No more table mates on DCL

[Cruising Engineer]

We have always had great table mates on our cruises. That being said, if DCL changed it to open seating, and there are only X amount of seats for Y number of passengers at first (or second) seating, I think of it as high school cafeteria, "can we sit here" and the mean girls.

 

[cruiser21]

We have always had great table mates on our cruises. That being said, if DCL changed it to open seating, and there are only X amount of seats for Y number of passengers at first (or second) seating, I think of it as high school cafeteria, "can we sit here" and the mean girls.

It doesn't have to be open seating. Other cruise lines to my time dining and it works out fine. On our NYC cruise they had open dining on the WDW day. I liked it. We still got a private table. Disney will never do this. They prefer dinner to be a show.

 

[cruiser21]

On one cruise I sat next to a single mom and her son. The photographer seemed to think we were a couple. Kept asking for family pictures. I'm not a single mom. I was just traveling without my husband. We laughed about it. It really would have been awkward if it would have been a man and his son. I think the staff should be more aware of the dynamics of the people sitting together.

 

[dcassetta]

This is an old article
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/...-return-of-communal-restaurant-tables/284481/

But there are quite a number of communal table restaurants in Chicago

One of my favorite restaurants in New York is communal seating and food served family style. They post the menu of the day out front, if you think that's a meal you would enjoy you had on in, they seat you where they have room, and big plates of food are brought to the table. Wonderful Italian family restaurant.

I wasn't sure about having tablemates on my recent cruise on the magic, but I'm lazy, you can't request online and I couldn't be bothered to call, so just left it up to Disney. In the end we were seated with a perfectly nice family who seemed to want to smile, reply politely and then keep themselves to themselves. The kids interacted a bit which was nice and I was very impressed by the way the server (Joy from South Africa) served each family at our own pace. If we arrived before them there was no waiting, we could just get on and order and she manged to keep the flow of the meal going even when people at the table ordered a different number of courses. So there really were no cons at all to sharing a table.

Just wanted to add that I love Joy!

 

[DietCokeMommy]

I also have read that some people don't make any request assuming that they would be sharing but end up having their own private table....and then there's others who don't have a preference. And I think there would still be quite a few of these.

This was us when we took our first cruise in February. I’d kind of forgotten that we’d likely be sitting with other people until we got to dinner the first night and we had a four top to ourselves.

I’m glad we did though. My toddler was a disaster at dinner every night. I would have been even more embarrassed and frustrated by her behavior With other people at our table. And I’m glad I didn’t have to make small talk or be beholden to another family’s dinner pace.

It sounds lovely to meet another family and really connect and become Facebook friends on go on more cruises together and yadda yadda. But realistically, I am just not that kind of person.

 

[lilsonicfan]

I would love to see this happen. I don’t get a lot of time off and I often am home late so I miss a couple of dinners with my kids every week. When cruising it is so nice to just decompress with my family. Small talk is not my fave and to do it on vacation with the same people for 7 nights in a row isn’t my thing.

 

[mkh531]

If it were just my husband and me, we would love to have tablemates. But with our kids? No. It’s our family time and on a cruise the meals are when everyone gets together from separate activities to talk about their day.

 

[dvcdisney]

It sounds lovely to meet another family and really connect and become Facebook friends on go on more cruises together and yadda yadda. But realistically, I am just not that kind of person.

When we first started cruising (it was basically in the Caribbean and Bahamas), I was exactly like this. Although we met other cruisers, I didn't feel the need to do cruises together etc. I'm not that kind of person either. My sister, on the other hand, thinks she wouldn't have fun if she didn't take her friends along or met new lifelong friends on the cruise.

But, when we went on the Alaskan cruise, it seemed to be a different atmosphere and we found a lot of families that we spent time with and once in a while we would meet up. We didn't meet them during dinner. It was mostly at the pool or "Anyone Can Cook" seminars or even in line for the characters. For some reason, it seemed like everyone we met we had a lot in common with. But it was much more prominent during our British Isles cruise. It's amazing how so many people from different countries have so much in common. Perhaps it was the longer cruises or the fact that it wasn't hot everyday (don't like hot at all) or because these cruise are so much more fascination (at least I think so), that we have more things to talk about.

