Craziest table mates you have had.

[TrySomethingNew]

Were you the one brother?

Nope. That particular brother got expelled in 3rd grade, held back in 5th, expelled in 9th, dropped himself out of HS the day after he turned 18 and was still a junior. He turned out ok, no crimes etc, and has always been gainfully (and legally)employed. However, I had to be on the offensive as a child as he wasn't very trustworthy and had a knack for doing something but able to weasel out of it and make someone else look like the culprit (there were 4 of us kids, but three of us were close in age -he was the middle of the three). Oh, now the more cynical out there might be wondering if he's like a CEO, attorney, or something similar, but no he's not! (No offense by me to those occupations).

 

[RedSox68]

You weren't paying attention to what I said. Just because *you* think that the world is out to get everybody doesn't mean it is. In some societies leaving your child asleep in a stroller out on the sidewalk while you go into a restaurant is considered normal. The entire world isn't the scared-by-the-instant-media American world. These children have obviously been raised to be independent, think for themselves and to behave themselves in public, and their parents have trust in them to do so. Your assumption that they don't care about their children is unfair and very myopic.

Yes, and we know how well that theory worked for poor Madeleine McCann! That was in Portugal with a non-American couple.......you can blame us silly Americans for being "paranoid" -- some of us call it just good old common sense in this day and age with all the violence and children disappearing on a daily basis. I'm sure the world was a slightly different place and mindset when your wife went to WDW by herself at 8.........we'll just agree to disagree on this topic and leave it at that.

 

[darnheather]

I had amazing table mates, but did have a run in with a nutter in the pool. He seemed to believe every conspiracy theory about the CIA imaginable, asked if I had information on certain military plans (as I mentioned my spouse is Army), and encouraged me to stock up on ammo, guns, and food. That's 25 minutes of my vacation I'll never get back.

 

[RedSox68]

I had amazing table mates, but did have a run in with a nutter in the pool. He seemed to believe every conspiracy theory about the CIA imaginable, asked if I had information on certain military plans (as I mentioned my spouse is Army), and encouraged me to stock up on ammo, guns, and food. That's 25 minutes of my vacation I'll never get back.

Oh my! Did you see him anymore on the cruise? Guess you avoided the pool after that one!

 

[darnheather]

Oh my! Did you see him anymore on the cruise? Guess you avoided the pool after that one!

Thankfully I didn't see him again. He kept saying I couldn't mention it around his wife so he might have avoided me! No, I kept going to the pool as on port days I was able to swim laps (often completely alone) as that is my preferred method of exercise.

 

[ALK$Disney]

On our most currently complete cruise on board the Fantasy, we were stuck with a devil spawn of a child. I hate talking bad about people, especially children, but this child was ruining our dining. The boy was 7 years old, but unfortunately acted as if he was 2-3. I don't even know where to start. Lets start with the bread service, as soon as the bread was on the table, he grabbed as many as he could, making holes in rolls with his figures and then putting them back in the basket. He would grab the sliced bread and cut out the crust out of ever piece and place the crust in the basket. So if we were a bit late to the dinner, we came to holed bread and crust in the basket. We had to order more pretty much every night. We tried sitting away from them at the opposite side of the table, but sure enough, he would run to the our side and grab the bread. Then it was the milk cup, he would dip his fingers in the milk and proceed to flick it all over the table. Also constantly coughing and sneezing all over the table without covering his mouth. When there as food he did not like, and that was every night, he would toss the food onto his parent's plate and get stuff everywhere. The constant crying, whining, and complaining, was just so annoying.The worst was, slapping and hitting the parents on their face, which they apparently found to be funny or cute. These were just some examples, it was just the worst experience. We thought about requesting to move tables, but our DD really hit it off with another child from another family so we didn't move. I don't blame the child at all, its the parent's fault. They thought all this was cute and acceptable. One time our DD actually told him to stop destroying the bread, the mother replied, "oh you can always order more sweetie". I so wanted to go off, but had to restrain myself. Just hope we avoid this on future cruises.

 

[RedSox68]

On our most currently complete cruise on board the Fantasy, we were stuck with a devil spawn of a child. I hate talking bad about people, especially children, but this child was ruining our dining. The boy was 7 years old, but unfortunately acted as if he was 2-3. I don't even know where to start. Lets start with the bread service, as soon as the bread was on the table, he grabbed as many as he could, making holes in rolls with his figures and then putting them back in the basket. He would grab the sliced bread and cut out the crust out of ever piece and place the crust in the basket. So if we were a bit late to the dinner, we came to holed bread and crust in the basket. We had to order more pretty much every night. We tried sitting away from them at the opposite side of the table, but sure enough, he would run to the our side and grab the bread. Then it was the milk cup, he would dip his fingers in the milk and proceed to flick it all over the table. Also constantly coughing and sneezing all over the table without covering his mouth. When there as food he did not like, and that was every night, he would toss the food onto his parent's plate and get stuff everywhere. The constant crying, whining, and complaining, was just so annoying.The worst was, slapping and hitting the parents on their face, which they apparently found to be funny or cute. These were just some examples, it was just the worst experience. We thought about requesting to move tables, but our DD really hit it off with another child from another family so we didn't move. I don't blame the child at all, its the parent's fault. They thought all this was cute and acceptable. One time our DD actually told him to stop destroying the bread, the mother replied, "oh you can always order more sweetie". I so wanted to go off, but had to restrain myself. Just hope we avoid this on future cruises.

Kudos to you for your patience! The parents are in for a very long few years if they don't squelch that behavior! Touching other people's food and/or preventing them the luxury of having any is so not social. UGH -- I'd hate to be one of his teachers.

