Dining with strangers

[MichelleVW]

I was worried about this last summer on our adult only cruise. But we were seated with a couple and had a blast!

 

[stacyalisa]

We're going on our first cruise and this is one aspect I'm not looking forward to. Both my husband and I are very.....what's a good word.....unsociable. Don't get me wrong, we are very nice people, but given the choice to socalize or keep to oursevles, we're gonna choose to keep to ourselves every time. We are rather shy and don't do very good with "small talk" at all. I don't think I'm going to request a table to ourselves though.......I at least want to give the kids a chance to grow up with some social skills.

 

[Princess Dolly]

Our very first DCL cruise (our honeymoon no less) we had the WORST tablemates (who were also on their honeymoon). After that we had some really greats ones who we still keep in touch with, but lately we have been requesting a table to ourselves. Since we always do late dining we have always been accommodated.

 

[Jenemmy]

My husband and I were on the Wonder last December and sat at a table with 2 other couples. One couple spoke no English, but were just as sweet as can be. We got along great with the other couple -- we kept running into them on excursions and other places on the ship and they teased we were stalking them . They were so kind, that they had their Palo ressie on the last night changed from 2 people to 4 and invited us along. It was a great night! For some reason, we never exchanged e-mails and I still kick myself over it. I would love to check in on them every now and then. Frank and Randy -- if either of you are on the disboards, give me a holler!!!

 

[travelbug24]

We look at it as an opportunity to possibly form friendships with an American family (or another nationality perhaps) and impart some knowledge and stories of Australian life.

It definitely depends on who I am traveling with, dh, doesn't like meeting new people. If its me and relatives, bring it on. I love meeting new people. Yes, we have had so-so tablemates but other times we have had fabulous tablemates. HI BRENDA (table 38 from Mediterranean cruise) if you reading this.

 

[tebi73]

I hope we get a table with some social butterflies on our Magic cruise in April. DS10's nickname is Mouth - so he's gonna definitely need someone to talk to!

Seriously though, I really do hope that we have friendly & outgoing table-mates. DH & I aren't super-outgoing or super-shy, but we are nice & friendly & enjoy meeting new people. And DS - well, he most definitely likes to be the center of attention! Plus, he's an only-child, so he's comfortable with adults & kids and he loves to make new friends too!

 

[Angelic Jennifer]

We had great luck with our table mates! Turns out, we were randomly placed with another DisBoard family! I would say things couldn't have gone better!

 

[vek239]

Hey, it's only dinner. DH and I have been on about 18 cruises and we're not particularly outgoing or the fun-loving type. Our positive experiences with tablemates far outnumber the so-so ones. Request a table for 8 or 10. If one or two are not your type, you're likely to get along with some of the others.

 

[dvcdisney]

No you aren't the only one. There are a couple of reasons why I don't like this.
1. We don't get to eat together as a family that often and

2. The biggest reason, I am a very social person, I love nothing more than getting together for dinner, HOWEVER, I must first know you and like you and actually want to have dinner with you because I know and like you. I have NO desire to find out if I like you by having dinner with you.

I agree with the bolded part. And although we try to eat together as a family as often as we can, we do have days that we don't and it's not much of a meal.

For us, one of the best part of the cruise or any vacation is having a great meal together. And we consider this time family time.

 

[scrapbookmomma74]

We met a great family on our cruise meets board, and requested to be seated with them on our last Dream cruise. We had a BLAST! But, we had met them beforehand. On our other 2 DCL cruises, we had just our family of 4 at a table the first time, and then traveled as a group of 8 the 2nd, so clearly we had our own table.
On our upcoming March cruise, it will be just DH & myself...I'm hoping to find another couple or 2 traveling sans kids to request to sit with, but I'm also willing to take my chances.

 

[Juney]

For us, one of the best part of the cruise or any vacation is having a great meal together. And we consider this time family time.

Yep. Also, my daughter goes her own direction on the cruises, so I love spending the time catching up.

 

[andersonfamily]

No you aren't the only one. There are a couple of reasons why I don't like this.
1. We don't get to eat together as a family that often and

2. The biggest reason, I am a very social person, I love nothing more than getting together for dinner, HOWEVER, I must first know you and like you and actually want to have dinner with you because I know and like you. I have NO desire to find out if I like you by having dinner with you.

 

[palmtreegirl]

2. The biggest reason, I am a very social person, I love nothing more than getting together for dinner, HOWEVER, I must first know you and like you and actually want to have dinner with you because I know and like you. I have NO desire to find out if I like you by having dinner with you.

 

[ImprovGal]

The second time, we were paired with a guy traveling completely solo on the cruise, and well, he was a little strange (not because he was traveling solo on a Disney cruise but for other reasons).

It's totally a long shot, but I have this odd feeling that I've been seated with this tablemate on a previous cruise, too.

I've had very good table assignment luck whenever it's been left up to DCL. When I've cruised solo, I've been seated at adult-only tables with other solo travelers. When I've cruised with a friend, we've been seated with adult couples or multiple families with teens.
All were interesting people and the dinner conversations flowed well.

I'm fairly easygoing, though, and it helps that one of my hobbies is comedy. If I end up with dud tablemates, then it may be a good source of material!

 

[divabydisney]

I just got off our cruise a month ago. It was our first cruise ever. All I can say is we all absolutely ADORED our table mates.

They were from Chile and we were quite the diverse table. Coincidentally I am a single mom of 2 boys, he was a single dad of 4 kids. Even with a language barrier (only 2 of them spoke a little English) we looked forward to eating with them every night. We even ate together on the last morning. One night I wanted to skip the dining room and stay in the pools and do a show at a different time. Both of my boys were so sad by this as they wouldn't get to eat with our Chilean friends, so of course we went. They even offered to just go and talk and not eat. We hit it off instantly and were facebook friends before the end of our trip. We talked for hours at the table and had so much fun. We still talk to each other and they were one of the highlights of our trip. Again I was hesitant at first but cannot describe how great it was.

 

[pdwimmer]

It's been a crapshoot for me. When I was a kid and sailed with my parents we always did the group tables. But then again, we always sailed internationally so I was able to meet people from all over the world. Heck, even if they were boring I didn't know it because I was a kid. I thought they were the most interesting people ever because they spoke another language and their kids helped me learn.

However, on our last Disney cruise we were a family of 5 and were seated with a single lady and her teenage girl. It was absolutely horrible. All of us skipped assigned seating dinners after the first night because we didn't want to be with each other. She apparently was looking for another single parent, and quite honestly, I was looking for another family.