Are there still sharing tables or a casualty of covid?

[Haljo1935]

4 minutes ago, erdufylla said:

Football’s easy enough, because I just say I don’t follow sports, and then either they change topics or I tune out. I have opinions on politics, though, and if someone doesn’t take the “let’s not go into that over our meal” hint, it can be very difficult to sit and listen to someone while trying to hold my tongue.

Understandable.

I was in So Africa at the time of POTUS election then again in the weeks before/during/after Trump's inauguration. Every Uber driver felt the need to weigh in on US politics. Given I had no rent car and relied on Uber to get to/from work everyday, it was the longest 8 weeks of my life.

Edited July 5, 2023 by Haljo1935
Typo

[*Miss G*]

5 minutes ago, Haljo1935 said:

Understandable.

I was in So Africa at the time of POTUS election then again in the weeks before/during/after Trump's inauguration. Every Uber driver felt the need to weigh in on US politics. Given I had no rent car and relied on Uber to get to/from work everyday, it was the longest 8 weeks of my life.

 

Ditto, only exchange S. Africa with Canada and England and add friends, colleagues, and family.  Good times.

[Haljo1935]

3 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

 

Ditto, only exchange S. Africa with Canada and England and add friends, colleagues, and family.  Good times.

Maybe a social.bubble isn't all bad, lol.

[Hlitner]

1 hour ago, bennybear said:

Interesting that he was sailing on HAL

DW said exactly the same thing.  Of course, we did not ask about that issue :).  But the man is an Australian and was traveling without his wife and on his way to visit some folks in Canada.   On our many HAL cruises we have met a few very wealthy cruisers and he is certainly in that class having sold his book empire for over $100 million (according to online info).   The gentleman was a fabulous dinner companion and, as you can imagine, our dinner talk was about travel.  We previously posted that when DW asked him his favorite place to travel, after some thought he said "Chad."  That was a real head scratcher.

 

Funny thing about cruising and sharing tables with strangers.  DW and I have been doing that for many decades and have met lots of fantastic folks (some of whom became lifetime friends).  For us, it has always been one of our most favorite parts of cruising.  We are soon off on another Seabourn cruise where they have "hosted tables" for which we always volunteer.  On that line we not only meet many fascinating passengers, but the hosted tables also gives us a chance to chat with many senior officers (some who used to work for HAL) and staff.   In more than 1400 cruise days (we have actually lost count) I can only think of only 2 times when we had truly awful dinner companions.

 

Hank

[cruisemom42]

2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

On our March-May, Westerdam cruise, there were plenty of shared tables..... Our most "unforgettable" table mate was the founder of a very well-known (and successful) series of travel guides.

 

And here I was thinking it was me! 😊

[Hlitner]

20 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

And here I was thinking it was me! 😊

If you had been in the area we would have issued a "summons."  The two times we had dinner with the gentleman, it was just the 3 of us.  Instead of writing blogs, we all should have been writing books :).  Must more profitable.

 

Hank

[Mary229]

3 hours ago, erdufylla said:

I really enjoy sharing a table with others, especially when I’m on my own. When I was traveling with my very introverted 14yo nephew, we’d get a 2-top, since he’d just sit there uncomfortably for most of the meal when we shared. But on my own, I love sitting in a group of 4-6 people. I’ve been lucky, most of my conversations have all been wonderful, or at least not irritating. The only time it’s gotten a little awkward and uncomfortable is when people hear I’m from Alabama and want to discuss my thoughts on American politics, especially when they assume I lean a particular way.

I just saw you were from Huntsville.we are heading that way to spend the weekend after next in the CCC cabins at the state park

[JeffElizabeth]

For a while on HAL, we would have a ship's officer join our big table for an evening meal. We really enjoyed that and they even supplied the wine.  Do they still do this since the pandemic? One cruise we got to talk to the purser,  it was interesting hearing about the challenges of his job. 

[3rdGenCunarder]

5 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

Yes the closeness of those 2-tops are prone to cross chatter at breakfast. DH is not a fan.

No, I think she certainly would not criticize a love of butter, but dear Julia might wonder why I lean the other way - am not a fan of butter, don't put it on potatoes, bread... so I would certainly let her have my share.

 

Since I was kind enough to offer someone my share of escargots, may I have your butter? 😁

 

There is a rose named for Julia Child. No surprise, it's butter yellow. 

