Are they now trending towards "single family" tables in the MDRs?

[DahliaRW]

On our Norway cruise we were a group of 3, myself, my daughter who was 5, and my MIL. I was very disappointed that we were seated by ourselves. And looking around the MDR, there were a lot of 4-top tables with 2-4 people at each of them. There were a couple of larger tables, but even those looked like large extended family groups (baby and toddler wandering around the table sitting on everyone's laps, whole table sharing wine, etc.) On our previous cruise, on the Fantasy, our family of 5 sat with a family of 3. And I've always read on here having your own table was a special request.

Is this a new trend? Anyone else notice it? I guess next cruise I'll have to request NOT being by ourselves. I actually wrote how I was disappointed by that on our comment card! I never even though to request being sat with others.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

They have always tried to do it re customer feedback.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Which seating were you at? We had main seating, and I didn't notice a significant amount of small tables near us.

 

[Lando1]

We had main seating on our Alaskan cruises; seemed like the majority of tables were arranged for 4 people. We had a few large tables scattered here and there but most appeared to contain large family groups.

 

[DahliaRW]

We were main (first) seating. Rotation was CLACLAC.

 

[clten]

It depends on the sailing and the number of guests on board. If it is a sailing that has a large number of adults / small number of children so all the cabins may be full but the guest counts are lower than normal, they do tend to spread you out so a lot of families do end up with their own table. (Our recent Transatlantic cruise was like this -- the largest tables seemed to be filled with people who had requested to sit together.) If it is a cruise with higher passenger count (all cabins full with typical children/adult ratio), they don't have the same luxury of spreading families out so there is more table sharing.

I don't think its a trend, I think they have always tried to do this to spread out the guests among the servers.

 

[michellekcm]

Our server on the first Norway cruise said there were less people, so they spread people out to try and ensure that all the servers get roughly equal numbers. They also apparently balance between first and second seating.

Eg our serving team had 3 families of 4, sitting at a 4-top, a 6-top, and an 8-top at our main seating. But she said they had 3 full tables at second seating. Others who looked busy at main had quieter second seatings.

 

[annacali]

We were on a full Fantasy cruise last week (Western) and noticed this also. It was our first cruise so I went in expecting that we may be seated with others. But in our dining group (main seating, ERAERRA) every table was single family. We had 6, there were 2 families of 4 at the tables next to us (one table each), and another family of 5 that had a table for 6 alone. There were two large tables near by but it was obvious that they were large single/extended family groups. I wondered if Disney was switching to more single family groups too.

 

[SwimMom2]

Hm, that is interesting. We were on the Norway cruise too, main seating, and were seated with another family of 4 with kids the same ages as ours. I saw several empty 4-tops near us. It seemed like the dining room was majority 8-tops. We had LACLACL.

 

[DahliaRW]

Hm, that is interesting. We were on the Norway cruise too, main seating, and were seated with another family of 4 with kids the same ages as ours. I saw several empty 4-tops near us. It seemed like the dining room was majority 8-tops. We had LACLACL.

So not fair. I was actually very bummed we were on our own. I really like meeting new people. Now I know to request a shared table, just in case.

 

[MUN]

On our Norway cruise we were a group of 3, myself, my daughter who was 5, and my MIL. I was very disappointed that we were seated by ourselves. And looking around the MDR, there were a lot of 4-top tables with 2-4 people at each of them. There were a couple of larger tables, but even those looked like large extended family groups (baby and toddler wandering around the table sitting on everyone's laps, whole table sharing wine, etc.) On our previous cruise, on the Fantasy, our family of 5 sat with a family of 3. And I've always read on here having your own table was a special request.

Is this a new trend? Anyone else notice it? I guess next cruise I'll have to request NOT being by ourselves. I actually wrote how I was disappointed by that on our comment card! I never even though to request being sat with others.

I didn't notice this on our Fantasy EC 2 weeks ago. We are a family of 5 and we were paired with a lovely family of 3. However, for our cruise out of Galveston in December, I think we will request to sit by ourselves.

 

[Mousesmom]

Being just two of us, I would be disappointed to be seated alone. It's nice to interact with someone other than just each other for at least a couple of hours a day. While we are both introverts, we still make an effort to talk to new friends. Otherwise, the conversation would go something like "So, how was your day?" with response "You ought to know, you spent it with me".

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

I was going to offer just as you already did - make sure it's noted on your reservation you want to be seated with others We do the opposite - we prefer to sit alone (the three of us) and request to dine alone so we always hope it will be accommodated.

Heather

 

[MVC1225]

I was going to offer just as you already did - make sure it's noted on your reservation you want to be seated with others We do the opposite - we prefer to sit alone (the three of us) and request to dine alone so we always hope it will be accommodated.

Heather

How do you note this on the reservation? We prefer to sit alone and last time we went the first day and got this taken care of but I wanted to do this for our cruise next year as well.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

How do you note this on the reservation? We prefer to sit alone and last time we went the first day and got this taken care of but I wanted to do this for our cruise next year as well.

Just call DCL and have the request placed on your reservation. They will point out it's just a request, not guaranteed.

 

[over50visits]

How do you note this on the reservation? We prefer to sit alone and last time we went the first day and got this taken care of but I wanted to do this for our cruise next year as well.

Just give DCL a call. They are great at accommodating requests like this. In fact, I've found them to be great with (pleasant) requests even the day of the cruise, or during the cruise!

 

[SwimMom2]

I totally overlooked this or else I would have requested our own table. Turns out, we enjoyed sitting with the other family. We managed to split the whole group and family only conversations comfortably. Now I probably won't make a special request in the future and just let the chips fall where they may. Opened my mind.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

We've been on 3 cruises (family of 4) and all 3 were seated by ourselves, didn't request it ever.

Just out of curiosity, for those of you who like to sit with others, would you ever consider that at a restaurant on land? I'm not judging or trying to start a fight or debate or anything. I'm just real curious.

 

[DahliaRW]

We've been on 3 cruises (family of 4) and all 3 were seated by ourselves, didn't request it ever.

Just out of curiosity, for those of you who like to sit with others, would you ever consider that at a restaurant on land? I'm not judging or trying to start a fight or debate or anything. I'm just real curious.

I probably wouldn't mind, but it wouldn't be the same. The nice part on the cruise is that you're dining together for consecutive nights (usually 7), so you get to know each other, your children have other children to talk/play with as they sit through night after night of sit down dining, etc. On land I would never go out to eat consecutively like that (we don't go out that often at all), so it really wouldn't be the same thing at all.

 

[MommyMeNDisney]

I'm really hoping they will honor our request for our own table for our next cruise. Last month, they put us at an 8 top with four kids (two 12 month old babies, a 5.5 y/o and a 6 y/o)!!!! No bueno!!! Dinner was my least favorite thing on the cruise. However, DS(1) did fine at breakfast and lunch when it was just us at the table.

I don't want to gamble with Disney's "matching" again next cruise. Two one year olds at one table is distracting. Add a 5.5 year old who pouts every time her mom tells her not to feed her food to someone else's baby or that she can't hold someone else's baby, and you have one stressful dinner situation. So, we're hoping to get our own table.