Assigned tables for dinner

[bethy]

First time cruiser here. I totally understand and appreciate the grand and practical tradition of MDR dining. And the inherently social nature of a cruise vacation.

That said, I am wondering how much of a "problem" it would be if we requested private dining AND only did maybe 2 MDR meals? (doing room service and buffets the rest of the time)

I have lots of reasons for this being my goal. I am just trying to figure out how to marry our wishes to the set up of the ship and also not inconvenience anyone, short any waiters their gratuities, etc. . .

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

I've never really loved any table assignments DCL has given me. For 4 of the cruises I've done, it was just me and my mom. It seems that they didn't know where to put a 21 year old girl with her 50 year old mom, lol. It always felt that we were at a filler table- a couple times we were with honeymooners, once with a family who spoke no English at dinner. Often we ended up being 2 people at an 8 top.

I went with a friend from work on a cruise, and we were once again put with couples and honeymooners and never had a full table at dinner. Sometimes we would be sitting at one end of the table, and the others would sit at the other end.

It's been about 5 years since my last cruise, and the cruise we have planned for next year will just be DH and me. I guess we'll see where we end up!

 

[muse7mom]

On our June 2014 cruise, the three of us sat with an older couple who had brought 19 year old granddaughter twins and an 8 year old granddaughter. We would usually get to the table before they did and had fun switching up the seats every night so we all sat by someone different. We all got along great.
I'm looking forward to seeing who we'll be paired with this summer.

 

[Alexle2007]

We had a great experience on our 1st cruise. We are family of 3 and were sat with a family of 5 who had 2 boys so my DS was right in between ages with. The boys had a great time together and hung out many times besides at dinner. I am FB friends with the mom and we are hoping they will be on our next cruise in April since my DH and she will be turning 50 a day apart.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

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.....

Each serving team (server & asst server) takes care of, generally, 3 tables - a 4 top, a 6 top, and an 8 top. With 6 of you, I'm going to hazard a guess that they will seat you at a 6 top by yourselves. That's what happened to us when were a party of 6, as well as when we were a party of 5.

If you don't hit it off with the others you are seated with (if you are seated with others), you can talk to your head server and he/she will see to moving you, either to another table or different seating time.

First time cruiser here. I totally understand and appreciate the grand and practical tradition of MDR dining. And the inherently social nature of a cruise vacation.

That said, I am wondering how much of a "problem" it would be if we requested private dining AND only did maybe 2 MDR meals? (doing room service and buffets the rest of the time)

I have lots of reasons for this being my goal. I am just trying to figure out how to marry our wishes to the set up of the ship and also not inconvenience anyone, short any waiters their gratuities, etc. . .

It won't be a problem, as you can dine wherever you like each night. I will point out that the "buffet" isn't a buffet at dinner. It's a sit-down table service with a limited menu of selected items from the menus available in the MDRs that evening.

 

[bumbershoot]

First time cruiser here. I totally understand and appreciate the grand and practical tradition of MDR dining. And the inherently social nature of a cruise vacation.

That said, I am wondering how much of a "problem" it would be if we requested private dining AND only did maybe 2 MDR meals? (doing room service and buffets the rest of the time)

I have lots of reasons for this being my goal. I am just trying to figure out how to marry our wishes to the set up of the ship and also not inconvenience anyone, short any waiters their gratuities, etc. . .

Let the servers know if you won't be there, and simply leave the full gratuity, and you won't inconvenience anyone or short the servers. You'll likely see the servers helping you elsewhere on the ship and on Castaway Cay anyway, so you'll realize there's no reason not to tip them.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

It won't be a problem, as you can dine wherever you like each night. I will point out that the "buffet" isn't a buffet at dinner. It's a sit-down table service with a limited menu of selected items from the menus available in the MDRs that evening.

Actually as said to you before on the Magic when I was on the Magic summer 2014 the dinner Buffett was a dinner buffet a roast carvery and not selected items from menus in the MDRs I know I went there during the 12 night cruise to take snaps regularly following some reports here it's always a selection from the MDRS.

There was a lot of burgers, and chicken tenders pizza kids type food. Also salary various and desserts.

There was limited table service more serving drinks and clearing away.

 

[Sir William]

We've always had a good experience and I'd also like to know how DCL manages to make the the match-ups.

On our first cruise, DW and I were placed at a table with 4 Canadians. Turned out that with one couple we had friends in common, and two of the ladies and DW had birthdays 3 days in a row (we had a great party one evening).

On our third cruise, we were placed with two couples from the UK. Both DW and I lived in the UK in our younger years, and have traveled there frequently since, so we fit in pretty well.

On our two cruises with our adult children we had a 4-top and both times had a no-show table next to us throughout the cruise.

 

[kiford]

We've had a couple of cruises with some okay companions. However, we did one cruise where we were seated with two other couples with whom we got along great. The next cruise we did, we ended up seated with one of the same couples again. Totally coincidental - they booked at the last minute. On that cruise we were seated with them and another couple who we had a lot in common with too. Had a great time.

We were seated at a 10-top on our first Med cruise (3 other couples plus a mother/daughter pair) and had a really fun time. We still correspond with a couple of them.

Last year (2013) we did the Med cruise again and were seated with two other couples and a pair of brothers. Closed down the dining room night after night. On our upcoming cruise, we're trying to arrange to sit with one of those couples who are going on the same cruise as we are.

It is possible to be seated with those who you don't particularly like, although we've had good to great experiences. It's only a couple of hours out of a day for a few days - I recommend trying it and seeing what happens. We've had very interesting conversations with many other people from different locations and backgrounds. It's one of my favourite things about cruising and I wouldn't consider myself a particularly outgoing person. We find that people are much more open to striking up conversations on a cruise. It seems like everyone starts to feel that they're in a small community together and is open to socializing much more than they normally would. We end up having conversations with people between tables at breakfast and lunch, in the pool or hot tub, on excursions, etc. and then end up running into them later on the ship and continuing the conversations.

 

[princesspwrhr]

I think Disney tries reallyreallyreally hard to find compatible table-mates with the information they have. Our first cruise (4 day) we went with friends and there were 8 of us; we had a table to ourselves. Our most recent cruise (7 night), it was just our nuclear family of 5. We were seated with a family of 3. It ended up a decent match, we have a 16yo, and two 10 year olds (all girls). They had a 16 yo boy. We both live in the same state (opposite ends). Everyone was down to earth, we had enough things in common to make small talk for 7 nights, had a few deeper conversations, and everyone got along generally well. It gave me hope for Disney's methods. Our table-mates were gold cruisers and said that they had a few "interesting" tablemates over the course of their cruises, but usually things were good.