Captain's table not our style - Letters - Letter to the Editor

Cruise Travel, Dec, 2001 by Mike Burwen

This is in response to the article on dining at the captain's table that appeared in the October 2001 Cruise Travel.

My wife and I have dined twice at the captain's table by virtue of being repeat customers. We now decline such invitations. Although I am sure that some people have had different experiences, we found these evenings to be, in a word, boring. The captains are a bit jaded--how would you like to dine with strangers every night for months on end?--and the people at the table are generally travel agents, relatives of cruise-line executives, repeat customers, and buyers of high-end suites. We found both times that no one at the table had anything in common, and the conversation consisted of long periods of silence punctuated by occasional forced chat. It's a lot more fun having hot dogs with your new or old friends than eating foie gras with 10 silent bodies.

Mike Burwen, Rancho Mirage, CA