Dine together or with people?

[soozles]

just curious what other thoughts are. My husband and I prefer to sit alone at dinner. I have an insane work schedule and there have been weeks that the only time we are together in the apartment is when one of us is sleeping. Vacations are our time to get back together and actually sit and eat dinner together. Nothing against other people, I'll strike up a conversation with anybody, but dinner is our time. Maybe I'll feel differently when we are both retired and actually see each other every day :D

[hftmrock]

just curious what other thoughts are. My husband and I prefer to sit alone at dinner. I have an insane work schedule and there have been weeks that the only time we are together in the apartment is when one of us is sleeping. Vacations are our time to get back together and actually sit and eat dinner together. Nothing against other people, I'll strike up a conversation with anybody, but dinner is our time. Maybe I'll feel differently when we are both retired and actually see each other every day :D

 

 

its your vacation. Dine alone (just the 2 of you) if you want. I prefer it as well

[Rena921]

We prefer to dine alone. Unfortunately on our March cruise, we have to share our table....kids and so's are going :p. We have done big tables before, but it's really nice when you are able to get away together to have a table for two.

[PresDuLac]

Alone (together) is our choice too.

I spent my entire career working with the public so I've more than my share of time with strangers.

That said, even the tables for 2 are close enough to others that if you hit it off with your neighbors, you can make plans to meet again (that happened to us on our last cruise) if not, you don't have to see them again.

[Vitamin_Sea]

We like our own table.

[shof515]

i also like to dine together on our own table too

[babyher]

just curious what other thoughts are. My husband and I prefer to sit alone at dinner. I have an insane work schedule and there have been weeks that the only time we are together in the apartment is when one of us is sleeping. Vacations are our time to get back together and actually sit and eat dinner together. Nothing against other people, I'll strike up a conversation with anybody, but dinner is our time. Maybe I'll feel differently when we are both retired and actually see each other every day :D

 

 

 

 

We like a table for just "us".

 

I agree we meet nice people and strike up conversations all over the ship. Meal time is just for us.

[fkfad]

We always request a table for 2. The group dinners take way too long! We would rather enjoy our dinner at our pace and get out and about the ship asap!

[KPfromCT]

We prefer dining as a family, as well. Don't get me wrong, I am a super outgoing person, however, I don't like being forced to strike up conversation at dinner, with complete strangers.:rolleyes: Prefer to just talk about our day, and plans for the next day, amongst ourselves.:D

[2Shoes2Go]

Lately, we've had some odd table mates. We are beginning to get gun shy and go for tables for two. When a family orders 6 to 8 starters, well, it begins to take far too long for dinner. Late arrivals seem to be more the norm for our table mates, as well. It's beginning to be just too risky; we opt out and eat by our lonesomes from the beginning and so don't have to make changes later. Is it just us, or does it seem it's more challenging than just a few years ago?

[NorthTexasCruisers]

We enjoy sitting with others. Most of the cruises we take is just the two of us, so we enjoy meeting new people and hearing about what they are doing on their cruise. It is a good way to learn about the different shore excursion and activities that we haven't tried yet. But, unlike a lot of you, we work together. But meals are a lot more fun without the kids!

[paul929207]

I will be the odd one. We prefer so sit with others. When offered we get Anytime Dining and ask for a table for 6 each evening. On ships where AD is not offered, we have second seating and ask for a table for 6.

[Bookish Angel]

My husband and I meet and enjoy the company of others at the pool, hot tub, excursions, waiting for shows, etc. but like to have meals alone to have our "couple time" on vacation. That is why we choose a ship's anytime dining.

 

However, if we are in the buffet or other self-serve venues and see folks people looking for a place to sit, we will always invite someone to share our table if we have room.

Edited January 3, 2014 by Bookish Angel

[cruzeluver]

We greatly prefer large tables and to meet new people. Folks we have met at dinner have greatly enriched our cruises and some have become life long friends.

[cb at sea]

We like tablemates, too.....there is PLENTY of time for just the 2 of you....eating with others is much more fun, and gives the two of you something to talk about AFTER dinner!!

