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

[OC Mom]

On our first cruise, last year, we were at a table for 4. At first I thought it would be a good thing as I can be a little shy with larger groups, but for our next cruise, I WANT the big table. We were seated with a nice Mormon couple, but they constantly talked about their religion and Utah. Upon being told that we were not Mormon she asked, "So, you don't consider us Christians do you?!" She had been throwing bible versus at us the whole night and trying to get us to concede that her religion was the "right one" while I quietly took it all in and ate my dinner. So by the time this question rolled around, I decided to fire back with verses supporting my position (with a sweet smile on my face, of course). She was so caught off guard (I don't think she thought I could possible have read the bible and still be sitting there sipping my wine) that it shut her up from there on. Neither couple changed tables- I think they just learned to keep their religion to themselves.

 

P.S.- They were preaching about how pure their religion was (ie: no alcohol, pre-marital sex, etc) while drinking coca-colas (supposedly off-limits too). When I inquired about it, she said, "Well, it's more of a suggestion than a rule". Too funny :)

[phlydude]

that's like those who preach to you about their religion is the right one and then go outside to smoke (when it is banned under their religion)

[kimmariecarr]

On our second cruise, we sailed on the Carnival Paradise. My husband and I and our two sons were seated with another family of 4 for dinner. On paper, the family looked like a very good match...both in the medical field, both with 2 children, our ages were all in the same ballpark etc.....HOWEVER!

 

On our very first night, the husband apparently said something that upset his wife, I missed what happened, but when they sat down they were smiling and talking and then 5 minutes later, she would no longer speak to her husband. The conversation went something like this.....

 

"Dear, would you like some wine?" the husband asked his wife sitting next to him with the Wine Steward standing by.....

No answer........

A little louder. "Dear, would you like some wine with dinner?"

No answer.......

"Babe, would you like some wine with dinner?.......

No answer......

"Dear, this gentleman is waiting to see if we would like some wine."

 

"SHE DOESN'T WANT ANY WINE!" I finally answered for her!

 

When her husband finally realized that she would not be speaking to him, he turned to me and wanted to discuss our jobs! I don't mean a polite, "what do you do?", I mean details and problems.......and on and on. My husband who is not in the medical field was totally left out of the conversation and work was not something I wanted to discuss in DETAIL on my vacation.

 

She never spoke to her husband the remainder of the meal and even at one point told her daughter to relay a message to her father who could hear every word.

 

The night was so bad that we didn't go back to the dining room for another dinner the entire cruise. This is one of the reasons that I LOVE FREESTYLE cruising!

 

KimMCarr

[tarbashchaputi]

On our second cruise, we sailed on the Carnival Paradise. My husband and I and our two sons were seated with another family of 4 for dinner. On paper, the family looked like a very good match...both in the medical field, both with 2 children, our ages were all in the same ballpark etc.....HOWEVER!

 

On our very first night, the husband apparently said something that upset his wife, I missed what happened, but when they sat down they were smiling and talking and then 5 minutes later, she would no longer speak to her husband. The conversation went something like this.....

 

"Dear, would you like some wine?" the husband asked his wife sitting next to him with the Wine Steward standing by.....

No answer........

A little louder. "Dear, would you like some wine with dinner?"

No answer.......

"Babe, would you like some wine with dinner?.......

No answer......

"Dear, this gentleman is waiting to see if we would like some wine."

 

"SHE DOESN'T WANT ANY WINE!" I finally answered for her!

 

When her husband finally realized that she would not be speaking to him, he turned to me and wanted to discuss our jobs! I don't mean a polite, "what do you do?", I mean details and problems.......and on and on. My husband who is not in the medical field was totally left out of the conversation and work was not something I wanted to discuss in DETAIL on my vacation.

 

She never spoke to her husband the remainder of the meal and even at one point told her daughter to relay a message to her father who could hear every word.

 

The night was so bad that we didn't go back to the dining room for another dinner the entire cruise. This is one of the reasons that I LOVE FREESTYLE cruising!

 

KimMCarr

 

Great Story! Table mates from hell to say the least.

[Mysteryreader]

We were seated for breakfast (fortunately one-time thing) with two couples. They'd been friends for yrs; both retired now, one couple lived in FL, the other in NYC. The NYC man was horribly rude bordering on angry, complaining at length about the service on the ship (which had been great), the (tiny) delay in getting his complete breakfast order, that Alaska wasn't NYC (I kid you not!), that no place on earth was as good as NYC, etc. His wife tried to calm him down to no avail. The other couple was obviously embarrassed by his behavior; Mr. FL asked me and dh what we do.

