First or second sitting on European cruise?

[Jo and Rob]

We had first sitting on Indy which was definitely the right decision for kids clubs and shows (both shows were after the dinner sitting) However with Celebrity one you can see a show before the dinner with the late sitting. If we do that though I imagine the evening kids club times would not necessarily fit if the children wanted to play rather than see a show.

What are you experiences please? (the children will be 6 and 9)

[cb at sea]

Remember, on European trips, the dining times are later than Alaskan/Caribbean cruises....your best bet with kids is early/main seating...that doesn't affect any showtimes, and will allow the kids to participate in the evening activities...or you can choose MTD, but you'll be responsible for making sure you schedule around the show times and kid' s club.

[Scrapchick]

We always go for early dinner.... Sometimes, especially on European trips with long port days it can be a pain to have to get ready for dinner as soon as we get back on the ship, but waiting for dinner at 8.30 is also a negative. Some late dinners start as late as 8.45, and that's when the doors open.... You might not get your first course till 9.15. I don't like eating that late and going to bed on a full stomach, even if I have seen the earlier show. I know my DD would be climbing the walls having to wait till bedtime for dinner like that.

 

It really depends how you prefer to do it in your family, but for us, late seating is just too late and I would be courting disaster with a very cranky child. She would also hate to be dragged out of the kids club when she was all settled in for the evening to go and have dinner with us.

[RoadTripFanatic]

I would recommend the early sitting. We did the early dinning on our cruise w/ Costa last February. I'm so glad we did that! The late sitting was 8:45! The dinners on Costa lasted almost 2 hrs!! That is just too late to be up after spending the entire day touring. Our DD was 9 when we took the cruise. :) Or as I joke I needed the early dinning because I was ready to go to sleep by 10p!!

[kitty9]

Have you considered Select Dining on Celebrity? With that, you can manage your own dining times rather than worry about set dining times and tables. That might work for you and your family on a Med cruise.

[Jo and Rob]

I think early dining is definitely the way to go. Thanks for the advice. At the end of the day we need to get back to the ship anyway and we would always build in loads on recovery time so it shouldn't be a problem. My two absolutely loved the MDR on Indy (ordering off the main menu every night). As we tend to eat early anyway and it worked so well on Indy I think we will stick with what we have selected and go for early dining.

[Nebr.cruiser]

I think Select Dining would be a good option too, though I haven't used it on a Celebrity cruise yet--only on other lines. It's so nice to be able to go when you want and you can work around show times, kid's club times and how tired or ready to go everyone is. No rushing to get ready early or tired cranky hungry kids for late seating.

 

We've gotten to like the anytime dining concept so much that we'd only book a ship without it if the itinerary or price were truly outstanding.

 

Otherwise, with kids, I'd go for early seating.

[Onessa]

European cruises are all about the ports for our family. We've always done late seating.

 

We get up early spend the day in port with a smallish snack but no lunch in port - do kind of a "high tea" when we get back on-board, do the evening activities, have the MDR late seating dining experience (generally starts about 8:30) and then go right to bed.

 

DD (now 14YO, but we started this during her first cruise in Italy when she was about 4YO) is very flexible in her eating and sleeping patterns so it helps. If your kids deal better with a routine early makes more sense.