Early or Late Seating Dining?

[Harryo]

We are a married couple celebrating our 30th Wedding Anniversary during our 7 night Eastern Caribbean Cruise Nov 2019, it will just be my wife and I on the cruise. We cruised once before with Disney with all the kids about 10 years ago and did the early dining. Question we have is, should we do early or late dining this time with it just being the two of us? Are there any advantages/disadvantages to doing late dining over early dining? Which seating do you as couples prefer? Thanks

 

[MichelleCanada]

There are less younger kids at the late dining. We are from the west coast so the late dining is closer to our regular meal time. We liked the later dining when we spent the day off the ship because we were not rushed when we got back from the port.

 

[southerngirl528]

Which seating do you as couples prefer?

We prefer 2nd seating. As MichelleCanada said, there are less young ones, plus we like not having to get back early from ports of call to get all cleaned up for dinner. We enjoy going to the show first, then a relaxing dinner. JMHO. Happy anniversary, btw!

 

[Christy B.]

My first cruise is this fall, but my professional Disney Cruiser pal said (in addition to the reasons above) she likes the late dinner because the wait staff doesn't seem as rushed. Happy anniversary!

 

[lorimay]

Happy Anniversary!!!!

We do many cruises just the 2 of us and we do the late sitting. We like to go to the 6pm show then to one of the venues that serves drinks and has entertainment from 7:30ish to 8:15 have a drink then go to dinner. For us its like a date night every night of the cruise.

 

[ScooterScott44]

Happy Anniversary and enjoy!

We always do the late except for one trial at the early and once early because of other family in the traveling party. There will still be plenty of kids at the second seating but it may be a little less. There are quite a few reasons we like the late better but that is just us.

The biggest bonus is no rush to get ready. We have been at more than one port that the early dinner was at or very near the all aboard time. At St. Maartin last month we were standing out on the veranda listening to the horn battle with the Celebrity Equinox while the people in the first seating were sitting down to eat. Captain Kate claims to have won but I have video proof.

 

[MomOTwins]

I have kids so early is a must for us, but I would probably still get early because I like eating before sitting down to watch a show (that's what we do at home whenever we go out to the theater). DCL really sells out their cruises so I would be surprised if late dining felt significantly less crowded, or less kid-filled than late, but maybe I am wrong. We ate early on our cruise and it certainly did not feel as though service at all suffered from any kind of increased workload, as we had very attentive service, and the only place where I noticed the tables around us was at animators because the layout there is a bit cramped.

The only advantage I have seen here about late cruise that appeals to me is that the pools/slides are less crowded during the early dining time, so late can give you an advantage if that is something you like. If I was kid free though, I wouldn't bother with the aquaduck--I'd just be at the cove pool all day.

 

[Lilsia]

I think you should decide based on your eating habits. Do you normally eat that late at night? With the late seating you are done past 9. Lunch is done being served at 2pm at the buffet and sit down(you can get pizza and burgers and room service) so that is a big time gap between lunch and dinner. And are you OK with eating right before you go to bed. For me, I can not eat that close to bed time. But I am early to bed, early to rise.

 

[MelSpees]

We always have early dining. We normally eat early and when we're on the ship we're on ship time, not wherever-we're-from time. I'd say eat at whatever time is closer to your normal dinner time. I don't think other factors differ that much between the two seatings.

 

[cyclenut]

We have always done late so not sure what early is even like. We have skipped MDR and gone to the late show (the one early diners go to) and we did notice quite a few more small children than when we did the 6pm show on the same cruise, so I'm pretty sure there are going to be less kids in the late seating. Less, but still several. Not that this would be a reason for choosing one over the other, but for some, that may be a deciding factor.

Disney has really improved the last few years with leaving things open later for those who are late seating and may want to go do something after dinner. Yes, there have always been the adult lounges, but sometimes we like to dip in the hot tub or something like that. That's really the only thing to watch out for. We like to do something after dinner. Late seating means we go to the show (if we want) and then dinner. Then after dinner we go to one of the clubs (usually comedian). With early seating you'd be going to dinner, then a show then another show?

