Opinions Please. About changing dining time!

[NJCruiser23]

Right now we have late dining for our Miracle cruise next year. After all of my research on CC I am thinking about changing. I enjoy late dinner, not having to rush to get ready. My kids would be going to Club O2 and Circle C. I notice that a lot of activities, including the initial sign up, start around 8 or 9 pm. My kids may or may not participate with the clubs. Every cruise their participation has varied. So just in case, would you switch to early dining so the kids don't miss out. Also this time we will have 2 cabins, so getting ready should be easier for dinner. In the past, we have only had one bathroom. That's why the last 3 or 4 cruises we took late dining, so we wouldn't have to rush after being in port. Thanks for all of your comments. I wanted to try and change now if I am going to while we are still a year out. :):)

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

we think later is better but i do not have any idea with the kids, [ours 33 and 32

[nanuak]

We really enjoy late dining, but we don't have any children. I'm kind of intrigued about the "anytime" dining: but we really enjoy meeting our table mates for the week, and like getting to know our wait staff.

[jfe724]

We did the anytime dining on the Pride and loved it. We were traveling with our son and girlfriend. One night they went to the dining room by themselves. We never had to wait more than 20 minutes for a table.;)

 

We liked it because we could go early or late, depending on what our plans were that evening.

[NJCruiser23]

The reason I don't really want to do the anytime dining is I have food allergies and they usually go through the menu every night so they can specially make food for me. Don't know how well that would work for the anytime dining. I do also like to get to know our waiters, but I don't think it would be feasible for our family to try the anytime dining. I did think of just bringing the kids to lido and then going to dinner by ourselves later. But I do enjoy spending time just as a family. Don't know if I want to give that up. Thanks for the replies. Anyone else out there want to give their 2 cents.

[katiel53]

I think if your kids are young, early dining is the right thing for them. Another thing to take into consideration is what time do you normally eat at home?

 

If you think the kids will want to go to the kids club, it would be much easier to go to early dining. I personally prefer late dining as we eat about 7 or later every night. When we went with my sister's family that included kids, we ate early and it worked out fine for the kids.

 

We are also going to have early dining on our next cruise. My sister and her husband and my dad eat earlier than we do, and since we can't do anytime dining as it isn't available, early it shall be.

 

Even if your kids decide to hang out with you, if you change to early they won't be going to bed with a full stomach. I have heard a lot of people complain that they went to bed too full when they had late dining.

 

Good luck and enjoy.

[montrota]

Can someone explain the anytime dining on the Pride? Do you still get a waiter or is it the buffet?

[cuyahoga11]

Can someone explain the anytime dining on the Pride? Do you still get a waiter or is it the buffet?

 

It is in the dining room with full service you just eat when you want to between certain hours. You walk in, tell them what size table you want, and you will be seated ASAP

[montrota]

But you have to pick 'Anytime' ahead of time? If you are at early or late you can't just decide to bed anytime one night? So I'm thinking anytime would be the way to go? What's the advantage of early and late?

[NJCruiser23]

But you have to pick 'Anytime' ahead of time? If you are at early or late you can't just decide to bed anytime one night? So I'm thinking anytime would be the way to go? What's the advantage of early and late?

I would also like to know if anyone knows if you can just use anytime dining 1 or 2 nites if you miss your regular dining time. Anyone know?

[ChefSusan]

I believe that for dining room choices, it is either early OR late OR anytime - I do not think you can switch midstream. Your best bet would be to call your TA or Carnival PVP.

 

We did anytime dining on Legend early May, and really enjoyed it. We happened to meet a bunch of people who also signed up for anytime dining, so all of us ate dinner together the entire trip. And we're all going on Freedom 10/10. Since anytime dining is not an option on that ship, we've all opted for early seating.

 

Good luck and enjoy your cruise!

[zqvol]

Right now we have late dining for our Miracle cruise next year. After all of my research on CC I am thinking about changing. I enjoy late dinner, not having to rush to get ready. My kids would be going to Club O2 and Circle C. I notice that a lot of activities, including the initial sign up, start around 8 or 9 pm. My kids may or may not participate with the clubs. Every cruise their participation has varied. So just in case, would you switch to early dining so the kids don't miss out. Also this time we will have 2 cabins, so getting ready should be easier for dinner. In the past, we have only had one bathroom. That's why the last 3 or 4 cruises we took late dining, so we wouldn't have to rush after being in port. Thanks for all of your comments. I wanted to try and change now if I am going to while we are still a year out. :):)

 

You state every reason in the world to use anytime dining. You eat when you want.

 

The reason I don't really want to do the anytime dining is I have food allergies and they usually go through the menu every night so they can specially make food for me. Don't know how well that would work for the anytime dining. I do also like to get to know our waiters, but I don't think it would be feasible for our family to try the anytime dining. I did think of just bringing the kids to lido and then going to dinner by ourselves later. But I do enjoy spending time just as a family. Don't know if I want to give that up. Thanks for the replies. Anyone else out there want to give their 2 cents.

 

IT will work exactly the same way. You are in the dining room, it is the same wait staff, and same kitchen. Also with anytime dining you can request the same wait staff every night.

[ourfamilylovescruising]

we have 4 kids so when we cruise with the kids we do early so they can go the Camp Carnival, but we would rather do late, which one time we did and our wait team brought out the kids dinners very fast and then my DH or me took them to camp, then we had the rest of the time to ourself. so it can work either way.

