All Future Brides - Read, Discuss and Relax!!!

[WinterEscape]

Last January, I was married on VOS through Royal Romance. Before the wedding, I used this forum daily and kept up with all of the posts. After the wedding, I posted a few things, but stopped checking the forum because I am married now. But, today, I came back to cruise critic because I have booked another cruise. I thought I would come to this forum to see if I could provide anyone with helpful information.

 

I too, like many of you, became very fearful when reading all the bad posts about Royal Romance. By the time I read these things, though, I already had over 50 people booked to go on a cruise and I decided I would have to hope for the best.

 

I advise you all to make your decisions carefully and review the posts, but I also warn you that many of the happy brides DO NOT come back to post about Royal Romance. I, for instance, had an excellent experience and have essentially left this forum. This is until today when I felt the need to speak my mind. I have also met three other happy RR brides who have not posted on this cite.

 

I am not saying people have not had bad experiences with Royal Romance. I do believe some people have been very dissatisfied. But, based on my reviews of the forum, some of the people complaining have been complaining for at least a 18 months (when I started using the forum) if not more. I do acknowledge these people may feel inclined to speak their mind to help future brides, but I do warn that most happy brides do not feel the need to come back to the forum.

 

For me, I had a great experience and the ideal wedding with Royal Romance. I would plan it the same way in a heart beat. It was exactly what I wanted! I am sorry for those who had a less than desirable experience as that was not fair to you, but I urge all future brides to assess what they want before planning a cruise wedding. I was previously scolded on this forum for saying destination weddings in essence lose some control associated with a traditional wedding. I still truely believe this and for me, a cruise wedding worked well. If you want to be an integral part of picking the location, procedure on wedding day, having a rehersal, picking the flowers, decorations, specific foods, staff, etc., a cruise wedding isn't for you because it will be hard to specifically do these things and be happy with your wedding using Royal Romance.

 

Okay, I think that is all for now...I just thought I should share the point of view of a satisfied bride. My intention was not to offend anyone, but I am certain based on previous experiences on this forum I will be scolded for something I have said...perhaps this is why the happy brides don't return the forum....

[MOLUVSCO]

Well said...thank you for posting!:)

[denise14]

Thanks for writing that! I definitely believe you are speaking (or writing) the truth. It is a lot easier to complain then it is to say something nice... that's just the way it goes I guess. I have to admit that before a cruise i am on these boards day and night... but afterwards..... not at all. ;)

[HnJ06]

I'm not scolding...just wondering...by cruise wedding do you mean getting married actually aboard the ship? That might be the distinction between a cruise wedding and a destination wedding. I'm getting married on shore, and go through a private coordinator, and planning for me has been pretty much as if I was planning a traditional wedding (actually, a bit harder because it's hard to explain exactly what you want from so far away). The site, flowers, menu, entertainment, etc, all have been hand chosen, though. And the stuff I don't want to deal with (i.e. filing forms, creating contracts with the vendors, etc) has been handled by the coordinator.

 

I definately agree with your point that once you're married people tend to just leave the board, especially if they have nothing to complain about. I wish more would stick around to help those of us who are still planning since now you married people have great first hand experience to impart.

[natnat8465]

I think this holds true for most of cruise critic as well. Before my first cruise, I found this site and was prepared for the worst to happen. But, guess what...nothing bad ever happened. I had a wonderful time and I got engaged. It seems that people tend to spread the negative stuff far faster than the positive.

[natnat8465]

I think this holds true for most of cruise critic as well. Before my first cruise, I found this site and was prepared for the worst to happen. But, guess what...nothing bad ever happened. I had a wonderful time and I got engaged. It seems that people tend to spread the negative stuff far faster than the positive.

[denise14]

That is a good point.... what does a cruise wedding really mean? I am getting married on shore through a cruise line (RC) and I consider myself to be taking a "cruise wedding." Although, I have signed up for the "destination wedding" package through the cruise line so.... I'm not really too sure at this point. When I think destination wedding, mentally I don't really make any reference to a cruise at all. So, I'd say that if your wedding consists (in any sort of fashion) of taking a cruise then you are having a "cruise wedding" (even if the ceremony is on shore). Does that make sense? I would think that anyone on these boards would be considered to be taking a cruise wedding because this is "cruise" critics... ;)

 

Other thoughts?

[WinterEscape]

I guess I am unclear what a cruise wedding exactly is...my experience was getting married on the cruise ship. I do, think it is hard to plan any wedding with meticulous detail when you cannot be present the days leading into the wedding to specify all your plans.

[DutsCruiser]

Thanks for the post. We're going to talk to a travelagent here in the Netherlands day after tomorrow. They use RR/TWE for the cruise weddings. We will deside in the next week if we will go forward with a cruise wedding but this helped!

