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Dinner table mates


Kenster
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On our previous cruises we start off sort of mixing it up among new people each night at dinner. That's one of the great things about river cruising. It makes it easy to get to know many on the boat.

 

But... after a few days we tend to gravitate toward new "ship buddies" and will end up the last half of the cruise having dinner with the same six others every night. Everyone does their own thing during the day, including (usually) choosing different walking groups, etc.) and we meet in the lounge during Happy Hour for the next day's "briefing" then head down to "our table." It's fun to catch up with what they did during the day and it makes for some great memories. Like when the eight of us (three couples and two crazy sisters from Chicago) almost got thrown out of a pub in Cologne (not really but we sure had some fun!) and hitting the Red Light District on our last night in Amsterdam.

 

My bride and I are not real social in the early morning so we usually have breakfast at a two top, and always have the light lunch up in the lounge.

 

So, what do you like to do? New table mates every night? Or settle in with new friends?

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I don't travel to make friends, so usually new people - the larger the table, the better, so my extrovert husband has a chance to socialize and I can be quiet without so much notice (at a table for 4, me being quiet is an issue - at a table for 8, not so much ;-)

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I don't travel to make friends, so usually new people - the larger the table, the better, so my extrovert husband has a chance to socialize and I can be quiet without so much notice (at a table for 4, me being quiet is an issue - at a table for 8, not so much ;-)

 

Very similar to our usual routine, except when traveling with family where we usually take up a while table!

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When we did our river cruise, we had 2 sets of our parents with us and we still ate with other people ;-) Part of it was because so many people were sick on our cruise - we never knew who would show up to eat, so we just sat down wherever.....

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We mix it up a bit at first but often gravitate to table mates we have enjoyed. We are still in touch with several by email or Facebook. DH is a little hard of hearing so tables for four are ideal for him. We will sometimes look for a two top if we are tired from the day's excursion, though.

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On our previous cruises we start off sort of mixing it up among new people each night at dinner.

 

But... after a few days we tend to gravitate toward new "ship buddies" and will end up the last half of the cruise having dinner with the same six others every night.

 

This is what we do. After a couple of days we've found people we want to eat with as well as those with who we do not want to eat.

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When I traveled solo, I rotated tables almost every night. Of course this sailing only had 50 total passengers & they only had half of the dining room open. When I’ve traveled with my mom, we still try to mix it up but also have dined alone. We just try to go with the flow & see what happens.

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Like several posters have said, we also tended to move around to different tables and groups, but, after the first week or so it became apparent that several groups started to bond together and tended to have dinner together. We often wound up eating with another couple that we became friendly with. I think much depends on the time you eat as well. The other people we wound up sharing a table with also enjoyed eating earlier, as we do. So the preferred dining time has much to do with who you're likely to wind up eating with repeatedly. Actually, we were more comfortable eating with the same people for the last part of the trip. The moving around to different tables, involving always introducing yourself, meeting new people, going through some of that conversation over and over again just gets old to me after awhile. Guess I'm just not quite as social as some others on these trips. Plus I'm horrible at remembering names so just as easy to eat with the same people. On the larger ocean ships, we usually prefer the 'my-time dining' option with seating for just the 2 of us. I don't feel the need to 'meet and mingle'.

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Part of the reason we travel is to meet new friends, so we do very much what the OP does. On our river cruise in 2015, we traveled with my sister and her boyfriend, but met another couple the first day and they dined with us after that. Second day, we met another couple and graduated to a table for 8. We had SO much fun the servers would block our table until one of us got there in the evening, so we could have the same table each night! We're hoping to meet some new friends on our upcoming cruises as well.

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I sail solo and took my first river cruise in 2016.......actually 2 years ago next month. Where has the time gone?

 

Anyway, it was very easy to meet people and I sat with some of the same people throughout the cruise (not every night) but did meet different folks to share a table with as well. So I can say it varied too. I loved it and am finally looking to book my 2nd river cruise in 2019:D. This year is already booked up! Sailing for 10 nights from Venice to Nice on Silversea this summer:) but will be

away for 2 weeks:)

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We (Mum and I) are the opposite to you! More social in the morning and at lunch, then we always sat with our friends we travelled with in the evening. Mainly because we were all tired and the conversation was easy. We are going again though, in September, on our own so who knows. We will probably stick to tables for 2 or bigger ones as then if we are tired, there are more people making conversation rather than just a foursome ;-)

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First river cruise was 2016 w/Viking and we did pre-cruise in Bruges, Belgium. Got to know 6 other couples since it was a such a small group on the pre-cruise, and ended up hanging out with them all the way to Freiburg, dinners and all, including a few the concierge arranged onshore. We have kept in contact with them all and hope to do another cruise together someday!

On the ocean cruise to Alaska we did, we just grabbed table for two and kept to ourselves. Easier to do on a ship w/2000 people on it, I think.

I tend to get up early, so I head to the Aquavit Terrace on Viking and usually breakfast alone.

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