Why do you choose the dining time you do? Early or Late?

While early is a bit earlier than we'd like, late is too much later. Even if early is at 5:30, it does not make a problem - sailaway is usually at 5:00, meaning that we are back aboard by 4:30 - leaving ample time to get ready for dinner.

Additionally, it seems more enjoyable to see the show after dinner rather than before.

On our first cruise, we had early because our DD was 7, and it just worked out best. Now we prefer late seating. DH and I get some sushi and a cocktail, and sit on our balcony watching sail away. Then we get ready for the evening. We would catch the early show, then late dinner. After that, dancing and the casino.

On our next cruise our cruise mates have requested early seating. It will be a change I'm not sure I am ready for. :rolleyes:

We are early birds, our dinner at home is early, so we do the same on cruises. A few times we stayed up late, so we went to the buffet for tea, cheese and fruit before bedtime.

On NCL we always had early dinner. With their "any time" system we never had to wait.

We do Anytime Dining so we have the flexibility to go to dinner at whatever time suits us each night. :)

LuLu

At home we usually have dinner 6-6:30pm but when travelling we tend to dine later 7:30-8pm. It means we don't have to rush after a busy day travelling and/or sightseeing, and gives us time for an only-on-holiday cocktail or two before dinner. ;)

We've booked the 7:45 late sitting for dinner on our upcoming first cruise. Hopefully it will be perfect for us. :)

We have MTD. We go to the first show and have dinner right after the show.

We've done late traditional on every cruise except one where we didn't clear the waitlist and got Anytime. We both hated it so we were glad to get traditional again. Since our last cruise, my hubby's work hours have changed and now he normally is off to bed by 8 or so. So it'll depend on when we do our next cruise -- if it's after he retires, he may be back to his old schedule.

We always used to do early dining, but ever since Anytime dining came along, that's our first choice, followed by late--we found out how much more relaxing it is not to have to rush back to get ready for an early dining time.

To the poster who had a terrible problem with Princess' Anytime, you must have hit an extremely strange situation. So far, on Princess (and other lines), I don't think we've ever waited more than 5 minutes, even for a table for two, in close to 10 cruises on Princess.

Now, we are not trying to eat at the absolute most popular time, whatever that is; we usually eat around 8, although that varies with what we are doing for the evening. We seldom make reservations in advance, just once in a while if what we want to do requires a specific time.

We've had good look with anytime dining on other cruise lines as well.

We eat late at home, so we do late seating. Also, after a day off the ship, we like to come back and take a power nap so late seating allows us to do that. Also, We like the same tablemates every night so we always ask for a larger table in traditional dining.

Marianne

We usually select 7PM for as you wish dining. Do not like the 6 or the 8 fixed seating times. This is our usual time at home.

We do early dinner about 6PM. I get too hungry to wait until late. The 6PM dining time lets us catch the the 1st show and leaves us free to enjoy the rest of the evening.

We always used to do early dining, but ever since Anytime dining came along, that's our first choice, followed by late--we found out how much more relaxing it is not to have to rush back to get ready for an early dining time.

 

To the poster who had a terrible problem with Princess' Anytime, you must have hit an extremely strange situation. So far, on Princess (and other lines), I don't think we've ever waited more than 5 minutes, even for a table for two, in close to 10 cruises on Princess.

 

Now, we are not trying to eat at the absolute most popular time, whatever that is; we usually eat around 8, although that varies with what we are doing for the evening. We seldom make reservations in advance, just once in a while if what we want to do requires a specific time.

 

We've had good look with anytime dining on other cruise lines as well.

That was me. We tried getting to the dining room around 7. There was a line just to check in and get a pager that we waiting in for at least 5 mins. We waited for a shared table but didn't like it, so we went back to the hostess for another pager for a table for two. She said the wait would be about 40 mins! Two nights in a row it was like this, so after that we just ate at the buffet or did room service. The food in the MDR wasn't that good anyway. Everything was way too salty.

That was me. We tried getting to the dining room around 7. There was a line just to check in and get a pager that we waiting in for at least 5 mins. We waited for a shared table but didn't like it, so we went back to the hostess for another pager for a table for two. She said the wait would be about 40 mins! Two nights in a row it was like this, so after that we just ate at the buffet or did room service. The food in the MDR wasn't that good anyway. Everything was way too salty.

That would discourage me too! We've only been given a pager once, and it went off just as we sat down in a nearby lounge. I think 7 PM may be a very popular time, and, as others have said, some ships have smaller dining rooms than others.

I agree the food is salty, unfortunately I like salty food. Sometimes it's even too much for me, though. We eat in the buffet area several nights on a longer cruise, sometimes the selections are great. Sorry, my emoticom ended up in the wrong place!

I love salty food too! Actually I have a collection of salts at home. That is why I was so surprised I could not easy the food bring as salty as it is. I don't care for sweet. We hardly ever stay for dessert.

We usually do late dining. On our very first cruise we did early dining and realized it wasn't going to happen again. It was too rushed and you had to hurry back from the port to get ready so time wasn't on our side. With late dining (even though at home we eat dinner around 6-6:30) we can come back from port and rest before we get ready as those tours can be tiring.

We have enjoyed the late traditional dining time on most of our cruises. There was no hurry for dinner following a late return to the ship; there was always time for relaxing with a glass of wine before dinner. We have never been rushed out of the dining room to make room for the next seating time - enjoyed an extra cup of coffee or tea and conversation with our wait staff and head waiter. With seating at a large table, we have made friends with wonderful folks from all over the world.

We had "anytime" dining in Blu (Aqua Class) for our most recent Celebrity cruise. It worked out fine for us as we quickly learned when not to show up for dinner; that is, the crowd seemed to appear between 7:30 and 8:00 PM. So we actually ate dinner a bit earlier than our usual second traditional dining time.

