Table mates

[rosermama]

As a gay couple I was very nervous about meeting potentially bad table mates.
I don't know how Disney did it, but at our table were 2 lesbians celebrating their honeymoon and a very liberal heterosexual couple that we are still friends with and meeting up in Disney again in January.
I am hoping for the same kind of magic in January on our next cruise!

I can see why you would be uneasy some people can be judgemental and that could ruin a cruise.

On our last cruise this family didnt like us (i am super extrovert) and then never showed up again for a meal. The only part that bothered me was they didnt tell the head server or anyone so we waited two nights to give them time to show up.

I did have great table mates a couple of cruusea ago all couples at a 8 person table it was great everyone was chatty.

 

[mama2ellie]

Is this normal procedure to place concierge at their own table?
Do most concierge request to eat alone?
Weird.


DCL is a serious data miner for details related to table matching.

We have never made a request regarding seating, so I assume it is standard for concierge to be at their own table.

 

[DesertGal]

On our June cruise we were matched up perfectly based on the criteria mentioned so far: Both families from same state, both had sons around 13, daughters around 8. The only slight issue: the other family's adults didn't drink at all, while my wife and I drank A LOT! Actually the other couple was "cool" about it, but I felt like a lush. Didn't stop me though! Maybe DCL should put alocholic consumption preferences on a questionnaire!

Bahahaha

This is how my husband and I feel when we travel with my sister!! Not that she makes us feel that way it's just we are always the only ones!!!

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[mhsjax]

I don't think they used any "magic" on us. OUr first cruise, we are a family of 5, we were sat with a family with one child, no where near our kids age. They were so quiet, they almost refused to talk, and if we talked amongst ourselves it seemed rude, it was very uncomfortable. The 2nd time was jut me and DH, they sat us with a woman traveling with her 12 year old daughter who thought that she should be the center of attention at the table. No more table mates for us.

 

[Bunless]

The only slight issue: the other family's adults didn't drink at all, while my wife and I drank A LOT! Actually the other couple was "cool" about it, but I felt like a lush. Didn't stop me though! Maybe DCL should put alocholic consumption preferences on a questionnaire!

After our last cruise, I started wishing for that on a questionnaire.
Of the eight adults at our table, I was the only one who was drinking. I had two glasses of wine and a port with each dinner, and I felt like such a lush while everyone else was drinking milk and shirley temples.

 

[sssteele]

DBF an I are going on the Dream to the Bahamas for 4 nights on Dec. 9th I am 19 and DBF will be 21. I hope they seat us with people who will match us but now I am worried there won't be many people in our demographic and we will be seated with families with young children. Don't get me wrong I have nothing against families but would rather be seated with people like us. Any younger adults been on the dream before? What's your epxoerence

I know there is wonderful Disney Magic, but if you want WISHES to come ture...make your WISHES known. Tell DCL or your TA!!!

 

[DVCNuts]

Some people eat more, some people drink more. I have done both. I won't judge you if you don't judge me. It's all good. Have fun on your cruise, and don't worry about it.

 

[Jenemmy]

We have been on 3 Disney Cruises and have really enjoyed all our table mates. Our first cruise was just my husband and I (we weren't sure at that point if the kids would enjoy a cruise) and we got along great with our table mates. In fact, they started referring to us as their stalkers because we bumped into them everywhere we went. These guys were there celebrating their anniversary, and they ended up switching their Palo ressie from 2 to 4 and inviting us along. We had so much fun that night.

When the kids went with us, we were at a table by ourselves. Then, DH and I took a 5 night cruise for our anniversary in May and we were seated with two other couples who could not have been nicer. We all got along so well, and even all had lunch together on CC. True to this thread, one of the other couples had also come without their kids and they had a child on the autism spectrum -- so do we! We have really enjoyed the time spent with everyone we have been seated with

 

[I Run Long]

I've only cruised once before (back in 1992 when I was 30, shhhh don't tell anybody how old I am). Anyway it was just me and my boyfriend at the time, a couple on their honeymoon from Atlanta and another couple from Paris. This was a little Greek cruise line, I can't even remember the name. We all had a fabulous time! I still keep in touch with the couple from Atlanta to this day. So yes you can form life long friends.

Fast forward to now, and we are going on our very first DCL cruise on August 24th. This is the one thing that my DD is most looking forward to, she really wants to make friends at dinner. Well, I have to admit, we're all looking forward to some great tablemates. Maybe, we'll get another set of life long friends!

