Early or Late? What do you like and Why?

[Carol Jones]

We mostly do early and it works well for us. Its seems like they get your food to you faster when you are early, so they can be ready for the late eaters. I also like being able to have my evening for the shows. We all are able to get showered and ready quickly (an hour at the most) so that helps. I feel like I have wasted time with late dinning, especially on port days. Eating early forces me to get showered and ready quickly.

 

YTD sounds appealing, but I really enjoy getting to know our waiters.

[Seazond]

We always did early, with the exception of our last two cruises. The first of those, we had ATD. I was not a fan... to me it seemed the service was second rate, and the food coming to table was not warm enough. Maybe they got mine ready first each night, then gathered up the tablemates' and presented at table - I am not sure, but I was not very impressed. I agree that in theory one can schedule their day's activities in whatever way works for them and then do dinner around that. But the reality is most will still pick a set time and keep it each day.

 

The last cruise we had late dining, as dh and I felt the need for a change. We don't really do too many late night activities and there was so much going on in the clubs, etc. We also travelled with another couple who always took late dining. We found we were not enjoying the dancing, etc since we had just eaten. And we were forcing ourselves to be night owls when naturally we are larks. I think the most sleep we got on that last cruise was six hours - and that on a sea day!

 

I think what I have learned is to mirror your natural cycles on a cruise. If it feels normal to eat earlier, then do so. If you are a late eater, do that... that's why there's more than one choice.

[lcpagejr]

We always do late seating... We just enjoy spending leisurely late afternoons on deck sipping cocktails and enjoying the sailaways from each port. No rush to get dressed for dinner also gives us a chance to enjoy a pre dinner cocktail in the lounge. Shows are not a mandatory requirement with us....so we basically just go with the flow and do our own thing...Very relaxing

[bajangoddess82]

On my very first cruise, we chose early seating. We ended up going only once b/c we were always in the middle of something when it was time to get ready to dinner.

 

For the rest of my cruises, [w/ the exception of Norwegian] I always choose late seating. I prefer to eat late since that lines up with my eating preferences at home. I rarely eat dinner before 8 o'clock anyways.

 

I've never had trouble getting great seats at any of the comedy shows and I don't do the big production shows [i don't really care for them].

 

I like not having to rush back from port to shower and get ready for dinner. Late seating gives me plenty of time to do what I want w/o feeling hurried. My time dining was cool and we lucked out by getting the same dinner crew each time we asked for them, but I guess I like structure and having a set time to follow. :)

[WAHMto5]

We will only go anytime dining. I like having the option on when we are ready to eat and not at a set time. We have never had a problem with it and have only waited a couple of times at no longer then 5 minutes.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

I do late dining because I am a night person, period. I wake up late, get late brunch, late lunch, get off and on the ship at ports of call later than most others, and am up very late so I want a later dinner. I love hanging out in the hot tub around 7pm because the early people are at dinner, the buffet people are at dinner, and many groups of people are getting ready for late dining so the pools and hot tubs are pretty empty then. Bad if you want to meet people but good if you don't want to feel too cramped while you relax.

 

Also, someone else said that if you are at early dinner, they do rush you because they have to have the dining room cleared by a certain time for the late dining. Not so at night although they try to keep it moving so they can be out of there and off the clock by 1030pm or so when everyone finally leaves. I just don't like getting dinner while the sun is still up. In my everyday life I am up late with very late dinner times and why should it be different on a cruise?

 

Now, I did anytime dining on my last cruise and it was fine, as the mdr was not too crowded and we got the same waitstaff each night, but that isn't guaranteed. If you are with other people and go at off peak times, the experience can be fine but if you go at peak times, it might feel more like a TGI Friday's than a cruise ship dining adventure. But you are in complete control of when you dine that way. I myself like the more traditional assigned time and table dining however, that is until they inevitably take it away completely in the coming years.

 

I also forgot to mention, the early shows may be going on while you are at dinner and you might miss the family friendly comedian hour if you stay at the mdr until 10pm but there usually is a late stage show at that time and the better comedian hours are not until about 1100. Also, the house band on promenade on most ships and the casino/clubs are late night so you really don't miss that much if you do the late dining. But you DO get to partake in the late afternoon/early evening activities throughout the ship if you do the later dining. Not to mention you get to see the sunset at sea most times and get to take a nice late afternoon nap, especially if you had a long and eventful day in port.

Edited March 20, 2015 by FlyingCruiserNJ

[AngAndBoys]

I used to always book late dining just so I could squeeze out all the pool time possible. Then it got to be that the kids had activities in their clubs they didn't want to miss so it got harder to pin everyone down at a certain time. I switched to anytime dining when I'm with the kids and it works a lot better. We can look at the day's activities and come to a mutually agreed on time. If everyone cannot agree, we can split up if need be (they're 15, 17, 19 now, not babies, and can eat without me and presumably maintain decorum). Mostly we do all eat together, but it is nice that nobody has to miss anything important to them.

[LeisaH3067]

Our preference is my time dining but if that isn't available, we like early seating. We feel that we miss things or need to rush in order to catch the later shows if we have late dining.

