YTD ~ Q about dining room

We are sailing with friends (over 20 people going on the same cruise as us). But there are 11 of us on your time dining. What we were thinking of doing was the 6 adults at one table and put the 5 kids at another table next to us.

Wondering if that is possible. Kids are aged 13, 12, 12, 10, 9. Getting a table for 11 seems insane. Especially for your time dining.

Thoughts?

Getting a table for 11 might take a long wait and probably not the best thing for kids. For everyone to hear and participate in a conversation would be next to impossible. They are going to want everyone who wants to be seated together, to show up together.

Depending on when you try to eat, two adjacent tables might be difficult.

I think the best bet might be to try for the 2 tables and perhaps rotate seating arrangements nightly. Be prepared for various table configurations. Maybe a table for 8 and a table for 4 (3), or 3 tables of 4 or... Maybe not immediately adjacent, but certainly possible.

The more limitations you place on dining arrangements, the longer the potential wait.

Well I know our last assigned dining table had seats for 10, so they might be able to accommodate 11 at one table, especially if there's kids. That was a round table, but I know there's often long tables too, not sure how many they seat though. Would it be possible to switch to an assigned dining? That might be the best way to get all of you together. YTD might result in quite a wait for that many people.

If you can't all be together, I would just rotate seating between 2 tables every day. I definitely wouldn't put all the kids at one table without any adults, but that's just me. It seems like the tables are usually just far enough away from each other that it'd be hard to monitor the kids, and I personally wouldn't place that burden on the servers.

Thanks for your suggestions !!! :D

We were a group of 35 YTD on the Breeze a couple of weeks ago, if you go early like 6:30 we had now trouble getting tables close together all 35 of us one formal night, we requested the middle of the dining area, on other nights we split in groups of 8-10 and 6-8 and were never very far from each other. Get to know the hostesses.:)

We are just off Vista today. By my observation, going early would help, there are small sections of the dining room with two tables of 6 that could accommodate you and make it easier to keep an eye on the kids at and adjacent table.