On Board Wedding

[zjc]

Hey

 

Does anyone have any experience with having their wedding onboard a RC ship?

 

Holding ours onboard the Anthem but having a few issues with the planning process and wanting to see what other people have done.

 

Main issue is with drinks at the reception after the wedding, all guests will have a drinks package but the information is saying we still need to buy drinks for the reception? 
 

This doesn’t seem to make any sense and is basically paying for drinks twice! 
 

Anyone know if they allow you to use the drinks packages or if guests can leave the reception venue and get drinks from one of the Ships bars using their drinks package?

 

Its incredibly costly to buy the drinks Royal Celebrations are offering when everyone has already paid +$50 a day for a package! 

[Tulsacoker]

Not sure but the question in my mind is how do they know who is at the reception ?

[grapau27]

1 minute ago, zjc said:

Hey

 

Does anyone have any experience with having their wedding onboard a RC ship?

 

Holding ours onboard the Anthem but having a few issues with the planning process and wanting to see what other people have done.

 

Main issue is with drinks at the reception after the wedding, all guests will have a drinks package but the information is saying we still need to buy drinks for the reception? 
 

This doesn’t seem to make any sense and is basically paying for drinks twice! 
 

Anyone know if they allow you to use the drinks packages or if guests can leave the reception venue and get drinks from one of the Ships bars using their drinks package?

 

Its incredibly costly to buy the drinks Royal Celebrations are offering when everyone has already paid +$50 a day for a package! 

Congratulations for your future wedding.

With the drinks package all single drinks up to $13 are included everywhere on board except room service and drinks over this price you only pay the extra+18% gratuity on the additional price.

The issue might be the cost of the wine/champagne bottles as usually your drinks package only allows a 40% discount off the cost of bottles.

 

 

[Clarea]

Reception drinks were optional for us.  We ended up paying for two hours of drinks. 

[Merion_Mom]

25 minutes ago, zjc said:

Hey

 

Does anyone have any experience with having their wedding onboard a RC ship?

 

Holding ours onboard the Anthem but having a few issues with the planning process and wanting to see what other people have done.

 

Main issue is with drinks at the reception after the wedding, all guests will have a drinks package but the information is saying we still need to buy drinks for the reception? 
 

This doesn’t seem to make any sense and is basically paying for drinks twice! 
 

Anyone know if they allow you to use the drinks packages or if guests can leave the reception venue and get drinks from one of the Ships bars using their drinks package?

 

Its incredibly costly to buy the drinks Royal Celebrations are offering when everyone has already paid +$50 a day for a package! 

 

Sort of seems like a Catch-22, doesn't it?  Or a giant money grab by RC.

 

While I have no specific experience with your precise situation, I would suggest the awkward work-around of letting your guests get their drinks at another bar and bringing them into your reception space.

 

Where will your reception be?

[grapau27]

8 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

Reception drinks were optional for us.  We ended up paying for two hours of drinks. 

Having your wedding onboard sounds fantastic.

We have seen a few bride and groom getting photos taken on the Royal promenade and they looked fantastic.

[Clarea]

Just now, grapau27 said:

Having your wedding onboard sounds fantastic.

We have seen a few bride and groom getting photos taken on the Royal promenade and they looked fantastic.

 

The onboard people were outstanding.  Our problems were with the 3rd party contractor that helps with all the plans and is supposed to accurately furnish those plans to the ship.  This contractor was barely responsive, either by phone or email, and did not relay all the plans properly, so some things did not go well.

[grapau27]

3 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

The onboard people were outstanding.  Our problems were with the 3rd party contractor that helps with all the plans and is supposed to accurately furnish those plans to the ship.  This contractor was barely responsive, either by phone or email, and did not relay all the plans properly, so some things did not go well.

Sorry to hear the 3rd party contractor was incompetent.

Hopefully the onboard staff made up for this and you both had a fabulous wedding and cruise.

There was a documentary on UK TV about Princess cruises and it showed the build up and wedding itself of a couple who were on the ship during filming.

[Clarea]

4 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Sorry to hear the 3rd party contractor was incompetent.

Hopefully the onboard staff made up for this and you both had a fabulous wedding and cruise.

There was a documentary on UK TV about Princess cruises and it showed the build up and wedding itself of a couple who were on the ship during filming.

 

The onboard folks did what they could, but when 5 ladies show up to have their hair and makeup done and no one was notified, it severely impacted the wedding party's enjoyment of the reception.

[grapau27]

2 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

The onboard folks did what they could, but when 5 ladies show up to have their hair and makeup done and no one was notified, it severely impacted the wedding party's enjoyment of the reception.

 

5 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

The onboard folks did what they could, but when 5 ladies show up to have their hair and makeup done and no one was notified, it severely impacted the wedding party's enjoyment of the reception.

