I don't think the kids can wait until 8:30 to eat dinner!

[kte95]

Has this happened to anyone? We booked the Freedom of the Seas for October, but both traditional dining and my time dining are booked! We are on a waitlist and the TA says they should be able fit us in because we are Crown and Anchor members. But it just won't be the same if we have to wait til 8:30 or can't do the dining room for dinner. Maybe some nights the kids (9&6) would be ok, but you now you don't get your dinner for 30 minutes after you sit down. I hope they come through for us or we may have to cancel before paying the balance.

[cb at sea]

Put yourself on the waitlist for early seating or MTD.....if you don't get what you want before you board, check with the dining room on boarding day---- you almost certainly will get what you want by night 2......

Of course, the kids will probably be happy with the WJ.....and they can head to the kid's club while you and hubby have a bit of "adult" time!

[A&Emom]

We always get late dining and so far it hasn't been a problem for my 3 & 6yo. They pretty much graze all day and usually our waiters have a plate of fruit put in front of them as soon as we sit down.

[ckekjhaze]

just our experience and we didn't cruise but travelled often when our kids were small.

we all adapted a vacation schedule and ate dinner around 9 every night.

It worked really well for us.

The trick is to take a siesta. It's wonderful and the kids will feel very grownup.

Whether a sea day or port day around 4p head back to the room and rest until 6p or so. Have a small snack when you get up, either run to the lido or get something light from room service and shower and dress for dinner.

Hope you have a wonderful cruise.

[CyberTag]

We are cruising in June on Freedom and originally had the late dining. I called every week and we were moved to the early seating. Keep checking and I bet something will open up before your final payment is due. People cancel all the time.

[MyMoses]

There should be a time when you board that you can meet with Maitre'D and make a request for the earlier seating. We had the exact same problem on Carnival. We were on the waiting list for the 6:30 time, but were still put at an 8:15 seating. We have a 2 year old, so this would have been really difficult as 8:30 is her bedtime here at home! We made our request and didn't get it the first night, but got a note in our room early the next morning saying that we had been moved to the earlier seating. It was nice as we ended up with our own table. I was worried about having a 2 year old and tablemates!

[momofmab]

Are they going to do the kids' club? If so, I would take them to the buffet around their normal dinner time and eat something light with them - then bring them to the kids' club and you and your spouse can enjoy a quiet dinner alone :)

[MMsteffey]

Good heavens don't cancel -- you'll have plenty of options. We always preferred late seating while traveling with our kids when they were younger as we were not rushed to shower and get to dinner on port days. On almost every cruise, after our first dinner, one of the kids' favorites was waiting at their place when we arrived for dinner. If anyone was "starving", we took them for pizza or something from the buffet before dinner. Plus we kept fruit and snacks in our room. It is likely that you will successfully get the seating you want.

[larronry]

On one cruise we did late dinner on my son was so busy during the day he took a nap every afternoon. He would have slept through dinner every night if we did early dinner.

[RoadTripFanatic]

Do not cancel!! :) You can always put yourself on the wait list for early dinning. Like the other posters have mentioned they have buffets upstairs, pizza, etc for the kids to snack on if they get hungry before dinner. I think my biggest concern with little kids and 8:30 dinning would be that they would fall asleep or be crabby during dinner.

[brenderlou]

We have always had the late dining when we cruise. Don't like the early as we feel it cuts into our day. Our daughter is now 5 but has been cruising since she was 2.

We would just head to the cabin around 3:00 for a late afternoon nap. Never a problem getting her to nap on a cruise w/ everything going on and then she was fine for dinner.

We still do the late afternoon nap when on a cruise even though she's 5. She loves the kids club so we take her to the buffet area on the ship around 6:00pm and then she goes to the kids club at 7:00pm and we have a nice dinner by ourselves and pick her up at 10:00pm.

[tampabrat22]

I agree with the others...we have been cruising since our son was 6 & our daughter was 3 and we have always preferred the late seating. Just like the others said, we stayed so busy during the day and stuffed from all the food options that we would go to the room early evening (about 5 or 6) and take quick naps and take our time to get ready for dinner and the kids had no problems at all!

[Mack2]

Once, we got screwed on the dining times... but it was on Disney.

 

We had the 8:30 dining, couldn't get it changed. My son fell asleep during dinner, but we fed him BEFORE dinner... had him just hang with us...

He was 4 at the time... but he didn't complain much.

The waiters at the time would put two chairs together and he slept while we ate.

 

Made the best of it... and still had a great time.

 

 

Aboard the Freedom, though... you should still have several dining choices. Heck, feed the kids up in the Windjammer, catch the show, go to dinner with the kids... or if they want, let them go to the Adventure Ocean.

 

My 3 kids (now) loved Adventure Ocean... what a GREAT opportunity it would be for you and your spouse to enjoy a "YOU GUYS" dinner.... Y'know... just you guys.

The time is also flexible enough to get the kids in the late evening as a family... but you might want to make sure they're well rested.

 

I wouldn't cancel over dining times.

 

Getting free time from work is rough enough as it is... and cruising is so much fun.

[firsttimers08]

I agree with the late. we are going on our second cruise first family cruise DD's 9 & 4, DS 10. I have the Main seating and I think we are going to change. Because would love to get kids food early some nights and DH and I have some quiet dinner time.

[kte95]

The girls did like adventure ocean and they definitely don't want to spend more than 20 minutes on a dinner. And date night every night would be kind of nice.:o

[brenderlou]

The girls did like adventure ocean and they definitely don't want to spend more than 20 minutes on a dinner. And date night every night would be kind of nice.:o

 

There ya go!!!! That's why we love cruising so much. Our 5 yr old would rather be at the kids club instead of sitting with us for a 2 hr dinner so that's what we do. It's a win-win situation.

By the way, we always give our daughter the option of hanging with us or going to Adventure Ocean and AO always wins :p.

[BDMom]

WE got late seating on a cruise with 4 and 6 year olds. Thought it would be terrible but it was fine. Couple of things that happened that I hadn't thought of: We stayed up late, so the kids slept in late...everything was moved back several hours from our normal home routine. We were on a different time zone and the kids never adjusted to ship time, so we really weren't going by a clock time, plus it was vacation...everything turned out fine. Relax and enjoy. EVeryone else had some good suggestions too.

[Seraphine]

We did 2 cruises with a late dinner seating (by choice) with our 3 year old and it was great. Sometimes, if he was tired, he curled up on the little bench in our booth and went to sleep, and my husband and I could spend as long as we wanted on dinner. I didn't worry about him not eating a lot as he ate an early dinner at Camp Carnival most days, and he always had something, but he was well behaved for a 3 year old and I couldn't have expected more out of him.

 

We are doing the same thing again, this time with an 11 month old in tow as well - hopefully she'll do the same post-prandial napping as her big brother and we won't have to rush our meals :)

 

Don't worry too much about maintaining perfect bedtimes while on holiday - you're on vacation! Just shift everyone a bit later, sleep in a bit later, and you'll be all set.

 

Good luck!