Odds of little kids in the MDR....

[Fourkids4us]

We have never done early dining and my kids are young. they are between 4-10 now but they have been cruising for years at late dining. My ten year old was 3 and second oldest 11months when they started cruising.

 

We typically see a few other families in late dining with us near our section. Not sure the makeup of the rest of the room.

[Almost Packed]

when traveling with our ds, we always take early seating. he's ready to crash during/right after dinner.

 

so that's our theory. when dh & i travel alone, we choose late seating. I cannot stand ATD so I will never do that again.

 

you shouldn't be seated with any children regardless of which time you choose (not sure about seating arrangements regarding singles/couples/families with ATD)

 

Have fun...and if there happens to be a screaming toddler, be thankful it's a toddler screaming and not a grown man/woman. :eek:

[luvsviola]

My kids are 6, 4, and 2, and we do the early seating. Bedtime is 8 for the kids at home, so late dinner would be a disaster for us.

[skrufy]

We do late dining all the time. On 7 cruises we have not seen very many toddlers at that sitting. We did see sprinkled around 7yr olds and up. Also never have seen a child cause a disturbance at dinner.

[Loving My Life]

We did late seating on our first cruise, and we've done early seating on every cruise after that, and we've never seen or heard poorly-behaved children in the dining room. On our last cruise, however, we had the most obnoxious adult table mates ever! With that said, we are taking our kids on their first cruise in January and we are doing early seating. I think there are fewer kids at late seating, so you probably made a good choice.

[Bandman]

 

you shouldn't be seated with any children regardless of which time you choose :

 

This is not always the case. We were a party of 5 including our 4 year old and for late seating we were at a 12 top with a younger couple and a family of 4 with older kids. :eek:

[cruizinisthebest]

With LATE seating you won't find very many young children.

 

You made a good decision.

 

LuLu

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Perhaps, but we always choose late dining and our kids will be with us on our upcoming cruise. 10 and 5. Not toddlers but still young.

 

My general experience in the dining room and every other part of the ship is that the obnoxious adults are more annoying that the kids. And some get quite rowdy at dinner.

[cruizinisthebest]

We had someone comment on my sons behavior on the Lido deck one day at lunch. It totally ruined my whole trip. He has autism and had dropped his cupcake and started to cry. Mind you we were on the Lido deck at lunchtime with lots of other people. Some guy approched my son and said, "Some of us would like a quiet lunch" What an A**. I just started crying told him that my son has autism and ran back to our cabin. He is a very well behaved boy and was just upset about his cake. We ALWAYS take him out of a situation if he gets upset and would expect the same from others.

 

That's just a shame. Autism or not, what child wouldn't be upset at dropping their cupcake. Heck it would tick me off as an adult!! Nobody needs other passengers checking people's kids unless they are totally out of control. And again, the only passengers I've ever seen completely ridiculous a time or two were well over 21. Sorry that happened to you.

[Blk_Amish]

Good strategy. I do the same to avoid much older, aging folks:D

 

The very young and very old tend to eat early!

[Flying Scot]

We had someone comment on my sons behavior on the Lido deck one day at lunch. It totally ruined my whole trip. He has autism and had dropped his cupcake and started to cry. Mind you we were on the Lido deck at lunchtime with lots of other people. Some guy approched my son and said, "Some of us would like a quiet lunch" What an A**. I just started crying told him that my son has autism and ran back to our cabin. He is a very well behaved boy and was just upset about his cake. We ALWAYS take him out of a situation if he gets upset and would expect the same from others.

 

Unfortunately some people are just scumbags. I'm sorry that happened, its not right at all especially given he directed it straight at your son who was a minor.

 

You showed restraint. I might have been tempted to knock his lights out.

[jtm22372]

we chose atd with our 5 yr old dd ,i would put her manners up against anybody . if you don't like kids try a more expensive line .

[Tapi]

we chose atd with our 5 yr old dd ,i would put her manners up against anybody . if you don't like kids try a more expensive line .

 

Agree with you 100%. :D

 

We also do ATD. And I've also been more annoyed by adults with zero table manners and no volume control than by kids.

 

OP: Carnival is a budget minded cruise line, catering to a very broad clientele. The MDR experience will NOT be a quiet one. It's like going to a banquet hall that sits 500-1000 people, from the very well behaved to the absolutely clueless. Putting table manners aside, it's hard to maintain a quiet dinner setting just because of the sheer number of people. And wait until the crank up the music and the waiters start singing to Gangnman Style!

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

You never could tell , Good luck ..

[Plumbers wife]

I have 6 that have all been small children and I to like the dining with now screaming children, lol.

A recent couple had mini iPads for their little ones other than seeing them you would have never known they were there :)

[Plumbers wife]

Oh, you could try room service. JJ I don't know how successful it will be. Good luck ;)

On a side note I'd rather not be near complainers and I'm not talking about children.... Unfortunately we had diners next to us and that was all they done :eek:

[Cuizer2]

...first cruise is coming up fairly soon. We scheduled the late dinner seating, hoping that there will be fewer or no little kids there. Is this a good strategy? I love toddlers as much as the next person, (raised a couple myself), but would prefer to minimize the potential to hear screaming, crying, whining whilst trying to enjoy a nice dinner. I'm hoping that this is too late for most little kids - is it?

