How Social are You During a DCL Cruise?

[CamColt]

In general Im a keep to myself, dont bother me, kind of person. In fact we always request our own table, even pre covid as the last thing I want is forced interaction. With that said, we often find ourselves chatting with people we run into often, met online, or even just sitting at the pool bar. Actually that's probably where we are most social. So, even for an introvert like myself, I find it very easy to be social on board. The fact DH is a talker doesn't hurt either.

 

[MomOTwins]

I do miss the way the shared dining table introduced us to some wonderful people. One our last pre Covid cruise our dinner mates really clicked with us so we used to send the kids up to the club together mid meal and have a leisurely drinks and dessert each night, catch shows together and spend time with the parents at the adult pool and the whole family at the CC beach. Recognize it wasn’t always like that, but when you got great dinner mates it really enhanced the cruise.

On our post-Covid cruise I am still a chatty person so I will sit at the bar in a lounge and strike up a conversation with people, or at the pool/hot tub. Pro tip: if people are making conversation with the CMs they are probably up for making conversation with fellow guests. I usually start chatting with the bartender and pretty soon others join in

 

[Travel60]

We started cruising when DS and DD were ~ 10, 13. DCL did a good job matching families at dinner and kids often made "cruise friends". We generally enjoyed meeting and talking with adults at table and seeing them around ship....maybe shared drinks or an excursion. Talked about travels and work, etc. Once we started cruising as two adults, dinner table matchups got "iffier" and we had a couple of really odd table mates.

Once when kids were ~14-17 they met a brother/sister at teen group and hit it off. By coincidence, we met the parents just walking around (dad was wearing hat of a team we follow). Three of kids ended up going to same university, invited to each other's weddings, and still stay in touch. All are now married, some with kids. DD wants to do a reunion cruise once things clear up.

We've been on a few non DCL cruises and other group travels where we met couples we really clicked with, visit in our homes occasionally, etc.

 

[wideeyedwonder]

It totally depends on who we meet. Usually, we get paired with another family for dinner; twice we’ve really clicked with the other family, and ended up doing things outside of dinner (excursions) with them. One of the families we’ve even purposely cruised together afterwards, and are dear friends now.

so it totally depends.