Worst table companion you have had

[Kentchikan]

we never did

 

We have done so. We were assigned to a table with a group of people who were all from another country. They all spoke English but were more comfortable in their native language which is understandable. However we did feel a bit left out so we moved dining rooms. Oddly enough later in the voyage we ran into a person from the original table who said they missed us and asked us why we moved. We said the other dining room was closer to our stateroom which was true.

[Kentchikan]

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Worst table companion we've had?

 

* The ones who can't handle a knife and fork in a civilized manner

and who should clearly do their hacking at the meat, up on Lido somewhere! :cool:

 

 

We were on a ship where the table ordered a roast beef to be served. One man offered to carve and did a masterful job. One PAX said to his wife that her husband did a masterful job of carving and inquired if he were a butcher.

The wife said, "Well sort of...he's a surgeon."

BTW I quite agree about the knife and fork and must add to that people who talk with their mouth full.

[one redneck cruiser]

My Wife and I are not the couple you want to be seated with! We go on cruises to be with each other. WE HATE TO BE SEATED AT A TABLE WITH STRANGERS!!! We could not care less about your kids, grandkids, job, home, dog, cat, pet monkey or car. Sorry but that's just how it is. We spend most of our time in our cabin on the balcony. We only go out to eat or to go to the ports. I have made this statement before and had the full gambit of posts about not going to MDR or not cruising at all. Also having just as many posts from people who feel the same way. I do not understand the reasoning behind the cruise line wanting to force people into these situations. I have been lucky so far because the first thing I do when I get on the ship is head to the Maitre’d and request a table for two.

[Tudorcruisers]

It was probably moved as it was not a RCI specific topic. Also, this is the "Ask a Cruise Question" section, not the first time cruisers section.

 

The heading of the box is First time cruisers and then it mentions cabin selection etc and First time cruisers so I just assumed the "Ask a Question" was really aimed at First time cruisers asking a question. I thought I had posted in the wrong place but it turned out a fun post. Have enjoyed all the stories a lot.

[wangeling gal]

Would the fellow snatching the roll out of your hand (last in the basket) while lining up at the pig trough..........sorry, Buffet, on the Virgo, be considered a bad dining companion?:cool:

I know you wanted bad table companions, but I thought I would throw this into the mix.

So stunned was I, I stood for several seconds replaying in my mind what had just happened, holding up the line and getting seriously evil looks. In a way I ended up having a win, as the replacement basket was warm and fresh straight out of the kitchen!;)

[Aplmac]

My Wife and I are not the couple you want to be seated with!

We go on cruises to be with each other.

WE HATE TO BE SEATED AT A TABLE WITH STRANGERS!!!

 

We spend most of our time in our cabin on the balcony.

We only go out to eat or to go to the ports.

 

I have been lucky so far because the first thing I do when I get on the ship

is head to the Maitre’d and request a table for two.

I would have thought it easier for you guys to just place a Standing Order with the galley

for Room Service for all Breakfasts, Lunches and Dinners

to be brought to your cabin, no?

 

You really should consider this option, seriously!

 

.

[hubofhockey]

I would have thought it easier for you guys to just place a Standing Order with the galley

for Room Service for all Breakfasts, Lunches and Dinners

to be brought to your cabin, no?

 

You really should consider this option, seriously!

 

.

 

I disagree with you. With room service, everything gets brought out at once and there is no guarantee you will get a full menu or that your food will be hot. There is absolutely nothing wrong to not want to share a table with total strangers. I wouldn't do it at a restaurant and wouldn't do it at sea. We like anytime dining because we can either eat alone or choose others whom we know or meet on the ship to dine with.

 

Worst tablemate experience for me was my daughter, when she was 13 and in a bad mood, but I'm use to that. ;)

[momofmeg]

Would the fellow snatching the roll out of your hand (last in the basket) while lining up at the pig trough..........sorry, Buffet, on the Virgo, be considered a bad dining companion?:cool:

I know you wanted bad table companions, but I thought I would throw this into the mix.

