Being seated with others in Dining Room?

[RACHEL_GB]

We just got off the Magic, we are a family of 4 and we were seated with another family of 4 - we liked them but if you want to sit alone it is best to ask. I might do it next time as we might not get lucky the second time!

 

[turtle27]

We have traveled as a family of 3 - had a bigger table, but either were assigned on our own or others never showed up. Sailed as a family of 4 sat at a four top. When it is just DM and I, we are assigned to a larger table and we love it! We have made friends from both times this has happened and still keep in touch. We actually almost had an issue on a recent B2B sailing, as for the 2nd sailing, they put us at a table by ourselves. Nope, we switched that up. Had to lose our great servers because of someone's mess up, but we had great dining mates and still great servers!

 

[Floridatinaherb]

We're a family of 4 as well and have never requested our own table but have never had table mates.

That is us as well...I didn't even know that you could request to dine alone until finding these boards! Normally we travel as a 6-top (our 4 plus Nana and Great G-mom) but when we sailed with just our kids we were at a table by ourselves. We sailed without our kids and were assigned tablemates who we are still in contact with today!

 

[Angela72181]

We are a party of 5 and were seated with a party of 3. We were concerned about this as we weren't sure what to expect. Needless to say that concern is GONE now. We ended up being a really good match. We've driven 7 1/2 hours to have a mini vacation with them in May and we've secured rooms close to each other for our December 2016 sailing on The Fantasy.

 

[GPaLarry]

We have sailed with the mouse five times, four with family. Our last one to Europe (Northern Baltic Capitals) involved just the two of us grandparents. We didn't request anything special (on the Magic) and were seated at a table for eight, two other couples and two single women. The couples were great, one from New Jersey and one from Ireland. We talked over the days activities with them each night and still communicate with them. The women eventually quit coming after the fourth night.
Our next cruise is B2B next month and we will take our chances on who we are seated with, if anyone. I appreciate knowing that we can make changes if needed.

 

[Naomi Collison]

I'm kinda bummed that I don't think we will have others at our table. We are a group of 9 as it is, but I think it would be nice to have more kids to hang out with mine and more people to chat with. That is with one child who has allergies. We just put her next to me or my DH and watch closely to ensure she doesn't pick up something (she's only 2 so she tries sometimes).

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I'm kinda bummed that I don't think we will have others at our table. We are a group of 9 as it is, but I think it would be nice to have more kids to hang out with mine and more people to chat with. That is with one child who has allergies. We just put her next to me or my DH and watch closely to ensure she doesn't pick up something (she's only 2 so she tries sometimes).

Well, if it's any comfort to you - tables of larger than 8 are really hard to carry on a conversation at. The noise in the MDRs is really quite overwhelming, and unless you shout (adding to the noise) you won't be heard by anyone sitting more than two seats to the left or right of you.

 

[BlondeAlligator]

Does anyone know if, when assigning tables, they make any effort to match up families with kids around the same age? I would not be opposed to sharing a table with a family that had kids who would have something in common with my own. My teenage daughter would probably like to put in a request for a family with a cute teenage son, though her dad would certainly request a switch if that happened! LOL

 

[Shanti]

Does anyone know if, when assigning tables, they make any effort to match up families with kids around the same age? I would not be opposed to sharing a table with a family that had kids who would have something in common with my own. My teenage daughter would probably like to put in a request for a family with a cute teenage son, though her dad would certainly request a switch if that happened! LOL

I requested a private table and wasn't originally placed with one. When I requested a change to a private table upon arrival on the ship, the person in charge of dining commented that they had placed us at a table with a boy near my son's age. So yes, I do think they try to take that into account.

 

[CM Dad]

My wife and I just got off a 12-night Mediterranean cruise. She had asked our TA to put i a request for a server we had in the past and to note that she is gluten and dairy free. When we embarked, we went to sign up for some of the beverage seminars, and while we were waiting, she went to the MDR change table to make sure they had her dietary restrictions noted. They said that it was, but them said that they saw that we had requested Carolina, and they would see what they could do to arrange that. Got a call that afternoon telling us that our dining rotation and table number were changed. We ended up with a private table for 2. We would have actually enjoyed sharing with other couples. We have meet some great people (and some that were just OK) in the past. Doing another cruise in December and will request Carolina again, but maybe this time we will have the TA note that we would prefer a shared table.