Also nice to just take a walk around the deck in the moonlight after dinner.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

Happy Anniversary. We enjoy the early seating because, like @Lilsia, I'm an early riser (too many years owning horses). Much rather walk the dinner off strolling the decks or enjoying entertainment before retiring to the stateroom and spending quiet time on the veranda before going to bed.

 

[bcwife76]

There are less younger kids at the late dining. We are from the west coast so the late dining is closer to our regular meal time. We liked the later dining when we spent the day off the ship because we were not rushed when we got back from the port.

All of this. We, too, are from the West Coast and second dining has always worked out perfectly. We sail with kids and it still works. In Aug 2019 we will be taking our first kid-free cruise and are definitely booked for 2nd dining then as well.

 

[ScooterScott44]

Rounding back to this thread and I see a bunch of great points. As I stated earlier we enjoy the 2nd seating mainly because it doesn’t require an afternoon rush and seems like a more relaxed dinner.

The OP asked about benefits and some folks have stated that 1st seating is closer to their normal dining time. It is also closer to our normal dinner time. The key difference is my cruise eating habits are not normal!!!! Breakfast and lunch times as pretty close to my non-cruise days. The difference is both of those meals are generally larger than my normal meals. Even more inpactful is that I usually don’t get an afternoon snack. It is sooooo easy to grab a sandwich, slice of pizza or nibble on items from the cove (or from the lounge if you happen to be in concierge) at any time. Oh, and I almost never get ice cream randomly through the day.

I respect that it is fine for some to stay on the same schedule but I am on vacation and that means a chance to have an afternoon snack and nap...
...or snack and movie (sometime that includes a nap)...
...or a swim followed by a snack and nap...
...or a nap and then a snack...

 

[Harryo]

Thank you all for your replies, lots of great point of views. Anne is leaving it up to me to decide so I think I’ve settled on trying out the late seating this time. I like the fact of not having to rush to dinner and seeing a show then dinner and hanging out in one of the clubs after.

 

[Belle2002]

We are a family of 4 adults and we always take the late dinner seating. We like to be able to relax before dinner, see the show, enjoy a glass of wine and then go to dinner. Afterwards, we always go out and walk the deck and enjoy the deck and a cup of tea

 

[Ruben Anthony]

We are a married couple celebrating our 30th Wedding Anniversary during our 7 night Eastern Caribbean Cruise Nov 2019, it will just be my wife and I on the cruise. We cruised once before with Disney with all the kids about 10 years ago and did the early dining. Question we have is, should we do early or late dining this time with it just being the two of us? Are there any advantages/disadvantages to doing late dining over early dining? Which seating do you as couples prefer? Thanks

Late dining is less crowded. If you wanted private seating, you are more likely going to get it during second seating.

 

[matthew517]

Late dining. If you get back on board from a excursion at 4 and your hungry you can get something from deck 11. And not ruin your meal later. Also I find the shows better at the early showing. The cast is fresh.

 

[RogueKnits]

For those who have done a European cruise, where the dining times are pushed back, does late dining pretty much mean you eat and then go right to bed? I've been going back and forth on whether I want late or early seating for my upcoming British Isles cruise. It is just my husband and me and at home we eat around 7-8pm, so I initially thought late would be good, but then I realized we will often be getting up quite early for excursions that leave at 9am. With how long the dining takes, it seems like that would mean we'd be eating and then laying down after maybe only an hour (assuming late dinner goes to about 9:30-10), which is not so great for those of us prone to acid reflux. I switched us to early seating, but now I worry that will be too early for days where we have a later excursion (certainly I'd rather get on board and have an hour or so to get changed/refreshed if we've been gone all day).

 

[IceSkatingPrincess]

We have no children and prefer late dining. It seems like there are overall fewer children in the dining room during late dining if that is a consideration, but mainly we like it so we never need to rush back in on a port day to dress for dinner in a hurry.

 

[Van Houten]

We have kids, but prefer late dining - you never feel rushed, 45 minutes into dinner kids can be dropped off with Oceaneer's Club staff, and the time allows for a more leisurely planning of port and on-board activities.