I am a little confused about dining--4 day w/ w kids

[dutton]

I know that you do an early or late rotation, and that there are three rest. in that rotation and Palos is extra. But what I want to know is:: what are early and late times? we will have 4 1/2, 6, 9, 11 yr olds with us What are advantages to each time? What do you do on 4th night? If you want to eat at Palos what do the kids eat? If your kids go to the kids clubs every night do they eat there if they don't go to the rest.? Are you to go to shows before or after you eat? I think that about sums it up. I am really confused about the whole dining thing. Also, breakfast and lunch are buffets or sit downs? Well thanks I will probably have more questions later!! Oh, our cruise won't be until october 2004 Thanks!

 

[alexandrew]

Early seating is 6pm, late is 8:30 pm

We prefer late seating, as it is quieter and less hurried than early. It is less popular than early for the obvious reason that those traveling with small children will find 8:30 to be late for dining

4th night may be ideal for a Palo reservation, as you've experienced all of the rotation restaurants

If you check in your kids at Oceaneers at about 5pm, the counselors will escort the children en masse to Topsiders for dinner at about 5;30

early seating diners attend later show, which begins at 8:30. Late seating diners attend earlier show at 6:30

breakfast and lunch, you have many options, including sit down restaurant dining, Plutos Doghouse, Pinocchios pizza. or Topsiders Buffet

 

[TeensMom]

For dinner, you are assigned a "rotation". We last sailed on the Magic and I can't remember the names on the Wonder but lets call the restaurants A B and C. If your rotation is ABCAyou get A the first night, you'll get B the second, C the third and A again the 4th. If your rotation is BCAB - you get the picture. There have been postings at length on which is the best rotation with kids - we liked all the restaurants. One of the restaurants is a bit more formal so if your kids don't do well - sitting still and all - you might not want to hit that one twice.

Early and late dinner times have changed up and back - first seating is in the 5:30 - 6:00 time frame, second seating is 7:30 - 8:00 or so. Whatever the times are, you want to be ON TIME as they do not serve the table until everyone is seated so you are keeping someone else from eating. Our first cruise we did the early seating. For younger kids it might be better because they may get hungry earlier, tired earlier, etc. But, it can also really PUSH you if you do an excursion and don't get back until 5:00. For our second cruise, we did the later seating and liked it a lot better. After dinner our kids (teens now) were ready to hit Common Grounds and we usually went to one of the clubs. If we wanted to see a show, we saw it before the later seating.

For breakfast and lunch, I think you can do a formal sit-down, served thing if you want to but we just went to the buffet in the top deck restaurant. The exception is the last morning - you have a sit down breakfast in the same restaurant you ate in the previous night. I guess they want to control things to get you off the ship. There's also pizza and hamburgers available around the pool.

Don't stress over the details - I'm glad I did not discover these boards until after our second cruise because I'm a PLANNER. I would have driven myself nuts and not had any fun if I knew there were so many things to stress out about. Disney does it pretty well without us going nuts!

 

[LAMPSKIES]

Myself my wife and my 10 and 12 year old girls ave been on the Wonder twice Feb 2000 we had the early seating, the girls don't ave much patience waiting to eat. We rebooked the ill fated Magic Nov 30 and also selected early dining. When it cancelled we quickly booked Dec 1 Wonder and had no choice in times---we got the later. We actually liked it better, with 3 girls showering, doing hair, makeup, etc. we didn't have to rush. Early shows were at 6:30 that gave an extra half hour to get ready and if you are late for the show you can still see it. There are pleanty of snacks and the kids won't be hungary. I will definately book late again!