Dining

[a prince and princess mom]

What is main vs early dining? We have booked a cruise for October and this is our first. We have no idea what this means.

Thanks in advance for the information.

[sara114]

I believe that first dining is around 6pm.

[ElenitaB]

There are two seatings for dinner. And within those seatings, there are several "shifts" for lack of a better word. The main seating is at 5:45 p.m.; the second seating is at 8:15 p.m. If you have young children, they will generally try to give you the main seating time.

[chrim]

If you have ever been to the Hoop de Do dinner show at WDW, it is sort of the same concept. Instead of seating tables every few minutes on a continuous basis, there are two fixed dining times and everyone is asked to show up at one of those times to be seated.

This way, shows and activities can be scheduled to end just before a dinner time or begin just after a dinner time (or while one half of the ship is eating, the other half is entertained).

[MarkC]

A word of caution-- the meals are great and if you don't want to miss it, be on time. I think after 10-15 minutes they do not allow anyone to enter. You can still eat at the other places, but your nice dinner is then closed. Believe me, you don't want to miss them.

[tinkman]

Just a tip....common sense really. If you don't want to be around screaming or melting down kids (and adults), request 2nd seating. Most people dine with their children in the early seating and, let's just say, if you want a quiet meal, go later.

[a prince and princess mom]

Thank you all for the information. My kids are 12 and 19 so I think we will eat late and avoivd the younger early dining.