[3rdGenCunarder]

5 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

Or football, I would guess, from Americans. Seems everyone from AL and MS are supposed to.be college football fans...

 

You never know what kind of football alliances may form. We sat with a lovely couple from the Dallas area. We're Giants fans, and they loved their Cowboys, but we bonded over a mutual loathing of Washington (Redskins at the time).

[3rdGenCunarder]

5 hours ago, erdufylla said:

Football’s easy enough, because I just say I don’t follow sports, and then either they change topics or I tune out. I have opinions on politics, though, and if someone doesn’t take the “let’s not go into that over our meal” hint, it can be very difficult to sit and listen to someone while trying to hold my tongue.

 

On my recent cruise, first night, three of the people at the table (fixed dining) aired their political views, which did NOT match mine. I thought I would jump overboard if I had to sit through that for ten days. But they got it out of their system--or maybe they noticed that the other couple and I were silent--and everything was okay after that. 

[Tigerlily75]

I'm wondering what peoples experience is on HAL with set dining shared tables? We have our first HAL cruise in February on Westerdam and have booked main dining with a table of 8 request. On a Carnival cruise we had the same and it seemed like the dining room had made the effort to match tablemates. (parents with young adult kids). We had such a great week and all got along so well. But a cruise before that we were put at a table of 4 and the other 2 never turned up. I guess it's hit and miss! 

[Mary229]

5 minutes ago, Tigerlily75 said:

I'm wondering what peoples experience is on HAL with set dining shared tables? We have our first HAL cruise in February on Westerdam and have booked main dining with a table of 8 request. On a Carnival cruise we had the same and it seemed like the dining room had made the effort to match tablemates. (parents with young adult kids). We had such a great week and all got along so well. But a cruise before that we were put at a table of 4 and the other 2 never turned up. I guess it's hit and miss! 

As I mentioned earlier there do not seem to be as many tables of 8 filling.  The 4s and 6s seem to be far more popular 

[3rdGenCunarder]

10 minutes ago, Tigerlily75 said:

I'm wondering what peoples experience is on HAL with set dining shared tables? We have our first HAL cruise in February on Westerdam and have booked main dining with a table of 8 request. On a Carnival cruise we had the same and it seemed like the dining room had made the effort to match tablemates. (parents with young adult kids). We had such a great week and all got along so well. But a cruise before that we were put at a table of 4 and the other 2 never turned up. I guess it's hit and miss! 

 

I have been very lucky with table companions. Last winter on HAL, I was at a table for 8. One couple rarely showed up, but the rest of us had a very pleasant time. We shared a love of theater and art--HAL couldn't possibly know that, it was just luck. 

 

I think Cunard does make some effort in terms of ages. Twice on QM2, I've been at a table of all singles, mostly retired and well traveled. Other times I've been with people whose backgrounds and interests are quite different. But people brought up with curiosity and good manners somehow know how to find something to talk about. 

[erdufylla]

3 hours ago, Mary229 said:

I just saw you were from Huntsville.we are heading that way to spend the weekend after next in the CCC cabins at the state park

Neat! I had to Google that — I had no idea we had cabins like that here! If you need any suggestions for things to do/see or good restaurants in the area, feel free to DM me! I’m happy to offer ideas and opinions! 😊

[Hlitner]

1 hour ago, JeffElizabeth said:

For a while on HAL, we would have a ship's officer join our big table for an evening meal. We really enjoyed that and they even supplied the wine.  Do they still do this since the pandemic? One cruise we got to talk to the purser,  it was interesting hearing about the challenges of his job. 

We have also had that experience in the past, and on one Prinsendam cruise we actually invited a Senior Officer and his wife to join our table (we had 6 dining at a table of 8).  On that occasion, the officer (who we had befriended during the cruise) had us make the request through Guest Relations and it was quickly approved.  But on our last couple of HAL cruises (including a 42 day from March-May) we never, ever saw any officer in the MDR!  There seems to be a relatively new attitude where officers do very little socializing with passengers.  I am sure COVID did nothing to help, but this had started prior to the COVID shutdown.  

 

We used to enjoy socializing with Captain Gundersen and some of his senior staff when we were on the Prinsendam.  The Captain would often join us in the Crow's Nest, late at night, and even buy the drinks!  On the Grand Med cruise he actually managed to invite all the 4-5* Mariners to his cabin (in groups of about 15) over the course of the 2 month cruise.  Captain "Halle" was a true gem and a man who enjoyed the passengers.  But times have changed on HAL.

