The Mystery of Table 106

When sailing on a Disney cruise, guests often find themselves assigned to a dining table with others.  We refer to these folks as tablemates.  Whether or not you will have tablemates and who they will be is one of those adventurous mysteries that will remain unknown until you arrive for dinner on the first night of your cruise, unless you are traveling with a larger party or family.

On our first Disney cruise, we were tablemates with a family of 5 from Miami, making our table a round number or 8.  They had kids, we had a kid, it was nice at best and awkward at worst. 

On our second Disney cruise, we had a table to ourselves.  There was a family from Japan sitting at the table next to us with a little girl about the boy’s age and he learned how to say hello in Japanese. 

The third cruise our tablemates were Jane, Robert, and Becky, a family from New Jersey.  We definitely had the most in common with them and enjoyed their company.  We lingered after dinner visiting while the boy and Becky headed to the kids club. 

On the Dream for the first time, we were assigned table 111 with an extended family from New York—grandmother, mother, aunt/sister, and two young girls.  Again, interesting, but no connections.

Know that the various tablemate assignments did not detract or distract us from having great meals and great service while sailing.  We still looked forward to going to dinner each night in the various dining rooms. 

Our most recent cruise, we were assigned again to table 111, or at least, that is what our dining tickets said.  But sometime during the first afternoon on board, we received a phone call from Zan, one of the Dining Room Managers.  He told us that they had us assigned to a table of 23 people traveling together and had just realized we weren’t a part of that group.  He then asked us if we would like to be assigned to a different table.  I agree.  We checked in with Zan with our dining ticket the first night and were reassigned to table 106—a table of 4, just for us. 

Throughout our trip, I kept looking for that party of 23 at dinner.  Zan had also told us that they had Asian names, not that it mattered, but it made looking for the group a bit easier.  We even eye-spied our table from our last cruise in the various dining rooms and nothing—no party of 23.  So, was Zan pulling our leg and telling us a story because he needed to change our table due to a guest request that afternoon?

My guess is yes.  My guess is that family or friends traveling together made sure they were dining together when they got on board, which caused reassignments in the dining room.  We were okay with the change, even though we were looking forward to having tablemates, and had Zan simply told us they needed to change our tables it would have been just fine.

The story of tables 111 and 106 and the traveling party of 23 will live on and we look forward to dining on the Fantasy for our next Disney cruise!