Craziest table mates you have had.

[wilkeliza]

So, what's the "official" etiquette with strangers at the table?
I am now imagining that we're going to be the crazies! DD is SUPER shy. It could take her all week to warm up to someone, even another girl her age (she's 6). So, if we get paired with a family with a 6yo girl, and she tries to talk to DD and gets the cold shoulder, we're going to look like the rude ones!

And how far does the conversation have to go? I'm introverted. I'm not good at making up chit chat and all that jazz. Sometimes I don't want to go into my life story and keep to myself / my family. Am I going to be the rude one if I end the conversation at the usual pleasantries? Or is the expectation to make friends and have a dinner as a group of 8 instead of 2 families of 4? Maybe I can hope that we all like the same hockey team or something... ?

I don't mind shy or introverted. I get that. For me it is people who sit in such a way that doesn't make sense for the table size. We were fine with our group that did the usual pleasantries then kept to themselves. Our usual conversations were what are you into, how was your day, anything cool happen, etc. Then if people didn't feel up to it we kept to ourselves. We are more introverted as well so it really depends on what vibe we get the first night.

 

[Baklava]

So, what's the "official" etiquette with strangers at the table?
I am now imagining that we're going to be the crazies! DD is SUPER shy. It could take her all week to warm up to someone, even another girl her age (she's 6). So, if we get paired with a family with a 6yo girl, and she tries to talk to DD and gets the cold shoulder, we're going to look like the rude ones!

And how far does the conversation have to go? I'm introverted. I'm not good at making up chit chat and all that jazz. Sometimes I don't want to go into my life story and keep to myself / my family. Am I going to be the rude one if I end the conversation at the usual pleasantries? Or is the expectation to make friends and have a dinner as a group of 8 instead of 2 families of 4? Maybe I can hope that we all like the same hockey team or something... ?

I think I'd start with DD and warn her that this is a thing that is happening and remind her that she is expected to respond politely to questions. Then a warning of, "she's a little shy, give her some time to warm up," to the others lets them know what's going on.

For chit chat, the easy way is to ask open questions and let the other person do the talking. "So what did you do today that was wonderful?" is generally a good one.

 

[TAK]

My DH and I request our own table when we cruise (and have always gotten it) because... feel free to roll your eyes at us... even after being married for awhile and dating years before that, and so on... we're just romantic and schmoopy that way. We like our nice dinners alone together. We're not anti-social, we like talking to people we meet in the adult bars, in the D Lounge, at the pools and on excursions. We don't go on cruises to meet other people, but we're happy to do so when it happens organically. But we just like to eat alone, and talk to each other. He's my favorite person in the world to talk to -- it's why I married him -- so I never get tired of hearing what he has to say. I know, I know.

Having said that, we're unabashed people-watchers. We've never seen anything out of the ordinary, but we do have a tendency to refer to people around us by nicknames ("George Lucas Beard Guy" or "Always Late Family" and so on). Nice ones. Usually. ;-)

 

[PollyBrit]

My family will be a party of 12, spread over 4 staterooms, linked booking - will we all be on one table do you think? i've never been on a cruise before
Polly

 

[scootch]

My family will be a party of 12, spread over 4 staterooms, linked booking - will we all be on one table do you think? i've never been on a cruise before
Polly

We had 13 and were all at one table.

 

[lorimay]

My DH and I request our own table when we cruise (and have always gotten it) because... feel free to roll your eyes at us... even after being married for awhile and dating years before that, and so on... we're just romantic and schmoopy that way. We like our nice dinners alone together. We're not anti-social, we like talking to people we meet in the adult bars, in the D Lounge, at the pools and on excursions. We don't go on cruises to meet other people, but we're happy to do so when it happens organically. But we just like to eat alone, and talk to each other. He's my favorite person in the world to talk to -- it's why I married him -- so I never get tired of hearing what he has to say. I know, I know.

Having said that, we're unabashed people-watchers. We've never seen anything out of the ordinary, but we do have a tendency to refer to people around us by nicknames ("George Lucas Beard Guy" or "Always Late Family" and so on). Nice ones. Usually. ;-)

I couldn't have said that any better!!!
We feel exactly the same way.
We people watch too, sometimes I make up a whole story about them too while we are sitting there. Silly but fun.

 

[bethann2103]

My DH and I request our own table when we cruise (and have always gotten it) because... feel free to roll your eyes at us... even after being married for awhile and dating years before that, and so on... we're just romantic and schmoopy that way. We like our nice dinners alone together. We're not anti-social, we like talking to people we meet in the adult bars, in the D Lounge, at the pools and on excursions. We don't go on cruises to meet other people, but we're happy to do so when it happens organically. But we just like to eat alone, and talk to each other. He's my favorite person in the world to talk to -- it's why I married him -- so I never get tired of hearing what he has to say. I know, I know.

