ToodlezC

I am planning a port wedding in Nassau, Bahamas for January 2019 off Royal Caribbean.

We are planning on having a ceremony with a short lunch reception at a restaurant. We were notplanning on utilizing any of RC Wedding services. Could anyone who's had a port wedding off a cruise provide some advice / must-knows and help with the below questions?

1) Timing at Port - What time did your service start. If the current schedule is that the boat is to leave Nassau by 5PM, what time should I end my reception by?

2) We are planning on bringing our own photographer on the ship. Will RC have any issues or we would just say she's a friend who happens to be a professional photographer?

3) Hair/Make-up - Will RC be willing to provide these services even if we do not use Royal Weddings?

4) For any brides who didn't make it to port what did you do? How should I hedge my risk?

5) I find communication with RC difficult, as I'm always bouncing around to different departments. Which group should I call for: Hair/Make-up Services; Planning a group offshore excursion; Reserving a group space/cocktail event for an mini reception on the boat?

ANY OTHER ADVICE? Having trouble finding a follow-up review to successful or unsuccessful port weddings off a cruise.

Thank you for your input

We were planning on doing the destination wedding in Nassau, Bahamas.We are definitely very concerned with the risk of missing port, but I guess hoping for the best? I may separately post a new thread to find out about other brides' experience and how they coped.

Does anyone know if there are statistics anywhere to see scheduled cruise ship arrivals VS actual arrivals in a given month?

I am planning a destination wedding in the Bahamas off of Royal Caribbean - Mariner of the Seas. We are not planning on using Royal Weddings for their service.

We would like to bring our own photographer to document our experience, get candids of our friends and family at the first dinner, hanging out on the boat together, as well as offshore excursion on CocoCay.

Has anyone had any experience doing this / what issues hurdles RC might have that I should be prepared for? Can RC stop us from doing this?

Thank you!

Thank you all for your input!

@colombiangirl - I am not a big fan on Nassau either, but we are trying to do a shorter cruise 3/4 nights to be somewhat accommodating to our guests flying in from LA who have to take an additional day. Unfortunately the only itineraries for short cruises bring us to either Bahamas or Cozumel. That is why we liked the idea of Infinity so we could have a ceremony in Key West instead of Nassau.

@Randy - We were not planning on doing our ceremony on the boat, but your review on the Infinity is certainly reassuring.

Overall our first choice was Equinox due to overall ship reviews. However, bc we were doing off ship ceremony, our guests do not have the opportunity to do an excursion in Nassau besides attending our ceremony. That’s why we considered Infinity with 2 stops.

My fiancé and I recently sailed on Celebrity Reflection with my parents and had a wonderful experience. We are now looking into doing a wedding cruise at a port with Celebrity. We prefer the itinerary for the Infinity (4 night stopping in Key West and Nassau) over the Equinox (3 night stopping only in Nassau). However the recent poor reviews about the Infinity and it’s dated nature is causing concern. We especially are worried about the engine problems that may affect our schedule. As our friends and family would be spending quite a bit to share in our celebrations, we are especially sensitive to risk as well as overall appearance of the ship. Any insights would be helpful for an already anxious bride-to-be