Main Dining Room Seating

[cb at sea]

We've always enjoyed dining with others....and either we've been lucky, or we're just easy to get along with...we've never had "bad" or "obnoxious" tablemates! Some, we only see at dinner, others we've hung around with during the evening or afternoons!

 

Hubby and I eat almost EVERY meal together at home, and it's nice to have others to chat with at dinner!

[MisterMet]

We get a table for two and we do Select Dining. It is our time to talk to each other and catch up on all that happened during the day and talk about tomorrow. Of course tables for two are usually set close together so we often end up talking a bit with those near us.

 

 

 

Ditto

 

 

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[ghstudio]

It's been a while since we've chosen fixed dining. One of the benefits of Select dining is that you can choose to eat at a 2 top...or you can join an ad hoc group table. And your group will likely be different each night so you meet different people and/or don't have to eat with that horrible person again. :) If you like eating at the early seating time, it's ideal because there is very rarely any wait at all at 6:30...just show up.

 

There are a few risks with large tables in the MDR which we have experienced first hand. First...you could be seated with a family of 6 or 6 folks travelling together..and from experience, that really doesn't work....however, if you talk to the maitre d' they usually will move you to a different table for the rest of the cruise. The other issue is when all the others go to a specialty restaurant, leaving you alone at this big table...waiting for people who don't show up (and don't have the courtesy to mention their specialty restaurant reservation to the waiter or you).

 

We would opt for a 2 person table in Fixed dining.

[Peggy Sue]

We haven't done fixed dining time in several years. We like select dining, and we always request a table for 2. As others have said, the tables for 2 are placed quite close together .. a person cannot pass between them ... that's how close they are. We have had great conversations with fellow cruisers sitting at a table for 2 next to us. We also like to switch up our dining locations and also book the speciality dining for about half the cruise nights, which are always at a table for 2. Although there is more space between tables in the speciality venues, they are still close enough together that you can chat.

Our issue with large tables are some of the same mentioned here .. the other issue we don't like is the pacing of the meal is based upon all participants having the same course at the same time (fixed dining, I don't know if this is true for select dining) We generally order all the different courses, and we found we spent way to long in the dining room. One time we were seated with a couple who ordered multiple apps and entrees ..that was very time consuming!

Enjoy your cruise!

[WpgCruise]

We have usually had Traditional Fixed. In over 20 cruises only once were we not compatible with our assigned dining partners.

 

We've enjoyed the company of some so much we scheduled and enjoyed future cruises together, and still correspond with others met many years ago.

 

Only once did we not "click" with our assigned table mates and given how many new friends we made over the years consider one so-so experience to have been a great trade off for the wonderful people we have met by sharing a table.

 

The great part of a cruise vacation is you can tweak it somewhat to make it what you want. Dine with your partner, alone, or with new friends, the choice is yours.

[thedoorchick]

For the cruise we just did in July we chose Select dining, which works well for us because my husband especially may not always be hungry at the same time, especially if we had a late snack or some such. The flexibility is a plus in our case.

 

We got a two top several nights and shared a few other nights. The first shared night we enjoyed the people we met and ended up seeing them and saying hello around the ship the next few days. The next time we shared, it was the two of us and two other couples. One was older (70s) and they were recently married, having been widowed before, and couldn't stop talking about how they couldn't keep their hands off each other. The notion was rather cute but the details I could have done without. Then the other couple starts in with asking what everyone thinks of President Trump. I thought, oh dear, we have only just met these people and all they can talk about is sex and politics! We excused ourselves before dessert.

 

So all that to say, we are generally fairly introverted, but sometimes will be open to dining with potential new friends, and sometimes it works out well and other times....not so much.

[Ereggae]

Table for two at a fixed time in Blu. Sometimes not in a chatty mood, especially with strangers who feel the need to know your entire life story during dinner.