Carnival Lido buffet needed for guest before wedding??

[joy2joy5]

Hello Carnival brides, did any of you purchase the lido buffet for your guest before the wedding ceremonny? Do you feel it is necessary??

 

Thanks,

Love Peace Joy

[HeatherC430]

I'm planning on it! I dont' think it would be right to have saililng guests being able to go to the Lido deck to eat upon boarding the ship & not to pay for non-sailing guests to do the same! It's only $10/person. I'd rather pay the extra $ upfront and not worry about it.

 

I'm not sure how they'd know if you've paid for them to have access or not? It's my understanding that both sailing & non-sailing guests are able to explore the ship for the hour or so before your ceremony/reception.

 

Maybe previous Carnival brides can say how this works? Since I've been wondering the same thing!

[katieandaron]

I plan on paying for it too, but we only have a few non-sailing guests, so it's not a lot of money. I think I read in another thread that a wedding coordinator snuck non-sailing guests into the buffet area? But that sounds like a whim of that particular coordinator.

 

I think I also read somewhere that paying the $10 gives the non-sailor some sort of bracelet or note so that the crew knows they're allowed to eat...

[nessa26]

Im not going to purchase it.... pretty sure your guests could munch a little before wedding without you haveing to pay for it. I Dont think they are too strick. My friend didnt pay for her guests to eat there last year at her wedding but they got to anyways....my fiance was even bringing us plates of food to her room while we were getting dressed before the wedding! ;)

[attorneybride2010]

Carnival doesn't pay any attention (when I got married) if the guest is sailing or non-sailing. I think they had a badge or something but there weren't any strict requirements about having it clipped on you at all times. Almost all of my guests were sailing so I didn't worry too much about it. I had one girlfriend who didn't sail and she grabbed a bite to eat with no problems while I was getting ready. We didn't arrange for our non-sailing guests to get the buffet because they were really only waiting on the boat for about 1 1/2 hours and then they were fed at the reception. I think its a nice gesture if you don't mind paying for it and you're worried about hungry guests :)

 

There were previous discussions about paying vs. non paying and it all depends on your conscience, some people felt wrong about allowing non-sailing guests eat for free, others had no problem.

[klauer]

I would pay -- I think that it would be extremely embarrassing if your guest were questioned while getting something to eat.

[AmyD102]

When we got married we had 10 non sailing guests our coordinator told them even tho we hadn't paid for it they could eat, the staff would not question them.

[hunniebee724]

I found out after our wedding that our non-sailing guests were told to take off their badges and go eat on the lido deck. I hadn't paid for them, but without their badges there's no distinction between them and sailing guests.

[kwilliams137]

I did not pay for it and i am glad i didn't...out of 45 non-sailing guests only 3 went up to the lido deck to eat...

we all ate breakfast at the hotel that morning so most of them were not hungry once we got to the ship...most of the guests just walked around and took pictures of themselves around the ship...

[WendyinOC]

Are they able to get a soda if you buy the package? I assume you dont pay for sailing correct?