Dinner seating head count

[Amyg]

I've read on these boards that Disney tries to seat you with families with similar age kids. But how do they put you on a table of say 6, 8, 10? Do we select our choices beforehand, 1st choice, 2nd choice & 3rd choice?

Have most of you been pretty pleased with the outcome of your dining families?

 

[webray]

No selecting before hand necessary. Disney does it all.

Some of our very best friends were tablemates first on disney cruise line.

 

[Mickey'sfriend]

It's the luck of the draw when it comes to tablemates. Just go in with an open mind. You aren't being asked to marry your tablemates, just have pleasant conversation while you eat. Sometimes you luck out and lasting friendships form, but don't go into it with that expectation.

 

[Bobbybear68]

They put us with six other couples, on the Magic in September 2005. All the people were nice and interesting.

 

[tvguy]

Disney was our first cruise without tablemates. 4 of us, and they gave us a table for 4. It was okay, but have always enjoyed our tablemates company.
They called us once we are on board to change our table assignment. I think they needed to balance the number of people per wait team, because our wait team had the 4 of us, a table of 16 and a table of 6.

 

[sdaniel105]

For the past 5 years we have been at a table by ourselves. There are 6 in our group. My DW and I our boys and my parents.

Sean

 

[cgcw]

Disney was our first cruise without tablemates. 4 of us, and they gave us a table for 4. It was okay, but have always enjoyed our tablemates company.
They called us once we are on board to change our table assignment. I think they needed to balance the number of people per wait team, because our wait team had the 4 of us, a table of 16 and a table of 6.

Disney calls them "sections" and your right, they probably needed to even the load between the servers.

When we cruised in October, I coordinated the seating for 91 people on our cruise. I had to work within the Disney guidelines which were broken up into 1-table of 8, 1-table of 6, and 1-table of 4....making the total 18 for the team of server and assistant server. They didn't allow many variations from this grouping.

 

[Mom24Princesses]

Disney calls them "sections" and your right, they probably needed to even the load between the servers.

When we cruised in October, I coordinated the seating for 91 people on our cruise. I had to work within the Disney guidelines which were broken up into 1-table of 8, 1-table of 6, and 1-table of 4....making the total 18 for the team of server and assistant server. They didn't allow many variations from this grouping.

That is what I was going to describe. Our servers had our family of 6 at a table, a family of 4 at a table and a mixed group of mostly couples and two young teen girls that I think was 8 or even a person or two more at a third table??

 

[Amyg]

Looks like we might be with a table of 6 since it'll be me, dh and ds.

The cruises that I've been on had us select from several table sizes and we always choose to sit at a table of at least 6 since we enjoy meeting new people. Idealy I'm hoping that we sit with a family with a son around my sons age and that we can all really hit it off. Either way we'll enjoy our time on-board!

 

[ariesmom]

FYI:
We requested to be seated just our family of four. I was told that there were MANY such requests for tables of four so we may not get it. I did get the request despite making it just a week before traveling (we were initially traveling with friends who had to cancel). The reservations CM said that a large number of passengers made requests for table arrangements (frequently to be alone).

 

[smeck]

What kind of seating can we expect for the three of us. Will they seat us on a table of four or mix us in a table of 6 or 8?

 

[jrabbit]

Family of 3: we've sat with 5 others several times (total of 8), and we've sat with 3 other people (total of 6) and once we sat at a table for 14 - 5 different families - and beforehand noone knew each other - and with this group we probably had the most fun of all!!

 

[Jeanne B]

On our first DCL cruise w/ DD who was 11 at the time the only other child at the table was about 5. On our most recent Wonder cruise we were at a table with all adults so we haven't had much luck getting a table with kids DD's age.

 

[bobbi565]

We're a family of three and were seated with a family of five. I imagine that's a pretty common combo. We enjoyed chatting with our table mates. I have read on the boards, though, where people did not get along and requested a change of table, and were obliged.

 

[SnowWhite2]

We have been on three DCL cruises and all of them with our family of 4 and my parents - 6 total. We have always had a table for 6 and I have always missed having non-family tablemates. It's always nice to hear what everyone did during the day and you can find out some interesting things to do on the boat or on shore that you may not discover yourself.

 

[Lindy Loo]

We looked on our pre c ruise thrread meet, made some amazing mates on line. We decided to link our ressies, which we did easily by e mailing DCL. We had a table of 11, my dd4 being the only child and was spolit rotton.

we had a fantastic time and loved listening to what people had done that say etc.

If we had sat on a table of 3 I think it might not have been so much fun. But then we are a very sociable couple/family.

 

[flrickd]

I had my TA request a table for 4,(hope she actually did). We prefer it be just the 4 of us, it gives us a little time together to catch up and unwind. With busy schedules and school, work etc. you have to get it where you can.

 

[Amyg]

We're a family of three and were seated with a family of five. I imagine that's a pretty common combo. We enjoyed chatting with our table mates. I have read on the boards, though, where people did not get along and requested a change of table, and were obliged.

Yikes! Hope that's not our case; it would have to be REALLY bad for us to request a change! My DH has the patience of Job and is very people oriented so I anticipate no problem on our side at least. We generally get along with other "strangers" we have sat with, not necesarily made friends with them but were always at least cordial.

We shall see.

 

[bobbi565]

Yikes! Hope that's not our case; it would have to be REALLY bad for us to request a change! My DH has the patience of Job and is very people oriented so I anticipate no problem on our side at least. We generally get along with other "strangers" we have sat with, not necesarily made friends with them but were always at least cordial.

We shall see.

I know! I was a bit surprised to read that as well. I enjoy staying at B & B's on vacations precisely because of the opportunity to dine with new and interesting people, and one of our favorite restaurants is a Japanese steakhouse where we often strike up conversations with others seated around the grill. What a great opportunity to meet folks from all over the world and share the excitement of your day's adventure. What a wonderful chance to teach your children social etiquette. I was also pleased that the two boys of our tablemates, though slightly older than my preschooler, could be a good example to him of nice table manners and eating habbits as DS tends to be fidgety and picky at mealtime.

 

[Kim Luvs Disney]

We were a party of 3 and we were sat with another party of 3 and a party of 2. It was all adults. I was very happy with my tablemates.