Table Mates

[disneyholic family]

I hesitated to say so, but we also made such a request. Personally, I'm pretty social and wouldn't care who we sat with. My husband on the other hand doesn't want to make chit-chat with strangers. Since it's just the two of us..who knows? We'll soon find out.

on both of our cruises it was 4 of us - DH, DD, DS and me.
there are tables for 4, so it wasn't a problem.

When you cruise concierge they will pretty much set you up at your own table unless you link dining or ask otherwise. Dh asked the dining room manager about this one cruise because we kept getting a table by ourselves but DH likes to meet new people. Only once has it been a bust as far as bad table mates.

we were concierge, but i specifically requested that we have our own table.
we weren't interested in tablemate roullette.
we would have enough of that during our hiking vacations. We would go on at least 2 week long hiking vacations each year. The dining hall had long 20 person tables, so there was no option for eating alone.
But we were all hiking people so there was that in common at the outset.

Funny now that i think about it, as the hiking vacations were the complete opposite of concierge - the rooms were these spartan cinderblock rooms with bunkbeds (each family had one room with only a bunch of bunkbeds in it) and the food was served family style - and not by family....just big serving dishes at various places along the table.
and we were up before dawn each morning, so we were out hiking before sunrise.
Great vacations. Perfect. Alas, the kids are now all grown up, so we haven't been on one in about 6 years. The kids now hike on their own.
but we did it at least twice a year for about 15 years. Starting when DS was 3 and DH was 5.
Memories

 

[MartDM]

Generally, DCL does seem to match up similarly composed groups to be seated together. Sometimes, not so much.

True. On our last cruise we, early 40's with a 4 year old son, were paired with two mid-20's newlyweds. Hardly a demographic match made in DCL heaven. AND, we were concierge, which I understand typically means a table to yourselves.

Our son is well behaved and they were quite pleasant, so we all did fine togther but, because we really didn't have a whole lot in common except the cruise itself, conversation never really got beyond polite small talk each evening so I can't really say the experience was memorable or enjoyable. It was more, well, kind of boring.

 

[calngavinsmom]

Thanks guys! Just the info I was looking for

Take care!
Tara

 

[Ephany]

On paper our tablemates were perfect. One couple (no kids) and a second couple with one child same age as DD. The first couple worked in the same industry as us and lived in the area where DH grew up. Unfortunately the other child was not well behaved and his father had to direct every conversation (which mostly was complaining about the ship and how much better every other cruise they had every been on was compared to ours). At the end, DH remarked it'd been great if we could have just been seated with the first couple, they seemed like a lot of fun and we had tons to talk about. Next time, he asked me to request that that we be seated alone; he said it was depressing listen to the other guy complain the whole time.

 

[Aby]

Last year on our Alaskan cruise, my hubby and I requested to be seated alone if possible. Going out to dinner is one of our favorite things to do together and we enjoy the privacy. On the first night, we got to our table and there was an older couple already seated (we are in our 30's, they were I'd guess in their 50's) so I thought they just couldn't grant the request.

Turns out, the couple was supposed to be at early dining and there was a mistake on their reservation, so they told them to come to late dining the first night and they would get them switched for the next day. Well, we hit it off! We really enjoyed our dinner with them even though I'm not much of a talker around strangers, and I guess they liked us too because they requested that they not be moved after all.

We had a great time at all our dinners, and we even skipped our Palo dinner reservation as we were having so much fun in the main dining room with them. They did the same another night

That being said, my hubby and I are going again in 2013 and I think we will request a table alone again. Although we had a blast, I think we would really enjoy the intimacy of eating alone this time.

Aby

 

[ColoradoDisneyFreaks]

When I called to request for a specific dining rotation, the CM and I were chatting as she was entering my request in the system. She picked up that I am divorced and traveling with my DS alone. When she repeated back to my my request, she said, Requesting XXX dining rotation and would love to be paired with another single parent traveling with a child similar in age to her son." I did not specify the additional request, but it was very sweet of her to add it in. We will see what happens when I sail next month.

Me and my DD did a cruise last October just the 2 of us. When we got to dinner, we were seated with a mom and DD traveling together, and a Dad and DD traveling together, turns out the girls were all within a year of DD's age, and all 3 parents were in the same industry, one lives about a mile from our house!

I think from a demographics standpoint, Disney tries to match up where they can, you may have better luck if you haven't requested a specific rotation, but I bet they'll do great. They can't guarantee that your personalities will match, but, they sure do try with situations and ages!

 

[ibouncetoo]

I hadn't thought about linking with a fellow DISer. How many people are at most tables? We are a party of 5. Last time we had another party of 5.

Linking with DISers is standard operating procedure for me now. They can do table sizes up to about 16 people. If there are more than that linked the will do tables in the same station. For Alaska there were 18 of us and we had a table for 10 and 8 and we just switched out where we sat each night.

On some of the specialty cruises (Panama Canal/Transatlantic/Hawaii) there are so many DISers wanting to dine together that we link up reservations into groups and then DCL places all groups in the same section of the restaurant.

 

[COASTIEandMATE]

We were on the inaugural Alaska cruise last year and were so happy to have 2 guys who worked at Disneyland resort and a couple who were ex cast members at our table!! Needless to say we loved our tablemates, but we are having our dining linked with friends we met on the disboards for our next cruise! I think, as others have said, that Disney tries hard to find you tablemates with something in common! Aloha, Karen and Ron

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

In my mind, part of the cruising experience is have tablemates. We have always had great conversations.

But then again, we are the type who like to eat at restaurants with communal tables.

 

[E&Cmom]

Last Year on our Alaskan cruise, we were seated with another family of 4. They also had 2 girls who were the same age as mine. The girls became fast friends and after dinner always begged to the kids clubs to play together.