Table mates

[Young cruiser]

Does any one know if carnival makes any type of effort to seat you with people of the same age....or is it just random

 

I will be sailing on the Glory 1/27/07 with two girlfriends all in our early 20's at a "large table" just tring to get a feel for what to expect at dinner

 

thanks

[Bahama Mamma]

I cruised the Fantasy in May with a friend of mine (both of us in our 20's) and we sat with 4 guys about our age...they matched us up really well.

[AnnieB925]

Yes, they do try to match you with people of similar age and situation (couples, singles, families.) You can check in with the Maitre 'd right when you get on the ship to check out your table and find out more about your table mates. You can always request a change if you're not happy on after day 1.

 

Does any one know if carnival makes any type of effort to seat you with people of the same age....or is it just random

 

I will be sailing on the Glory 1/27/07 with two girlfriends all in our early 20's at a "large table" just tring to get a feel for what to expect at dinner

 

thanks

[AnnieB925]

Yes, they do try to match you with people of similar age and situation (couples, singles, families.) You can check in with the Maitre 'd right when you get on the ship to check out your table and find out more about your table mates. You can always request a change if you're not happy on after day 1.

 

Does any one know if carnival makes any type of effort to seat you with people of the same age....or is it just random

 

I will be sailing on the Glory 1/27/07 with two girlfriends all in our early 20's at a "large table" just tring to get a feel for what to expect at dinner

 

thanks

[Young cruiser]

thanks for the help. all three of us are single and I would hate to grouped with all couples.........I get enough of that at home:o

 

I have heard that some people really hit if off with their table mates and others get the shaft.....+

+

Does anyone have any good table mate stories to share????:rolleyes:

[Top-Cat]

On our very first cruise it was just my 16 year old daughter and me. We were placed at a table for four. We were joined by another mother and daughter who were sailing together. Funny, both of us moms were nurses, so we had stuff in common.

 

On another cruise with my husband and parents, we were grouped with two other couples about our same age, but what was really neat, they were from our same community back home...

[ihavecandy123]

We just got back from our honeymoon cruise. We were seated at a larger tabled wth another honeymooning couple! It was cool. They were so sweet.

[OceanDreamin]

On our honeymoon cruise, DH and I were seated with another couple on their honeymoon (they got married the day before us), who were the same age-group, and also lived near us (not such a shocker since we were sailing from our home-port). Also at the table were two couples traveling together - I think the men were brothers - and they were celebrating I think their 25th anniversaries. Even though they were older than us, they were a kick and a half too. :)

 

We hung out quite a bit on that cruise with the other honeymooning couple, and also really enjoyed the dinner conversation with the other couples as well. It was great!

[AKB10]

A girlfriend and I cruised without husbands and kids. We were at a table with 3 couples. We are in our 40's, one couple in their 30's, one in their 40's and the other in their 60's. We had the best table mates. We looked forward to dinner each evening to talk about what we each did and compared notes about what was going on the next day. This group of strangers became fast friends and made our cruise a great one.

[lsp]

The only time we had bad tablemates was when we went to the dining room for breakfast instead of the buffet. Big Mistake! We were seated with this woman (our age) and her snobby daughter that thought they were on the Titanic in first class. We couldn't eat fast enough. I guess we should have put on a "country bumpkin" act and really entertained her.

 

Our dining tablemates have always been great and somehow we always had something in common.

 

If you don't like the table, you can always nicely ask for another.

 

Linda

[MarylandLady]

On all of my cruises, except for one, I have had the greatest table mates. When it's just my husband and I, they sit us with other couples, no kids. When our granddaughter goes with us, there is always at least one, and sometimes 2 kids her age at the table. Whoever does this arranging does a fantastic job.