Both seemed to work well for us!

I chose late do thAt if I am tired can still do the show which usually is put prior to dinner for late seating guest

Depends on line though

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DW and I actively practice what folks we call Queue Avoidance. This means we try to time much of our day to avoid spending unnecessary and annoying time waiting in lines. On ships, we either dine at the late sitting or use Anytime Dining schemes to normally dine around 8:15. Avoiding the early dining and main show intended for early diners helps avoid lots of lines. It also means that our dinners in the MDR are not rushed by waiters who need to move folks out of the MDR to make room for later diners. On many ships, the main show for early diners will be packed while the show for later diners is barely half full. It is the same with lunch. If the Lido opens at 11:30 for lunch, there will often be a line and crowding from before opening until about 12:45. So if we go around 1 there are no lines and it's easy to get a table.

While the early diners can be seen lining up at the MDR about 15 min before they open the doors, we are often relaxing on our balcony with a glass of wine, or socializing in a bar with a nice drink. We have never understood why some folks are always in a hurry to wait on lines ( and later complain now they always have to wait on lines) but we think life is too short to spend an hour or more per day just standing behind another soul.

Hank

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I'm diabetic so I have dinner about 6-6:30, (anytime) then I'll have something light about 8:30-9:00, soup or salad, something like that to tide me over until breakfast. At home that late, I'll have a bowl of cereal & banana. I guess that's better than a dish of ice cream (which I'd really rather have).:rolleyes:

At home I have 6 small meals a day spaced 2 and half to 3 hours apart,of 20 to 25 grams of carbs. sometimes for I meal I do have vanilla icecream.

I am not on insulin or insulin making meds which can lower BS too much thank goodness, so I do not need a late meal to keep my BS from dipping too much.

Of course with cruising it is not so easy to stick to that schedule unless I only eat at the buffet, so I do tend to eat more at dinner. However, I always take a walk after each meal and I also use the stairs a good bit, especially when going down. Normally my BS stays good on cruises though from the extra walking even better than normal. If it goes high, it is because I was lax and ate a rich dessert or a bunch of bread/potatoes. If that happens (and of course it does occasionally. The main reason I do not pick a line by how good their food is lol!) I just resolve to do better and go very strict once I get home until I get the readings as they should be.

Late is too late and early is too early so I choose anytime.

I also hate the thought of sitting next to be people I do not get on with and sitting next to them for the entire voyage.

Anytime lets me eat around 7ish which my preferred time. :)

We do Select dining. Early is way too early and late is too late. ;) We've only had to wait one time and that was for less than five minutes. Of course, we aren't big on the shows, so that dynamic isn't part of the equation for us. We usually go around 7:00 - 7:30. Works for us, anyway.

I am a night owl so late works for me. I also like it better on port days because it gives me a chance to relax before dinner.

We prefer traditional dining (like the OP, we had a bad experience with Anytime Dining on Princess.) It is important to us to have the same wait team and tablemates throughout the cruise which is possible but not guaranteed with anytime dining, and we've found a significant difference in the level of service when all the diners are at the same stage of the meal at the same time as opposed to the waiters having to juggle different courses at each of their tables

We prefer early seating, as long as it is not before 6pm. We never really felt "rushed" beforehand - by 4:30-5pm, we are already back from visiting the port, are bored of sitting around the pool, etc, and are more than willing to shower and get ready for dinner and the evening activities. We also don't like going to bed on a full stomach, so dining early and then attending the show or some other activity gives us time to digest the food before bedtime. We eat around 6:30pm at home, so it's closest to our regular schedule anyway.

We have done late seating on occasion. We found that we were often hungry and had a snack around 6pm, and therefore ended up eating more food in the evenings. Combined with going to be with a full stomach, we tended to not feel as well.

Also, we didn't find late seating to be the time saver as others have stated because we like to attend the shows/activities, and on most nights, they are scheduled for before dinner for early diners, therefore we were getting ready at roughly the same time (maybe 30-45 minutes later - not significant to us).

Anytime Dining (or variations thereof) works quite well for us. We have utilized it on our past eight cruises. Only once have we had to wait more than a couple of minutes.

We have always been able to get a Table for Two because after forty-one years of marriage, we still enjoy each other's company.;)

We usually do early, though I think it's too early. And I think late is far, far too late.

 

Personally, I think when coming back onboard after an excursion, we're pretty hungry. There's no way I'd be able to wait until 8pm to eat dinner. Also if we snacked before dinner, then there's no way I'd be hungry enough to eat 3+ courses for dinner!

 

We tried Anytime last time on Princess and it was a disaster. Everytime there was a huge line to check in, and then there was a wait as well. Even if you wanted to share a table, there was a wait. After two nights we just ended up eating at the buffet or ordering room service.

 

So what makes you choose early or late seating and not Anytime?

Anytime dining is best for us- we have NEVER waited more than 5 minutes on our last 5 or 6 cruises...the key is to go around 6:30, latest 6:45..if that seems still too busy, we go at 6:15..it's not that important to us....some people go at PRIME time, which is 7-7:30 and find a line..we don't like to eat with strangers, so we dine alone...also very important- I have GERD ( a form of acid reflux) , and the later I eat, the worse I'll feel...also, we like to make the 8-9 PM shows , then go for a stroll, drink, perhaps another show...also, we always dine 1x-2x in specialty venues for better food & dining experience, so no lines there...I find many people simply don't know how to work anytime or my time dining- you cannot just go at 7 & expect to get seated right away...same as going to a popular restaurant on a Sat night with no reservations- you will wait there as well...EVERYONE I have told what to do about this has had few or no problems getting in...

Big Al