tablemates

[disneynewbee]

So have you ever had tablemates you just didn't hit it off with? Any that were just horrible. What was it about them that you didn't like? And how did you deal with it? Just being nosey.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Yeah, we got stuck eating with our neighbors last year!

Just kidding, we did travel with our neighbors and enjoyed our meals with them every evening. We also got sat with a family of 3 from Toronto. Their son (5) and my DD (7) became fast friends and she became his "cruise girlfriend." She helped to entertain hima it dinner, it was very cute!

 

[plutojudy]

No, we have always had great table mates.

 

[fairfax]

Once, we were seated with an older couple and their high school age daughter. They took one look at us with our two kids (who were 18 months and 3 years old at the time) and asked to be changed to another table right away because they had asked to be seated at an adults only table. We never got new tablemates and had the large table to ourselves for the rest of the cruise.

 

[nikkistevej]

We've only been on one DCL, and loved our tablemates. They had a daughter the same age as our daughter, and they got along great. Now I went on a "scrapbook" cruise with my sister in 2007, and did not care for 2 of our tablemates on that cruise, but loved the other 3 at our table. The one(that I didn't like- a perfect stranger mind you) tried to stick her fork in my food and take a bite, I took my fork and poked her in her hand, told her "you don't touch a fat girl's food." She didn't sit next to me for the rest of the cruise, my sister and the other girl's at the table looked like they were gonna die laughing. I mean come on, a perfect stranger gonna touch my food- ewww.

 

[disneynewbee]

We've only been on one DCL, and loved our tablemates. They had a daughter the same age as our daughter, and they got along great. Now I went on a "scrapbook" cruise with my sister in 2007, and did not care for 2 of our tablemates on that cruise, but loved the other 3 at our table. The one(that I didn't like- a perfect stranger mind you) tried to stick her fork in my food and take a bite, I took my fork and poked her in her hand, told her "you don't touch a fat girl's food." She didn't sit next to me for the rest of the cruise, my sister and the other girl's at the table looked like they were gonna die laughing. I mean come on, a perfect stranger gonna touch my food- ewww.

OMG I can't imagine a stranger putting their fork in my plate. I mean we share food between family and are always eating off of each others plate but for a stranger to reach into your plate, that's just crazy.

 

[disneynewbee]

Once, we were seated with an older couple and their high school age daughter. They took one look at us with our two kids (who were 18 months and 3 years old at the time) and asked to be changed to another table right away because they had asked to be seated at an adults only table. We never got new tablemates and had the large table to ourselves for the rest of the cruise.

Did they ask right in front of you? If I was them I would have at least finished that meal and asked in private after the meal was over. Or at least made a comment that hey it's not you guys we just wanted an adult table. I have 4 kids so I can imagine that adults with no kids or with older kids wouldn't want to sit with us but I would hope they would handle it tactfully. In our case my mom and her bf are going so with 8 of us I think we will be at a table alone anyway.

 

[nikkistevej]

OMG I can't imagine a stranger putting their fork in my plate. I mean we share food between family and are always eating off of each others plate but for a stranger to reach into your plate, that's just crazy.

I know it's crazy!! (I actually don't share food with anyone, occasionally with my DD or DH- and that's rare- LOL- I just don't share it) My sister knows that too, that's why she looked like she was gonna pass out from holding in her laughter.

 

[tvguy]

We were disappointed on the Magic, we had a table to ourselves. We have always had fun table mates on past cruises.
I can see it being a bigger risk on Disney since there are so many more young children on board than on other cruise lines, and more importantly, parents have so many different ideas of what is appropriate behaviour by children at the dinner table.
No offense Fairfax, but I can see on the surface, not knowing your kids, why someone might be uncomfortable with an 18 month old at the table, and maybe a 3 year old too. We didn't take our kids on a cruise until they were 11 and 15, but we made annual treks by plane beginning at 6 months old, to Grandma and Grandpa's and Great-Grandma-and Great Grandpas, and I know even my little angels, despite being great kids, and despite a lot of work by DW and I (these were no vacations for us!!), probably disturbed some people during the course of our travels.

