Family dining with other families vs. dining along

[Mickeyhugger]

Which does your family prefer and why?

I didn't realize there were so many families who prefer to dine alone.

Dining with another family (so far, knock on wood) is something we look forward to doing on every cruise. DH, DD (age 9) have always vacationed alone (not by choice, just hard to plan vacations with other families) and even though we'd still enjoy dinner, we enjoy talking about Disney vacations, where they/we are from, shore excursions they/we took that day, etc. with others. My next-door neighbor said their family has never taken a cruise because her DH does not want to have to dine w/strangers. (Very nice man, just extremely shy.) I can appreciate that. And I suppose many who prefer the same must have professions that require them to talk all day to strangers, clients, etc, and they just want to relish the peace and solitude.

We're vacationing with friends (first time, yea!) when we cruise in May, but we've already explained to them that we want to dine w/whoever Disney assigns to us, because our DD might strike up another friendship on this cruise, the way she did last year. (We're going to be doing everything else together, we need a break at dinner. LOL!)

Also, I've read posts from some who've requested different companions after one dinner. Did you see those people later in the cruise? Was it awkward? I'm sure the companions were somewhat obnoxious to make you want to request others.

I just hope we don't end up w/a family who (secretly) wanted to dine alone. I don't want to be a memory 'well, we wanted to be by ourselves, etc.' Guess I'm just overly paranoid.

 

[Mickeyhugger]

Oops..I didn't see the similar thread to this one which was posted on 3-15.

 

[lillygator]

I would rather dine alone - not because DH or I are shy but because I want to be able to enjoy my meal discussing things with DH and not worrying about making conversation with another family. If we are seated with another family I would make the best of it but I would rather not be.

 

[aprilgail2]

I detest dining with other familes and I will be very upset if I get there to find out we are seated with others after me requesting a table alone. Last cruise we were seated by ourselves and very happy. I like sharing dinner with my own family, its the time my daughter winds down and sits at the table quietly and we talk, I don't want to have to engage in small talk with others on mine and my daughters time. I can't honestly say I would carry on a conversation of any length with anyone other than my daughter and god daughter if we were seated with others, my god daughter will be off with the teens most of day and the only time we will be together is for dinner and we will use that time to hear about her day and what her plans are for the evening. I will never forget my first carnival cruise many years ago...we got to the restaurant and found we were seated with 6 other people, 4 of whom did not even speak english. We didn't eat in the dining room after that for the whole cruise.

 

[Muushka]

Wow aprilgail2, I really hope your family gets it's own table.

I asked my husband the other day that if he had the choice, would he dine with me alone, or would he choose to sit with others. To my surprise, the introvert was undecided. He said he would be happy either way. For myself, I enjoy meeting new people. Our reservations said that we will be at a table for 8, so we will see.

 

[aprilgail2]

Originally posted by Muushka
Wow aprilgail2, I really hope your family gets it's own table.

So do I....I would hate for some other poor family who really wants to sit with people to have to sit with someone who really doesn't want to sit with anyone, its not fair to them either....

 

[crisi]

We really enjoyed our dining companions.

I figure there are a couple of possilities:

1) You end up with people that have enough in common you can make small talk with them, compare Disney trips, find out how their day went and what they do for a living. This is great and can be lots of fun

2) You end up with people who are non-communicative towards you. Either because they only want to talk amongst themselves, or because they don't speak English well enough to carry on a conversation. Big deal. I'll be pleasant, and have most of my conversations with my husband and kids. Nothing really different here than sitting at a close table next to them every evening.

3) You end up with people you have nothing in common with, but make small talk anyway. Because of the offset in values, you end up either learning something - or leaving the dining room each evening highly amused that people like that walk the earth. My husband and I ended up at a party like this once - and spent the whole night amusing ourselves. Of course, we were also highly amusing....we even invented up new people to be to amuse our fellow guests.

4) You end up with someone so obnoxious you don't have any choice but to request achange. Someone who has a child who eats of your plate (didn't someone post that had happened to them). You ask to be moved asap.

 

[Karel]

Last cruise we had table mates but they disappeared after the first night and never saw them again. Now imagine how we felt after that, especially sitting at a half empty table. I was surprised how disappointed I felt.

I hope we sit with another group next time. It may have something to do with the fact that we drive down and after spending two days in the car with the same four people, it would be nice to make conversation with someone else. Also, we spend a lot of dinners together at home so it's not like we never get family dinner time. My husband and I are fairly quiet so I hope we are with a group that likes to talk a lot.

If it's a group that we find we cannot talk with, we'll smile and make polite conversation and then each group can talk amongst themselves. And if someone else's kid tries to eat off my plate, I have no problem with telling them to cut it out.

 

[CamColt]

For me, I like to dine alone...in fact I am very much against tablemates. I go on vacation to relax and spend time with my family, or in the case of 1 of our Disney cruises, just DH. I have no desire to go on vacation and meet people. I am very shy and dining with strangers makes me very uncomfortable. Therefore I lose some enjoyment of the dining experience when I have to dine with strangers. Weve only had to do it on 1 of the 3 cruises weve been on and it did take away from the cruise for me. Not only for those reason, but the times we dined with them they were late(neither brought a watch on the cruise) and we ended up spending much longer on dinner than we would have like due to waiting for them.