That must have been a nightmare and Pauline said she would have been devastated if that happened to her and her bridesmaids.

 

[Clarea]

11 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

 

That must have been a nightmare and Pauline said she would have been devastated if that happened to her and her bridesmaids.

 

 

There were supposed to be photos taken before the wedding, but this had to be moved to after the wedding because when the Captain says it's time for the wedding, that's it.  So they lost 90 minutes of their reception taking photos that should have been taken before the wedding.

[Merion_Mom]

1 hour ago, Host Clarea said:

 

The onboard people were outstanding.  Our problems were with the 3rd party contractor that helps with all the plans and is supposed to accurately furnish those plans to the ship.  This contractor was barely responsive, either by phone or email, and did not relay all the plans properly, so some things did not go well.

 

This is what I hear, again and again.  😞 

[jsacco20]

Hey there! I got married on the Explorer 11 years ago so I’m not sure what has changed (if anything) but it was great. We had 150 people come onboard for the ceremony and reception then gave everyone the option of sailing with us (which 90 something did!). To answer your question, we paid extra for drinks to be included during the reception. Unfortunately there are some things that just don’t make sense but it’s kind of like how you have to pay for room service alcohol. 
 

If you have any other questions feel free to ask and maybe I can help! 

 

[grapau27]

16 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

There were supposed to be photos taken before the wedding, but this had to be moved to after the wedding because when the Captain says it's time for the wedding, that's it.  So they lost 90 minutes of their reception taking photos that should have been taken before the wedding.

OMG that was disappointing too.

I hope the op has a reliable wedding planner to make sure everything runs smoothly.

[jsacco20]

Oh and also, I had a travel agent in charge of everything so they dealt with the (mostly) inept 3rd party company when it came to requests and such so it was a huge relief that I didn’t have to deal with that regarding the ceremony and reception. As with anything, there are always going to be things that slightly go wrong but nothing that was obvious to anyone but me. I also knew I had to dial back my expectations since it wasn’t really in my hands at all. I did pack a suitcase filled with decorations and things that I wanted to make it personal and had my friend go to the lounge and set that all up with the staff. She made sure to sort of fix anything that was relayed incorrectly or that they just decided to do on their own. 

[Merion_Mom]

5 minutes ago, jsacco20 said:

Hey there! I got married on the Explorer 11 years ago so I’m not sure what has changed (if anything) but it was great. We had 150 people come onboard for the ceremony and reception then gave everyone the option of sailing with us (which 90 something did!). To answer your question, we paid extra for drinks to be included during the reception. Unfortunately there are some things that just don’t make sense but it’s kind of like how you have to pay for room service alcohol. 
 

If you have any other questions feel free to ask and maybe I can help! 

 

 

There were no drink packages 11 years ago.  This conflict would not have arisen.

[Clarea]

5 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

OMG that was disappointing too.

I hope the op has a reliable wedding planner to make sure everything runs smoothly.

 

I always tell people to ask the 3rd party contractor for the contact info of the group coordinator on the ship, so they can confirm the plans got to the ship accurately.

[SonicShip]

We had ours in the Royal Suite. We got a bartender through the Event Coordinator. We used GAP points and Tour Conductor credits to pay for an hour then moved to a bar were everyone could use their drinks package.

[jsacco20]

11 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

There were no drink packages 11 years ago.  This conflict would not have arisen.

Exactly. Which is why I said we just paid for alcohol to be included in the reception. 

[cb at sea]

I have a feeling it's because you're "catering" a formal reception....perhaps you could rethink it, since everyone will be a passenger, and just head to the bar of choice and party without a "reception".

[grapau27]

19 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

I always tell people to ask the 3rd party contractor for the contact info of the group coordinator on the ship, so they can confirm the plans got to the ship accurately.

Excellent advice.

[jsacco20]

7 minutes ago, cb at sea said:

I have a feeling it's because you're "catering" a formal reception....perhaps you could rethink it, since everyone will be a passenger, and just head to the bar of choice and party without a "reception".

This is a great idea!

[zjc]

Hi everyone

 

thanks for your messages!

 

Holding the wedding and planned reception in the music hall.

 

Waiting to speak with our wedding coordinator on if guests can leave the music hall to go to a bar and then come back with a drink. Don’t know if they will have someone from the ship watching over the event? 
 

If they insist on us buying their drinks in the room then I think we are going to move the reception to a bar elsewhere so everyone has the freedom to use their packages. Unsure if we will find space for everyone however in one of the ships bar? Can’t imagine we will be able to reserve any space in a bar? 

[jsacco20]

We didn’t have anyone watching over the reception at the entrance. There was a sign that said private party and we did have a few guests of our guests that were also sailing come into the reception (with their own drinks) with no problem whatsoever.