Best Disney Cruise Line Dinner Seating – Early or Late?

When booking a Disney Cruise, you’ll need to pick your dining time – early or late seating. It’s not quite a deer-in-the-headlights moment, but you wouldn’t be alone in uncertainty about whether the first or second dinner seating is best. So which one should you choose? I’ll break down key things to consider about how the early or late dinner time might impact your cruise. Because the answer is that there is no universally “better” option; it’s about which one is better for you.

On Disney Cruise Line, your dinner seating time stays the same throughout your voyage. You’ll eat at the same time each night of your trip. For sailings originating from U.S. and Canadian ports, seatings are typically at 5:45 and 8:15 pm. For sailings originating in Europe, seatings are typically at 6:00 and 8:30 pm. Let’s start on this decision by asking …

What Time Do You Eat At Home?

Some cultures dine later; others earlier. On cruises leaving from ports in the United States, the first seating tends to “sell out” more quickly. On European cruises, it’s the opposite. Time zones play a role here too. A Californian on a 3-day Port Canaveral sailing might find the cruise is over before the early seating stops feeling like late lunch. But East Coast guests sailing from San Diego will find the late seating more akin to an overly hefty midnight snack.

You might be happy to adjust – or not – to dining aboard at a time that’s different from what you do at home. On a quick 3-night itinerary, you could feel that dining at an odd hour isn’t a big deal for a couple of days. On a longer sailing, you’ll have time to adjust. But if medical issues like acid reflux mean you need to eat your last meal several hours before bedtime, keeping to your schedule will be important. Medication timing is another factor that could make it hard to be flexible. And if you have kids who can’t stay awake past 8 pm, that doesn’t leave room for compromise on dining time.

What Are Your Other Meal Plans?

The adult dining venues, Palo, Palo Steakhouse, Enchante, and Remy, serve brunch. These brunches are large multi-course meals – feasts, even. In my experience, the early dinner seating might be too early to have your appetite back yet.

Conversely, dining at these upcharge restaurants could make your seating time less important. If you’re on a 3-night sailing and will eat “out” twice, your assigned dining time will only matter on one night. Should you decide on room service for that third night, you’ll never even eat in your rotational restaurant.

Late afternoon snacking often goes along with later dinner times. It can even be essential to stave off hangriness if you’ve chosen the later seating for other reasons. (Hello room service cheese plate.) But if you’re trying to limit calories, the early seating can help cut down the temptation to snack.

What Else Are You Doing on Your Cruise?

You can see the evening’s feature entertainment no matter which seating time you choose. If you have the 5:45 early dinner, you’ll be able to watch the 8 pm stage show, and vice versa. But if you’re picky about where you sit in the theater, you may prefer the late dinner seating so you can line up early for the performance. Early diners may not get to the theater fast enough to snag a particular seat.

If you have kids who can’t stay up late, you may feel like you need to choose between your dinner seating and the stage shows. If you don’t want to go every night, you can select the early seating. You can feed the kids from the pool deck Quick Service and skip the main dining room to make the early show. Or you can choose the late seating, and take turns having some family members put younger kids to bed while others go to dinner after the show.

Long Port Adventures that get back to the ship near the early seating time might be a reason to opt for a later dinner. Even if you’re staying aboard, you might feel that an early dinner will cut into your pool time in the late afternoon. The later seating can give you more time to shower, change, and dress up if you prefer.

What’s Your Dining Style?

Are you all business when it comes to dinner, or do you like to relax and linger? For those who eat slowly, you’ll find that the second seating may seem less rushed because the servers don’t have to turn over the table. There will be young kids at both the early and late seating. But there are usually more children at the earlier seating, so the late dining time tends to be a bit quieter. If you’re a parent who prefers a leisurely coffee, Dine & Play lets your kids head off to the kids club when they’re done eating. But it’s only available at the later seating.

If nothing else matters, your dinner seating influences your last morning; early dinner eats early breakfast. The late dinner and a late breakfast will let you sleep in a bit more on your last day if you won’t be running to catch a plane. But you’ll have other breakfast options, so this is likely the most minor of deciding factors.

Depending on how far out you book, one or the other seating time may not be available. If this happens, you can request the other seating. Head to the My Reservations section of the Disney Cruise Line website and join the waitlist. If you don’t make it off the waitlist before you sail, stop by Guest Services when you first board the ship. There may be another party who wants the opposite assignment and Guest Services may be able to swap you.

Have you sailed on Disney Cruise Line? Which dinner seating do you prefer? Let us know in the comments!

Thanks to Erin Foster for an earlier version of this article.