1 check or 2 (or more)?

[glgene]

We're TV wannabes (201?)

Kathy & I have vacationed at TV 3 times. We love it there. That's where we plan to retire. We love the setting, people are so-oooo nice, a gazillion golf courses, pick'ball, entertainment, etc.

What is the "norm" for people who live at TV when it comes to dining out with another couple(s)? Is it routinely "separate checks" for each couple, since most there are on retirement income sources. If that's the case, what is the polite/proper way to say that when you're out dining? If that's not the case, do couples simply take turns buying other couples dinner?

I would appreciate a good round of replies to this "sticky" question. Thanks in advance.

Gene in SW Ohio

[Floridagal]

Since moving to TV, I learned that when you are out dinning the waitress usually asks one or two checks. I think that is the norm here.

[graciegirl]

There were fourteen of us last week celebrating a birthday and there were singles, couples, even a couple and their daughter. We were at Cane Garden and the waitress handled all of those checks expertly. The servers here are used to it and we are all used to it. Come to think of it, if I had been thinking we should have picked up the Birthday Girls check. Sorry there friend.

[Villages Kahuna]

...when we first moved to TV to find that most people asked for separate checks and the wait staff almost always offers them.

I came from an area where we'd never ask for separate checks and always just divide up the bill or throw in our credit cards and tell the wait staff to divide it up. Initially, it left the impression that Villagers were "cheapies". But after living here for awhile I've become very accustomed to the practice.

[rshoffer]

separate

[Barefoot]

We're TV wannabes (201?)

What is the "norm" for people who live at TV when it comes to dining out with another couple(s)? Is it routinely "separate checks" for each couple,

I would appreciate a good round of replies to this "sticky" question. Thanks in advance.

Not a sticky question at all. Almost always, the wait staff will ask "separate checks?"

It is the norm here in TV.

[beady]

I personally love that the restaurants will almost automatically do seperate checks.
It makes dining so much easier. Ending a meal with a discussion about splitting the bill and who had drinks and who didn't ...just ruins the evening.

[Sidney Lanier]

I personally love that the restaurants will almost automatically do seperate checks. It makes dining so much easier.

This has consistently been our experience in both big-box and small mom & pop restaurants. Separate checks seems to be just assumed on the part of the wait staff who will ask the 'breakdown' if it's not obvious, say, two couples, and even then they will ask if it's not clear to them who's with whom.