RCCL Changed AOS route have to scrub St John wedding.

[Mr. planner]

:confused: I understand that routes and ports may change without notice, but this makes planning difficult. We intended to get married in St. John USVI as the first stop of the 29 April 07 departure of the AOS. We would then be on our honeymoon the rest of the cruise. Now if we plan to get married in St John we will have our honeymoon before our wedding. And St John (St Thomas) will be the last stop. No time to relax after the wedding. I will now have to cancel all plans and look at getting married in San Juan or somewhere else in PR. I am sure I can make it nice but it wont be the island paradise I had originally planned. I am open to suggestions on where to go in PR for a beach wedding or is it possible to get married on El Morro?

[MandyGirl]

Gotta love those itinerary changes... at least they let you know ahead of time instead of after boarding the ship!!

 

Coming from someone who married on St John... I would suggest sticking with your plans. It is so beautiful. We married there while on a cruise in 2003. The cruise embarked on Sunday and we married on Thursday - so it was near the end of the cruise. Had 19 in our group onboard.

 

We have now been married three years, but returned 18 months after our wedding on a cruise (specifically planned so we could return to our wedding beach) and again this past March - again so we could return to our wedding beach. This time it was a "babymoon" instead of "honeymoon". We found out in January we are expecting our first child, so in February we booked "one last cruise for just the two of us" over Spring Break (I'm a teacher and also in grad school - so vacation dates are limited). We just had to go ahead and take the little bambino to "the wedding beach". :D We had also taken a land vacation on St John in 2002 - we are so in love with the island. In fact, we are planning on taking our daughter there right before her 2nd birthday when she can still fly for free as a lapchild!!! :) Anyway, we were also in San Juan for a port of call this March and also cruised out of San Juan before. Toured El Morro - but don't know legalities of weddings in Puerto Rico. If it were me, I'd stick to the peaceful beauty of St John. If anything, the crew on the ship will take extra care of you knowing you are getting married later in the week!! We were given spa passes for the week and extra goodies in our suite.

 

The wallpaper on my laptop is the picture we took of our wedding beach this March. I can still just feel my toes in the pristine sand...

[Mr. planner]

As much as I would like to stick with the original plans of St. John we would like to have a honeymoon after the wedding not before. I am now looking at Barbados. The beaches look great and have some nice resorts. I will continue my research. So many choices and decisions. Now I know why the guy usually just lets the Bride handle everything. Lots of pressure to make it perfect.:confused:

[MandyGirl]

Barbados is really nice as well! (I think someone on this board posted a while back who married there) We actually got my engagement ring in Barbados while on our Celebrity cruise out of San Juan. Then we spent the rest of the day at the beach, but never really did a tour of the island. Hard call about the honeymoon before/after. Although we shared a suite the entire week of our wedding, we saved our 'honeymoon festivities' until after we were actually married that week. If you did marry on Barbados, you could still spend a great honeymoon day on St John later on your cruise. Even go to Honeymoon Beach!! (It faces St Thomas but you can only get there by boat or a 15-minute walk). Caneel Bay has a dock, so if you kept your boat rented for the day, you could stop there for a nice lunch at the resort. So many possibilities! :) During our 2004 cruise stop there, we just rented a dinghy for the day and went beach hopping all day long - St John has a different feel if you are only visiting from the water. This last time we rented a jeep for the day so we could return to our favorite spots around the island from when we vacationed there - mostly around Coral Bay. Two totally different "feels" doing a boat day versus a jeep day.

 

Your names sound just like us - except I'm the planner and he's the spontaneous one! Many times we step on a cruise and he MAYBE knows one port we are visiting, but always enjoys the activities I had picked out for each port.:D

[Mr. planner]

:eek: The day in Barbados is a national holiday. No courts open. On to next island. St. Lucia requires four days wait. Antigua...not a holiday....no waits...ANTIGUA it is. I am talking to the Grand Pineapple Beach Resort for daypasses for all of us in the party and making wedding arrangements. All Inclusive makes for a great reception, open bar and all you can eat for lunch and snacks. Plus while we are taking pictures they can be splashing in the pool or on the beach. I think we have found our dream wedding. Besides now we don't need to take a dingy to the wedding site as we had planned before. When life gives you lemons, make margaritas. or something like that.:cool:

[MandyGirl]

When life gives you lemons, make margaritas. or something like that.:cool:

 

Love it!!

