The worst question you've been asked by a tablemate...

[LoriLinay]

Don't know why, but I just had a flashback to an uncomfortable dining situation. So I thought it might be fun (and maybe even helpful) to share some of our "odder" tabletime conversations..

 

It was at breakfast so it wasn't our regular table group. The man next to me asked where I was from and what I did. I said "Oh, I'm from Minnesota and I'm a tax auditor for a mortage company" SUCH A MISTAKE!!!

 

For 10 minutes, non-stop, he told me a story about how he owned a farm in North Dakota and had this tractor that he wanted and how could he afford it and what write offs could he take? The second I could get in a word edgewise, I said that taxes are a very specific business and I really don't know anything about "the agricultural arena". That didn't sway him and he talked through the entire meal. His wife told him several times that it was my vacation and to leave me alone. I pretty much ignored him.

 

The next day...we sat down for breakfast again, and YUP, someone asked me what I did for a living. I said "I don't work". My traveling companion burst out laughing.

[tprime76]

Same thing goes for my wife and I. I thought it was bad years ago when I told people I managed a company's desktop and network support teams and got beat down by the number of "my computer doesn't work" questions. However, it has proven to be much worse for my wife. She is a Family Physician.. You can only imagine the questions.

[nosnobunny]

Yes I know what you mean. I no longer tell anyone that I'm a government auditor specializing in gambling. Now I tell them that I'm a secretary or bank teller. :p

 

I had one complete boor ask me what my salary was. :eek: I answered "Enough". ;) Silly fool didn't even realize that he should have been embarrassed. :rolleyes:

 

Beth

[LoriLinay]

It's funny you say that...I was going to end my post with...."tax people and doctors should NEVER tell people what they do, or they'll spend the rest of the meal answering questions"

 

After our incident, we decided that the next cruise I'd tell people I was a sex therapist. It would either shut them right up, or start some interesting table talk!!

[Patgo]

I think the sex therapist is a good one. That would get the conversation going. Or maybe you could be a stripper and I don't mean that you are stripping paint.

 

Oh well

 

Happy Friday

 

Pat

[Toto2Kansas]

Too funny! I had just the opposite on a cruise when we did a private excursion with a doctor. I began to sneeze as I have allergies. All of a sudden he starts asking me what I am taking yadda yadda yadda and trying to diagose my allergy. Come to find out that allergies were his specialty. ROFL Only problem was he kept asking me very personal questions from when I was a teen..........guess he was one that couldn't find a way to leave his profession behind.

[LoriLinay]

Well Beth, since you will BE on my next cruise....you can see how the sex therapist story works out for me!

 

It WOULD be funny to say I'm a stripper, considering I'm middle aged and about 45 pounds overweight. (On a thin day)

[nosnobunny]

Well Beth, since you will BE on my next cruise....you can see how the sex therapist story works out for me!

 

It WOULD be funny to say I'm a stripper, considering I'm middle aged and about 45 pounds overweight. (On a thin day)

 

I'll stick with the sex therapist. At least it would be a profession where I have some knowledge. ;)

 

Beth

[kruz]

I always tell everyone I am a mortician..shuts em up every time :)

[emilygrace]

I would have to say the worst question we were asked was when a tablemate found out all the other couples were from California he asked "so you're all Republicans, right?" And this was within the first few minutes of our first night! Then he asked us all to guess what he did for a living. I should have said "sex therapist?" hahaha. It turns out he was a CPA....who knew? It turns out that he and his wife provided us with the most entertainment on the cruise, especially watching them dance on '50's night!

[stillfrantic]

When I declined wine at dinner, the table mate asked if I was pregnant, cause why else would I not be drinking.:rolleyes:

[msts]

When we showed to dinner the first night on Radiance last year, our table mates were already sitting, before I could introduce my DW or myself, the husband looks at me and said do you smoke marijuania. Talk about an off the cuff question. I am in my early fifties and so was the table mate who asked the question.