[dcdiva]

I too had a wonderful cruise wedding (actually onboard the ship) planned through Royal Romance. I had relatively few problems with them and none that could not have happened with ordinary onshore planning.

 

I've tried to come back and post because this board from time to time simply because I found great advice that was really helpful to me in making my plans. But partly because I sensed that there was more incentive for those who have had BAD experiences to continue posting. But my experience was a good one.

 

But here's the best argument for a cruise wedding. My husband's young cousin and her boyfriend came on wedding cruise and had a wonderful time. They got engaged a few weeks ago, and just announced that they are planning to be married on a cruise!! And all because they had such a wonderful time at our wedding.

[jkellerfsu]

That is a good point.... what does a cruise wedding really mean? I am getting married on shore through a cruise line (RC) and I consider myself to be taking a "cruise wedding." Although, I have signed up for the "destination wedding" package through the cruise line so.... I'm not really too sure at this point. When I think destination wedding, mentally I don't really make any reference to a cruise at all. So, I'd say that if your wedding consists (in any sort of fashion) of taking a cruise then you are having a "cruise wedding" (even if the ceremony is on shore). Does that make sense? I would think that anyone on these boards would be considered to be taking a cruise wedding because this is "cruise" critics... ;)

 

Other thoughts?

 

Originally I had booked with RR to have an "on board" wedding and explored the possibility of the beach ceremony with them..... regardless of the ship or beach location it is still coordinated by Royal Romance if you go through Royal Carribbean. If you decide on getting married on the island, you can go through whoever you want!

 

I have to admit, I got scared. After doing lots more research we decided to have an island resort coordinate our wedding. It ended up being less expensive (I feld nickel and dimed by Royal Romance) and we got more choices. That being said, we haven't ACTUALLY had our wedding yet so it could all go down the tubes, lol

[wayneandwaynetta]

sounds like you did exactly what we did - I was booking the whole wedding through NCL but found on line weddings the island way on St thomas Island. They were much cheaper, and offered a better choice. Will let you know how it goes - wedding day 7th December cruising with NCL jewel

x

[cruisin'gal]

Please do post how the wedding went. I have contracted with WTIW also for my daughters wedding. So far so good, I have been working with Tina, are you getting married on Megans Bay? Laura

[gwhitso]

Hi All,

 

I just returned from getting married while on a cruise. On the question of a "cruise wedding", I considered myself having a destination wedding while traveling on board a cruise ship to take me to my destination. I also used Royal Romance. Overall my wedding was a success. I will say that the only reason I went with RR was due to the end of "hurricane" season. If for some reason, we had bad weather, RR would be able to move us to another island very easy unlike going with a specific coordinator on an island.

 

RR did nickel and dime you to death.. For my destination package, I received (2) photos, yes I said 2. The arranged for the beach, officiant and flowers.. That is about it.. I had to pay extra for chairs, extra to serve cake to my attending guests, extra for champagne, etc. I will say that the small cake was enough to feed 15 guests which included me and my husband. I had to pay extra, not for cake (because I went with the standard) but the plate charge to serve them. That is pretty much what I received. I am a little nervous about my photos as this was an island photographer as Royal Caribbean photographers are not allowed to work on the island due to 911/security reasons. I just hope I received them. I think doing an onboard wedding, although I dont know for fact, would be easier to coordinate. The coordination for my beach destination wedding was very disorganized which of course made me nervous. But as I said it turned out beautifully.. Even the weather cooperated.. It was raining when we went to the court house but as we drove the beach the clouds parted and it became sunny and HOT!!

 

As it pertains to the nickel and dime, RR tried to get me to pay for the flowers for the arch for around $250 which I said no... But I arrived and it was there so I assume that the wedding before me had paid for it and I got the benefit of using..

 

I don't want to be too negative as it seems to upset people that only negative comments are posted but this was my experience only. I would say that the onboard coordinator that I had was excellent vs. the onshore people.

 

JMO

 

Ginger

[HnJ06]

wayneandwaynetta - Hey...we're wedding twins!!! We're going with Cheryl Toner, but Dec 7th on the Jewel!!!! Are you getting married at Megans?

[wayneandwaynetta]

yes we are! How great! We are going off the ship at 09am ship time - what about you? We are with a party of 12, so I think quite easy to spot, will have to meet up for a drink!!

[wayneandwaynetta]

laura - cruisingal - will certainly do that. We have been dealing with Tina and Barbara also, both have been really helpful and I'm looking forward to meeting them

x

[HnJ06]

yes we are! How great! We are going off the ship at 09am ship time - what about you? We are with a party of 12, so I think quite easy to spot, will have to meet up for a drink!!