[slidergirl]

I like my solo table. I've tried the "share the table" and just didn't like it. I didn't like having to wait until everyone was at the table to be able to order and dine. I didn't like having to indulge the people who ordered multiple items - it just took too long and it was a little nauseating to watch people feed that way (did you REALLY need 3 appetizers and 2 entrees???). I have to make with the small talk everyday at work with guests - I'd rather not be forced to do it on my vacation. Now, if I meet some people on the cruise and we get along, if I am asked to join for a meal, I'll be happy to do that.

[Happy ks]

It may depend on your cruise line, how closely the tables for 2 are placed. Our last cruise was on Ruby Princess, we had Any Time dining, I think the tables for 2 didn't have a full foot of space between them. We didn't go there often, but the first time we did, we requested a table for 2…what a disaster!!! The people adjacent to us were so close, probably closer than if we had been sharing a table. It didn't help that the couple to our left were obnoxious.

 

The next couple of times we had dinner in the dining room, we requested a larger table and had a very nice time with other couples.

 

We always ate lunch and breakfast on our own, we had a balcony cabin and hung out there together. We were alone pretty much most of the time, except for those couple of dinners in the dining room.

[calliopecruiser]

just curious what other thoughts are. My husband and I prefer to sit alone at dinner. I have an insane work schedule and there have been weeks that the only time we are together in the apartment is when one of us is sleeping. Vacations are our time to get back together and actually sit and eat dinner together. Nothing against other people, I'll strike up a conversation with anybody, but dinner is our time. Maybe I'll feel differently when we are both retired and actually see each other every day :D

 

Thoughts about what? It's your vacation - do what you want. I prefer a large table, but that's for my vacation, not yours. Other than the muster drill you can do or not do whatever you like on a cruise.

[sherilyn70]

My husband and I also have crazy work schedules. I work day hours in IT, he works evenings as a dock supervisor. We have his kids every other weekend. So the only alone time we ever get is every other weekend and we spend most of that doing errands and cleaning. But for some odd reason we still prefer spending our dinners with others and socializing as a couple, something we rarely have time for. We really enjoy the company and hearing the experiences and stories from other people. We sat with a wonderful older British couple last cruise on several nights and learned a little bit of history. We get enough alone time through the rest of the cruise since we typically don't socialize through activities.

[trish1c]

Depends on our moods. Mostly we prefer to dine alone or with people we already know but some times it's fun to meet new people so we'll ask for a table to share.

 

We don't want to be stuck with one or the other. I have only done traditional dining once. It was OK but before the cruise (my 1st) I was very worried that we'd get awful table mates. My fear was realized at 1 table to share & another time there were serious language barriers but overall we have met nice people. I just don't want to be in a position where this could potentially ruin our whole vacation; I can tolerate a lot for 1 meal but for a whole trip . . . no thanks.

[navybankerteacher]

We always request a large table at traditional dining. Breakfast and lunch are good "just two" meals, but it is good to have a group to get together with each evening. We have regularly found that, at a table of 8 or 10, there will always be at least one (usually more) enjoyable couples as dinner companions.

[OCruisers]

We're retired and can be alone together anytime we please so we rather have meals with others. :)

 

LuLu

~~~~

[kellane]

We had one bad experience with another couple and unfortunately that has made us want to dine alone. I suppose you could always ask to be seated alone if you didn't enjoy the people you were seated with the first night if you did want to try it out.

[Kartgv]

When we first started cruising, tables for 2 were very rare and we had some wonderful tablemates. After several more recent awkward dining experiences, we've begun getting tables for 2 in 'anytime' dining.

 

For us, having the tables close together is usually a bonus. We always have a casual opening conversation with our close neighbors; if we seem to have something in common and enjoy each other, then the conversation continues. If there's no 'click', then we each politely return to our own conversation with the 2 of us. Occasionally we enjoy someone enough that we arrange to have a table for 4 on some subsequent nights. There's also been the opposite - we've found one or two couples that make us thankful that we didn't have assigned seating with them for a whole cruise. Avoiding them in the future is a simple matter. For us, it's the best of both worlds.

Edited January 3, 2014 by Kartgv

[AKman2495]

We always share-although we have had tables for 2-especially for lunch or breakfasts.

 

For Dinner, Sharing gets us into the MDR faster and we had had luck in having good table mates for interesting conversation.