Early or late dinner seating with 3-year-olds?
 

We're travelling with our sons who will be 3 at the time of the 7 day Disney Magic cruise. We're travelling with relatives who have kids who are teenagers and they want us to sign up for the late-seating so that everyone isn't rushed for dinner and can see the shows before dinner and then clean up for dinner. If anyone has travelled on Disney with 3-year-olds, please advise. They usually go to bed by 8, so I'm not sure they can last through a late dinner without being cranky.

We usually opt for early seating because we have a tendency to skip lunch and I am getting pretty hungry (read - cranky) by dinner time. I have never felt the least bit rushed and would think that most children would be past hungry and too tired at late seating.

Please take your child for EARLY seating..It gets so bad for both the parent,child and those around you --if the child gets cranky for having to eat so late ....

No one wants to be near a crying child in a dining room....

Just about everyone that has young children do early sitting...Just tell your relatives that you prefer early seating and will meet them after dinner if they do not want the early seating with you..

Late seating dining is 815pm on most cruise ship- dinner is not over until 10 pm...I doubt if a 3 yr old will stay quiet then , nor do I think you want your cruise ruined by their bad mood-which is honestly normal...

Having three year olds attend a leisurely dinner that doesn't even start until after their bedtime seems like asking for trouble.

I am 33 and tried late seating once and barely made it through myself..........

Maybe see if you can feed the 3 year olds earlier at their regular time (at the buffet) and see if you can arrange for babysitting while you are at late sitting.

Definitely early. I had late seating (8:00 pm) and a couple of tables over was a family with the cutest little 2-3 year old. They couldn't get early seating. The poor little girl would have a small crying attack midway because she was so tired. Nobody was annoyed but we all felt sorry for the parents and the little girl.

My husband and I recently had this debate and our children are 6 and 11! An 8:15 dinnertime for our six year old is just not going to work, but we don't want to have to rush back from port, miss being on the deck when we sail away because we are rushing to get ready for the 6 p.m. dinner. So, we decided to book a table for four at the late seating with the idea that it will probably be only my husband and me. There are so many other options to feed the kids early -- either in the kids club (which they love), the buffet, room service, other restaurants (we're going on the Navigator of the Seas). Our kids love restaurants and are well-behaved, but the idea of sitting through a 1 1/2 hour dinner at 8:15 when they could be at shows, playing games, etc. did not thrill them. I would go to the late seating with your relatives but take your kids to the kids club or have a babysitter. After all the activity they will be exhausted (and you might enjoy the break -- I know I do)

I agree with the last poster. It's been many years since our kids were that young. In those days we went on Sitmar (later bought by Princess). We had room service for the children, then took them to the children's center while we ate dinner. I would imagine that Disney would have something like that. The kids never would enjoy a long dinner in the dining room and the adults enjoyed some quiet time. Yet we still had plenty of time together as a family. (When the boys got older, we let them nap in their room while we had dinner and then woke them up for the evening activities.) Now we look forward to taking our grandchildren.

With kids that age, you pretty much need to feed them whenever they're hungry. Fortunately on a cruise ship, there's no lack of food 24/7.

As to worrying about other people's dining experience--on any other line that would be a big concern, but people go on Disney expecting to be with little ones, so I'm sure they're more relaxed about it.

Cheers!