Any Input on which is better? We've always had late seating but the couple we are traveling with wants early. We may go with the early seating but am a little nervous. I don't want to be rushed to get to dinner... I know more children will be at the early seating. Do they rush you out to get ready for second seating??

Yes, there will be more children. Yes, you have to leave the DR as they need to prepare for later seating. And, yes, you will have to rush a bit more to get ready for dinner.

For all of these reasons, we never choose early seating.

Why do they want early? Maybe you can convince them to do late. I prefer it because there are so many opportunities to eat all day long that I'm not ready for dinner at 6:30. And if you do want a snack, most of the ships have places to get a late afternoon snack. I can't say I felt rushed to get out after early, but you can't linger quite as long either. Maybe if you assure them that after a leisurely brunch and late lunch they can enjoy a late dinner more, you can talk them into it.

The reason they want early is because on prior cruises they got too tired to see any shows or go dancing after dinner. I still prefer the late but cannot convince them that 10'clock is 10'clock no matter what time you eat. I am looking for good reasons to convince them that late will be the preferable choice...

Dancing? Some music starts at 10pm, but the dance club is usually 11pm and doesn't get busy until later than that. Basically, early dinner is a game of hurry up and wait. Nothing is really going on after the show for a good while. I find that late dinner is perfect because once you go to the show the timing is perfect to move into the clubs. I find the only reason I ever wanted early was when my kids were young they would have activities that started right after first seating. Now that they are teens, seems that the teen programs are built to suit both early and late. If you choose early you will be rushed in on port days AND formal night will be really difficult. I love to sit by the pool on sea days and I will come in from the pool or even from my afternoon work out and there will be early dining all decked out. I am always so glad that I still have a couple hours to get ready. Oh, and don't forget the option to take an afternoon nap!

I found it really hard to finish up my day, especially when we were in a port and left at 5pm, to go get cleaned up and be in the dining room at 6pm. It was way to early for us, we won't do that again.'

If your on Princess there is anytime dining which is a nice option.

I stated my reasons before of why I like late dining. I mentioned families with young children may like early. Pardon the bluntness, but old people like early too. Not my Grandma, she is a party animal. But, I mean old and old at heart. If you have early to bed types- they may prefer early so they can get up with the chickens for breakfast .

On my cruise if you ate that late you would miss all the best shows. Fine, if you don't want to see shows. I think there was one at 7:15pm you might have been able to fit in. These on my ship were so terrific, I would have hated to miss them- especially the beautiful dance productions.

Also, my favorite time on the balcony was in the early morning. On my ship it was hard to sleep late, we tried to do it once with no luck- even after going to the casino until almost 1:30pm. There was just too much noise in port or with room carts and cleaning etc. going on.

JJ5- On almost every ship there are two times each night for the main production shows. One for early dining and one for late. Same show-two times. Usually the early dinner sees the show immediately after dinner while late dining eats, then late dining sees the show right after their dinner. However, Disney changes this up frequently with late dining seeing the show before dinner, which means early dinner eats and then goes to dinner. Sometimes on the last night there is only one show that seats both early and late and this is at a time later than usual for early dining, about the same time as usual for late dining. JJ5, I would like to know what ship you sailed? Noone in late dining should have been denied a show due to their dining schedule.

correction- regarding disney, early eats dinner and then goes to the show (not dinner!)

I just came home from Star Princess and all the shows were either at 8:45 or 10:00 pm. There was one show at 7:15 which was a mini-show and I think you could have gotten that in with a 10pm dinner, but the others you couldn't have. You needed to be at the show at least 1/2 hour ahead to get a seat. Also the shows ran longer than an hour and it took the huge theatres at least 10 to 15 minutes to empty. Maybe it was because Princess had anytime dining. But if you ate late traditional (which they also had starting at 10PM) you would have miss the shows entirely or you would have had to leave the first one a bit early.

Most cruise traditional dining is at 545pm-630 early (depending on line) and 8-830 for late. Second show starts at 10-1030pm. I did not know anyone had late dining seating at 10pm unless it was freestyle. I just put in a call to Princess and they state their late dining as 8pm on the Star.

The couple I was with put in for early traditional seating when they booked last summer. They also pre-booked three tours. I didn't. Star Princess -West. Carib.- 2/13-2/20, 2005 out of Ft.Lauderdale.

