How does CCL assign dinnermates?

[Rowan555]

I am also curious, I'm 51 and will be with my daughter and two of her girlfriends all 18....

 

Yes, I will be interested to see who they seat you guys with!

[klmorg]

Our first cruise, we were seated with three other couples we had NOTHING in common with, one complain about everything couple, one "topper" couple (they would try to top everyone else's stories with one of their own over & over & over) and a preacher couple who were plenty nice, just not our personality type. We were having the time of our lives on that cruise, which led to the cruising obsession you all know about, but we were so miserable at dinner, we only went twice. I wish we had known about asking the MD to be moved, but we didn't. Other than when we travel with a group and can sit together, we have not had good tablemate experiences at all. Thus, we are THRILLED for the anytime dining option we've chosen on our upcoming Legend cruise. The flexibility, in so many ways, will be nice.

[rmartin1286]

I strongly dislike sitting with other people at my dining room meals. On my first cruise, my parents, aunt, and uncle were sat at a large table with several other people, and we disliked it so much we requested that we be moved the following night. After that cruise, a bunch of people in my family started going with us on each trip, so we always got to sit with them (after a quick dash up to the dining room to talk to the Maître d', of course) at a large table every night and didn't have to worry about it.

 

After getting married and traveling as a couple with my husband, however, I've found it increasingly difficult to obtain a two-person table for the dining room. On our last cruise, we had to substitute early dining for late dining just to get a table, which I do NOT want to do again this year. I've never done late seating and it messed my nights up. I've heard the Valor (our cruise coming up next month) has more two person tables than the Imagination does, but I'm still concerned about lunch and breakfast time in the DR.

 

Speaking of lunch and breakfast, how easy is it to get a table to yourselves for a couple? Last year for the one meal that we had at lunch in the DR, we were basically forced to either sit with a large group of people or go eat at the buffet. We decided to go ahead and sit with the group of people, but it was really terrible. I'm assuming it was just a bad mix of people, but half the table was mad that they were forced to sit with strangers and the other half were the "tell your life story" type and were arguing about politics and such. It was very unpleasant and my husband basically said he doesn't want to sit with anyone anymore. I'd hate to have to miss eating breakfast and lunch in the DR because we would be forced to sit with other people. Not that I'm unsociable or anything, we're just quiet, private people and would prefer not to have to talk to anyone.

[mmawco]

I wish there was an optional brief questionnaire you could fill out on Carnival's website to assist the existing computer program in assigning tablemates. Things like religious affiliation, drinking habits, etc. I know it's not practical and would probably anger some people, but it WOULD help in matching people up better for tables. We've been seated with people who I am certain we scared the HELL out of before, once we get to drinking and running our mouths.

 

Wonderful idea!