Strange Table-fellows.....

[babyher]

Wouldn't it be nice if we knew what all these people at the table thought of us....

 

 

 

*LOL*

 

 

I have always wondered when reading these "strangest tablemates" or "Tablemates from Hell" threads if anyone here are the tablemates being talked about.*LOL*

[JanineM]

*LOL*

 

 

I have always wondered when reading these "strangest tablemates" or "Tablemates from Hell" threads if anyone here are the tablemates being talked about.*LOL*

 

 

I know ... I'm afraid that one day we'll turn up in one of these threads! :eek:

[MAXII]

LOL - love this thread but hope DH and I are not ever a dreaded couple!

 

On a very early cruise we met the "wannabes":) On our table for 6, our dh and I were sat with two other couples both of which were much elderly mother and daughter combinations. Every conversation that arose, the one mother and daughter had been there, done that, had worse or better experiences than all of us and so on. Whether it was a meal eaten, a trip taken, a simple purchase made or a mishap, accident or anything else in life, these two darlings so wanted to be the centre of attention. DH and I now recall them as the "wannabes."

 

After about the third night, the other two ladies, began to blatantly and obviously ignore the wannabes and worse, rebuke them for interrupting when they were talking to DH and I! Soon after it became apparent that both couples wanted to "favour" talking to DH and I. So, we were right in the middle of some of their "face-offs".:o

 

To this day, DH and I laugh so much and tell so many folks of some of the bizarre conversations, unfortunately far too many to list here. Would we ever change the table in this sitution again? Not at all but we sure make sure we sit on a table for either two or eight or more in the hopes this situation does not arise again:)

[EmJakeBubbie]

as said before: this thread is a hoot! LOL.

I remember so many "bad" tablemates - one "won" the cruise and was literally the first time off the farm! he told every off color joke in the book - it was a large table and we each took turns to sit across from this man - poor thing didn't know what he didn't know, but he sure knew dirty jokes (oh they were horrible!). (had bad table manners to go w/the jokes)

Another cruise, a poor old couple (reminded me of one of the early posts on this thread) - she was in a wheelchair and totally non-communicative - he wasn't much better. We didn't last even that first meal - changed tables and felt guilty about it, but just couldn't play nursemaid for our cruise.

Then there was the guy who showed up in what looked like a John Deere outfit - lime green slacks w/a yellow shirt and suspenders and a bright red nose (OMG, this was not only our tablemate, but our friend who had come on the cruise w/us!) - turned out that he drank up all the leftover booze before coming to the dining room, and this outfit was just something he had, so he wore it! how embarassing ...we still laugh about it and we are still friends, but no more cruises w/these folks! LOL.

We learned, long ago, to keep quiet and let others do the talking, yet we will add comments, when appropriate.

[GaryfmCol]

You were more gracious than I would have been. Maitre d' should have moved kojak and co. to the naughty table, not you. Bless you for being so decent.

 

Thanks..

There were 6 of them and, four of us.

That table for "displaced couples" was only

a 4 place table.

The Maitre 'D wanted US to go to the LATE seating..

Imagine that? But, we held our grounds...and, ended up

with THAT table.

 

See the people that read this thread, I bet never knew that

there is a "dis-placed table" for warring couples in the MDR. :rolleyes:

(If it happens, and, I am sure it does, often.)

 

We know it is there..as we got it that cruise.

I hope that there were NO warring couples that cruise.

Sitting NEXT to the galley, we had the fastest service :rolleyes:

 

The Maitre 'D also told us even when the ship is "FULL"

they always have a spare cabin to deal with broken

relationships at sea... Sounds logical to me... ;)

[katree]

On my last cruise, I was travelling solo, so I requested a large table, hoping to increase the odds I’d like most of my table mates. I was assigned to a 4-top, with a honeymooning couple and a single man, who was unable to understand that I was solo, not single. He decided that fate meant us to be together (at least for the cruise), and was oblivious to my attempts to discourage him.

Right after dinner I went to see the Maitre ’D and explained the situation to him. He told me the ship was full, and he just didn’t see how he could move me anywhere without upsetting a family or set of couples. I even offered to take either seating. He told me to call before dinner the next night, and he’d let me know if I had a new table. So, an hour before first seating, I called. He’d moved me – one table over. I couldn’t seem to explain why that wasn’t going to work, so I ate at the Pinnacle for the rest of the cruise – not how I had planned to spend my fun money budget, but I wasn’t going to settle for buffet dinners on my one vacation a year.

