Cruising with a big group... how do they do seating?

[ForMyBoys]

Hi All, Our family of 5 has booked a 7 night Fantasy cruise next year. My best friend and her husband are joining. And sounds like my brother will tag along. Then tonight my other best friend said she will likely also book the same cruise. She has a 4 kids so they are a family of 6. So when I count us all up we are 14 people. Has anyone cruised with that large of a group? If we asked to be seated together can they do that large of a table? I'm worried if some wait too long to book they won't be able to pick early seating (and seriously we have to have early seating) so that has me stressed too.

Any thoughts/comments on past experiences cruising with a large group (even beyond dining) are welcome

 

[timrousbeastie]

It sounds like a wonderful trip, congratulations. I don't know the answer to your question, but, if I were you, it sounds like a perfect split with one table of 8 and another of 6. Even if you somehow were to get a table of 14, there is no way you would be able to hear each other. Another advantage of splitting the tables, depending on your circumstances, is that you might have all the kids at one table (with an adult, of course). That has worked well for us, both for the kids and the adults.

Now, good luck getting seats for everyone at the theater .

 

[Msidescooter]

You will want to have your travel agent (or yourself) call Disney to link the reservations together for dinning.

 

[oklamomof4boys]

We have cruised with 17 and they pushed 2 tables together for us. We put kids on one end and adults on the other end- and the ones who felt like they needed to sit next to their kids in the middle (luckily there was only 2 of them)

 

[ACDSNY]

Yes, if you book early you'll have a better chance of getting the early seating for the whole group. I've had over 20 of us on a cruise. We were split between a few tables, but all in the same section with the same servers.

 

[Kenny1113]

We were two tables of 8 right next to each other.

 

[AnnaS]

Our biggest group was 18. We had two tables next to each other. My family was a group of 11 and we were all at one table and my friend was a group of 7 - they sat together. We did not and never tried to sit together at the theatre or anywhere else. Dinner was the only time we were together or tried to get together - actually sometime nights my friends's son (17) was with a group he hung out with and one or two nights a couple might have been at Palo/Remy) - so dinner was the only place we could be together. Bingo, excursions, bar/club - we were in small groups, couple or family only. Castaway beach was another place most of us were together again (minus the teenage son - he did stop by). First time we had no "kids" and could experience Serenity Beach. Age range 17 - 84.

Link the reservation. Good luck and enjoy!

 

[hildai]

We were a group of 12 that sailed in 3 cabins two yrs ago. For dinner each night we had one long table with all of us together . . . very fun! My only word of advice is to book early and make sure to link those reservations! We booked in August for a Feb sail date and we were waitlisted for Early (main) dining seating and we were stuck with the late dinner time (it wasn't too bad!)

For our cruise this April, we have 11 sailing (4 linked cabins) and again we're waitlisted for the main dining seating ~ even though we booked last July!!!!! I call Disney every few days to have the CMs check on the waitlist with no results ;-) If I need to, I will try and switch our dining when we board the ship first thing! Good luck on your planning!!!

 

[CM5]

We just finished a 4 night Disney Dream cruise with a party of 20 (5 families) in 5 cabins. We made our reservation last April. We were celebrating my parent's 50th anniversary, with 10 adults, 4 teens/preteen, a 7yr old, 4 toddlers and a 1year old. We had main dining and were assigned 3 tables numbers. When we arrived tables were arranged as a table of 8 and a table of 12. After we arrived they separated the larger table so that the older kids could sit together independently. We had all of our reservations linked, however we were unable to manage them ourselves online because it was more than 4 cabins. Unfortunately, despite booking almost a year in advance with linked reservations we really ended up with not great table assignments. From previous cruises I'd been led to believe from staff that that table assignments are done to ensure a window view at least one night. We ate lunch the first day in the Enchanted Garden and they sat us at the tables we'd been assigned. These tables were directly between 2 different serving stations so very busy and noisy. Dinner that night was in the Royal Palace and we were at the entrance or exit of the galley so again very busy and noisy. The third night was Animators Palate. This night the families with the young kids were assigned a table at the exit of the galley and each time a server came through they were asked to lean the kids forward to make sure they didn't bump in to them. We had an excellent head waiter and he was able to adjust the seating for the next night at Animator's Palate and the following at The Enchanted Garden. I'm not sure how many guests the servers have responsibility for but ours had the 20 of us and at least 4 other guests. This seemed to overwhelm them. There just wasn't the usual Disney finesse we'd had on our previous 2 cruises-dirty dishes stayed on the table for long periods of time, staff didn't offer to cut up the kids' meats (a little thing but a nice break for the parents), on our previous 2 cruises the servers had time to talk with the kids, show them some magic tricks, take family pics at the table, etc. This was a bit of a let down for everyone as we'd really "sold" the cruise to the others after hearing about our past experiences. I'm not sure if there has been a general decline in the level of service or if it was related to being a large group. Again, the service wasn't bad, just not amazing. Our experiences may have been influenced by the rushed nature of the Main seating. Our best server experience previously was second seating. The food was always piping hot and that was a bonus.

