Late seating with 6 (older)kids in group of 10

[Ausgirl]

We are a family of 5 travelling with another family of 5, and are 4 adults, with 4 teenagers and 2 11 year olds. Our bookings are linked so that we will be at a table for 10 and have requested late seating as we are on a fairly port intensive itinerary and don't want to rush back to the ship and get to early seating. Everyone is happy to eat at 8.30, and eating at 6 on vacation doesnt appeal to us. As it's our first cruise we like the idea of traditional dining and don't want to do anytime dining.

 

My concern is that the kids will miss out on the evening activities in the kids/teens club when they are at dinner with us, and if they opt to grab a quick dinner at the buffet it will just be the 4 adults sitting at a table for 10 each night. I would like them to have the option of eating with us or not, but don't want them to miss out too much. Do their activities continue past 10pm? Any advice from anyone?

[forwardcabin]

Last Dec we took our entire family including 4 grandkids. We had late seating. We insisted they meet us for dinner each night--probably not the best idea for every evening since they were cutting it close to the time they needed to be with their friends for their nightly activites at 9:00pm. When we booked this Dec cruise, we asked for early seating. We tried this in our August cruise without the kids and think it will serve everyone well.

[cb at sea]

Late seating isn't preferred if kids are doing AO activities. All are scheduled around early/main seating.

There's no need to "rush" to dinner...you have to be on the ship 1/2 hour prior to sailaway....there's plenty of time.

[kitty9]

A lot of the AO activities generally end at 10pm, as that's the time they open up the room for group babysitting that goes on until 1am. They may have a some activities for older kids later in the evening, most of the best activities start at around 7:30 and are centered around early seating. Most kids seem to eat in the buffet so they're ready to join AO for all the evening activities.

[eandj]

Having done family vacations in the past, from experience, I'd choose early dining if you want the kids to eat with the family. It will avoid them ducking out of dinner and running for pizza before meeting their newfound friends. Or you might be faced with a group of grumbling, whiny kids wishing they didn't have to sit thru the "adult" dinner.

 

I think it's important they eat with the family. We used the time to catch up on the day's activities, plan for the next day and set up the guidelines for the kids' evening plans.

[msmayor]

I know with my two kids (ages 14 and 17 at the time) on our Freedome cruise last year they couldn't wait to bolt at 8pm to get to the clubs. Early dining worked perfect for us.

 

The kids got to do their thing afterwards, and my husband and I enjoyed some "date night" time alone after dinner as well.

[serene56]

Taking late seating the kids will have lots of down time. Camps are usually closed at 5pm and open back up at 7 (which is when the kids are getting ready for dinner.

 

What time is your latest port? most ports you are back onboard by 4:30.

With those teens--who tend to hang out more so then do grou0 activities they can meet up with everyone after dinner-- but those teens they hang with more then likely will be at early dinners

 

When we did our first cruise we took late seating for the reasons you stated. Kids missed out on a lot of stuff since dinner as a family was madatory- (it was the only time we saw the kids)

 

Eating that heavy that late at night made it very rough sleeping at night when we are used to eating at home earlier.