Requesting a table with other families?

[Canadian Tyler]

We are sailing on the Mariner of the Seas in April, our little girl will be 1 year old at the time.

Has anyone heard of requesting being seating at a table with another family cruising with their baby? Is this possible?

 

We looked at My Time Dining, but would really like to stick with the traditional dining so we can have consistent tablemates to converse with during the week, just want someone who will understand having a baby there.

 

Any advice?

[sbhdmh]

Last summer we requested a large table with another family on our Baltic cruise with MSC. We were instead seated by ourselves at a table for 4. The first night we asked the matre d' about being placed with another family instead. After checking he came over and whispered that we would be much better staying at a table alone. It turned out most of the children aboard were very unruly. MSC is an Italian line and is, apparently, somewhat notorious for poorly behaved children from Italy...

 

We are sailing the western Caribbean next week on RCL and have again requested a large table with another family that has children close in age to our dd (she just turned 5). I'll report back what happens this time. I am eager to see if anyone else has tried this sort of request and how it worked.

[cb at sea]

If you request a large table, they do try to put families together, if possible. They will try NOT to put a family with small children with, say, honeymooners, or singles....

Once you board, you can check out your table assignment, and see if they can tell you who else will be at your table.

[cantw8togo]

Three years ago on the Celebrity, we were automatically seated with another family with young children. The other family had two girls that were slightly older than our two boys but everyone hit it off and there was lots to talk about over dinner. Our waiter explained that they try to seat families together whenever possible.

[junglejane]

That happened to us on the Celebrity Summit in 2008. We requested a table for 4 for our family. On the first night, they led us to a table for 8. I started to panic that we were going to be seated with kid-haters. Instead, they seated us with another family with kids around the same ages as ours. It was nice because it gave us a chance for some adult conversation and a chance to compare notes with other cruising parents.:)

[crusinmama06]

From what I have seen, the cruise lines try to put families with kids with other families with kids, honeymooners with honeymooners, couples with other couples, etc.

 

On our first cruise on RCCL, we were honeymooners and we were seated with 3 other couples that were also celebrating their honeymoon.

 

Since then, we have been seated with people with children. :)

[sbhdmh]

Just off Independence of the Seas today and our request to sit with another family was a dismal failure. The first night we were assigned to a table for eight. Unfortunately someone had decided to place this table ON the top of the stairs in the dining room. I don't mean near a set of stairs I mean literally 2 of the chairs were ON the top step. To avoid her falling down the stairs we had to sit dd on the opposite side of the table (right in the pathway of all the waitstaff carrying heavy trays of hot food). Luckily the other family did not show up so no one had to figure out how to sit in those chairs without falling down the stairs. My mother was constantly being bumped and jostled as staff and passengers tried to squeeze past her to get to the stairs. It was awful!

 

After dinner we went to the maitre d' (since he never came to our table despite asking for him 3 times) and after waiting for about 20 minutes were able to get reassigned to another table with a different family. This one was stuck in a back corner where the waiters kept the ice bucket for wine chilling and scraped plates that had been cleared - terrible location but awesome wait staff. The other family never showed up here either. Finally the last night we were combined with another family with a young child who had been hoping to eat with other people. It took some shuffling and rearranging by our head waiter to get this to happen. Even though there were 2 families with similar aged children making the same request no one seemed to have the authority to allow us to sit together earlier. DD had SO much more fun the last night than the previous 5 - I really wish it had worked. I think many families ate in the Windjammer every evening because at least half the seats in the dining room were empty each night. Lots of couples and small families eating alone at tables for 8 or more. I can't say this ruined our cruise but it certainly made it less enjoyable than it should have been...