How does the main dinning work with kids ?

[brockmom]

Thank you in advance for more than one question I am sure I will have.

How does the main dinning room work with young ones?

I have seen families with little ones feed them first, then have one parent take them to the 

kids club and return to the dinning room to join the rest of the table and  finish the meal.

Is that the norm ? Does the kids club serve snacks if they are  hungry between meals ?

how does it work ? 
and the dress code for a 5 and 7 yr old,?

thank you.

Brockmom

 

[Eddie Wilson]

I know this doesn’t answer your question, I want to follow though as we are  planning a 3 generation cruise. 

 

Anyway, on more than one occasion we have stopped parents of young children just to compliment them on how well behaved their children are at dinner.  Dressed well and behaving, whatever they are doing I wish I could duplicate it.  

 

On the other hand,  regarding small children..........no need to mention, 

 

On our last cruise, we did see a table near us always have their children’s meals served at the same time as the parents salads.  Gave the kids a head start, but they stayed at the table the entire time.  May have had 2 tantrums over a 9 night cruise, so the were mostly good mates.

 

Eddie

 

[Bushdog]

27 minutes ago, brockmom said:

Thank you in advance for more than one question I am sure I will have.

How does the main dinning room work with young ones?

I have seen families with little ones feed them first, then have one parent take them to the 

kids club and return to the dinning room to join the rest of the table and  finish the meal.

Is that the norm ? Does the kids club serve snacks if they are  hungry between meals ?

how does it work ? 
and the dress code for a 5 and 7 yr old,?

thank you.

Brockmom

 

Our kids would eat with us, and then we'd go to the kids club. I have no experience with the process of returning to the table. I suppose it is possible.

Dress code is clothed. I am a little tongue in cheek but people cut a LOT of slack for little ones. They should dress what makes them comfortable.

[Unicorniceskate]

We’re bringing our kids in a few weeks for the first time. It’s my understanding that you can pre-arrange with the Adventure Ocean staff to come grab the kids from the dining room during the meal. They have a pick up spot and time for the kids, and then you can finish your meal. We have opted for the later 8pm seating, since we’d prefer to have time after ports to get ready (and our kids are really good at that time of night). I think our cruise is going to be super light on kids (10/2 New England) since we have a week of fall break, but most schools are in session. Our kids will either hang with us, or if they make friends, we’ll take advantage of that pickup if available. 

I’m interested to hear about AO and other times of day with meals and snacks. I am very much looking forward to dropping them off there and going to the spa and other adult spots!

[taglovestocruise]

12 minutes ago, Unicorniceskate said:

We’re bringing our kids in a few weeks for the first time. It’s my understanding that you can pre-arrange with the Adventure Ocean staff to come grab the kids from the dining room during the meal. They have a pick up spot and time for the kids, and then you can finish your meal. We have opted for the later 8pm seating, since we’d prefer to have time after ports to get ready (and our kids are really good at that time of night). I think our cruise is going to be super light on kids (10/2 New England) since we have a week of fall break, but most schools are in session. Our kids will either hang with us, or if they make friends, we’ll take advantage of that pickup if available. 

I’m interested to hear about AO and other times of day with meals and snacks. I am very much looking forward to dropping them off there and going to the spa and other adult spots!

I think the pick up in MDR for kids is only for early tradional. May not have started back up on all ships.

[Ourusualbeach]

14 minutes ago, Unicorniceskate said:

We’re bringing our kids in a few weeks for the first time. It’s my understanding that you can pre-arrange with the Adventure Ocean staff to come grab the kids from the dining room during the meal. They have a pick up spot and time for the kids, and then you can finish your meal. We have opted for the later 8pm seating, since we’d prefer to have time after ports to get ready (and our kids are really good at that time of night). I think our cruise is going to be super light on kids (10/2 New England) since we have a week of fall break, but most schools are in session. Our kids will either hang with us, or if they make friends, we’ll take advantage of that pickup if available. 

I’m interested to hear about AO and other times of day with meals and snacks. I am very much looking forward to dropping them off there and going to the spa and other adult spots!

What you are describing is called my family time dining and it is only available for early seating.  I dont think it has restated since covid. 

[Sunshine3601]

We did early traditional dining, 530 pm, on our cruise last week.   

Saw lots of families with children of all different ages.   Some dressed up very nice on formal nights.   Sundresses for little girls is always a nice option on cruises.

We were upset to see a bunch of little ones running in dining on a regular basis.

No one stopped them.   

 

[smokeybandit]

When there are young kids in the MDR, I always hope there's no dinning to interrupt dining.

[Cutigerlady]

We requested a fruit cup for our kids when we sat down (after first night it was at the table when we arrived) and they brought the kids meals earlier so they didn’t get hangry. My kids are teenagers now and they ask for the cheese plate and an extra basket of rolls when we sit down!
 

