Which dinner seating for 4 yr old?

[kimruth]

I had thought I would choose the second seating and feed her a late lunch, then give her a nap in the late afternoon/evening prior to going to dinner at 8:30 pm, then she would be rested to go to a show or something. Now I'm second guessing myself. Anyone been through this and can give me a recommendation?

 

[Mermaid02]

That sounds pretty good to me. If you have a child that doesn't automatically drop early in the evening- with the 2nd seating you go to the shows before you eat.

 

[Michelle]

We definitely prefer EARLY seating with my daughter. All of the evening children's activities start around 7:30 - 8:00 pm, and my daughter wants to BE THERE for those, not eating. The one time we had late seating we had to rush her food and then go sign her into the club while we were still eating. Many nights she preferred to eat there instead. By the time the food got there it was 9:00 pm and that was just TOO LATE for her to eat.

We prefer early dining as adults as well; dinner is not the highlight of the evening to us. We like to eat early and then go enjoy all the evening adult activities as well.

 

[ducklite]

Depends on your daughter. As Michelle said, if she's going to want to do things in the kids club in teh evening, then early. If she's going to crash out by 7:30, then early (I'd rather have my kid fall asleep in the show than at diner)

If she's not going to want to go to the clubs after dinner, and if she's used to eating later at home, then later should be fine.

Keep in mind that your plan might not work so well on shore excursion days...

Also, the shows are BEFORE the late seating, and AFTER the early one...

Anne

 

[floridaminnie]

We are high fans on the late seating. We had the early early trial seating of 5:30. Ugh! I literally had to run from our shore excurison to the room to shower and dress myself and 3 yr old DD. Since then we have the late seating. DD eats in the club at 5:30, she has her nap around 1ish depending on what's happening in the club. I take her out around 8:15 and then she eats again with us. She's not starving by this time, but she eats and is much better behaved.

It all depends on your kids and what they are use to doing.

 

[SlyHubby]

When our daughter was 3, we ended out with late seating (against our wishes).

As far as which is better for the youngsters - I could now see it either way, but I think the late seating is actually better (though I originally thought early would be better). If you have early seating, though they will be more awake for the meal, they will fall asleep during the show.

With our daughter, she would have gone to pieces if she missed the shows. She didn't mind too much that at dinner each night she was almost falling over!

If you have late seating, there are enough onboard places to get kids food for a late afternoon snack - pizza/burgers/fries by the pool, and you can always call room service.

 

[BabySam99]

Early, early, early! We had late seating and there were hardly any other kids! My son and niece were cranky and tired and really didn't enjoy it...also there was a table beside ours that was ALL adults and they had the nerve to talk about us loud enough for us to hear (c'mon this is Disney don't go if you don't want to be around children)...our kids were well behaved but still half way through dinner on two nights we ended up leaving early and taking dessert with us because the kids were too tired from all the days fun.......anyway we enjoyed ourselves greatly but our next cruise was booked with early seating.

Hope this helps

 

[floridaminnie]

You mean that there are kids on a DCL?!?!?

 

[BabySam99]

Imagine that! LOL

 

[keith & co.]

Third cruise...... here is our plan........

We asked for 2nd seating! Unless your kids are very calm, very tired, or just used to it........ it is hard for alot of kids to sit down to a 1-2 hour dinner! Ours usually go with us 1 or 2 nights and the other nights they either eat roomservice or with the kids clubs.

It is very easy to order a variety of things from roomservice and suppliment the meal with fruit from scoops or another buffet.
It gives the kids something to do while the adults dress and then we are off to the early show (which is the only show my young one will be able to stay awake for...... playing in the club will keep her awake, but sitting in a dark theater after 8:30.... Well, the snoring is just to distracting!!

Now for the real advantage....... Not just happy kids who get to see the shows (some twice), Not just a little quite and calm while they eat in the room and we dress (this is usually DH's nap time), BUT............ Several nights during each cruise we get an all alone adult meal!!!! Kids safe and happy... Family activity was during the show........ and now we are all alone!!!

As for family meals, we eat breakfast and lunch together everyday, which is more than we do at home!! It has worked really well for us and everyone has been really happy

Barbara