Have you ever not liked your table mates??

[Towel Critter]

I always enjoy my tablemate. If that were not the case I would not have married her. :-)

[cruziJenn]

I always enjoy my tablemate. If that were not the case I would not have married her. :-)

 

Best comment in this whole thread :)

[BookDragon]

My unsolicited $0.02. We've all made made bad choices. Each and every one of us is three bad choices in a row from living under a bridge. I had a long career in public safety. I know how to look someone up and down. And I do it to every single person I see....difference is I ASSESS them to insure my safety, I don't JUDGE them. The guy you need to watch out for is not the heavily tattood fellow, the girl with all the piercings, the Muslim, or the Sikh or the redneck who fell off the Lynyrd Skynyrd tour bus, its the guy in the suit and tie who looks completely trustworthy.

 

Just had to say that I love your post and I wish more people thought like this...especially the part about being 3 bad choices away from ruin. We have a lot more in common with people who do not look like us than differences. Just wish people would stop judging a book by its cover.

[mkmaj]

If you don't like your table mates can you switch to my time or are you stuck?

We're considering trying Carnival and set seating again and I'd like to try it but don't want to be stuck. We tried it years ago and weren't crazy about it, but we were in a different place in life then.

 

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[Computer Nerd]

If you don't like your table mates can you switch to my time or are you stuck?

We're considering trying Carnival and set seating again and I'd like to try it but don't want to be stuck. We tried it years ago and weren't crazy about it, but we were in a different place in life then.

 

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No, you can't switch to a different seating but you can always change tables. Just ask the Matre D' to seat you at a different table and if there is anything available they will be happy to do so. I did it once and was so happy afterwards.

[rpyne]

Reading through this thread reminds me of a story I heard years ago about a couple who were looking for a new home. They were looking at a nice home and decided to ask a gentleman working in the yard of an adjacent home about the neighborhood. When asked about the neighborhood, the gentleman asked them to describe the neighborhood they were leaving. They went on for several minutes telling stories of how bad all of their neighbors are and how they can't wait to get out. When they finished, the gentleman simply told them that he expected they would find the same kind of neighbors here.

 

A few days later, another couple came by to look at the home, and seeing the gentleman out in the yard, stopped by and asked about the neighborhood. Again, the gentleman asked them about the neighborhood they were leaving. This couple spent several minutes extolling the virtues of their neighbors and how wonderful their neighborhood was. When they finished, the gentleman simply told them that he expected they would find the same kind of neighbors here.

[KateLovesCruising]

We have had a few different dining experiences, from sitting at a large table of about 10 with strangers, sitting at a 4 top with 2 other strangers, and just sitting at a 2 top just us. I definitely prefer to sit alone because we're more introverted. One time we were seated with another couple around our age and it was their honeymoon cruise! We felt bad that they weren't dining alone all honeymoon, but I guess if they were upset they could've asked to change seats! Another time we had an awkward experience at the steakhouse. This was actually the cruise we got engaged on. 1 hour before going to the steakhouse my husband proposed. I was naturally on cloud nine and was loving the steakhouse celebratory dinner, when an older couple seated close to us started talking to us about the ethnicity of our waitress and other cruise staff. We were immediately uncomfortable but they didn't seem to notice or care. They made several racist jokes and we didn't know how to react. That was the only bad experience we had dining wise. I say try it out and if you don't like it, ask to move to a 2 top the next night! :)

[riclop]

If you go on enough cruises it will happen.

[grandmarnnurse]

If you go on enough cruises it will happen.

I just request a table for 2.

[Mommawo]

Ok let me say my husband and I are Christian. He is actually a pastor. BUT people like this just piss me off!!!! Oh my word I would have asked for them to be moved from my table. Now I do say a prayer before I eat BUT in a situation like this it would be to myself and I enjoy nice conversation with people that isn’t always about God. I am Christian but not a religious jerk. There is a difference lol this sounds terrible

 

 

 

 

 

 

In response to your thread's title: Yes, but they were family and I did book the cruise with them....:D

 

My only experience with "bad" tablemates was a couple assigned to our table of eight. They were evangelicals that came to dinner with a Bible in hand, wanted to hold hands for a blessing before the meal (we let them do it the first night) and was always looking for a way to bring a mini sermon of redemption and salvation into the conversation.

 

Luckily, they were pretty easy to shut down when they tried. :evilsmile:

[NotThePest_Too]

Ok let me say my husband and I are Christian. He is actually a pastor. BUT people like this just piss me off!!!! Oh my word I would have asked for them to be moved from my table. Now I do say a prayer before I eat BUT in a situation like this it would be to myself and I enjoy nice conversation with people that isn’t always about God. I am Christian but not a religious jerk. There is a difference lol this sounds terrible

 

They were victims of a Spiritual Mugging

 

Ramona

[Mommawo]

They were victims of a Spiritual Mugging

 

Ramona

 

 

Sounds like it !:o

[sanmarcosman]

They were victims of a Spiritual Mugging

 

Ramona

 

At times like these we smile and I introduce for the both of us by announcing " We're the Heathens. " That nips it in the bud.