Having said that, we're unabashed people-watchers. We've never seen anything out of the ordinary, but we do have a tendency to refer to people around us by nicknames ("George Lucas Beard Guy" or "Always Late Family" and so on). Nice ones. Usually. ;-)

I think this is fantastic!!!!

 

[persimmondeb]

We're booked on a three day on the Magic. I requested a separate table because DS20 can be made very anxious by dining with strangers (mild autism--he'd probably be okay at a small table with one or two friendly people--but we were once at a huge circular twelve-top at tea-time on Carnival and I don't think he was able to eat more than a bite or two--I wasn't even all that comfortable--we felt really on display).

DH would probably love being seated at a big table to make new friends, but his new friends might or might not feel the same way about it. He's very talkative and friendly, and the kindest guy in the world, but very bad at reading social cues. I'm somewhat reserved and look a whole lot more conservative than I am, since I dress very modestly (skirts and dresses, knees and shoulders covered except on the beach) but I belong to a very liberal branch of Christianity and write LGBTQ fiction for a living, and if DS is feeling anxious he will sit very quietly and not eat anything (if he's relaxed he'll make conversation and eat enough for three people in a polite manner).

We'll see if Disney is able to accommodate us. If not, hopefully the experience won't be too "interesting" for either us or our table mates.

 

[missyp]

I give up on table mates. I have tried, tried, tried, and my family won't let me try again. When I was in my 20's and cruised with a friend we had awesome experiences. We even had a blast sitting at a table of senior citizens. I thought for sure that the family cruise would bring us great memories and my family could meet great people by having table mates. After the non-english speaking family (who seemed very nice, but we couldn't communicate), the family who prayed halfway through dinner, and the single mom who disciplined her kids non stop, we are done. My husband and kids do not want to give it another try, so we eat alone and it can be a little boring at times but we always enjoy talking about our day and to our waiters and on our last cruise the people at the next table were quite nice and we chatted a bit.

 

[jxhide]

Hi, I just wanted to give my opinion. I am a bit shy and do not really like talking to strangers much. I would probably come off seeming rude by not really talking to my tablemates which seems some people have complained about. Obviously I'd politely/nicely answer any questions but probably would not keep carrying on the conversation. Some people are just not as social and don't want to be nudged into a conversation, like being stuck talking to person on a plane. I requested a private table so hopefully that goes though. Sorry it's just my personality with being more introverted. Nothing against my potential future tablemates if the request doesn't go through.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

My DH and I request our own table when we cruise

How/when/where can you request this? We are brand new to DCL and cruising at all!!

 

[DynamicDisneyDuo]

How/when/where can you request this? We are brand new to DCL and cruising at all!!

You, or your TA if you used one, can contact DCL to request it. It is just that, a request. They are pretty good about accommodating people though.

 

[TAK]

How/when/where can you request this? We are brand new to DCL and cruising at all!!

Just call and ask. They'll note it on your reservation. Then if you want to follow up, when you get on the ship that first day, ask where Dining changes or questions are being addressed. On the Fantasy, it's often in Royal Court and the Navigator will list it, but any Cast Member can direct you. There you can ask if they were able to honor that request. Or, you can just wait and see at dinner that night.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

You, or your TA if you used one, can contact DCL to request it. It is just that, a request. They are pretty good about accommodating people though.

Just call and ask. They'll note it on your reservation. Then if you want to follow up, when you get on the ship that first day, ask where Dining changes or questions are being addressed. On the Fantasy, it's often in Royal Court and the Navigator will list it, but any Cast Member can direct you. There you can ask if they were able to honor that request. Or, you can just wait and see at dinner that night.

So helpful -- thank you both!!

 

[CampbellzSoup]

I just want to chime in and say my table mates were AWESOME one couple from Puerto Rico and the other from England and we are still talking daily!

 

[michellekcm]

Our first cruise we had awesome tablemates, and are still in contact with them on FB. We keep talking about doing another cruise together, but as we're from different countries, school holidays don't tend to line up.

Our second cruise we had a party of 5 (me, DH, my mother, and 2 children) and we were sat with a family of 3 - their child was in between our children's ages. The dad was lovely, the mum was a bit strange. They told us that their daughter didn't watch TV, didn't know Disney, etc. etc. So when they asked us things about the cruise, what they could do, we would talk about Disney-related stuff and they would say "oh, we can't take her to that because she won't know who they are." E.g. Open House in the Club with Mickey Mouse.

