Craziest table mates you have had.

[jdb in AZ]

We just came back from or 7 day Western and ended up with wonderful tablemates. We are a family of 5. The first night we sat at our table for 8 and the three chairs stayed empty for a while. We found out the people that were supposed to sit with us had a wheel chair and never would have made it up the step to sit with us, so the chairs were empty for the night.
The second night a lovely couple sat with us. Turns out he retired from the same company I work for so we had lots to talk about there. They were also into Disney so even more to talk about. We got along great!

Guess the random wheel finally landed in out favor!

---Paul in Southern NJ

The dining rooms have an alternate entrance for wheel chairs.

 

[psimon]

The dining rooms have an alternate entrance for wheel chairs.

It wasn't that the wheelchair couldn't enter the dining room... they had rolled up to where our table was. It was that our table was up a step in the dining room and that couldn't be accessed by wheel chair. Consequently, they had to find a different table.

---Paul in Southern NJ

 

[sabrecmc]

Our crazy tablemate story didn't happen at the table. We had a great table with a couple of other families with daughters near in age to my own. Awesome. Spectacular. No worries.

On CC day, one of the moms and her friend happened by us down on the beach where DD was building a sandcastle. The mom asked if I'd keep an eye on their daughter while they went to get food. Sure, I said, no problem.

Two and a half hours later, I still had this woman's child, with no way to contact her, and the poor little girl was crying, wanting her mom and not the strange lady she'd met twice, and we were all hungry b/c I hadn't left the area, assuming she was coming back...I finally took them to Cookies to eat and then found a CM to page the mom, even though I only had a first name. The CM paged her maybe 5 or 6 times before she showed up, didn't say anything to me and grabbed her crying kid to leave.

I'm pretty sure alcohol was involved.

 

[Bear3412]

. .... Two and a half hours later .....

Just confirming, .... was this a mom and child assigned to your MDR table?

TIA

 

[suedon70]

Our crazy tablemate story didn't happen at the table. We had a great table with a couple of other families with daughters near in age to my own. Awesome. Spectacular. No worries.

On CC day, one of the moms and her friend happened by us down on the beach where DD was building a sandcastle. The mom asked if I'd keep an eye on their daughter while they went to get food. Sure, I said, no problem.

Two and a half hours later, I still had this woman's child, with no way to contact her, and the poor little girl was crying, wanting her mom and not the strange lady she'd met twice, and we were all hungry b/c I hadn't left the area, assuming she was coming back...I finally took them to Cookies to eat and then found a CM to page the mom, even though I only had a first name. The CM paged her maybe 5 or 6 times before she showed up, didn't say anything to me and grabbed her crying kid to leave.

I'm pretty sure alcohol was involved.

Holy Crap! I bet that made for an awkward dining experience that night

 

[100AcreWood]

Our crazy tablemate story didn't happen at the table. We had a great table with a couple of other families with daughters near in age to my own. Awesome. Spectacular. No worries.

On CC day, one of the moms and her friend happened by us down on the beach where DD was building a sandcastle. The mom asked if I'd keep an eye on their daughter while they went to get food. Sure, I said, no problem.

Two and a half hours later, I still had this woman's child, with no way to contact her, and the poor little girl was crying, wanting her mom and not the strange lady she'd met twice, and we were all hungry b/c I hadn't left the area, assuming she was coming back...I finally took them to Cookies to eat and then found a CM to page the mom, even though I only had a first name. The CM paged her maybe 5 or 6 times before she showed up, didn't say anything to me and grabbed her crying kid to leave.

I'm pretty sure alcohol was involved.

I feel so bad for that child. I'm sure you're a nice person but I would never leave my child with someone I just met that week!

 

[RedSox68]

Our crazy tablemate story didn't happen at the table. We had a great table with a couple of other families with daughters near in age to my own. Awesome. Spectacular. No worries.

