Craziest table mates you have had.

[mom+3girls]

We sat with two other couples, we had great conversations. One of the couples brought their stuffed animal children to every meal and sat them in highchairs at the table.

WTH??????

maybe Disney needs to start doing Psych evaluations before allowing people to board. we have Lt Dan in a wheel chair, people flossing their teeth and woman stabbing her son.

 

[SC Minnie]

We've been on 9 DCL cruises and really only had one with table mate duds. We took a 3 night cruise this past Jan and got seated with a group of 5 that knew each other. They had 2 older teens and DD19 was with us so on paper it looked like they would be a close fit. Not. The one girl was so stuck on herself, she knew everything about everything, had to mention multiple times a night she went to college in NY. So? Her mother was rude to the servers. When asked if she didn't like her appetizer by the server, she said 'no, it was nasty'. He brought her something else. On the last night the rude mother said she wasn't leaving them a tip as they didn't do anything special. The 2nd night one of the servers did a little magic trick only to get eye rolls. We tried to get through dinner every night as quickly as possible so get away from these people.

We still keep in touch with our tablemates we met on our first DCL cruise 14 years ago. It's like anything in life you'll get some duds sometimes but those make you appreciate the good ones even more.

 

[Simba One]

Our first cruise four years ago we are still in touch with the other three couples. Our fourth cruise was a table for four. The other couple didn't shut up about themselves. Impossible to get a word in. Sixth cruise we had a table for 8, going this fall with one of the couples on another cruise, the other four were duds. Last month table for eight was so bad we escaped to PALO to get away!

 

[disneyfanbecky]

I think it's interesting to hear about all the different experiences people have had and whether or not they mesh with their table mates! I am surprised to find a few comments in this thread that are rather harsh or not understanding of people. While most made comments on unusual table mates in a way that makes it clear that they just wouldn't "click", I was sad to read a few comments that were quite mean or stigmatizing. Hope to be able to continue to follow this thread without coming across those - I am appreciating the other funny stories and empathy!

 

[nouche1]

Just when a thread gets good, someone gets offended.

 

[Twinprincesses]

We had an older gentleman sailing w his mother just the two of them. They did not speak to anyone at our table and we realized he was taking pictures of our kids (only them) at dinner. My husband finally said something when we realized what was going on and the guy never dined with us again.

 

[rcchello]

On a cruise a few years back and made the mistake of not staying with the Disney assigned group. At the table next to ours was a mother/daughter we met through the dis meet that day who asked if we would sit with them since Disney put them at a table by themselves. Little did we know this was on purpose.

Apparently they were known for always being the last people in the restaurant. These ladies were on the first cruise of a back to back to back. By the third day they had gotten into a fight and were no longer talking to each other so neither showed for dinner. In addition, every day they told us how Disney had screwed up their day. On the first night they apparently had Disney change their bedding 3 times and finally demanded pillows from the concierge supply.

On the fourth night only the mother showed up and broke down crying by dessert because of the fighting with her daughter.

On the last night we were again alone.

The serving team was great, with both the server and head server working with us to overcome the obvious difficulties. After the first night they would serve our courses at the rate we were eating so we could get out at a reasonable hour. The head server would talk to the crying mother while the server would minimize the effect on us.

We should have stayed with the group Disney assigned.

 

[ethanwa]

That being said, I had NO idea DCL seated passengers with others and was not too pleased to find out as I was being seated. It was not a problem, per se, but as an introvert I certainly needed time to process.

I am very shy and I have a hard time meeting new people. It's difficult for me to open up to complete strangers beyond just "the weather is great today" small talk. I like to meet new people on my terms, not someone else's (like Disney's). I really wish they would explain upfront to guests that you may be seated with others.

I didn't know DCL seated with other guests until I read it on DISBoards just a few months ago after we had booked. Luckily I booked a concierge room and contacted our concierge to make sure we (meaning our family of four) were seated by ourselves for dinner. Here is what they said:

As a Concierge Guest, you will be seated at a private table and you
will be in our more preferred locations in the dining rooms with our more
experienced servers. I have added a request for a booth at Enchanted Garden, that is the only dining room that has booths.

So just a tip... if you can afford concierge, you will get your own table, the best servers, the best locations in the dining rooms, and the ability to get booths where available.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

Thanks to the OP for adding this thread, this is the best time I've had on the boards in a long time. With that in mind though I'm a little nervous for our next cruise, we've never had table mates and I may have to call to request it to stay that way. Thank you to everyone who posted, you made my day. Happy cruising everyone.

