Snacks are my family’s way of dealing with late dining. My husband frequently stops by Cove Cafe just before or during first seating to get cheese and bread sticks to tide him over until second seating. I found a dollop of soft serve ice cream in coffee (regular or decaf) does the trick for me.

 

[Flcruising]

Why don't you have everyone do a trial run at home and see if it causes major issues? If they get too hungry allow something to hold them over just like onboard. Seems better than worrying about it.

 

[holula]

I tend to eat between 5.30-6pm at home. Did early dining on a cruise once. It didn’t work for me. The other 17 have been late dining.

I’m just not hungry at 6pm on a cruise as at home I don’t eat a giant buffet for lunch!

 

[motherdaughtercruisers]

I’m 31 and I consider myself a “Maw-Maw” lol. I thought I could do the late dinner, but I just couldn’t. To compensate we ate at Palo and Remy as much as possible because I could book 6:00 pm dining times. But the one time we did make it to MDR, we found out that our servers were EXTREMELY efficient! They got us in and out! We were so impressed that we have actually requested him on our next Fantasy sailing (although we fortunately were able to book early dining anyway). His name is Dipa from Bali if you happen to be on the Fantasy and would like to request him. I don’t have the paper in front of me where he wrote his name down for us, but if you would like it, just let me know.

 

[tvguy]

I live in Central Time and a town that eats at 5 or 5:30.

I am okay with dining late in the Caribbean, as it is on Eastern or Atlantic Time.

The bigger issue is that early seating (at my normal dinner time) comes too soon after eating a full breakfast and lunch (which is served later than my usual 11 am.)

Bottom line, it works for me. I also like to watch the late movie in BVT or Funnelvision, so I am not going straight to bed.

OT, but, curious, do businesses close early there? I almost never worked normal hours, but the movie and song "9 to 5 " popularized the stereotype of those hours as being the normal, which I never understood as few companies give paid lunches, so the normal work day was 9 to 530 or 9 to 6 depending on whether your lunch break was 30 or 60 minutes.
When my kids were school age, it was always a mad scramble after school. 3:30 pm dismissal from school, rush them to after school sports at 4, lucky to get home by 7 or 7:30 pm to START fixing dinner. The end of Little League season was brutal. Our fields did not have lights, but with sunset later, you can safely play until 8 pm, which puts you home at 8:30pm to start dinner, homework, showers.
Other than my first cruise, which only had one dinner seating at 6 pm and dinner was a 3 1/2 hour 12 course affair. And no other food options than the MDR. We always have had late seating, whether it was the Caribbean, an Alaska, or even a Hawaiian cruise.

 

[auntlynne]

OT, but, curious, do businesses close early there? I almost never worked normal hours, but the movie and song "9 to 5 " popularized the stereotype of those hours as being the normal, which I never understood as few companies give paid lunches, so the normal work day was 9 to 530 or 9 to 6 depending on whether your lunch break was 30 or 60 minutes.
When my kids were school age, it was always a mad scramble after school. 3:30 pm dismissal from school, rush them to after school sports at 4, lucky to get home by 7 or 7:30 pm to START fixing dinner. The end of Little League season was brutal. Our fields did not have lights, but with sunset later, you can safely play until 8 pm, which puts you home at 8:30pm to start dinner, homework, showers.
Other than my first cruise, which only had one dinner seating at 6 pm and dinner was a 3 1/2 hour 12 course affair. And no other food options than the MDR. We always have had late seating, whether it was the Caribbean, an Alaska, or even a Hawaiian cruise.

Schools and a lot of jobs start at 8 am. My father’s work hours were 8 am - 4:20. (Professional engineer for the US Government, a fairly common job here).

Recently, they changed hours for high school to 8:30 - 3:40, acknowledging that teenagers have a different sleep demand than the younger children.

I have no kids, so I don’t know when weekday activities end these days. My own HS marching band practice would have been done by 4:30. Scouting was just after school in early years and at ~ 7 pm in junior /high school.

But restaurants I visit have no wait by 8 pm.

And many hospital jobs start at 7 am. (Second largest job sector. Third are the school system).

I have always heard that the East Coast eats (and watches TV shows) later than the Central Time does. And have laughed at the idea that retirees in FL live those early bird dinners.

Also, commute times are routinely 30 minutes or less, in private cars.

It is possible that our area of the country developed its culture around farming (like being out of school in the summer when tending crops was priority) and just hasn’t bothered /seen a need to change. Our economy was not heavy-industry based. Even now, auto manufacturing, with automated assembly lines, is not reliant on long days (and has regulated hours).

