Originally posted by gweeptrish
I can sympathize with the tablemates problems others have had.
Our experience was a little different. Our tablemates were very socialable, but also somewhat bigoted. My husband and I joust (on horses in armor) and belong to a middle ages recreation group. Our tablemates did not know this. The first evening, they were telling a story about these weirdos they met in a park who wore armor and pretended to be King Arthur. They went on at length to talk about what losers these people were and why they couldn't just be normal and how they didn't want their kids exposed to them so they went home.
From the description of the armor and the activities, it was pretty obvious that these "weirdos" were from the same group that my husband and I belong to. In the interest of keeping the peace at the table (because we didn't know then that you could request to be switched) we refrained from telling them that we were a part of that group too. Since the jousting is our primary hobby and a very important part of our lives, it made for rather stilted, "how about that weather?" conversation for the rest of the cruise.