Traveling on RCCL Liberty w/ 3yo. & 4 month old. Which dinner seating??

[coreyann]

Hi! We just booked the Liberty on RCCL for Sept. 8th. I have been on many cruises, but never w/ our children, this will be a first. Our children will be 3 years old and 4 months old at the time of the trip. What is the best seating for dinner? I know the kids club starts 7-10 pm in the evening, 1st seating is at 6:15 and 2nd is at 8:30. I'm having trouble deciding which one. The earlier the better for my 3 year old, but maybe late since she could be in the kids club while we eat??? Do they feed the kids while in the program? It would be nice to be able to eat dinner without her just in case she won't sit still or decides to throw a tantrum at the dinner table, you never know!! However, she has been pretty good lately at restaurnats.

What seating do people usally take with toddlers?

Also, any other helpful information from experienced cruisers with children would be appreciated!!:)

 

Thank you!! Corey

[adamsmom]

If you plan to eat together, early seating is best. That way the kids don't miss something going on in the kids club during dinner, and it's not 10 pm when you finally get out of the dining room. If you want to have dinner alone, you can feed the kids at the buffet, then drop them off at the kids club and go have a nice quiet dinner together. We do that many times. They don't usually feed them in the kid's club, but once or twice they will all go to the buffet together and eat dinner or breakfast or something.

[vetgirl]

I would definitely say early dinner, too. Your daughter will love the dining room and all of the fuss and attention she'll receive!

 

If it were my little one, later=crankier. I always make sure mine had a nice nap that afternoon and is good and hungry so she will sit there and actually eat dinner instead of picking at her food and being bored, which would eventually lead to not-so-great behavior.:o

 

Happy cruising!:)

[CdnCruzrs]

I would recommend the early seating as well. My daughter was 3,4,and 5 years the last 3 cruises. My son was 8 mo. & 20 mo. I noticed that when we ordered dinner, my daughter's meal came immediately, even before our appetizers. She would quickly eat (not cleaning her plate as most kids), and then either my DH or I would take her to Adventure Ocean. It was a quick ride up the elevator since both the dining room and the AO are in the AFT. This left us able to enjoy our meal and go to the nightly show as well. Since there are so many meal times and options, (the buffet had an afternoon meal from 3-5pm) the kids would often graze during the day instead of having a large meal at one sitting. When my son was an infant, we took him to the dining room in his stoller (which reclined) and he would often fall asleep leaving us to enjoy our meal in peace - lol. If you are feeding your infant jar food, the waitstaff will take it to the kitchen for warming.

[crusinmama06]

I always do Early seating with my young children (ages 2 and 6). We eat dinner together, then I drop them off at the kids club.

 

I have seen a suggestion to do the buffet with the children early, then drop them off at AO, then go to your late seating dinner. The only problem I can see with that is if the kids get tired and cranky at AO, then you will be paged in the middle of your late dinner.

[gerif]

It's kind of hard to call - especially being so far away. Your 3 year old must be toilet trained in order to go to the kids' club in the first place. Is she now in daycare? If so, you can probably predict how she will enjoy being there. I know my grandson only went once on his first cruise. One thought might be to feed her first in the buffet then bring her to the kids' club while you enjoy a late dinner and show. With the baby, you can only hope for a nice, calm quiet one as there is no baby sitting available for one that young, leaving room service or the buffet as your only choice if the baby is cranky. If you can get him/her on a good schedule, he/she will probably sleep through the late dinner and show.

 

"I always do Early seating with my young children (ages 2 and 6). We eat dinner together, then I drop them off at the kids club."

 

AO will not take 2 year olds or toddlers in diapers - some lines will, but not RCI.

[coreyann]

Thank you for all your responses! My 3 year old will be 3 August 21st, 17 days before our cruise. I had to plan that just right! She has been potty trained since October, and never has accidents. She also goes to daycare 3 days a week, so I don't think we will have any problems with her getting used to the club, thank goodness. I booked early seating, so we will proably stick with that. We will bring the baby carrier for the baby, so hopefully he will be content in that and be able to fall asleep during dinner. He is not born yet, so I have no idea what to expect with his personality! We will see....

 

 

Corey :)

[cruisin73]

we have a 6 year old son. we actually chose late seating because we figure we'll have snacks with him at either johnny rockets or the windjammer then bring him to AO and then we can enjoy a nice adult meal. On formal nights we'll give him a nap and he can eat dinner with us on those nights but otherwise he can go to AO. We didn't want to rush back from the excursions just to get ready for dinner.