I wonder how or if the iron working town of Birmingham AL developed a different daily schedule, although that industry has been shut down for decades. I wonder if @tidefan has a different time line for dining in his town?

I think peak waits for restaurants like at the Outback are probably around 6:30 or 7pm. But parking lots there are thinned out by 8 pm.

 

[sparrow10_]

I usually eat dinner at about 6 p.m., on my first cruise I had late dining option and it was okay. On my second cruise we managed to get early dining and I hated it! I felt that it was too soon and it just divided the day in a very weird way (for me at least). We ended up requesting the change and by the second night we were back on late dining. Personally it seems that having the early dining makes it so that you're stuffing your face repeatedly. Unless you like to wake up early for a very early breakfast, which I wouldn't like at my vacation but that's a personal choice.

Our eating day was something like this:

Breakfast 10:30-11 am (we would miss the seated breakfast)
Lunch 2-2:30
Light snack
Dinner 8

 

[tidefan]

Schools and a lot of jobs start at 8 am. My father’s work hours were 8 am - 4:20. (Professional engineer for the US Government, a fairly common job here).

Recently, they changed hours for high school to 8:30 - 3:40, acknowledging that teenagers have a different sleep demand than the younger children.

I have no kids, so I don’t know when weekday activities end these days. My own HS marching band practice would have been done by 4:30. Scouting was just after school in early years and at ~ 7 pm in junior /high school.

But restaurants I visit have no wait by 8 pm.

And many hospital jobs start at 7 am. (Second largest job sector. Third are the school system).

I have always heard that the East Coast eats (and watches TV shows) later than the Central Time does. And have laughed at the idea that retirees in FL live those early bird dinners.

Also, commute times are routinely 30 minutes or less, in private cars.

It is possible that our area of the country developed its culture around farming (like being out of school in the summer when tending crops was priority) and just hasn’t bothered /seen a need to change. Our economy was not heavy-industry based. Even now, auto manufacturing, with automated assembly lines, is not reliant on long days (and has regulated hours).

I wonder how or if the iron working town of Birmingham AL developed a different daily schedule, although that industry has been shut down for decades. I wonder if @tidefan has a different time line for dining in his town?

I think peak waits for restaurants like at the Outback are probably around 6:30 or 7pm. But parking lots there are thinned out by 8 pm.

Not sure that West Central Alabama is much different than anywhere else. I'd say we usually eat dinner here around 6:30pm. Of course, in my town, the main industries are either a) The University, or b) Mercedes-Benz, so there is a good bit of later diners when they get off of 2nd shift over at MBUSA...

We usually request early dining on DCL because I hate late dining, not so much for the 8ish start, but more for the fact that if you get the "wrong" service team, you could be there until 10pm...

I really, really wish Cabanas was back open for dinner like it was pre-COVID. Every other cruise line manages to have the buffet open at night, not sure why DCL can't do that either, especially at the prices that they are charging. No offense, but after you've had the Pirate Night menu 5 or 6 times, you may have had enough...

 

[sjuncfan]

We have always done early dining. The few times we were waitlisted, we were able to switch either before the cruise or when we boarded. At home we eat around 6 or 6:30, and DS is usually in bed by 8:30/9. (He's 12 so I'm sure that will shift any day now). Pre-COVID when we cruised he usually missed at least a couple of the shows. Our last cruise, this past December, we decided to try late dining to see if we liked it better. DH thought we'd like having a bit more downtime in the afternoons, and not rushing to the show right after dinner. It did NOT work well for us. DS was falling asleep at the table and went back to the room partway through dinner. We talked to our head waiter and we were actually able to shift to early dining for the rest of the cruise... we were very thankful but I'm sure that's not always possible. Now we know that we are early dining people through and through!

 

[auntlynne]

Not sure that West Central Alabama is much different than anywhere else. I'd say we usually eat dinner here around 6:30pm. Of course, in my town, the main industries are either a) The University, or b) Mercedes-Benz, so there is a good bit of later diners when they get off of 2nd shift over at MBUSA...

We usually request early dining on DCL because I hate late dining, not so much for the 8ish start, but more for the fact that if you get the "wrong" service team, you could be there until 10pm...

I really, really wish Cabanas was back open for dinner like it was pre-COVID. Every other cruise line manages to have the buffet open at night, not sure why DCL can't do that either, especially at the prices that they are charging. No offense, but after you've had the Pirate Night menu 5 or 6 times, you may have had enough...

Not only are you a Tide fan, you are in the neighborhood. . I am from Huntsville.

 

[tidefan]

Not only are you a Tide fan, you are in the neighborhood. . I am from Huntsville.

So, I guess the bigger question here is: What time do you go to Rosie's Cantina?