Table seating request

[ciska]

I am wondering about the table seating. When we cruised with the holland america line you usualy sit with your own family members unless you request a larger table.

How does it work with Disney? Did you all like charing with other couples with children.

I don't know what to do yet we are coming from the netherlands and my daughter will be 11 when we cruise. She will know some englisch words, she is getting englisch next year for the first time but she won't be able to do complete conversation.

Any suggestions????

Ciska

 

[MO Disney cruiser]

If you think she would be more comfortable, you can request a table just for your family. DCL will do what they can to accomodate.

We are a family of 3 and on our last cruise, we were seated with a family of 5.

 

[Rence]

On my first cruise we (adult couple) were seated at a table with two families. One couple with a 4 year old and another couple with an 11 year old.

The couple with the 11 year old was from Brazil so English was not their native language. the adults did well with English but the 11 year old did not. His parents explained that he had English in school but didn't like it so never really tried to learn it.

We had a great time. My partner had recently been to Brazil on a business trip so they had lots to talk about. The parents were alternate conversing with the rest of the table in English and with their son in Portugese. They explained the situation up front and no one minded at all.

From time to time their son would give English a try, just to join in the conversation and his parents tried to make sure that he never felt left out of the conversation. I think it worked well for everyone.

 

[ciska]

Thanks for all the suggestions still don't know what i will do but i have a long time untill departure date. So i will wait and see how my daughter is doing in school with english.

 

[jrabbit]

We sat with a Japanese family and the girls were about 7 and thought that they didn't speak much - they were much better than they gave themselves credit for. THe adults spoke english pretty well. We had a great time. We were able to get to know one anothers countries much better than through text books. I would suggest that you don't worry about not speaking "perfect" english (none of us do). I think that learning about people from different parts of the world is one of the best parts about cruising.

Warning - Soapbox allert!!!!
We here in America need to be teaching our children a foreign language in school from first grade on. They have the capability to pick up languages at that age much easier than later on. I started learning spanish in the 7th grade (and continued through high school). After all of those years I could slowly converse with spanish speaking people. We are pretty arrogant in that we want everyone to learn english.
End of Soapbox

 

[kcashner]

DCL will seat you however you request. If you wish to be "just your family," let them know and they will do that. If you do not make a request, they usually group tables of 6 or 8, and try to place kids of about the same age together.

We've been seated alone, with one other family, and with 2 other families. In each case when seated with others, their daughter was within a year or 18 months of my daughter's age.

Your daughter might enjoy talking with another girl near her age...they might become friends and hang together in the lab!
Kathryn

 

[Stewy]

We are a family of 3 and were seated with a family of 5 from Holland. The adults spoke english but the children could not speak/understand english very well. The parents did translate when needed and we helped our son since he is not used to hearing/understanding someone speaking with a heavy accent.

Don't worry, they will communicate somehow. After the first night, the kids found out they had gameboy in common and they did not have a problem relating to each other after that. Everyone brought their gameboys and they switched games and helped each other.

The arrangement worked out well for us.

 

[mkymouse4ever]

Just curious, As my sister and I will be 1st time cruiser's and we have no kids / or spouses (working on spinster-hood) How do "family's" feel about being seated with adult's without children? Would you in general prefer not to be seated with people without children?

MKY

 

[jrabbit]

How do "family's" feel about being seated with adult's without children?

Are you fun? Are you interesting? Are you a good listener? If your answer is yes then my family doesn't mind sitting with and adults only group. And it's OK if you a kinda shy - you'll get over it while on the ship (we are, we do). One cruise we had 4 single child families and an older couple who were celebrating thier anniversary. We all had a great time.