On CC day, one of the moms and her friend happened by us down on the beach where DD was building a sandcastle. The mom asked if I'd keep an eye on their daughter while they went to get food. Sure, I said, no problem.

Two and a half hours later, I still had this woman's child, with no way to contact her, and the poor little girl was crying, wanting her mom and not the strange lady she'd met twice, and we were all hungry b/c I hadn't left the area, assuming she was coming back...I finally took them to Cookies to eat and then found a CM to page the mom, even though I only had a first name. The CM paged her maybe 5 or 6 times before she showed up, didn't say anything to me and grabbed her crying kid to leave.

I'm pretty sure alcohol was involved.

Wow, another case of great parenting......or as we like to call it "I'm on vacation, why should I have to babysit my kid"

 

[sabrecmc]

I feel so bad for that child. I'm sure you're a nice person but I would never leave my child with someone I just met that week!

LOL, I wouldn't have left her with me, either!

I think the mom had a bit too much to drink and lost track of time. Or something. I don't know. The whole thing was weird, and I don't think that I'm a helicopter parent or anything, but no way would I have left my child with a person I just met a couple times at dinner, particularly not around water (and the little girl really couldn't swim well, so we stayed in the shallow area, but still...). People are different, I guess.

Dinner that night was awkward for me, at least, though the mom did apologize and had the girl say thanks. At that point, it was like, well, why make a big deal out of it, so I just rolled with it. And like I said, they were great tablemates, as far as what went on at the table. Very personable. Girls got along great.

Otherwise, our tablemates have always been great. We look forward to meeting them each time. DD loves to have a friend at the table rather than just boring, old mom.

 

[mrsheppo]

Just back from our first DCL cruise. The first night DD age 8, DH & I were seated with a single mom and her DD about the same age as our DD. We thought that this was great, the kids could have someone their own age to talk to. It went downhill from there. It took me initiating the conversation to get introductions started. The mom would only speak when we asked a question. It made for an extremely awkward evening. The daughter would not even talk to anyone except her mom and refused even to acknowledge our DD when she tried to make conversation. Even when dinner was over, we wished them a good night and didn't get a response. DD & I were in the restroom afterwards and heard someone say how rude it was to be seated with people who wanted talk so much. Came out of the restroom and yup, it was the mom/daughter duo.

I decided to make it easy for her and went back to the restaurant and asked if we could be seated elsewhere the next night. The next night we were seated by ourselves (even though we would have welcomed friendly table mates) for the rest of the cruise. We saw mom/daughter each night in the restaurants with new table mates and they still huddled up together ignoring everyone.

 

[KBinCO]

Wow, another case of great parenting......or as we like to call it "I'm on vacation, why should I have to babysit my kid"

That's what scuttles cove on CC is for!

 

[MAJPLO]

Just back from our first DCL cruise. The first night DD age 8, DH & I were seated with a single mom and her DD about the same age as our DD. We thought that this was great, the kids could have someone their own age to talk to. It went downhill from there. It took me initiating the conversation to get introductions started. The mom would only speak when we asked a question. It made for an extremely awkward evening. The daughter would not even talk to anyone except her mom and refused even to acknowledge our DD when she tried to make conversation. Even when dinner was over, we wished them a good night and didn't get a response. DD & I were in the restroom afterwards and heard someone say how rude it was to be seated with people who wanted talk so much. Came out of the restroom and yup, it was the mom/daughter duo.

I decided to make it easy for her and went back to the restaurant and asked if we could be seated elsewhere the next night. The next night we were seated by ourselves (even though we would have welcomed friendly table mates) for the rest of the cruise. We saw mom/daughter each night in the restaurants with new table mates and they still huddled up together ignoring everyone.

How funny that you ended up alone and they got new table mates and were still stuck being annoyed. Lol.

 

[jcjen519]

I feel so bad for that child. I'm sure you're a nice person but I would never leave my child with someone I just met that week!

wow! I can't imagine leaving my child with strangers to run to the bbq and back even for 10 minutes especially near water.

