Seating Arrangements For Party Of 36!

[castle701]

We are a group of 36 - various ages. Our t/a says they will seat us near one another - Has anyone had a group this large and how was the seating arrangements. Anything else I can do to guarantee us seating together. Any suggestions?

[Cruising89143]

Just make sure that your TA has all of your group linked together so that RCI will know that you are all one group. You might also give your TA a seating chart and ask them to pass it along to RCI. I have done this in the past with Carnival and it worked. Also when you get on the ship several of you should go to the dining room and check the seating arrangements.

[castle701]

do you know how I would get a seating chart for the Mariner or do I just do a list?

[Cruising89143]

I would just do a list. Try to keep it around eight to ten a table.

[Ella2]

Your TA has probably done this, but you will want him/her to link those that you want to dine at the same TABLE. As a group, the tables should be close together, but if you have certain people that want to be at the same table those reservations should be linked for dining.

 

Also, if you have prepaid gratuities (EVERYONE in your group must have done this), after the first night, you could all SWITCH tables and seating within the group and sit wherever you want at the tables assigned to you.

 

Enjoy your cruise! :)

[Cruise Craver]

We had a group of 40 to 50. Our TA was part of the group. She did a seating chart and gave it to RCCL. We had several tables in a row along one side of the dining room.

[sailinglisa]

Please, realize that in that large of a group, not all of you will have the same wait staff. If you are going to do the musical chair thing, please keep that in mind....don't make their jobs harder than they have to be. And when you do the musical chair thing, those in the same service area as the waiters you have do have a delay in their service because of the changing that you are doing.....do you think it is fair for other cruiser's service to suffer so you can indulge in table swapping? Again - if your group is small enough to have the same wait staff it is not as big a problem as it is when you wait staff has other people to serve other than your group. Being a victim of this on my last cruise, I am very sensitive to this.

 

I was with large groups about 4 times, each time we had our assigned tables as the TA handled all the arrangements and the group leader also had copies of what was supposed to be and made sure with the maitre'd that all was as it was supposed to be. We never table hopped, or anything else. It would have made us receive service that was not up to par, and it would have put an extra burden on the wait staff. There are plenty of other times to catch up with the rest of your group.....ie: open seating breakfast and lunch, planned excursions, etc.

[Happy ks]

I don't quite understand why it would be a problem for the staff if you table hop. We leave the same gratuity (or more) when we cruise, so no one is getting short changed. We don't drink the same beverage every evening, nor do we order the same food. All that would be different is that you would be in a different seat with different people every night. I doubt it would be a problem for anyone.

 

We have cruised with a group and had adjacent tables, it was a lot of fun. Never once did we sit at the same table, but mixed it up to be able to spend time with everyone. The waiters and assistant waiters in our area were wonderful, they seemed to enjoy the diversity as much as we did. I would not have liked to be so restricted every night.

 

Even when we cruise as a family, with perhaps another family, we don't ever sit in the same seats every night.

[Murphy]

From someone who has been seated next to several larger groups, I will say the cruiseline appears to handle it quite well.

 

On our last cruise however, there was a family reunion of 4 generations of folks who did the table hop thing. The wait staff was exasperated as were all the diners sitting near them, (ie, ME.) These folks table hopped DURING dinner. The kids would start out with their parents, then decide all the kids should sit together, including several who were too young not to have a parent sitting with them. So the parents would keep getting up to see if the kids were eating anything or just playing swords with their breadsticks. The kids would leave after the main course and the waitstaff would clear their table completely (after checking with the parents to see if they were coming back) and then AFTER dessert was served, the kids would come back for dessert and the poor waitstaff had to reset the table!

 

I'm sure your group wouldn't behave in such a way, but please if you table hop, pick a table for the entire meal and if your kids still need help finishing thier dinner, don't seat them by themselves.

[jcanino]

We are a group of 36 - various ages. Our t/a says they will seat us near one another - Has anyone had a group this large and how was the seating arrangements. Anything else I can do to guarantee us seating together. Any suggestions?

