Carnival Fascination Wedding Review – November 16, 2007

[chap0150]

I have a very positive review for my wedding almost 2 weeks ago. We hit small snags here and there but I was just so happy to be marrying my husband that I didn’t let anything bother me on my wedding day!

 

I should probably preface this by saying that I had limited contact with the Carnival wedding dept and TWE before our wedding. I had called Carnival once or twice with questions and they were pretty thorough with their “2 week before the wedding" call.

 

The flight over was fine—I hung my dress up in the crew cabin on an AA flight. Before that, TSA was cool about letting me know that my hangers weren’t on correctly. They were very friendly and wished us well. We arrived on November 15, 1 day before the Fascination sailed out. We stayed at the Holiday Inn-Port of Miami and I was extremely disappointed with their customer service. Out of the whole trip, I’d have to say that they caused me the most stress by making us wait 30-40 minutes for our rooms and they were quite rude about it (we had 10 people checking in).

 

We arrived at the port at 10:00 on Nov. 16 and after some initial confusion about checking our bags in, we proceeded through security. My tiara set off the alarm but the guard just did a quick patdown. We went upstairs to meet with our wedding coordinator and officiant around 10:30. My entire group was checking in with Carnival when the fire alarm went off. No one really did anything and most of my group had finished checking in when we were told that we had to evacuate the building because there really was a small fire in the terminal. So our group waited probably until 12:00 or so outside. It was a long time to wait but we had to wait for the Fire Department and Coast Guard to give us the OK before we could go back in. Our officiant and coordinator said this was the first time this had ever happened. When we went inside, our officiant went over the ceremony with us in our stateroom. Everyone else’s stateroom was cleaned so our guests chilled before they had to be in the Tara Library at 12:30 for the rehearsal.

 

We didn't have much time but it sure felt like forever until our ceremony started at 1:30. It was supposed to start at 1 but I imagine the fire delayed the ceremony.

 

My husband’s tux was MIA—someone from TWE was driving it over to the port and was stuck in traffic. Carnival raided their internal supply and let him use one of their tuxes. I didn’t even know this until after the wedding.

 

The ceremony was short and sweet. Our officiant was really great. Since we had all spent so much time together outside during the fire, the ceremony seemed personable after getting to know her. The greatest tip that she gave us was to make sure that when we were repeating our vows, to be staring at each other, not at her. I remembered that during the ceremony and as I spoke my vows, I truly felt like it was just the two of us.

 

We chose the 2 hour luncheon so we could have a nice sitdown. Before we sat down for the lunch, we did the toast first and then cake cutting. Our cake topper that we brought (which had been given to the officiant) was on the cake as requested. The bubbly flowed like water!

 

During the lunch, we spent 2 courses with my family and 2 courses with his family. The food was incredibly tasty. At the end of lunch, we met with the photographer and he said that we should attend the safety drill first and then meet him back at the Library so we could take some photographs in the studio. We did the drill and then did the pictures.

 

On Sunday, we met up with the photographer and he tried selling us the package for $1600 and then for $1200. Our budget was way less than that, only because at this point, we had seen our families digital pictures and they were pretty good. So we declined on the package and bought lots of 5x7s ($5 per pic) and a few 8x11s ($15 per pic) on an individual basis. There was no pressure at all to buy the package.

 

So overall, a fantastic experience with TWE and Carnival! Our families were hesitant about the whole cruise experience but they thoroughly enjoyed spending time getting to know each other! I'd highly recommend a cruise wedding to anyone wanting a low-key wedding.

[jointavenger]

Wow, what an amazing story! I am so glad that everything went so well!!!

 

One question, did you have the Ceremony and Wedding Luncheon Package? That is what we are having on Saturday.

 

Congratulations and be sure to share some pictures with us!:o

[ShedQueen77]

How great that everything went well despite the hiccups beforehand! :) Congratulations!

 

PS- Just curious, did your husband's tux ever make it to you? ;)

[chap0150]

Wow, what an amazing story! I am so glad that everything went so well!!!

 

One question, did you have the Ceremony and Wedding Luncheon Package? That is what we are having on Saturday.

 

Congratulations and be sure to share some pictures with us!:o

Yep!! Ceremony and luncheon package. I was so surprised at how fancy the meal was... especially the fruit w/ ice cream! We expected it to be like a fruit cocktail with a side of ice cream. Oh no no! It was in a martini glass, fruit cut very nicely, and this candy-like substance over the top (it reminded me of confetti but it was hard candy) and the ice cream in a little elegant dish. Very nice. Congratulations on your wedding this weekend!!!! :)

[chap0150]

How great that everything went well despite the hiccups beforehand! :) Congratulations!

 

PS- Just curious, did your husband's tux ever make it to you? ;)

HAHHAA!!! It's funny you should ask because the tux never made it to us before sailing at 4:30!!!! We were able to use the Carnival tux for the entire duration of the trip, no hassle.

[ShedQueen77]

HAHHAA!!! It's funny you should ask because the tux never made it to us before sailing at 4:30!!!! We were able to use the Carnival tux for the entire duration of the trip, no hassle.

 

Oh wow! I'm glad they let you use theirs! :)