 

The only bad time we had was this past summer on the Valor. My DH, GD and I had the table mates from h***! They were a family of 5, and their daughter was the same age as our GD (13). My GD tried to talk to her on the first night and the other girl wouldn't talk to her. This lasted the whole week! We were going to ask to be moved, but this family (they all ignored us) said they didn't like the late sitting and they were going to ask to be moved, but it didn't happen. They were consistently late, the man was wearing shorts (after the maitre'd announced that they shouldn't be worn after the first night) and they couldn't understand why the were not let into Scarlett's Supper Club with no reservations and wearing bathing suit tops and shorts.:eek: After the 3rd or 4th night, we were just able to laugh about them and used them for our nightly entertainment. The last night we were on board their daughter put her feet up in the chair with her knees to her chin, leaned her head over and was putting her hair in my GD's plate. Thank goodness she was finished eating! We were all really glad to see them leave that last night and we had a great laugh with the waiters at our table! They had the red, white, and blue cards, so hopefully their first cruise will be their last and save all of us other cruisers from being miserable having to sit with them!

 

But normally, the groups are very well matched!!

[howard6933]

I think the cruise lines try to match up table mates properly, but sometimes either the maitre'd or the other planners goof up. We were on one cruise and had tablemates which were in our age group, (seniors, but not super seniors) and the first night we had young guy (around 20 or 21) with long hair, a tatoo, and an earring sitting with us. We wondered how he got seated at our table, and he said that he came aboard for the cruise with 2 girl friends and they didn't get seated together. This was ridiculous, so a couple of us got hold of the maitre'd and told him that he ought to make some changes and get this guy seated with his girl friends. Now don't get me wrong, he was a nice young man with proper manners and we certainly would have been pleased to have him at our table. But right is right, and he definitley belonged to a younger group and seated with his girlfriends rather than with 6 old fogies like us. The maitre'd took our advice and the guy had a pleasant time having dinner with his girlfriends from that night on. ;)

[jimandsteph498]

all of our cruises on carnival our tablemates were great .... RCCL tablemates form hell.... I would of rather of dine alone on that cruise..

 

Our first cruise with carnival our tablemates never show up the first nite. we had a table of 10. the next night they all did.. and we had a blast from then on out. doing everything together.

 

our next cruise a couple from canada was with us ..Cozumel and carlos and charles will never be the same.

 

Then this past cruise we had a great time with two couples at our table.. the other ones were ok. and one couple show up on the last night. lol

 

RCCL put us with a couple from our area and they were just not friendlyl too say the least.. we should of changed tables but i enjoyed our neighboring table they were about 50 years older than us, but nice and sweet as can be. they invited us to thier house for dinner after the cruise... so it all depends.

 

steph:)

[Grits53]

I'm not so sure they try to match people by age. On our first cruise, our table partners were kids the age of ours (20ish). However, they were a delightful couple, and we thoroughly enjoyed dining with them. On our second cruise, they put us at a large table with couples of varying ages. However, they had us down for late seating, and we wanted early, so we changed. We then had a table for 2. It's fairly easy to change your seating and table if you want.

[Grits53]

Double post. The forum gremlins don't like me today.

[smashley]

for my next cruise, I am sailing with my boyfriend and our two friends who are a couple. we booked our rooms separately but on the same phone call -- will we be seated at the same table? I'm glad it is fairly easy to change seating arrangements but it would be nice if we were all seated together right off the bat.

[45014]

We had tablemates , one cruise, every night the husband would order EVERY entree, and only take one bite of each one and then demand that the waiter take the plate away immediatly. It got very tiresome by about the third day. The whole family had a very bad attitude the whole week.

[ratherBcruizin']

On all of my cruises, except for one, I have had the greatest table mates. When it's just my husband and I, they sit us with other couples, no kids. When our granddaughter goes with us, there is always at least one, and sometimes 2 kids her age at the table. Whoever does this arranging does a fantastic job.

 

The only bad time we had was this past summer on the Valor. My DH, GD and I had the table mates from h***! They were a family of 5, and their daughter was the same age as our GD (13). My GD tried to talk to her on the first night and the other girl wouldn't talk to her. This lasted the whole week! We were going to ask to be moved, but this family (they all ignored us) said they didn't like the late sitting and they were going to ask to be moved, but it didn't happen. They were consistently late, the man was wearing shorts (after the maitre'd announced that they shouldn't be worn after the first night) and they couldn't understand why the were not let into Scarlett's Supper Club with no reservations and wearing bathing suit tops and shorts.:eek: After the 3rd or 4th night, we were just able to laugh about them and used them for our nightly entertainment. The last night we were on board their daughter put her feet up in the chair with her knees to her chin, leaned her head over and was putting her hair in my GD's plate. Thank goodness she was finished eating! We were all really glad to see them leave that last night and we had a great laugh with the waiters at our table! They had the red, white, and blue cards, so hopefully their first cruise will be their last and save all of us other cruisers from being miserable having to sit with them!

