Show time start? Anytime or Late Dining?

[mostofus]

We are traveling with out two kids on a cruise for the first time. They are 11 & 14. We selected late dining, but we are worried that we won't be able to catch the shows too if we keep with the late dining. What time do the shows start in the main theater and what time is late dining? We would be fine to be ready to get to the shows early and then go do dinner, but we are wondering if we had anytime dining if that would be better. We do enjoy getting to know our table mates, so with anytime, I suppose we would get set in a different location every night? Thanks for your help!

[Gayle V]

You can do it. See the shows and eat late, if you get keep a close eye on when you get to the dining room. But near as I can tell, the early seating dinner time works better for seeing the shows. With early you are always done in time to see the main show. With anytime dining, you are likely to find yourselves eating at variable times. That's great if that's what you want, but not so great if you get to dinner late, and if the show time is important.

 

Even more important than that is considering how your kids will do with waiting till after 8:00 pm to eat, and not finishing till 9:30 or 10:00? What time are they used to eating?

At that age, my boys would have been hunting up something else to eat, long before dinner; then find themselves bored, and uninterested in dinner.

[sparkscruiser]

We are traveling with out two kids on a cruise for the first time. They are 11 & 14. We selected late dining, but we are worried that we won't be able to catch the shows too if we keep with the late dining. What time do the shows start in the main theater and what time is late dining? We would be fine to be ready to get to the shows early and then go do dinner, but we are wondering if we had anytime dining if that would be better. We do enjoy getting to know our table mates, so with anytime, I suppose we would get set in a different location every night? Thanks for your help!

 

It is doable! Check out John Healds blog page on the Carnival site - there are the FunTimes listed there for the ships - that way you can get an idea of what type of stuff you want to do when. The link is in the lower right hand corner - I checked the Dream Fun Times yesterday and while they were a couple of months old I was able to check out times and the like.

 

Have a great cruise!

[GloriaF]

Aren't the show times approx 8:15/8:30 and 10:15/10:30?

[ccruisequeen]

Aren't the show times approx 8:15/8:30 and 10:15/10:30?

 

They were on the Paradise--except for Embarkation when there was only one show at 10:15pm.

[*Mach*]

We are traveling with out two kids on a cruise for the first time. They are 11 & 14. We selected late dining, but we are worried that we won't be able to catch the shows too if we keep with the late dining. What time do the shows start in the main theater and what time is late dining? We would be fine to be ready to get to the shows early and then go do dinner, but we are wondering if we had anytime dining if that would be better. We do enjoy getting to know our table mates, so with anytime, I suppose we would get set in a different location every night? Thanks for your help!

 

 

For folks with late dining the shows are early... 7 PM... for those dining early the show are later... 8:45 PM. Some shows are only done once and they are typically at 10 PM allowing everyone a chance to catch them.

:)

[genegri]

Cruise lines time shows accordingly with fixed dining. If you and your table mates all arrive on time you will find that you will be able to catch at least one scheduled show comfortably.

 

It is those anytime dining folks who need to watch out and time it themselves if they want to go to the shows.

[vwrestler171]

The late dinner is 8:00, so it would only be 6 PM where the OP is from, so it really isn't that late. I used ATD so I could go whenever I wanted.

[mostofus]

Thanks to all of you for your help. I think we might switch to the early dining time. :)

[swimmom32]

We used anytime dining and made all the shows....We would get to the dining room about 6:45 ish get done with dinner about 8:15-8:20 and then head over to the theater for the show....It always worked out each night for us...and sometimes if the show was at 10:00 then we would go and eat about 7:00-7:15 which is the time we eat home anyway...