Mariner of the Seas - Wedding Review 4/26/07

[Caymanbride]

Sorry this may be long winded but I am still a little upset and just wanted you guys to know what you may be up against (and I guess to vent a little). We just got back on Monday and I am recovering from my fun cruise with my closest family and friends but it was definately filled with stress. Let me start from the beginning....

 

We live in Canada and were leaving early for Orlando to spend 1 week there prior to the cruise. I never received the call 30 to 45 days prior to departure from RR. I didn't freak about it because I told myself that everything would work out fine... assuming that RR has done tons of weddings before. We did call RR to tell them that I needed to be contacted a little earlier than the 2 weeks prior to wedding because we would no longer be at home and needed the details before we headed to Orlando. They put a note on my file and assured me I would be called about 2 or 3 days before I left. My travel agent also called RR and told them we needed details early. I waited and waited...trying to be patient until it was the last day before departure. I finally called and was trying not to be furious. Robert was my finalizer and I was on hold forever. I was then told that he would have to call me back in 20 minutes. So an hour later he called and apologized for not calling me earlier than today and gave me some excuse which I knew was bull.

 

He told me my wedding was at 1:30 PM in the Lotus Lounge. He said that the Cruise Program Administrator (CPA) named Jo was to contact me and go over details and be the liason between RR and the ship while I was on board. He told me the morning of the wedding I would meet with RR coordinators to go over all details of the wedding and DH would meet the minister 1/2 and hour before the ceremony to give him our vows and documents. I had arranged with my travel agent months ago to have a cocktail party with appetizers with open bar to start after the ceremony (this was arranged through RCI not RR) and we had booked and paid for Portofinos for an evening reception to begin at 6PM.

 

Now I was warned by other brides to bring all documents. I have never been so organized in my life! I had every document from my travel agent showing everything we booked, reserved and paid for trough RCI's group department. I also brought along all RR documents. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS TO ALL BRIDES, MAKE SURE YOU BRING EVERY DOCUMENT AND EMAILS!

 

When we got on the ship we went to check out our stateroom. Inside, we had a letter from the ship's Group coordinator Yvonne Froese confirming our cocktail party, Portofinos and what time we had these booked. There was another letter from Jo asking us to meet her the following morning for a meeting. I was happy at this point because it looked like everything was organized and ready to go. So we continued to check out the ship,unpack,eat, etc.

 

Later on in the afternoon we went down to check out POrtofinos - just to confirm our reservation and check out the layout. They had no confirmation for our wedding on thursday night and the manager said he was already fully booked for that evening. I felt my BP rise and anger :mad: . I told him I had Portofinos paid for and booked for months. I went back to my room to get all my confirmation letters to bring to him. I left it to him and told him I would not budge on the date and time. He said he would look into it and get back to us. We had late seating and by dinner, I still had not heard. The Head waiter called up to Portofinos and by then things got rectified. Portofinos had to call all the reservations they had made for that evening and cancel. I guess the group coordinator had it booked but did not communicate it to the restaurant.

 

Next morning, met with JO. SHe said that the morning of the wedding the coordinators from RR would meet me probably between 9 to 10 AM but she would email them to confirm and let us know. We were supposed to tell them then what we wanted, how things were to be arranged, wedding music etc. I asked her to check on my cocktail party. She had nothing noted. She had to check with Yvonne (GC). So although they were coordinating the same event, they obviously did not talk to one another AT ALL EVER as I soon found out on this trip. She also informed me my wedding was at 2:30 PM ship time not 1:30 PM as previously told (RR did not tell me that island time is 1 hr behind ship time and they were quoting island time). This wouldn't have been a problem except the cocktail party was scheduled at 2PM ship time (before the wedding was even started). So Yvonne called me later and we managed to rearrange that. I just still don't understand through all my planning why RCI or RR did not tell me about these times differences as they knew I was trying to coordinate the party with the wedding.

 

The night before the wedding, I went to ask who my photographer was. The guy in the gallery was very rude and told me I should trust them as they were professionals. I just wanted to ask who my photographer was and to speak with him briefly. He kept asking me what my photographer's name was and I kept repeating I didn't know and that was why I was there. I finally gave up, frustrated and would return later when the photo manager was there.

