How bad is late seating?

[LadyLuck]

Hi Everyone,

We are looking into the Apr 2011 repositioning cruise LA--Vancouver, and the only seating available is the late seating at 8:15 pm. We have a 3 year old, and from reading about how exciting the pirate party is, I'm worried the late seating will spoil it.

 

We have never been on Disney Cruises before. The last cruise we went and the first one with our daughter when she was 2 was with NCL, and it was a DISASTER. We could not get into the dining room at most days and the days that we managed to get in (after lining up for almost 1 hr before the dining room opened), dinner took close to 3 hours with the first course being served after waiting for close to an hour.

 

Thank you.

[sugarcat]

Hi! I would be less concerned about the pirate party and more concerned with your 3 year old eating so late every night. Can she really wait that long?

 

The pirate party is one night of your cruise and we did late dining and caught the show no problem. I personally would not call the show exciting, but hey, I'm not 3! You could just eat at the buffet that night, or fast food or room service if you're concerned. Or just skip desert in the MDR. There is after all a buffet after the show.

 

You can try and change your dining when you get on the ship too btw.

[user999]

There is nothing wrong with late seating on Disney Cruise, except that it start more like at 21.00 than 20.15.

U should not be dwelling at all, because of your 3 year old. To kids, Disney is 5 categories above all others.

[mgm61]

we went on Disney and that night we made sure to tell the waiter to hurry things along cuz we didn't want to miss the show. We skipped desert to get outside. We are not 3 and we had the best time. Although we haven't been to the land for many years so the whole Disney experience was great!:D

[buoyantbeans]

When we went with our 3 year old, it was not a problem. She actually liked the shows better, she at pizza before the meal anyway, and she was good at dinner anyway.

[Madmum]

We dined late every time on DCL when our youngest was also 3. The servers are fantastic and your wish is their desire. There are signals in the dining rooms for the servers to hurry along as there may be a show dinner or the fireworks. It is a twinkly little bell (imagine a fairygodmother waving her wand to the sound of a bell). They do this on Pirate Night as well.

 

If you are really worried, there is a full buffet served right after the fireworks on deck 9. We have never eaten at it as we usually enjoy the restaurant (incidentally we have never had a problem with long waits to get in to eat) but many people go to the buffet and it looks really nice.

 

Just remember to enjoy the show and enjoy your cruise. I know we will all enjoy ours when they happen.

[MMMCruiser]

We had late dining, ate all the courses at our meal, and had no problem getting to the Pirate Party on time. It was lots of fun and the fireworks were great. :) We had no room for the buffet afterwards, though.

 

I agree that it's late for a 3-year old. If you can't get it changed when you board the ship, then remember that you can feed her up by the pools before the theater show. We ended up snacking up there around 4pm one afternoon when we didn't think we could make it until 8pm.

 

At the late dinner, you can arrange to have them serve children very quickly and then taken to the kids clubs so they don't have to sit up so late. That is not offered during the early dining.

 

Hope this helps!:)