 

We have a 9:30 ceremony, so J and I will probably be off the boat and at the courthouse by then (but we're having the "first look" and party formal pictures taken at sunrise, so look for a half asleep girl in a big white dress surrounded by a group of teal if you can't sleep and are mosying around the deck). Our whole group has 19 people, but J and I are leaving seperately so they don't see us ahead of time, so hopefully everyone else won't be too inconspicuous. What time does your ceremony start? We might pass eachother in the parking lot (or maybe even arrive together!!!) How fun it this!!! I can't believe it's 17 days away (and there's still sooooo much to do)!!!!

 

We definately should get together. Are you going to the CC meet-up? I think the last count was 52, and growing every day (and from the roll call boards they seem like a great group)!!!

[wayneandwaynetta]

We have a 9:30 ceremony, so J and I will probably be off the boat and at the courthouse by then (but we're having the "first look" and party formal pictures taken at sunrise, so look for a half asleep girl in a big white dress surrounded by a group of teal if you can't sleep and are mosying around the deck). Our whole group has 19 people, but J and I are leaving seperately so they don't see us ahead of time, so hopefully everyone else won't be too inconspicuous. What time does your ceremony start? We might pass eachother in the parking lot (or maybe even arrive together!!!) How fun it this!!! I can't believe it's 17 days away (and there's still sooooo much to do)!!!!

 

We definately should get together. Are you going to the CC meet-up? I think the last count was 52, and growing every day (and from the roll call boards they seem like a great group)!!!

Hadnt heard of the CC, have only just found this site, although I have been on 9 previous cruises, though only one with NCL. Our wedding is at 10 - are you having the arch and aisle? Be interesting to see how many times they sell it in one day!!!!! We are with Weddings the Island Way so we must be at different areas on the bay I guess. We have the beach for two hours before we have to get back to the ship. I'm sure we will meet up - the 6 girls including myself have brightly cololoured parasols so easy to spot!

Delice

x

[HnJ06]

Hadnt heard of the CC, have only just found this site, although I have been on 9 previous cruises, though only one with NCL. Our wedding is at 10 - are you having the arch and aisle? Be interesting to see how many times they sell it in one day!!!!! We are with Weddings the Island Way so we must be at different areas on the bay I guess. We have the beach for two hours before we have to get back to the ship. I'm sure we will meet up - the 6 girls including myself have brightly cololoured parasols so easy to spot!

Delice

x

We actually have a Chuppah but no aisle. We are having our guests sit in a semi-circle around the chuppah with our wedding party standing on either side of us under it. It's a good thing we are doing different set-ups so we can tell whose is whose. I actually had a dream about that the other night...there were multiple simultaneous weddings going on and everyone had the same looking set-up and we all got to the beach having no idea whose was whose. Crazy confusion ensued with guests not sure where to go and fights over everyone saying the "nicest" set-up was theirs, etc. (I think that's what happens when I watch Bridezillas before bed :) )There's one other couple who is having their wedding at the same time (but I don't remember if she is doing an arch or anything like that).

 

The beach at Megan's is long and thin, so Cheryl (our coordinator) said that they will just space us all out along the beach. Hopefully there are only 3 of us :)!!! Megan's is so popular for weddings that doing this is common. Too bad we didn't know of this ahead of time and we could have pooled money and made one really awesome setup and then just staggered our ceremonies more (because I'm sure if we were all with the same company they would have just recharged us all for the arch/etc anyhow). We're having a catamaran come in at the end of our ceremony to take our guests on a little cruise for the cake/chamagne/cocktail reception, so we won't be there for your entire time (hopefully we're the party in the middle, so after we leave you and the other group will have the beach for yourselves....give it a slightly more secluded feel).

 

You might want to consider making your ceremony a bit earlier, as well. The cruise ships start sending excursions to Megan's in the late morning. The beach there gets crowded fast (since it's one of the most popular ones). I'm just worried there will be weird people wandering into your two hour reception time. If you start at 10, it'll be noon before your done (or you might want to look at doing the reception off site, we were considering doing it at Bolongo Bay Beach resort before we came up with the catamaran idea. They are really nice, and affordable).

 

CC=cruisecritic. If you go under message boards and "roll call Norwegian", you can find the board for other CC members that our on our sailing. Besides the weddings, we have a couple of anniversaries and birthdays in the group, so it's going to be a good time. The group is really great, so log on and introduce yourself. Since there are enough of us, NCL is throwing us a little meet-n-greet and Monday Dec 4th at 10:30, I think it is...check the boards for sure, and to find out the location because I'm not positive where it is (I want to say Star Bar?). Bambilin is in charge of organizing the guest list and has given her email, so drop her a line to let her know if you want to come along!!! OK, now I have to go pretend like I'm interested in this paper on Milton I'm writing!!! (Who can focus on homework when there's a wedding to organize :D (