Why hasn't Disney solved the main/late dining debacle already?

[tvguy]

Nope--I had no idea when my employer would give me time off. I really don't understand what kind of jobs allow people to book vacations a year-plus in advance. No employer I have ever worked for sets their schedules that far ahead.

Every company my wife and I have worked for since 1977 allowed people to put in vacation requests for special events.......weddings.....graduations.....family reunions......once in a lifetime situations.....expensive trips...... over a year in advance. Two different companies for my wife, 10 for me. My wife's company requires employees who want to use their seniority to book vacation time to have their requests in by September 1 of previous year. That was negotiated by the company and is in the union contract.

But we have been cruising since the 1980s when there were far far far fewer ships, and it was the norm to book a cruise 18 months in advance because ships booked up that far out. There are dozens more ships now, and just last week we booked a cruise for October. Booking only 4 months in advance would have been unthinkable 30 years ago.

 

[babyruth]

Sorry, committing the sin of not reading all the replies but I don't think this is a problem or debacle at all. We just cruised with a 5 year old and I wanted late dining. I got late dining, and it worked great. We loved it. I wouldn't have wanted to eat earlier.

 

[JARNJ3]

I have cruised DCL 6 times and always do late dining (you're welcome early diners!) I can't imagine eating at main dining time. I am never hungry yet at that time as there's so much to eat on the ship all day. I also like the relaxed atmosphere of late dining--they aren't rushing you out to get the next diners in. I also like seeing the shows before dinner, it usually gives us all something to talk about at dinner and I'm not tired or in a food coma for the show.

I also have never cruised with a really young child. My daughter was 8 when we started cruising, but she probably would have been fine with late dining when she was really little. We are both night owls though.

Just returned from the June 14th Med Cruise - I loved the 830 pm dining time. For all the reasons you mentioned. Don't have kids - but I'd bring the older ones - say 10 & above to this dining time.

A couple of times - we were the last table left - having such a great time & not rushed.

Sometimes we weren't back from excursions until around 530 pm. I would hate to be rushed to dinner then & there.

 

[tlprice]

A couple of times - we were the last table left - having such a great time & not rushed.

DCL always seats me with other single moms traveling with one child. On several of my cruises, we sent all of the kids (who had become great friends) to the kids clubs when they were done eating and all of us moms just stayed and talked and had some drinks until we realized that we were the only ones left in the restaurant. You definitely wouldn't be able to do that with main seating.

 

[JARNJ3]

DCL always seats me with other single moms traveling with one child. On several of my cruises, we sent all of the kids (who had become great friends) to the kids clubs when they were done eating and all of us moms just stayed and talked and had some drinks until we realized that we were the only ones left in the restaurant. You definitely wouldn't be able to do that with main seating.

We were groups of two women. Myself & my sister - two friends - and a mother & daughter (23). We had two others (teacher friends) but one of the women got sick & thought it the late dining was contributing to her illness - so they switched them to main seating. Moving down from eight to six was nice - though we were sad to see them go.....

 

[DCSWO]

Because there is nothing to solve. 2 dinner seatings with a fixed number of seats. It’s not a debacle, it’s reality.

 

[lucyddr]

It is a frustrating situation. We've done 2 Disney cruises and have done both early and late dining. We hated the late dining because neither of us can sleep on full stomachs, I have a large paraesophageal hernia where I cannot be supine within 2 hours of eating, and after a huge meal ending at 10pm....there really wasn't much going on around the ship. It also caused us to miss the Pirate party and other night time events.

We are currently scheduled for late dining in October for our twins' first DCL experience. We will make the best of the situation for sure as we have no flexibility on dates and booked as early as we were able. However, we love other cruise lines and if late dining is our end result, we will likely make this our last Disney cruise. I can't see paying double what we pay on other lines to find myself constantly saying, "We will just have to make the best of it!" Nor did we spend this amount of money to eat in Cabanas nightly.

In full disclosure, I understand the situation is a tough one and in the end.....we can't all get what we want. Disney will always get our land business, so no loss if we don't return to cruise. Such is life!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We are currently scheduled for late dining in October for our twins' first DCL experience. We will make the best of the situation for sure as we have no flexibility on dates and booked as early as we were able.

Have you requested to be placed on the wait list?

 

[lucyddr]

Have you requested to be placed on the wait list?

Yes, the moment we booked.

 

[smmco]

I find it hard to believe this is a "debacle". Those who really feel they need to feed their kids earlier have Cabanas, and the other counter-service locations, and the kid's club, and room service.

That being said, we always request late dining. Our regular dinner time is around 8:30pm. Yes, that includes our 6-year-old.

Same with us. Ours is around 8pm. I don't get home from work to eat earlier than that. I've been to Europe a few times. People in Spain eat around 9pm or later. My kids haven't suffered from later dinner time. In the large scheme of things eating a little off schedule seems pretty insignificant. My kids are in their late teens when I think back on things that I could have done better.....dinner time doesn't come to mind. Not everyone on the ship can eat at 1745. If you end up on a later dining time there are other options. I wouldn't cancel a cruise over it.

