Throwing the dice with dinner mates

[SnowWhite2]

I know everyone is concerned about having to share dinner with strangers. Disney does very well in connecting dinning partners as they take the time to match similar family types together.

Our story....

We had 3 in our travel party this time and I didn't want to call DVC to add "table by ourselves" I thought we would just see what happened.

We have been on the NYE cruise twice and a Christmas cruise once and there are a bunch of the same kids on these cruises so DD16 always meets up with "friends". While waiting to board in the terminal, DD ran up to two girls and gave them big hugs (and made a scene). Their other friend was flying in the day of departure so they didn't get to see her prior to boarding.

We go to dinner the first evening and are shown to a table of 8. I must admit I started to get a bit worried but kept telling myself it will be fine. About 5 minutes later the other family shows up and as they are taking their seats, their DD comes running in behind them. It is the other friend that flew in the same day. Our table mates had a DD that was friends with our DD from past cruises. They have kept in touch via Facebook and are planning on getting together this summer.

The moral of the story.....if you are seated with strangers, the strangers will probably have a lot in common with you. And if not, ask the head server to change if possible.

 

[jm106]

I know everyone is concerned about having to share dinner with strangers. Disney does very well in connecting dinning partners as they take the time to match similar family types together.

Our story....

We had 3 in our travel party this time and I didn't want to call DVC to add "table by ourselves" I thought we would just see what happened.

We have been on the NYE cruise twice and a Christmas cruise once and there are a bunch of the same kids on these cruises so DD16 always meets up with "friends". While waiting to board in the terminal, DD ran up to two girls and gave them big hugs (and made a scene). Their other friend was flying in the day of departure so they didn't get to see her prior to boarding.

We go to dinner the first evening and are shown to a table of 8. I must admit I started to get a bit worried but kept telling myself it will be fine. About 5 minutes later the other family shows up and as they are taking their seats, their DD comes running in behind them. It is the other friend that flew in the same day. Our table mates had a DD that was friends with our DD from past cruises. They have kept in touch via Facebook and are planning on getting together this summer.

The moral of the story.....if you are seated with strangers, the strangers will probably have a lot in common with you. And if not, ask the head server to change if possible.

Glad you had a nice experience. I am really hoping we have a nice table and find things to chat about a little, I would not want to ask to be moved(how uncomfortable.) There is only one way to find out if you have things in common I guess, be friendly and talk.

 

[daisywithak]

I was really worried about this before our first cruise, but we ended up loving our tablemates. We've become good friends with the two couples that we were placed with. I'm amazed that Disney did such a great job!

 

[cheesemouse]

This is something I'm really struggling with. I'm sooooo close to calling and requesting our own table. We have 3 kids (7,4,1) and I realize that they seat you with similar types of families. That's the problem. I'm afraid of getting some really badly behaved children at our table. For the most part our 3 kids, including the 1 year old, are very good at restaurants and should have no problem doing the main dining room dinners. They sit in their seats, eat their food, aren't very loud and color when there's not food. I don't want other kids that are up and down running around, being crazy etc. Now I'm not trying to make my kids into angels or anything - they are kids. But I just don't want to end up miserable fo 5 nights. But at the same time, when my DH and I did an adults cruise without the kids, we ended up becoming friends with 2 of our tablemates. So that's why I'm struggling. Will have to think about it some more. I'm so glad to hear your positive spin on the situation as so often you just read about the bad tablemates.

 

[jm106]

This is something I'm really struggling with. I'm sooooo close to calling and requesting our own table. We have 3 kids (7,4,1) and I realize that they seat you with similar types of families. That's the problem. I'm afraid of getting some really badly behaved children at our table. For the most part our 3 kids, including the 1 year old, are very good at restaurants and should have no problem doing the main dining room dinners. They sit in their seats, eat their food, aren't very loud and color when there's not food. I don't want other kids that are up and down running around, being crazy etc. Now I'm not trying to make my kids into angels or anything - they are kids. But I just don't want to end up miserable fo 5 nights. But at the same time, when my DH and I did an adults cruise without the kids, we ended up becoming friends with 2 of our tablemates. So that's why I'm struggling. Will have to think about it some more. I'm so glad to hear your positive spin on the situation as so often you just read about the bad tablemates.

