Eating with other people.....

[tbserena]

I've noticed the majority of threads about dinner seating have been that most people on the cruises don't like sitting with other people. Maybe I've not gotten to all of the positive ones yet! We're a family of 5 on our first cruise, and we were really looking forward to meeting other people. Now I'm paranoid about dinner...is everyone requesting private tables? I think we're a pretty normal, fun family that wouldn't make someone have small talk with us. Hope we don't cause anyone to not come to dinner the second night!! Lol

 

[disneyholic family]

i've seen lots of posts by people who enjoyed their dining experiences eating with strangers....
i'd even go so far as to say the majority of the posts i've seen are by people who enjoy eating with others...

personally, we asked for a private table last time and have again mainly because this is our time to be together as a family....but i know other people enjoy the mixed dining experience very much...

 

[justmestace]

I was so nervous on our first cruise about eating with "strangers".
As we walked in to the dining room, I tried to look ahead to our table to see what "they" looked like. What were we going to talk about? What if they didn't like us? What if my kids had bad manners?
I stressed like you wouldn't believe, but didn't know I could request private seating.
I am SOOO glad I didn't know. We were seated with a family of four (like us) but they had 2 DD's, both several years older than my DD & DS. We began with the usual "Where are you from, what do you do"
We discovered we are both from out west, our DD & one of theirs have birthdays the same week and have brown eyes. Our DS & their other DD have birthdays the same week and have blue eyes. The Mom and I share the exact same birthday!
At the end of the cruise, we were the last ones off because we couldn't say goodbye. Ended up, we didn't need to.....we were on the same flight back west!
We now meet them at Christmastime at Disneyland, write, send B-Day cards, e-mails, gifts.
We have built a beautiful friendship that would never have come about if I had requested different seating.

 

[webray]

We love sitting with other people. Our first cruise we had great table mates..all couples celebrating anniversaries, honeymoons etc. We still keep in touch.

Our second cruise, just a couple weeks ago. We had one other couple at our table. When we sat down..they said...ugh..we wanted to eat alone..why do we have to eat with other people. We were seated at a table for six..lol. We thought that was quite rude of them, to say outloud..lol, considering she was becoming a minister...real nice..lol.

It is the luck of the draw with tablemates.

 

[CheapMom]

ugh..we wanted to eat alone..why do we have to eat with other people. We were seated at a table for six..lol. We thought that was quite rude of them, to say outloud..lol, considering she was becoming a minister...real nice..lol.

That is crazy- I can't believe she said that! I am encouraged about the shared dining experience from these posts. I too am nervous as we are a family of 5 and I feel like we might be a dominating force at any dinner table. My 2 older kids are both ADHD and talk ALOT. They are extremely outgoing and can be loud. Luckily, they have pretty good table manners, I am not too worried about that aspect. I hope we get at least a family of 4. I think we would totally (unintentionally) steamroll a family of 3!

 

[ganurse]

i am very excited to meet other people? anyone else on the 9/04/04 cruise? we are a friendly couple and we like to talk. hopefully we will be with others who like to talk

 

[KennyK]

We had two great experiences with eating with strangers. On our first DCL cruise which was a 4 day Wonder cruise.

It was my daughters, grandson and her girl friend (could be a second daughter) first cruise our second. We were seated with another lovely couple. This was their second cruise. At the table next to our was a couple (military with three kids, seemed they were two familes, his, hers) any way. we all became very friendly and our server ended up pushing the tables together. As the cruise continued we found out that the couple that was seated with us was almost the same age as my daughter. It was quite funny. It was their second wedding anniversary.

All in all we had a great time and still stay in contact.

On our second DCL cruise it was just my wifew and I and we were seated with a sales group from South America. It was quite interesting, because some odf them did not under english that well and it was funny trying top explain the menu's. Our server was great and really took care of us that cruise, trying to make us fit in. We had an overall good experience also.

We're cruising in a few weeks and can't wait to see who we will seated with this time.

Go and enjoy and don't worry about time.


kennyk

 

[WDWLVR]

We had a private table for 4 on 3 of our cruises (the ones we went on with my in-laws) and shared a table with others on our other 2 (where it was just the 2 of us).

One time we shared with one other couple and it was very nice. They were a little older than us, but from the same geographic area and we had a lot to talk about. The other time we were at a table for 8 with 3 other couples. Again a nice exchange of information.

For our upcoming cruise we have been taliking with others in our cruise meet thread so that we can sit with other DIS'ers. Nice to be able to get to know people before cruising with them.

 

[MrsPete]

Suppose you do get the table mates from H - E - double toothpicks. Can you request a change? To whom would you make the request?

 

[MarkRG]

That is one thing that is a very small possibility here, as most of the people sailing are at least peripherally into Disney, so in general, you get nice, friendly people. The times we have dined with others it has been very pleasant. If you have a big enough party, you might just get your own table, as we have for half of the cruises we've been on.

That said, there was one time I felt bad for the people at another table who did have very bad tablemates. Dined as if they were still eating at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe in the Magic Kingdom every night, always dressed as if for a day at the parks, the kids were very obnoxious to the point of bringing a DVD player to dinner! I would have been embarassed to sit with them. But that is the only time in 5 cruises where I've even seen a group that bad.

Now as for who to talk to if you DO get stuck with objectionable diners, you talk to the server that's stationed at the door to the restaurant you're in that night and they will help you.

 

[jlp651]

WE had good table mates on our Feb. cruise. The first night was difficult as far as coming up with something to say...but then again with 8-12ft waves...I think with the rocking of the ship we all were trying to keep our meals down!

 

[swandiverpatt]

Our first cruise we loved our table mates .. the second cruise, we weren't so thrilled. You just never know.

 

[mrsfuzzmo]

Dinner with strangers - soon to be friends - is one of our favorite aspects of the cruise! Actually, it's sad, our favorite cruise line, NCL, has switched to freestyle dining and now I don't think we will ever fo back to NCL. We just love sitting at dinner with the same folks every evening and hearing about their days! One of the most fun cruises it was myself and my 3 sisters (4 girls within 5 yrs of age) that got seated with 2 senior couples. We absolutely had a blast, and so did they. We called them moms and dads all week and they couldn't wait to hear about our days on shore every evening! My husband and I have also had some real doozies, but never complain, take them with a grain of salt and actually make it fun (the stories we can tell about some of our table mates.....). It's luck of the draw, and it's definitely an adventure, but it's, to us, what cruising is all about! We can eat by ourselves every other day of the year.

Mrsfuzzmo