DINING COMPANIONS

[esther e]

Even when my husband was alive we enjoyed sharing a large table.  If you run into rude tablemates, you can just ignore them or change the subject.  Now that I'm sailing solo, I very much look forward to meeting new people and sharing dinner.    I'm not confrontational or rude.  LOL

[Janet524]

Guess we have been lucky.  35 years of  cruising and have always enjoyed our table mates. 

[Lady Arwen]

We’ve been married over 50 years and we’re never bored being alone just the two of us.  On the contrary, sitting with a table full of strangers becomes tedious quite quickly.  We love our table for two, drinking our wine, commenting on, and even sharing, dishes that are particularly delicious.  We giggle to ourselves watching the boorish guy two tables over with his napkin tucked under his chin eating with his hands.  No thank you!  Two tops every night for us.  However, we’re up for sharing conversations at the Martini Bar!

Edited November 7, 2021 by Lady Arwen

[Sam.Seattle]

2 hours ago, Janet524 said:

Guess we have been lucky.  35 years of  cruising and have always enjoyed our table mates. 

Maybe you are the folks people don't want to sit with? 

 

JUST TEASING!!!

PS... I am an unemployed want to be stand up comic.

 

🍸

 

Edited November 7, 2021 by Sam.Seattle

[LGW59]

49 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

We’ve been married over 50 years and we’re never bored being alone just the two of us.  On the contrary, sitting with a table full of strangers becomes tedious quite quickly.  We love our table for two, drinking our wine, commenting on, and even sharing, dishes that are particularly delicious.  We giggle to ourselves watching the boorish guy two tables over with his napkin tucked under his chin eating with his hands.  No thank you!  Two tops every night for us.  However, we’re up for sharing conversations at the Martini Bar!

Congratulations on 50+ years of marriage!

[DCPIV]

Good tablemates can be one of the great joys of cruising. We've had a lot of good times and even made friends that we've had for 15 years. We've had more than one cruise where our table would be laughing so much and so loudly that we would get some looks from others in the dining room that were not having as good of a time. 

 

On the other hand, bad tablemates are something of a living hell.

 

I like flexible dining. You can make arrangements with dining partners you enjoy, and you can make excuses with those you don't. 

[zitsky]

Everyone should be required to share their CC profile name before and during the cruise.  Then you can decide who to sit with.

[lobsternight]

I remember picking the brains of an old boss that had over 45 cruises under his belt, this was about 18 years ago.  I guess traditional dining was still big then, along with stricter dress codes and what not.  He said his biggest stress when cruising was the first meal.  He said every table has an a**hole, and that a**hole may even be yourself, but it was always finding out who it was.

 

I rarely share tables for numerous reasons.  I did send my late mother along with my son on a few cruises.  Mom enjoyed meeting all sorts of wonderful people, and having my son along they were often paired with families. My son still keeps contact with some of the kids from their adventures.

 

I do remember on the last cruise I took Mom on, we were seated at a table for two next to another elderly lady and her daughter, our ages matched.  Two my horror the two elderly ladies loudly discussed our medical conditions and previous surgeries. Ugh  

[Guppy99]

34 minutes ago, lobsternight said:

I remember picking the brains of an old boss that had over 45 cruises under his belt, this was about 18 years ago.  I guess traditional dining was still big then, along with stricter dress codes and what not.  He said his biggest stress when cruising was the first meal.  He said every table has an a**hole, and that a**hole may even be yourself, but it was always finding out who it was.

 

I rarely share tables for numerous reasons.  I did send my late mother along with my son on a few cruises.  Mom enjoyed meeting all sorts of wonderful people, and having my son along they were often paired with families. My son still keeps contact with some of the kids from their adventures.

 

I do remember on the last cruise I took Mom on, we were seated at a table for two next to another elderly lady and her daughter, our ages matched.  Two my horror the two elderly ladies loudly discussed our medical conditions and previous surgeries. Ugh  

oh my ! LOL

[zitsky]

52 minutes ago, lobsternight said:

I remember picking the brains of an old boss that had over 45 cruises under his belt, this was about 18 years ago.  I guess traditional dining was still big then, along with stricter dress codes and what not.  He said his biggest stress when cruising was the first meal.  He said every table has an a**hole, and that a**hole may even be yourself, but it was always finding out who it was.

