What month do you recommend?

[BKHwedding2007]

My fiance and I just got engaged August of this year. We have decided to take a cruise for our wedding. So we decided to make the dates 2007 so family and friends can join us. We know that we want to take Carnival Conquest. We just can't decide what month would be the best. March or April? Do any of you have a suggestion on which month might be better?

[MandyGirl]

I notice you are from Austin... Knowing Spring Break in Texas is normally in March, I would try avoiding those weeks (vary from district to district, even within the same county). Also, some school districts have a Spring Break around Easter weekend, so that is something to keep in mind. Because I am a teacher, we were limited to summer (hurricane season), winter break (very high holiday rates) or Spring Break (which we decided on). Spring Break did have many drinking-age college students, most of who were well behaved but my parents were unfortunate to be nextdoor to some girls that made it miserable at night. Everyone else in our group got lucky in being next to people who actually respected traditional sleeping hours.

I would look for a week in-between mid-March and Easter. Also, if your cruise is embarking in Galveston or Houston, you normally notice a spike in prices for Spring Break and Easter, with the latter part of March lower in price. As far as school calendars for 2006-2007, the K-12 public school calendars are usually not decided on until Spring 2006. Even my academic calendar of my grad school only shows through Summer 2006 online, so colleges may not have published that either to give you an idea of when Spring Breaks are occurring in Texas. Of course if the state legislature tries pushing through another bill to start school after Labor Day, none of us know how that would impact the timing of Spring Break or if it would shorten holidays to get in the required number of school days by June 7. That bill did not pass with the last legislature, but we never know if a new one will present itself in the next session.

Have fun planning your wedding!! :)

[MentalVacation]

I have cruised the Caribbean in Oct (CHEAP!), May (perfect weather!) and January (a couple cool days but still better than the north!)

 

I can tell you I was a little nervous about the October cruise beforehand, b/c it was hurricane season. I was not worried we'd get caught in one, mind you, just that it might get diverted from a port or something......if you are planning a port wedding in a specific port, I would at least ponder avoiding hurricane season, which starts June/July I think and ends Nov 30. Especially after the active year we've had, it is something to think about.

 

I agree with Mandygirl's suggestions on dates in the spring. Also, we are pondering a December cruise, but we live somewhere very very cold in the winter and it is always nice to go somewhere warm that time of year....

 

That said, if you can handle a little bit of worry about the possibility of a diversion due to hurricanes, and cost is more of an issue, try something during the fall.......you can't beat the prices, and if money is more of an issue than weather, or if you are going to get married at sea (Princess only, FYI) that might work. I've noticed that the December 6-12-ish period has a price drop -- pre-holiday lull perhaps? It might be a good time period as well.

[BKHwedding2007]

I know we can't get married during football season, so fall is out. We host really large UT home game tailgate parties. We have to be here for that. We were kind of thinking that March might be the best month. We have a lot of friends that are single and would like for them to have a blast. I will suggest to my fiance maybe doing it sometime in March. April has really low prices the second half of the month. The prices are an issue for half the crowd, and the other is ok. We would like to make it easy for everyone.

I just moved here from Dallas :D Austin is new to me, I like it a lot.

Thank you for all of the suggestions, you both have been a really big help.

We are trying to get all of this figured out early, so people can start saving!

[scottishflower]

You may also consider mid-to-late February (my wedding cruise runs late Feb into early March 2006) - the prices were still relatively moderate, compared to a couple of weeks later, and the weather promises to be great.

 

We also went on a Carib cruise in the same time frame in 2004 and it was fabulous. The weather was perfect and the crowds weren't bad and very few families/children (on RCCL).

 

Just another thought...

[2007CarnivalBride]

We decided to wait till 2007 for the some of the same reasons as you. We chose the end of April since the first 2 weeks of April are big college Spring Break times and prices are raised then. I actually noticed a sizable difference in prices and since we were trying to keep this affordable for our guests we choose a sailing on April 27, 2007. The last two weeks in April the weather is much better in the Carribbean than earlier in the Spring too. If you choose April, just remeber to stay away from the first two weeks and you should be fine.:)

[BKHwedding2007]

I would LOVE to get married the last couple weeks of April sometime. My fiance is dead set on our dates revolving around Spring Breakers for his single friends. I kind of wish it wasn't like that. Since we could not decide, he now has his best friend choosing, so it will be March or April. I am just not sure exactly when. I HOPE that it is in April. I picture in my mind that the weather will be so much nicer. I don't want it to be chilly at all, and I keep thinking in March we would be taking that risk for it to be chilly at night, here or there.

[jamiski]

Keep on your finace about late April. Depending on your cruiseline (and when Spring break is) March and early April can be hellish. I went on a Spring break cruise a few years ago and as a College student I was annoyed by the drunken madness.

[BKHwedding2007]

I really wanted to go in late April, but it looks like they picked the dates. They chose to go with March 18 - March 25. So now it will be more expensive and we will probably have to deal with drunken people. Most of all his friends are single and he wants an atmosphere like that. Hopefully we will not get bothered by any of this. I guess we will see.

[LetsGoCruisN]

Why would you let his friends pick the dates? It's you and your fiance's wedding... not you, your fiance and his friend's wedding. You need to pick what YOU want. You don't want to regret it for the rest of your life, do you? Just my honest opinion. My fiance and I went through the same thing where certain people wanted to go during one month and the other half suggested the next month. In the end, we realized that we ultimately had to do it when we wanted to. Don't make a decision you're going to regret on your special day.

[Shannon_525]

We chose August because we are goin from NJ to Bermuda and it is hott! And my parents are teachers and we have some school aged children in our extended family and we wanted to make it convient for everyone who wanted to sail with us. But April is really nice too!!

 

Shannon

[BKHwedding2007]

Looks like we are cruising March 18, 2007 - March 25, 2007. I wanted toward the end of April, but my fiance wanted in March because of Spring Break. We could not decide, so we asked a third party opinion, and March is what we ended up with. I am fine with it, as long as the weather is nice. Now I am kind of worried because I am being told we might not be able to get to the Cayman Islands if the weather is bad. Hopefully it will work out. This is our first time ever to cruise, so we are taking chances with a lot of things.

[budaman]

Hi there K......figured ya'll were at the game today. Nice meeting the both of you yesterday. To clarify a bit when I mentioned the issues with tendering in GC, I thought many of the wedding party were flying to Cayman. If all of you are on the ship, Dang the torpedos & full speed ahead:D Cayman is a beautiful place & you'll have a fantastic wedding there!

 

Mike