Ever had bad dinner companions at your table?

[HFC1969]

Wow just got back from the 3 day DCL and had a great wait staff!! Espically Kate from Austraila (Asst Server) .

But wow the folks at our table were complete They never talked, never wore appropriate clothing... Just very dissapointing..

Just curious if anyone else ever had this happen? Our wait staff said if you ever have this happen again asked to be moved.

 

[Grandma4ever]

We never have had this happen. However, I know that it does from time to time. There is the option of requesting that you get moved when you don't fit with your table mates. I am sorry that your experence wasn't the best.

 

[kristy07keith]

My DH and I had bad dinner company when we went on our honeymoon cruise. We were sat with two other honeymooners. All they did was complain about everything. The food was bad, the kids were annoying, other families drove them crazy, the ship was crowded and the shows were boring. I wanted to scream, you are on a DISNEY CRUISE, of coarse there are kids and the boat is crowded. They also kept saying that how brainwashing disney was. They were such a downer. We were so happy for a Palo night and thank goodness it was only a 3 day cruise. We even thought about skipping dinner our last night just to avoid the negativity, but we loved our server ALEX. My DH and I had a wonderful time despite our fellow diners. We had done a disney cruise before our honeymoon and loved it the first time, we wanted to have the magic again on the cruise for our honeymoon.

 

[mkmommy]

RCI is going to start with a Flexible dining system, I wonder how long it will before DCL does this route? I think it will be like the hotels and going non smoking, once one started all the chains followed suit.

 

[acourtwdw]

That happened to us but not on DCL. We were on Norweign and the couple that we sat with made a lot of comments that led us to believe that we were snobs. We ordered the wine package and that was too much for them to believe. We were polite and made conversation with them but it wasn't very comfortable. It didn't ruin our cruise though.

 

[goltedl]

We had a new blended family on their first vacation at our table. The wife had two kids from her first marriage and this was their first trip with the new step dad. The husband and wife was not having a good time and would not talk to each other. It was very uncomfortable. On the second night the husband stay pack in the room...so the dinner was not as bad as the night before. My family order room service one night and skipped dinner. We tried to not let it bother our cruise...but it did affect our dinning experience. On the next cruise we went with some family members and we had the table to our self. What a different that made.

 

[CraftyMouse]

RCI is going to start with a Flexible dining system, I wonder how long it will before DCL does this route? I think it will be like the hotels and going non smoking, once one started all the chains followed suit.

I don't think DCL will do this anytime soon...at least I hope they don't. I think most DCL cruisers really like the dining system and having the same serving team each night. I think the flexible dining system will take away a lot of the magic.

 

[goltedl]

We had a new blended family on their first vacation at our table. The wife had two kids from her first marriage and this was their first trip with the new step dad. The husband and wife was not having a good time and would not talk to each other. It was very uncomfortable. On the second night the husband stay pack in the room...so the dinner was not as bad as the night before. My family order room service one night and skipped dinner. We tried to not let it bother our cruise...but it did affect our dinning experience. On the next cruise we went with some family members and we had the table to our self. What a different that made.

 

[marlee70]

We had a very nice family of four as companions (we are four too), we had a few conversations mostly about the kids, food, and entertainment in the ship but we weren't on top of each other all the time. They even offered to share their bottle of wine, we declined politely but that was very nice of them!

 

[m4travel]

We've had great luck with dinner companions on DCL. For our first cruise we had a table of 18 Disers - all fun. The second cruise we were at a four-top with a charming couple from New Jersey. For the third we had linked ressies with a Diser from Long Island and our other tablemates were also Disers.

I think our bad experiences have all been on other cruiselines.

 

[Sallyc]

We had wonderful table mates, a retired couple and a young couple from Argentina. We got a long so well we missed the beginning of the pirate party because we were talking! (honey, all the other tables are empty...what time is it???)

 

[eva]

Unfortunately we did have issues with our tablemates on our first DCL cruise about 5 years ago. A big portion of the blame goes to DCL though. They placed my DH and me (celebrating our 20th anniversary) with a woman, her mother, and her 3 small children who spoke no English. The children had a very tough time sitting still and were up moving around the table most of our meals. Sure glad it was a 3-Night cruise. If it had been longer, we would have asked to move after the first night. Extra glad we had Palo on the last night and only had to go through 2 meals on the rotation.

 

["Ginger"]

We've only had one problem so far but we do now ask for a table by ourselves.
We are a family of 3 and we were seated with the same. The problem was thier kid, what a brat. He would grab everything on the table and throw it. By the end of our 7 night cruise we dined without a table cloth. We could not have salt and pepper shaker, sugar or a bread basket, nothing on the table. If you got a drink you had to hold on to it. We actually held on to our plates to eat.
The parents had no control over this child.
We didn't know what to do, the ship was packed so moving us was pretty much out of the question.
Because of that one time I now ask for a table just for us.

 

[yazee1]

Our dinner companions have been great company but we did eat lunch with a family on one of our cruises that I'm glad were not our dinner companions. I don't think they would have been unpleasant to us, and they didn't have gross table manners , but the dynamics between the members of the little family were very, very tense and antagonistic. I don't see how the parents managed to eat through their gritted teeth, and I think it was with great restraint that the wife didn't hurl anything (including her testy daughter) at her husband. Whatever had her seething occurred long before we sat down.

 

[mwrogers]

Last March, 7-day Eastern, our table companions weren't talking to each other one night because he forgot it was her birthday. I would have asked to be reassigned, but they were my parents

 

[Hobbitmomma]

Last March, 7-day Eastern, our table companions weren't talking to each other one night because he forgot it was her birthday. I would have asked to be reassigned, but they were my parents

 

[MagicMe]

yeah - I can't be much help as I've only cruised two times and it's been with family (20 people total the first time and 15 this last time)!!! And we always have a blast!

This next time there are only four of us so it should be interesting as to whether we are seated by ourselves or with someone. Still, there are plenty of DIS'ers on the cruise so if we do have tablemates they will hopefully be from the DIS!!

 

[Mickeyhugger]

I don't think DCL will do this anytime soon...at least I hope they don't. I think most DCL cruisers really like the dining system and having the same serving team each night. I think the flexible dining system will take away a lot of the magic.

Lets hope that DCL never goes the same route that RCCL is going This is another reason that we do not like RCCL.


Rob

 

[sharonmickey]

On my first cruise my two DD and I were seated with another family. This family spoke no English while talking to each other but did speak English to the servers. I felt they were purposely excluding us from understanding any of their conversation. It was very uncomfortable. Fortunately they did not show up at the first meal. We suffered through the second meal. The rest of the meals we ate other places to avoid an awkward meal (at least for us). There children were not anywhere near my kids ages. I hope this next cruise goes better! This time I will not hesitate to ask to be moved.

 

[jeast]

Personally, I would prefer the flexible dining. I enjoy meeting new people in other ways on the ship, but I prefer to relax with family at dinner. It is our time to connect and discuss our day.