Best and Worst Tablemate Stories..........

[Crstyne]

Thought this might be a fun-to-read thread........:D

 

My best friend and I were sailing on Celebrity and were assigned to a 6 person table. There were a couple of older ladies in their 70's and a husband and wife who were about 40ish. Well on the very first night after introductions the husband and wife duo start talking about their cats and how when their cats die they put them in the freezer and they kept going on and on about the cats and freezing them, etc. So we made it through dinner and for the rest of the night my best friend and I debated over and over again about leaving the cat table but we felt so guilty about leaving the nice older ladies stuck with the cat people. We finally decided that we wanted to enjoy dinner and just had to switch tables. We spoke to the maitre'd the next morning and gave him our table number and he said he didn't need to hear anymore because the older ladies had already changed their seating assignment and told him the whole story. We ran into the nice ladies many times over the cruise and even went on an excursion with one of them and had a great time. We never saw the cat people again!

 

The second part to this story is that we were switched to a huge table - (14 top?) and there were only 3 ladies seated at the table. A grandmother, mother and teenage girl. The girl had the worst table manners ever - she picked through and touched every piece of bread and her mother would make her try new foods and if the girl didn't like them she would literally spit them onto her bread plate. The grandmother didn't talk but just stared at us. They all would bring books to read at dinner, etc., etc. We later found out that their entire table switched to different seating after the first night. Hmmm....wonder why?! We lasted 2 nights at this table and switched to our third and final table. Another 6 top with a nice couple and another couple who while the wife endlessly talked (or should I say bragged!) her husband "accidentally" groped me under the table. At this point my best friend and I decided we only had a couple nights and I could endure the groping. That was the tablemates from hell cruise for us. It gave us some good stories though. :p

 

The best tablemates we ever had was when we were invited to sit at the Captain's table!

[Spikesgirl]

When we were sailing on the Regal from NZ to Aus, we were place at an 8 top with two couples that were traveling together and a minister and his wife. The minister not only strongly disaaprove of my career as a stage carpenter/scenic artist, but I had the audacity to have a glass of wine with my dinner. Every night, I had to endure a lecture about the evils of alcohol and how in his day, women didn't do that kind of work. The two couples mostly kept to themselves, one pair looked like they were out of "American Gothic" and never smiled the entire time. At least one banker was a live wire and told the greatest jokes, much to the displeasure of the minister. It was a very long cruise.

 

Last cruise (Pacific Princess), we has seven at our table and got on so well that we took excursions together and even just hung out on the ship because we enjoyed each others company so much. It was our silver lining after enduring the Regal dark cloud.

 

next curise, we're sailing with friends and our god daughter, so we won't have any surprises at our next table.

 

Charlie

[dogboy]

Thought this might be a fun-to-read thread........:D

 

husband "accidentally" groped me under the table. At this point my best friend and I decided we only had a couple nights and I could endure the groping. That was the tablemates from hell cruise for us. It gave us some good stories though. :p

 

The best tablemates we ever had was when we were invited to sit at the Captain's table!

Was that you? I swear I was just reaching for the napkin dropped under the table... Just kidding. Thanks for sharing, hope the rest of your cruise went well.

[VaBeachCruisers897]

Hey we were on a cruise and most of our table did not show?? I wonder if it was me?

[Pop Tart]

So Far, so Good. The first one, we had our TA and a group of great people.... a group she arrange + a couple that fit in quite well. Second, it was us and our kids on the march break. A great time with a couple and a teenage. A good time was held by all.

Third, it was us and my in-laws. A good time as well.

I have to say... our TA is good!

[Crstyne]

You're funny dogboy - he tried it all! Do you think his being an attorney had anything to do with it? I'm going to get in trouble for that one!! :D

[aussiedisneyfan]

Crstyne, what a hilarious story.

 

We have never had tablemates as when we have cruised we have a complete table of family/friends.

[wrp96]

Hey we were on a cruise and most of our table did not show?? I wonder if it was me?