 

Wedding Day - I told myself that I would let whatever happened, happen and it was too late anyways. My friends call, tell me to check my cruise compass. In the afternoon activities, there is fun fitness shown at 1:30 (close to when I should be setting up) and at 3:30 Cozumel Highlights (during my cocktail party) , both to take place in the Lotus Lounge. I called Yvonne again. She said she would arrange for the 3:30 PM event to be shifted to a different venue but then she says - the event at 1:30 "I was under the impression that your wedding was on the island not on the ship". I quickly informed her that it was in the Lotus Lounge at 2:30 and she again said she had to call Jo to check on that. Do these people NEVER talk to each other. If they went over everything together from day 1 they wouldn't have had to keep calling each other several times to confirm this and that.

 

I called Jo at 10AM since I still had no word from her or the wedding coordinators as to when I should meet. She said that RR never emailed her back. She calls me back to say they are at another wedding on another ship and that the RR Coordinators would be taking the 12:30 PM tender and would meet me once they get here. 1PM rolls around, nothing.1:30 PM still nothing. I start to panic a bit because my wedding is 1 hr away and the 3 coordinators know nothing of how I wanted things set up, my song selections we chose and put on disc, etc. Luckily I had very supportive friends who I had instructed and delegated decorating to. I put another friend in charge of music because I obviously didn't trust RR at this point ( we brought our ipods and speakers). I call the operator to connect me to JO...she is in a very important meeting, can you call back later....sure maybe while I walk down the aisle. Since it is now about 2PM, I just give up. I am pretty much ready.

 

A RR coordinator finally knocks on my door at 2:30PM and gives me my bouquet. The flowers were the only thing I was pleased with with RR. I told her I had been waiting all day for some sort of contact with them and she said it wasn't necesarry since I faxed the documents to them. I don't understand how come the CPA and Robert the finalizer told me I would be meeting with them. Here is this woman who knew nothing of how I wanted my wedding.

 

The day itself went beautifully and the ceremony and Portofinos was perfect. I can't say that it was due to RR or the CPA. My Photogrpher Joselito was wonderful and took better pics than expected. I will post them soon I promise.

 

My friends and DH tell me later that at 2PM, the coordinators finally showed up at the Lotus Lounge. All my helpers were already there. The chairs were not arranged yet until my friend got snarky with Jo and lit a fire under her ass to get things moving. The minister argued with everyone about how the sand ceremony should be done. The tables I requested for the guest table weren't there until they asked. The cakes were missing until 2 minutes before we were to start, my friend asks the coordinator where the last cake is and he replies.. I don't know. Isn't this what I supposedly paid for? So my day would be stress free. I had 55 guests so I had to have 3 coordinators...which I only saw 2. So where was the third one I paid $150 for and what the hell was their job if my friends did everything? Oh and one more thing. I paid for cocktails for 2 hours open bar, my sister said that the servers disappeared after 4PM and were MIA for 20 miutes( we were off taking pics). She had to go into the back to ask them to bring out more drinks. They said the party was over and my sister corrected them and said I paid until 5PM. They told her they would have to double check before they brought out anymore drinks (again not communicating to the staff).

 

I am going to write a leter to RCI and RR. I wasn't stressed really through the entire year I planned the wedding but that week stressed me out. I was not a control freak and understood that if I wanted to know every deatil along the way, then this wasn't for me. My TA and I booked things, had all confirmations but in the end, the ship seemed to be so disorganized. I can understand that they require several people to run different departments but there was an absolute lack of communication between departments on the ship.

 

If you guys have any questions I would be happy to answer them. You can see from my pics that I will post soon how we decorated things. I am just fortunate that the ceremony and reception went well. Portofinos did their part in the end. The food there was amazing as was the service.

 

Sorry for the long post. Thanks for letting me vent.