We were at a restaurant in Hershey last year for my birthday and there was a family who was allowing their 5-6 year old to run around with a knife -- YES, a knife! He kept running up to tables and threatening people with it, and running around tables and we just kept waiting for him to fall on it and get seriously hurt. The parents and grandparents were laughing and taking pictures -- they thought it was cute!

 

[TrySomethingNew]

[ UGH -- I'd hate to be one of his teachers.

But, I'll bet the parents would assure you of his talent and high intellect, therefore just acting out due to being held back by those less gifted.

We were at a restaurant in Hershey last year for my birthday and there was a family who was allowing their 5-6 year old to run around with a knife -- YES, a knife! He kept running up to tables and threatening people with it, and running around tables and we just kept waiting for him to fall on it and get seriously hurt. The parents and grandparents were laughing and taking pictures -- they thought it was cute![/QUOTE]

Yikes! Some people have no common sense.

 

[wcw57]

the older I get, the more this rings true:

if you expect the worst from a person, you're rarely disappointed

 

[persimmondeb]

I was certainly eating in restaurants (diner counters, ice cream parlor) without an adult by nine or so. It used to be common and normal. It isn't anymore, at least for Americans, but it sounds like the children were pretty good at babysitting themselves. As for the danger of abduction, it happens. It is fortunately extremely rare, but it's also statistically steady. It wasn't more common in the seventies when I was walking around by myself, and it isn't less common now when most people don't let children under twelve or so out alone. Or vice versa. What has changed is the perception of risk. You could make the argument that the children who are alone more are better targets of opportunity, but I don't know if that is so or not.

 

[wcw57]

Look at little Opie, he wandered ALL OVER Mayberry when he was about 6!

 

[MSPeeler]

We are going to put our toddler in nursery at late dining so I shouln't end up in this thread

 

[Kriisikka]

Been reading this thread with mixed feelings. Giggling inanely and being horrified at the same time.

We've been on two Disney Cruises now. First time we had table mates. We are a family of three and knew that we might be seated with others as we didn't request for our own table. But we thought we'd be maybe seated at a 6-top with one other family or so. Nope. 8-top. Two other families, only linking thing was that our children were all the same age. Otherwise mainly nothing in common. One family was academic and rather reserved, the other one was inventing 101 ways to say they're loaded without saying it straight out loud. And we... We are from Europe and have a rather shaky grasp on American small talk habits - or spoken English for that matter. Also I'm hard of hearing if someone speaks further than one chair away. With us Disney had skipped the homework part. The other two families didn't seem very compatible with each other and I felt we were totally the odd ones out. The children had very little in common too - despite their same age. It was not totally horrible, but often felt very strained. But admittedly it could have been way, way worse.

Okay, so next time we tried booking our own table and got it. WHOA! WAY TOO MUCH ATTENTION! WAY TOO MUCH! Suddenly we were getting all of the attention that had probably previously been dispersed over eight people. My son actually stopped coming to dinner because he was too annoyed/embarassed by being entertained all the time. Also I think the servers thought he was younger than he actually was. As reserved Scandinavians we didn't know how to make it stop.

On our upcoming cruise we will be giving the private table another go, but if it doesn't pan out, I think we'll go back to having table mates.

 

[amwhitaker]

We sat with other couples, we had great conversations. One of the couples brought their stuffed animal children to every meal and sat them in highchairs at the table.

That's the funniest thing I've heard so far!!!

 

[phinz]

That's the funniest thing I've heard so far!!!

That's nothing. Go back through this thread and you'll find the videos of the baby dolls on DCL.

 

[luvtotraveldcl]

Any crazy experiences from anyone lately?

 

[Promomx2]

It will just be me and dh on our first cruise. Dh does not like the idea of sharing a table. How do I or can I request a table for just us?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

It will just be me and dh on our first cruise. Dh does not like the idea of sharing a table. How do I or can I request a table for just us?

Call DCL and have the request placed on your reservation. They'll give you the "it's just a request, yada, yada, yada". If you used a TA to book your cruise, the TA will need to make the call.

One note - in the dining rooms, it's rather a moot point about whether you're seated "alone" or not. The tables are often only inches apart.

 

[havaneselover]

Call DCL and have the request placed on your reservation. They'll give you the "it's just a request, yada, yada, yada". If you used a TA to book your cruise, the TA will need to make the call.

One note - in the dining rooms, it's rather a moot point about whether you're seated "alone" or not. The tables are often only inches apart.

Always booked through a TA and never had a problem putting this request in directly with DCL.

 

[yellowfish78]

We had a family of three sitting with our family of five. Their child and my oldest were the same day and hit it off. But the parents bragged a lot about their job, home, other vacations and dominated the conversation. That wasn't too bad, we just deal because we knew that would be a chance we'd take. The big issue was always arriving late (by almost 30 minutes each night) then ordering EVERYTHING at once. Like...everything. Two apps, two entrees and before apps are even out for them ordering dessert. It was...weird. Our last night we wanted a meal without the kids, so the older one went into the club, the younger one went into the nursery. We were seated at a rectangle table with four seats on each side. My husband and I sat at one end next to each other, my mother sat across on the end. (So three seats open next to her and two next to me...) The family arrived (late of course) but it was just mom and kid - dad was even later. The mom sat at the far end on my side of the table and their kid sat right next to my mother. RIGHT. NEXT. TO. MY. MOTHER. Did that mom say anything? No. Did Dad when he arrived? No. (He sat across from his wife - with a seat between him and his kid.) Did I? Yes. "Why not go sit next to mom so she's not alone down there?" Did the mom hear me? YES. Did the kid move? NO. Mom ignored her the whole meal.