That was my only non-Celebrity cruise, and I don’t plan to stray again.

[jgnova]

I used to talk about our strange table mates, but they seem positively normal compared to those described here.

 

On our cruise in 90, one couple was a newlywed - and the bride seemed to think it was appropriate to wear the dress she wore to her wedding - along with the lace gloves - to every dinner. That's all we remember.

 

In 02, we were at a 4 top with another couple. We never saw them after the first night, which was disappointing. We look forward to meeting and learning about new people and this was not what we wanted. Luckily the table next to us (Galaxy had some kind of bench along a divider so they were literally right next to us, started to include us in their conversations. And we also made friends with two large families at other tables near by. And we had a great time meeting new people at breakfast and lunch every day.

 

Our last cruise (09) we were at a 6 top. One of the pairs disappeared after the first night and we had a great time with the other couple, a young newlywed. Guess it's the luck of the draw. I think that back in the old days, they might have made an attempt to put people together based on cabin class or age or something. But I guess that's too difficult nowadays.

 

I wonder how 12/21 will be - expecting lots of family groups.

 

j

[CHEZMARYLOU]

We'v always had great dinner mates. One curise though we were starting to wonder. It was a table for 6. One couple was a woman from Russia just learning to speak english. The guy she was with, who was American, would not let her respond to any questions or engage in any conversation. To make matters worse, he passed on dinner and drank Wild Turkey the whole time. Luckily for us, and to our relief, he stated he did not like late seating and would be switching to main seating for the rest of the cruise. Our 2nd night we were invited to the Captains Table and met a great couple during dinner. They told us that they had a table for 2 and requested to be moved to a larger table for the rest of the cruise. They ended up at our table and the 6 of us had a great cruise. We saw him staggering around the ship later in the curise but never did see her again.

 

Mary Lou

[royalcruz]

The only time we requested a move was on our first cruise, and it was because we were the only English speaking people at a table of 10. Other strangenesses: the couple who complained and sent back almost every dish, the couple who spoke very openly about their political views which happened to be the complete opposite of ours (we kept quiet), the elderly couple who said they heard that a lot of the staff were "Muslims" and they wondered if they had terrorist connections, the man who got drunk every night and liked to reach out and touch someone, the man who chewed tobacco and always sounded like he had a mouth full of marbles (yuck). When we cruise on certain lines, we ask for open seating, so that we won't get "stuck" with anyone. On Celebrity, we have been happy with most of our tablemates.

[royalcruz]

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[nothriver]

I love all these stories!

 

I'm just back from my first cruise and embarassed to admit that Celebrity tried desperatly to make me "those people".

 

We booked our cruise a year in advance, with 4 linked staterooms for 9 of us, we all requested a table for 10. And I can assure you that I checked a hundred times, our reservations were in fact, all linked up until at least a few days before our cruise.

 

Embarkation day, after not enough sleep the night before because of a late travel day, we got up at 4:30am, took at long train ride through Alaska followed by a 6 hour boat tour in Seward.

 

Almost immediately after embarkation, I arrived in the dining room, not having even changed, with my too very hungry, very tired children to find ourselves assigned to a table of 10 as requested, but with a group of complete strangers instead of with my own family.

 

After the maitre d assured me that we had been unlinked in the computer system from the rest of our family, and that there was absolutely nothing he could do to recitify the problem, I left in tears to hope to find my kids something to eat on deck 10, and expecting to have to eat up there for the rest of the week.

 

I'm sure our assigned table mates were absolutely thrilled that we left, lol. I'm sure they were all lovely people but at that moment, my normally well behaved children would not have been pleasant company.

 

Celebrity did manage to squeeze the 9 of us into a table for 8 for the rest of the cruise to celebrate my parents 50th anniversary together as a group as we had planned, thankfully. But they really dropped the ball on this and frankly after our disasterous first night, I dreaded going to the main dining room all week.

 

Anyway, I think Celebrity needs to improve their table assignments. Why would they think a single mother of 2 young children would want to eat with a group of retirees, or vice versa? I'm new to cruising but I've read other cruise lines do a much better job grouping families with other families. I think the staff should be more proactive with seating, grouping people of similar ages and nationalities. I wouldn't solve all the problems written about here but I'd think from the demographics they have about each guest, they could certainly do a decent job.

