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

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?

Late is too late, so I choose early by default. If I'm not terribly hungry I will eat lightly, then get another light meal or something like crackers and cheese or soup later. During my regular life I eat dinner at 6 or 6:30 anyway, so I have no desire to wait until 8 or later to eat when I'm on vacation.

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?

Our personal preference is to dine early. Mostly because we're basically "early to bed" types. And eating at the late seating leaves a bunch of rich, heavy foods just sitting in our stomachs at bedtime.

The only times we've done late seating were on our Med cruise (since most of the ports were full day excursions and we would be arriving back to the ship after the early seating), and a 4 night Baja cruise (we booked 4 days prior to departure so no early seatings left). Although on that one we did hit the buffet instead of the dining room a couple of times.

We always do late seating. It allows us to maximize our time in port.

When I cruise with DH we go with late dining. We tend to eat late at home and also, as was posted, gives us more time to prepare for the evening. I hate feeling rushed.

When I cruise with my sister we do MTD so we go when we want to. She likes to dine earlier and I tend to go with the flow.

We eat early at home and are usually early to bed so we always chose early sitting.

Then we had 'anytime' dining on a late booking and we loved it. It was great being able to have a leisurely afternoon, change for dinner, have a drink etc rather than being in our glad-rags at a time when some people were still coming back on board after their shore excursions.

Since then we go for anytime if possible - or late if that is not available. We are on holiday, we can sleep late in the morning if we need to!

Early is too early and late is too late. "Anytime" just didn't work, so the lesser of 3 evils (for us) is late sitting. On port days, we have to be back onboard earlier then we'd like to be just to get ready for dinner. Once we did choose early sitting and ended up at the buffet several nights because we just didn't want to cut our time ashore short, and could not be ready by 6PM. Also, we usually linger a bit over coffee after dinner and 1st sitting, they need to get you out so they can reset the room for 2nd.

We enjoy the late seating traditional. We like to have the same people at our table every night. We meet enough new people at breakfast and lunch and doing various activities around the ship. Our favorite cruise line is Princess, and we qualify for the evening cocktail event they have each day from 5 until 7. That gives us the opportunity to eat a light snack and enjoy a drink.

We eat late at home, so we enjoy late seating. We also like tablemates, so that's why we ask for a large table in traditional dining!

On Celebrity you can avoid the lines by reserving a time in advance via their website. So if 6 is too early and 8 is too late, you might try 6:45. Showtimes are usually scheduled to coincide with MDR seatings, with the early show accommodating late diners and vice versa.

We've had early dining on all but one of our Celebrity cruises. We finally made "elite" for our last cruise and found it a rush to enjoy the complimentary cocktail hour that began at 5 so that we could arrive in the MDR by 6.

When we did choose Select, I made advance reservations for our party of 6 at varying times depending on our time in port. This gave us time to freshen up before dinner, have a relaxed meal and still enjoy the evening's entertainment.

You make a good point with choosing Select. But our experience with ATD on Princess really turned me off to the whole idea, no matter what line. To me, Anytime should mean I can get there anytime I want. But in order to go and not have a wait, you have to have a standing reservation each night. Is Select on X less hectic than on Princess?

We always choose late dining so we can enjoy the day without having to rush back and get ready for dinner.

Especially if you have an afternoon excursion or you're just exploring the port, it's nice to have some extra time to get back to the ship and relax, have a nap and take your time instead of stressing out and running back.

Jonathan

We've done select/anytime dining on both RCI and Celebrity on multiple cruises because we like to watch the sunset with our cocktail before eating. Our preferred eating time is somewhere around 7-7:30, but we'll adjust our time according to sunset time. We've rarely had a wait of over 5 minutes, but when there is a wait it's no big deal - we put our name on the list and go have another glass of wine. The one or two times we have stood in a line waiting, we've met some nice people and ended up sharing a table. Also, we know they're not going to run out of food, so we don't stress about a short wait! Our next cruise is on Princess, so we'll see how it goes, but know that even a longer wait would be preferable to eating at either of the set dining times for us.

We eat about 8 at home so late seating works for us,

I choose early becasue after 8 is way to late for me. I have diabetes and that runs havic with my blood sugar. However, I prefer when I can pick anytime dining; then I try to eat around 6:30 or 7 pm.

We use to always do late ..

I'll be honest, another reason we do early is bc if we did late, we'd be much too drunk by then, and probably won't even make it! :D

Hi all!

I always do early dinner as we eat early at home (5:30) plus I like going to the shows or gambling a bit after dinner. I frequently travel solo so always pick a large table to be with others unless of course I'm cruising NCL.

~ Jo ~:)

We always choose late dining. We enjoy touring the ports for the entire day. We come back on board and have a nap, maybe a light snack and dress for dinner. We have a cocktail. We love taking our time with a formal dinner with good conversation, meeting interesting people. We always have traditional dining. We tend to eat lunch in the ports because we want to try new, regional foods, we just don't eat a lot.

On sea days, we adjust our breakfast and lunch times to later too, so dinner is not to long a wait.

Margee

For years we used to do early which was at 6 PM -- just right for us. Then HAL moved it to 5:45 and now it is 5:30 -- getting too early. Late at 8 -- we don't care for.

We are thinking of doing Open Seating so that we can go about 6 PM.

We prefer late dining. 5:30 pm is like dining with children and seniors.

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:

Funny I think we had to wait one time in all the years we have used any time dining. If you avoid the hump times, 7:00-8:00, we have found it works best for us. New table mates every night, meet lots of people that way.

We always did early seating on our past cruises. This time we are going with YTD. This way we can get ready at our pace.

Even though we eat early at home, we always do late when cruising.

We find our body clock is off, so generally only hungry in the morning for breakfast which we usually do room service.

We enjoy going into port and exploring on our own, we stay as long as we wish, come back when we get tired. My DH may get a small snack when he comes back to the ship.

We like to take a late afternoon nap, then take our time getting showered and dressed for dinner. Really don't like to feel rushed, so late is much better for us. We also enjoy dressing more formal/informal for dinner and early seems a bit early to dress up for dinner.