 

[lucky1]

Out of 6 cruises, 5 of them we left up to DCL to pick who we sat with. The first one was fantastic, it was almost like they did have those investigators work for them because it was the perfect match. Our last one, we were got to the table and saw an 8 top and we are a family of 3. we sat down and up walked a family of 5 and they stopped in their tracks and said this is not going to work. We want our family time and demanded to be moved. Our table for that cruise became the rotating table of families, when someone needed to move for some reason or need another time because of babies or something, them put them at our table. It was a bit uncomfortable.

We haven't given up that we might have some Disney Magic again like we did with the first one.

 

[DonaldDuckDad]

On a cruise a few years back and made the mistake of not staying with the Disney assigned group. At the table next to ours was a mother/daughter we met through the dis meet that day who asked if we would sit with them since Disney put them at a table by themselves. Little did we know this was on purpose.

Apparently they were known for always being the last people in the restaurant. These ladies were on the first cruise of a back to back to back. By the third day they had gotten into a fight and were no longer talking to each other so neither showed for dinner. In addition, every day they told us how Disney had screwed up their day. On the first night they apparently had Disney change their bedding 3 times and finally demanded pillows from the concierge supply.

On the fourth night only the mother showed up and broke down crying by dessert because of the fighting with her daughter.

On the last night we were again alone.

The serving team was great, with both the server and head server working with us to overcome the obvious difficulties. After the first night they would serve our courses at the rate we were eating so we could get out at a reasonable hour. The head server would talk to the crying mother while the server would minimize the effect on us.

We should have stayed with the group Disney assigned.

Canadian Cruise?

 

[dpswift]

On an RCI cruise several years ago we were seated with an older gentleman and his caregiver. It was interesting. He was on heavy painkillers from a fall he took just before the cruise. They were always late. One night he got up to go to the bathroom and our server sent DH to look for him. They were actually fun to sit with.

Our worst table mates were on the Wonder last year when we were assigned to a table with a family that wanted to eat alone. The only night that they ate with us was extremely uncomfortable. The first night they saw us and demanded to be moved. Their child told them they were being rude so they came the next night. They found excuses to eat elsewhere the other nights. In their defense they were first generation Americans who lived in a community of people from their home country.

 

[Steve Dexter]

This thread is awesome, and scary, and awesome!

 

[Anal Annie]

On our first cruise (on the Magic) we were seated at the large oval table in the center of the room with several other families of 3 - while the kids were all the same age (8ish) the others were little girls. We always had 2 empty seats every night tho. Everybody seemed pretty nice but we could tell that there was something a little off about one family. It was 2 women and a young girl - but they didn't appear to be a couple. They just seemed to be traveling together. Meanwhile, we often ran into one of the women around the ship, the older one and she was always by herself. We saw her by the pool, in the lounges etc. Finally, one night near the end of the cruise the younger woman came to dinner by herself and BOY was she ready to talk!! She filled us all in on the whole story. Turned out the other woman had had an affair with her DAD 8 years ago and she got pregnant and so the young girl on the cruise was her daughter from that affair - and therefore THIS woman's half sister!! They had JUST MET for the first time (the Dad had recently passed)!! The cruise was their way to let the new-found sisters get to know each other and bond (that's why the other woman just left them alone all the time). OH and to top off the story they were all sharing the same cabin. So here she was sharing a cabin with total strangers - one was her Dad's mistress and the other her "new" sister!!! She was anxious to have some alone time that night. It was prettttttty wild. OH and then on the last morning the 2 missing people showed up for the last breakfast - it was a woman with her son - who was about DS's age. There was his missing playmate that skipped all of the dinners!!

The other 2 families at the table were both pretty nice and "normal" but one family was habitually 20 or 30 minutes late every night and the woman ALWAYS, without fail sent all of her meals back and requested a change once she got them. Every single night she did this.

 

[MichelleVW]

We've been super lucky on 5 cruises! The first one we were seated alone with my family of 4. The next four we had awesome tablemates. This last cruise was the best. We were at a table for 8 and there was one couple that only showed up once (only 3 night cruise). They were odd and didn't want to speak to the rest of us even though we tried to talk to them. We hung out at the bars and entertainment with the other two couples and are now Facebook friends. One couple was from Australia so it was really fun to talk to them and find out the differences in our countries. Even the night we went to Palo we went to the MDR afterwards just so we could hang out with our tablemates.

