Craziest table mates you have had.

[ajrwdwgirl]

We had our own table on our first cruise (we have booked a second hooray) But I have to say I was totally turned off by one of the families beside us. My daughter who is 10 was testing her sugar at the table and the Mom at the table beside us rudely speaks loudly enough for us to hear "Oh gross don't look" (to her son) Then complained to her husband loudly enough again for us to hear about how rude we were to not make her test in a bathroom. My poor daughter was completely embarrassed and didn't want to check her sugar anywhere in public the rest of the cruise. I did turn to the mother and calmly explained to her that my daughter did not have to hide nor should she have to test in a bathroom as this is a normal part of her life. I was livid and still get angry thinking about it.

That is terrible, you daughter should not feel ashamed at all. It is something that helps her stay alive and healthy. I am diabetic too (just diagnosed a couple years ago) and I was self-conscious at first too. Now it doesn't matter, I will test and do my insulin shots wherever I need to. I figured it is similar to a mom breastfeeding in public, that helps keep the child alive and healthy as does testing blood sugar and doing insulin shots. And I always dispose of my needles properly too. I really wish you had told that other mother off.

 

[nearlyfallinstar]

On our third cruise, we were the crazy ones, or at least I'm sure our servers thought so. It was three couples plus the two kids, and so we had our own 8-top. BUT the two kids had zero interest in sitting down to dinner and spent every evening at the kids clubs. So we had two dependably empty seats. The six grown ups were all trivia nuts, and we ended up meeting a very nice gay couple who joined our trivia team. They were NOT having a good experience with their tablemates at dinner, so we uh.. kidnapped them. Put them in the kids seats. Called them by the sons names in front of the servers (as a joke) and had a great time with it. One of our servers even got into it and offered to cut their meat for them. It was a really great time!

After night one, I told DW, "You know we're really going to freak them out on the Halloween day, right?"

This was a Halloween cruise, and DW and I do costuming and cosplay as a hobby. So, on the designated Halloween night we showed up to dinner in our Alice and Mad Hatter costumes. Couple A, predictably, loved it! Couple B looked at us like we had just beamed down from the planet Mars.

I'm sure they had plenty of stories to tell their friends about the crazy people on their cruise when they got back home...

Awesome!

 

[Fuhnuh]

Awesome!

I would also like to add that we would have loved to sit with these two families also. Might just do the Alice, Mad Hatter thing for the benefit (horror?) of DD14 on Pirate night on our cruise in May.

 

[GarrettJD]

We're doing the Eastern Carribean Fantasy in October. Already prepping Tinkerbell and Hook costumes for Pirate Night, and another set of costumes we already have for whatever the Halloween night is. I think we'll warn our tablemates in advance this time.

 

[MousseauMob]

We had our own table on our first cruise (we have booked a second hooray) But I have to say I was totally turned off by one of the families beside us. My daughter who is 10 was testing her sugar at the table and the Mom at the table beside us rudely speaks loudly enough for us to hear "Oh gross don't look" (to her son) Then complained to her husband loudly enough again for us to hear about how rude we were to not make her test in a bathroom. My poor daughter was completely embarrassed and didn't want to check her sugar anywhere in public the rest of the cruise. I did turn to the mother and calmly explained to her that my daughter did not have to hide nor should she have to test in a bathroom as this is a normal part of her life. I was livid and still get angry thinking about it.

Its too bad you didn't say, loudly enough for them to hear, "Oh gross don't look, there's rude and insensitive people in the table next to us that don't know how to behave in public".

 

[argomANIA]

Its too bad you didn't say, loudly enough for them to hear, "Oh gross don't look, there's rude and insensitive people in the table next to us that don't know how to behave in public".

Ya that would have been me. lol

Off topic...I have a disability and use a walker, I went to a job interview once and the first words out of the woman's mouth were "Oh my god you're disabled!"

My response: OMG you're fat! and I walkedout the door.

 

[NYIceQueen]

Ya that would have been me. lol

Off topic...I have a disability and use a walker, I went to a job interview once and the first words out of the woman's mouth were "Oh my god you're disabled!"

My response: OMG you're fat! and I walkedout the door.

^^ For the WIN!! ^^

 

[shaunaca]

Oh my gosh I love it!!! I was so taken aback at the time and I didn't want to embarrass my daughter further but I will be ready if it ever happens again lol.

 

[Trera]

We once cruised on the Disney Dream and i was kidding with my wife as we were boarding that we will probably get paired with a family that probably doesnt even speak English. That turned out to almost exactly be the case.............they were from Japan and spoke almost no English. The waiter even had to provide them with specially printed Japanese menus. It was the most uncomfortable cruises we have ever been on due to that fact.

Now I always call and request English speaking table mates and they always act like I am crazy for asking!

 

[shafferchr]

These are hilarious and scary.....wonder what kind we will be sitting next too.

 

[jrabbit]

travel is an adventure ... and cruising and crazy tablemates are just one aspect of that adventure. If you don't take things too serious, you can make it through anything.

And as you have read before, the vast majority of tablemates are reasonable people and oftentimes very interesting. These stories are the exception not the rule.

