Tablemate Problems?

[Lisa F]

Judy, you just reminded me of the WORST part about our tablemates. Our first night was in Lumieres and when they looked at the menu, they immediately started talking about how disgusting SNAILS were. Of course, that's what my husband ordered for his appetizer. I guess they probably thought we were weird people who couldn't shut up and ate disgusting things, like snails. The thing is, we saw them in Palo one night also and they didn't have anything to say to each other, either! They just sat there silently the whole meal.

Lisa

 

[>>^..^<<]

ROTFL!!! @ that story Lisa F

I am really enjoying this thread.... the dining thing can be ackward.. lol

>>^..^<<

 

[eye R.N.]

We were seated at a table for 8 and were by ourselves the first night. The next night we were joined by a single mom and her 10 year old, who had asked to be switched from another table, and one of sisters of a crew member.

We had a great time, espcially with the sister of CM from down under. She had never tried "root beer" and we had never tried veggimite. Since my son had a six pack of root beer and she had gotten veggimite for her brother we had a "cross cultural" experience. Lets just say we each came away appreciating our own culture.

 

[katerkat]

On our honeymoon cruise, we sat with three other wonderful couples. And a used car salesman and his, er, "friend." (It was a table for 12, one of the couples had a son who never ate with us.) Well, not to stereotype or anything, BUT... The used car salesman was pushy, obnoxious and opinionated. He annoyed all of us, but we were afraid they wouldn't be able to reseat 9 people!! Luckily, it was a four-day cruise and he wasn't there two of the nights....
On all our other cruises we've had wonderful seatmates -- including the Alaska cruise that a single woman was seated with us when we were ages 10, 12 and 14. I think we made her cruise much more lively!

 

[northernmouse]

Wow, some of you are scaring me!
We've only been on a 3-night cruise, and had late seating. My husband, self (late 30s) and a mature 10 y.o. First night was really rough, so half our table wasn't there. We shared with the nicest young couple (20s) on their honeymoon. I think they were a little thrown at first that they were sharing with a kid (easy to think the worst), but we got along really well.

Didn't see the other two couples (late 20s/30s) until the final night, and then they just ignored us. Thought it was a little rude but, heck, it's only an hour and a half, and it wasn't going to ruin my holiday. We're pretty social, but it would be painful to share 7 nights with 'the Glarers"!

 

[meab]

from my own experiences, plus what i've read here, it is totally hit or miss when it comes to your tablemates.

we have had many awkward conversations (or lack thereof) with tablemates, whether it was at our assigned dining table, or open seating during breakfast/lunch. DH and i are pretty shy, but still good conversationalists....we just prefer to sit alone, and we generally request a table for ourselves on each cruise.

Our 8th cruise is coming up on DCL in just over a week. we're cruising with a group of friends, so we'll be seated together.

oh, my favorite tablemate story: we were sitting with some very non-foodie people once, and one item on the appetizer list was a "port wine terrine". the tablemate asked the waiter what that was, and he remarked that it was similar to a "chicken pate" (as in 'pah-tay'...can't get those accent marks on!) and this tablemate was like, "OK, i'll try the chicken patty" boy was she in for a surprise!!!!! it certainly wasn't like any chicken "patty" she'd ever seen!!!!!

 

[Verandah Man]

I have a question about this. If I was to find a DISer on this forum site going on the same cruise as my family. If our two families would like to get a table together, is it possible to get in touch with DCL and have a table set for us?

 

[sandee]

On our 1st cruise we were 3 at a table for 6. We never saw our table mates. We were told they were frequent cruisers and never ate in the dining room- thought it might be our Barb and Tony, but I know they enjoy meeting others at dinner. I am shy and had been worried about dining with strangers, but was disappointed we were alone.
On our next cruise we were with one other couple who were grandparents who didn't see their grandchildren very often. They made such a fuss over my granddtr. Maggie. The night we went to Palos for dinner they offered to have dinner with her and take her to kids club afterwards. Maggie wanted to eat with club so that problem was solved, but they also gave us their address in Cocoa Beach and insisted we come stay at their condo with them before our next cruise. Again, we didn't do this, but we all still send one another Christmas cards.
On our last Disney cruise we had my 17 yo. neice who had just broken up with her boyfriend with us. We were seated with a nice family from Kansas who had a 17 yo son who was sulking about his recent break up with his girl friend. Katie is adorable and very out going. Sean was a Brad Pitt look alike with a great sense of humor......needless to say by the end of dinner they had plotted out everything they were going to do for the rest of the cruise. They really had a good time and still email one another once in awhile.
We had great table mates on RCCL cruise we just returned from. One couple was from Delaware -10 miles from my house. The wife use to work at Super Fresh where I grocery shop now and then and I remembered her from there. Another couple from Va. were so interesting. They were foster parents and were on their 1st alone vac. in years. There was also a nice couple who were on their 14th Monarch of the Seas cruise. We all got along so well we were often the last ones out of the dining room and all went to the comedy show together.

