Talk about your dinner tablemates

[GoinCruisin]

No, what would be absurd would be trying to put 1500 two top tables on a ship :D It's been done since the days of the Titanic... pretty standard, excellent way to get to know other people you are cruising with. It has nothing to do with etiquette and manners...

[momofmeg]

I just returned from Sensation group cruise and had the worst tablemates ever. I was cruising solo for first and should have been linked with my group but somehow that did not happen. I tried to stick it out but after two nights of sitting with totally unedicated people that didn't even have enough class to order dinner properly...I finally gave up. My waiter was very short on patience with these people & was in turn rude to everyone. Not very professional on his part but hopefully with time, he will learn to handle the situation better. I didn't let it ruin my cruise in the least. I just chose to eat at other places.

 

I must say we had 8 wonder tablemates on our Inspiration cruise and still stay in touch with several of them. We also had excellent wait staff and were very happy to see our favorite waiter again on Conquest. Hopefully our paths will cross again someday with that waiter named Mungi.

 

 

Brenda what is "unedicated" I guess I am uneducated because I have no idea what you mean by that. I get that they were boors.

[GoinCruisin]

I have to say one of the stories from Brenda's table... they were VERY upset when their prime rib arrived.... They said "THese aren't RIBS" :p Sorry, that was just funny to me :D

[I Luv Crusin]

You might want to review the Cruise Critic guidelines that ALL of us AGREED to when signing up for CC... And if you look at the keyboard, you will notice the U and I keys right beside each other. This type of error happens all the time... :rolleyes:

 

Spelling and Grammar Errors It is important to remember that everyone makes mistakes at one time or another, and that there are many users who use English as a second language, especially on our Cruise Boards. There are also a number of people who suffer from learning disabilities and who have difficulty noticing their spelling mistakes. Do not make comments on the spelling and grammar of other users. It is simply not a productive expenditure of energies.

Thanks for the reminder. I'm very sensitive about spelling errors and do notice when others misspell words, because I'm guilty of it many times! I sometimes cut and paste my post into MS Word and spell check it before posting.:rolleyes: I wish this board had a spell-check feature. It drives me nuts when I realized I posted something that is wrong!

[momofmeg]

Over all I have liked my tablemates fine. The first 2 cruises we took we were seated with seasoned cruisers who gave us a lot of good tips about cruising. Once we were seated with a very shy couple who it was hard to make conversation with but we kept trying and they finially loosened up a little. We got along well.

 

On HAL we went as a family of 5 and asked for a table for 6 to be seated privately as a family. We were the first night, but the next night they seated a woman traveling alone with us. she was very nice but it was uncomfortable. I felt it very unfair of matr'd to seat a lone travelor with a table where all the others knew each other. It would had been more sensible to have seated her with at least a couple of groups of travelors then to stick her with a family and she the only one not related and not knowing the others.

 

The only time I was really uncomfortable at a meal was at "tea" on Princess. Hubby and I were discussing scones and I was telling him how on Oprah, Fergie has said Scones were similiar to the "biscuit" we have in the south. They are too ( I have made them- Fergie's recipe she gave on that show) except they are made with eggs- and sugar and fruit are added to them and then you eat them with whipped cream. Well this woman was seated next to me after our conversation had started and all she heard was that I had said scones were the sames as biscuits.

 

She starts in saying how that I was wrong and how she had been to all these 5 star hotels and had had tea. Then the lady across from her pipes up and starts in how she had had tea at all these different hotels.Well the 2 sounded like a couple of snobs each trying to "outclass" the other. I started to tell them hubby and I had had tea in London, a real "english tea" but I was afraid I would come off sounding like them. Needless to say hubby and I left pretty quickly-we were not enjoying that tea at all.

[derf5585]

and spell check it before posting.

 

Eye halve a spelling chequer

from

http://www.ajokes.com/jokes/1485.html

[derf5585]

seating arrangements for the *right number of people.

 

Pleasurable Banquet Dining With Strangers

from

http://www.benjaminalan.com/archives/000061.

 

"Strangers at the Table"

from

http://www.wpctiburon.org/sermons/sr20040104.html

[derf5585]

our worst tablemates were a pair of SILs

 

SILS Symposium on Campylobacter

from

http://www.science.uva.nl/sils/home.cfm

 

Welcome to SILS Library

from

http://ils.unc.edu/library/text.html

[kingsleyjr]

I was just joking around , please get a sense of humor ( or humour for the brits) . I also don't feel that there is a proper way to order dinner, with the possible exception of the person not saying " I will take the f****ng steak and some potatoes A****le". So if that is the only problem you have with these poeple you should either unstuff your shirt or sail celebrity.

 

Glenn

[momofmeg]

Brenda what is "unedicated" I guess I am uneducated because I have no idea what you mean by that. I get that they were boors.

 

I really did not intend to be sarcastic. It did not occur to me it was a type o. I thought she meant etiquette and I had not read all the other posts here when I posted that. I just figured she could not spell etiquette and had not expressed herself correctly. As I said I am the one uneducated I guess.

 

One thing though Brenda and I have learned this the hard way. Always read over what you have typed before you post- especially if there is a chance someone will be offended by your post. (and lets face it we often have no idea what will offend others-at least I don't) many a time I have made myself look like an idiot (uneducated) by simply not reading over my post and cleaning up my type-os.