Now...I still don't become Facebook friends with them (I don't have Facebook anyway) or anything like that, but our kids do and we found out that a lot of them are on our upcoming cruise this summer. We'd love to see them again, but we're not going to request to share a table with them. I think we get along with them very well because we are similar in that way. It's great to meet new people but it's nothing more than that because, for us, cruises are about our family.

 

[dvcdisney]

If it were just my husband and me, we would love to have tablemates. But with our kids? No. It’s our family time and on a cruise the meals are when everyone gets together from separate activities to talk about their day.

We feel the same way. Dinner is family time. Now that they're older, they like going to their clubs and meet up with new friends...they don't want to hang out with us.

Since we have always vacationed with our children, I don't know if we would like tablemates. Perhaps not the first few times...

 

[cruiser21]

If it were just my husband and me, we would love to have tablemates. But with our kids? No. It’s our family time and on a cruise the meals are when everyone gets together from separate activities to talk about their day.

I'm the total opposite. When it's me and my teens I like having tablemates. I like having other adults to talk to, but I have to bribe my kids to show up so I don't feel awkward. If my husband joins us I want a table for just us and I don't care if my kids show up or not. Usually they don't show up....actually I've been on cruises where I've never seen them at dinner. They've been homeschooled all their lives...... I really don't need to see them on vacatation, but I rarely get the chance to have dinner with my husband.

Everyone's family dynamics is different. What I love about cruising is everyone gets to do what makes them happy. I really cant imagine taking a land vacation anymore. I think we'd a be ready to kill each other after a week in a hotel room.

 

[clten]

I hope DCL keeps the cruising tradition alive and continues their current dining arrangements. It is fine if people want to request tables to themselves but DCL dining is one of the highlights of our cruises and that includes having tablemates - good, bad or otherwise.

 

[aboveH20]

A couple years ago we took a last minute (read cheap) cruise out of NYC on Norwegian. No set dinner times and each night we had to wait about 20 minutes and sat with different people each night. We really enjoyed it because we met some very interesting people. We decided we liked it better than Disney style with the same people each night, because unless you really hit if off, we felt conversation became stilted after a couple nights.

Everyone is different, of course, just saying one of our favorite parts of the Norwegian was meeting so many different people.

Can you imagine the people you must meet on one of the 120 days around the world crui$e$?

 

[Cruising Engineer]

A couple years ago we took a last minute (read cheap) cruise out of NYC on Norwegian. No set dinner times and each night we had to wait about 20 minutes and sat with different people each night. We really enjoyed it because we met some very interesting people. We decided we liked it better than Disney style with the same people each night, because unless you really hit if off, we felt conversation became stilted after a couple nights.

Everyone is different, of course, just saying one of our favorite parts of the Norwegian was meeting so many different people.

Can you imagine the people you must meet on one of the 120 days around the world crui$e$?

I asked my friends (who have taken two cruises on NCL) about their open seating experiences. They said it was more of a restaurant atmosphere, waiting to be seated. Either you were the first and another couple were placed with you or you were placed with another couple. You meet more people that way instead of the same every evening. They enjoyed that experience. They never had an evening meal to themselves. No "private" table.

 

[aboveH20]

I asked my friends (who have taken two cruises on NCL) about their open seating experiences. They said it was more of a restaurant atmosphere, waiting to be seated. Either you were the first and another couple were placed with you or you were placed with another couple. You meet more people that way instead of the same every evening. They enjoyed that experience. They never had an evening meal to themselves. No "private" table.

Exactly. We were usually seated with two or three other couples so over dinner it was a nice amount of time to tell and listen to interesting tidbits from everyone. On Disney, with the same two or three couples for seven nights conversation certainly slowed down after a couple dinners.

 

[John Peterson]

The past couple cruises have just been me and my parents and we've had our own table for both cruises. On our last cruise on the Dream we were supposed to have table mates, but as they walked up and saw that they'd be sitting with us they apparently requested their own table so it would seem that DCL is accommodating to those situations. I wasn't too offended since, as many people have said, I suppose they'd rather just enjoy family time rather than make small talk.

