Table Guests

[ganurse]

i AM NERVOUS THAT MY HUSBAND AND I WILL BE SITTING WITH PEOPLE WHO DONT LIKE US,..HAS THAT EVER BEEN A PROBLEM WITH ANYONE. DO THEY SEAT MOST CHILDLESS COUPLES WITH OTHER COUPLES?

 

[rae519]

You just never know! I like to make my dining mates on line with people I've met and "clicked with". DCL will link your reservations together (using last names and reservations numbers) so you will know ahead of time who you will be seated with.

To be very honest, out of 7 cruises - we have had two experiences with ill-mannered, rude children - let's blame Mom and Dad here for this since there was no parental control or discipline. Yes, we could have changed our table, but we'd have lost our favorite server and that was not an option.

IF children are not required to have table manners at home, nothing can be done when in this situation and obviously, this was the case.

For those who may jump in and say, "WHOA" on that one - let me assure you that this was not just impoliteness - in each situation, the child was seated next to me - not between his parents as we always do with Michael - the child was either grabbing MY food off MY plate, spitting things out near my plate, knocking things over, or kicking my leg. Regardless of what the server tried to do to take the child's attention from me, it didn't work and forget Mom and Dad - they had had "enough" of Junior to just sit there and drink while ignoring his antics.

Now there have been other children we have been seated with who were polite with good table manners and had parents that were alert to their needs and actions. One such couple had 5 children ages 7, 5, 4 and 2 plus an infant - these children sat, ate and made polite conversation during the meal. We were with friends and all of us were amazed!!! Hats off to them! AGAIN!

Rae

 

[ruvidu]

We have done 4 DCL cruises and have never had a bad dinning experience. We are still in touch with most of the peiople we have met. My list of our favorite compaions;
#1 An engineer who works on a bannana boat and his lovely wife who were both originally from England but now live in Orlando.
#2 Two lady ranchers from Montana. The stories they told.
#3 A doctor and his wife from Las Vegas. They did not like their dinning companions the first night and asked to be moved. Our server made our table of 8 into a table for 10 and we had a ball.
#4 A dart salesman and his wife from Texas. She won over $2000 playing Bingo during the cruise.

We look forward to meeting new people each cruise.

We have never had any children sitting anywhere near us.

We have always had late dinning and the LAPP rotation.

Go and enjoy. If you don't like your companions, discreetly ask to be moved the next night.


Russ and Miss Vivian

 

[crisi]

We were seated with a couple that had kids about the same age - not that we saw much of them after the first night. The kids (ours and theirs) spent a lot of time in the clubs - particularly over those long dinners.

I was a little concerned that we'd get seated with people who wouldn't enjoy our children. (We can make adequate small talk to get us through several dinners - our tablemates and us could compare Disney vacations if nothing else - its a Disney cruise, so chances are pretty good your companions have ridden the Haunted Mansion. So I wasn't worried about us). Our kids are little yet and, while they have decent table manners for preschoolers, we've discovered that people who have never had children, had children a long time ago, or were lucky enough to have children who came pre-programmed with a "little adult" module sometimes have unrealistic expectations for dining with two preschoolers. Didn't pa out as their children were very similarly behaved to ours - not quite perfect, but they weren't eating off anyone else's plate either.

 

[plutojudy]

We have always worried about that. But every cruise we get great dinner partners. We are a couple. We have been on four Disney cruises. Our first cruise we were seated with a family with an eight year old (she was terrific) and with a mom with two teenagers. On our second cruise we were seated with just adults at a table for 8. Third cruise, a family with a great 12 year old daughter and a dad with a 13 year old son, and another couple without children. Our fourth cruise we were with a family with two great teenagers and another couple. So to answer your question about putting couples with couples.....one out of four times. We are waiting to meet new dining partners next month.

 

[SafariTigger]

My DH and I spent the first part of our honeymoon on the Wonder. This was our first cruise ever so we weren't really sure how the dining assignments were made. We were very surprised to find out that we were seated at a table of 12 along with a group of 7 autistic teens and their 3 counselors. I have an autistic nephew so I wasn't bothered by that, but I do have to say that since it was my honeymoon I was very disappointed. The head server, Kapoor, apparently sensed something from my DH and I and came right over to us and asked if we were with the group. When we told him no and he noticed our honeymoon pins he arranged for us to have a table for just the 2 of us. He was wonderful. Every night he met us at the enterance of the restaurant and personally walked us to our special table. He definitly made a huge difference in our enjoyment of the cruise. On our next cruise, since we will be just the 2 of us again, we are hoping to be seated with other adult couples. But, at least, if it doesn't work out we know that Disney will take care of the problem if they can. If nothing else, it can't hurt to ask to be moved.