 

[Kuiska2009]

Some people eat more, some people drink more. I have done both. I won't judge you if you don't judge me. It's all good. Have fun on your cruise, and don't worry about it.

This will probably be me on my cruise. The desserts all look so good, I'm already thinking "well if the portions are so small maybe I could just order them all".

My fiance is very excited about tablemates. He's way more extroverted than me and he loves meeting new people. Fingers crossed we get a good table!

 

[Jerseymomof2]

We just got off our 1st cruise a few weeks ago. We requested a table alone, we are a family of 5. Our TA assured us we would not be seated with anyone. SO you can imagine my surprise to turn up to dinner the 1st night and see other people seated at our table. Needless to say we were not happy. I asked the next day to have our seating changed, well it did NOT happen. We went to dinner the next night and there were new people there but we were still seated with others. At this point so much had gone wrong on our cruise that we just left it be. Of course the 2nd set of people that were seated with us we got along with great and although I doubt we will ever get to meet up with them again they were great and my one son really got along with their daughter so it all worked out in the end.

 

[taaren]

We requested our own tablemates based on the DIS meet thread, those on late dining just linked together so we had a table for a dozen of us (which my party of 3 switched to on the second night since we hadn't realized with the time change main dining would be too early for us).

It was such a nice bunch of people to hang out with, my next Disneyland trip I actually ended up inviting one of my tablemates to join me at my villa for a weekend and we had a great time! Its always great to get to know and hang out with other AP holders/Disney nuts.

 

[jahber]

My family of 4 was at a 4-top last May on the Dream. I didn't even realize we could have been seated with strangers! As it turned out, at the 6-top next to us, the grandmother missed dinner the first night because of a migraine (we overheard the story--tables are REALLY close! ).

Then at the pool the next morning, I struck up a conversation with a woman who mentioned she was recovering from a migraine that made her miss dinner. Turns out, it was our next-table neighbor! The family (GM, GF, mom, dad, and kids) had two kids almost the same ages as mine, and they were also from Florida. After that, we looked forward to dinner together. It was almost like having table-mates, but we could still have our own conversations and leave whenever we were done.

So, maybe there's magic even if it's just the table next to you???

 

[DumboFan]

Hit or miss with us!

1st cruise - my brother & I took my DD (6 at the time) on a 3 night. Table of 8, but NO ONE talked to each other! I tried to start conversations, but only got quick answers.

2nd crusie - DH, DD (12) & myself on a 5 night. Tablemates were a single mom with 2 boys, same age & 2 years younger than our daughter, and her parents. My hubby is very extroverted so I was a little nervous, but we all got along well with the adults. My DD takes pictures of all the food on cruises & they were making sure she got pictures of their meals, too. The younger son had a crush on my DD so he tried to talk to her, but the older son just didn't care.

3rd cruise - The 3 of us went to Alaska last year. This time we had mom, dad & their son, again the same age as our DD (13). Also had her mom & dad. Grandparents were nice, mom tried, but the dad was more concerned with making sure we knew how important he was. The son played with a video game every night.

Fingers crossed that we finally get some tablemate magic in 2 weeks!

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

So here are my experiences traveling solo on DCL

First cruise (4 Night Disney Wonder 2006)- I was seated with a family for the first night it was kind of awkward for myself and them, when I came to the dinning room the second night of my 4 night cruise the head server informed me that the people had changed to another rotation and I was being moved to another table, this time it had a mother and daughter on a trip together and another couple of older ladies I think. Conversation that night and after that was a lot less awkward and more comfortable even though I was the only Guy at the table.

Second cruise (14 Night Transatlantic 2007) - I was sat at a table with two families both with one child. One was an older couple who were retired airline controllers and they had there adopted 12 year old son with them. The other couple also had a 12 year old son with them too. No problems really except there was on night were I think they had a late tour or decide to go to the buffet restaurant that night, I end up at the table alone which was ok.

