Wedding review 10/23 Elation Mobile, AL

[Christyh121]

Got a lot of useful information from this site so i wanted to give back a little and give my review. We were married on 10/23 out of the mobile, AL port aboard the Carnival Elation.

 

PS, sorry for any typing errors. its late and i did not do spell check :p

 

Pre-wedding in Mobile

We stayed at the Hampton Inn and Suites downtown a few nights before the wedding. Loved the hotel and the staff was very friendly. I had a hotel block for all my guest. they gave us a rate of about $106 plus tax a fees a night. Not sure if that is much of a discount if any, but the hotel was so nice and in such a good area (close to the terminal) it was well worth it. And as a courtesy from the hotel, the groom and bride were given their special circle shaped balcony suite (it literally would fit 25 people on it, HUGE) at the front of the hotel that faces royal street at the same rate as the regular rooms for all our other guest. We were also given a GREAT rate to keep our car there for the whole 7 day cruise. I cant remember the exact cost but it was near $20-$25 for the entire 7 days!. There is no shuttle bus from this hotel, i heard people say they thought there was. But no. They do however have a driver they can call to come pick you up and take you where needed, you have to ask for this in advance and be put on his pick-up list. It cost $5 a person to the terminal from the hotel. He also drove myself and my bridesmaids to and from nouveau salon to get our hair done at 7:30 that morning. The salon was also great. Stephanie came before they opened and did my hair and had it finished by 8:45 and she was really sweet!

The only complaint i have about the hotel is the parking and lack of spaces. if you do not arrive early, parking will fill up and you will be rerouted across the street to the over flow parking garage down the street. Wasnt a problem for us, but some of our guest were tired from traveling and it can be a pain finding this garage if you dont know where you are. Its all self-parking.

Oh and i forgot to mention, we were able to get our marriage license in Mobile the day before our wedding. And the court house was literally across the street from the hotel. So we walked there at 9am on friday. Was in and out in 7 minutes! would have been sooner than that but there was another couple in front of us.

Ate at the Royal Scam with friends and family night before wedding. Nice place and is next door. A little pricey and we had a large group which took forever to be seated. But they got us in and with a large group you can expect not to have the best service. We had one waitor for 25 people. But food was wonderful once we finally recieved it :)

Downtown area is very nice. Many of our friends went down to dauphin street and a few places next to the hotel that night as well.

 

wedding day

got to the terminal around 9:45. No problem getting in. When i got there half of my guest were already there (all 55 were non-sailing guest). We were moved from one location to the next. and finally were boarded around 11:30 i think. I lost track of time, might have been earlier. But it was not too bad. I had plenty of time to get ready. I do stress that if you are worried about your groom or guest not seeing the bride. Its really impossible at the mobile port. The wedding planners didnt seem to have a real good plan in place to handle this part. and they needed both of us in the VIP room to check in to get our sign and sail card, etc to cruise. We had already decided not to worry about this in the beginning, so no harm done! after boarding, i went to my suite with my bridesmaids and we all got ready. i had hair done and that was it. Wedding was at 1:30. so we did make-up and got dressed. even had a bottle of champagne before 1:15 and heading down to the lounge.

Wedding was in the Cole Porter lounge. It was nice, i had no complaints! We spent many nights in this lounge on the cruise as well! I bought my own music for the ceremony. It was not played in the correct order, and once it was realized. the music stops and there was a long pause before i was able to walk out. This may have been my fault. i didnt go over the CD with the coordinators. So im not going to give them a bad rating because of that. I was pretty upset as it was happening, but afterwards you realize that wasnt the important part of the day. I forgot all about it after our vows and heading to the reception! I do not remember my coordinators names, but there were 2 or 3 that were back and forth with mine and the other wedding taking place on the ship. They were so nice to me and my guest And very apologetic of the mistake. We were giving hugs to each other like i knew them for alot longer and they were the last to leave the ship with my guests around 3:10. i was very happy with them! The reception was held in the Romeo and Juliet lounge. I loved this lounge. The colors and decor were perfect! Looked very classy, not like we were in a dance club like some of the other lounges can look like on a ship. We paid for the entertainment tech. I gave them a CD to play. once again the music did not play in the order i asked, songs were missing. I had two CD's one was the back up. halfway though the reception, i remembered about the backup. asked them to play it and it worked. So i dont know what was wrong with the first or why half the songs would not play! the tech worked with me. So i would just go up to her and ask to her play a certain song and she would. So no problem. Cake was great, all of my guest really enjoyed the cake, food and drinks. I just wish we had more than an one hour reception! i would def pay that extra money for the extra 30 mins. Because after an hour we really wished we had it.

 

Pictures turned out good as well. They guy showed up to my room 10 mins before i went down to ceremony. I had to call and request he come up. I know i have seen where other brides complained that they were around too much. So it def didnt bother me to call when i was ready for him to start taking pictures. We didnt order any certain package before wedding. We waited until after the wedding and when the pictrues were printed. I think it was Tuesday when we got to see them. they all looked so good. But we couldnt buy them all. there were atleast 500!! It was a real hard choice to choose. but we finally did. and had them all in our possession by 6th night of the cruise.

 

after all guest left, my husband and i took more pics. The drill started so I had to go in my wedding dress because we hadnt taken any pictures on the top deck! It was fun and the attention from all the guest was fun as well!! Im just glad you are not required to wear life vest any more during drill.

Got back to room and had a bottle of Korbel Champagne and chocolate dipped strawberries waiting.

 

The cruise/honeymoon was WONDERFUL! it was the 7 day to montego bay, grand cayman and cozumel. We stayed in a balcony grand suite on upper deck. U-74. first time to have a balcony and suite and we loved it!! Weather was perfect. we were mildly sun burnt after the first day at sea and every day afetrwards! but we were just happy to see sun everyday instead of rain and clouds.

Went to doctors cave in montego. very nice beach. we had way to many people trying to sell us things and smoke. It got very annoying at one point. But the people at the beach who worked there would run them off if they stepped on beach. The hilarious part was that these guys would swim up to you in the beach. Crazy! Loved the caymans. beaches were crystal clear and beautiful. Also went to see the dolphins, rum store and hell. Hell was interesting! In cozumel went shopping and got an 2 hour excursion as we walked off the ship from locals. It was a lot cheaper than buying from carnival. Did the glass bottom boat tour and went snorkeling at two diffrent places. with complimentary beer, cokes and water. we both really enjoyed this as well.

 

Dinner was okay. Some nights were def better than others. I cant remeber having complaints before but i felt there could have been some better selections on the menu. We had anytime dining. I enjoyed being able to go whenever we wanted. But towards the end of the cruise we felt a little jipped. Only becuase we sat in a diffrent area every night with a diffrent waiter. So while others were building relationships with the waiters. we couldnt even remember their faces, much less names! There were a few carnival employees that were working our wedding that kept in contact with us throughout the cruise. I thought that was very kind of them. One night they brought the reamining of our wedding cake out for dessert.

 

Overall great experience and I am glad to say i was a carnival bride!

Any questions or info i missed, please ask! And good luck to all future brides ;)

[Tiffany1203]

Thank you for posting your review and pictures!

Congrats!!

[crislen]

Thanks for the wonderful review! I'm so glad it was a great honeymoon & wedding!

 

One quick question, I noticed that you had a isle runner during the ceremony, did you bring that or was that already there?

 

Thanks again :)

[Christyh121]

It was already there. I didnt request it or anything

[harrodsfan]

What a lovely review...and your dress was spectacular.

Best wishes for a wonderful life together:)