Assigned tables for dinner

[melissarose]

How do they decide who to seat you with? We are a young couple with no kids, so I'm just wondering if they would try and seat us with other kidless couples, with families, with older people, or with people closer to our age? Not that it matters, before anyone says that it shouldn't, I'm just wondering if they try to put similar demographics together!?

 

[jmedrew]

We cruised in the Med and are military. They put us with another Air Force family with two kids. Surely that wasn't coincidental! We had a blast with them.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

How do they decide who to seat you with? We are a young couple with no kids, so I'm just wondering if they would try and seat us with other kidless couples, with families, with older people, or with people closer to our age? Not that it matters, before anyone says that it shouldn't, I'm just wondering if they try to put similar demographics together!?

Yes, DCL does try to match the demographics of the parties they seat together.

Sometimes (rarely) it's not possible, but they seem to do a great job.

 

[melissarose]

That's great to hear!

 

[DisneyDreamer2504]

DH and I are also a young couple without kids. I've heard of couples being sat with a family, but every cruise we've been on we've been sat with other young couples close to our age. Our first cruise together, before we were married, we were sat with 3 couples who were on their honeymoons, so they assumed we were too and gave us all the free treats and such!

 

[over50visits]

How do they decide who to seat you with? We are a young couple with no kids, so I'm just wondering if they would try and seat us with other kidless couples, with families, with older people, or with people closer to our age? Not that it matters, before anyone says that it shouldn't, I'm just wondering if they try to put similar demographics together!?

In many cruises, we have always been seated with compatible folks. When we had kids, there were kids the same age. When just two adults, we sat generally with other married couples our age. Disney says they try to do it that way, and as far as I can tell they always are successful.

Having said that, if you have a special request that's important you can contact DCL ahead of time to tell them your preferences. The once recently we did that, we received a very nice email back which basically said no promises but they would try...and they did come through just as we had hoped.

We're 100% with the "luck of the draw" so far, though, so I'd recommend just show up and expect to be pleasantly surprised with your table group.

 

[CajunMomof3]

We have only cruised once before on Disney and were very leery of the whole seating thing as we have a child with autism. Our table mates also had a child on the spectrum. It was the best pairing we could have imagined! We didn't even consider requesting a separate table in our upcoming cruise. I hope your luck is as good as ours.

 

[DizMagic]

With four dcl cruises under our belts I still don't know how they do it. It really is "magic". As a childless couple, my partner and I have never been sat with children. We have always been with other childless (at least on cruise) people. It has been amazing. We have met some really great people.

 

[staceymay00]

How do they decide who to seat you with? We are a young couple with no kids, so I'm just wondering if they would try and seat us with other kidless couples, with families, with older people, or with people closer to our age? Not that it matters, before anyone says that it shouldn't, I'm just wondering if they try to put similar demographics together!?

We were seated with another family of five. The similarities between our two families were pretty amazing and I don't at all think it was a coincidence. Table mates is one thing I did not stumble across in my cruise research and I'm glad because I wasted no time worrying about it in advance. I would have no problem sharing a table again in the future because I think Disney does put though into who you are seated with. My guess is they will seat you with another childless couple about your age if you are assigned tablemates.

 

[phinz]

I hope to doG they don't try and seat my wife, her best friend and me with a family with kids on our cruise because we'll wind up not showing back up in the MDRs again and we'll be "those people" talked about in other threads.

 

[k3chantal]

How do they decide who to seat you with? We are a young couple with no kids, so I'm just wondering if they would try and seat us with other kidless couples, with families, with older people, or with people closer to our age? Not that it matters, before anyone says that it shouldn't, I'm just wondering if they try to put similar demographics together!?

They have always placed us with another family with same amount of children so they do try.........

The first time we had another family from California and the second time we had a family from Quebec, Canada (my name is french and my father is from Quebec; not going as far as saying they knew that, but DCL definitely looks at things closely.......)

 

[Amunet]

Another one to agree with that DCL tries to match your tablemates.

Our tablemates never showed up, but we witnessed many similar groups together. I know if you're part of a meet up group, sometimes they try to get seated together (some families anyways).

I think other cruise lines try to do the same thing

 

[alisigns]

New cruiser here. So, how many people are at a table? We will have 6 in our group - five adults and a 9 year-old.

Also, what if you don't hit it off with people you are seated with. We are all pretty easy going, but if seated with high maintenance vacationers I could see some awkward dinner conversation.....

 

[holula]

We are two adults sailing alone and have always been seated with couples (we are late 20s / early 30s and apart from Alaska they have sat us with similar aged couples) or a pair of friends who were traveling together. We always do late dining.

