I recently got off a cruise in which we went with a large family (roughly 30)
Prior we emailed several times with everyone's reservation numbers and linked all the reservations.
On embarkation day we went to the MDR to confirm and were told they would see what they could do but asked everyone to go to dinner the first night and then ask for the head waiter with all the room numbers instead of the reservations.
We did this and were told it's a large party and would see what they could do. One family member was in a section all alone and asked if everyone could be moved there.
Long story short they did not accommodate it.
In the future, I would also call and ask for confirmation that it is being done. Part of it likely comes down to the head waiter too. We saw other large groups sat together throughout the cruise by different head waiters but appeared ours was not interested in making any changes.