[rednose83]

I would also like to know if anyone knows if you can just use anytime dining 1 or 2 nites if you miss your regular dining time. Anyone know?

 

I don't think so but I'm not sure. There's a limited number of seats for anytime dining so I think you'd have to eat in Lido.

[tandemcruzr]

You pick either early, late or anytime. You can't pick and choose while on the cruise. Although, you are free to go to the buffet for dinner anytime you like.

[NJCruiser23]

Thanks for all of your answers.

[TnTnFlorida]

We like the early dinning for a few reasons. One, if we eat late the food has not completely digested by the time we go to bed, and sometimes have indegestion. Two, we love to dance, and that means we finish earlier and have the rest of the night to dance. Three, if there is a wonderful midnight buffet, we can always get a snack later if we are still hungry.

[WitchyWoman14]

I like the Early Dinner because we have time to go to the shows and just hang out afterward. I love the nightlife on the ship and the early seating just works out better for us. :)

[hockeyluver]

We went without kids our last cruise and it was the first time we did late dinner and we did not enjoy it at all. Usually dinner is around 5:30 at home and we thought since we had no kids it would be nice to relax and not rush after a port. But we found that by the time dinner came around and we were done eating it was almost 10!! way to late, and we still had that "full" feeling when we went to bed ( which meant no midnight snack )

[arpie05]

You are right to switch to early dining. We had always done early and not realized the issue with kids club and Circle C until our last cruise. We did late dining because of others in the group prefer late dining and my son HATED it. He was either missing an activity or rushing through dinner to get to something. there was another thread just last week about the same topic. The waiter was very helpful about bringing my 12 year old's food quick but the last night he left dinner with two melting cakes to attend a ice cream eating contest while the rest of us were enjoying our main course. He didn't want to miss his last night with his favorite dessert but didn't want to miss his last night of activities either.

 

To avoid the stress at dinner, switch to early. All families that enjoy eating together should do early (if the kids want to NOT miss their stuff).

[NJCruiser23]

You are right to switch to early dining. We had always done early and not realized the issue with kids club and Circle C until our last cruise. We did late dining because of others in the group prefer late dining and my son HATED it. He was either missing an activity or rushing through dinner to get to something. there was another thread just last week about the same topic. The waiter was very helpful about bringing my 12 year old's food quick but the last night he left dinner with two melting cakes to attend a ice cream eating contest while the rest of us were enjoying our main course. He didn't want to miss his last night with his favorite dessert but didn't want to miss his last night of activities either.

 

To avoid the stress at dinner, switch to early. All families that enjoy eating together should do early (if the kids want to NOT miss their stuff).

Thanks to all of you for all of your opinions, I think I am going to switch to early while I am so far out.

 

What do you all think about rushing back from the ports. At half moon cay we leave at 5pm and Nassau we leave at 6pm. Do you think we will feel too rushed. I may just stay late at Nassau and come back a little early for HMC. Even though I hear we are never going to want to leave HMC once we get there. What do you think? I think we could always go to lido if we have to. With having the food allergies that I do, the lido is a little more difficult for me. That's really my only concern. They were just so wonderful to me when I went to the dining room last year. I guess we'll just play it by ear. Thanks guys:D

[happybooker1]

But... I am not a mingler by nature. I liken it to going to Red Lobster for dinner.... I don't have the same waiter there each time I go. My son & I are not 'schedulers' by nature either. On our recent 7-day cruise we ate dinner anywhere from 6:30-9:00. We never had to wait -- there was always a table ready but we are just 2.

 

They always asked for our room number when we showed up, so I guess they were checking that we had REALLY signed up for anytime dining.

 

We had the same waiters several times and they remembered me and especially DS. Not necessarily by name but by something we'd ordered or said.

 

Several times DS had 'something' going on @ Circle C and he would finish his meal and leave, while I would linger over dessert/cappuchino.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed not being tied down to any kind of a schedule, or even feeling like we had to let someone 'know' if we weren't going to be there that night. I would definitely choose anytime dining again.

[Nemspy]

We went without kids our last cruise and it was the first time we did late dinner and we did not enjoy it at all. Usually dinner is around 5:30 at home and we thought since we had no kids it would be nice to relax and not rush after a port. But we found that by the time dinner came around and we were done eating it was almost 10!! way to late, and we still had that "full" feeling when we went to bed ( which meant no midnight snack )

 

 

On the other hand, I'm never hungry yet at the early dining time because of Breakfast, Lunch in the dining room and "second lunch" from the Mongolian Grille and anything that catches my fancy in the buffet. Haha. I need all the time I can get before dinner to regenerate my hunger. Then I'm usually OK for some completely gratuitous pizza on the balcony around 1AM :)

[BlueJacketsFan1]

From what we have been told most people with kids do choose early dinning. We did the early on our first cruise and have done late ever since. There were more kids on the cruise which we did the early dining.

[gazingm42]

We enjoy the early seating ourselves. We sail with our kids 11 and 13 and

have never had a problem of being rushed from tours, etc.

 

While we must have early seating due to a medical issue. But would rather

have the early seating vs late seating, which we had once. But this is really

a personal choice just depends on what you prefer.