 

[ForMyBoys]

Thanks for all the replies everyone!!! Very helpful. We have already booked for Feb 2016, and got early dining. My best friend will likely book this week. Its my other friend and her family of 6 I'm worried about. I think I will have her try to get early dining on her own then we can call and link them. I really do not enjoy late dining (and yes we've done both). So.... that is the plan and hopefully it works out

CM5 I'm sorry to hear about your service. On our first Cruise (Magic) I felt like we got great seats, but the last one on the Fantasy I didn't like the table locations either. I figured it was because we booked GYT but not sure? Sounds like you booked way in advance and still had the issue.... that is too bad Disney dining rooms are literally why I pay a premium for disney cruising. Hopefully they tick it up a notch.

 

[over50visits]

We recently cruised with early seating, and were near two different tables of 16 people. Each had an (almost) dedicated server team (our team took care of the 2 of us plus one of the large tables), and with the help sometimes of the head server there weren't any issues about taking dinner selections and serving them up. Locations were nice. It helped that both tables showed up on time (no better way to hassle the servers than to be late), and they all seemed to be friendly guests, which helped the evenings be a success.

 

[CM Dad]

This January I took my wife on a 5 night cruise on the Wonder for her 60th birthday. As a surprise, I also took our four adult children, 2 spouses, one boyfriend and 6 grand kids (ages 6 yr down to just over 12 weeks). We had early dining because of the kids. Reservations were all linked by our travel agent. We were seated at one long table. Server did a great job keeping the kids entertained with magic tricks. We had several people with food allergies and they spent time at the end of the meal going over the next nights menu to plan what they could modify to meet their requirements. This was the largest group I have cruise with. In 2017 when my wife want to cruise with everybody again for our 40th anniversary, we'll need to add at least one more chair for the next grandchild.

 

[ForMyBoys]

Thanks CM dad! Awesome to hear you got one table. I'm really hoping for one table. I know you can't talk to all but I figure we'll mix up the seating order each night and get to catch up with everyone

 

[TinkRose]

On the last cruise with 22 people we had 3 tables separate but next to each other. We actually preferred that over the one long table on the cruise with 18 people. The long table was in the back and on the wall at one end so it was hard for one side to get in and out. With the separate tables we had the same server team. It was easier to switch around seats and talk to others in the group. It seemed easier for the servers too. They weren't pressured to get 22 meals out at the same time. We wouldn't have minded them being served in waves at the long table but it may be their policy to serve one table all at once. On both cruises we had the reservations linked. I think someone requested the long table for the first cruise but we didn't the second time and it worked out better.

 

[CM5]

Just to clarify, our service wasn't bad, just not amazing. Perhaps if we hadn't had such attentive service on our first cruise we wouldn't have noticed. Our first server, Adrian from Romania, really set the bar high. This time I'm not sure if the kids ever really knew the team by name,but they all recall fondly the fun things Adrian and Lydar did during their first cruise. I think the team this cruise tried hard but was overwhelmed by the number of guests they were serving. Hopefully we'll be able to travel again as a family group. I think we'd either request a table for 20 or a table for 5 + another for 15. With the way it was split this time we weren't able to switch seats without splitting up parents and the little kids. It would be nicer to be able to switch the seating each night to make it easier to visit and talk with each other. If travelling with a group of adults either option could work well.