I’ll be going on my first cruise soon. I have received conflicting advice on whether to choose first or second seating for dinner. What do you think and why?
Mrs Xerx and I have been on 3 cruises, and opted for late sitting on each. Even though the shore excursions are timed to get back before the early sitting, we felt we would have been a bit rushed, and if you go out on your own, you have more time to explore before having to get back to the ship.
YMMV… enjoy your cruise, whichever sitting you choose…
…done both and would only go 2nd now…1st seating is all the seniors and not a real fun scene…the 2nd one can be more interesting after a few cocktails with a better crowd…here’s a dining tip for you…order 2 meals…not sure between the seafood and steak?..ORDER BOTH…they bring you whatever you want…
Norwegian has no “sittings”, come when you want, to any of several restaurants. My last two cruises have been with them, before that was 1992.
My wife and I chose 2nd seating due to the fact that we do not much like the company of children. We sat with some great folks who as stated earlier were more of a cocktail crew.
I would definitely recommend second sitting.
If you don’t care for eating late and/or would like to have some evening time for other things, first seating makes sense. If you prefer being able to extend your afternoon pursuits and/or don’t want to feel rushed getting to dinner, second seating makes sense.
Mrs. mske and I opted for second seating when we went on our cruise - for many of the reasons mentionned already: more time for afternoon activities and therefore more time to relax before dinner (shower, etc.) and fewer kids in the dining room.
However, seeing as how we did not finish eating until about 10:00 or so, if we wanted to see the show of the night, we had to plan on a very late evening which might not jive with an early morning excursion. And we had absolutely no motivation to join in the midnight buffet which is too bad since the food looked good - but damn, were we full.
2 seating.
1st seating is for the oldies.
Plus, there is so much good food on a cruise that you’ll want the later seating to give time to digest 
/travel guru hat ON/
second seating…definitely!
/travel guru hat OFF/
First seating because you know dinner will start on time and you get more time to digest it. Plus I wanted more lounge around time in the evenings. Depending on the cruise you take, the crowd will vary (kids, old people, etc.).
We are going with the entire family of 6, with kids aged 11-22. We picked second seating, but someone we know who has gone on lots of cruises said first is definately best. After reading these responses it seems obvious she thought that because a) she has much younger kids and b) always goes with her parents. She mentioned something about the shows, but it seems she really meant you can see the show, eat, and get to bed early. Personally, I would rather do more outdoor things during the daylight hours and don’t mind staying up later to stretch the day. It sounds like we have made the correct decision for our personal habits.