 

Try cruising by yourself when none of your tablemates show up.

[lillie]

Hello,

 

The first night in the dining room we were at a table for 8. Six of us were there when in came 1 loaded down drunk woman who sat next to my husband. Her husband was in the casino & his Co. gave her a unlimited drinking tab. She gropped my husband , spit her food all over him & the table. Unfortunately seeing how uncomfortable my hubby was as she drooled over him took me to laughing & I didn't even come to his defence.

She was at the wrong seating right table so wasn't there rest of cruise. This made for easy conversation & laughs rest of week. Really memorable.

 

C & R

[TropicalLulu]

We were on a cruise where my DH and I were at a table of 8, and 4 people never showed up for dinner, and the other couple only came 1/2 of the time (on a 10 day cruise). We felt a little ridiculous sitting at a large table just the 2 of us...

 

On that same cruise there was a table of 6 next to us, and we were on a tour with one of the fellows who for the life of me I don't know why he stayed at the table. He said that he was Jewish and at the table was an older German gentleman who intentionally went on about how the Holocaust (sp?) didn't happen... Not exactly your standard dinner conversation with strangers. I can't imagine anything as uncomfortable! But I think of that and figure I couldn't possibly complain about any of my tablemates...

[ILoveScotland]

When we were sailing on the Regal from NZ to Aus, we were place at an 8 top with two couples that were traveling together and a minister and his wife. The minister not only strongly disaaprove of my career as a stage carpenter/scenic artist, but I had the audacity to have a glass of wine with my dinner. Every night, I had to endure a lecture about the evils of alcohol and how in his day, women didn't do that kind of work. The two couples mostly kept to themselves, one pair looked like they were out of "American Gothic" and never smiled the entire time. At least one banker was a live wire and told the greatest jokes, much to the displeasure of the minister. It was a very long cruise.

 

 

Charlie

 

Charlie, the flip side of your story about the minister is that I'm always reluctant to let people know I'm a minister, because people often start talking to me about where they go to church or something as though that's all I'm interested in and they feel uncomfortable about their drinking and use occasional 4 letter words like d**n. But, while no one has never been rude I know there have been people who look at me with my gin and tonic or glass of wine and question whether or not I should be a minister. And this is not to mention attitudes that I'm female and clergy.

 

Beth

[Spikesgirl]

Beth, I can see your point intimately. Our former next door neighbor is a Catholic prirest. I found out because some of his name was delivered to us by mistake. Being raised Catholic, I knew what Fr. in front of a name meant. He begged us to keep it quiet because he was afraid that everyone would come to him with their problems. We became quite close with him and miss him terribly now that he's moved on to Canada. Gotta say one thing, he was a party animal and he's also a very dear friend.

 

Also like you, I'm a woman in a non-traditional role and many people, men and women, just don't think it should be that way. No matter how you slice them, people are funny..:D

 

Charlie

[Crstyne]

Aussied, you haven't truly cruised until you sit at a huge table full of strangers for hours over dinner!! The things you will learn and the stories you will be able to tell are priceless! :p

[MuffyKismet]

We have been very lucky for most of our cruises. One time we had a mother and daughter at our table of 8 , and they were very upset that their napkins weren't "pressed"! UGGG all of us just looked at each other like.......oh no, what did we get stuck with, despite that we all tried to make conversation with them but they just subbed all of us off.........they never came back after that night..........the rest of us were very pleased about that!!! Everyone esle at the table were strangers as well but very friendly , we had a great time!

 

One other time we had a couple that were never there as a couple, one or the other would come but never did we ever see both of them togeather at dinner time! LOL different strokes for different folks! But they spoke highly of each other.........little weird.

 

 

On the good side : we have met some great table mates that we became very good friends with and met a few times for dinner when they had business in SW Florida, they lived in Tennesse.........super nice people, and another couple that we still reply back and forth with and ended up touring Cozumel with! Love meeting new people!