 

Will there be less children in the late seating vs. the early seating? Yes. Will the late seating be devoid of children - no.

[halos]

I have been on 20 cruises...traditional, any time, freestyle and have never had a bad experience with anyone's child, in any dining room at any time.

 

Guess I am just lucky...

 

Our last CCL cruise was a 15 day (Hawaii) The table next to us was a very large family, quite a few kids. They were awesome. I saw these kids with their Dad at one point on the ship and I saw the dad give the kids something and they grabbed him and said THANK YOU a dozen times. During dinners they were entertained by a fabulous wait staff and were very good and SO appreciative.

 

That's one example of the kind of experiences I have had on my cruises.

 

I read of these monster children and I believe they are there, but like BigFoot, I have yet to see one

:D

[cruizinisthebest]

 

I read of these monster children and I believe they are there, but like BigFoot, I have yet to see one

:D

 

Me either. Guess I've been lucky too.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

[T. Advisor King]

Will there be less children in the late seating vs. the early seating? Yes. Will the late seating be devoid of children - no.

 

I was waiting for someone to answer the question posed by the thread title. The odds are almost 100% of having little kids in the MDR, even at late seating. Will there be many? Probably not. Are you likely to have your meal disturbed by little kids? Probably not. But there almost certainly will be little kids in the MDR.

[TruckinMama]

I had the same concerns as you do. My very first post on CC was about this actually. :) We came off the Elation last week from our very first kid free vacation in 17 years. There were always kids in the dining room, it didn't matter what time it was. There were some crying babies for a few seconds here and there, but none that lasted long enough to bother anyone. However, formal night was a different story. We were seated at a table for two, next to a table of SIX children, with their parents a full row away. It was apparent very quickly that the 6 adults belonging to these six kids didn't care what they did as long as they weren't bothering the parents. They bickered the whole meal. Ugh. One boy (guessing 8-10ish) told the servers that several of the other kids appetizers were his (when they tried to pass it to the one it belonged to, he would reach over and pull it to his seat), and also took the oldest boys (around 12ish) main course. He proceeded to hack his lobster to mush with his fork, then called the server over to demand something else, a full plate of ribs that he made a complete mess with while he tormented his female cousin (about 10ish also) who was seated next to him with the bones. In between all of this he was sawing the table with his butter knife off and on, I can only imagine what it looked like under the table cloth. The parents were talking to the kids, VERY loudly, across the tables, but the only time any of them said anything was when the oldest one complained that the other kid took his main course, the little snot that did it claimed that he didn't (even though we knew he had, he had been snickering about it the whole meal!), the rest of the kids said he did, and the dad called the server over to complain that his poor child had not received his main course! I was within arms reach of the worst kid (from my seat!) the entire meal, and I wish I could have reached out and touched someone, if they were my kids they would have had the shock of their lives acting like that. I don't tolerate that kind of behavior at home, much less in a dining room filled with people, and people all dressed up at that!

[Chigirlcruzin]

I have been on 20 cruises...traditional, any time, freestyle and have never had a bad experience with anyone's child, in any dining room at any time.

 

Guess I am just lucky...

 

 

 

I've been on 18 cruises in a variety of dining styles. I, too, have never had a bad experience with any kids. Drunks, yes, but not kids.

[irishnyc]

I read of these monster children and I believe they are there, but like BigFoot, I have yet to see one

:D

 

 

People who look for these supposed monsters will find them. My child is no angel, but she's certainly not a disruption either. I'm sure people cringe anyway when we walk into a restaurant, and will find every noise to be the Worst! Noise! Ever!

[Noel182002]

We have a 6 year old and a 3 year...been cruise since our youngest was 18months old....I think my child are very well behaved and if they act like a fool....one of us will get up and leave immediately....we do this at home as well and we've only done it twice and that was at home...we tell them they don't act right....they won't get to eat out(they really like to eat out....you would think they didn't like my cooking as how excited they get) On our first cruise we had late dining because we booked late and I was surprised at the amount of children in the seating....on our 6 nights....most of the time the younger one passed out and was asleep in the stroller and our older one was so excited that the waiter kept bringing her ice cream so behaved the whole time lol.....but now we do early as I plan better now :) we also usually travel when most schools are in so we don't see a large amount of kids....my child goes to a private school and has weird breaks during the year so not too many kids on board anyway...but if the kids bother you while your eating...you can always eat on the lido deck or room service

[Blk_Amish]

We had someone comment on my sons behavior on the Lido deck one day at lunch. It totally ruined my whole trip. He has autism and had dropped his cupcake and started to cry. Mind you we were on the Lido deck at lunchtime with lots of other people. Some guy approched my son and said, "Some of us would like a quiet lunch" What an A**. I just started crying told him that my son has autism and ran back to our cabin. He is a very well behaved boy and was just upset about his cake. We ALWAYS take him out of a situation if he gets upset and would expect the same from others.

 

This makes me sad as much as anyone going on a cruise line known for family and kids and asking how to avoid them. Who goes on HAL and ask how to avoid grandma and grandpa or wheel chairs.

[OCruisers]

The question is about the odds of young children being in the MDR for LATE seating.

 

The odds are good there won't be many.

 

LuLu

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