So stunned was I, I stood for several seconds replaying in my mind what had just happened, holding up the line and getting seriously evil looks. In a way I ended up having a win, as the replacement basket was warm and fresh straight out of the kitchen!;)

 

If you were waitng for rolls I see no problem with a person coming around you in line. If the people behind you gave you dirty looks for your waitng for fresh rolls they were in the wrong-that is not breaking in line-Lol!

 

That WAS pretty tacky

[momofmeg]

Her grandson had a perpetual "Who is this woman, someone please get me out of here" look of panic on his face.

 

Poor kid!

[1025cruise]

I would have thought it easier for you guys to just place a Standing Order with the galley

for Room Service for all Breakfasts, Lunches and Dinners

to be brought to your cabin, no?

 

You really should consider this option, seriously!

 

.

 

Not all lines offer the option of the full MDR menu as room service.

[momofmeg]

My Wife and I are not the couple you want to be seated with! We go on cruises to be with each other. WE HATE TO BE SEATED AT A TABLE WITH STRANGERS!!! We could not care less about your kids, grandkids, job, home, dog, cat, pet monkey or car. Sorry but that's just how it is. We spend most of our time in our cabin on the balcony. We only go out to eat or to go to the ports. I have made this statement before and had the full gambit of posts about not going to MDR or not cruising at all. Also having just as many posts from people who feel the same way. I do not understand the reasoning behind the cruise line wanting to force people into these situations. I have been lucky so far because the first thing I do when I get on the ship is head to the Maitre’d and request a table for two.

 

We pick my time. However, we do usually sit with others and are enjoy it. It is just easier if we do not hit it off with our tablemates to only have one dinner with them.

 

There was once with my time dining that our tablemate with ill fitting dentures, (his wife apologized and said this was why he ate so slow, he was getting major dental work done and was wearing temporary dentures) I did have empathy for him, but what I did not have empathy for was that he ordered 3 of each course and held the rest of us up, he also spent plenty of time talking-we went to dinner at 5:30 pm and missed the 8 pm show because of him-we were 9 pm gettting out of dinner. We did request a table for 2 the next night BTW. I told hubby if that ever happened to us again, I would ask the waiter not to hold the courses up because of one person being a pig! I also spoke to the mait'rd as we left without dessert,and pointed out the guy and told him, I felt he should be seated at a table for 2 as our dinner took over 3 hours and we did not get dessert.

[Tudorcruisers]

How do you work "pita" in the conversation? Do you reach for the bread basket and say, "Darn, no pita bread!" :D

Felicia

 

No - just look over and quietly say Pitta - thank goodness we don't use it very often:)

[Tudorcruisers]

Would the fellow snatching the roll out of your hand (last in the basket) while lining up at the pig trough..........sorry, Buffet, on the Virgo, be considered a bad dining companion?:cool:

I know you wanted bad table companions, but I thought I would throw this into the mix.

So stunned was I, I stood for several seconds replaying in my mind what had just happened, holding up the line and getting seriously evil looks. In a way I ended up having a win, as the replacement basket was warm and fresh straight out of the kitchen!;)

 

Gosh - I would have stood there stunned as well. How rude can someone be - grabbing a roll out of your hand!! - yes you can add him certainly to this post :)

[Donder1]

We pick my time. However, we do usually sit with others and are enjoy it. It is just easier if we do not hit it off with our tablemates to only have one dinner with them.

 

There was once with my time dining that our tablemate with ill fitting dentures, (his wife apologized and said this was why he ate so slow, he was getting major dental work done and was wearing temporary dentures) I did have empathy for him, but what I did not have empathy for was that he ordered 3 of each course and held the rest of us up, he also spent plenty of time talking-we went to dinner at 5:30 pm and missed the 8 pm show because of him-we were 9 pm gettting out of dinner. We did request a table for 2 the next night BTW. I told hubby if that ever happened to us again, I would ask the waiter not to hold the courses up because of one person being a pig! I also spoke to the mait'rd as we left without dessert,and pointed out the guy and told him, I felt he should be seated at a table for 2 as our dinner took over 3 hours and we did not get dessert.