 

[RedSox68]

We are a family of three and for our past several Disney cruises we ask for a table alone and have gotten it. (On other cruise lines we do anytime dining, so it doesn't matter). We did the sitting with others routine for at least four of our Disney cruises, but grew tired of the 50/50 chance you have of getting decent table mates. Plus we like just enjoying dinner by ourselves without having to open up a conversation with others about our day LOL

 

[TEMom2]

We love sitting with new people, but I can see how it can be not ideal. Good to hear that groups of 4 might get their own table.

 

[Sytrace]

We have had our own table for 6 out of 8 cruises. The first cruise we were seated with another family who were very nice, but after the first night never came to dinner again (it was late seating and she had a young one)
I think it was cruise number 6, we ended up with another family of 4, who I am sure were very nice, but we didn't have much to say to each other. We requested a table change and they were able to do that.
Since then, we have had our own table without asking for it. Maybe Disney makes notes about stuff like that?
But when we get onboard and after lunch, we check out the table locations in the MDR's and see if we have a 4 top or larger.

 

[Anna114]

Our first Disney cruise is October. Thanks to this thread I just called DCL for a 2 top. It's worth a shot. My husband is not a fan of sharing a table.

 

[Mousesmom]

We were assigned to an 8 top on the WBTA last year (early sitting). I'm not a huge fan of sharing tables (I'm hearing impaired so it's a challenge for me) but it turned out that so few people requested the early sitting that we had an 8 top all to ourselves for the whole cruise! It was awesome!

 

[Jessirip]

We're a family of 4 with a 1 and 4 year old, so I'm hoping we get our own table for other's benefit not ours (since the 1 year old is in a throwing food stage). However we won't mind if we're seated with another family and I actually kind of hope we are seated at a table with another little friend for our daughter who is a social butterfly. I'm awkward meeting new people but she always carries the conversation for me.

Where do you find out your table top when you board?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We're a family of 4 with a 1 and 4 year old, so I'm hoping we get our own table for other's benefit not ours (since the 1 year old is in a throwing food stage). However we won't mind if we're seated with another family and I actually kind of hope we are seated at a table with another little friend for our daughter who is a social butterfly. I'm awkward meeting new people but she always carries the conversation for me.

Where do you find out your table top when you board?

Your table assignment is printed on your KTTW card. You can go to where the dining changes are being handled and ask to see what size table it is.

 

[puffkin]

We requested a private table for our upcoming cruise. We are a family of 5 (DH, myself, two kids, my Mom). Honestly, it is one of the things I hate the most about cruising and why we haven't done it as a family yet. My DH is pretty quiet/shy and my mom is not very comfortable in social situations with strangers (she tends to repeat a lot of stories over and over and latches onto one topic incessantly). Plus my kids are "boisterous" at times. That is just a lot of stress on all of us to have a nice dinner and puts a lot of pressure on me to be "on" all the time. I get enough of that in my work environment, so I do not want to do that on vacation. And honestly, for the price we have to pay for this cruise, everyone should be able to dine at a private table! We have done group tables on our first 2 cruises (just DH and I) and it while our dining mates were fine, it was not something we enjoyed at all.

 

[willijen]

I never knew that people are put off by a solo at their table. I took my first solo cruise (non-disney) last year and was assigned to a table with 3 other couples. I get along fine with just about everyone, but they were all shocked and amazed that I would cruise solo! One of them (a new husband from a VERY young honeymoon couple) said he couldn't believe my husband let me do it. Let me! LOLOL!!

 

[mevelandry]

It's just the two of us who cruise with Disney and we were seated with another mom and child, someone from Quebec who could barely speak english and another mom who showed up the first night, left half way through dinner and never came back..we also had table settings for two kids who were teens, they never came at all.
It was kind of weird as I don't mind conversing with table mates, but with the language barrier, it was a big awkward.

Hopefully at our next cruise we will have English speaking table mates.

I am living in Montreal (province of Quebec) ... Where did she come from?

People living around Montreal are generally more comfortable with english but I can tell you that with the exception of the region of Montreal and Outaouais (Outaouais is sharing borders with Ontario) and regions sharing borders with the United States, people from the province of Quebec are pretty much only exposed to english at school. When I was a teenager, there was only one class of english (very basic) per week unless we were selected to pick a bilingual program... And in most schools, there was none!) Internet arrived in our houses around 1998 but many will chose to navigate on french websites only because this is the language they are familiar with. They won't learn english because it is simply not necessary.

I can tell you that my english is what it is because I was really interested in learning the language and as a teenager I was --the only girl in the whole school-- watching Boy Meets World... with my dictionary. Also I had subscriptions to Tiger Beat! This is how I got exposed to the language. Otherwise, just like my high school friends, the only vocabulary I would know would be: "Hi, yes, no, toaster, hot dog, hamburger, goodbye".