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Hi all! My fiancé and I recently got engaged and are looking to have our wedding on a cruise! Looking to depart out of Florida on a RCCL ship sometime in late 2018 or early 2019. Looking for some recent reviews on Royal Caribbean's new wedding company (Royal Ocean I believe?) or reviews on recent wedding royal Caribbean cruises in general! There doesn't seem to be many details online, so anything (including pictures!) is very much useful and appreciated at this time.

 

Some other questions include the following: what does a normal port wedding look like? What about a wedding at a desination in one of the ports? What are the normal timelines for that? Any ships people would recommend for weddings? Any destinations people would recommend? We were also toying with the idea of hiring a coordinator at our destination instead of using Royal Caribbean's. Has anyone done this?

 

As you can probably tell, I'm quite early in the planning stages. Any of me fellow brides have any advice one way or another? Thank so much in advance!

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Hi!

First off, Congratulations!

 

There are a ton of options with cruise weddings, so it's hard to really identify a "normal" until you narrow down some of the decisions. I just went through the whole planning process and got married in Juneau as part of our Alaskan cruise wedding. Things you'll need to take into consideration/place to start looking:

 

 

1. Legality. Not every cruise line can legally marry you. And if they can (Princess can perform a marriage as long as it's international waters for example), not every itinerary has a sea day far enough out from land to perform a legal marriage. Are you comfortable with just a ceremony? Or do you want your marriage certificate to have the day of your vows. This impacts the cruise line and itinerary you choose.

 

2. Destination! This is the fun part. Where do you want to go? Caribbean? Alaska? Mediterranean? Hawaii? I started by looking into the logistics for each area I was interested in. For example, Hawaii is a 2 week minimum cruise from the mainland--which was too long for my guests to make. Time of year matters. If you're heart is set on an August wedding, that's hurricane season in the Caribbean. Flights- is getting to the departure port in your budget? Etc.

 

3. Ship size. This is partially related to number 2. The big luxury ships are mostly in the Caribbean. These are going to be the newest and coolest (robot bars, luxury detailing, etc). However, places like Alaska need smaller ships that can get in and out of the fjords. There are pros and cons to both. Small ships are older, though refurbished frequently. They're more intimate and you'll run into family and friends. Big ships can be a more lux experience, especially in the public spaces, but are also so big that you don't necessarily have to see or hang out with family while on the cruise. There's that much to do.

 

4. Type of wedding. You can do a package deal through the cruise's company or you can book directly as a group/corporate event. Pros and cons to both. If you want the wedding on board you have to book via the wedding package company. If you're doing a port wedding, you can easily reserve dinning options/do an open bar, etc on board and either arrange your own wedding in port or use a local wedding planning company. If you're in port long enough you can do the reception in port too. This option gives you the most control (you pick location, photographer, etc etc), but if the ship misses the port due to rough seas, etc., you will need a back up plan. The package will generally limit you if you want a port wedding to a set location. But if the ship misses that port they'll bump the wedding to an onboard event.

 

 

For us, Alaska checked all the boxes. The water is super calm in the inside passage and almost none of the ports have a tender (biggest risk of missing a port for rough water is that the tender can't make it). Since it's in America, having a legal marriage wasn't a problem. We liked the idea of a small ship and more time bonding/hanging out in the evenings. And since we wanted to get married in port, we just booked everything directly and skipped the whole wedding package, which allows us to bring our own photographer for the trip. If you want to see pictures: https://hofferphotography.com/2016/07/27/amanda-nick-in-alaska-part-1/

 

https://hofferphotography.com/2016/07/28/amanda-nick-at-the-shrine-of-st-therese-juneau-alaska-part-2/

 

Part 2 is the actual wedding.

 

 

I will say that there are more fun group booking options in the Caribbean. When looking at the group event list, there were things like private reserved areas and games on Princess Cay (would be labadee for RC). Tiki themed parties at certain bars on board. Etc. We ended up doing a wine tasting for our guests.

 

 

Let me know if you have more questions!

Edited by SailsandVeils
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Hi!