I think the same way, I hope I dont get kids who are allowed to be crazy at dinner. I wonder, how they match ppl up, just mearly by age of kids? Region?

 

[Thnlk]

We have been on 4 cruises. The first 3 we sat at a Table with strangers. We have kept in touch with all of our past table mates. On our last cruise we had a group of 8 family member. After the cruise my wife nd I both agreed we missed not sitting with strangers and making new friends.

 

[kiford]

Our last cruise we ended up sitting with a couple we sat with the previous cruise. Neither of us had any idea the other was cruising. In fact, it was a last minute booking on their part. We had really enjoyed each other's company the previous time so it was a really nice surprise to be seated with them.

We've had some OK table mates and some great ones that we still correspond with. It's one of the things I love about cruising with Disney - getting a chance to meet some really interesting people at dinner.

 

[SeaSpray]

I don't like having dinner with strangers. I know, that's just me. It has nothing to do with "bad" tablemates; it's just a personal preference.

This has been my experience on our cruises:

Cruise #1 2003 Royal Caribbean ship: DH and I cruised (no kids) with 2 of my brothers and their wives, so we were a party of 6. They put us at a table for 10, along with a couple and a mother/teen daughter. They were all very, very nice. I still did not enjoy sitting with strangers that week because I rarely get to spend time with my brothers/SILs, and I didn't like sharing them with strangers.

Cruise #2 2004 Disney Magic: DH, DSthen16, DSthen13, DH's sister, and her DH, and myself. We were a party of 6 and had our own table. It was good. We rarely get to see SIL & BIL so I was happy to have our own table.

Cruise #3 2004 Disney Magic: DH, DSthen18, DSthen15, and me. We were a party of 4, but linked our reservation with other DISers that we had met during the 2004 cruise and had become good friends with, so we shared a table, but I did not consider them to be strangers. It was good.

Cruise #4 2007 Royal Caribbean: DH and I (no kids), my DSis, DBIL, DNiece, her DH, and their DD. So, we were a party of 7 and seated at a huge table that I think could seat 12 people. However, NONE of the other people EVER came to dinner at the main dining room all during that cruise, so we had the table, and our servers all to ourselves. A nearby table was empty every night too, so we really got excellent service from our serving team. I LOVED this.

Cruise #5 2012 Disney Magic: DH, DS21, his DGF21, and me. We were a party of 4 and I specifically requested a table for 4, and was given it. Awesome.

Again, I have nothing against the other people; it's just my personal preference to want to have dinner with only my family/friends each night.

So far on our next cruise it will only be DH and I. I'm undecided whether to request a table for 2 or not. Does DCL ever seat just 2 people together, alone??

 

[ajmercedes59]

Does DCL ever seat just 2 people together, alone??

DH and I were seated alone at a 4-top on the Wonder in October 2011.

 

[pipertoad]

DH and I were seated alone at a 4-top on the Wonder in October 2011.

Did you request that or did DCL assign you that.

 

[rentayenta]

I'm excited to meet new people and hope we get sat with folks who have boys DS's age.

 

[deanimal]

We were just on the Dream and we requested our own table for our family of four because we didn't want to be that family with the badly behaved kids. Our two year old son has a speech impediment and gets really frustrated when he can't be understood. He's also being checked out for possible hearing issues. We work really hard at teaching him to use his inside voice and not get worked up when he's struggling to communicate, but some days meals can really be a challenge, especially when he's tired in the evening. It was a huge relief to me when we were shown to a table of four and I was relieved of the worry of sitting through dinners worrying about what my table mates were thinking about my "bratty" kid.

