Pro's & Con's of Late Dining

I just booked our 1st cruise and I picked the late dining due to being in ports until 6 and 6 on two of the evenings. This seemed like a good idea but now I am wondering if I made a mistake in choosing the late dining option. Can the experts let me know what the pros and cons are with late dining?? Will it conflict with the shows/activities? Thanks.

The con is Im used to eating early, so I start snacking at the buffet and not hungry for a full meal at 8 pm

No, it wouldnt conflict with the main shows. There could be some activity though, like they might have a black jack tournament starting at 7:30 pm or a comedian.

We always choose late dining. We are more relaxed for dinner, not having to rush after a busy port day. We have not missed anything we really wanted to do due the later time.

Early is a bit of a rush to get ready and if you eat at the pool in the afternoon, you're not ready to eat again. Late dinner gives you time to return to the ship, snack. relax, or even nap before getting ready. It is an adjustment if you're an early riser. You'll start sleeping later and later as the cruise progresses.:eek:

When my kids were younger and they traveled with me, i liked early dining. They didn't miss out on the camp carnival activites this way. The older they got, they didn't want to go to the dining room anymore and just ate up at the buffet. Now, i still find myself wanting to eat early just in case i don't like the mdr dinner, i still have time to run up to the buffet.:)

The pro is you do not have to rush to dinner after a long day in port.

The con is you will be in the dining room until 9:30 - 9:45 every night.

If I had late dining I'd be eating all day and not want dinner.

I have tried both. Since we eat relatively early at home the late was too late for me. By 6 I was hungry so I decided I should snack about 3 instead and by 8 I was ready for bed. Now I either stay with early or go with anytime dining.

I don't like going to bed stuffed. Late dining is too LATE.

I prefer late dining. We are so busy during the day, trying to take advantage of every minute on our cruise, we're just not ready to shower, get dressed, and do all that by the early time. On our last cruise, I would just go get a slice of pizza in the late afternoon to hold me over. It's not like the dinners are so big that you're eating too much. And who cares if you do, it's vacation! :D So it all depends on what your daily schedule is like, including how early you want to get up. There's plenty going on after the late dinner - shows, movies, clubs, bars, whatever.

We have always chosen the late dining because we rarely eat before 7pm when we're at home anyway. During my budget season we don't eat until 8 or 8:30, and if we go out with friends it's never before 7:30, so late dining on the cruise is normal for us. As far as morning wakeup, for some unknown reason we're both up by 6:30 ready to go (and 6:30 is so darn early when we have to go to work back home). The only drawback I have seen is that if your dinner takes a little longer than normal, you might miss some of the better seats for the shows.

We like early dining or anytime. We are early birds and generally you're on the ship by dinner time. If it's a late port you can eat in the buffet. But with early dining you still have a full evening ahead of you and can still get to bed at a reasonable time!

Keep in mind that if the ship is in port until 6:00, you have to be back on board by 5:30 or so (maybe a little earlier?) It would not conflict with early dinner at 6:00, you'd just be a little rushed getting ready.

We always go with anytime or late dining as we do not like to feel rushed during the day or especially on port days.

If I have a snack around 3 or 4, then late dining is usually OK. Otherwise, I'm too hungry (or tired!) to wait until 8:15 for late seating.

One thing that might interest you -- find out when the sunset will be. We had a balcony room in February and enjoyed watching the sunset between 6-7 when we had late seating. If we had early, we would have missed that. Now other times of the year, you might be more likely to catch the sunset by having early seating.

I think in the future we'll always go with "Your Time" because we like the flexibility. We ended up eating at Lido on our last cruise alot because we couldn't make it until dinner and several of the items were available on the buffet anyway. After a long day in port, sometimes you don't want to get dressed up, be social for 2 hours and then go to bed extremely full. If you'll be back on the ship around 5 everyday, that'll probably be enough time to get ready for dinner (but that's just me! I can shower, change, etc. pretty quickly).

We prefer late dining as well. I don't get off of work when I'm at home until 6pm, so we rarely eat before 7:30 at home. Late dining allows us to get ready for dinner without rushing, and like others have said, a late afternoon snack is readily available if you think you might be hungry before the late dining time. IMO it really goes back to what you are used to doing at home. And, we have never felt like we missed any shows or activities because of our dining time.

On my last cruise I had late dining. I'd get dressed and go try to find a photographer and inevitably they would all be closed at 7pm. Did get to have sushi though.

late dining fills my drinking compartments.

We've had all 3 choices for dining and prefer your-time dining (though we would love to have same servers every night and that's not always possible with YTD). Here's what we HATED about the late seating. We'd get ready and head to a lounge for a couple drinks before dinner and then we'd get another drink with dinner and then get on with our meal which would take 1.5 hours. By the time we were done dessert, we'd be all groggy and want to go to bed.

I just booked our 1st cruise and I picked the late dining due to being in ports until 6 and 6 on two of the evenings. This seemed like a good idea but now I am wondering if I made a mistake in choosing the late dining option. Can the experts let me know what the pros and cons are with late dining?? Will it conflict with the shows/activities? Thanks.

I hate late dining. Who wants to finish dinner at 10:30?

I like late because we are usually half loaded by then, you don't have to rush to dinner , nap before dinner after an excurion is good too

CON- sometimes late dining makes you late for some of the entertainment that goes on , eating too much kills your drunk and makes it hare to get'er going again (too full for beer) sometimes you need a snack to make it until late dinner and you over eat at the buff and your not hungry at 8:30

I just booked our 1st cruise and I picked the late dining due to being in ports until 6 and 6 on two of the evenings. This seemed like a good idea but now I am wondering if I made a mistake in choosing the late dining option. Can the experts let me know what the pros and cons are with late dining?? Will it conflict with the shows/activities? Thanks.

The shows are presented at 2 different times: one for late seating, one for early seating..you won't miss a thing.

I always take late seating because:

*I normally eat later at home.

*You don't have to rush back from port and dress for dinner

*You avoid most children who can be disruptive or cranky because most are in the early seating.

*It seems to be a much more relaxed experience with less frenetic rushing around by the wait staff. They don't have to "get everyone out" so tables can be reset for another sitting like in the early time.

*You won't miss any "sail away" activities as the ship leaves port or pulls anchor.

*By the time late seating dinner is over, the ship seems to be in full swing with lots of clubs open, lots of activity, lots of music, dancing, etc.

If the ship leaves port at 6 you will probably be back on board earlier.

We find that early dining gives us the whole evening to enjoy the ships entertainment.

Some days late seating conflicts with comedy club shows. Also some days the ship will only have the main show once.

Finally do not like to finish dinner at 10 as very often if we go to bed at 11 we are still kind of stuffed.

Try one or the other and see how it works for you and you can try the other next time.

Pros: We have plenty of time to get ready for dinner. We like to do a lot of water activities on shore, so a shower is a must. That means re-doing hair and make up.

We also don't want to rush on board after our day ashore. Lots of time.

Less children at the later seating. We like kids, but since we travel without them, we prefer grown ups at dinner time.

Cons: Since we tend to do a lot of activities while in port, we have to get up early. We often skip the shows on nights they are after dinner, and when we have to get up early the next day.

I prefer late dining for the following:

1) I do not want to feel rushed getting ready for dinner after the port calls.

2) I want to be on my balcony or on deck watching us leave the port rather than sitting in the dining room

3) generally speaking, there are fewer kids in the dining room for the late seating

4) I want to see the sunsets every night and would miss them with early seating