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

What do you prefer, Main or Late dining and why?

Main seating. We like to eat earlier, so as not to go to bed 'stuffed'. john

What do you prefer, Main or Late dining and why?

Dw and I have found that late seating suits are cruising lifestyle. We usually have a full day on the islands or on the ship during sea days. We enjoy a little R&R in our cabin before getting ready for dinner. Main seating is too early for us since we find ourselves rushing around to get ready. when you incorporate a full day in the sun with excursions, shopping, and drinking, it is a relief to relax before getting ready for dinner, especially on formal nights.

John

I agree with jcruise67. It's just more relaxed, for us. We normally eat later in the evening anyway, so it keeps with the lifestyle. We also stay up later doing stuff around the house, be it work related or a home project, so we don't go to bed on a full meal. It's also the ambience of being on a cruise, to us.

Early seating for us. Gives us the rest of the evening to enjoy the ship or just sit out on deck and watch the stars.

Charlie

Late Evening for us also, with the long island filled days it gives us a chance to freshen up and relax and to rejuvenate and enjoy the evening after dinner,

relishing a little lime-light, a little wine and enjoy the moon-lit sea.

Dee

I prefer late also as does most of my cruising friends... The early is too early when having port days and doing excursions and such... Plus not having to rush to get ready...... :)

Ditto on early seating. We're used to eating early at home anyway, which allows us the rest of the evening to burn off what we ate. We hope to think so anyway. Like Charlie, early seating provides time after eating to enjoy the ship, or a show, or the moon and stars.

Hi Charlie!!!

Rob, hello again, it seems everywhere I go in here, I keep bumping into you...plus I keep refering back to your website, ton of info.

Cruisegirl, I tried to check out your website but it would not open up.

art

I prefer the late seating. If I get to go on one vacation per year, I do not want to have dinner with a lot of kids. Early dinner sittings tend to have a lot of parents who take their kids of all ages on cruises.

When I cruise with the kids, we take early seating. We all get to eat together and then they head off for the evening activities which gives us grown ups some alone time. We are also hungry enough to eat at the midnight buffets.

Without the kids, I prefer late seating. It usually gives us more time in port, and a period of time with the pools quiet. Less rushed. Down fall, not hungry to eat any more over the course of the night.

Since DH had a heart attack, he has many prescriptions that he has to take. Two of them are to be taken 2 - 3 hours after his dinner medications. And since we are early risers, eating late and staying for the last round of medications for the day is out.

We chose main because we like to eat early. Not a late eater but in the middle of the evening I hae been know to pick up a cookie or a small dessert.

Marilyn

Late. I rarely eat before 8 at home; I'm just not hungry early.

Main seating. We like to eat earlier, so as not to go to bed 'stuffed'. john

Thats works for me. I have Crohn's and eating later causes a lot of problems for me.

DW and I prefer late. This gives us time to relax after a busy day on land.

Late seating for us. We like to have time to enjoy the pools and hot tubs before dinner. Plus we like having afternoon tea, and would be too full if we ate early. When we had "Personal Choice" on one Princess cruise, we usually ate after 9 p.m. One night, we arrived after 9:30.

Late...No rushing on port days, more down time before dinner, pre-dinner power nap if needed, more romantic on formal nights and there are fewer children in the diningroom. ;)

If I could have my way at home I would eat later but life does not always work that way. On a cruise I can have my way ;) Late seating seems more leiserly. I often like to linger over my coffee. I am not big into shows so there is no hurry for me to get to one and I love to dance (my poor husband is very good about humoring my dancing needs, even tho he would rather have a root canal). So we enjoy appetizers before the meal if we wish somewhere and a glass of something nice and take our time.

Late...No rushing on port days, more down time before dinner, pre-dinner power nap if needed, more romantic on formal nights and there are fewer children in the diningroom. ;)

Well said Karen!

<---Karen too.

Why don't some of you folks try one of the smaller ships which offer open seating whenever and wherever you want to eat? There are so many other things to recommend this type of cruising but mealtimes is one of the main reasons I will not cruise on any ship with more than 300 passengers. By the way, small ships are not necessarily more costly than the biggies......

Have tried both early and late. Early is better for me mainly because I'm such an early riser ESPECIALLY on vacation(4:30-5:00am).Sometimes the early is a little too early but the late seating I found I was stuffed, tired and almost time to get up for the day and I haven't gone to bed yet.:D

Late for us since we don't have children and there are usually less kids at the later dining times.

We also enjoy having more time to relax after a busy day and watch our ship leave the ports instead of missing it because we were too busy getting ready for the early dinner.

Late for us. No rushing around after long days in the sun and maybe time for a nap too.:D

I had originally booked main seating, as I figured I'd be hungry before 8/8:30 when late seating dinner was served. Then I started thinking, and realized a few things that made me change my request to the late seating:

1.) there's ALWAYS food available on the ship, if I'm hungry I'm sure hunting down a little something to snack on won't be a problem. LOL:D

2.) I don't know when I'll make it back to the places we're visiting (in port) and don't really want to rush back for dinner (most ports we don't set sail til 7 or 8 p.m.)

3.) I'm gonna be beat in the afternoon from either sunning/drinking on sea days or running non-stop on excursions and will probably REALLY be able to use a nap before dinner

4.) I think I'd like to enjoy a glass of wine or a drink before dinner

5.) I don't think there's a whole lot going on before we'd get out of the late seating that we couldn't do afterward

anyway, I have no clue how it will all work out in the end. that was just my thought process and we'll see how it turns out!:)