Craziest table mates you have had.

[Husurdady]

Personally speaking of my own opinion, my blessing doesn't need to have any consequence to others. If someone wants to ignore it, they can. If someone wants to pause (the only reason I assume would be to say their own?? I don't know) I suppose they could. But I don't really expect anyone to pause or anything.

This happens commonly at work place lunches etc. I bowed my head and silently said my own once, and then one of the other ladies suggested that the boss say a blessing for the entire table. I was happy because I had said my own anyway and I guess it encouraged them to all stop and pray, but that certainly wasn't my suggestion. Seeing as Secretary's Day is coming up, I'm sure we will face the same thing again this year at lunch...

Then again, I'm in good ol' Kentucky and prayers are common here, even at my (<---- MY) place of employment when someone gets ill, etc. I guess I'm blessed all ways around!

Anyway, the short answer: carry-on, however you would like! At least, if we are tablemates!

Will we all be "breakin' Bread " together at dinner come May 5th on the Magic? We asked for a table for 6. We will see you Guys then. It will be our 46 th anniversary cruise.....

 

[ImprovGal]

Well this one time, I did have this rather strange girl sitting with me at Palo Brunch.

Hey, you knew what you were getting into.

 

[ImprovGal]

Okay. I have to ask. What is that little food item on your plate? I imagine it cost a lot because it's fully dressed. Love the quarter comparison!

That is actually a little polenta cake topped with pistou and a shaving of parmesan. It was the first course of three at an Epcot Food & Wine Festival event that didn't quite meet my expectations. That picture, fortunately, gave Guest Services cause to agree with me.

 

[cgolf]

That said, I must admit that I've been reading this thread to see if anyone's referenced me as their craziest tablemate.

Me too. Since I am terrible at small talk I try to not talk to others I don't know, not rude just shy and a horrible conversationalist. I think if people got me talking, they would soon hope I stop talking lol.

 

[KathleenlovesMickey]

Really people with a health issues should not read the internet because you will read horror stories!!! I made that mistake when I had gall bladder problems. I was so freaked out. But I had it removed and never had an issue again. The reason I say this is because thousands and thousands of people have MDR's on Disney and other cruise ships. We are only reading 1% maybe of bad things. Really do not let reading these strange, funny, weird stories stop you from sharing a table. I understand if you really are not comfortable talking to strangers, you then know yourself but for others, share a table if it is really horrible you can ask to be moved then come home and share your story with us here ! Our last cruise we had two people who di not speak a word of English but our other couple was so great I wouldn't have changed a thing.
Although I am thinking it would be fun to have a bad story to share will that curse me now?

 

[My2Qtz0205]

We just got off the Fantasy, and our family of 4 sat by ourselves the entire trip! We did not request it. We did end up sitting adjacent to another family from our FB group, which was nice, every night except for the nights we were in Enchanted Garden.

 

[ThePhantomsGirl]

Thanks for all, that say they don't have a problems with my problems.

Christina, actually I'd have to say the BEST tablemates I have ever had was a mother with her grown autistic son.

 

[jedijill]

My worst tablemate experience was actually someone I met on the Dis and linked tables with. Sometimes you just can't win!

Jill in CO

 

[taswira]

Christina, actually I'd have to say the BEST tablemates I have ever had was a mother with her grown autistic son.

If you are referring to the Fantasy 3 months ago, I agree! She was worried about him being difficult or causing problems for tablemates. He was totally AWESOME, and the way they interacted with each other every night was so entertaining. Really.

But it must be noted that we were seated with them only after we requested a change of table and rotation at the end of that first evening, when the arrangements were not exactly to our liking.

 

[RedSox68]

As long as you don't want me to hold hands with you while you say grace, I'd be happy to sit with you.

Never

 

[DHSbutcher]

We have been on maybe 17 cruises or so? Kinda lost track of the number over time but we sail pretty frequently and not always on disney, and we don't always sail with the same family/friends. Usually our table mates are okay, or its been so long I just can't remember! On a family reunion/girls cruise we took on carnival there were 10 of us, and they sat us at a very long table for 12, and actually has another couple sit with us. That was so strange. What was even stranger was the couple wouldn't talk to us, but they would sit about halfway down the table, opposite of each other, separating our group! It was so weird! It would be one thing if they would talk to us or join in on our conversation, but we all live in different states, and never get to see each other very often, so this was strange and made our dinners quite unenjoyable. On our most recent disney cruise it was a long one and we are cast members, so we do get seated with other cast members when we sail. Quite some characters you meet! It was me and my mom on the cruise and 2 of our table mates were another mom/daughter, similar age, but about halfway through the cruise they got into a huge fight, bot started drinking heavily, and only one would come to dinner per night, whoever got there first. It got to be a bit extreme as they dragged us and another nice older couple into it trying to get us to choose sides. Super weird. That leads me to the older couple, they were so lovely and despite the 50year age difference between them and myself, they were such a pleasure and we had so much in common! They were concierge level, not cast members, and when they and been originally seated at their own table, they asked to be with other people and have our specific server because they had him on another previous cruise. The only downside to this was that server was bending over backwards for this couple and not us. Could never get a refill, could never get any condiments, more bread, we ended up totally ignored for most of our meals after the order was taken. Quite a disappointment. He also brought this older couple's meals out first however they refused to eat until everyone else got their meal, this caused quite some problems with the wait staff if we didn't have any appetizers and they did. SO I guess that cruise was a combination of weird staff and table mates. We go on the dream for a 3 nighter May 1, so hoping for the best!