 

Never been to Antigua - that will be cool! Definitely think about some things on St John for a special honeymoon day. So many beaches along the north shore that are beautiful.:)

[butterfly1]

Mandy Girl- What beach in St John did you get married on? Do you have a picture? I am considering getting married there, but I don't know where to start. Congrats on the baby!!!! That is so awesome.

[MandyGirl]

Mandy Girl- What beach in St John did you get married on? Do you have a picture? I am considering getting married there, but I don't know where to start. Congrats on the baby!!!! That is so awesome.

 

We married on Hawksnest Beach on the north shore of St John. Here's a review with a link pics and links to vendors we used (minister, coordinator, flowers, videographer, photographer, chef, reception catamaran, etc). http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=45025 When visiting there this past March, they had improved the facilities (pavillion, sidewalks from parking lot to beach, restroom). The link in the review also has our engagement pics from our land vacation there prior to our wedding. St John is so awesome.

 

Almost to my third trimester in pregnancy, but a friend who went on our wedding cruise has already bought our daughter her first tropical bikini!!! Even her nursery is a beach theme (called "Aloha Baby"), and we still have a baggie of sand from our wedding beach on our wedding day we will incorporate into the nursery. :) We cannot wait to take her there - even though she was technically there in March. :D

[Mr. planner]

:confused: The resorts we were looking at in Antigua require you to be guests at the hotel for a minimum of three nights to perform the wedding on site. Perhaps they should have this on their web site? Will continue the search. I don't want to go through the hastle of changing cruise dates to deconflict with the local holiday on barbados. This is becoming a bit frustrating. I have consulted a wedding planner and hope to have better results than my going it alone.

 

As much as I would like to have the wedding on St. John it defeats the purpose of having the cruise as the honeymoon. Can't relax if we are worried about the wedding at the end of the cruise. arrrgh!

[Illinoisgal]

I feel for you. We wanted to do ours at port but after all the drama and what if's we are doing the wedding at port before we set sail. We wouldve had to do Nassau due to the requirements etc and that was our last port. I would hate to have to cruise the whole time thinking what if's. I think you shoulf try for earlier int he cruise so you wont have that hanging over your head. Good luck keep us posted! Did you look at otehr ships with same sailing dates, maybe one of there ports could work for you.

[Mr. planner]

I am now at about 85% certain we have nailed down a location and date. After being shot down by resorts I let the planners have their hands with it. I will be glad to pay them the extra money if what they say comes true. It looks like we will have the ceremony at Jalousie Plantation on St. Lucia. On the beach between the Pitons. It will be perfect. Better than originally planned. I will keep my fingers crossed. Say a prayer. Burn some incense. Make a sacrifice. Wear a rabbits foot. Toss salt over my shoulder. And knock on wood.:o

[Illinoisgal]

Good luck!!! I will hop on one foot at midnight tonite for you while saying a chant:p

[Oaktree]

Some members of my family went to Jalousie last Thanksgiving and said it

was beautiful. Have the wedding of your dreams!:)

[Mr. planner]

90 minutes from dock to resort.

Wedding dress not comfy to wear sitting down.

One of us not willing to ride in Helicopter to avoid the first two.

Twice as expensive as I thought.

Beach at Pigeon Point not in view of Pitons, plain tan sand, etc.

Can't go to St. Lucia and not see the Pitons.

 

After many discussions on the pros and cons of going with Jalousie or going to fall back location of Pigeon Point Beach we finally decided to lock in Jolly Beach Resort in Antigua. Reports say it has a beautiful beach for weddings. It does not require you to be a overnight guest. Nor cost an arm and a leg. And we get to do the day sail to the Pitons.

 

This is locked in stone. No more changes. No more looking around. Thank you RCCL for driving me nuts the past week. OK I had a hand in it because I had my heart set on something that was not confirmed.

 

PS for a grand more you can stay a week at the Jalousie Plantation and have a free wedding than what they were going to charge us for having a wedding on the Public Beach at the base of their property.:mad:

[ZoeyZoo]

Just a thought...

 

The cruise lines will marry you on the ship. Have you thought about this as an option? Then you can get married early in the cruise and honeymoon/celebrate in St. Thomas. They are supposed to arrange everything for you: photos, flowers, music, etc.