 

It just seemed to be a strange way to start a conversation. We thought maybe,"Hello our names are".....would have been a better conversation starter.

 

msts

[BamaVol]

The man across the table asked me what I thought of the entertainment. Before I got too far into dissing the magician I had watched the first night, he introduced himself as that magician. :o

 

If anyone asks me what I do for a living, I'll tell them I work for an escort service. Pause. You know, drive a truck with flags and flashing lights in front of wide loads.

[Voyager]

Our table mates for breakfast one morning (6 couples- not our reg mates) were seated at one table. One man asked the man next to him where he was from. He said Canada. The man that asked the question said he was from the States. The man from the states was quite full of himself and thought he was very educated.

As the conversation progressed, he asked the Canadian about medical care and prescription drug prices in Canada. When the man from the States questioned the Canadians answer about the drug costs, the Canadian said, I should know, I am a pharmasst. Wrong thing to say! The man from the States was on him like white on rice. He questioned him about ***** and all the other meds in that catagory. The poor pharmayist was trying to change the subject at every turn with no avail. The man from the States knew to much and too many things about all of the different types of drugs for that err, symptom. Cost, strenth, symptoms, you name it. Not table talk for any meal let alone people you dont know.

[tadjr]

I avoid telling tablemates that I work for an airline. I get to hear all their horror stories about lost bags and late flights that cost them a fortune. Luckily the most recent cruise I took it wasnt a big deal with the table (everyone got their bags and made the ship!)

 

The strangest thing mentioned on the last cruise wasnt directed towards me, but some of the other tablemates. 3 of us were from the US and 4 were from Scotland (with 2 of them spending 6 months in the US and 6 months in Scotland.) The other passenger from the US, an older gentleman who was traveling alone (and was originally from England), asked the couple who split their time "If the US and the UK went to war who would you support?" I just sat there thinking what the h? First night table conversation and we have 13 days to go? Luckily, he didnt like the response he was given by anyone. The next night he sat down in the middle of 3 empty chairs which would have made a mother daughter couple sit on either side of him. We asked him why he did that and he said everyone should move around. Why would you want to sit in the same place every night next to the same person you were traveling with? The older Scotsman replied "Because they are friends and want to sit together." He moved that night without saying much and quickly found another table to sit with. We ended up getting two other guys who were having problems with their original table and we had a blast the rest of the cruise!!!

[nosnobunny]

I avoid telling tablemates that I work for an airline. I get to hear all their horror stories about lost bags and late flights that cost them a fortune. Luckily the most recent cruise I took it wasnt a big deal with the table (everyone got their bags and made the ship!)

 

The strangest thing mentioned on the last cruise wasnt directed towards me, but some of the other tablemates. 3 of us were from the US and 4 were from Scotland (with 2 of them spending 6 months in the US and 6 months in Scotland.) The other passenger from the US, an older gentleman who was traveling alone (and was originally from England), asked the couple who split their time "If the US and the UK went to war who would you support?" I just sat there thinking what the h? First night table conversation and we have 13 days to go? Luckily, he didnt like the response he was given by anyone. The next night he sat down in the middle of 3 empty chairs which would have made a mother daughter couple sit on either side of him. We asked him why he did that and he said everyone should move around. Why would you want to sit in the same place every night next to the same person you were traveling with? The older Scotsman replied "Because they are friends and want to sit together." He moved that night without saying much and quickly found another table to sit with. We ended up getting two other guys who were having problems with their original table and we had a blast the rest of the cruise!!!

 

Why do I get the strange feeling that I could tell you who that gentleman was? He sounds familiar. :eek: :D

 

Beth

[darchibald]

I always tell everyone I am a mortician..shuts em up every time :)

HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!

"When I was growing up I would have to attend weddings with my family, inlaws etc. My Aunt's would always come up to me and say, "Dave, you could be next". I would hear this almost everytime."

