Poll: What do you prefer, Main or Late dining and why

We also usually prefer early seating as I am diabetic and this more closely resembles our dinner time at home. Scheduling is important for blood sugar control.

 

You have also mentioned one of the many reasons why we will not be cruising NCL. The main one, though, is that our daughter and her DH were on the S.S. Norway when the boiler exploded. NCL did a terrible job of taking care of these passengers and have still to this day not compensated our daughter for her losses in that event.

Off the main topic but since you posted it we were also on that Norway cruise and didn't feel we had any losses other than being inconvenienced for a few hours while crewmen lost their lives.

I am guilty of performing all the resurrections. Every time we book a cruise, I come back to it and post what my dinner seating is.

 

Plus, I started the poll back in 2005....wow, I've been on Cruise Critic for a LONG TIME!

That's funny :D Its like your own little tradition while waiting.

My goodness - I just looked at my own date - 2003!

Anytime and only anytime. Love it. Would never willingly go back to traditional, but if I had to would choose early.

Neither.

We do anytime. We usually have a standing reservation for anywhere between 6:45 and 7:15.

This is she we eat when we are at home.

Since this is a TEN year old thread - there is no point commenting on the actual purpose and incompleteness of the poll. It gave early or late seating and for me it can be different. When this poll was asked there wasn't much "anytime" going on so it is an obsolete thread.

My answer would be that it depends on who I am traveling with and where I am going. In the Med it would be late as we are in town longer. In November just DH and I are taking a coastal cruise and we will be at sea for dinner so it will be early seating. Next April I will have grand kids 8 and 10 but we will take late seating because we will be doing active things in port and I don't want to have to hurry back.

We've never done either early or late, opting for anytime dining instead. Early is WAY too early, and late can be too late. We prefer to eat around 7:30pm. Ah, well, there is something for everyone! :)

We tried to get late seating for the upcoming cruise but even 160 days out, we are waitlisted..

Granted, most of our ports are later arrivals and later departures...but there are still a ton of cabins available.

Anyone have an idea when RCCL opens the ability to set your dining preferences (early or late) PRIOR to the cruise?

Anyone have an idea when RCCL opens the ability to set your dining preferences (early or late) PRIOR to the cruise?

It varies, there is no set time. Could be more than 120 days or less than 60 days. Keep checking the Cruise Planner.

I have been to both and prefer early seating. I don't like going to bed on a full stomach and when I had late seating, dinner was over around 10:00 p.m.

We have actually heard people say that they go to Anytime Dining because you don't have the same waiters every night, therefore they don't have to tip their "special waiter" on the last night! They say that "every penny counts" when saving on tips!

Sheesh!

Since we are cruising in 17 days, I though I would bring this back from the dead. Again, we will be dining on the late schedule. Gives us time for visiting the ports and less kids. But since we are in our 50's now (when I originally started this post I was in my 30's) we are looking for more cruises with less kids, hence Princess.

The 30's to 50's thing is bothering me too!!

Any reservation time between 7 and 7:30. We go with anytime dining whenever possible.

Since we are cruising in 17 days, I though I would bring this back from the dead. Again, we will be dining on the late schedule. Gives us time for visiting the ports and less kids. But since we are in our 50's now (when I originally started this post I was in my 30's) we are looking for more cruises with less kids, hence Princess.

 

The 30's to 50's thing is bothering me too!!

Back in our 20's & 30's it was a no-brainer - definitely late sitting. as after dinner is when the party started. However, now in early 60's, we just can't handle starting dinner at 20:15 and finishing after 22:00. OMG, that's almost bed time. On our last World Cruise we did the traditional late dining, but found it provided insufficient time to digest the meal before bedtime.

Our next cruise has no traditional dining, so we will probably eat at 18:00 to 18:30.

We've always done anytime dining but our TA selected Fixed Early on our reservation so we'll give it a try -- we usually eat around 5:30 so it should be fine.

Since we are cruising in 17 days, I though I would bring this back from the dead....

Wow! Well you win the Internet today for the biggest bump I think I've ever seen here. ;p :D

Actually, we prefer Anytime ... but with the only choices being Early and Late ... we would pick Late so we didn't have to be rushed to get ready for dinner.

Early, That way we don't have a full stomach at 930 and then we get tired!

We eat early at home but when traveling, we prefer late. We like the time to shower, dress up for dinner every night and do not like to be rushed.

Even though this was not an option on this poll, we like "anytime dining". Main dining is way too early and late dining is way to late. We never know from one day to the next when we will want to eat dinner so this works best for us.

Wow thread is 13 years old

Even though this was not an option on this poll, we like "anytime dining". Main dining is way too early and late dining is way to late. We never know from one day to the next when we will want to eat dinner so this works best for us.

Wow thread is 13 years old

George is right! The reason that 'anytime/select/my-time' dining is not listed as a choice is that this poll pre-dates that dining option! LOL! :')

I prefer main seating because it's closer to my usual dinner time (5-6 pm). My hubby and I tend to be paranoid about not missing the ship, so we tend to be back on board with plenty of time to get ready for dinner and enjoy a drink beforehand. I also enjoy the shows or walking around underneath the stars afterward. (I'd probably just be thinking about food all the time during the show if I did late seating.) I also prefer to let my food digest before going to bed (I'm usually wiped by 10 pm).

We still prefer late seating. Now that my wife's sister and her husband are going with us, we can all sit together. They usually eat after 10:00 anyway, so the late seating may be early for them.

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Our preference is early seating on traditional, as on late seating finishing a meal about 22:00, is way too close to bed time. We no longer stay up to the wee hours.