Early or Late Dining???

[3kingeryboys]

Please advise me on which we should do? Early or Late dining? We have never cruised and I don't know. We are on the disney 3 day cruise and want to be able to do it all or at least a lot of it. Please Help!!

[Pixie Power]

We've always had the late dining. That way, if you do an excursion on port day(s), it gives you the time to get back on the ship, get cleaned, go to the shows and then have dinner. We even did it this way on our first Disney Cruise when our youngest daughter was just a few weeks shy of 3. It's always worked well for us doing 2nd dining.

Hope this helps!

[TammiMcMan]

There's really no easy answer to that question, it's more about personal choice. If you eat late, then you'll go to the earlier shows. If you eat early, you go to the late shows, so it's not like you'd be missing anything.

If you have very young children, early dinner might be better. We always choose late dinner and see lots of little ones asleep in their chairs. If you are on west coast time, later dinner might actually work better with your body clock. If you have kids that are "kid lab" age, they may want to eat earlier with their friends.

I would just select a time you're comfortable with and everything else will work around that. You really don't need to worry too much about excursions on the 3-night. You should be back on the boat in plenty of time, regardless of what you select.

[jodijo]

We have done both. I have to say, that with kids we prefer the early dinner seating. Although my kids were 10 and 13, eating at 8pm was too much for them. My daughter literally fell asleep in a chair out side the restaurant one night. So, we try for the early seating.

That being said, as an adult, I liked the late seating. It was much more relaxed and a lot quieter. We didn't feel rushed to get to the next event.

Good luck and enjoy your trip.

[scootch713]

The shows are shown twice, so you wont' miss anything..... we chose early as we eat dinner normally at 5pm est, i can't imagine eating a big meal at 8pm, it is something we are just not used to doing. Also, even though we are on vacation, the kids are still in school mode, so I doubt we will be out much later than 10ish except for pirate party night.

[DisneyFr33k]

We always prefer the early dining. It does push getting to Bingo - which is our favorite game to play. We had to complain our first night there because they were taking too long and I wouldn't make it in time. But they worked with us and helped us get there the next two nights. Good thing because we won the big give away the last night!

[Kenny1113]

We wanted the early seating because we usually eat around 6:30 and our kids rarely go to bed late. Well, I guess we booked too late because all the early seating was full. We ended up with the late dining and it worked out fine our kids had no problem staying up and we would get them a snack to hold them. We went to the early shows. It was nice because we were one of few families with small kids(2 and 5 at the time), so I think that contributed to us getting our own table.

[Jeffybob]

W/ kids, early
w/o kids, late.

As previously noted, if you book too late, early will not be available.

-Jeffybob (Boardwalk DVC Member since '98)

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[DisneyDudet]

We have done both, and prefer the late seating. It works out well when you prefer to spend more time on deck or at other activities. You can get partly ready for your meal before you see the show, and there's plenty of time between the show and dinner to do some finishing touches (for us, it was changing into nice clothes and *really* doing my hair). No need to rush to get ready.

If you do not have kids, or they are older, the late seating might be for you.

[NJGIRL]

I like the early seating better because it gets your meal finished in time to see a show or just relax. Then by the time they put the deck buffet out we are ready to eat again.

[MissT]

We are an adult party of 2 planning the late seating. Looking at the port times, we didn't want to rush getting back or getting ready for dinner. We often eat later at home and hoping it might keep us from overeating at the later buffet. Also, less little ones at the late seating. No offense, but they are only cute when they're your own if they are acting badly at dinner.