Nightmare tablemates?

[Pierlesscruisers]

Mrs. O finally capped the evening by giving me a drunken look and saying - apropos of absolutely nothing - "Ya know, you could be pretty if you put some work into it."

 

Oh, wow, how strong would be the urge to reply with "Too bad I can't say the same about you."

 

But then that would place you in the same vein as her.

 

Tom

[CDD248]

Ours wasn't a nightmare, but it was uncomfortable. My husband and I cruised frequently with our three teenage children. We'd always request a table for 5, which we usually received from any of the cruise lines we were on. One time we were assigned to a table set for 7. The other couple was an elderly grandmother/grandfather type. Now this might have worked, however, grandma and grandpa never talked other than nods to questions or a brief answer when we attempted to get them into a conversation. After a couple of nights, our conversation became stilted, because we always felt if we were discussing the day's experiences/excursions, we were leaving them out. However, they didn't seem to want to open up nor converse. Maybe they were socially awkward. The third night we abandoned our assigned seating and from then on went to the alternative restaurant where you could request a table nightly. At least our family dinner could go back to normal conversation.

[davekathy]

Ours wasn't a nightmare, but it was uncomfortable. My husband and I cruised frequently with our three teenage children. We'd always request a table for 5, which we usually received from any of the cruise lines we were on. One time we were assigned to a table set for 7. The other couple was an elderly grandmother/grandfather type. Now this might have worked, however, grandma and grandpa never talked other than nods to questions or a brief answer when we attempted to get them into a conversation. After a couple of nights, our conversation became stilted, because we always felt if we were discussing the day's experiences/excursions, we were leaving them out. However, they didn't seem to want to open up nor converse. Maybe they were socially awkward. The third night we abandoned our assigned seating and from then on went to the alternative restaurant where you could request a table nightly. At least our family dinner could go back to normal conversation.

 

Possibly they didn't like who they were dining with. Two sides to every story.

Edited January 9, 2017 by davekathy

[Sabbycat]

My little sister cruises with us quite often. She is an ID doctor, (specialist on infectious

disease to the non medical world). She is on call at two hospitals, has her own clinic,

and works way too many hours, though she is very successful. For some reason she does

not mind talking about her profession. Not sure why, but that is just her. ;)

 

The DH and I like to tell people we are unemployed. :) Also having worked very hard

in our past careers and being successful....I was able to retire at 54. Still technically

not working...."unemployed". :D

That is because ID are fascinating. It is so amazing how this microscopic organism can wreak havoc with the cells in our bodies. It is amazing how they can take over the cell for their own use. Even more amazing is that they are so small and yet have the capacity wipe humans off the planet. I find it a fascinating topic and love to talk to those that are versed in the topic. So fascinating...just wow. You've got to have a healthy repeat for them. My favorite topic for a little light reading -although it can get rather complex!

 

Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Forums mobile app

[angelwinks_ca]

Somehow us and our friends were in different restaurants and requested this be fixed as soon as possible.

 

There was me, hubby and daughter and we were seated with another family the same the first night. Our daughter's looked around the same age. We looked about the same age as the couple. I was excited to meet another family and make new friends!

 

They were BORING!! The conversations went like this...

Me - Do you have any excursions planned?

Them - no, not this time

Me - So you've cruise before?

Them - This is our 3rd cruise

Me - Have you been to these ports before

Them - No

 

This is the way the entire conversation went until I finally gave up. No asking us questions, no trying to interact in any way. It was weird and extremely awkward!

 

THANKFULLY they fixed our reservations and we were seated with our friends who are lively people the next night!

[Warmer Climes]

We had one cruise with terrible table mates. There were five of us: my husband, teenaged son and his cousin; our young daughter and me. They seated us with a French Canadian family of four who hated everything about the cruise. The lady would watch me put a mouthful of food in my mouth and then say "Do you LIKE that??" with an expression of incredulous disgust. Their children would ask me to say something in my high school French and then mock me. They delighted in denigrating the U.S. Even though we refused to rise to the bait. As far as changing tables, we saw them all the time at the kids club. After three nights my husband said that he refused to have his day ruined by seeing them and we went to other dining venues. I sincerely hope none of you encounter this family on a cruise.

[hel0013]

Somehow us and our friends were in different restaurants and requested this be fixed as soon as possible.

 

There was me, hubby and daughter and we were seated with another family the same the first night. Our daughter's looked around the same age. We looked about the same age as the couple. I was excited to meet another family and make new friends!

 

They were BORING!! The conversations went like this...

Me - Do you have any excursions planned?

Them - no, not this time

Me - So you've cruise before?

Them - This is our 3rd cruise

Me - Have you been to these ports before

Them - No

 

This is the way the entire conversation went until I finally gave up. No asking us questions, no trying to interact in any way. It was weird and extremely awkward!

 

THANKFULLY they fixed our reservations and we were seated with our friends who are lively people the next night!

 

 

They don't sound like nightmare tablemates to me? :confused: Sounds like they may have just been not too social. Perhaps they could have written a post that went like this.... :)

 

My wife and I work in the service industry where we deal with many people on a daily basis so when we go on vacation we just want to stay to ourselves and not socialize.

 

Our last vacation was a cruise which was our third and requested a table for just the three of us but it didn't happen. We were placed with another family of three where they were very nice and upbeat but we were there to relax and not wanting to socialize. They did however pepper us with questions but we just gave them short quick answers and it may have offended them. I wanted to say that we requested a table for just us but I feel they may have taken it the wrong way and they were very nice people.

 

They did move which we felt was for the better for both of us so I'm sure they are happy too. It was a lovely cruise all and all.

 

There's always another side to the story.... :)

[Sue1260]

All the posts here are so funny I have enjoyed reading them.

 

I to have had bad table mates. We were on cruise out of Baltimore and are from Pittsburgh and my husband is a huge steeler fan. He wears his steeler pendant everywhere with pride. Baltimore are big rivals of the steelers it was first night at dinner couple at table were from Baltimore and noticed my husbands pendant and the conversation of course turned to football and began to get heated. Me and my husband tried several times to change subject with no luck. We had our table assignment moved for rest of week.

 

Then we were on cruise with 2 of our teenage kids had a table for just the 4 of us but next table from us was a table for 8 family members. They came to dinner every night and half hour before dinner was over. And we're so loud and rude. The waiters every night would perform or sing ours could never participate because he was always busy with this table that just came in. They would make rude comments to us if we even glanced toward their direction. I always wondered if someone got a "make a wish" because don't think anyone of them could afford to pay for a cruise.