Dinner times and baby

Hello we are cruising with our 11 month old very soon! We are currently assigned late seating and wait listed for early seating.

Trying to be positive and make the best of it... Wondering if this might be better cause she'll be awake for the shows? (And probably fall asleep half way through dinner)

Any experiences?

Also I was thinking she could sleep in her stroller while we ate but saw something online about stroller parking which makes me think we can't take her stroller to our table. Does anyone know for sure?

Thanks!!

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We're not long back from a trip with our just 1 year old. We had main sitting which in Europe was 6.15 (late 8.45). We thought this would be the easier option but in hindsight our show time was 9-10pm and sometimes he slept through the end. So he was in bed for say 10.30pm usually after a trip to get pizza and warm milk

If we'd done the early show at 7pm we'd have less of a rush (and it was a rush everyday!)and then 8.45 to eat we could've been done for 9.30pm and not wanting a late night snack been in bed earlier. So it's not necessarily a bad thing as long as they have a late afternoon nap/snack.

With regards the stroller most park them and put baby in high hair but we saw some at the tables - I don't think they'd make you wake up a sleeping child.

We're not long back from a trip with our just 1 year old. We had main sitting which in Europe was 6.15 (late 8.45). We thought this would be the easier option but in hindsight our show time was 9-10pm and sometimes he slept through the end. So he was in bed for say 10.30pm usually after a trip to get pizza and warm milk

 

If we'd done the early show at 7pm we'd have less of a rush (and it was a rush everyday!)and then 8.45 to eat we could've been done for 9.30pm and not wanting a late night snack been in bed earlier. So it's not necessarily a bad thing as long as they have a late afternoon nap/snack.

 

With regards the stroller most park them and put baby in high hair but we saw some at the tables - I don't think they'd make you wake up a sleeping child.

Were they the smaller umbrella type strollers?

ex techie

Yeah didn't see anything but the Umbrella type ones to be honest.

Yeah didn't see anything but the Umbrella type ones to be honest.

Those restaurants can get very packed!

ex techie

Thanks for the responses. The one we are bringing is an umbrella one.

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We cruised with DCL a few years ago when our son was around six months old. We'd originally booked later dining (our choice on prior child free cruises) but in the interim we found our son was needing to go to sleep earlier. We were wait listed for early dining and were able to change once on board. Even with the early (main) dining, there were a couple nights that one of us left and took our son to the nursery to sleep while we finished dinner and went to have a night cap or see a show. Then we picked him up and took him back with us to the stateroom. I'm sure it varies a lot by child but for us early dining was better.

This time we have selected early dining but we are traveling with our nanny so we have more flexibility. For us getting food in the kids (5, 4, 4) takes priority over them seeing shows.

Just got off Disney with my 6-month-old. I think no set dining schedule is ideal with under-1's, but you can make the best of it. Depending on when your kid needs to eat, you can feed him via room service, the buffet or the pool deck venues (pizza, grill, etc.) early and then take him to the nursery to sleep while you eat. I was constantly showing up late to dinner, leaving dinner early, etc. to deal with my baby's schedule -- I saw many other parents taking kids out of meals, even at early seatings, so I'm pretty sure Disney crew is used to everything.

I'm not sure about strollers but I can't see an umbrella stroller taking up much more space than a high chair. We brought our snap-n-go to breakfast one day but used high chairs at dinner.

Thank you for the information. Good tips and glad to hear they're used to it.

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We cruised with our son around 10 months old earlier this year. He was pretty strict about his dining and sleeping schedule by then. He also napped fine anywhere but would not sleep at night in a lot of places besides his crib. Upon boarding we went right away to the dining room to request a change to early dining (we booked 1 week before). We also didn't board until late. We were like 15th on that list. I would say try and get there as early as possible. We weren't switched to early dining until the next day. So that first night we were forced to eat the not so great room service in our cabin. They def went in order of when you appeared to switch to main dining- even though they circled and starred our request and added it was because we had an infant, all the people ahead of us were accounted for, except for us and one other party. That party was large and wanted a specific table location. (I saw the list). So getting there early will get you a better chance. We called and followed up often mad then we're switched he next day. We were on the fantasy. The stroller was to be kept out of the dining room but if we had a sleeping infant, they would have made accommodations. As to the shows- the 3 big production shows played during the day at 3. We went to that show each day. It was perfect. Our son would watch some of the show and sleep through some of the show.

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Our first cruise we had late seating and needed to eat earlier. The buffet area is an al la cart at night with a few selections from each MDR - service & food were excellent. We never had to wait for a table.

They will happily remove the chair from the spot allocated for the child in order to make room for the stroller. If they child is going to be removed from the stroller and sit at a high chair, they will park the stroller at the restaurant entrance. There won't be room for both a stroller an a high chair, but you get to choose which you want to have at your table.