Early or Late dinner?

[Longboysfan]

We always take the late seating.

 

1) No rushing back to the ship.

2) No rushing from a ship day down to the cabin to get ready.

3) Get to relax the late afternoon. Hot Tub time.

4) Walk the deck.

5) Go to the Sushi bar.

6) Watch the sun go down.

7) Stop by the casino and drop a few quarters if the mood strikes.

8) Dress and go out to the Martini bar if I need to. ;)

9) Meet others before dinner.

 

In general this is a vacation.

We relax a lot - crazy thought - while on board.

[CruisingChick]

Also, whoever said they need 90 minutes lead time to get ready for dinner and therefore need to be back at the ship at 4:15 for early seating, well...you take far too much time...

I wasn't talking about ONE person getting ready but an entire family in ONE cabin with ONE bathroom. So 90 minutes total on a formal night for 3 people is not allot of time. Especially when I have to help my husband and my son get dressed besides get myself ready.

 

Anne Maria

[SReeder]

I really enjoyed the late seating. When you are at port, you have less time to see the ports, becuase you have to get back in time for dinner. My husband and I never felt rushed and we always had time for a nice cocktail before hand. I recommend the late seating.

[BSeaBob]

after just reurning from a short cruise and dinning late (tried it again for the last time). Just have to go back to early. I just can't work out the kicks after finishing eating so late. Early is too early I agree...but late is very very much to late. And just yet I can't afford those one dining room ships or eating in the "United States" ever night, (and our Celebrity ships don't have free style yet do they :) ??

[tuggers]

OMG! No, they do not have Free Style! I would have to look for a new cruise line if they did. Sorry the 6:30 and 8:30 don't fit your lifestyle. Have you tried a sushi snack to make it to late seating>

[CruisingChick]

If Celebrity ever went to Freestyle Cruising I would have to kill the President of RCCL.

[critterchick]

We normally do late seating. At home we eat between 7:30 & 8, so neither one matches our normal rhythm. If we're hungry early, we get a snack from the buffet to nibble (right, we nibble on a cruise) with our cocktails. The exception was an RCCL cruise out of Barcelona, where late seating was 9:15 to accomodate the Spanish preference, we were told. We changed to early, which was 6:30. We didn't leave our first port until 11, so we ended up not getting back in time & ate at the buffet, but the waiter told us the next night that we could come as late as 8:00 and he would be able to feed us. The ship was only about 2/3 full and the early seating was 1/2 empty, so they just didn't have a lot to do, and fed us as we arrived at the table, not coordinating so our tablemates would go hungry waiting for us. Each of the 3 couples ended up eating at their own "normal" times - one got there promptly at 6:30, we were usually 7-ish & the last couple would come about 7:45. It worked out well. I don't imagine that would work on a sold-out cruise, though.

[slverbell]

We do the late seating. Very few children in the dining room at that time and I like the almost all adult atmosphere. We are both early risers when at home, but we are very good about turning that clock off when we are on vacation. Still, sleeping late for us is around 9am and if we get tired during the day, there are always naps. A favorite activity is before we turn in is to take a walk around the ship. Very romantic.

[BSeaBob]

that we add ANOTHER meal. :)

 

and of course i agree with your freestyle suggestion

 

OMG! No, they do not have Free Style! I would have to look for a new cruise line if they did. Sorry the 6:30 and 8:30 don't fit your lifestyle. Have you tried a sushi snack to make it to late seating>

[themommy]

A personal choice but we always prefer late dinner.

I like to stay in the sun as long as possible, we enjoy the late afternoon chats on the deck and we like a leisurely preparation for dinner.

We find it to be part of the whole relaxing experience, not rushing down to dinner.

We also find it difficult to get the body clock adjusted as we fly from the UK and so we find the late seating works better for us.

 

Thankfully there are those who disagree otherwise feeding us all at the same time would be impossible.

 

We do find however that there is little of the evening left once dinner has finished but you can't have it all ways.

 

Dinner is wonderful, whenever you eat it.

[idssms]

Have tried both. Late seating won.

 

For all the reasons mentioned above.

[Jillc2]

We go for the early and six thirty will be perfect if that's when the Zenith schedules it. I agree with the poster who said there's no need to be there at the stroke of the clock....it takes about fifteen minutes to get folks settled and cocktails ordered. I totally agree with the bread issue....my God, start noshing on that stuff and you will never make it through the salad course. We are very early risers and if we came back from a port excursion and DH fell asleep, he'd be asleep for the rest of the night or foggy throughout dinner.

What time do they begin the sushi thing?

[newtocc]

What time do they begin the sushi thing?

Don't bother, the sushi is always undercooked!

[CaribbeanBound]

I like my sashimi grilled!