Personally, I look forward to eating with just my family. I'll welcome table mates and embrace it if that is the situation I'm given, but ideally I'd like to eat with the people I came on the ship with.

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

I would hope that even if they stopped seating you with other families, they will keep the rotational dining. Especially on DCL it is great to keep your servers and to get a shot at all three restaurants. If they did away with this, some restaurants are bound to be more popular, and thus harder to get in. Plus, I know some people don't like set dining times, finding them too early or too late, but it is for exactly this reason that "Anytime" concepts don't work well on a cruise ship. For the Majority of the people "Anytime" means between the two set times now, so somewhere around 7PM. This means that unless you want to eat even earlier than the Main seating is now, or even later than the second seating is now, you'll probably end up doing some waiting, particularly if you want to eat at 7PM like most of the other people on board. Waiting for a table doesn't seem like a relaxing cruise to me. I can do that any Saturday night at 7PM at restaurants back home.

 

[dvcdisney]

The past couple cruises have just been me and my parents and we've had our own table for both cruises. On our last cruise on the Dream we were supposed to have table mates, but as they walked up and saw that they'd be sitting with us they apparently requested their own table so it would seem that DCL is accommodating to those situations. I wasn't too offended since, as many people have said, I suppose they'd rather just enjoy family time rather than make small talk.

Personally, I look forward to eating with just my family. I'll welcome table mates and embrace it if that is the situation I'm given, but ideally I'd like to eat with the people I came on the ship with.

That's an excellent attitude. I'm glad you weren't offended because I'm sure most of us who request private tables never mean to offend. As you said, we just want to spend our dinner time with just our family.

 

[dvcdisney]

I would hope that even if they stopped seating you with other families, they will keep the rotational dining. Especially on DCL it is great to keep your servers and to get a shot at all three restaurants. If they did away with this, some restaurants are bound to be more popular, and thus harder to get in. Plus, I know some people don't like set dining times, finding them too early or too late, but it is for exactly this reason that "Anytime" concepts don't work well on a cruise ship. For the Majority of the people "Anytime" means between the two set times now, so somewhere around 7PM. This means that unless you want to eat even earlier than the Main seating is now, or even later than the second seating is now, you'll probably end up doing some waiting, particularly if you want to eat at 7PM like most of the other people on board. Waiting for a table doesn't seem like a relaxing cruise to me. I can do that any Saturday night at 7PM at restaurants back home.

I, too, hope DCL continues with rotational dining. On our first couple of cruises, we had early seating and we did feel it was too early. But that is what works for DCL so we accept it. On our first and only cruise with RCL, we thought it would be better, but for us, it wasn't. I realized that, as you mentioned, there is still a wait. On our first and only NCL cruise, I made reservations for my party of 12 and this worked out a little better than RCL. Being able to make dining reservations was nice, but being on the NCL Escape (inaugural year) is not worth the convenience of making dining reservations.

 

[daisyx3]

On our Dream cruise in 2016 it was me DH, and our then 17 year old son. They sat us with a single dad and his two daughters. Looks good on paper, but they while they were polite, the girls were just talking to each other usually unless my son (who is very gregarious) drew them out. My husband is also very friendly and enjoyed chatting with the other dad. I don't like making small talk with people I don't know and am slow to warm up (although I'm loyal to death once I'm your friend) so for our 3 night Fantasy next week I requested we not sit with others.

 

[bumbershoot]

It sounds lovely to meet another family and really connect and become Facebook friends on go on more cruises together and yadda yadda. But realistically, I am just not that kind of person.

Lol. Neither am I. But I like having the temporary “friends” at dinner.

My son has made temporary friends with the kids at the shared tables, and has had a much better time because of it. He and the girl at our table were slow to warm up (I think they were 11, and while he’s a dancer and has tons of female friends and talks to them perfectly fine, she was very “ew a boy” for a few days) but then they got along and even went to the kids club all on their own one night. On another cruise we were seated with two bots whose ages flanked my son, and they got along very well. Etc.

I think people are fascinating and like to hear them talk. Even if I never see them again.

They've been homeschooled all their lives...... I really don't need to see them on vacatation

So true. I relate 100%.