Western TA dining times

[cscream13]

We're on the same cruise. the early dining is completely filled up - in fact Disney overbooked and moved mine to the late (I will have a 5 year old with me so it might not go over so well)

We were told that because of the timing, people don't tend to pull kids out of school and thus the cruise is teeming is toddlers. That's why the early seating is so popular

That's interesting -- we are booked on this cruise, but are not sure yet if we will definitely go due to DH's work schedule. My kids will be 4 and 20 months by then -- I've been worried that, as excited as I am for this cruise, it may not be the best for kids this age. Interesting to hear the thinking is that there will be a lot of parents in our position, going on this cruise with kids younger than school-age.

That may not be the only reason main dining is waitlisted, though. I've been watching prices to decide if I should re-shop with an OBB when we sail in a few weeks, and I've noticed that the cruise is becoming pretty full. Even for people without kids, I think main dining is pretty popular, so as the ship becomes full, I would expect main dining to go waitlist regardless. Plus someone said it is 6:00 instead of the usual 5:45 for main seating, which may push people toward main dining since the late seating would be 8:30.

 

[thebigredBOAT]

We're on the same cruise. the early dining is completely filled up - in fact Disney overbooked and moved mine to the late (I will have a 5 year old with me so it might not go over so well)

We were told that because of the timing, people don't tend to pull kids out of school and thus the cruise is teeming is toddlers. That's why the early seating is so popular

If you're talking about the WBTA '17, just as a data point, our '16 WBTA that we just finished was very kid-light! According to the concierge, they normally have 1,000-1,250 kids on the ship for typical sailings, but ours had roughly 250 kids on board. My wife & I both really noticed the number of adults-only dining tables (we were the 6:00pm seating, too). It was almost difficult for my DS4 to find other kids to play with in the clubs.

 

[thethreechunks]

FWIW, we were waitlisted for main dining on our first Disney cruise and did end up getting Main Dining. I'm trying to remember the timing, etc. -- I want to say it was a few weeks before -- I didn't receive a notification, I think I just check my reservation details and it showed Main Dining.

Great! We are waitlisted as well Hoping for same positive results!

 

[gismo1554]

If you're talking about the WBTA '17, just as a data point, our '16 WBTA that we just finished was very kid-light! According to the concierge, they normally have 1,000-1,250 kids on the ship for typical sailings, but ours had roughly 250 kids on board. My wife & I both really noticed the number of adults-only dining tables (we were the 6:00pm seating, too). It was almost difficult for my DS4 to find other kids to play with in the clubs.

Sounds about right based on the 2014 & 2015 ones too. I think they said around 300 last year and 250 the year before.