[space07]

Oh man!!! as you know I have the glacier wedding thing going on and I feel the same way about the planning. I was fine with not knowing every little thing, but no one has ever contacted me EVER and my wedding is in 18 days. They need there hand held through every little thing. You should have heard when I asked for champagne and sparkling cider. I might as well have asked for the moon! I will take you advise about bringing all communications. I have a binder with everything so far. I have become very organized and obsessed with having proof of everything. I can't wait to see your pictures!! Alls well that ends well I guess!!!! Congratulations:)

[copper6606]

I am so glad that everything turn out fine. The reason these people are hired is so they can take stess off of you - not to add more stress! I would be livid! This is supposed to be something to always remember but I'm afraid these memories would be infringing on the good ones. :(

Try to just be thankful everything worked out and good luck and God bless you for the future.:)

[Caymanbride]

Oh man!!! as you know I have the glacier wedding thing going on and I feel the same way about the planning. I was fine with not knowing every little thing, but no one has ever contacted me EVER and my wedding is in 18 days. They need there hand held through every little thing. You should have heard when I asked for champagne and sparkling cider. I might as well have asked for the moon! I will take you advise about bringing all communications. I have a binder with everything so far. I have become very organized and obsessed with having proof of everything. I can't wait to see your pictures!! Alls well that ends well I guess!!!! Congratulations:)

 

Hang in there Sara! I tried really hard to keep positive and tell myself that everything would be OK. I just reached a breaking point ( I think they have maxed out yours!). They are really not the brightest and you really have to reiterate things 20 times because 1 person tells you something different from the next.

 

Thank you girls for the Congrats.

[sunrise2008]

Sorry to hear about all the stress you had to go through...

 

I think you just convinced me not to use RR and make my own plans..

 

I am also planning a wedding on Royal Caribbean and was thinking of doing a reception at Portofino. I am also from Canada, Montreal. We don`texpect to have many guests coming with us so we want a small intimate reception. Are there some more private areas in the restaurant that they can book for us so we don`t feel everyone is at our party?! Is it a nice classy restaurant? Did they have wine packages similar to what they offer in the dining room?

 

Also, for pictures, I tried to get info on the different packages they offered but had no luck. We want to have the digitals of all pictures. Do you know approx how much a package with digital pictures cost?

 

We are thinking of doing an off shore wedding so not sure if we can still hire a photgraph for on-board pictures and at the restaurant?

 

Anyway, enough questions now! Congrats on your wedding and I wish you the best!

[Caymanbride]

Sorry to hear about all the stress you had to go through...

 

I think you just convinced me not to use RR and make my own plans..

 

I am also planning a wedding on Royal Caribbean and was thinking of doing a reception at Portofino. I am also from Canada, Montreal. We don`texpect to have many guests coming with us so we want a small intimate reception. Are there some more private areas in the restaurant that they can book for us so we don`t feel everyone is at our party?! Is it a nice classy restaurant? Did they have wine packages similar to what they offer in the dining room?

 

Also, for pictures, I tried to get info on the different packages they offered but had no luck. We want to have the digitals of all pictures. Do you know approx how much a package with digital pictures cost?

 

We are thinking of doing an off shore wedding so not sure if we can still hire a photgraph for on-board pictures and at the restaurant?

 

Anyway, enough questions now! Congrats on your wedding and I wish you the best!

 

Portofinos is a really nice restaurant. They have an area in the back which would be intimate for a small group. We were going to use this part of the restaurant but there is a pole in the middle which wasn't ideal for a group our size and for doing speeches. We paid for the entire restaurant and had it private. On the first night onborad we bought a wine package (12 bottles for something like $300) which we saved speciffically for Portofinos. We ran out mid dinner and bought another package.

 

I can't remember exactly about the photo packages but the lowest one is about $495 which includes less developed 5X7 pics and I think 3 8X10 pics, one frame, a small album which holds 20 5x7s and the CD with all your photos on them.

The next package is what we bought was $795 which included 6 8x10 pics, 72 developed 5x7's, RC picture album (a large one), silver frame, 3 small albums, 2 other frames, the CD and 50 thank you pics.

then the platinum package which was $1179 which included most of our pics (he took about 375 pics or so) all of the above and then some. Either way you get the CD which is NOT copyrighted so you can definately get it printed after.