 

Hank

 

[Haljo1935]

3 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

You never know what kind of football alliances may form. We sat with a lovely couple from the Dallas area. We're Giants fans, and they loved their Cowboys, but we bonded over a mutual loathing of Washington (Redskins at the time).

For sure @3rdGenCunarder for sure!!

[Haljo1935]

4 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

Since I was kind enough to offer someone my share of escargots, may I have your butter? 😁

 

There is a rose named for Julia Child. No surprise, it's butter yellow. 

Yes, you absolutely may have my butter; I will even ask for extra!!

[lissie]

8 hours ago, Hlitner said:

DW said exactly the same thing.  Of course, we did not ask about that issue :).  But the man is an Australian and was traveling without his wife and on his way to visit some folks in Canada.   On our many HAL cruises we have met a few very wealthy cruisers and he is certainly in that class having sold his book empire for over $100 million (according to online info).   The gentleman was a fabulous dinner companion and, as you can imagine, our dinner talk was about travel.  We previously posted that when DW asked him his favorite place to travel, after some thought he said "Chad."  That was a real head scratcher.

Oh wow - what  an amazing experience that would be - his were the first guide books I ever bought back in the 70s - before I was old enough to travel independently. I have an ebook version of the first one - describes where to get weed in varous SE Asian cities and says avoid Singapore (strongly anti-long hair on men and drugs at the time). I'd pay to have  a conversatsion with him. 

 

Off to research Chad now! 

[lissie]

4 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

I think Cunard does make some effort in terms of ages. Twice on QM2, I've been at a table of all singles, mostly retired and well traveled. Other times I've been with people whose backgrounds and interests are quite different. But people brought up with curiosity and good manners somehow know how to find something to talk about. 

We had an hilarious time on Cunard last October on a fixed table with 2 other UK couples. One was very "well bred" , she was actually an official at the Queen's local church at Windsor, he was ex senior RAF. The other couple were friends travelling together one of whom was a Glaswegian pub owner who had sold in 2019 (!) .  They nothing in common, but found us colonials amusing so we bonded very well. We must admit that we did tend to start each evening with got a new PM yet ?   There were several on a 20 day cruise! 

 

Is talking politics with Americans? I figured its so divisive that it would be a no go area? 

[3rdGenCunarder]

7 minutes ago, lissie said:

Is talking politics with Americans? I figured its so divisive that it would be a no go area? 

 

I consider it a no-go area, so I don't bring it up. 

[Kiwifan56]

6 hours ago, lissie said:

 

 

Is talking politics with Americans? I figured its so divisive that it would be a no go area? 

We have talked politics with North Americans but have never been the ones to start the conversation.

On our last cruise we were a table of seven, four Americans, one Englishman living in Spain and we Kiwis. The conversation turned to health and about 10 minutes in I could see the couple at the next table getting agitated with the direction the topic was going so I wrote a txt on my phone and passed it around. Crisis averted. 🙂  

[Mary229]

1 hour ago, Kiwifan56 said:

We have talked politics with North Americans but have never been the ones to start the conversation.

On our last cruise we were a table of seven, four Americans, one Englishman living in Spain and we Kiwis. The conversation turned to health and about 10 minutes in I could see the couple at the next table getting agitated with the direction the topic was going so I wrote a txt on my phone and passed it around. Crisis averted. 🙂  

We had an experience at breakfast, table of 8 with one belligerent fellow.  A lovely quiet woman at our table simply spoke up and said “we don’t wish to discuss that”.  It firmly and completely shut it down and preserved the peace.  

[mi-oh-tx]

On 7/4/2023 at 6:21 PM, OHCruiser said:

I'm sure that you'll be able to share a table if you choose.

 

We always avoid them because we had times when a meal took over 90 minutes because of slow order taking, slow order delivering, and slow eaters who caused delays in putting in dessert orders.

 

We've met some nice people, but it's also caused us to miss shows & other timed events.  We don't really lounge over meals, so it's always a two top for us.

This is our first time on Holland and I was wondering whether we could request a table for 2 for the cruise.  We asked when we booked but they said we have to do that when we get onboard the ship.  We always try to do the shows or live music in evenings, too.

[highscar]

Always ask for table for two when booking never a problem. Shows on my invoice.