seating 1st or 2nd? Mariner of the Sea
 

Hi ... first time on a forum and I am looking for suggestions.. I have cruised three times and have always selected the early dinner, but now I am wondering if I should try the second seating.. I read one post that suggested the second seating as it is not as rushed as the first seating and there is time to shower and get dressed after excursions .. but I thought I would do a bit of research.. We are going on our honeymoon in Sept. on the Mariner of the Sea.. I can't wait! Anyway.. thanks in advance.. I have learned a lot today reading your thoughts..

I had the late seating and was so happy to change it to the earlier one! For me, the "not rushed" part wasn't true as people were in a hurry to make it to the evening show.

As for shower and get dressed... somehow I always had enough time.

I think Regent has open dining.

Especially on Mariner, I would choose late dining. There will be a lot of families at the early seating as they tend to prefer earlier dining times.

I always book late and in fact will not go on a cruise that has fixed dining if it is not available. We do not like to rush our day in order to get ready for dinner at 6pm.

We often will take a nap or perhaps just read on the balcony or watch a movie to relax. Then we take our time getting ready for dinner, stop off for a martini and some music and make our way to the dining room for a leisurely dinner.

I would also suggest you book Portofino for one evening as it is lovely and romantic.

We are much too active during a cruise to wait until the late seating! I am starving by 6, honestly. If I had to wait till the late seating, I would snack/drink and miss half the activities of the evening, lol. If you do run late from port, they will always seat you in the dining room later! Also, you can usually change your dining options once aboard. We always enjoy dancing, shows, etc and like to have plenty hours to do lots of late night activities.

There are different kinds of cruisers, as you will see from the responses posted so far.

We do not bother with the shows, games or other orchestrated activities. Actually, we barely glance at the daily schedule, preferring to figure it out as we go. Rushing from activity to activity is not what appeals to us about cruising.

Dancing after dinner, some time in the piano bar or listening to live jazz is our choice for the evening.

We are quite active during the day and like some down time before dinner.

You have already cruised with early dining. If it worked for you, stay with it. If you found yourself wishing you had a bit more time at the end of the day, then try late. I would not count on switching once onboard as there are no guarantees.

For us, we have dinner at home at 7:30 or later so 6-6:30 simply has no appeal whatsoever.

Thanks everyone.. much appreciated..

This is a tough decision to make, but I lean toward the late seating for some of the same reasons as the other replies. A lot of times, we find ourselves literally running back to the ship from ashore at the end of the day. I love to go to the deck, get a drink and watch the ship pull out and the sunset (with another drink). Going to a 6:30 dinner ruins that. I get rid of the hunger pangs by making my way to buffet after that first drink and nibble while watching the sun set. Then, I can leisurly get dressed for dinner. I like to get dressed up and need the time. The only drawback is going to the shows after dinner. If we've had a very busy day, we're sometimes too tired to take in a show (actually the spouse is the one who is usually too tired - not me). We've also done the "anytime" dining plan that can interfere with showtimes, too. If I have to make a choice, it'll always be the late seating.

We are going on the Mariner of the Seas.. to Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel.. if I change the reservation to the late dinner will there be late shows available.. I really want to catch the ice skating show .. can I make one of the performances if we have a late dinner? Thanks so much eveyone for yor help! Kat

Kat, of course! RCI schedules the shows so that all passengers can attend a performance.

Great thanks.. and BTW KFUSTO I appreicate all I have learned from your answers to everyones questions..

blueyedkate, I am happy to contribute:)

Ya know.....something else to consider is which time zone you live in compared to where you are going.When we travel to CA, I want breakfast at 5 and dinner at 4!

FUNNY you should mention that LLindaC.. :) I just found out about the time change.. (in all honesty, it did not even ocur to me) but at least we found out about it early enough to reschedule our flight.
I called today to change our dinner seating (based on your fantastic suggestions) and the TA told me they had us flying out of Sacramento at 2pm on the 8th even though our ship leaves on the 9th.. As you can imagine, this created a HUGE problem since the invitations we just had printed were for 5:30 pm on the 8th.. How sad it would be to miss our own wedding :) But luckily, with a fee, we were able to change our flight to a red eye. We will have to leave the wedding a bit early, but it will be worth it, rather than having to try and book the honeymoon for a different week. I really wish the travel agent would have addressed that when I booked the cruise, as I was very clear about our plans for the wedding. She pacified my naivete by telling me we would get our travel docs 30 days before the wedding. I am not a big traveler and didn't really think of the flight/time change issue.. but luckily I asked about the flight when I called to change our dinner seating.. to find this out a month before would have created panic for this bride-to-be. So THANK YOU to ALL of you for your advise.. by addressing the seating issue, I had enough time to takle a bigger problem!

We also prefer the late seating for all of the reasons listed above. We just find it more relaxing to not have to rush around to get ready for dinner. It does make for a later night if you go to a show afterwards, but often on RCCL the late diners actually have a show before dinner. Regardless, we just like the late better. To each their own!