 

[disneymom3]

Not been on DCL (yet) but in our experience dining companions have been hit or miss too. First cruies my college roommate and I lived it up big for our senior spring break. Seated with a great pair a mom and her college age DD. Second cruise with DH for fifth anniv seated at a table with 3 honeymoon couples two sisters from England and a married couple in their late 40s. All vey nice people, some more interesting than others of course but no awkward moments or anything. Very enjoyable. Third time was a family reunion cruise and only prob with our tablemates was that we were seated with the only other family in our extended fgamily that lives in MN--everone else lives in CA--so that was kind of silly.

This past cruise we went on we had an older couple who asked to be switched to the early seating after the first night. The man was very apologetic about leaving our table, and after the second night we wished we had gone with him!! One couple the wife was a complainer about everything--especially prices!! The man was okay. The other couple--ugh! the guy was a boor and drunk at least half the time and the woman let him treat her like a servant. Half way throuhg the cruise I just decided the only thing I could do was laugh so I spent quite a bit of the time at dinner giggling! The worst was that on the last night of the cruise, we saw the complaining couple before dinner and they said they were not going to the dining room because they didn't want to tip the waitstaff! And the other couple didn't show up either! We felt so bad for our waiters, we put an extra $5 in each of their envelopes.

 

[inkkognito]

apwalters55,
You can do that by asking DCL to link your reservations, but it would require notifying DCL of the names and reservation numbers of all of the parties. We did this with Natsmom and Tinkerkat on the last cruise of our three-peat, and we had a blast!
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[ILUVALASKA]

On our first two Disney Cruises, we were seated with another couple who had a son my son's age. made for great conversation and an instant buddy for my son. Then the third cruise we were with a set of grandparents traveling with three surly grandchildren from the Beverly Hills area. The grandmother said hi the first night and her husband said nothing the rest of the cruise. Spent many nights in Topsiders cuz we couldn't stand the rudeness of the 3 teens. We just returned home yesterday from the western 7-day, and we seated at a table with 4 senior citizens! My son had no one to talk to . After trying to get a switch and finding out there were no spots, he opted to go to Topsiders with the kids' club. I spoke to Guest Services and asked why they no longer match up families better, and I was told you have to request a specific age group or configuration in advance, otherwise it is all randomly assigned. Now we know better.

 

[wenabre]

On our first cruise ( Dec 2000) we ( my Mom and DD then 16 ) had asked for a table for four as we really didn't wish to sit with anyone at this time as our cruise unfortunaely was at the same time of year as that of the passing of both my Dad and my Husband. I was worried that I might upset things for anyone if I were to get upset or not wish to talk. We noticed how many people near us who were sharing tables with strangers seem to be having so much fun making friends that I wished we had asked for the bigger table. On our next cruise, we decided that we would ask to join a larger table for eight and hopefully meet up with some nice family. On the first night we ended up alone at a large table but we figured maybe sea sickness etc. was the reason but it turned out our table mates had met up with some old friends and had changed tables upon arriving on board. So for a week the three of us sat alone at a large table for eight. Our senior server said that maybe some one would ask to change as not everyone likes who then end up with, but I guess our cruise was filled with nice people because we never did get anyone to sit with. The only good thing was on tropical night the waiter put all the extra leis from the table around my DD's neck, we almost lost her in a great pile of silk flowers!! We are going again ( April 26th) with my Mom, my DD's 29 and 19 and we have again requested a table for eight, lets hope we finally get someone to make new friends with...keeping my fingers crossed!!

 

[Verandah Man]

inkkognito,
Thanks for your help!!!
Some of these stories are simply horrible. How can people go on a cruise and be so arrogant?

 

[inkkognito]

I think that's just the way some people are, and they don't realize how others see them as ridiculous. When we sailed on Voyager of the Seas, we ate lunch at a very large table with three or four other families. There was one man who had us all in stitches for the whole meal with stories of his dinner tablemate. She was an old widow who apparently cruised a lot and basically went on and on about how she hated everything. She would yell at the waiters, send her food back every night, etc. He had us laughing so hard with his descriptions that one person at the lunch table actually burst into tears of laughter...the server ran over, all concerned that she was crying! I'm sure that crabby old lady had no idea how much amusement she was providing.
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[cathie]

I have a question about dining. There are eight of us traveling together. Will be seated at the same table? I really don't want us split up. There are 5 adults and 3 kids (15, 11, 9).

 

[Verandah Man]

inkkognito,
That man sounds something like my cousin would do. He is nutty and crazy and works at Kennedy Space Center. He was up here in NJ a few months back for a few days, he had us on the floor in stitches

 

[SC Minnie]

We are the ones that met MickeyMagic and DD! Our DD is really bummed that we will not be sailing together in 2004.

apwalters55- it is very easy to link ressies with other DISers. As MickeyMagic said we linked together then pyrmsu asked if she and her friend could join our table- of course we said the more the merrier! Just get the reservation #'s of the parties and call DCL to have them linked. I would suggest this to anyone that is a little apprehensive about tablemates. Join a 'Who's cruising' thread for your cruise and get to know the people sailing with you. Then ask if anyone is interested in linking with your party. It made the conversation so much easier at our table plus we had booked some of the same excursions ahead of time.

cathie- They do have tables for 8 so you should not be split up

 

[mmouse37]

Out of 7 DCL cruises we had two very bad experiences with table mates. One time there were 10 of us sailing (two families of 5). Both families were put at seperate tables of 8. So we had three stangers with us who didn't talk, and our friends had three strangers at their table that didn't talk!!!! We asked why the 10 of us could not be put together and were told they could not do it. I think it was the head server who did not want to bother, because I know changes can be made. This was back in the first year of DCL operation.

Our other experience was on the original Maiden voyage of the Magic on 7/30/98....we were a party of 7 and were seated at a table for 8. When we arrived the first night we saw a man with MM ears on and I thought...well, here is a kindered soul!!! When we got closer I realized this man was wearing a stained wife-beater t-shirt with cut off raggy jeans shorts. Well, the man turned out to be a pscyho who kept trying to massage my friends neck and back at the table and would steal the kids bread off their plate, take a bite and then put it back. He could not make one coherent sentence and acted very oddly. The kids were scared to death. He even had the female server in tears as he kept trying to grab her. We realized this man was unbalanced and did not want to set him off, so we suffered through dinner and as soon as dinner was over we immediately went to the head server and said he had to go.....we had mixed emotions because we knew he was disabled (wheelchair) and unbalanced, but we had waited 2 years of headaches to get on that cruise and could not face the next four nights with him at dinner. The next night we saw him at a table by himself with the head server tending to him. He did not even recognize us when we walked by. It was very bizarre how he could be tavelling unassisted, as he kept asking people to push him in his chair. He looked just like Lt. Dan (after the war) from the film Forrest Gump!!!

Now we always link ressies with our friends and never had a problem since.

MJ

 

[Dancind]

Posting because I'm enjoying this thread! I am surprised though, at the comment about having to request a compatible family for table mates. I really thought DCL tried to do that. I guess that would explain why our family of two Baby Boomers and 11 yr. old DD were seated with a family of twenty somethings with a 5 year old son. Diana

 

[newhampshire4]

Our family of four was seated at a table of 10. There was a younger couple and a family of 4 (mom, dad, son, and nephew). The boys were the same age as our 2, but, wow... those 4 were quite the snotty little group- and come to find out, they lived not far from us way up here in NH. After the first night, THEY moved to their own private table, and the remaining 6 of us had a WONDERFUL remaining cruise. Our daughters adored the remaining couple, and we still keep in touch with them. Unfortunately, the snotty family haunted us like the plague- they were on the same expeditions as we were, they WON the huge Bingo pot, they were on the same Avis shuttle to the radisson, and the same PLANE home! Then, came home and a few weeks later, see the snotty mom at the mall -