 

If this happened to us, we would have very politely asked our companions to please understand that we wanted to continue with our courses so that we might catch the show. I would have asked the wait staff to bring our orders to us ahead of the others and I think that they would have done that easily, at least on Princess and HAL ships. On the way out, I would ask the Head Waiter to be assigned a different seating for the duration of the cruise.

[askimdog]

We eat meals as a family, wife, daughter and I. The wife and I are in the tourism business and tend to avoid others while on vacation ourselves. We have never shared a table in 3 cruises taken.

[Kentchikan]

Such a fun thread!!

 

Our worst table mates haven't been nearly as terrible or amusing as the ones posted here so far.

 

I think the worst I can recall was the couple in their 50s with teen sons. Dad was THE most successful man on the planet, he was sure to tell us so - we heard several mentions of his Harvard degree, Porsche Boxster, the boys' expensive private schools, and so on. And not in the natural course of conversation - he made sure to weasel in these items into discussion so we could be impressed by how awesome he was. :rolleyes:

 

Hey, pal, if you're such a hotshot, how come I saw you in the hallway of the Riviera Deck going into an interior quad cabin?? Shouldn't you be at least in the Captain's Suite, if not renting your own yacht? :p

 

YAWN. I so prefer the company of humble, down to earth, non-materialistic people!!

 

I agree. Our wealthiest friends are the least likely to talk about their wealth.

I love your screen name. Great book. Are you a teacher?

[Aplmac]

Not all lines offer the option of the full MDR menu as room service.

I agree, but just think... the privacy factor overcomes all such disadvantages!

 

Surely the important thing is to stay closeted, and to yourselves, not so? :confused:

 

.

[Aplmac]

I like this thread. :)

 

 

It makes me feel so very normal and congenial. :)

 

.

[Yen Sid]

The worse ever was on a Disney Cruise, me and my wife were seated at a 4 person table with a handicapped person in a wheelchair who had cerebral palsy or something similar who had a lot of involuntary muscle contractions and movements. She had a caregiver or a friend who was feeding her and helping her. I really felt sorry for her, but it was even worse for my wife and me. First, the problem was the seating arrangement, they should have had their own table to themselves and we should been at a different table. It was the first night and it was my wife's first ever cruise.

 

It was the most uncomfortable meal I ever had, I was trying to be really nice and pretend it didn't bother me. I had to face her directly across from me and her friend sat to her left helping her eat but when she started kicking me under the table and she would grab the tablecloth and almost yank it off the table I had to grab my plate as I thought it would go on the floor. The servers were also uncomfortable about serving her not sure where to put the plates or her reaction, I could see in their faces but just smiled. After we survived the meal with some shin bruises, I had to talk to about 3 different people to get my table changed and they didn't apologize or anything about seating us there almost like I was the bad guy. The next meal we were seated with nice family at a bigger table and had great service after that, but that was a horrible way to start a cruise.

[Kentchikan]

We eat meals as a family, wife, daughter and I. The wife and I are in the tourism business and tend to avoid others while on vacation ourselves. We have never shared a table in 3 cruises taken.

 

I spoke with a woman who had a huge group on board and she said she always ate in her cabin or she would be always working.

[Kentchikan]

If you were waitng for rolls I see no problem with a person coming around you in line. If the people behind you gave you dirty looks for your waitng for fresh rolls they were in the wrong-that is not breaking in line-Lol!

 

That WAS pretty tacky

 

I agree. On some ships I've been on it seems to be acceptable to "jump" to another area if you don't want anything from the section you're in. However one time I did go around a woman and move on to another section and she ran over and jumped in front of me and told me I was rude. I tried to explain expedient but it didn't fly.

[NoobCruise]

I've posted this one a couple of times on other threads, but I'll go ahead and toss it in here too. This one seems to cause a debate in who was in the wrong. And these weren't actually table mates. It was the table next to us in the buffet.