[theriac]

I used to do early but now always do anytime. I always get the same server and table and I don't even request it. On the pride last year after the first night we saw our server everywhere and he would always sneak up behind me and say" guess who"

[cutiepiefred]

we have always done late dining when cruising alone as in we always eat as soon as we get on board from the port. It goves us time to nap and shower up before dinner we have never had an issue getting a seat for the show or comedy as we always get our desert to go. we do atd when we crusise with others and have never had to wait for a table.

[scuabacruiser]

Early, late, anytime, Lido, pool cafe, specialties. 1st I think it's great to have so many choices. We have done all and found good and bad with all. The prior posts just prove why each time works for different reason. With kids, early or Lido seem to work best. So our next cruise we will be back to early seating. The kids like sitting at the same table with a waiter who already knows what they like. Then they hit the pool again while we watch a movie or go to the shows or get some room time ;).

Edited March 20, 2015 by scuabacruiser

[Lizard13]

I like early dinning because I get too hungry waiting for late dining. I dont do buffets because I have NO willpower and prefer to eat enough not to get uncomfortably full. So by the Time early dining comes around i am more than ready.

If I get back to my room and am a little hungry I order room service as soon as I get in the room. The food from room service is great, portions small so just a little snack and I am happy!!! I found the wait for a table and for meals too slow for anytime dining.

[Luluwa]

Late dining always!

[NW Native1]

I too used to do late dining. I frequently had to choose between having dinner in the dining room or seeing a show. For that reason I switched to Anytime Dining. I really like the flexibility of being able to eat dinner around my schedule.

[simplelife]

I agree with MarcelLucSell. Early dining gives us more options for the evening. Plus the older we get, we find eating late just doesn't sit with us very well. I like fixed dining - I like being seated immediately, no waiting, at "our" table, with familiar tablemates and waitstaff

[ExFed drvr]

Early, we are always on-board early at the ports. Do not want to be still eating at 10:00 at night.

[Jay Sam]

Late is for sure my choice. Don't like to rush, and usually the days on the ship go by so fast anyway that it makes it seem like I am on a tight schedule when I have done early. Don't care for the anytime dining as I have not been able to connect with the servers and to me is part of the experience, knowing my dining staff and seeing them night after night. And on Carnival they are consistently awesome, well all except one time, and we changed tables the next night and made a complaint about the server we had on night 1. Each of the next nights when we asked for a table we always asked for the new staff we had and NOT Rufino.

[sandij]

We always book early seating, that gives us time to go to a show or catch a movie on the big screen or go to the casino before bed time. We tried late and hated still being in the dinning room at 10:00, this last cruise we had early and most nights was just leaving at 8:00. It's a personal choice issue, everyone has different habits/

[Southern2atea]

Thanks everyone! I enjoyed hearing the differences in why you do early, late or ATD. However I am just as confused as ever. Lol maybe I will just stick with late.

[quickrate]

Unless cruising with our kids, we always choose late. We are late risers, so breakfast is a little late, which makes lunch later.

 

It also affords us leisure on port days - our routine is to return from our excursion, have a bite if necessary, then shower and nap. If the excursion returns late, we might have sushi (in the past) or the taste bar before showering & napping. We also then are fresh for the late lounge or comedy shows.

 

I will say, we have to be careful to bring the antacid medication, though. DH can tend to get heartburn at bedtime when eating late, so he takes something daily. :)

Tell him to try bringing digestive enzymes with him. Actually helps him to digest his food and much healthier.

also, ginger pills will help with heartburn.

Pat

[Jay Sam]

Thanks everyone! I enjoyed hearing the differences in why you do early, late or ATD. However I am just as confused as ever. Lol maybe I will just stick with late.

 

Late is best for sure. Otherwise you will most likely feel rushed. You can still get to most shows after. Sometimes I have a challenge even getting to the late seating on time.

[quickrate]

I went on my first cruise in 2013 with a group of family and friends. We had late dining and I loved it! It just seemed to coincide with how we spent our days -- breakfast around 7am, lunch around 1 or 2, maybe a snack if we felt like it later in the afternoon and then by 8pm we were hungry again. The only downside is we had several small children in our group and it was torture for them. They were falling asleep at the table and whatnot.

 

Our next cruise is in May and we've chosen late dining again. No kids!

 

The only time we did early was when we had the grandkids with us and I always felt rushed. Late dining for us!!

Pat

[cupcake8503]

I am thinking of switching from anytime dining to late dining. When we had anytime dining on the Splendor we always went around 8-830 but we had to wait to be seated and service was extremely slow. For those of you who had late dining, around what time would you finish?

[Southern2atea]

I've always done late. It's completely up to you how fast or slow you want your meal to go. Since there is not another service behind you, you can take your time or tell them you want to be out quickly for this reason or that. They are very accommodating. I would say most average nights we are out of there by 9:30 or so

[rufflesmom]

I used to always do early, but we tried Anytime this trip. I really liked it because I could go when I wanted to and didn't have to stick so much to a schedule. Yeah, you don't quite get the relationship with your waiters but the flexibility made up for that.

 

 

You do know that you can request the same waitstaff every nite with anytime dining. We did that on the last 2 cruises and had no problems. We do anytime dining every cruise now.