New cruiser here. So, how many people are at a table? We will have 6 in our group - five adults and a 9 year-old. Also, what if you don't hit it off with people you are seated with. We are all pretty easy going, but if seated with high maintenance vacationers I could see some awkward dinner conversation.....

You will probably be seated alone as the tables are 4,6 and 8 tops.

 

[rosaciri]

How do they decide who to seat you with? We are a young couple with no kids, so I'm just wondering if they would try and seat us with other kidless couples, with families, with older people, or with people closer to our age? Not that it matters, before anyone says that it shouldn't, I'm just wondering if they try to put similar demographics together!?

I don't know how DCL does it but somehow they do. We sailed on our first DCL in May 14 and I wanted to sit with others however my DH was a bit hesitant just incase we didn't get along with others as we are from Oz however my family - DH Me DD DD were on our own. The table right next to us were another family from USA with daughters similar in age to ours and we luved it - we got along famously and the tables are so close it was great. We are organizing our next DCL trip with them as we speak. MY DDs are so looking forward to seeing them again.

I have heard of cases where it doesn't work out for others so I guess every cruise is different - we were lucky.

 

[wilma-bride]

It doesn't always work out that way - our one cruise where we didn't link with others, DH and I (travelling without kids) were seated with a family with a sulky teen and a young girl (around 5 or 6). The Mom was very odd too, showed up at dinner every night in Daisy Duke denim hotpants She ignored us the majority of the time, as apparently she couldn't understand a word we said (we are English! and not with a regional dialect or anything) except for the last night when she turned up at one of the lounges on her own, drunk, and made a beeline for us. We hastily made excuses about having to pack and left. The Dad was very nice, which was the main reason we didn't actually ask to move - DH felt sorry for him at the thought of being left alone with her

 

[dpswift]

We were some of the unlucky ones. The family that we were seated with assumed they would be eating alone. When brought to the table they looked at us and demanded to be moved. The head waiter assured me they would not be back but their daughter guilt tripped them and they arrived the next night for a dinner. It went ok. their daughter came back the next night and the last night they went to a different MDR.

I wanted to try to request a private table for our aniversary cruise but DH said no. Fingers crossed it goes alright.

 

[anricat]

When we cruised last June my daughter was 5 and we were seated with another family with a 5 year old so it certainly does seem that they pay attention to that sort of thing.

 

[Emzed]

Some tables are larger than "8 tops" as my family of five was paired twice with another family of five. I was apprehensive at first as we've only ever travelled in large groups (12, 8, and 14) where unknown table mates were unnecessary. I had been under the impression that with 5 we would fill a table without additional guests. Luckily the families we were seated with were a great match. The children all became friends each time and that made meal times more fun for everyone! We are heading out on cruise #6 in a few months and I am keeping our fingers crossed that out good luck continues
Good luck with your "adult" cruise. I hope they find well-suited table-mates and you have a wonderful time!

 

[lucky1]

We cruised in the Med and are military. They put us with another Air Force family with two kids. Surely that wasn't coincidental! We had a blast with them.

We have only cruised once before on Disney and were very leery of the whole seating thing as we have a child with autism. Our table mates also had a child on the spectrum. It was the best pairing we could have imagined! We didn't even consider requesting a separate table in our upcoming cruise. I hope your luck is as good as ours.

Our first DCL cruise as a family, we were seated with another family that had a daughter of the same age. As we learned more of each other, we found so many similarities. These are not even similarities that would show up in any of Disney's profiling of our families. (at least I think). It was a great experience. The next cruise we have 2 families each with daughters the same age. DD had instant friends. We remain FB friends with all of those families from the first 2 cruises. Then the next time we had G'Ma with us and they sat us at a table of 4. We missed meeting new people. So we made sure our travel agent requested that we sat with others, which again we were seated with family kids of the same age.

We were some of the unlucky ones. The family that we were seated with assumed they would be eating alone. When brought to the table they looked at us and demanded to be moved. The head waiter assured me they would not be back but their daughter guilt tripped them and they arrived the next night for a dinner. It went ok. their daughter came back the next night and the last night they went to a different MDR.

Our last DCL cruise we were seated at an 8 top. A family of 5 walked up and demanded that they did not want to sit with anyone else. They were moved to a 4 top with an extra chair. We had the 8 top for our family of 3 to ourselves. Unfortunately we became the rotating table for families that had small children that could not do 2nd dining. We never had any connection with any one during the dining experience. Very unfortunately so much so that DH now on our next cruise wants our own table.