Not that I'm suggesting anyone needs to get intoxicated with their kids but why didn't she just bring her drinks to the beach or take the kid with her? Anything is better then just dumping your kid off with your table mate.

 

[jjje]

Over the course three cruises my family has been 1) sat with strangers who turned out to be awesome table mates we had a lot of fun with 2) sat with members of our extended family 3) sat at a table alone. So I don't have a story about crazy table mates. However, on one cruise there was a table next to us made up of four couples that didn't seem to know each other before the cruise. The couple seated nearest to our table didn't seem to click with the other three couples so they spent a lot of time not talking and just staring around the room. The awkward thing was that they seemed super interested in what my family was doing. They would openly stare at us like we were putting on a performance for them or something. Our tables were so close together that we could overhear them discussing what we ordered or what we were talking about or even what we were wearing. It was so awkward! Eventually we just had to laugh at having our own private audience at dinner every night.

 

[psimon]

Over the course three cruises my family has been 1) sat with strangers who turned out to be awesome table mates we had a lot of fun with 2) sat with members of our extended family 3) sat at a table alone. So I don't have a story about crazy table mates. However, on one cruise there was a table next to us made up of four couples that didn't seem to know each other before the cruise. The couple seated nearest to our table didn't seem to click with the other three couples so they spent a lot of time not talking and just staring around the room. The awkward thing was that they seemed super interested in what my family was doing. They would openly stare at us like we were putting on a performance for them or something. Our tables were so close together that we could overhear them discussing what we ordered or what we were talking about or even what we were wearing. It was so awkward! Eventually we just had to laugh at having our own private audience at dinner every night.

Just WOW!

 

[drclaws]

On two of our cruises we've shared a four-top with a mom and pre-teen daughter. Both times the mom told us later that she initially was worried about we felt about it once we saw a single pre-teen assigned to the same table (we were in out 50s). Both times all four of us had a great time. Fun to hear the daughter's perspective on the cruise and the kids club.

We've also had the larger 10-12 top and that made it tougher to get to know everyone. Still was fun, but a completely different experience.

 

[ALMinVA]

On our last cruise, we had a table for 8 as we had traveled with friends who matched up with us perfectly, mom dad and 2 kids same ages. We had a few bumps in the MDRs though. The 8 top next to us allowed their children to wander around and constantly knock into our chairs and disrupt our meals and conversations. The table was occupied by a family it appeared who didnt speak english and it was apparent they were not happy about anything. Our servers were constantly running around them trying to make them happy to no avail. We had gotten a table right night to a screen in AP and we enjoyed it. So we were looking forward to our second night in AP. When we arrived and went to our table, we were a bit shocked to see it wasn't our table anymore and our servers were a bit stumped too. The other family decided they wanted our table and took it upon themselves to move the table numbers. No one asked them to move and our party just sat at their first table like good little vacationers.
When we got home and looked at all of our pictures we noticed that our next door dining neighbor - the Father - was the same guy who at Sail Away party literally pushed my dd10 at the time and our friends daughter who was 4 out of his way and moved his entire family in front of them to watch the show.
I am not a rude person and recognize everyone is on the ship for the same reason. It bothered me but we just moved and some nice people let the girls move up so they could see. You have to let things like this go or you don't stand a chance having fun at WDW.