 

But normally, the groups are very well matched!!

 

I'm really glad to hear this. We are bringing our daghter with us and I was/am worried about being seated with all couples or something. I totally understand that they may not want a child at the table. We may not be in the dining room much anyway, it depends on how dd does. If not, we'll just eat up at the buffett.

[rwilymz]

Whoever does this arranging does a fantastic job.

 

It's a software thing. All that demographic data you give Carnival? they aren't being nosy for the sake of being nosy. They're trying to arrange dinner seating with the most chance of commonalities between guests at the table.

 

Usually the problems come up when people don't give certain details or they outright lie. Yeah, ha ha, it's funny and all to claim to be a married 60 y.o. retired banker with a summer home in Hawaii when you're really just a 28 y.o. auto mechanic who resents all the nosy questions. But you'll get seated with the old farts and be miserable, and you'll blame everyone but yourself.

 

he said that he came aboard for the cruise with 2 girl friends and they didn't get seated together.

 

Like this. Or it could be a computer hiccup. Things happen.

 

I'm not so sure they try to match people by age. ... On our second cruise, they put us at a large table with couples of varying ages.

 

They'll try. Key word being "try". Missing or incorrect data affects it, as does dining room capacity, and so does simply being at the end of the list. You can match up 94% of the guests by demographics, but you've got 6% at the end and you do the best you can according to age, income, family status, seating preference ... No heuristic is perfect. And that's why they'll leave x% of each seating unfilled so that people can play musical chairs.

[cherun]

I hope we are as lucky on our next cruise as the first. We are mid 40's seated with our couples ranging from mid 30's to mid 50's, we had a great time with them all. Got to know one couple really well and spent alot of time with them on the boat doing other things, it made our cruise that much greater getting to meet these other people.

[monty_11]

Just curious when Carnival collects all this demographic information. I'll I've had to give Carnival so far is my name and address and we sail in 22 days 21 hrs....... :)

It would be nice to perhaps be seated with some of the people we have conversed with on this forum. Does anyone know if you can specify your tablemates BEFORE the ship sails or do you have to see the maitre'd after the first night?

 

Peter.

[MarylandLady]

I'm really glad to hear this. We are bringing our daghter with us and I was/am worried about being seated with all couples or something. I totally understand that they may not want a child at the table. We may not be in the dining room much anyway' date=' it depends on how dd does. If not, we'll just eat up at the buffett.[/quote']

 

I don't know how old your DD is or when you're cruising, but let me tell you what happened to us on the Conquest. Our granddaughter loves the dining room, but she made so many new friends on that ship that she just didn't have the time to spend in the dining room every night. She had much more exciting things to do. The waiters that we had, would take her order and bring everything at once for her because they figured out that she wasn't going to stay for the entire time. Each night she was still able to eat in the dining room, but at an accelerated pace so she could leave after a half hour or so to join her new buddies! It was great knowing that she was getting a good meal each night and not filling up with the other stuff! LOL She also loves going to the supper club (she stays the whole time for this one) which we usually go to on the second formal night.

[playfulgen76]

Where do you fill out all of the demographic info? When you book? We had someone else book it (a gal from my husband's parent compnay who doesn't even know us) so if that is the case, it will be interesting to see who we get! :)

[RoryS]

when I sailed with my sister (we were 18 & 19) yeah, long time ago, I know;) they seated us at a table with 2 nuns. These 2 ladies were a riot and we had so much fun with them and the wait staff. Of course, this is when wine and drinks were included and basically non-stop - I said it was many years ago...:eek: so a good time was had by all.

[Lorgartay]

A girlfriend and I (in our early 40's) left the husbands and kids at home and went on a cruise a couple of years ago. We were seated at a table for 4 with a couple celebrating their 40th anniversary, who were also from our state. The wife was really nice, but the husband complained about everything! When he complained that his fish wasn't any good because it "didn't taste anything like Captain D's fish", my friend & I could only look at each other and laugh!