 

I rarely share tables for numerous reasons.  I did send my late mother along with my son on a few cruises.  Mom enjoyed meeting all sorts of wonderful people, and having my son along they were often paired with families. My son still keeps contact with some of the kids from their adventures.

 

I do remember on the last cruise I took Mom on, we were seated at a table for two next to another elderly lady and her daughter, our ages matched.  Two my horror the two elderly ladies loudly discussed our medical conditions and previous surgeries. Ugh  

 

Yea I have to stop my partner from discussing my toe fungus.  That's my job.

[go.without.you]

True story: left my controlling husband and moved from MD to FL. Took a cruise 2 months later - I always ask to be seated at a large table. We get to dinner and it's a table of 4....ok. The couple was from MD also.....hmmm. Found out months later that my ex hired a Private Investigator to sail on the cruise and spy on me!

 

1st, we were legally separated. 2nd, he was so cheap he would never let me order wine or drinks on vacation (1 of MANY reasons I left), yet he paid for that couple to fly and take a 3 night cruise. Like I said, controlling.

 

Outside of dinner we barely saw them. In Nassau I was able to get a free day pass to Sandals so they couldn't follow us there. Plus what do you really talk about at dinner? I don't share intimate details of my life with strangers.  Unbelievable. 

[Guppy99]

As a divorce lawyer, I see these things every day. I have stories that are food for lifetime movies.

[Guppy99]

1 minute ago, Guppy99 said:

As a divorce lawyer, I see these things every day. I have stories that are food for lifetime movies. You should have grabbed a strange man and introduced him as your long time lover.... or better yet, a woman....or even better a couple! That would twist his panties into a bunch :)

 

Edited November 8, 2021 by Guppy99

[go.without.you]

5 hours ago, Guppy99 said:

As a divorce lawyer, I see these things every day. I have stories that are food for lifetime movies.

I don't even wanna know...

[Pinboy]

On 11/7/2021 at 1:08 PM, DCPIV said:

We've had more than one cruise where our table would be laughing so much and so loudly that we would get some looks from others in the dining room that were not having as good of a time. 

Without prejudice , or, maybe a little--

LOL--- Any thought of WHY others were not having a good time ??

           Any thought of WHY some folks, like us, prefer to sit by themselves --- just in case ??

 

 

 

 

[DCPIV]

9 minutes ago, Pinboy said:

Without prejudice , or, maybe a little--

LOL--- Any thought of WHY others were not having a good time ??

           Any thought of WHY some folks, like us, prefer to sit by themselves --- just in case ??

 

 

 

 

 

We were aware, but at couldn't help ourselves. We weren't trying to annoy anyone, but you may as well have asked the wind not to blow. It was one of those wild and wonderful times when six persons from all over come together, and laughter built upon laughter.  

 

I'll add that we were not using inappropriate language or speaking about inappropriate subjects. 

 

This was a Silversea ship that could seat every guest in The Restaurant had they showed up at the same time (Silver Shadow, I believe). It was an enormous dining room that never was more than half full, and we always were some of the first in there. We didn't even try to sit together, but the Maitre d' would ask every time we arrived, and he'd reunite us at the same table night after night. He certainly seemed to have no issue, so I have some comfort that we were not out of line. We always sat at the same table, and it was not a prime table by any means. Again, I don't mean to be callous, but no one had any reason to sit near us unless they just wanted to enjoy or be offended by our laughter. 

[Guppy99]

On 11/7/2021 at 7:49 AM, Turtles06 said:

My wife and I have had enough unpleasant dinner companions at larger tables that we now ask for two-tops. Unfortunately, on Celebrity, so many of the two-tops are so close together that you are effectively eating with two or four strangers, depending on where in the row your table is. We’ve had some very nice dinner conversations this way, but also some we’d have preferred to avoid, like the one with the guy who made an insulting political remark, clearly unconcerned about the unwritten rule of not discussing politics or religion with strangers. 
 