I've also "heard" people say that they don't want to eat with strangers (stranger than what I ask!). My response is that your tablemates should only be "strangers" for a few minutes. "most" people on DCL are Disney People - so that's a great way to start a conversation (and as been noted ... this is not foolproof). We have had several cruises where there is a language barrier (Japanese and Spanish) ... but it's just language, we managed to communicate with each other and had enjoyable experiences (usually there was one or two people in the other groups that spoke English and were able to translate as we are monoglots)

 

[NYIceQueen]

I was telling my dad about this thread and he relayed this story - his parents were avid cruisers. I mean, they did the Southern route 5-6 times a year, always to get my grandmother new jewelry, to dance, etc. Anyways, theirs was an arranged marriage, but they fell madly in love, and he was always wanting private time with her. Well the cruises they were on didn't have private tables - you got tablemates - unless you reached a certain level.

Before they reached a more elite status, to avoid this problem my grandfather would sit down and much to my grandmother's chagrin, begin talking to "invisible" people sitting at his table. She'd just sit there, though, letting him go on. People would see this, turn tail, and ask to be seated elsewhere. He'd then wink at her, kiss her hand and they'd have a wonderful private dinner. When the waiters caught on, he'd bribe them to keep others away from the table and play along.

To inject some romance into the thread, each cruise he'd have a dozen red roses waiting in the suite at the beginning of the cruise, and a dozen white roses on the last day. Every cruise. Like I said, arranged marriage, but it lasted 49 years.

 

[Marita916]

When my husband and I were on our honeymoon (we were in our early forties, pre-kids), we did a Med cruise through a different cruise line. Each night, we would sit with a different couple for dinner. On our fourth night, our waiter escorted us to a table occupied by an older couple (probably in their 80's). The waiter introduced us as Mr. & Mrs. XXX from California. The older lady said, very loudly, "I don't want to sit with them!." I thought the waiter was going to faint. He didn't know what to say, and just escorted us to a table for two by the window. We were very surprised, but tried not to take it personally. The next night, we met a lovely couple from Arizona, and still keep in touch with them 7 years later. We have met some wonderful people on cruises.

 

[valgal02]

I was telling my dad about this thread and he relayed this story - his parents were avid cruisers. I mean, they did the Southern route 5-6 times a year, always to get my grandmother new jewelry, to dance, etc. Anyways, theirs was an arranged marriage, but they fell madly in love, and he was always wanting private time with her. Well the cruises they were on didn't have private tables - you got tablemates - unless you reached a certain level.

Before they reached a more elite status, to avoid this problem my grandfather would sit down and much to my grandmother's chagrin, begin talking to "invisible" people sitting at his table. She'd just sit there, though, letting him go on. People would see this, turn tail, and ask to be seated elsewhere. He'd then wink at her, kiss her hand and they'd have a wonderful private dinner. When the waiters caught on, he'd bribe them to keep others away from the table and play along.

To inject some romance into the thread, each cruise he'd have a dozen red roses waiting in the suite at the beginning of the cruise, and a dozen white roses on the last day. Every cruise. Like I said, arranged marriage, but it lasted 49 years.

Love this!!!

 

[ALK$Disney]

I would not classify our last table mates as crazy, but they did not speak a word of English. I was a single father and daughter from the Netherlands. Now mind you we had to spend 15 nights with them at the MDR. It was awkward at first but we started using gestures and other methods to communicate. My DD and his DD were both 5 years old and became good friends while on the cruise, and pretty much hung out at the clubs and pool together.

 

[NCConch]

Bumping this thread because it is so darn funny!

 

[Pooh2]

We are doing our first cruise next year and have requested a private table. But just in case that does not happen, if we are seated with our couples or familes do you sit next to each other or across from each other? Never sure of how that works at communal seating with strangers..

 

[Footnotegirl]

We are doing our first cruise next year and have requested a private table. But just in case that does not happen, if we are seated with our couples or familes do you sit next to each other or across from each other? Never sure of how that works at communal seating with strangers..

Depends on what you all decide, and the shape of the table. They do not assign you a seat, only a table. Generally, the two times that we have sat with any strangers what has happened is that each couple/family would take a seat at the 'narrow' end if the table isn't perfectly circular, and the other people in their party would either bracket them, or take the seats to one side. On the last trip, it was DH, DD3, Me, and another couple with a DS4. Either dad or mom would sit at the narrow end, with the little one next, and the other parent on the other side of the little one. But it's however works for you.

 

[cruisehopeful]

We are doing our first cruise next year and have requested a private table. But just in case that does not happen, if we are seated with our couples or familes do you sit next to each other or across from each other? Never sure of how that works at communal seating with strangers..

Whoever gets to the table first gets to pick their seats. One of cruises, we didn't get to sit next to each other because the other family got their first every day and sat spread out so that their kids could talk to us to us the entire meal and the parents didn't have to sit by/talk to them.

 

[Ajojo]

We were on the Wonder a month ago and there was a mother and daughter traveling from England. The daughter was mid 20s and she licked every plate clean and glass. She would get a Sundae every meal and use her fingers to wipe up the dish and then lick her fingers. She also spilled glasses of water on the table several nights. We were at a table for 8 and there were 4 parties.

She would touch several times all the bread in the basket so no one else could eat bread. She had a cold and would wipe her nose and cough in her hand. She would speak so loudly looking at our meals and say hi she was glad she wasn't eating that because it looked like sh?t. Other nights she was just playing on her cell phone. Her mother had some of these habits, but I would say that all of us at the table were quite amazed.

I don't mind sharing because I want to meet people, but we will be on the Wonder in a few weeks with more family and are glad that we will have a table to ourselves (hopefully).