 

We arrived at the buffet a little early for lunch so there were still a lot of tables open, but as we ate, they were quickly filling up. A large group of about 10 with a few small children came in and were very lucky to find a 10 top open so they could all sit together. There were still quite a few smaller tables open, but no more large ones. So this large group sets their shopping bags and sunglasses, books, and drinks down on the 10 top, jackets draped over chairs, and go off to get their food. There was absolutely no question that this table was taken.

 

Again, let me reiterate that there were still a number of smaller tables vacant.

 

This older couple walks up with their plates full of food, shoves aside some of these people belongings, moves their jackets, sits down, and starts eating. As the large group comes back one by one, they are shocked at the nerve of this couple. They're clearly upset. "You couldn't see this table was taken?" The couple just shrugs it off, ignores them, and keeps eating. So the large group gathers their stuff while trying to juggle plates and kids and moves. I didn't see where they ended up, but by this time, the buffet was full enough that I highly doubt they were able to find a table together, though there were still a few smaller tables open.

 

Personally, because there were so many smaller tables open, I thought this couple's narcissism was one of the rudest things I've seen.

[Casey2]

We have been very lucky with our dinner companions except for the fist night of a Mediterranean cruise. We were seated at a table with 5 other people who did not acknowledge our presence throughout the entire meal. They were from a non English speaking country, however they spoke English fluently as they had lenghty conversations in English with the waiters and bus boy. When we introduced oursevleves they didn't introduce them selves back to us. We were so uncomfortable that we left before dessert. As we were leaving one person said "see you tommorrow" which was the only thing they said to us the entire evening. We had our table changed and had wonderful dinner companions at our new table.

[Aplmac]

The worse ever was on a Disney Cruise, me and my wife were seated at a 4 person table with a handicapped person in a wheelchair who had cerebral palsy or something similar who had a lot of involuntary muscle contractions and movements. She had a caregiver or a friend who was feeding her and helping her. I really felt sorry for her, but it was even worse for my wife and me. First, the problem was the seating arrangement, they should have had their own table to themselves and we should been at a different table.

It was the first night and it was my wife's first ever cruise.

 

It was the most uncomfortable meal I ever had, I was trying to be really nice and pretend it didn't bother me. I had to face her directly across from me and her friend sat to her left helping her eat but when she started kicking me under the table and she would grab the tablecloth and almost yank it off the table I had to grab my plate as I thought it would go on the floor. The servers were also uncomfortable about serving her not sure where to put the plates or her reaction, I could see in their faces but just smiled.

After we survived the meal with some shin bruises, I had to talk to about 3 different people to get my table changed and they didn't apologize or anything about seating us there almost like I was the bad guy.

 

The next meal we were seated with nice family at a bigger table and had great service after that, but that was a horrible way to start a cruise.

Disney? Whatever happened to the legendary Disney perfection? :confused:

This was most UN-Disney-like, if you ask me.

I would have thought that Disney booking agents

would have placed such a 'special needs' person at their own table

and not inconvenienced other cruisers with what you suffered!

 

Congratulations: you handled the matter with great aplomb,sir!

 

 

.

[Kentchikan]

We have been very lucky with our dinner companions except for the fist night of a Mediterranean cruise. We were seated at a table with 5 other people who did not acknowledge our presence throughout the entire meal. They were from a non English speaking country, however they spoke English fluently as they had lenghty conversations in English with the waiters and bus boy. When we introduced oursevleves they didn't introduce them selves back to us. We were so uncomfortable that we left before dessert. As we were leaving one person said "see you tommorrow" which was the only thing they said to us the entire evening. We had our table changed and had wonderful dinner companions at our new table.

 

We were on an Alaskan cruise with friends who never go to the MDR it was an 11 day cruise and on day 5 or 6 we convinced them to show up at their assigned table to see what would happen. They did and sat down and introduced themselves and no one spoke to them at all. They all talked among themselves but not to our friends. They never went back. I would have thought they would at leas have inquired as to where their table mates had been for all those days. :confused: