No PC Dining first nite?

Hi, all! I read somewhere that for the first night of a Princess cruise, everyone is assigned an early or late seating for dining, due to the required lifeboat drill. Is this correct? And if so, is the buffet option still available the first evening? I ask because my preschooler is unlikely to sit in a formal dining room for a long meal and I would like to have options.

Thanks!

[sea angel]

See my "new message" pc dining. I hit new message instead of reply to.
Sea Angel

[sabaka]

We made our reservations for all 7 night when we boared. We ate at our choice of restaurant and time the 1st night and every night.

[LeiLoni]

we are sailing on the Caribbean Princess July 10 for our first cruise
we have PC dining and I am a little confused, i have been reading that if you do not make a reservation you could wait a long time for a table, is this correct?
so do I make reservstions the first night for everynight of the crusie?how do I know where I want to eat. this is all new to us so this might seen like a silly question
thanks LeiLoni

From what I've read about all the Princess ships and the PC dining, even without a reservation your maximum wait for a table at peak times (7-8PM) is 5-15 minutes. I plan on eating about the same time each night but I don't think I'll make reservations for the whole cruise at the start, I think you can make reservation for the same table and wait staff one day in advance. If you tie yourself down to a fixed time each night why use the PC dining option?

i think it's because people are putting in reservations for the whole week at "the good times", that there is a ridiculous wait

if everyone just went "whenever' , the waits would be less

[gail]

After doing PC about 7 times, I never saw the need to get a reservation. We like to eat around 7 pm, which is peak and we prefer a table for 2. When my husband takes our son to the kids club at 6:45, I go and put our name in. My the time hubby meets me, they are usually ready to seat us.
happy sailing,
sea angel

Most I waited for pc dining was 15 minutes and that was the one night we went to dinner around 7:30 otherwise we went right in and were seated quickly