[lake5298]

We usually choose Princess "personal choice" dining to avoid being stuck with the "table mates from hell" but on our last Princess cruise we met 3 great couples on the first night, and got on so well that we chose to eat together all cruise. Their company really made the cruise and we are still in touch by email.

 

However, on Mariner of the Seas a couple of years ago, we were seated at a table for 8... the others were a party of 6... they tried to ignore us but we were not going to take that lying down... after being snubbed a couple of times we simply forced our way into their conversations so they could not ignore us... one of the men was a real "show-off" bragging about this and that... shame that when he bragged about his Mercedes I had to tell him about our two Mercs (his & hers).... I just forgot to tell him how old they were!

 

Generally we have found table mates to be good, and I certainly wouldn't now hesitate to move table if I was seated with people I didn't like again.

[RonneyKay]

I can't wait for my tablemate experience! I hope we get seated at a big table with interesting people. hehehe My husband would much prefer a table for 2. But I think its these differences that makes life interesting and fun!

Can't wait!

[ottmar]

On a Med cruise we were at a table of eight with the other six being five young men of a Brazilian soccer team and one girlfriend (or wife?) of one of the players.

 

None of them spoke a word of English or German or Croatian and we don't speak Portuguese. We had the absolute best time with sign language and the misunderstanding it brought and would result in hilarious laughter. We learned their names but not much more about them but that they are soccer players and loved a good time, Oba Oba!

 

....Ott

[ottmar]

double post

[gr81]

I can't wait for my tablemate experience! I hope we get seated at a big table with interesting people. hehehe My husband would much prefer a table for 2. But I think its these differences that makes life interesting and fun!

 

Can't wait!

 

Well, see you in Ensenada on December 2nd then. My wife and I are on the Paradise(again) that weekend.

 

We always ask to have a note added when we book that we prefer a big table, check the size when we board and if its a 4 top (never had a table for 2) we let the Matre'd know that if need be, we are willing to go to a larger table.

 

Worst table mates was *cough* on the Monarch (sorry RonneeyKay:o ). We were at a 4 top with an Elderly couple originally from Egypt. Normaly, I would think that it would be an interesting time, and might learn something, but they ignored us every night and only talked to each other, and treated the wait staff pretty rotten. We didn't try to change tables being a packed cruise.

 

Best table mates was on the Paradise. 8 top, with 4 couples. We were all in the same 30s age group, all from different parts of the west, all married around the same time, with similar interests.

[Beej29]

We had a great experience on our last cruise. My husband, son and I were at a table with a single mom and her two young adult children and another couple with their daughter. We had a great time. We hung out with the couple and their daughter almost the entire cruise--went to ports with them, the pool, shows, etc. We still speak, email etc. and we even visted them last June in NY. I think we made friends for life.

 

On our honeymoon they sat us at a table for eight but only one other couple showed up that got married the same day we did. They were pleasant, but other than polite conversation we stayed to ourselves.

 

I have never had really bad tablemates where I needed to ask for my table to be changed. Some of your stories sound awful.

 

Hope we have another positive experience on our next cruise.

[ab0si]

Worst:

 

A 60+ yer old lady who dressed and acted like a hooker. I think she weighed about 180 lbs: 155 was her; the other 15 was her make-up. She was traveling with her toyboy who had an I.Q. of gnat. They loved to fight and argue and would pick up on anything said and start screaming about communist infiltartion (no, I am not kidding) and other remarkbably strange non-sequiters.

 

There was a single gentleman seated with us who had just lost his life partner of 25+ years. Needless to say, toyboy felt the need to gay bash -- loudly and crudely.

 

In a way, this was also one of our most positive experiences as the aforementioned gentleman has become our good friend. We have (and continue to) sail together. He has visited my wife and me and we have visited him (Keep in mind that he lies in Oz and we live in the vast wasteland of Midwest U.S.).

[kakalina]

On one cruise I was seated at a table for 6 but there were only 3 of us there every night. About the 2nd night the man started to drink to excess and began to make disparaging and racist remarks about the staff, the pax, and everyone else you could think of.