 

I had a group of 37 last year, all family and friends. I faxed in a list of who was to sit at what table of how many people. I had a group of 5 tables all around each other. Give your TA a list of who will sit where and have them forward it about 3 to 4 weeks prior to sailing.

[cruisinisforme]

We just came back from the Mariner with a group of 17, we had two tables, the same waiter, and sorry to said we table hopped. The problem with that is they are trying very hard to please you by remembering your name and things you prefer, and they do this by where you sit, we were extremely lucky to have a great waiter, Rose, she was wonderful, and handled it great. Its hard to tell people not to do something like this with such a large group, of course you would like to sit near others during your cruise, just be aware that you may not get all that real "personal" attention by doing this and it is your fault, not the wait staff. Like I said Rose was wonderful, its the first time I had such a large group and we have no complaints.

[lucinjo]

I just got back from Enchantment of the Seas where I cruised with a group of 51 family members. Our TA linked us together and we had a group of 7 tables (ranging in size from 4-10 people). Before our first dinner we checked with the Maitre'D and let him know that we would be rotating our group to different tables each evening. The only request that the staff made was that we put our tips on our Sea Pass so that the waiters at our original tables would receive the correct tips. We then were free to slip extra cash to those waiters we felt had given us exceptional service. We were happy, the wait staff was happy and a good time was had by all.

[Crockett Man]

We have cruised 2 times with groups totaling 62. Once on RCCL and most recently this past March on Princess. My sister-in-law was the organizer of the group both times and use to work for a TA and still kept her connections there. She did as others have said by linking the booking numbers together to ensure we all sat together. She also sent a list with the names of those that would be seated together at each table. When we embarked the Princess ship, she and her husband along with my wife and I went to see the Matire' D and everything was as she requested except for one table of four. That was corrected right then and everything worked out great. When we cruised with RCCL we did not meet with the Matire' D and we had to settle everything the first night when we arrived in the dining room. There were a few more problems than what we had experienced on Princess but those were corrected by the second night and everything was fine. No table hopping here though.

[kenandlaura06]

Have fun with such a big group!

[castle701]

Confused about the linking? For instance, do I list who wants to sit with who and link them to one cabin number, but still have the ta link our entire group together so that all the tables - (I figure we will need five since RCCL told us it is best to have various size tables, giving us a better chance of being next to one another) are together?

[Ella2]

Castle, your TA should already have you all booked under a GROUP ID number that links you all together as part of the group.

 

What you'll want to give your TA are the INDIVIDUAL booking numbers of the parties you want to sit together at each table. Don't worry about CABIN numbers, just tell your TA which booking numbers you want to sit together. If you don't have everyone's booking numbers then just a list of names is fine, the TA can add the booking numbers.

 

All the tables should be close to each other in the dining room since you're all part of the group. :)

[raydon]

We did a large group last November. Once we established where the kids would be (ages 4- 12) we adults table hopped but we never moved the kiddies as their waiter was very attentive. It was great because the kids had a variety of relatives..we all tipped our regularly assiged wait team and gave extra where it was due!

[quiltsnh]

We cruised on Explorer in April with 30 people. Before we left we recd. an email from RCCL asking about table assignments... the choices were: not sitting together.... sitting together or round robin... in thew round robin everyone had to prepay their tips.... We picked sitting together...two tables had the same waiter.... the kids were at one table and adults at another... the third table was a mix and had a dif. waiter and they could not jump to the other tables.... but we were all next to each other so it worked....

:)

[Pablo's Cruise]

We are a group of 36 - various ages. Our t/a says they will seat us near one another - Has anyone had a group this large and how was the seating arrangements. Anything else I can do to guarantee us seating together. Any suggestions?

 

We had 19 of us on VOS in June--or excellent TA sat us on the side of the Magic flute in 3 tables--we had ocean view dining, in our on little section. With a group of your size, I would imagine you would get the entire section (4 tables in the sect).

[castle701]

Is there seating for 10 per table at the magic flute area? Would the t/a ask for that area?