Early Dinner

[TDouglas]

We have the early dinner booked,what happens if we are at a port do we still get to have our dinner at a later time or do we just miss it completely.

[Dave]

Dinner seating times don't usually change. If your dinner seating is at 6pm, then that is when you go. You can go to the buffet for the casual dinner if you don't want to go to the early seating. Depending on the cruise itinerary - most RCI cruises leave port before the early seating commences.

[Jim C.]

I really don't have anything to add to Dave's comment except for the bit about departing before main seating commences holds true for Carnival also. But, a couple of times it was straight from the ship entrance to the room to change and then to the dinning room because of the timing. But it really is not that big of an issue. Certainly not one that would make or break my dinner seating time choice. We like the early seating because my wife can eat a big meal past 7pm without it disagreeing with her.

We have been scheduled a late seating on our Mariner cruise and the first thing we are planning on doing is seeing the maitre'd and asking to be moved. If we have to eat late, I'm going to be gaining a lot of weight because I will be eating at the buffet at 6PM "to hold me over" until 8Pm...

[Sonny V]

I never ask for the first seating. I don't like being rushed after getting back to the ship. Changing your seating arrangement is no problem if you do it the first day.

Sonny

[f-mattox]

I'm with you Sonny; late seating all the way.
I love the quiet on deck in late afternoon when half the passengers have left to get ready for dinner. Great time for a quiet soak in a hot tub.

[shelby]

We did early dinner last time on Carnival and have it scheduled for this trip too. I perferred it-we took kids- because it left us plenty of time to do other things around the ship- shows etc. The only day I didn't like was when we were at Nassau. We felt rushe to get back at a certain time and they have formal night on the port night. Here we come- a little rushed- sea water in our hair.... 5 people getting showers before dinner- 2 girls trying to primp. Needless to say our dream of dressing up was cut off a little.

[shanghai 100]

Tip the head waiter and he'll look for vacant seats on 2nd seating for you. That's what we did on the VOS last year.

[Chef Ken]

Originally posted by shanghai 100:
Tip the head waiter .

Or better still, "make friends" with the Maitre 'd as well and he will look after you. There are always people who either miss their seating or decide on something else and don't show.

[Sandy]

We find that late seating is too late for us. You don't get out of the dining room until 10-10:30pm. If the show is after dinner, it starts at 11pm and goes until close to midnight. Then there's not much time left for anything else like casino, other entertainment, etc. Plus we get too hungry to eat at 8:30pm.

We find that early seating with the option of going to the Windjammer if we don't feel like eating at 6pm, is the way to go for us.

Sandy

[Dave]

We started out with early seating for our cruises, then went to late seating for about the past dozen. We have late again for the upcoming Holiday cruise, but we are going back to early seating for the Liberty Of The Seas in June. There is much to be said for being able to spend the evening listening to the lounge bands, etc., instead of sitting in the dining room until after 10pm.