Main vs Late Dinner

[Anchors Away 2016]

We have kids who will be in Edge... Are there any implications for their activities depending on dinner times? We are tending to late dining but I am not sure if most activities are planned around main/early??? i took a look at some navigators but am still not sure.. My kids will stay up late around midnight.
we are doing dREAM 4 night Bahamas.

Most of the activities in Edge will be between the two dining times or after them both. There might be one or two conflicts, but mostly it won't be an issue. Bigger problem might be getting them to come home at Midnight. LOL

 

[Firstof3]

My family has been on 2 cruises now, planning our third. The first was just me and DW, second cruise we brought the kids (6,4, and 2). We chose main dining for both. Even with our kids there it seemed to be low on kids for the seating. I never felt rushed to get ready for the meals, even on days with a port stop. We chose main dining mostly because that matches the time frame we typically tried to sit for dinner, just made it easier for the family.

 

[Hillbeans]

We switched it up last cruise from early to late dinner, and it resulted in too much pre-dinner snacking and overeating. We will stick to early dinner from now on.

 

[iivye]

We have kids who will be in Edge... Are there any implications for their activities depending on dinner times? We are tending to late dining but I am not sure if most activities are planned around main/early??? i took a look at some navigators but am still not sure.. My kids will stay up late around midnight.
we are doing dREAM 4 night Bahamas.

We had late dining and there were activities that my daughter wanted to do in the Edge that started before we would usually finish dinner. In those instances she just left early so it wasn't really a problem. We still always pick late dinner.

 

[mom2brooke76]

We always do late as well and our kids (one in the Edge and one in the Vibe) just get their dinner first and leave early for the clubs. We've never had an issue. Also, we do the late night adult things like seeing Match Your Mate, etc, and never miss any of it and dh and myself tend to linger over dinner.

 

[DisneyParkFan]

With late dining, we also enjoy having the cheese platter or snack late afternoon as we relax in our room. And as a PP pointed out, you get the later disembark breakfast time which is also a plus.

What time was the disembark breakfast? When did you breakfast?

 

[Lilsia]

What time was the disembark breakfast? When did you breakfast?

If you have main seating then breakfast is 6:45 am. Late seating at 8am. But that is for the sit down restaurant. You can still go to Cabanas and eat up there whenever you want.

 

[YawningDodo]

I consider the fourth meal I tended to eat each day to tide me over to late dining a vacation bonus. I wouldn't normally eat two lunches at home, but I wouldn't normally eat escargot or have an alcoholic drink with dinner, and I did those things on the cruise. Anyway, I found that all my meals on the cruise tended to be smaller; I was eating more frequently but I wouldn't say that I was eating (much) more heavily. I really liked that the servings in the MDRs are relatively small compared to most American restaurants.

Thank you for all the input! I am still trying to decide... I am curious what time most people tend to finish dinner during the late seating? We typically eat on the later side at home and we stay up late - so that is not an issue. However, my husband and I really like the shows, games and entertainment in the adult clubs at night - those tend to start around 9:45. Would we be able to have a somewhat leisurely dinner and still make it to these? Or would we feel a bit rushed? I've asked my kids to look through old navigators to see if they'd be missing out on anything in the kids clubs. That's our biggest hang up right now, being worried we will miss out on some of the activities that we know we like and know we can make work with main dining.

It depends on how leisurely your leisurely is. The earliest I ever left late dining on my cruise was something like 9:35 or 9:40, and that was because I skipped dessert in order to make it to a meet and greet before the line closed. My tablemate and I normally lingered over dinner, though, and I think our servers picked up on the fact that we weren't in any hurry. That same night I noticed that the family at the next table had already mostly finished their dessert by the time I decided to bail (I don't look on this as bad service; as I said, most nights I was perfectly content to take it slow and I believe our servers adjusted their timing to match). If you want to be out of the MDR earlier, just tell your servers and they'll speed it up accordingly. Or, as others have mentioned, there is always the option of one or more party members leaving the table ahead of the rest to get to an activity.

 

[RedSox68]

What time was the disembark breakfast? When did you breakfast?

We did Cabanas the last four sailings. We found the breakfast in the main dining rooms to be rushed and crowded and noisy -- and you have to drag all your carryons in there. We found Cabanas easier. I will warn you though, if you try to disembark before 9 a.m., the elevators will be almost impossible to get on any floor and if they do stop, they are full.