Just about to book Freedom for a St. Thomas wedding

[reggiesmommy]

I am close to booking Carnival's Freedom for our St. Thomas wedding (booked through Island Bliss). We are opting not to do a group booking. I have some questions for those of you who have "been there, done that."

 

I understand there is insurance you can buy in the event that your ship does NOT end up stopping in the port you plan your wedding. Can someone provide me with that info?

 

We want to do something other than a beach reception for our guests. We are thinking about booking the steakhouse for our (30-40) guests, or doing another group excursion that we would pay for. Our stops are in St. Thomas (where we'll get married), Antigua, Tortola and the Bahamas. Does anyone have any ideas of other things we could do in the event we can't make a group reservation at the steakhouse on the ship?

 

We're still going back & forth between booking with a TA vs. Carnival directly. The main reason we are not doing a group booking is that we want everyone to get the best rate possible, which doesn't seem likely with the group booking. Has anyone had any experience booking with either the cruiseline directly or Carnival that they would like to share?

 

Thanks so much!

[canucme_cruisin]

We used a TA and did a group booking. The price we paid the TA was slightly higher than the rates advertised on Carnival's website, but when we got onboard, everyone had an OBC for the fare difference. Plus with the group booking, we got points for amenities, and everyone received a bottle of wine and a carnival tote bag (which EVERYONE used off the ship) because I only had 5 cabins booked in my group. My guests thought that was a really nice touch, and I had a few guests who didn't book with my TA and were upset they didn't receive the "perks" the others did. HTH