They were late every single night (it's my holiday, I can come to dinner when I want), they ordered off menu all the time because they didn't like the food because it wasn't healthy - so they ordered things like "a plate of broccoli with no butter no salt, and a side of shrimp please." They were a bit disapproving of my daughter eating mac and cheese or chicken nuggets nearly every night .

They wouldn't put their daughter in the nursery because they wanted to travel together (which is fine), but then had issues when their daughter couldn't come to things they wanted to do that happened to be adult only. We would try and have conversations about their day etc., and the mum would sort of ignore us or give us 1 word answers. The dad would have a genuine conversation, but he was often out of the dining room looking after their daughter who just didn't want to sit still. When we just spoke amongst ourselves we felt like we were being judged by the mum for laughing too loud, or not being appropriate or something.

My mother and I afterwards thought it was bizarre that the mum was in the alternative health / healing industry, because she gave off no warmth at all, and didn't listen to anyone else (including her husband ). So they weren't awful, just hard work.

After that we had tables to ourselves - I think just because the cruises we were on were emptier, it seemed everyone had their own table. I'm hoping we get some lovely tablemates on our next cruise.

 

[rosaciri]

Traveled on The Fantasy on April/May 2014 and we sat on our own - Me DH DD (9) and DD (3) as my husband was worried about sitting with others and not geling with them. The tables are so close to each other anyway that we ended up meeting a lovely family from Pennsylvannia who had 2 DD sam age as mine and we got along great - we even spent time together on the boat and at CC. We are friends on FB, our girls skype each other all the time, we send gifts for xmas etc (well for them its Happy Holidays as they are Jewish) and we are even looking at doing another cruise in April 2017 or a week at WDW before my family cruises again doing the Eastern Carribean trip. Ive heard lots of pros and cons about this topic and sometimes it really is just luck.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

Our first cruise we had awesome tablemates, and are still in contact with them on FB. We keep talking about doing another cruise together, but as we're from different countries, school holidays don't tend to line up.

Our second cruise we had a party of 5 (me, DH, my mother, and 2 children) and we were sat with a family of 3 - their child was in between our children's ages. The dad was lovely, the mum was a bit strange. They told us that their daughter didn't watch TV, didn't know Disney, etc. etc. So when they asked us things about the cruise, what they could do, we would talk about Disney-related stuff and they would say "oh, we can't take her to that because she won't know who they are." E.g. Open House in the Club with Mickey Mouse.

They were late every single night (it's my holiday, I can come to dinner when I want), they ordered off menu all the time because they didn't like the food because it wasn't healthy - so they ordered things like "a plate of broccoli with no butter no salt, and a side of shrimp please." They were a bit disapproving of my daughter eating mac and cheese or chicken nuggets nearly every night .

They wouldn't put their daughter in the nursery because they wanted to travel together (which is fine), but then had issues when their daughter couldn't come to things they wanted to do that happened to be adult only. We would try and have conversations about their day etc., and the mum would sort of ignore us or give us 1 word answers. The dad would have a genuine conversation, but he was often out of the dining room looking after their daughter who just didn't want to sit still. When we just spoke amongst ourselves we felt like we were being judged by the mum for laughing too loud, or not being appropriate or something.

My mother and I afterwards thought it was bizarre that the mum was in the alternative health / healing industry, because she gave off no warmth at all, and didn't listen to anyone else (including her husband ). So they weren't awful, just hard work.

After that we had tables to ourselves - I think just because the cruises we were on were emptier, it seemed everyone had their own table. I'm hoping we get some lovely tablemates on our next cruise.

We've never had table mates, never requested to be alone either, it just happens that way. This is precisely why I don't like the idea of it, your enjoyment of your cruise was impacted by that. I'm not saying it ruined it because it sounds like you handled it well and didn't let it affect your enjoyment. But if I was in your shoes I would have dreaded going to dinner every night. Mum sounds like a negative Nellie and that would just kill me to be around. Kudos to you for handling it well.

 

[rastahomie]

Mrs. Homie and I were at 50's Prime Time Cafe, seated next to a table with a nice, younger (than us) family of a mom, dad, two kids. They struck up a conversation with us, and everything was going just fine until the subject of kids came up.

MOM: So y'all are here by yourselves, your kids back at the pool?
ME: No, we don't have any kids.
MOM: [silence]

They didn't say a word to us the rest of the meal.

 

[dpswift]

Mrs. Homie and I were at 50's Prime Time Cafe, seated next to a table with a nice, younger (than us) family of a mom, dad, two kids. They struck up a conversation with us, and everything was going just fine until the subject of kids came up.

MOM: So y'all are here by yourselves, your kids back at the pool?
ME: No, we don't have any kids.
MOM: [silence]

They didn't say a word to us the rest of the meal.

That is so crazy. We all need to accept differences in people.