[NotThePest_Too]

At times like these we smile and I introduce for the both of us by announcing " We're the Heathens. " That nips it in the bud.

 

" We're the Heathens. " I have to remember that! I'm a Christian and if I see or hear a "Spiritual Mugging" being perpetrated around me I can come out verbally and put people in check which in effect is "violence against violence" That heathen line is great. Thank you! And boy or boy if they and I show up for the on ship Bible Study … fireworks! LOL

 

Ramona

[Towel Critter]

We aren't gamblers. We stopped rolling the dice on tablemates years ago and started requesting a "table for two."

[harrypotter01]

My college roommate and I went on a Carnival cruise about 20 years ago. We were seated with a much older Russian couple who spoke very little English. We literally did not have one thing in common with them. But, by the end of the cruise we almost felt like family. We actually kept in touch with them for years. This was when email was either not around or so new that no one used it...so we would get faxes from them from time to time. So glad we had that experience!

[LuckyZ]

Only once have we cruised and did not like our table mates. Most were Ok but 2 ladies, who were there for free, whines and complained about just about everything on the ship. It got to the point that we faked being sick so we didn’t have to endure those people.

 

 

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[Poppy42]

A few years ago, we were sailing on the MSC Devinia. We had requested early seating for dinner. Of course, they gave us late dinning. I had it changed. That night we sat with a nice couple from Canada but they were there with family and would be having their table changed the next night. The next night, formal night, we sat with a couple from France who, after hello, spoke no English. There was another couple, also from Canada, sitting with us. He was dressed in his finest T-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops. When he spoke, he was obnoxious and crude:mad:. There was no way we were going to sit with him. We had our table changed and sat with two nice couples.

 

 

The next morning, at breakfast, we shared a table with another couple about our age. We asked them where they were from. Well, it's a small world. They live in the same town as us. We wound up sitting with them for the rest of the cruise and have become good friends and cruised with them again.:D

[NoDayButToday]

Never had a problem with other tablemates-although we have had one couple that just wanted to keep to themselves at the table of 8 with 3 other couples. I'm not sure why they didn't request their own table, but they didn't have interest in interacting with the rest of us. Oh well, their loss.

 

 

We have had a really, really bad week-long experience in the dining room on Princess though. There was a very large, loud group that had their own "section" of the dining room, but them being separated to their own area didn't make a difference. They were very obnoxious, their kids were 100% unsupervised the entire time and ran around through the entire dining room (sometimes running into waiters and being general little terrors), they yelled at each other across the section and sometimes across the dining room at guests who were running late. It made a lot of people not in their group really frustrated and very annoyed, we heard a lot of other tables talking about it too. We said something to the Maitre D' who said there was nothing he could do because they were a big group and that was why they were seated away from everyone else, but said we weren't the only ones to complain. The cruise line refused to do anything to reign in this group, even the children running around being a danger to their own employees.

[Silent Penguin]

We have had a really, really bad week-long experience in the dining room on Princess though. There was a very large, loud group that had their own "section" of the dining room, but them being separated to their own area didn't make a difference. They were very obnoxious, their kids were 100% unsupervised the entire time and ran around through the entire dining room (sometimes running into waiters and being general little terrors), they yelled at each other across the section and sometimes across the dining room at guests who were running late. .

 

 

That just stinks! I thought we were going to have a similar situation on one of our cruises. Same dynamic - big group, well-dressed but really obnoxious behavior, adults and kids. For some reason, after the first night, the number of people from their group who showed up for dinner dwindles rapidly. By the end of the cruise, there was a handful of the older women and men sitting together and that was it. Very strange.

[Silent Penguin]

We never disliked our tablemates enough that we thought of asking for a new table, but we did have a touchy situation on 15-day Hawaii cruise with Princess. The three of us (husband, teen daughter, me) were seated with 3 other couples. Couple one was no problem. They were a quiet, childless couple in their late 50's or early 60's. Very different from us but easy to talk to once they got used to us. The other two couples were much older and contained two -for lack of a better term- alpha males who both vied with one another to dominate the conversation. Fortunately, they didn't always show up on the same nights for dinner, so there was a good balance of peaceful socializing at the table when it wasn't full and entertainment on the nights it was.

[beshears]

I don't have time to read all the postings in regard to this question, but this is what I did on my last cruise.

 

 

They say you are NOT supposed to contact the Matri'd, but I emailed 2 weeks before. I did not get a response back, but when we got to the table, it was exactly what I had ask for.

[Jules215]

We only ever request tables for 2, but ended up with one of those tables where we were seated so close to the next table for 2 we might as well have been sitting together, ( which is a whole other topic )...Anyway, I wouldn't say we disliked them, but once they opened their mouth they never shut up and then kept finding us on the ship...Needless to say, that's put us off the main dining room ever since, although we have ventured back once or twice since with no issues...We like other people just fine, but we don't get away much and like hanging with each other better.