[BrendaJ]

On our Celebrity cruises, we've had nothing but great tablemates. We've been extremely lucky.

 

One funny time was on Carnival years ago, DH and I were travelling with my parents, their friends and two of my girlfriends. They put us at a table for 10 with 2 young ladies from NY (whoever puts the seating chart together probably thought the girls at our table would mesh well with the NY girls). I felt a little sorry for them in that they were sort of the odd ones out since the rest of us knew each other (although my parents and their friends chatted, and DH and I chatted with my friends and tried to include the other two girls in our conversations). These two girls I think were quite bored with all of us. They didn't seem much interested in conversing with any of us or each other for that matter, and seemed more intent on sitting at the table looking good.

 

They had fabulous outfits and wore something very showy every evening. However, I think they liked to make an entrance with their fancy attire, so they always showed up at least half an hour late. One night, they arrived just as we were being served dessert. Even if they arrived while we were eating our main course, they would still order each course and have it served. I felt very sorry for the waiter and bus boy.

[CruisingEasy]

I was on a cruise last year and dining with a man and woman who were quite old. Maybe in their late 70's. Every night they would poop or wet fart in their Depends undergarments or pants and it stunk. They would trail it with them wherever they went. Other people found issue in it but not I.

 

I never asked to be moved, never reported it to anyone or made a big stink (no pun intended) over it.

 

My parents always taught me to respect my elders and especially people in general with medical issues out of their control.

[satchiesmom]

Our first cruise was on the Century in January 2004. We were seated at a table for 10 as we had requested so that we could meet new people. One of the couples showed up the first night and never again. Another couple was from Hawaii, they had lived there for 25 years. He came to dinner in shorts, a Hawaiian shirt, and sandals the first night. His wife commented that she had to buy the sandals for him because he always went barefoot. The second night he showed up in the same outfit. He wore some variation of this every night. On the first formal night, yep same thing. The maitre' d came to the table and quietly informed him of the dress code and he would have none of it. He had been drinking quite a lot and became belligerent, so the poor maitre' d left quietly and allowed the man to stay. Even with this, he and his wife were amusing and fun. The other two couples were traveling together and we got along with them from the minute we met and looked forward to seeing them every night at dinner. We had such a good time at that table; it turned out to be the most fun we've ever had at dinner on a ship.

[hdt09]

On my first cruise many years ago, we were seated at a table for 4. The other couple were Lucy and Ricky, so, being an "I Love Lucy: fan, I thought they would be alot of fun. WRONG! They were so stiff and boring. So we just didn't show up again and were put at a table for 10 that we loved, such a diverse group of people.

Is this bad manners? I avoided them the rest of the cruise out of guilt. Do others have strange table-mate stories.:confused:

 

We just returned from our 1st cruise. On the first dinner, we (family of 5) were at a table set for 7. After we were seated, a couple arrived, and hurriedly whispered to the assistant maitre d', as the arrived. They were led off elsewhere. Obviously, the didn't want to sit with us. That was cool; our family had a great time together. If they'd sat with us, we'd have had a great time with them too. If you intend to enjoy yourself, you will :D

[hondorner]

On my last cruise, with fixed seating, we (in our late 60's) were stuck with two couples in their 30's and 3 children. One of the couples "owned" the 3 kids, ages 8, 5 and 3.

 

The couple without kids were OK, but a bit of an odd match -- the fellow wore his shirts with the tails out and the first couple of buttons undone, while his finance' was a fashion plate, with a different, stunning outfit each night. He couldn't wait for dinner to be over, as he headed off to the casino at the first opportunity. We heard later that he was very, very lucky, and won a considerable amount of money.

 

The other couple spent most of their time with the kids. The kids were generally well-behaved, and looked really cute on formal night, but one night the 3 year old boy fell asleep at the table with a french fry half-way into his mouth.

 

 

A couple of evenings, they seemed to be overly tired and cranky, so their Dad hustled them off to the children's program.

 

All in all, it wasn't a horrible experience, and I suppose we'll do it again, some time -- after all, the family with the kids was my daughter and her husband and our grandchildren, and the casino couple was my son and his fiance' (now bride).

[awsmpa]

All in all, it wasn't a horrible experience, and I suppose we'll do it again, some time -- after all, the family with the kids was my daughter and her husband and our grandchildren, and the casino couple was my son and his fiance' (now bride).