 

[RedSox68]

On our last cruise, we had a table for 8 as we had traveled with friends who matched up with us perfectly, mom dad and 2 kids same ages. We had a few bumps in the MDRs though. The 8 top next to us allowed their children to wander around and constantly knock into our chairs and disrupt our meals and conversations. The table was occupied by a family it appeared who didnt speak english and it was apparent they were not happy about anything. Our servers were constantly running around them trying to make them happy to no avail. We had gotten a table right night to a screen in AP and we enjoyed it. So we were looking forward to our second night in AP. When we arrived and went to our table, we were a bit shocked to see it wasn't our table anymore and our servers were a bit stumped too. The other family decided they wanted our table and took it upon themselves to move the table numbers. No one asked them to move and our party just sat at their first table like good little vacationers.
When we got home and looked at all of our pictures we noticed that our next door dining neighbor - the Father - was the same guy who at Sail Away party literally pushed my dd10 at the time and our friends daughter who was 4 out of his way and moved his entire family in front of them to watch the show.
I am not a rude person and recognize everyone is on the ship for the same reason. It bothered me but we just moved and some nice people let the girls move up so they could see. You have to let things like this go or you don't stand a chance having fun at WDW.

I give you great credit for being so patient and understanding. If such a rude and thoughtless family had changed my table number, I would have gone straight to the head server and had it addressed. Especially after this same family were responsible for pushing your family out of the way so they could have your spot at the sailaway. Some people

 

[abitagirl916]

On our last cruise, we had a table for 8 as we had traveled with friends who matched up with us perfectly, mom dad and 2 kids same ages. We had a few bumps in the MDRs though. The 8 top next to us allowed their children to wander around and constantly knock into our chairs and disrupt our meals and conversations. The table was occupied by a family it appeared who didnt speak english and it was apparent they were not happy about anything. Our servers were constantly running around them trying to make them happy to no avail. We had gotten a table right night to a screen in AP and we enjoyed it. So we were looking forward to our second night in AP. When we arrived and went to our table, we were a bit shocked to see it wasn't our table anymore and our servers were a bit stumped too. The other family decided they wanted our table and took it upon themselves to move the table numbers. No one asked them to move and our party just sat at their first table like good little vacationers.
When we got home and looked at all of our pictures we noticed that our next door dining neighbor - the Father - was the same guy who at Sail Away party literally pushed my dd10 at the time and our friends daughter who was 4 out of his way and moved his entire family in front of them to watch the show.
I am not a rude person and recognize everyone is on the ship for the same reason. It bothered me but we just moved and some nice people let the girls move up so they could see. You have to let things like this go or you don't stand a chance having fun at WDW.

I give you great credit for being so patient and understanding. If such a rude and thoughtless family had changed my table number, I would have gone straight to the head server and had it addressed. Especially after this same family were responsible for pushing your family out of the way so they could have your spot at the sailaway. Some people

I agree with RedSox68: I would have informed the head server and had our table changed back. The fact that the servers were stumped about it too, confirms the fact that the numbers on the table were changed.

 

[wcw57]

must have been new yorkers......

 

[jd99]

Not crazy table mates. Just rude. We have only had table mates twice in 17 cruises. The first time was very early on in our cruising career. It was a lovely family who we enjoyed spending time with so much. Then never again until our 12 night Med cruise this summer. Given that we hadn't had anyone at our table for so long we were extremely nervous when we arrived and found others at our table since we thought it'd never happen again and for a 12 night cruise to boot. The first night was good - not great - but good and we all got along fine and the kids started forming a friendship. We found that the mom was a complainer and it didn't help that the servers were not at the top of their game. She'd take his recommendation and then complain that she didn't like it. Drinks were too slow. Everything was a nit picky thing. By night three, we had learned to overlook their complaining and the kids were getting along greatly. We had Palo the following night and the other couple encouraged us to send our kids (10 and 15) so that they could hang out with their children. Our kids have gone to the MDR themselves before and would have done so had we had our own table but we didn't want to burden the other family until they said to do so. Lo and behold our kids showed up and texted us at Palo to say that the other family didnt show and in fact had switched to early dining. What? They didn't even mention they were thinking of switching. We were actually thinking on the second night of switching to a different rotation because we wanted our own table and knew a server in a different dining room but thought it'd be rude after meeting these people and spending a couple of days with them. We spent the rest of the cruise the four of us at a table for eight and amazingly the service got markedly better without the pressure of the complaining couple. Will always request to have our own table from now on.