Help!

[acouch]

We are loving the idea of getting married on a cruise due to the fact that our friends and family are all over the country! If everyone has to travel, it might as well be to some place fun! It will also be a money saver (for us at least.) We just want to make sure that our guests will be able to afford to come. So we are thinking about a 3 or 4 day cruise. If you were a guest, would you prefer the cheaper price tag of a 3/4 night trip?

 

Another big debate is getting married on the ship vs. at a port. We are looking at Carnival's Fascination that stops at Key West (4 day cruise.) Has anyone been on that ship and or had a beach wedding there? My thought is...why get married on the ship when you have the beautiful beach right there! However, I love the idea of the ship since it's easy, it's a controlled environment and less $$. I do however, want to have the 1 1/2 hour reception on the ship.

 

I don't think I want to have the ceremony before the ship leaves b/c I want everyone to come on the cruise with us!

 

Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated!!! :confused:

[waterrats]

a 3/4 day cruise may be easier for most people to get the time off especially if it falls over a weekend. An inside cabin will probably run about $350pp. A 7 night cruise will run about $500pp for an inside cabin. But I wouldn't expect as many on a 7 night cruise because it becomes an actual vacation instead of a weekend away. Try asking friends and family if they would go on a 7 day.

 

What you can always do is have your wedding on a back to back. Have friends and family join you on a 3 day cruise and get married. Then take the same ship out for 4 days on a short honeymoon.

[kadiebug12]

We did a back to back and it was GREAT. Though ours was 2 7 days back to back, it's the same premise and soooo worth it to have that separate honeymoon to look forward to.

[chickipoo21]

We were married on the Fascination in April. We had originally planned to do the wedding in Key West on the beach, but the ship is in port for such a limited time that it would have been difficult to squeeze in. Plus you dock at the Naval Base and have to take a trolly to Duvall St. and then go to your wedding destination. We ended up having the wedding on the ship at the Port of Miami. There were 27 total at our wedding, about half sailed with us. The coordinators and Carnival did a great job with the wedding! The ceremony was held in the Tara Library with the reception in the Piano Bar. I took silk flowers with us for everyone in the wedding party. It was a lot cheaper than buying flowers through Carnival. I still did receive the rose bouqet and it made a nice decoration in our room. The servers at our reception were awsome, much better than the ones we had in the dinning room for the rest of the cruise. The food was really good, and they kept refilling everything. We ordered the mixed tiers cake with buttercream frosting. It turned out really nice. A word of caution though, they did put rum in the chocolate layer. Not the best thing for kids to be eating, so they brought out a plate of brownies too. We only did the 1 hour reception, but wish now we had done the 1 1/2 hour. It went by quickly and the photographer took us away to do pictures before the hour was up. Be insistant that you will not leave the reception until it is over. The wedding and the reception far exceeded my expectations though. I don't think I would ever do anything different.

The rest of the cruise left something to be desired though. Just realize that it is an older ship and shorter cruise. Our rooms were not as bad as some of the reviews I have read on here, but were not perfect either. The attitudes of the waitstaff could use some improvements. But the cruise was well worth what we paid, and Key West & Cozumel are awsome ports. They also did such an outstanding job with the wedding that I can't complain too much.

I will be more than happy to answer any other questions you have. Good luck with your planning!

 

Sandra

[dcdiva]

We also opted for a cruise since our family and friends were from all over the country. We were married in Key West aboard the RCL Jewel of the Seas. We decided on a 6-day western caribbean itinerary. We left Sunday from Ft. Lauderdale and returned on Saturday.

 

The timing made it much easier for folks to come since they didn't need to add an extra travel day on the front/back end. For example, DHs family was able to drive from Chicago and arrive in plenty of time to make the cruise on Sunday. And they made it back in time to get to work on Monday AM.

 

And because it was only a six day cruise, it was a tad less expensive. It worked out much better for our guests than we thought. We expected 25-30 to be able to sail with us, but ended up with a total of 58!!

 

Since the group was so big, we gave up the idea of getting married on shore. We stayed on board for the ceremony and reception and it was lovely. We had an hour reception with an extra hour of open bar, with a DJ.

[tinsel57]

We had three couples on our last cruise who were going to get married in Key West. Because of the storm, we were diverted and never even saw the tip of Florida, never mind Key West.

 

As you can imagine, the couples were just a wreck. One chose to get married on board, sans her family and friends who were to meet them in Key West. One was getting married as soon as they got back, honeymooning first... now there's a novel idea.. (!) and the third, this is a riot, is postponing all together!! They were in the love and marriage game and I think it was the very best decision they could have made! Based upon their reactions and answers during the games, the entire audience was wondering what ever made them choose to be engaged! It was hysterical.

 

Anyway, I am an event planner. If you want to email me privately I am happy to help you, no charge, with some pointers and ideas and options. It should help to get you on your way.

 

tinsel57@hotmail.com