 

Not sure if you can get the ship photographer for the island. I regret not having the photographer for Portofinos because we had different outfits ( we dressed up in traditional Vietnamese wedding gowns) but I have heard of people arranging this once onboard.

 

Hope this helps. I don't mind the questions. I myself had a million of them.

[phenomenal]

First I want to say congratulation to you and your husband. I wish you both abundant blessing, lots of love, affection and most of all happiness. I read cruise critic daily. My fiance thinks that I will be in withdrawal after the wedding since he and my family thinks I am hooked to the boards.

 

When I saw your posting listing the review, I did a Yippie!!!! Then I read it and I mean word for word and I could feel my heart sinking for you... ... I am sorry to hear about your experience. I know I read on the message board someplace some one listing the mailing address and the website for the board of directors of RC.

 

I noticed that you mention keeping all emails and notes from RC. I have booked through the RR department and I have only received the info about what they need me to complete pertaining to my guest and how I want to have the ceremony. My TA told me that she only handled the booking of cabins and now we are haggling and I do mean that for every time she promises something she changes once talking to RC. I had to book the wedding stuff through RR and have only made payment and have not heard any more. Did they mention anything about compensation for their miscommunication?

 

I am having a port side wedding on Mariner. I am having 50 guest and I am trying hard to keep it to that... I have not seen anywhere on the pricing list that they emailed me where you can add additional reception time which I would love to have an extra hour depending on the cost. Do you know the cost for that?

 

Did you have any problems with sailing guest without their passports? Can you tell me about your cake that they provided? Were you able to choose your flower colors? I have lots of questions right now.... but I am shaking my head at the moment.... The best thing about it is that you were able to be whisked off by your King as you now set up your new future together....

[sas80]

I just got this off the RCCL board. I have no clue if it is a working email address but it sure wont hurt to add it to the address list you send your complaint letter out to, eh?

 

AGoldstein@rccl.com President of Royal Caribbean.

[cruiseknotter]

First congratulations on your wedding!

I feel terrible about what you had to go through on your special day.

I originally planned glacier wedding on Royal Caribbean (my fiance and I've been on RC 3-4 times and loved it), but ended up cancelling the cruise/wedding. I'm very glad I did after hearing a few horrible stories about RR.

My travel agent seemed glad when I cancelled the whole thing:eek: because she said it's impossible to get a hold of anybody in RR. My guests already paid the cruise deposit/got vacation approval from work and were ready to book flights (some of them coming from Asia). My TA and I been calling RR to pay for the wedding deposit. But there's no one answering the calls!! My email always got responded (after a few days) by their automatic email template. One day I decided to wait on the phone (at work) and finally someone answered! What I was told was (in summary) glacier wedding depends on the weather condition, so I may not be able to do it. Fair enough, then what's your backup plan? This person, instead of trying to ensure there is a backup plan, continues to tell me they can't guarantee anything. I asked if I will get married anyhow from this trip. Their response: they can't say that for sure.:eek: Is it their goal to get rid of customers? I didn't want to waste my time and said I'll have to cancel and I needed to get my cruise deposit back asap. They said NO PROBLEM! In my mind, I congratulated on their victory!

Deposit refund was quick, but I and my fiance had to explain our wedding is still on (no, we didn't break up).

I see RR and TWE are same company. Currently I'm working w/TWE and very happy so far. booked Celebrity (although it's owned by RC). I have no idea how come the RR and TWE's customer services are very different (at least in my case).

[space07]

So, when can we see your pictures? :)

[abs711]

Let me begin by also say I am very sorry you went through all of this. But Congrats on your marriage! Next, Thank YOU so mcuh for this post because I have been on the fence about using RR or an Island company. Now I am using the other company no contest!!! Thanks Again

[arabrab]

Congratulations for keeping your cool in such a chaotic environment. Your account was very clear, and I hope that the folks at the cruise line carefully listen. Yours isn't the first RR wedding I've read about where it seems that the RR people have done little or nothing to actually read and follow plans, but yours was perhaps the clearest account of how poorly they work. Bravo on bringing all of the receipts, communications, etc. I'm sure that your reception in Portofino's wouldn't have taken place without that documentation.