It's always a little awkward at first...but we've always had enough in common with people.

 

[tink too]

The only time we had an awkward moment with tablemates was when DD and I were seated with a mum and son at the Princess at Sea event one lunchtime. As we were being taken to the table, I could see the mum's face changing as we approached - she looked absolutely horrified. She got up and left the table as soon as we were seated and said "hello". She whispered to the boy, and he didn't make eye contact with us after that, he just kept munching on the sandwiches and staring at his juice!

The mum returned after 10 minutes with a server and told her DS to get up. He took a few of the nice biscuits off the tray and left his drink on the table. My DD was quite confused as to why they'd left so abruptly because this "party" only lasted about an hour and she couldn't understand why wouldn't just put up with sitting with us! Apparently she didn't want strange people at "her" table and was furious we'd joined them!

That night at dinner, we noticed this family were only a few tables away from us (they were a larger family group so no need for sharing) and the whole time we were dining I was aware of the evil death stare that was being shot across the MDR at me!

On our 4 cruises though we've twice had tables to ourselves and twice had good tablemates in the MDR's.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I don't mean this to sound judgmental (so it probably will ), but when we booked our first cruise, I was under the impression that cruising meant being seated at dinner with others. I mean all the TV shows and movies that I had ever seen had everyone seated at big tables with people they didn't know for dinner.

That being said, our first cruise it didn't surprise me to be seated at a large table. We were seated with 3 other couples within, I'd say, a 5 year age span of us. We all had a blast. We linked with one of these couples for a later cruise and requested a 6 top (so asked for 2 additional people to be seated with us). It didn't work out, the other 2 were a single (older) gentleman who took all his dinners in the buffet (we finally met him disembarkation morning at breakfast), and the other - a single lady (and I use that term loosely) who suddenly discovered that she had "friends" on the late seating and switched to dine with them.

In all our cruises, we've never had a bad tablemate. And, even though, generally DH & I are pretty shy about approaching strangers elsewhere, we will continue to be seated with others. It's such a nice way to meet others and learn about life in other places (especially if they are not from the US).

 

[DreamBound23]

Dh! At AP we sat down and the server placed some crayons on the table ( he did tricks with them) well dh thought it was to color with...so he drew a red smiley face on the white table cloth!! I was livid He didn't take the time to notice it was cloth and not a paper one! as I was snarling under my breath at him the server came out with a surprise cake for our 24 anniversary and sang...atleast it was memorable. . Never again will he be aloud to have crayons at dinner though.

The tablecloths in AP are meant to be colored on Our servers gave both our DD crayons and told them to draw on it!

 

[travln1234]

On our second cruise, we sat with a newlywed couple (which was odd, since we were a family of 4 with 1 teen and one college grad). They were extremely nice and we had a good time at dinner each night. The wife was an extremely picky eater and basically only ate things that were white and without fail, she ordered mashed potatoes (2 helpings) each night and RAVED about them. So, on the 3rd night, we ordered them and from that point on, our entire table ordered mashed potatoes at every meal! LOL

On our third cruise, we were seated at a large table...i think there were 11 of us (5 in our group). The other 3 couples were from another country. Two of the men were extremely snobby, as was one wife. The others were cordial, but clearly thought us to be lowly Americans. Anyway, on lobster night, the one husband was soooooo incredibly rude (as he was every night, but he was over the top this night). He complained how he'd NEVER had a lobster tail left in the shell in all his life! LOL And he ranted about the food (which, honestly, was pretty bad throughout the entire cruise), but he complained to the point that it was like a tantrum from a toddler. Even his pompous wife looked embarrassed. And one of the other husbands was constantly drunk.

We sat alone on our fourth cruise, but the first night, we thought some one had a bad bought of flatulence right before our appetizers came! It was extremely bad! Behind us, at a 12-top, was a large group of vegans (which we later learned) and they started every meal with steamed cauliflower! Once we figured out what the smell was, we had a good case of the giggles!! It was the stinky cauliflower!

If we knew we'd have good company, I'd be all for sharing a table, but horrible table mates can really make it miserable.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Here's another thought: Why assume that you're going to get saddled with bad tablemates? Why not just let DCL assign you to a table, and, if it's not a match, it's easy to talk to the head server about a change.

It's not set in stone that you must dine with the people you are first assigned to dine with.