It blows my mind that dinner time can make or break a vacation. I'm glad my family is not that inflexible.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Everyone's got their thing. Years ago (before I knew about main dining waitlists) we were about to book a cruise (kids sail free was hard to pass up), but the dining time was a no-go for us. If we couldn't have main dining, we'd be doing something else. The mouse got our money anyway, as the "something else" was WDW, heh.

 

[remlap]

I’m sorry because you booked late does not make Disney have a debacle.

Perhaps you could book a cruise on another sail date that has main dining available or another cruise line that offers an “anytime dining”’option.

It’s not like Disney has been hiding that they have early and late dining rotating with a show that rotate.

 

[ProgressCity]

Just an FYI, most of the waitlist isn't going to get moved up to main dining until well into the cancellation penalty. It's not an automatic system. The dining team goes through the waitlists for the sailings one by one and does what they can. It's not unusual at all for waitlists to be cleared very close to the sail date. I haven't really heard of it being much of a problem. Like a lot of people have said, if they didn't clear the waitlist before departure they got switched once onboard. I'd imagine the times when it is a problem are the busier seasons for children like summer vacation, so book early for those times.

Dining arrangements are like one big jigsaw. You put a party of 4 with a party of 2 to make a 6 top and you're left wondering why your party of 3 didn't clear the waitlist before that couple you know who booked after you. It's not "finalized" (I use quotes because as people have said, there's movement on board) until close to the sail date because there are going to be tables held back for concierge and VIP should they want them. They also try to hold back a few main dining tables in case people have legit medical need of them (not "I get a touch of heartburn if I eat late").

I can say that the dining team 100% tries to make the best dining experience for all guests. They work hard to try as best they can to pair guests at tables in similar age groups so if at all possible a couple honeymooning isn't at a table with 3 kids under 10 or a family with teenagers isn't with a family with toddlers. There's a reason you hear so many stories of tablemates becoming friends .

So I don't think it's a debacle at all. I think it's a great system that aims for the most guest satisfaction possible, but there will of course be some people who are disappointed because there's no way to get it perfect. (I do think they could do a better job of selling the upsides of second seating like kid's clubs coming and getting the kids so the adults can have some alone time.)

 

[DynamicDisneyDuo]

I have a large paraesophageal hernia where I cannot be supine within 2 hours of eating, and after a huge meal ending at 10pm....there really wasn't much going on around the ship.

Maybe you could notify DCL that it is a medical necessity to have early dining? Yeah, you could do stuff after dinner for 2 hours but there isn't much available besides maybe a movie.

 

[pixiedustedme]

Maybe you could notify DCL that it is a medical necessity to have early dining? Yeah, you could do stuff after dinner for 2 hours but there isn't much available besides maybe a movie.

There actually regularly are activities going on the ship through around 11:30. I agree that the PP should be moved to early dining for medical reasons, though, as no one should have to stay up until midnight if they don't want to.

 

[DynamicDisneyDuo]

There actually regularly are activities going on the ship through around 11:30.

Depends on what you like to do, it sounds like they don't care for DCL's late night activities.

 

[pixiedustedme]

Depends on what you like to do, it sounds like they don't care for DCL's late night activities.

I was just clarifying that activities are available besides a movie.

 

[babyruth]

I personally did not go because I took my daughter back for relaxing and bedtime, but the rest of my family really enjoyed the after dinner activities starting around 10pm. There were adult shows, music, dancing and trivia and hanging out in the pubs...and our Pirate Party started at 10:15pm so it wasn't an issue at all. Most mornings we didn't have anything planned early so we slept until 9 or 10ish. I think Disney is very accommodating for medical issues, so if that is truly a problem you should definitely call and tell them.

 

[mmmears]

I think it's good to try to let them know, but I don't think you can expect to be moved based on these issues. Sadly I'm finding that it's more common that one would think. I have a family member who also has this issue, and DCL said that they can't make accommodations for everyone. We took a chance and went on the wait list and were moved to main dining. In the past we just shifted our schedule and stayed up late. I actually prefer late dining. But for this last cruise, since it was in Europe, getting up late wasn't what we wanted since my family wanted to maximize our port time. For the Caribbean I wouldn't worry nearly as much.

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

It is a frustrating situation. We've done 2 Disney cruises and have done both early and late dining. We hated the late dining because neither of us can sleep on full stomachs, I have a large paraesophageal hernia where I cannot be supine within 2 hours of eating, and after a huge meal ending at 10pm....there really wasn't much going on around the ship. It also caused us to miss the Pirate party and other night time events.

We are currently scheduled for late dining in October for our twins' first DCL experience. We will make the best of the situation for sure as we have no flexibility on dates and booked as early as we were able. However, we love other cruise lines and if late dining is our end result, we will likely make this our last Disney cruise. I can't see paying double what we pay on other lines to find myself constantly saying, "We will just have to make the best of it!" Nor did we spend this amount of money to eat in Cabanas nightly.

In full disclosure, I understand the situation is a tough one and in the end.....we can't all get what we want. Disney will always get our land business, so no loss if we don't return to cruise. Such is life!

I'll agree with others that you (or your TA) should call DCL and have this noted as a medical issue. This should help you get priority for early dining.