 

Best wishes for a much less stressful first year of marriage than the days you had leading up to your wedding.

[sunrise2008]

Thanks for all the info! Very helpful!

[StlGal]

Hi... first of all, congratulations on your wedding. I'm am so very sorry to hear that you had to go through this on your wedding day.

 

I am glad however, that you decided to post this on the boards to let people know of your experience with RR/TWE. This also makes me very thankful that my FI & I canceled our wedding with them and are now instead going with a private island coordinator.

 

I never had a good feeling when dealing with RR/TWE and your post just backs up what we were feeling.

 

Good luck with pursuing things with RR/TWE & RC.

 

I wish you and your husband all of the happiness in your future lives together.

 

angie

[cathylovescrusin]

I will join the crowd with a big congratulations on your wedding.

 

Jim and I are the couple being married on June 24 in Juneau - that battled RR through RCI. Oh my did I panic when I read the review.

 

We had a reminder yesterday about how poor the service can be with RR when we called about photo package upgrades. RR - "we don't do that, call RCI". When Jim called (I have removed myself from all wedding plans - too upsetting) the first RCI Customer Service person did not know the answer.....but found someone who did. Why couldn't RR just give us the direct line rather than "we don't do that, call RCI). I don't get it.

 

After reading the review we are going to be firm about getting telephone numbers for the RR representative in Juneau.....then CALL to confirm.

 

I know RCI made everythnig right for our wedding after we expressed our displeasure....but it's just not fair.

 

Future brides/grooms....please think long and hard about a RR managed wedding. It is FAR from personal!

 

 

.....but back to more pleasant topics.....Congratulations again and best wishes for all the other bridal couples!

 

I'll post when we return from our cruise the end of June!

 

Cathy

[Caymanbride]

Hi there,

 

So as promised I have uploaded some pics from our wedding. Sorry for the long wait. My computer was on the fritz and DH had to get it up and running. I am also computer illiterate and had to figure out how to post them.:rolleyes: SOrry there are so many pics. I had a hard time narrowing down 400+ pics... still uploaded about 100 or so.

 

We brought the table cloths (in my colors), shells, cake topper, programs I made, gift box, pics of our parents wedding and favors you see in the pics.

 

Enjoy and thanks for looking!

 

http://s113.photobucket.com/albums/n215/ltnguyen13/wedding/

[Caymanbride]

First I want to say congratulation to you and your husband. I wish you both abundant blessing, lots of love, affection and most of all happiness. I read cruise critic daily. My fiance thinks that I will be in withdrawal after the wedding since he and my family thinks I am hooked to the boards.

 

When I saw your posting listing the review, I did a Yippie!!!! Then I read it and I mean word for word and I could feel my heart sinking for you... ... I am sorry to hear about your experience. I know I read on the message board someplace some one listing the mailing address and the website for the board of directors of RC.

 

I noticed that you mention keeping all emails and notes from RC. I have booked through the RR department and I have only received the info about what they need me to complete pertaining to my guest and how I want to have the ceremony. My TA told me that she only handled the booking of cabins and now we are haggling and I do mean that for every time she promises something she changes once talking to RC. I had to book the wedding stuff through RR and have only made payment and have not heard any more. Did they mention anything about compensation for their miscommunication?

 

I am having a port side wedding on Mariner. I am having 50 guest and I am trying hard to keep it to that... I have not seen anywhere on the pricing list that they emailed me where you can add additional reception time which I would love to have an extra hour depending on the cost. Do you know the cost for that?

 

Did you have any problems with sailing guest without their passports? Can you tell me about your cake that they provided? Were you able to choose your flower colors? I have lots of questions right now.... but I am shaking my head at the moment.... The best thing about it is that you were able to be whisked off by your King as you now set up your new future together....