[derf5585]

unedicated people

 

"It is a pity that Chawcer, who had geneyus, was so unedicated. He's the wuss speller I know of." - l.e.

from

http://www.geocities.com/generalwinky/Quotations.html

 

It is no wonder you is so unedicated.

from

http://www.cs.utk.edu/~geist/Stories/st1.html

[GoinCruisin]

People should not have to worry about type-o's on this board, which is why the "rule" was put in place. If I ragged someone for every type-o they made, I would have over a million posts... it happens, to everyone. This is a message board, not the Holier than thou society of proper grammar and spelling :rolleyes:

[hstrybuf]

I think that the whole idea of having table mates while on a cruise is absurd. For instance, myself and my hubby expected to be seated alone when we went to our first night formal dinner seating..that is when we learned that we will be having table mates to dine with us. I then asked why can't we have a table for two? Hubby and wife would like to have some privacy here...while dining. Then the waitstaff stated that we cannot have our own private table. We knew right then that the tables are assigned to you with your table mates. To me...the idea of having table mates...people that you don't even know..is considered very bad table manners,esp. for a party of only two.

 

The whole idea of taking a romantic cruise is to be alone with your spouse and to enjoy the time alone while onboard and having fun while doing so.:) I hope that Carnival and all other cruise lines...will try to have better etiquette towards formal dinner arrangements as well as seating arrangements for the *right number of people.

While I agree it would be nice to have a romantic table for two, they are hard to come by, especially if you don't request them before the cruise. Even then, there is no guarantee that you'll get a two top because they may have more requests than they can fill. It is not absurd, bad table manners or poor ettiquette to be seated at a larger table with people you don't know. This is the way it's done!

 

Your post comes off as snobbish. I'm not sure if that was your intent or if you were just frustrated at not being able to get that more intimate table. In the future, request that table ahead of time and see the Maitre D' if you don't get what you want. If you're still "stuck" with tablemates, just smile and play nice with the other kiddies. :)

[L2J]

Your post comes off as snobbish.

 

Thanks for pointing that out Hstry...I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that...Lord knows I wouldn't want to fan the flames ;)

 

The only problem we had with our tablemate was that she was too picky...didn't like anything.

[sotadragon]

hstrybuf and livtojump: I completely agree with both of you, I just didn't want to be the first to say how snooty Tudor Rose sounded. What would probably be considered poor table manners/ettiquette is going to a fancy restaurant where you are seated according to party, and crashing somone else's table. Being seated with other passengers you are not aquainted with is how cruise lines do things in the dinning room. Hstrybuf is right, it would be very difficult to have as many tables for two as are probably requested for each cruise, there simply isn't room. And, yes, this has been the way of things since Titanic, QE2, etc... I would guess that the QE2 currently seats people in the dinning room that way, and that's supposed to be the most elegant oceanliner in the world.

[hstrybuf]

We had one of those picky tablemates on our last Carnival cruise. It was embarrassing! I really felt sorry for our waitstaff as they were bending over backwards to please this man. He wanted chicken noodle soup. They didn't have it readily available. Someone higher up came to explain this to him, but he was insistent that they live up to the "guarantee" and fix his soup. They did. Chicken cut up in broth with rammen noodles!

[GoinCruisin]

It's not as bad as going to many restaurants in NYC, where they sit you ON TOP of each other! LOL! You are "supposedly" at a table for two... yet it doesn't quite feel that way!!!!!

 

Last year on the Sensation, we had one of the whiniest men I have ever come across... he had a broken arm, his wife was "feeding" him and everything he ate, a look of whine and disgust came over him... he acted like a big baby :mad: My BF by the end of the second night finally asked him "why do you even bother coming to dinner, you never seem happy with the food and complain about everything... why don't you just eat somewhere else and let us enjoy our dinner" The guy did not whine the rest of the trip :p

[DFD1]

This has been a fun thread to read. I have now come to the conclusion that my learning disability sure comes in handy around here... LOL

[hstrybuf]

Thanks for pointing that out Hstry...I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that...Lord knows I wouldn't want to fan the flames ;)

Wellll, liv, I do have further and rather blunt thoughts on the subject, but if I want to keep playing with the rest of you, I have to play nice. And yeah, that was nice for me! :D

[L2J]

Wellll, liv, I do have further and rather blunt thoughts on the subject, but if I want to keep playing with the rest of you, I have to play nice.

 

And yeah, that was nice for me! :D

 

Oh come one now, you know you want to :D. Besides getting a virtual lashing is fun sometimes ;).

 

I know this first hand!

 

I'm also thinking we may need too break out the O2 here;)

[tjohn159d]

They could book every night in one of the specialty resteraunts if they don't want to a table with other people. :p

[christhree]

Have always had GREAT tablemates, when cruising without the family....

 

BEST find was our last ones....Carnival PVPs ;)

HOPE to see them on Conquest...:D

[derf5585]

"The Man Code"

Under no circumstances may two men share an umbrella.

from

http://www.manbottle.com/new/The_Man_Code.htm

[PelicanBill]

10 years ago on Sovereign of the Seas - before there were other dining options, so everyone was in their assigned places every night.

 

We were 4 couples, not very much alike, but we ended up hanging together most evenings for the entertainment, shows, and games. One couple were hard-drinkin young partiers.. whose bar bill was $800 at the end of the trip!

 

Another couple were very shy and reserved. Memorable because one evening we were at a game where everyone was assigned to a team and earned points by producing an item as called for by the emcee. He called for a laidies' bra. We don't know how, but she had hers out from under her shirt and up front for points in 5 seconds flat!

[hstrybuf]

Oh come one now, you know you want to :D. Besides getting a virtual lashing is fun sometimes ;).

 

I know this first hand!

 

I'm also thinking we may need too break out the O2 here;)

Yeah I want to, but I just can't be too hard on a first time cruiser with only one cruise under their belt and nothing but hearsay to compare it to. Just keep the O2 handy! From what I've seen so far today, somebody needs it! ;)