Third Cruise (15 night Panama Canal Cruise 2008) - I was in a group of people I know from another message board. Some things worked out well others not so well. There were some problems with the arrangement of the tables the first night because of some problems with shore side, apparently the shore side dinning manager quit after another group got to demanding or something like that. The serving team had some problems the first night, but then when don’t they on the first night really. Some of the people at the table I was at got really annoying with special requests they were making things like Cheese from Palo every night at the start of dinner and with desert, crème brules every night for two people, chicken wings that they used to have on the parrot cay menu every night, banana bread every night. The head server one night had to go all the way across the ship one night to get some chicken wings form the sports bar. After all this you would except these people to be grateful, well one night the head server came over to find out how things were going and they just about dragged her and the serving team over the coals, I wanted to crawl under the table after that and hide. The next night since there was an extra seat at one of our other table’s because someone was having some family issues, I joined them, for the rest of the cruise. Also two of the people reduced the tip they had prepaid by half, so when the rest of us found out about that we all over tipped by a lot to make up for them.

The last couple of nights were fine as some of the real problems at that table had Palo reservations the last two nights.

 

[healeylvr]

We usually cruise with family but on january 2011 Panama cruise we were alone and were at a table with three other couples all the same age and similar backgrounds. We had a ball with them becoming fast friends sharing time onboard and off.We still correspond with them. I don't know if it is planning or pixie dust but it worked for us.

 

[kayotik]

DBF an I are going on the Dream to the Bahamas for 4 nights on Dec. 9th I am 19 and DBF will be 21. I hope they seat us with people who will match us but now I am worried there won't be many people in our demographic and we will be seated with families with young children. Don't get me wrong I have nothing against families but would rather be seated with people like us. Any younger adults been on the dream before? What's your epxoerence

I have been on 4 cruises from the time I was 18 until now (almost 21) and have always had great table mates. On 3 cruises it was just my mom and I traveling and 2 of those we were seated with other families with children in their late teens/early 20s. One time we were seated with two sets of two 19-21 year-olds. Our most recent cruise we brought along my 10 year old cousin and so were seated with a family who had an 11 year old, but other than that trip, we were never seated with anyone under 18.

 

[jaminmd]

We just got off our 1st cruise a few weeks ago. We requested a table alone, we are a family of 5. Our TA assured us we would not be seated with anyone. SO you can imagine my surprise to turn up to dinner the 1st night and see other people seated at our table. Needless to say we were not happy. I asked the next day to have our seating changed, well it did NOT happen. We went to dinner the next night and there were new people there but we were still seated with others. At this point so much had gone wrong on our cruise that we just left it be. Of course the 2nd set of people that were seated with us we got along with great and although I doubt we will ever get to meet up with them again they were great and my one son really got along with their daughter so it all worked out in the end.

Aw, I'm sorry & I understand. I'm so hoping the three of us are seated alone. I have no desire whosoever to eat with strangers. We just want to enjoy ourselves & our time together.

I'm holding out hope that they honor that request. It's the only one I have.

 

[MrsPotatoHead425]

I guess we're the oddballs here.. my DH and I are young (well he's early 30's and I'm late 20's) but we've never really "hung out" with people our own age, we have always gotten along better with older people (I guess we're just old school folks) and we got set at a table with a couple who couldn't speak english and two girls who were party animals... it was awkward to say the least because one of them was loud mouthed and so rude to the waiters and the other couple just stared off into space most of the time...

I hate the fact that they go by our age, because it just doesn't fit our personalities! But I feel like it would be weird to request "Gee, can we sit with old people next time?!"

 

[jaygalterio]

Third Cruise (15 night Panama Canal Cruise 2008) - I was in a group of people I know from another message board. Some things worked out well others not so well. There were some problems with the arrangement of the tables the first night because of some problems with shore side, apparently the shore side dinning manager quit after another group got to demanding or something like that. The serving team had some problems the first night, but then when don’t they on the first night really. Some of the people at the table I was at got really annoying with special requests they were making things like Cheese from Palo every night at the start of dinner and with desert, crème brules every night for two people, chicken wings that they used to have on the parrot cay menu every night, banana bread every night. The head server one night had to go all the way across the ship one night to get some chicken wings form the sports bar. After all this you would except these people to be grateful, well one night the head server came over to find out how things were going and they just about dragged her and the serving team over the coals, I wanted to crawl under the table after that and hide. The next night since there was an extra seat at one of our other table’s because someone was having some family issues, I joined them, for the rest of the cruise. Also two of the people reduced the tip they had prepaid by half, so when the rest of us found out about that we all over tipped by a lot to make up for them.

The last couple of nights were fine as some of the real problems at that table had Palo reservations the last two nights.

This sounds very similar to a situation we had on the WB 2008 Panama Cruise. A few of the details I remember are a little different, but not overly so.