 

[jmedrew]

We had great table mates also on our Med cruise. We are an Air Force family and was thrilled when they matched us with another AF family. They had 2 boys and I have 2 girls, but it was all good. The mom was so sweet, from the south with a lovely accent and the dad was a pilot. We told interesting stories and hung out with them a few times outside of dinner. We are now facebook friends and I hope our paths cross again.

 

[Pegasus928]

Trading this thread has given me some great ideas on how to act if we don't like our tablemates, but do like the table and don't want to move ;-)

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Will we all be "breakin' Bread " together at dinner come May 5th on the Magic? We asked for a table for 6. We will see you Guys then. It will be our 46 th anniversary cruise.....

Woohoo! Another 5/5 shout out!

We have a group of 11 so I think it's safe to say that we will be seated at our own table. We have late dining. But if you see the twin princesses, come say hello! (princesses will be pirates or mermaids too)

Frankly, I'm starting to re-panic about packing. Its hard to pack mermaid tails, and several sets of fragile shell tops, and a big pirate cavalier hat...

Sigh... we have a van for 7 of us and 7 are coming from the airport...I think 2 trips are in order... sorry I digress... its just coming up SOON!

BUT I'm SOOO EXCITED!!

Anniversaries all around! A couple on Cruise Critic is on 5/5 for their 30th anniversary.

 

[Holly Quinlan]

Bump

 

[swooshbear]

DW and I went on our very first cruise last year, the first Alaskan cruise of the season on the Wonder. Not really knowing what to expect or just learning how everything works on a cruise, we were placed at a table with two teenage girls and what we believe was their grandmother. We tried introducing ourselves but I think their English was limited (they were Chinese and I am Chinese as well but my speaking skills are fairly limited). But the one thing we noticed right away was the strong body odor coming from them. We gave them the benefit of the doubt, thinking they may have rushed to get to ship and didn’t have time to freshen up before dinner. The next night, they showed up again, all wearing the same clothes and the same smell. That’s when we knew the next 6 nights would not be pleasant. Being our first cruise, we didn’t know we could request to have our seats moved. We liked our servers and didn’t want to offend them, so we sucked it up.

On our last cruise on the Dream, our tablemates never showed up so we had our own private table. I guess that was the universe balancing everything out.

 

[CODisney]

Sometimes I think DCL has an entire team of private investigators that collect background info on passengers and use it to set up table mates. They are usually really good at finding similarities and putting people together. It is so cool that you were able to help the table communicate with your signing skills.

I would agree with this!! Our first cruise had 4 couples... there were two that traveled together as friends. DH and I get along great with pretty much anyone. The other couple and the 4 traveling together were COMPLETE opposite, but we had stuff in common with both and I felt we helped ease the situation and we all had a great time!

 

[sabrecmc]

For the prayers and blessers then: what do you expect of your tablemates when you say your peace when the food comes? Are they to stop what they're doing, not eat, and be quiet? Or can they carry as they normally would? Curious.

Anyway ... we were not seated with these people, but next to them: they brought their stuffed bear to dinner (huge stuffed bear) and had a place setting for the bear. And a dinner plate ordered for the bear. And once sent back the dinner because bear didn't like it. Bring your bear to dinner, fine. But why waste food ... on a stuffed bear? They would cut the food for the bear and everything.

Ok, for a second I thought you might have been talking about us, but then I saw the post below, lol. On our Canadian cruise out of NYC, my DD(then 7) had her giant Queen Elinor bear (from Brave) join us at the table one night when DD was wearing her Merida costume, and the bear had her own chair. Our server thought it was quite amusing and brought her Highness a special meal (pot of honey). We didn't order it! He just thought it would make DD happy, which it did. We didn't get interviewed though...So, um, yeah. Don't judge a family by their bear! Just kidding. You gotta have an adorable kid to pull that stuff off.

 

[geraldines]

Wow this has been some reading! Would you suggest dining alone on our first cruise? We're a pretty outgoing family, but boy, these stories...

We are a family of three so I don't know if it's possible. Thank you for sharing the idea that we can request a change, if needed.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Wow this has been some reading! Would you suggest dining alone on our first cruise? We're a pretty outgoing family, but boy, these stories...

We are a family of three so I don't know if it's possible. Thank you for sharing the idea that we can request a change, if needed.

No, I wouldn't suggest dining alone (for anyone). We've never (on any cruise) had really bad (or even moderately bad) tablemates. That's part of why we like to cruise - meeting different people.

I'd suggest that you go ahead and take a chance. Remember, if you can tell immediately that it's not going to be a match (rare), just have a talk with your head server about changing tables. Be aware, that you may also have to change seating times to accommodate this, however.

If you really feel that you're just not going to want to even give it a shot, you can call DCL and have the request placed on your reservation that you want a table alone. But, remember, it's just a request. Many such requests are honored, some are not.