 

[jadedjojo]

The last 7 cruises, I have called ahead of time and specifically asked for a table for DH and I alone. We used to not mind sitting with strangers until we had the tablemate from you-know-where. She was traveling with her teenaged daughter who would frequently leave early because she was so embarrassed at her mom's antics. The mom was completely wasted every night, and then started insulting everyone else at the table (I believe it was an 8-seater). She told DH and I we were stupid for taking a DCL cruise when we didn't have children (which also insulted the older childless couple across from us and they had a few words with her). Then one night after getting drunk, she started nodding off, and eventually fell face first into her main course. She was rude to our waiter and just a vile person in general. And you know, back then it never occurred to DH and I to request another table. On a different cruise, we had the snootiest woman in the world who would not stop bragging about living in cultured NYC. The whole 7 days I had to try to tune out her constant arrogant chirping. Then on disembarkation day she says to me, "So our flight doesn't leave until evening from Orlando. Is there ANYTHING to do in Orlando?" like us Floridians sit around and twiddle our thumbs all day or something LOL. So now... table alone (or we try). If we don't get it, that's okay too. I think hey, maybe we'll get some free entertainment, but I've also come to the point that I'll have no problem asking for a different table.

Now, don't let my stories scare you if you are first time cruisers and don't know what to expect. I think I attract crazy, . And besides, out of all of the people we've sat with, only two were really abhorrent (and the one lady was asleep in her food most of the time so it wasn't really that big of a bother). On one cruise we had a wonderful table mate. We started with an 8-top, but one couple became ill and spent the whole cruise in their room, one 3-person group must not have enjoyed the atmosphere because they showed up the first night for five minutes then vanished. So it was me and DH and a lady who was cruising alone, and we had a ball! We spent the entire time laughing and joking around. So you may end up with a super fun table mate(s) and make a great friend .

And if you want some really funny table mate stories, check out cruise critic sometime. There was a thread on there recently about funny dinner encounters (not on DCL thankfully) that had me laughing.

Just saw you Q seaspray, and yes they do! I'm living proof . They've accommodated us every time we've asked (so far, let's see what happens next week lol).

 

[MNKelly]

My family of 3 were first time cruisers on the Feb 11th Wonder this year. I didn't even think about having table mates and was a little surprised when we walked into the MDR the 1st night and were seated with a family of 4.

To my delight, this family and mine became fast friends and continue to communicate, almost daily. I don't know how or if Disney puts any thought into who they seat together, but I'm grateful we had the opportunity to meet our table mates. My life has truely been blessed by having them in our lives. We're even talking about another cruise together next year...we're booked, just waiting for them to have life work out before they book!

I'd say go for it, do an open table assignment. If worse comes to worse, you can always ask your head server for a new table assignment.

 

[annichan]

Does DCL ever seat just 2 people together, alone??

On our Med cruise on the Magic in 2007, DH and I were assigned a 4-top table just by ourselves. We hadn't requested it, but we really liked it.

 

[KaryCam]

On our last cruise, it was DH, DS12, and I.

We were seated with another family of 3 with a DD12 and a family of 2 with DD13.

Needless to say the preteens were quiet. My DS didn't talk to the girls, but the adults got along well.
For the person who wondered about regions - we are from Florida and the other two families were Illinois and California.

Looking forward to seeing what we get for tablemates in the 10 days until our cruise!

 

[KatHuss]

We have never really had luck with the people we were assigned to. I don't even remember the people from our first two DCL cruises. The third cruise we took my mother who was in a wheelchair as the result of a stroke. It also affected her speech and her facial muscles. The first night at dinner the other family came in and took one look at my mother and asked the servers to change their table! I was horrified and sad for my mother as it hurt her quite a bit.

 

[Magic3forme]

We havent been paired up with a good family yet. ( most of the times the family has a little girl.... and she is much younger than our son.)

Our last cruise we were paired with a family that English was not their first language and they were so hard to understand. (and they were always 10 minutes or more late to dinner)

We now request our own table. We think it works better for us. and we dont have to worry about timing. (and since we have teenagers, we like to hear about what they did during the day --since they are off with their friends.)

 

[rentayenta]

Who do we call to make requests?

 

[SigalTchelet]

We have never really had luck with the people we were assigned to. I don't even remember the people from our first two DCL cruises. The third cruise we took my mother who was in a wheelchair as the result of a stroke. It also affected her speech and her facial muscles. The first night at dinner the other family came in and took one look at my mother and asked the servers to change their table! I was horrified and sad for my mother as it hurt her quite a bit.

So sorry to hear that! That is just plain cruel and ignorant! I hope you ended up with much nicer table mates. We are linled with several families from our meet thread. Should be fun!