 

[jrabbit]

We've always enjoyed our tablemates. One cruise we had some language problems with our tablemates -- we didn't speak Japanese and they spoke a little english. But we still had a great time. Another time we were at a huge table (14) and had 5 diferent families. Each night we sat by different people at our table and after a couple of nights everyone knew everyone else. On the formal night (maybe it was the semi formal night) a ships officer joined us for dinner. And we had the absolute best time. Each cruise has been different, but the friendships made have always been great. Ahh, the memories.

 

[Tera]

Now we'll be going with my in-laws, so there will be 6 of us. Sounds like we'll definitely be grouped with other people. I'm looking forward to meeting other people and hopefully any kids with us will be around my girls ages.

 

[dvarallo]

On our last cruise, my son and I were travelling with a friend and her 2 children. When we got to dinner the first night, there were 2 women which I guessed to be mother and daughter along with 2 children at a table for 10 with one empty seat. We were making introductions when a gentleman came to the table, whispered something to the younger adult woman and then they all got up and left.
We were a little startled and the waiter explained that he had requested a table for five because they didn't want to sit with other people. The ship was full, but they were able to move them to a table at second seating. We had our dinner, just the five of us, at a table for ten,
The next night when we got to dinner, there was a family of 5 seated with us and we ended up having the best time all week. The kids got along great and we enjoyed the company of the parents. Apparently, they were at late seating and were wait listed for early seating. They were thrilled to be moved as their son had fallen asleep at dinner the first night and they couldn't imagine a whole week of having dinner at 8:30 at night.
We weren't offended by the original family wanting to move because they were already making arrangements to move before they met us.

 

[inkkognito]

We are a childless couple and have taken 36 Disney cruises, with #37 less than a month away. Disney does a great job of seating adults with other adults. Of course, that depends on the make-up of the passengers on any particular cruise. At times when the child population is high, like over the holidays, we have been seated with families/children. Happily, we've never had a bad experience. We've enjoyed many of the kids just as much as (or sometimes more than) the adults! We had one three year old girl who had the manners of a little princess at our table. And we've had some kids who have really brought a smile to my face with their stories of their cruise experiences, meeting the characters, visiting the ports of call, etc.
No matter who you're seated with, I hope you have a great time!
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[Nick@ VB+OKW]

Originally posted by crisi
I was a little concerned that we'd get seated with people who wouldn't enjoy our children. (We can make adequate small talk to get us through several dinners - our tablemates and us could compare Disney vacations if nothing else - its a Disney cruise, so chances are pretty good your companions have ridden the Haunted Mansion. So I wasn't worried about us).

Crisi
If we are ever on the same cruise with you guys again.....you could sit with us.

 

[ganurse]

we will just hope that we meet some super nice people.!

 

[Tera]

Same here! God knows I'm going to need someone else besides my mother-in-law to talk to at dinner time

 

[ganurse]

it would be great if you were going on the sept 4 2004 cruise

 

[Tera]

I WISH we were going that early. Unfortuntely, I'll have to suffer and read about everyone else's experience before we go, but then I'll have great ideas of what not to miss for our first trip.

 

[crisi]

Thanks Nick....I'm regretting I never picked up the phone to call you. Four days was too short....October 2006 on the Magic - or October 2005 at BWV (I know you are OKW folks, I suppose we could slum if you are in the neighborhood Maybe check out that slide). Its also nice to know that my kids were so annoying they bothered nearby tables! (They were really very good, even at our own table).

 

[Nick@ VB+OKW]

Originally posted by crisi
Thanks Nick....I'm regretting I never picked up the phone to call you. Four days was too short....October 2006 on the Magic - or October 2005 at BWV (I know you are OKW folks, I suppose we could slum if you are in the neighborhood Maybe check out that slide). Its also nice to know that my kids were so annoying they bothered nearby tables! (They were really very good, even at our own table).

Crisi
It looks like we will be cruisng on the Wonder again Feb 20,2005.
Our 17(18 then) DD is going this time with us. We will also be at VB and OKW later this year(see countdowns below). So it looks like we will have to wait to eat

with your family.

Cindy and I also noticed your kids were well behaved at dinner.