Early or Late Seating - which is best and why?

[clueless]

I enjoy the shows after dinner - even if not the greatest show on earth it beats the live entertainment found in my living room at home (none). If we have late seating on Rhapsody, will we find that there are no good seats for the show?

 

Which do you prefer, early or late? Why?

 

In "the old days" it seems that the late seating was what most people preferred. I think that's changed and I'd like to know why.

[superjerryw]

All of the shows are presented twice each evening, once for early seating passengers and once for late seating passengers. You should not have trouble finding a seat regardless of which seating you are on. For ealry seating the show is always after dinner. For late seating the show is usually before dinner but sometimes it's after.

[Jamielps]

It is a matter of what one prefers, for me and my group we like having late seating. This way we dont rush back from port to get ready and it makes the whole evening a little bit longer. My grandmother hates to eat a big meal late though. Just a matter of prefrence.

[BearySweet2Cruise]

I have two thoughts about dining. We had early dining on Enchantment

(home today) and we missed many shows because of early dining, and we were very rushed to be ready by 6 pm... The advantage is that you are not so stuffed for the midnight buffets if you have early dining.. other wise you eat at 8 and lasts until about 9:30 - 10:00 and the the midnight buffet is around 12:30.. so we are always too full to eat buffet after late dining.

 

On enchantment we were in Key west until 2 pm, (did not eat in keywest (brought some snacks) and ate in WJ when we reboarded.. got to WJ at about 2:30 for lunch then there was main dining at 6!

In Cozumel, we left port at 7PM, but had to be on teh ship by 5 to get ready fro dinner at 6, so we had to rush in Cozumel also because of early dining...

If you have children then main dining is a good solution since second seating ends so late.

[cusyl]

We eat early at home so we do the same on the ship.

[Sue L]

We prefer the late seating,

 

no rushing back from ports

get to take a nap, reengergize from the port

nice amount of time to get ready AND have a before dinner drink

[libertybelle41]

We prefer the late seating,

 

no rushing back from ports

get to take a nap, reengergize from the port

nice amount of time to get ready AND have a before dinner drink

 

 

Exactly our reason for choosing the late seating:)

[slotaddict]

I have cruised eleven times and have always had late dinner. My last cruise we decided to try early and were pleasantly surprised that we actually enjoyed it. We had two older aunts traveling with us and thus the reason for the switch.

If you have young children i would think that early dinner is a must. our next cruise we are going to do early as well. I think I like it better.

[masonpips]

Exactly our reason for choosing the late seating:)

 

Ours too!

 

Plus, you get into the groove of later nights and are just getting going about 10 for Love & Marriage and The Quest. You can always sleep in the next morning.

 

The one and only thing I do not like about late is being too stuffed to enjoy the midnight buffet. LOL

[critterchick]

We prefer late seating for all of the reasons posted above, especially the afternoon nap! The only exception was on our Med cruise, when late seating was 9:00, just too late for us. Early dinner was 6:30, which was still too early for us. It turned out that the dining room was half empty (as was the ship, still recovering form 9/11), so the waiter told us to come any time up until 7:30 and it would be no problem (please, no flames: we didn't ask, that's what he volunteered after we missed dinner because we didn't get back from port in time). That worked out well - our entire table shifted to "sort of early" seating and, because our waitstaff only had 2 tables to deal with anyway, nobody was thrown off.

 

But you really can't do that on a full ship - they normally have to coordinate the meal service to get all the entrees out at the same time, and the result is that the on-time arrivals end up having to wait a long time in between course until the later arrivals catch up. That happened to us on our last cruise, and I'm afraid we filled up the gap with wine!:eek:

[Snorkelfan]

Just got home Friday and had late seating. I hated it - I much prefer early seating so after dinner I can just go along and do all the evening and nightime activities. Everyone has their own preference but NCL had freestyle dining when you go whenever you want and we like that the best!!

[QTMichele]

I've never been on a cruise (first one on Mariner of the Seas in February!!!), but I thought I'd throw in my 2-cents (really a friend of mine's advice as SHE has been on a cruise and pointed this out to me)... If you select early seating, you should be on board early enough to not have to rush around before dinner. For example, on my upcoming cruise, the ship leaves port at 4 PM or 5 PM (except for one day, that leaves at 7 PM). Since you have to be back on the ship 30 minutes before the ship leaves you should have plenty of time to get ready for the 6/6:30 dinner. With that said, my hubby and I may do another dining option on the day we leave port at 7 so we don't have to rush. (We DID select the early option to keep evening events open for us.)

 

Let us know what you decide and how you like it! As for me... I could be forced to eat at the buffet every night and still wouldn't care! I'm so excited to go on my first cruise it really doesn't matter to me! WOO HOO!

[teacherkim]

You really have to think about what fits your lifestyle too. We are early risers (just too hard to get off of the home schedule) and therefore tend to do morning excursions and an early lunch. Plenty of time to get ready for early seating and we are hungry by then.

If you are most likely to sleep late, do later excursions, and have a late lunch, then late seating might be better for you.