 

I'm a law librarian. After a long silent pause, he asked what that entailed. The conversation went on for several minutes as the four of us talked about general research, books vs. computers, etc. Maybe it's just that it was a relief to talk about something other than non-stop complaints, but the conversation was more interesting than this abstract makes it sound.

 

Finally Mr. Loud Mouth butts in a challenging, sneering tone of voice. "Then if you do all that, why don't you have a law degree?"

 

Dh replied quietly, "She does."

 

Mr. LM actually shut up for the rest of breakfast.

 

M/R

[Stircrzy]

She: "Are your diamonds real?"

 

Me: "...only my hairdresser knows for sure."

 

(My hair is very short and kinda messy.)

[kjunea]

First cruise, table for 6. Two newlywed couples and my now ex-DH and I (we were celebrating our 10th anniversary). All of us were about the same age give or take a few years.

 

One couple informed us they were hoping to get pregnant on the cruise. The other couple said they were going to wait for a year or two. They asked us when we were going to have children. Having been asked that question many times over, we gave the stock answer of "its just not in the cards for us." (I had encountered multiple miscarriages and my husband was tired of trying, so he had just had that snip-snip surgery against my wishes.) The female half of the "trying to concieve couple kept pressuring me why we don't have kids, etc. She kept saying she would pray for me, wished us luck after every meal each night and that tonight might be the night we get lucky! It got to be really funny how dense she was.

 

She never did get the message.....

[LoriTX]

On our first cruise, last year, we were at a table for 4. At first I thought it would be a good thing as I can be a little shy with larger groups, but for our next cruise, I WANT the big table. We were seated with a nice Mormon couple, but they constantly talked about their religion and Utah. Upon being told that we were not Mormon she asked, "So, you don't consider us Christians do you?!" She had been throwing bible versus at us the whole night and trying to get us to concede that her religion was the "right one" while I quietly took it all in and ate my dinner. So by the time this question rolled around, I decided to fire back with verses supporting my position (with a sweet smile on my face, of course). She was so caught off guard (I don't think she thought I could possible have read the bible and still be sitting there sipping my wine) that it shut her up from there on. Neither couple changed tables- I think they just learned to keep their religion to themselves.

 

P.S.- They were preaching about how pure their religion was (ie: no alcohol, pre-marital sex, etc) while drinking coca-colas (supposedly off-limits too). When I inquired about it, she said, "Well, it's more of a suggestion than a rule". Too funny :)

 

 

We too were seated with a Mormon Family. (mom, dad and 3 (20ish kids). We were 4 adults and 1 (20ish Kid) Which was fine, but its hard to be yourself. My Daughter tryed really hard to make friends with them, but the most she got out of them was playing cards in the Library during the day.

 

They only drank water with thier dinner. but the last night the mom shared a peice of chocolate cake with the kids.

 

Lori

[deerby27]

First cruise with former wife. Table for four with two single 30ish women from New England somewhere. Neither one of them had a credit card, so they had borrowed one from a friend and Carnival refused to honor it until a confirmation FAX came from him. They did not have enough cash to secure their sail & sign card, so they were unable to buy anything on the ship. Yes, one of them was blond. My wife wanted to be nice and buy things for them, but for goodness sake we did not know these women from Adam. They really wanted to be at a table with some other singles, so they asked to have their table changed and they were able to, but the other table mates were not any better, so after one night they were back. They finally got their credit problem straightened out after a couple of days. On the last day they saw my wife at the pursers desk and asked her to charge part of their account on our credit card so they would have some cash to get home and my wife did it. When I found out about it it was too late. To shorten the story my wife got stuck with a bill for $135.00 or so that we never did recover. Lesson learned. If someone appears to be too stupid, they usually are.

[deerby27]

First cruise with my soon to be new wife. Table for eight, another unmarried couple, two early twenty's brothers, two single girls and a newlywed couple from Eastern Europe that spoke little English. The newlyweds arrived for dinner at least 15 min. late every night so they missed a lot of the pre-dinner conversations. They spoke there native language to each other most of the time and there was a lot of gigging. It wasn't until the last night that we all finally figured out what they thought was so funny. They thought that the two brothers were a gay couple. They would talk about wearing each others clothes and stuff like that. When you knew they were brothers it made since, but not to them. We all got a good laugh on the last night.

[sea_u_onboard]

If someone appears to be too stupid, they usually are.

