Thread: Pros and cons of late seating?

Hi all! I'm a new cruiser and my husband and I are will be on the Legend on 11/2/08--YEAH! We are scheduled for the 8:15 p.m. seating and wanted to know what the pros and cons are for this late seating? I think there were only 2 avail. seatings, so you all professional cruisers out there, let me know what you think? Thanks and lots of love!!!

We always do the late seating.

Number one reason is because often we'll come back from port at the last moment and it still gives us plenty of time to shower, shave, rest up, have cocktails, etc. before it's time to go to dinner.

If you do the early dining, you often have to come back from port early in order to get ready for dinner. This is especially annoying if it's formal night!

The bad thing about late dining is that you get done so late. But then we walk around, go see the shows, gamble, dance, etc. in order to work it off a bit before we go to bed.

Also, most of the older crowd and those with young kids prefer the early dining, so the late dining is a bit more quiet. And because of this, the early seating will almost always fill up before the late seating.

Pete

Pete,
I could not have said it any better.
Paul

A disadvantage, in late seating (we always choose late) & probably early is the open seating or anytime seating dining rooms. Unless you prefer a table of 2, your table will most likely be half empty. More & more passengers are choosing open seating, leaving the traditional early/late dining room almost empty. Also, the ships do not pair up table companions very well. We were on a B2B this past spring and was paired us up with 3 young married girls, that left their husbands home on a table for 8, we are seniors. The 2nd half, we had 2 single girls & a couple that only talked to themselves. We switched to anytime dining. The ships have our ages & Marital status, so they can do better.

I think pete has said it all, but I will add one thing here that is not good for the late seating, that is if you want to do the midnight buffet you can't...lol

We have always taken late seating. Sometimes it's because we used to that schedule (ie, for the past seven years, my hubby's worked the evening shift). And on the Caribbean cruises, 8:15pm would be like our 5:15pm.

Sometimes we'll have a mid-afternoon nosh in the buffet to tide us over until dinner time. I'll usually get a small salad, a little pasta, maybe a little piece of meat, and a dessert. Believe it or not, I came out even weightwise at the end of our last cruise, which was 15 days long. But we did make it to the gym or did some laps around the walking track sometimes.

I think Princess should be better about checking the card to make sure traditional diners don't go to the anytime dining room and vice versa. I don't think they always communicate how it works to those new to that system.

We do late seating. After coming back from shore, there is plenty of time to shower and get ready for dinner and lots of times I can get a quick nap. We like to relax and have a couple of drinks before dinner. Late seating allows all of this.
We did early seating once and hated it. It was rush, rush, rush.

When I travel with my husband, we always choose early seating because he hates eating late. Our work schedule is 6:00am to 4:30pm and we generally eat dinner between 5:30 and 6:00. So, waiting for late dinner is very difficult for us. Eating early allows us to go to shows afterward and then walk around deck before retiring. Since we cruise for the ship, not the ports, we have no problem getting back to the ship in time for early dinner. As the OP said, you do avoid many of the children when you choose late seating.

Originally Posted by cruisin' chick

I think Princess should be better about checking the card to make sure traditional diners don't go to the anytime dining room and vice versa. I don't think they always communicate how it works to those new to that system.

THAT'S SOOOOOOOOOOO TRUE!

Mostly, a problem that those in Traditional ... THINK it's prefectly all right to go to Anytime whenever they please.

For us, there are no 'cons' to late seating. We always select late seating.

We have done both, but enjoyed the company of our tablemates more at the late seating. But we prefer to eat earlier so have done that too. A port intensive cruise where I have to be up early to catch an excursion makes for a long day if we eat late.