When they got their final papers 2 weeks or so before the trip they were given late traditional and only 2 of the tours (and those two were a bit altered as well.)

Princess changed the ports and the order, and that eliminated 1 tour altogether, so hence the problem with that. But on the dinner they were told 10pm. They tried to change this repeatedly. Our whole group could not find anyone doing traditional at the time Princess stated to you. People always seemed to be going in when I was getting a seat for the 10pm show.

This other couple we ate with most of the week, ended doing anytime dining with us- because they did not want to do 10pm at night. So it must have been presented to them that way, as well. 8 pm is totally different. Neither got this option. They were told to do anytime dining instead. 8:30 pm maybe. But 10pm is just too late for all that food, or even a fraction of that food. We could not find one person who had gotten early traditional seating either. We kept asking. I bet they didn't do it, or gave it only to the Captain's Circle early requests. On my cruise we sat repeatedly with couples who had tried for and could not get tables for 2 or even four. Most anytime people ended up with tables of 6 or 10. All reservations for Tequila's were also gone by the end of the first day out- it was booked for the entire cruise.

I bet, if it Princess you are booking with, that you end up getting late traditional or anytime, regardless of what you "pick". I don't think they are being as accomodating as they once where, or seem to be beforehand.

You must have misunderstood. No cruise line had a late dining time of 10 pm. All of the cruise lines that offer 2 traditional seatings for dinner offer the second seating at 8 or 8:30 pm.

I know if you choose anytime dining you can eat between the hours of 5 and 10 or 11pm. Maybe that is what you are thinking of?

Late or early is in the eyes of the beholder. During our xmas cruise we chose the early dinner since we do not eat between meals. Being out in the sun all day we enjoyed doing the early dinner. They did not rush us at all and we were able to see the shows. Now we are going on a Med. cruise and choosing the late seating since we do not want to rush back from touring.

It makes it hard and someone must compromise between these couples.

JJ5, it sounds like you were on a cruise to the twilight zone. No kidding. After 16 cruises I have never seen or even heard of such a story. I have heard some complaints from Princess passengers about dining times and the fact that the flexible dining is confusing. It must have really confused you and I am sure sorry to hear this. You must have seen people going into the dining room at 10pm for flexible dining. NO ship offers a fixed late dining seating at 10pm.

I really thought about what I saw and what you were told. I actually emailed the person who got jazzed around so much. Twilight Zone or no, this following is the fact.

On our cruise if you did eat at 8pm or 8:30pm you would not have seen the shows- except for possibly that one 7:15 one. We also had so many times (and the entire cruise sequence) changed, so I believe and she does too- that what we saw (AND we did SEE it) was that an entire group were pacified by this later seating. They were entering Amalfi (TRADITIONAL dining room) at aprox. 9:45-9:55pm after the 8:45 show let out. I bet they balked about the show entry problems and didn't want to miss the dance productions, especially. These productions were only given 1 time a night, and not more than twice throughout the cruise. The first one called DANCE was terrific, and if you missed that early one, I don't think it was ever put on early again. You needed to know this by the first sea day.

How could you go to either a 8:45pm show or a 10:00 pm show (all shows were these times)- if you needed to get there at least a 1/2 hour ahead to get a seat? Maybe if you ate at 8pm very promptly and didn't dawdle. But there are many courses and when we ate at 6:30pm we still did not have time or space to get into the 8:45pm show. ALL filled and starting any moment before we could get there.

It may have been the one from the twilight zone, but it happened and it was the one I was on.

Yes, Princess means for the late dining at 8pm to see the 10pm show. Most should finish just in time to get to the theatre between 830-845pm. The "flexible" dining does have to be well coordinated by the passenger in order to see shows at specified times. Let this be a good testimony to those who choose this option on Princess!

sorry, meant 945pm in previous post not 845pm!

On our ship, if you got to the theater at 9:45pm- you couldn't find seats together and/or any at all, depending upon which show it was. That was the problem. I am not confused.

At least if we couldn't get in the early show, we could get in the second after a quick freshen-up or walk on the promenade deck. If you miss the 10pm show because you don't want to sit on a staircase or stand- then you miss it. There were quite a few "standers" for the most popular shows.