My kids never wanted to go to the kids club, so I can’t help there!  We didn’t make my boys wear formal attire, but they were required to wear church clothes (dress pants/button-up or dress shorts/polo).  We usually do MTD, which allows us to tell the servers if we need to be out quickly or if we were taking our time. 

[brillohead]

Seems like it would be easier to take your kids to the Windjammer and feed them there, drop them off at Adventure Ocean, then go have a nice, quiet, adult-only dinner without all the up-and-down of taking kids to camp in the middle of the meal.  

[Ozark_Kid]

11 minutes ago, brillohead said:

Seems like it would be easier to take your kids to the Windjammer and feed them there, drop them off at Adventure Ocean, then go have a nice, quiet, adult-only dinner without all the up-and-down of taking kids to camp in the middle of the meal.  

That's a really good solution.   Good option. 👍 

[mtu_huskies]

Since our kids started cruising we’ve only done the early traditional dining. Our kids are a little older now (10/8), but when they were 5 and 7 they’d just eat with us and we’d finish our meal and do our evening activities that sometimes included AO for the kids. Dining in the MDR has gotten shorter than it used to be. You’ll have to judge if your kids have the patience . Our kids have enjoyed the MDR and talking as a family or the nights the waiters sing and it’s not that long. I think a parent bringing them to AO early and returning would be a possibility if needed. 
 

don’t worry about clothes, you’ll be fine. Our kids have usually dressed a little nicer than a shirt but there are no strict requirements. 

[barb in ga]

We cruised in May with our son, his wife, and 6 yo daughter. She absolutely loved the MDR dining experience! The waiter, his assistant, and the maitre'd were charmed by her and she was very happy with how she was treated. They listened to her requests and made this a very special part of her first cruise.

[ONECRUISER]

2 hours ago, Unicorniceskate said:

We’re bringing our kids in a few weeks for the first time. It’s my understanding that you can pre-arrange with the Adventure Ocean staff to come grab the kids from the dining room during the meal. They have a pick up spot and time for the kids, and then you can finish your meal. We have opted for the later 8pm seating, since we’d prefer to have time after ports to get ready (and our kids are really good at that time of night). I think our cruise is going to be super light on kids (10/2 New England) since we have a week of fall break, but most schools are in session. Our kids will either hang with us, or if they make friends, we’ll take advantage of that pickup if available. 

I’m interested to hear about AO and other times of day with meals and snacks. I am very much looking forward to dropping them off there and going to the spa and other adult spots!

As said already even if the Kids getting picked up by staff has started back up, wasn't during Covid, it's only for Early Seating passengers. You will have to drop the Kids off at Adventure Ocean yourself

[brockmom]

Thank you for all the great suggestions!

My daughter and family are joining us on a 5 day cruise with only carry ons so really needed the dress code for the boys, so appreciate that info.

We would  like the children to get a taste of what the dinning room is like ( and have been working on the manners lol) but they are active boys so not 

sure how long they will manage sitting.

I know the servers will do whatever we need and we will figure things 

out as needed. Appreciate all the ideas. Thank you !

Brockmom

[poocher]

I made the assumption that my 10 year old grandson would not want a sit down dinner every night of our short 4 day cruise.  I was wrong!  He absolutely loved the waitstaff fussing over him.  Unfortunately we only went the last night. He informed me that, next time, he wants to eat there every night.

Edited September 6, 2022 by poocher

[SchoolNurseMom]

You can tell your waitstaff your plans no matter what dining time or venue you're in. We've told them we're planning to go to show and a certain time and they've always done their best to get us out in time. 

As far as leaving the dining room, people get up and go to bathroom or other all the time and just come right back in to sit and finish their meal. 

[time4u2go]

"Dinning" is a very appropriate word to use when talking about dining with children.  😁

[dce85]

I’d encourage you to enjoy the dining room experience with children.  We took our first cruise back in 2000 when our youngest was 4.  (It was on Premier’s Rembrandt.). Our boys loved trying new foods and the wait staff was wonderful to them.  When they were little, we allowed a book or crayons to come to the dining room to help fill the wait time. There were a few cruises where I took an antsy son to the Kids’ Club and came back to finish my meal, but I followed the lead of the child.  There were some cruises they didn’t want to miss a specific cruise activity and planned to live dinner at a certain time.  I think part of our success is that we were a family that did sit down to dinner together most nights.  We have shared many cruises with them at this point but dinner together is still a highlight. 

[Joseph2017China]

When my kids were young like that, they went to dinner, sat down, ordered their food off the menu, even asked questions to the waiter, and than ordered, than ate, and than talked with the adults, and learned to socialize and eat strange foods.  But that is also what they did at home, since dinner was family time

 

[molsonschooner]

On 9/5/2022 at 9:32 PM, taglovestocruise said:

I think the pick up in MDR for kids is only for early tradional. May not have started back up on all ships.

when we cruised a couple years ago we had to select My family time dining in order to have AO staff come and pick up our granddaughter. I don't know if that option is still available though.