I don't know about that - they got your wife to pick up part of their tab. :D

[tarbashchaputi]

First cruise with former wife. Table for four with two single 30ish women from New England somewhere. Neither one of them had a credit card, so they had borrowed one from a friend and Carnival refused to honor it until a confirmation FAX came from him. They did not have enough cash to secure their sail & sign card, so they were unable to buy anything on the ship. Yes, one of them was blond. My wife wanted to be nice and buy things for them, but for goodness sake we did not know these women from Adam. They really wanted to be at a table with some other singles, so they asked to have their table changed and they were able to, but the other table mates were not any better, so after one night they were back. They finally got their credit problem straightened out after a couple of days. On the last day they saw my wife at the pursers desk and asked her to charge part of their account on our credit card so they would have some cash to get home and my wife did it. When I found out about it it was too late. To shorten the story my wife got stuck with a bill for $135.00 or so that we never did recover. Lesson learned. If someone appears to be too stupid, they usually are.

 

 

that is like my motto in life, we all should embrace your suggestion!

[deerby27]

I don't know about that - they got your wife to pick up part of their tab. :D

 

What made you think that I was not refering to my wife as well?

[Duckstoyou]

Years ago I was a single woman on a Greek Island Cruise seated with a single mother and her 2 daughters from England and a "family" of 4 ( Russian woman and her 6 yr old son with a German man and his 16 yr old son). The woman and her little boy were always late delaying everyone's meal til the man told us to eat without her. The 16 yr old hated his dad's girlfriend and let us know it! Funniest was when I met my son in Sweden to take him on a cruise to Russia. He was 25 and 6'4" and handsome. I was a New England housewife, lol and everyone at our table thought that he was my lover! Those Europeans all over the ship thought he was my lover. Thank god he had a great sense of humor. I walked around the ship intoducing "my son" to everyone. He made a point of calling me MOM everywhere and loudly!

 

Anyone know if there are activities for singles on Carnival's Elation for the 2/20 cruise out of Galveston? Otherwise, I'll just enjoy the good weather and bring lots of books! Contact me at duckstoyou@aol.com

 

Thanks,

Ellen;)

[momofmeg]

First cruise with former wife. Table for four with two single 30ish women from New England somewhere. Neither one of them had a credit card, so they had borrowed one from a friend and Carnival refused to honor it until a confirmation FAX came from him. They did not have enough cash to secure their sail & sign card, so they were unable to buy anything on the ship. Yes, one of them was blond. My wife wanted to be nice and buy things for them, but for goodness sake we did not know these women from Adam. They really wanted to be at a table with some other singles, so they asked to have their table changed and they were able to, but the other table mates were not any better, so after one night they were back. They finally got their credit problem straightened out after a couple of days. On the last day they saw my wife at the pursers desk and asked her to charge part of their account on our credit card so they would have some cash to get home and my wife did it. When I found out about it it was too late. To shorten the story my wife got stuck with a bill for $135.00 or so that we never did recover. Lesson learned. If someone appears to be too stupid, they usually are.

 

My Dad did something that stupid once. He met this guy in a bar who had a sob story-I don't remember what all but he needed $250 whiich he said he would pay back when he got his social security check. My Dad gave him the money and did not know the guy from Adam if you know what I mean.

 

Boy was my Mom pissed-it's a wonder THEY never divoiced. anway- believe it or not the guy met him back at the bar when he said he would and paid my Dad back the $250.

[madelinerose]

Whew! Sure glad DH and I are not naive! :eek:

[madelinerose]

We're with you, Janet! DH and I always get a two-top and just love it! ;)

 

 

 

We are soooooooooo getting a 2 top!!

 

Thanks for helping us with our decision.

 

12 days and counting,

:eek: Janet

[atlmagic]

This is WAY off center but....

 

My wife and I were at a small private table. We were engrossed in conversation when my wife picked up a fork (probably while gazing into my eyes). The waiter came by and slapped my wife’s hand and said that was the wrong fork. She had picked up a salad fork.

 

Seething inside, I slowly stood up and said, in a small quiet voice, "Why don't we just let her use any fork she likes and you just concentrate on bringing the food."

 

NOBODY corrects, much less TOUCHES my wife.

 

He slinked away and we never saw him for the rest of the cruise. We did get "special" attention for the rest of the trip.

[Lauri32]

I can't believe the waiter would do such a thing. Was it at least in a joking manner? I mean that would be a crude joke, but still that's just totally off the wall. Did you check his name tag- Did it say Ms. Manners?