I love Celebrity, but I wish they did a better job of spacing out the tables in the MDRs. 

I take it you've never seen Blu on the Summit. The two tops are abreast one another with barely 12 inches between them

[Jim_Iain]

On 11/5/2021 at 3:50 PM, the penguins said:

Not allowed on Silhouette this summer you could only sit with people you had a linked booking with - bookings could not be linked after boarding.

Interesting.  

Both on Millennium and Equinox we dined with friends that we were not linked to in Luminae, Blu and Murano's. 

 

I had a dinner party in Murano's for 4 couples and no problem at all.  

 

In both cases we had our own bubble and generally only interacted with each other.

[the penguins]

5 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Interesting.  

Both on Millennium and Equinox we dined with friends that we were not linked to in Luminae, Blu and Murano's. 

 

I had a dinner party in Murano's for 4 couples and no problem at all.  

 

In both cases we had our own bubble and generally only interacted with each other.

It's interesting  (worrying?) how Celebrity is operating in different markets and on different ships and yet their Safe Sail panel which gave them guidance is the same across the fleet.

 

[chemmo]

8 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Interesting.  

Both on Millennium and Equinox we dined with friends that we were not linked to in Luminae, Blu and Murano's. 

 

I had a dinner party in Murano's for 4 couples and no problem at all.  

 

In both cases we had our own bubble and generally only interacted with each other.

I think this was UK protocols for our staycation cruises.  Mask wearing was also enforced when moving between venues. It sounds quite severe but it really wasn’t a big deal. Whilst chairs in bars were reasonably separated it was still easy to have a conversation and mix with others not in your party.

[Turtles06]

10 hours ago, Guppy99 said:

I take it you've never seen Blu on the Summit. The two tops are abreast one another with barely 12 inches between them

That was my point. Celebrity does a poor job with two-tops. As for 12 inches in Blu, the two-tops on the Summit in the MDR had just several inches between them. Just enough that you could see a little air. 

[chemmo]

On 11/7/2021 at 4:32 PM, Lady Arwen said:

  Two tops every night for us.  However, we’re up for sharing conversations at the Martini Bar!

Sort of our philosophy too unless travelling with family. Often towards the end of a cruise we will arrange to dine with people we have met in bars or poolside which is definitely different than just sitting with total strangers.

 

The only really bad dining experience we ever had was at a chef’s table when a loud man interrupted every conversation with “in my opinion” or “I always find…” whilst his wife kept asking for her wine glass to be filled up again and slowly became incapable of any conversation……

[zitsky]

1 hour ago, chemmo said:

Sort of our philosophy too unless travelling with family. Often towards the end of a cruise we will arrange to dine with people we have met in bars or poolside which is definitely different than just sitting with total strangers.

 

The only really bad dining experience we ever had was at a chef’s table when a loud man interrupted every conversation with “in my opinion” or “I always find…” whilst his wife kept asking for her wine glass to be filled up again and slowly became incapable of any conversation……

 

Rude people.  I can be pretty direct if I want to be.  Not sure if I would say something or just turn to the person next to me.  Anyone deal with this successfully?

[DenGNNJ]

On 11/7/2021 at 7:13 PM, zitsky said:

 

Yea I have to stop my partner from discussing my toe fungus.  That's my job.

It’s your job to discuss your toe fungus, or your job to stop your partner from discussing your toe fungus???
 

Perhaps you wouldn’t have to stop them from discussing it, if you didn’t mention it in the first place.  You know, like you did here??? 🤣😂🤣

Edited November 10, 2021 by DenGNNJ

[zitsky]

4 minutes ago, DenGNNJ said:

It’s your job to discuss your toe fungus, or your job to stop your partner from discussing your toe fungus???
 

Perhaps you wouldn’t have to stop them from discussing it, if you didn’t mention it in the first place.  You know, like you did here??? 🤣😂🤣

 

The hard part is finding the people who DO want to hear about it.