Dinner times- early, late, whenever. Which one is for you??

[ccleveland]

Hey every one! I have a cruise coming up in September on the fascination and right now I'm on the waiting list for the early time at 6 p.m. I have never had this happen to me and I was wondering if anyone that is reading this got on the waiting list for 6 p.m. and a few months later you found out that you could attend to 6 p.m. because the spot he movin. Does this ever happen?

 

The other choice is where you go eat whenever you want between a certain time but I have never done that before. Even though there is a waiting list for the 6 p.m. and you show up at your dining room at 6 I guess you just get put on the waiting list and you have to wait until people are done. Is this correct?

 

The late dining time really is terrible because of all the shows and late night fun that starts to happen after 8 p.m. and I'm trying to stay away from that.

[kelkel2]

We had early seating on our first cruise and we did like it, but after that we sailed Princess and got hooked on your time dining. We really like it. OP, you will get a million different answers, but the true reason we like anytime dining is because it's anytime. I know that sounds silly, but I just love the flexibility of it. Now honestly, we usually go pretty early, like 6-6:30 and if you end up not being able to get early seating this would be a pretty good option for you. Theres not usually lines when you go early, and if there is they move fast.

[Suzegoescruisin]

We like early or your time, because that is when we eat normally. Did late a couple of times and it was fine, but we got hungry about 6pm or 7, and if we went to sushi or taste bar, it filled us up too much. Also depends on how many of us are cruising. Whole fam damily, then we do early, just us two, we do your time.

[legion3]

Early for us as that is when we normally eat. Also if the kids eat with friends at camp ocean allows us to drop them off and stroll in to eat right away. And if not gets them fed on their same schedule.

[Jay Sam]

I like late. I am always thankful when my friend and I book and early is sold out. He likes early. I DO NOT. Early puts too much of a rush on things happening during the day. I have missed very few shows by eating late. Very few.

[Anthomaniac]

I like your time dining, we have done it twice and never had a wait more than 5-10 minutes. Ymmv

[trvlgirlmq]

We only do ATD because we like to eat on our own schedule. You can easily work around any shows or nighttime activities. We do tend to eat on the earlier side especially so we can make the family comedy shows that my kids like.

[love my grandkids]

If you dont get early see MD during his hours on embarkation day.

[WAHMto5]

We only do YTD. I love having the freedom to eat when we are ready and not at a set time every night. The longest we have ever had to wait is about 5 minutes and that has only been a couple of times.

[KatRat416]

Last few cruises we did the anytime. We have enjoyed that! We love that we can go when we get hungry and have never had a wait longer than a few minutes if that. We don't care that we don't have the same waiters each night so to us that didn't come into play. Just like the idea that we are not tied into a specific time and can go when we want, and if we want. Most cruises we only go probably twice. Otherwise, we eat buffet at our leisure :)

[Anthomaniac]

We have had the same wait staff most nights, they tend to seat us in the same vicinity every night. Ymmv

[SkyMaster]

Like Frank Sinatra said,,,"I get too hungry, for dinner at eight". Always get EARLY, and always enjoy eating, then the shows and entertainment. I'm sure "Your Time" would be O.K., but I always enjoy the same dinner partners, and wait staff. (Yes, I know that can be arranged with Your Time as well.) ;)

 

"SKY"

[Native Floridian 26]

We love ATD, and if that's not available we'll do late. We prefer to eat around 7:00 on cruises, so that is only possible with ATD. Unfortunately, many others like to go at 7:00 too so sometimes there is a wait.

 

ATD is flexible enough too so that if you like a particular waitstaff team, you can ask for them each subsequent night. Sometimes there will be a wait for that.

 

To me, Early is just too early. It's hard enough to be hungry on a cruise, but most likely I won't be hungry at 6:00.

[sandij]

We always book early, used to eating at that time at home. We tried late one year and found ourselves still in the dinning room at 10 pm, way too late.

[katiel53]

We usually like to eat at 7 and that's why we choose ATD. We have had to wait for over half an hour a few times, but that was when ATD first came out and we wanted the same wait staff nightly.

 

The busiest night and the one with the longest wait is the elegant night that has lobster. It seems that everyone wants to go to the MDR that night even if they eat at Lido other nights. We once again have ATD for our next two cruises and I know it will be fine.

[vwrestler171]

I prefer anytime dining. It is nice not having to rush back from a port with a late departure time for dinner. If I like my waitstaff, I can request them every night.

[hftmrock]

The other choice is where you go eat whenever you want between a certain time but I have never done that before. Even though there is a waiting list for the 6 p.m. and you show up at your dining room at 6 I guess you just get put on the waiting list and you have to wait until people are done. Is this correct?

 

no you dont wait for people to be done. there are tables carved out for ATD. you might have to wait if there is no space left in ATD seating but there usually is not much of a wait if at all

[GaNavy]

I always choose late dinner. I often travel solo so I enjoy meeting new people and having the same companions and wait staff every night. There's no rush by the staff to have us leave so that the next group can be served - and at a good table (which almost all of mine have been), it's no trick to linger over coffee and dessert with fun and interesting conversation - we are often nearly the last to leave the dining room. I enjoy the steakhouse, but I've never eaten dinner at the buffet. I've also never missed a show I wanted to see because I was too late leaving dinner.

 

It's all about what kind of dinner experience you want. I think it's great that the cruise lines give us choices.

[iluvit!]

Fewer children at late dining[emoji4]

[092306]

Switched to anytime dining many cruises ago and never looked back. We love it and never had a problem with getting a table in the section we wanted around 6pm. I think the only times we've waited were going around 7-7:30 or dining with friends and needing a larger table.

[JillySue]

We tried anytime, hated it. We had to wait a long time, and the bar where they told us to wait was very understaffed. They also kept skipping me, serving people on either side of me, but not me. I was livid. After waiting 30 minutes, they sat us at a table along a high traffic corridor (our honeymoon, super romantic!). That night we went to the maitre d' and switched to late seating. I love late seating, but my husband doesn't. He tends to drop off into a food coma after dinner and late seating is so late he doesn't bounce back! He just goes to bed and stays there. Looks like early dinner for us!

[islandatsea]

Usually ATD for us, better fit for us. Only exception being on the Sunshine cruise coming up we picked early dining.

[Warm Breezes]

We prefer the flexibility of Anytime. We like the option to eat when and with whom we want.

[NoDayButToday]

DH and I both prefer late seating. It most closely matches our schedules at home-both of us work late, dinner at home usually starts around 10pm (but we also usually are up until 2 or 3AM because of our later work schedules)! If by some chance we get hungry before dinner, we stop for a small salad or cheese plate on Lido to hold us over. Plus there are fewer kids at Late seating and we have never missed an entertainment option we really wanted to do because we were still at dinner. The closest we got was a movie we wanted to watch that started a little earlier than we usually got out of dinner. We told our wait staff and they gave us our dessert to go so we could eat dessert while watching the movie.

[Bobblefrog]

As a couple we've done YTD both cruises and haven't regretted it. Trying to get to a seating at a particular time, having dinner companions waiting on us, sounded stressful to us. Was glad to be offered the choice.

 

If I was traveling solo, I would probably try early seating though - see how the formal experience was - I'd enjoy having a table of new people to get to know.