 

For your reception, is it onboard or on the island? If you get the lunch buffet with bar service from RR, I believe it is $45 per person for the first hour and you can add another hour of bar service for $15 per person. The other thing is if you have 50+ people, you can get a free cocktail party for 1 hr (call brands only) as a credit per se for having such a large group. That's what we had for our afternoon reception.

 

All of our guests had passports because as of Jan/07 it is mandatory for Canadians flying to the US. My cake was chocolate with a white butter cream icing. It was tasty. I paid for extra but really I should have bought less because we had ALOT left over (you can see it in the pics). They don't do tiered cakes but told me there was a tiered stand - I didn't get that either.

 

Flowers - I didn't want a cascading bouquet that was multi-colored. I requested with RR that I wanted ivory flowers with a blue ribbon and my bouquet was perfect! It was probably the one thing that I actually loved from RR. The boutineres , I also requested to have white orchids and they were very nice.

 

Feel free to ask any questions. I'll be glad to help!

[mandabear]

Congrats! And thanks for posting so many photos. You looked so beautiful. I really loved the blue you chose, and I may have to steal your idea for the guest book table.

[I2BZ2W8]

Wow! Thanks for sharing your pictures as well as your story! I am getting married in August and so far I haven’t had any problems with RR.

 

www.image.com is the photographer for RCI and I would suggest booking additional hours and photo packages through them. My RR coordinator suggested this to save money! So they aren’t all bad!

[JPerry]

Congrats!!! But sorry to hear that everything didnt go well. I am getting so nervous now about our wedding. I love your pictures, everything looks beautiful! The color of sand that you had our our 2 colors :D Im gonna have to steal your idea on that one!

[nimbex1970]

At first I felt so bad and angry for you, then I watched your wedding photos and I knew that although it was the worst experience getting there, it was a beautiful experience being married. You really made the ceremony your own and not bland. thanks for the time to warn us, and share your beautiful pics.

 

Perhaps in a year or two, the bad will be forgotten and you'll remember the best of your day;) I, however am warned and appreciate you for this.

[terryvet9]

Hi there,

 

So as promised I have uploaded some pics from our wedding. Sorry for the long wait. My computer was on the fritz and DH had to get it up and running. I am also computer illiterate and had to figure out how to post them.:rolleyes: SOrry there are so many pics. I had a hard time narrowing down 400+ pics... still uploaded about 100 or so.

 

We brought the table cloths (in my colors), shells, cake topper, programs I made, gift box, pics of our parents wedding and favors you see in the pics.

 

Enjoy and thanks for looking!

 

http://s113.photobucket.com/albums/n215/ltnguyen13/wedding/

 

Hi, you look absoultley Gorgeous in your pictues! Never would have known their was a problem. How did you make your programs? Also on your sign in talbe, were those yours and his parents wedding pictures? That is a cute idea!

[cruiseknotter]

Your photos are very beautiful! I was on Mariner of the seas a few yrs ago, and that ship inspired me about the cruise wedding.

You mentioned you didn't like a cascading bouquet. My package also comes with a cascading one, and I'm also not so sure about that. I may change. I would think there's no additional fee for that??

[Caymanbride]

Hi, you look absoultley Gorgeous in your pictues! Never would have known their was a problem. How did you make your programs? Also on your sign in talbe, were those yours and his parents wedding pictures? That is a cute idea!

 

Yup! I made my programs. It took me an entire day and I almost threw my printer out the window:rolleyes: but they turned out great. Yes we had our parents wedding pics and a pic of us on the table.

 

Feel free to steal any ideas.

[Caymanbride]

Your photos are very beautiful! I was on Mariner of the seas a few yrs ago, and that ship inspired me about the cruise wedding.

You mentioned you didn't like a cascading bouquet. My package also comes with a cascading one, and I'm also not so sure about that. I may change. I would think there's no additional fee for that??

 

I just called RR and requested a smaller bouquet with ivory flowers and a blue ribbon. Surprisingly, they actially got it right! They didn't charge me anything but if you go into details (like what type of flowers or if you want to send them pics) then they tell you its a customized bouquet and they want more $$.