 

[debbiechels]

My daughter and I went on a cruise last year and this was my biggest fear - bad tablemates. I was already very self concious without my husband and I literally worried myself to death over it. After saying all that - I met the best table of friends. We looked forward to dinner every night - we usually go to topsiders one night and to Palo one night but no way on this cruise - we just could not leave our cruise family. We actually cried on our last morning and still write to them and think of them often. One family booked the same week we did but it will be hard to go this year without all of them but they were going the week before us - but watch out 2010!

 

[jlowejd5]

JOEY DOESN'T SHARE FOOD!!!

hee hee

We've had good luck, for the most part. Our first cruise, we were with a family with two kids (probably 10 and 8) and both kids were kinda sick the whole cruise. I don't know if they were seasick, or just flat-out exhausted and sunburned and wiped out. My guess is that they would have been nice enough people, but the kids were pretty much eating up all of their focus. They'd eat fast and bail, becuase both kids looked like they were just this side of nausea. We felt bad for them.

Honeymoon cruise was just us and another adult couple. They were pretty cool, if a bit reserved.

This is our first cruise since then where we aren't cruising with friends, so we're hoping for good things. Plus we're second seating, so we'll see how this works out...

 

[fairfax]

Did they ask right in front of you? If I was them I would have at least finished that meal and asked in private after the meal was over. Or at least made a comment that hey it's not you guys we just wanted an adult table. I have 4 kids so I can imagine that adults with no kids or with older kids wouldn't want to sit with us but I would hope they would handle it tactfully. In our case my mom and her bf are going so with 8 of us I think we will be at a table alone anyway.

They sort of stood in front of the table and wouldn't sit down and finally the head server took them aside. Later, our server told us that they wanted to move because they had requested the adults only seating (they thought 8:30 was adults only seating) and table. At first I was a little offended, but then realized I was better off without having to worry about them being upset at our table during dinner. I can totally understand not wanting to sit with small children if you are past that stage in your life. Still, it's hard not to feel a little rejected (I am just kidding!! I understand not everyone loves my kids as much as I do!)

 

[Cruise]

We're just a couple, no kids, so on our first cruise, we requested a 4 top so we'd just be with another couple. Which woulda been okay except they were from Singapore and the wife didn't speak any English. The husband would speak with us, but didn't seem inclined to interpret anything for his wife, so she ended up just sitting there. There ended up being a lot of awkward quietness at the table.

Since then, we've either requested larger tables so we'll have a better chance of meeting more people to hit it off with or linked reservations with others that we already knew through the DIS.

 

[Debbru]

We've been on 4 cruises - 2 with friends, 2 just DH & I (one of these was the DVC cruise, we were seated with 3 other couples, and had a fantastic time - we even saw & ate with 2 of the couples who also went on to WDW after the cruise).

Now for that 4th cruise - OMG it's hard to even descibe the experience! We were seated with another couple at a table for 4. Before I describe their dress, let me just say that DH & I are NOT formal type people, we're very casual, but we do put on nice pants and shirts/tops for dinner. This other couple showed up in what I would call old gym wear. They both had on old, gym shorts, she had a plain tee shirt, he wore a torn, stained underwear-type tee. As each dinner progressed, his tee accumulated more stains!!!
They wore these each night of the 3 night cruise.

The conversation was even worse - each night he described everything that went wrong for them that day (nothing would have pleased them). Twice he sent back his food because it was cold -- you had to be there when he called the Head Waiter over & insisted he touch his steak. The poor HW said he didn't need to touch it, he would just bring it back for another -- this went back & forth - "touch this" - "I'll just have it replaced sir" - "No, touch this" etc etc.

The best conversation was the final night - we got a 1 hour description of several surgeries he had had over the last 2 years - including his stomach and bowel problems.

Please don't let this scare anyone from eating with strangers -- I don't think these were typical tablemates and if it ever happened again we would definitely ask to be moved.