 

I couldn't deal with this and finally threw my napkin on the table told him I came from an interracial family and had an interracial marriage ( not true but he ticked me off). I went straight to the maitre d' and had my table changed. It was an eye openening experience. And most uncomfortable!

[Sally Forth]

We were on an NCL Freestyle cruise and we didn't have assigned seating. One evening we ate in the main dining room and we were assigned to a table of 6 with a married couple and two women in their 40s. The married couple had absolutely no couth - poorly groomed with bad table manners and bad conversational skills. They claimed to be profs at a college in Florida (heaven help those students) and were on the first leg of a back-to-back cruise in northern Europe. It wasn't fun but was okay until dessert. The husband asked for caramel swirl ice cream. The waiter politely replied that there wasn't any. The man yelled, "You ##$# didn't have any last night either!" The maitre d' was there immediately and calmly and softly said, "And sir, since we have been at sea for the last 24 hours, I think you can understand that we have no way of getting more right now." (We were biting our lips at that one!) The man still went nuts, red in the face, screaming about his lack of ice cream. They escorted him out, and my mom and I went to the piano lounge with the other women and had a great time laughing about "ice cream rage."

 

Viv

[Born Cruiser 2]

This is a very difficult subject because there are so many variables.

 

I don't mean to be offensive or rude, but we do not cruise to entertain other people. We cruise because we love it, and we enjoy each other's company. I travel extensively as part of my employment and can be gone for many months at a time. Our cruises are a time for us to be together, and enjoy each other. Personal choice dining is perfect for us, but is is not available on all cruise lines.

 

My husband and I have been cruising for many years and have encountered some pleasant and some not so pleasant table mates. Last year on a 14 day Celebrity cruise we were joined by an Aussie couple and another couple from the midwest. As usual for us, we did not go "down to dinner" every night. Unbeknownst to us, this offended the wife of the midwestern couple who had let it be known that she was "a somebody", i.e, the daughter of a Washington political figure.

 

She felt we should be at dinner to provide entertainment. We discovered the very first night this lady appeared to have a serious drinking problem and it

further discouraged our regular attendance at dinner.

 

Well, her problems worsened to the point of some very unpleasant comments made to the Aussie tablemates due to political differences. The animosity grew to the point of a physical confrontation when she "threw" a napkin across the table into the face of the Austrailian lady. Oops! Not good! She was escorted from the table by crew and removed to her stateroom where she proceeded to "throw a fit".

 

This happened three hours out of San Francisco. The ship was turned around and returned to San Franciso. The ship docked, and she (and her husband) were taken off of the ship. She was confined in a wheelchair by crew members. Many passengers watched the entire ordeal. We actually found out about the entire episode the next night when we went "down" to

dinner and no one was there. The people at a neighboring table told us all

about it.

 

Needless to say: Our next cruise is with Princess! Personal Choice!

 

Bon Voyage to all!

[ma_in_ak]

The best table mates we had was on our last cruise. We were seated at a table for 8 and no one else showed up the first night and another 8 top had 2 empty spots while the 6 there were travelling together and they insisted we come eat with them. They were all a hoot. The next night - the same thing - no one at our table. It couldn't have been us since the other people never showed up at all, but we ended up at the other table for the entire cruise and had a great time.

 

The worst we had was the second cruise I went on at a table for 6 (myself, DH and 12 year old son) at which the other couple had a 2 year old with them who crawled under and around the table through every meal while his parents ignored him the whole time. I love kids but NOT when parents don't even attempt to get them to behave themselves. My son HATES the dining room. I got him in there once but "it takes too long and it's boring" so he always finds friends for the cruise and they frequent the pizza place and buffet throughout the cruise. But if he was young and he was causing a problem in the dining room for the rest of the table (or even for me), I wouldn't bring him in there. Now we are going to Hawaii in 10 days and DS would rather stay home with my parents. Oh, darn - just the 2 of us!