A few years back, my Grandfather passed away and during the funeral I found it appropriate to go over to my Aunt's and tell them, "You could be next".

:D

 

[darchibald]

We have only taken one cruise so far and about a week or so before the cruise I started thinking/hopeing that we wouldn't be stuck at a table with other couples that weren't to talkative, rude etc. Fear started to set in but didn't last long once we met our table mates for the first time. We were in the Maytime dinning room and we were the last couple to arrive to our table (three other couples were already seated). There wasn't one moment of ackwardness at all, it felt great. The conversation, atmosphere, and the whole dinning experience was great. As a matter of fact during the days we were in ports we spent some of the time together. During the nights, starting with dinner and afterwards we spend the whole time together attending the shows and the buffets etc. and finally headed for our rooms about 2:30 a.m.

As for talking about what everyone does for a living, I am a Network Administrator and my g/f is a Child Care Provider. We didn't have any problems with anyone asking dumb questions in our group.

In my everyday life I get dumb questions and people who want to know about every part of a computer or how a network works and why there computer doesn't work etc. I can't solve everything. I do beleive that no matter what profession that you are in, once people know your profession, you are their SOUNDING BOARD.

[Sea Island Lady]

The worse was at breakfast. A very obnoxious man asked my DH and me " how can you have such a beautiful daughter?" I replied "we have two beautiful daughters." He looked to our oldest and said "oh, she's pretty also, but I was talking about her (pointing to our then 18 year old)." He kept staring at her and trying to converse with her the entire breakfast. We were mortified and couldn't wait to leave. :o

[bpear1600]

In my everyday life I get dumb questions and people who want to know about every part of a computer or how a network works and why there computer doesn't work etc. I can't solve everything. I do beleive that no matter what profession that you are in, once people know your profession, you are their SOUNDING BOARD.

 

There will always be those in search of free advice.

[RedSoxWon]

"When I was growing up I would have to attend weddings with my family, inlaws etc. My Aunt's would always come up to me and say, "Dave, you could be next". I would hear this almost everytime."

 

A few years back, my Grandfather passed away and during the funeral I found it appropriate to go over to my Aunt's and tell them, "You could be next".

Ha, Ha. This reminds me of when my wife and I were "living in sin," and obnoxious realtives would ask when we were going to get married. I would answer, "We want to have a few kids first." Loved their reactions.

[Leejnd4]

Okay, all my tablemates have been delightful, so I guess I should be very happy that I have nothing I can personally contribute. But I do have two that happened to others.

 

This one I read about in another forum. It happened on a very recent cruise. The woman said that they had a tablemate who asked the following question:

 

"So, who'd YOU vote for?"

 

Can you imagine???

 

This next one happened to close friends of ours, who took their twin boys on a cruise to celebrate their Bar Mitzvah. On the very first night, they sat at a table for six. An older woman sitting next to my friend turned to her and said:

 

"Nice to meet you, dear. Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior?"

:eek:

 

LeeAnne

[NiniB]

i have stopped telling people my profession,,, &,,, then they play the AWFUL i can guess what you do......:rolleyes: but are never correct....

i had one quack demand that i tell him.... :confused: he's still wondering... :p

[FrankiRN]

OK, I think I have you all beat. I'm a hospice nurse. So anytime I get asked what I do, people have to tell me all about the deaths in their lives, be it their pet parakeet or their mama. And tears are usually involved, even around the dinner table. Sometimes I'll just say "I'm a nurse" but usually they'll say, "what kind" and there we go again. In all seriousness, I love to help people through their grief, and listen to their stories. I do it all the time at the grocery store, bars, you name it. But vacation is supposed to be an escape lol. Good thing I love my job :D .

[tadjr]

"So, who'd YOU vote for?"

 

Can you imagine???

 

 

LeeAnne

 

 

I tell them I'm from Florida so I used all 3 of my votes for .........!