Debbie

 

[mmmagic7754]

We have never had anyone we didn't get along with, but some were better than others.Our last cruise we were with a couple from Scotland and we still keep in touch

 

[yazee1]

Three cruises - all three times we've enjoyed our tablemates. The first time we were paired with strangers. The second and third time, we arranged to have thread meet friends as our table mates. That's a fun thing to do. This last cruise, we adored our tablemates. Our upcoming cruise will be the first one we've taken with other family members. I don't think we'll have any surprises in terms of tablemates who touch our food, invited to or not.

This topic has come up in the past so I know there are some really eye-bugging, hair raising stories out there. While they are the exception to the rule, they do make for some interesting reading.

 

[BearFan]

Ok, let me first say that statistically speaking, we're doing great.

We've been on 11 cruises and only once had tablemates we didn't get along with. We asked for our server specifically and got him, we've had him on 9 of the 11 we've been on. I will protect the names of the innocent and not so innocent for moralities sake here. Our first night, this couples in their early 50's were complaining that on their last DCL cruise they had lousy service and had to wait forever. We assured them that our server was top notch and that the cruiseline even uses him to train new people. He came over and introduced himself to the table and she sat straight up stiffly and said OUT LOUD, "Yeah, but he's black!" in front of us, another retired couple and our server. We were mortified!!!!!!! We sat there speechless. To say that our 7 day cruise was awkward was an understatement. We were on a holiday cruise and could not be moved anywhere and still have our friend as server so we toughed it out. Amazingly, that couple also did not asked to be moved either. The possibility of having someone of another race as a server should have occured to them especially after cruising before. They were not so overt the rest of the time but just awful giving our server and head server the roughest of times ever evening. It seemed like a sick game to them. Our server and head server bent over backwards to be nice and provided excellent service and to this day, I still do not know if they got tipped. I know that they stiffed the head server for sure but am not sure about our friend. We hardly spoke to them the entire trip and had several empty chairs between us and them. Apparently the other couple had no trouble with their attitude and occasionally joined in on the trouble. We took it as a personal affront unto us and our server. We love him dearly and have even been invited to his wedding in the past. I don't want people to freak out after this story but keep it in mind that it still happens in this day and age. We just had a very unusual circumstance not being able to be moved. I think the experience has actually brought us closer as friends with our server and head server, which is our silver lining!

Lisa Marie

 

[BobandLee]

Well, yes a couple of times.
The first 7 day eastern we were on, we were seated with 4 other couples who spent the whole cruise trying to impress each other.
Then on a 4 day cruise we were seated with two ladies who were trying to diet and dissected each meal.
Also, the got sunburnt the first day out and complained about being burnt the rest of the cruise.

Now the good.
In 2004 we were on a Western cruise. We were seated with another couple and their son. Hardly a word was spoken the first night.
But the next night, after Key West, we just kinda hit things off and each night was good.
While on that cruise, we heard about the Dis. Started chatting.
When we did the 05 Panama WB, we were with a lot of other Disboard people. Had a great time.

Have sat with Disers on the subsequent 3 cruises. Wonderful on each.

 

[Evil Queen 2]

Well, DH and I have, with the exception of one cruise, always enjoyed our tablemates. Now whether they would say the same thing is something else.

We have been seated with 2 families that each had a child, with couples around our age, couples older, and couples younger. In 6 cruises only once did we have a couple that were picky/fussy about everything. But on the other hand they only came 3 nights out of the 7. The server and assistant were great even when the couple complained about having too much ice in their water. Guess I would just hate to be so unhappy that I have to punish everyone around me.

We think it's kind of neat to have young kids at the table. We enjoy them for a hour and then turn them back over to their folks. Sort of rent a grandkid!

 

[WeLuvDCL]

We're just a couple, no kids, so on our first cruise, we requested a 4 top so we'd just be with another couple. Which woulda been okay except they were from Singapore and the wife didn't speak any English. The husband would speak with us, but didn't seem inclined to interpret anything for his wife, so she ended up just sitting there. There ended up being a lot of awkward quietness at the table.

I think we had those same tablemates on a different cruise!
Honestly, though, this did happne to us too. The husband barely spoke English and they just weren't "our type of people"
But, we have been on almost 20 cruises and this is the only bad experience we had...and it wasn't on Disney. SO they odds of having good tablemates are pretty good.