 

Haha, I didn't see that one coming. We are pretty tolerant when it's our own flesh and blood!

Marci

[lovesublime]

Well, I've told this one more than once here on CC, so here goes again. We've always had very nice table mates. No problems with that. The oddest encounter we've had was being seated at a large table with adult twin brothers who were named Bob and Robert. No kidding. They were very nice.

[DeltaOne]

We've pretty much had excellent table-mates over the course of eight cruises. One time at a 4-top with another couple, the wife was a bit of a low-talker. And while they never said anything, they would stare at us with wide-open eyes whenever we put salt or pepper on anything. They never once touched the salt or pepper shaker.

 

Another time, at a large table, two couples from US, two from UK. We had a great time and were always the last table to leave the restaurant (late seating). The other couple from the US also had their teen-age son, one night the dad was horrified to discover the son had eaten the frogs legs, bones and all. We had a great laugh about it.

[TMaine]

On our first cruise we sat at a table for 8, four couples including ourselves. One gentleman had an affinity for butter. He ate all of the butter pats on the table, not by putting them on his food, but sticking his fork in the pats and eating them directly. It was pretty funny. They only stayed one night because one of the other couples were two men. We had a great time with other couples as well as the new couple that moved to our table the following night.

[tom_uk]

The only 'impossible' MDR experience we've ever had was, unfortunately, on the very first night of our very first cruise. We were on MSC Sinfonia, in the Med, and we were put on a 4-seat table with an elderly German-speaking couple from Switzerland. There was nothing unpleasant about them (nor us, I hope) but they didn't speak English and we don't speak German. So at the end of the meal we asked for a move, and were duly shifted to a table with a group of Swedish people on it, most of whom spoke English. But their cruise ended after the fifth night - MSC's 7 night Med cruises are marketed with different embarkation points in different markets - so for the last two nights we were alone on an 8-seat table.

 

Since then we've had nothing but excellent dining table experiences on all our cruises, including two in the Med with Celebrity. We always ask for large tables and have always had great dinner partners. Indeed, for all I know that Swiss couple might have been great company, but we just couldn't communicate with each other.

[Orator]

In the past we've been seated with wonderful people who helped to make our cruise experience memorable. More recently we've noticed changes that have moved us to request a table for two, Here is one example: We requested and received a table for 10.

Nine showed up the first night; another couple and a family group of 5. We never saw the five until the last night of the cruise. On two nights the other couple dined at a speciality resturant, leaving us alone at a large table. Not too far away from us was a table set for 12 with only 2 people. When we invited them to join us they thank us and said that at this point they would rather dine alone. My guess is that the growing trend of alternative dining will push more people to opt for a smaller, more intimate table.

[dutchess43]

As in all stories there are good & bad. What was excellent for us was on our first European cruise. We were seated at a table for 10 we had a ball with the other four couples especially one couple from OK. We now have been friends with them for twelve years & cruise & travel together every year. We always ask for a table of four to enjoy each others company only. The down side we were on a crusie & was seated with a family of four, they were all adults spoke impeccable english but choose to speak only spanish though out dinner. I found this to be extremely rude thank goodness we made friends with the table to our right & conversed with them nightly. If not traveling with our friends when we cruise we ask for a table of 2.

[CRUZBUDS]

We have many lifelong friends that we've met over dinner on cruise ships.

 

We only switched tables once. We were going into to dinner the first night on the Mercury and ran into Andrea, whom we had met on a previous cruise. She is hands down the sweetest and most beautiful woman I've ever run into on a cruise ship - not counting DW. She has had posts written about her.

 

We went to our assigned table and after the introductions we explained that we would be moving the next evening, if possible. We were able to switch and durning the cruise we remained friends with our orignal tablemates. The waiter passed by our new table and we exchanged greetings every night. Sometimes, if we finished early, we'd join our original table for coffee.

 

Had we not been honest with them, I would understand if they had snubbed us.

[Orator]

We requested a large table, but were given a table for 4. The other couple was 20+ years older than us and conversation ran out very quickly. At the end of the dinner we told them that we found them lovely, but really wanted to find a large table and invited them to join us if it could be arranged. They told us that they really wanted a table for two and were quite disturbed that they found another couple at their table. We got a large table, they had their table for two. Saw them throughout the cruise and were they very friendly.