 

[KAMLEM]

On our first cruise I really didn't want to be seated with other people but I never requested our own table. We ended up sitting with another family of 4. They were an Indian family who lived in New York City. I am so happy that we sat with them. The husband grew up in Hong Kong and the wife grew up in India so it was so interesting to talk with them and they were so nice. They had a little boy who was about 2 years younger than my youngest daughter but both of my girls loved him. They also had a 9 month old baby boy that my girls loved. They couldn't have been more opposite from us. Thew were a family of 4 with 2 boys under the age of 4 living in the heart of New York City. We are a family of 4 with 2 girls over the age of 5 living in a quiet suburb about 30 miles south of Boston. He is a jewelry dealer and she is a stay at home Mom while I am a Financial Analyst and DH is in retail management. Just because you may have nothing in common with someone does not mean that you will have nothing to talk about. I learned a lot from them and couldn't have enjoyed their company more.

 

[SamR]

Our reservations said that we will be at a table for 8, so we will see.

Muushka, how do you know that you will be at a table for 8? (Pardon me, but while I'm a frequent WDW visitor, this is my first DCL cruise, so I'm still learning the ropes.) Do you already have your cruise docs, and that told you? Or did you call DCL and ask?

P.S.: I see you're in Cary...We're just a short hop away in Apex, so howdy, neighbor!

 

[Muushka]

Originally posted by SamR
Muushka, how do you know that you will be at a table for 8? (Pardon me, but while I'm a frequent WDW visitor, this is my first DCL cruise, so I'm still learning the ropes.) Do you already have your cruise docs, and that told you? Or did you call DCL and ask?

P.S.: I see you're in Cary...We're just a short hop away in Apex, so howdy, neighbor!

Apex! Howdy back to ya! On our reservations that we received from our TA it said table for 8. We didn't request it or anything. We leave this Sat, I'll let you know if it was accurate or not.

 

[DMS_cruisers04]

That's it, I'm changing my cruise, sitting with Aprilgail and making her talk to me! lol

I do understand how she feels. Personally, I like being seated with new people. Like Kamlem said, you'd be surprised at what you can learn by meeting new people. But I have 2 BIL's that cruised with us for the 1st time last Sept. One would rather not sit with anyone but family. If he didn't have to, he wouldn't even talk to the servers. And the other you can't get to shut up! He's one of those people that complains about people that talk too much, as he continues to go on and on and ...

I will say don't let one small thing like dinner companions spoil your cruise. If they are that obnoxious or your feelings about eating alone are that stong, politely ask to be moved and then enjoy yourself.

ps. Don't forget to explain to the nice companions that it had nothing to do with them after you've left them stranded. Don't worry about the obnoxious ones.

 

[christinou]

On our last cruise, we were at a table of 12, and we had all met on this board and linked our reservations to sit together, it was great..... Now I am looking forward again to meeting new friends on the next cruise.

 

[deedee67]

Count me in as one who prefers to dine alone with my family. I have to make small talk and chitchat so much in my "real' day to day life that I like to take a break from it. I just love going on vacation and getting away from all of that. Our everyday life is so hectic and busy that I just want to spend quality time with my husband and daughters when we go away. In fact we were hesitant about booking a cruise because we didn't want to have to dine at a large table with other guests. I was relieved when I made our reservation and I was able to request a table for 4. To each his own, I guess.

 

[aprilgail2]

Originally posted by DMS_cruisers04
That's it, I'm changing my cruise, sitting with Aprilgail and making her talk to me! lol

AKKKKKKKKK no no no LOL.....I will make you a deal, I will sit with you at lunch but not dinner.....I would even rather sit alone then but I could deal with that more than Dinner!

 

[hydster]

April---I SO Hear you on the dining alone thing! I feel the exact same way!!! It's kind of funny though...I dread sitting with people and on some of our cruises we've met some great people but when my kids are with me especially I do NOT want to sit at a table with anyone else! My kids are good kids but they stress me out and I hate the thought of the first night of conversation! I am pretty shy (until I get to know you then watch out) and hubby isnt a huge talker at the beginning so sometimes it is so awkward. Like you if I dont get a table for my family of 5 I doubt we will go back to the dining room again the rest of the trip! I really hope they will just let us be....I know all the reasons for them putting people together but I would so much rather just have a small table out in the middle of the room if needed rather than a big table with people I dont know!!!

Heidi

 

[tchrmom]

On our first cruise, we were seated alone. No big deal...but I secretly wished that we had been assigned table mates. (Thats how they did it on "LoveBoat"!)
By the 3rd day, our kids had met friends, and we had struck up a frienship with those parents..So, the kids all ate at one table, and all the adults sat at another. (We are actually booked with these people again for our May cruise!)

In October, we went with our next door neighbors, and had a BLAST! It was only "uncomfotable" one night, when they got into a "tiff"....as all married people do. We're all going again in October!

My vote.....good friends make it a great cruise!
Fran

 

[Nick@ VB+OKW]

My wife and I would both prefer to dine by ourselves when we are on vacation. My point to posters that like dining with complete strangers is................

When you go to your favorite restraunt, in your hometown, do you ask the hostess to sit you with complete strangers?

P.S. We would have sat with you though Crisi......

 

[Mickeyhugger]

Hi there Nick -

No. I'd never ask a hostess to sit us with complete strangers in our hometown.

My family and I are on vacation though. We already dine together at home every night. It's good to have someone else w/whom we can share the enthusiam. I can easily pick-up on when people don't want to indulge in conversation and I'll respect that.

I'm just glad for the handful of diners out there who do like to be seated w/others.