RCCL w/ Teens Early or Late dinner seating?

My husband and I are cruising on Allure with our 14 and 17 yo Feb 2013. I booked the late dinner seating so that we don't have to worry about rushing back from port to get ready for dinner. Also, didn't want to be in MDR with tons of small children. Now I'm worried that my kids might miss some teen activities due to the late dinner. Does anyone have any thoughts on late or early dinner seating with teens?

My husband and I are cruising on Allure with our 14 and 17 yo Feb 2013. I booked the late dinner seating so that we don't have to worry about rushing back from port to get ready for dinner. Also, didn't want to be in MDR with tons of small children. Now I'm worried that my kids might miss some teen activities due to the late dinner. Does anyone have any thoughts on late or early dinner seating with teens?

I think your statement about late diner is right on. Have you considered anytime dining . You could eat early or late depending on the day and how everyone is feeling.

When our kids were these ages we did late seating.

Worked out great.

Keith

Most of the activities begin before late seating....you also need to consider if the kids will even want to eat with you every night....sometimes, they'll just grab dinner in the buffet and go do their "thing"....

Early seating is best if you are making use of the kid's clubs. My Time Dining is also an option.

We did late seating when our kids were teens because early was just too early for us. My kids would leave to go to kids club right after they eat their entree each night. They never compained about how much they missed at teen club because it was just getting into full swing by the time they arrived. They got their fill of dessert options other times during the day.

My oldest is a "tween" but is considered a TEEN on RCI. We always have to do early seating because she doesn't want to miss a thing in the club. The last RCI ship we did was Enchantment in August (Oasis class will have even more activities) and as you can see below - each night they had something going on starting at 8pm. And on 3 nights - they went to dinner together. So she went to dinner with us and dessert with the teen club.

The only cruiseline where I've seen lots of small children in the MDR is Disney. Even on RCCL cruises where the under-18 contingent was 25-30% of passengers, most of those under-18's were teens.

I posted the same question a few weeks ago and had similar responses. After looking at the teen club start times (8 and 9pm generally) we did switch from late dining to early dinning even though its a bit too early for us. Our son is 17 and he did ask if he could do all the teen events as this is his last year eligible for the teens club. I'd ask your teens what there preference is. Some kids enjoy the organized activities and others don't. Our son found that if he didn't go at the start it was harder to find people later as they all scatter and do their own thing but in a big group.

Always do early seating so the kids can do the teen events. Makes everyone happy - they get to the teen events and we get to the adult events.