[Bribrittmom]

We prefer late seating for summer cruises when it stays light late,more pool time. In the fall and winter we choose early seating since it gets dark early anyway and then we can go to the shows after dinner and enjoy the late night buffets.

[darcy24]

Another thought...if you have several days at sea and are not late sleepers, early seating works well. We have always done late except for our last cruise (w/half the days at sea and holidays in port the other days), and it worked out well. For Med., or other port intensive itineraries, I agree that late works well - get in a rest before dinner.

[Juardis]

Depends on your family. We chose early seating for no other reason than an experienced cruiser friend of ours said we wouldn't enjoy eating dinner at 9:00pm.

 

Advantages to main (6:00) seating:

1. Not starving to death when you eat

2. Plenty of time afterwards to do stuff

3. You're ready to catch the 9:00 pm shows

 

Disadvantages to main seating:

1. Sunset (prime picture taking time) may occur while you're eating

2. Have to be ready to eat earlier (we stretched it to 6:30 one night)

 

If you have the late seating, you're in danger of missing the shows (they start at 7:00pm for the late seating guests) and you're more likely to be starving by the time you eat. Anyway, the disadvantages of each can easily be avoided by reserving a table in Chops or Portofinos for a time other than 6:00 or 8:30 or by eating casual the night you want to eat early/late.

 

So in the end, it just boils down to your preference in eating time. For us, 6:00 was closer to when we usually ate so that's the time we chose and were more comfortable with. The boarding time in St. Thomas was 7:30 and we had planned to eat at Windjammers that night, but we were actually back on board by 5:30 and managed to make our seating by 6:30 with no problem. HTH.

[clueless]

Thanks for all the info. Here is the REAL question...

Do you know, for sure, on the Rhapsody, what time the show is for late sitting dinner folks? And, if the show time varies, how many nights is it before dinner and how many times is it after?

[happysinglemom]

Neither I nor my son give a whit about the shows. My son wants to go do the kid scene/play bball after dinner. I want to go to the gym. So we prefer early seating; and we have plenty of time to get ready since we have to be back on board by 5.

[musicbox]

The seating should really tie into your non cruise lifestyle... if you eat early every day... eat early. Nothing messes up the internal system quicker than knocking it out of sequence. The travel, exotic food and drink are enough.

 

In our life, we NEVER eat before 7:30-8 due to work and commute times. In our life, the late seating is just a natural. Plus, you get plenty of time to get ready, relax, happy hour...etc. all of which have been stated before.

 

We have been on 3 cruises, and always choose late.

 

Another thing about late seating, there isn't a line of hungry people waiting to take your seat. We generally spend a nice long time at the table with friends. The staff seems pretty ok with this.

 

have fun... eat lots...

 

John B Music Box

[Brad1185]

Years ago on the Rhapsody, they ran out of several entrees for the late seating. Again it was a long time ago and dont know if they still occasionally run out of some items.

[lyndamarie6]

I am 43 been on 30 cruises my first one two weeks ago and I loved it so much that I booked a group booking on the Mariner for July 1, 2007. I have to say I perfer the early because this way you still have the entire evening, if you go for dinner around 8:15pm then you get out right around 10:00 pm everything in the ship shuts down at 2am!! I rather have the entire evening and not have my nights sit in the dining room. The disco also closes down at 2am, but casino remains open.

[isujim]

There is no right answer to this. Your life style and personal preference will be the deciding factor.

 

We like early seating.......but only because we are early risers........up by 6am...........thus we tend to go to bed earlier.........

 

all the pro's and con's have been pretty much covered..........you just need to decide what is best for you and your lifestyle.........regardless of which seating you choose........you won't miss anything.

[morgan1312]

We prefer the late seating,

 

no rushing back from ports

get to take a nap, reengergize from the port

nice amount of time to get ready AND have a before dinner drink

 

In addition to the above reasons, if you're traveling with children, late seating gives you the option of feeding them early then letting them go to the kid's program between 7 & 10, (trust me, chances are they will be thrilled with this arrangement since they have sooooo much fun) thereby letting you enjoy a peaceful dinner. We've been on 5 cruises with my grandson beginning when he was 3 and this has worked out wonderfully for us. It would not be a peaceful dinner for us or the others at our table if we had to keep him occuppied thru all the courses. He's a good kid, but if all he wants is chicken fingers he gets pretty bored sitting thru everything else.

[Jamielps]

I have also found that the waiters and staff tend to be slightly more relaxed by the second shift so they will sometimes spend a little more time with you at the end of the meal. When you have nice waiters who take a little more time it does make it fun. I also feel that they are not rushing you out too which is also nice. In my previous post i forgot to mention something that my group love before late seating... cocktail hour hehe! Enjoy the Champaign bar for drinks and if you ask they have little pre dinner treats to go with them.

[tkportersat]

Exactly our reason for choosing the late seating:)

I agree with this as far as rushing back from some of the ports....

 

Typically people with children will go early, more adults go late. I have done both and my biggest problem with going late is I get full and very sleepy!!