Table mates on cruises

[Douvres Family]

On our first DCL cruise, it was only my DS 5yrs old and me. I think we made it to dinner 2 nights out of 4...and the first night he was exhausted and we left early...not giving the chance to interact with the other family.

However, on our 2nd DCL cruise this year it was a total of 3 families including ours...our DS (14) stayed for dinner and took off to Vibe. The other couple's DD went to her club after dinner.
It was 6 adults left...DH & I got along great with the other 2 couples...we ended up being like family. Stayed well after dinner talking and joking...we had the late seating so we weren't rushed to leave.

Personally, we LOVE to socialize with other people and making new friends. We have quality dinner time every night and weekends...DH, DS and I...so we are "ok" having table-mates on our cruises.

 

[lakelandgal70]

We just got off our first cruise this past Sunday and our table mates were the best! Both couples were nice and fun and we enjoyed our time together. Sure the first night might have been a little uncomfortable but after we got talking we had great time

 

[Desi]

I think DCL puts great thought into seating at dinner. Our first cruise we were seated with an older couple with 1 son & we were an older couple with 1 son. The son's ages being within 1 yr of each other.
Our second cruise we were a large loud group, so they stuck us in a corner, which was a good call on their part too
I will be very interested to see how our cruise next year goes, as we'll be back to an old couple with an 8 yr old

 

[DbleTheFun]

We've never been seated with anyone else either (have on other cruise lines, but always our own table on DCL) i have noticed that unlike alot of lines, Disney has a LOT of 4 and 6 top tables. This upcoming cruise, i originally thought about putting in a request to have our own table again.... But changed my mind and decided to leave our fate up to Disney! Since I'm going solo with my 5 yr old twins and 12 yr old step son, it may be nice to have some adult conversation at dinner!

 

[ludari]

As a follow up, does everyone have table mates? We are a family of 5 and quite private. I'd love to be on our own... What are our chances?

Your chances are very good. After having some negative type table mates who only seemed to complain about the cruise from our frist dinner I decided to change my seating and dining rotation. Since that experience I have alwasy requested my own table. Yup I sit alone and enjoy every moment of it. I mingle with nearby tables and the wonderful servers. After I get to know some of the people in my area they have even asked me to join their table just for one or two dinners which I have done.

 

[jpeka65844]

My one and only cruise was a DisUnplugged Podcast Cruise. We were all Dis-ers so had that in common!

Also turned out that 4 of the 7 of us were teachers. We all keep in touch through FB and I'm sure will see each other again at other Dis functions.

I like to think that there's someone at Disney who does this as their job.

"What do you do for a living?"

"I make seating arrangements for dinners on Disney Cruise Line."

 

[TBMommy]

If you are real worried you can always request your own table. I have a special needs 5 year old who doesn't always do well around strangers so I called and requested a private table at dinner. I was told no problem at all.

 

[luv2sleep]

Have you considered linking with people from your cruise meet thread? I've done that on both cruises and it worked out very well. I'm still friends with my table mates today.

 

[plutojudy]

We enjoy meeting new people. Only once did we have tablemates we were not thrilled with. It was an elderly aunt with her adult niece. Adult niece did not like anything "Disney". They are the only people we have not stayed in touch with.

 

[thinktink87]

On our first cruise, our table mates were chronic complainers. Second cruise we sat with parents and a 2 yo girl. They were very friendly, talkative, and the kids sat blowing kisses to each other and talking in their babbling 2 to language. It's a gamble, but you could end up meeting some great people!!! If you don't, once the cruise is over, you never have to see then again

 

[phoenixleigh]

We've only been on the 1 cruise, but after meeting some great people on our meet thread and talking with them for months before our trip, we decided to link reservations with 2 other groups. We had a table of 10 and it was the BEST experience ever. The first night we just started chatting it up like we had known each other for ages. I'm afraid the next cruise we take, our table mates won't be as wonderful as these group of people that I may just have to try to book a cruise with them again

I know exactly how you feel. That happened to us on our first cruise. We made some great friends that we still keep in contact with them. My DH and her DH had so much in common it was like they always knew each other. They probably would be going with us but they are expecting a baby around Christmas so they cannot go on our next cruise but there is always some other time

 

[Crittsmom]

On our second DCL cruise we knew the head waiter's name and recognized him by sight because we had chronic complainers at our table. We had 4 couples at the table. One of the couples did ask to be moved, and it was very quickly and graciously taken care of. Dh and I had considered it, but we actually didn't go to the dining room 3 of the 7 nights that we there, because we were in port for 2 days and the 3rd night we ate in the buffet, and the complainers didn't show for one meal.

It was actually kind of funny, this was the 7th time we had cruised, and before I never saw the head waiter until the last night. This cruise, he was almost grilling us about why we didn't come to dinner and what time we got back on the ship ( what the heck ? I haven't had a curfew in over 35 years ),

Overall though, we usually get really great table mates .

 

[Princess Sleepy]

My one and only cruise was a DisUnplugged Podcast Cruise. We were all Dis-ers so had that in common!

Also turned out that 4 of the 7 of us were teachers. We all keep in touch through FB and I'm sure will see each other again at other Dis functions.

I like to think that there's someone at Disney who does this as their job.

"What do you do for a living?"

"I make seating arrangements for dinners on Disney Cruise Line."

How fun would that be. Only downside would be never getting to see the results of your work.

 

[Funky Chicken]

I have a great table mate story from our RCI cruise last January.

We are a group of 3, and were seated on our first night with two older couples
From Russia. They were clearly appalled to have to sit with a 6 year old despite
the fact that my daughter was very well behaved. One of the ladies asked me to
guess where they were from based on their very heavy accents-I had no idea, so I said
"Bulgaria?" which for reasons unknown to me made them very mad.

Just then the head waiter, a very tall and striking blonde woman with a similar accent to
our new friends, stopped by to say hello. The Russian lady immediately said to the head waiter
"I need to talk to you privately after dinner, but NOT ABOUT SVITCH! NOT ABOUT SVITCH!"
if you haven't figured it out yet, she meant "switch".

The next day they were gone, replaced with two couples from Canada who were absolutely
fantastic dinner companions, and very kind to our daughter.

For some reason, the entire cruise I kept bumping into the "SVITCH" lady everywhere I went.
Bingo, buffet line, you name it. I always gave her an ENORMOUS wave and a big HELLO!
We still laugh about it.

We have made some very nice friends at dinner. We always look forward to meeting our table mates,
and we figure that if they don't want to stay with us they have the option to move. We could move too, but we have never
had to do it. Disney seems to pair up families pretty well, so we will take our chances. If there is a real problem I am confident
that it will get straightened out.

 

[Imaginationsetfree]

If there are other DISers going on your cruise, you can post in your cruise meet forum to see if anyone is interested in doing linked dining reservations. We did that on the first cruise I took, and it was a blast! We had a huge group of DISers in one area, and those of us who had tablemates had tablemates from the boards. It was awesome!

 

[Namsupak]

How fun would that be. Only downside would be never getting to see the results of your work.

I believe that they heads of the dining staff on the ship meet to go over seating arrangements, requests, allergies, etc.

 

[owensamo]

I believe that they heads of the dining staff on the ship meet to go over seating arrangements, requests, allergies, etc.

As far as I know, this is true. One our previous B2B cruise, our head server came over the night before our last night to ask if we had any preferences or anything for the next cruise as he would be drawing up seating arrangements (he made it sound like it was for the entire ship and all rotations!) and he'd see what he could do. We kept him and our server for the second cruise, because they were so awesome.