[TERRY223]

I was asked one time, "what my sign was". I said, "A great big - DO NOT DISTURB" sign.

Rude/Crass answer: most definatly.

Did it work: Beautifully:D

[kodiac]

[quote name='atlmagic']This is WAY off center but....

My wife and I were at a small private table. We were engrossed in conversation when my wife picked up a fork (probably while gazing into my eyes). The waiter came by and slapped my wife’s hand and said that was the wrong fork. She had picked up a salad fork.

Seething inside, I slowly stood up and said, in a small quiet voice, "Why don't we just let her use any fork she likes and you just concentrate on bringing the food."

NOBODY corrects, much less TOUCHES my wife.

He slinked away and we never saw him for the rest of the cruise. We did get "special" attention for the rest of the trip.[/QUOTE]

I agree with you 100%... although I do not know if I would have kept as calm as you. I would have probably ended up in the CCL holding cell on that cruise :) No one should touch your wife.........

[Thoth]

[quote name='Tom-n-Cheryl']That probably goes to the woman who asked us (after introducing both of her children - the 1st string high school football player, and then the younger one - BOTH gifted) what our childrens names were (they were with us) and if they were in GIFTED classes also ....:rolleyes:

Needless to say, that was the LAST time (several cruises ago) that we opted for anything less than a private table... geesh ...

Tom[/QUOTE]
I THINK that the proper comback to "My kids are GIFTED ...how about yours?" Is " No my kids beat up the GIFTED nerds".

[jordanaire]

Last year on our "Adventure of the Seas" cruise, my wife and I decided to enjoy breakfast in the diningroom, something we rarely do on a cruise. Hoping to sit alone, we were placed at a table with two other couples. One couple was from Oklahoma, very charming. The other was a retired travel agent and his wife from New Jersey.

After sitting down and introducing ourselves, the very first question that this retired gentleman asked me was "what do you do for a living?". I told him that "I am a skilled team member at Toyota Motor Manufacturing". He responded by saying "oh, you work for that company that put Americans out of work!". I replied "well, I don't know about that, but there are over 8,000 Americans working at my plant, and less than 70 Japanese!".

He then asked my wife what she did for a living. She replied "I work in the food service field at our local high school". He said "surely you're not a cook!", which she replied "YES I AM!!!".

His next question is what made us decide that we didn't need to eat breakfast with this creep. He asked "what catagory cabin did we book?". I told him that we had booked one of the cabins that overlooked the Promenade. His answer to that was "well, we have the owner's suite, complete with a baby grand piano".

I looked at my wife and we nodded to each other that it was time to leave. I stood up and told this guy "I hope you have a great time playing with your piano during this cruise. As for us, we're going to have a great time with all of the other peons on this cruise!". We got up and left, never even seeing our breakfast!

What a jerk!

Bill

[brcris75]

[quote name='deerby27']First cruise with former wife. Table for four with two single 30ish women from New England somewhere. Neither one of them had a credit card, so they had borrowed one from a friend and Carnival refused to honor it until a confirmation FAX came from him. They did not have enough cash to secure their sail & sign card, so they were unable to buy anything on the ship. Yes, one of them was blond. My wife wanted to be nice and buy things for them, but for goodness sake we did not know these women from Adam. They really wanted to be at a table with some other singles, so they asked to have their table changed and they were able to, but the other table mates were not any better, so after one night they were back. They finally got their credit problem straightened out after a couple of days. On the last day they saw my wife at the pursers desk and asked her to charge part of their account on our credit card so they would have some cash to get home and my wife did it. When I found out about it it was too late. To shorten the story my wife got stuck with a bill for $135.00 or so that we never did recover. Lesson learned. If someone appears to be too stupid, they usually are.[/QUOTE]

From someone who learned the hard way....I can't help but wonder how many others they pulled this on. Do you know for sure they were hard pressed and having a problem with Carnival and their credit? Maybe they weren't so dumb after all! In your wife's defense, I don't think she's dumb, but has a soft spot for people in need. I used to be like that too-- until I was taken in. I always think twice now, "Is this for real or a scam?"

BTW, we've always been very lucky with tablemates! Still keep in touch with the couple we met on our first cruise WAY back in '87! If anything, we'd be the wierd ones! My DH actually asked for a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich on our last cruise! Thing was he was serious. He's is the pickiest eater ever! Luckily everyone got a laugh out of it and teased him about needing a child menu. (He's very easy going and good natured so was fine).