First off, Congratulations!

 

There are a ton of options with cruise weddings, so it's hard to really identify a "normal" until you narrow down some of the decisions. I just went through the whole planning process and got married in Juneau as part of our Alaskan cruise wedding. Things you'll need to take into consideration/place to start looking:

 

 

1. Legality. Not every cruise line can legally marry you. And if they can (Princess can perform a marriage as long as it's international waters for example), not every itinerary has a sea day far enough out from land to perform a legal marriage. Are you comfortable with just a ceremony? Or do you want your marriage certificate to have the day of your vows. This impacts the cruise line and itinerary you choose.

 

2. Destination! This is the fun part. Where do you want to go? Caribbean? Alaska? Mediterranean? Hawaii? I started by looking into the logistics for each area I was interested in. For example, Hawaii is a 2 week minimum cruise from the mainland--which was too long for my guests to make. Time of year matters. If you're heart is set on an August wedding, that's hurricane season in the Caribbean. Flights- is getting to the departure port in your budget? Etc.

 

3. Ship size. This is partially related to number 2. The big luxury ships are mostly in the Caribbean. These are going to be the newest and coolest (robot bars, luxury detailing, etc). However, places like Alaska need smaller ships that can get in and out of the fjords. There are pros and cons to both. Small ships are older, though refurbished frequently. They're more intimate and you'll run into family and friends. Big ships can be a more lux experience, especially in the public spaces, but are also so big that you don't necessarily have to see or hang out with family while on the cruise. There's that much to do.

 

4. Type of wedding. You can do a package deal through the cruise's company or you can book directly as a group/corporate event. Pros and cons to both. If you want the wedding on board you have to book via the wedding package company. If you're doing a port wedding, you can easily reserve dinning options/do an open bar, etc on board and either arrange your own wedding in port or use a local wedding planning company. If you're in port long enough you can do the reception in port too. This option gives you the most control (you pick location, photographer, etc etc), but if the ship misses the port due to rough seas, etc., you will need a back up plan. The package will generally limit you if you want a port wedding to a set location. But if the ship misses that port they'll bump the wedding to an onboard event.

 

 

For us, Alaska checked all the boxes. The water is super calm in the inside passage and almost none of the ports have a tender (biggest risk of missing a port for rough water is that the tender can't make it). Since it's in America, having a legal marriage wasn't a problem. We liked the idea of a small ship and more time bonding/hanging out in the evenings. And since we wanted to get married in port, we just booked everything directly and skipped the whole wedding package, which allows us to bring our own photographer for the trip. If you want to see pictures: https://hofferphotography.com/2016/07/27/amanda-nick-in-alaska-part-1/

 

https://hofferphotography.com/2016/07/28/amanda-nick-at-the-shrine-of-st-therese-juneau-alaska-part-2/

 

Part 2 is the actual wedding.

 

 

I will say that there are more fun group booking options in the Caribbean. When looking at the group event list, there were things like private reserved areas and games on Princess Cay (would be labadee for RC). Tiki themed parties at certain bars on board. Etc. We ended up doing a wine tasting for our guests.

 

 

Let me know if you have more questions!

 

Wow!!! Thank you so much for taking the time to write that fantastic response!

 

The legality part is going to be very important because I want to have a ceremony with a marriage certificate and vows, and not just a symbolic ceremony. And I definitely want to get married in the Caribbean! There's something about a beach that just calls my name.

 

I'm looking to have a destination wedding in a port of call vs on the ship.

 

I must say, your photographs are absolutely stunning!! You can definitely tell that they weren't taken by the ship photographer in the very cheesy poses, there is some genuine emotion and candid shots. After seeing those vs some of the ship ones, I'm leaning towards going the corporate/group booking instead of the wedding to be able to bring my own photographer. The added flexibility of being able to customize parts of the ceremony is also appealing. I'm just nervous that if something happens and we aren't able to dock for any reason there is no insurance to be able to have the ceremony on the ship. I wonder if the ship would be able to accommodate a symbolic ceremony if we didn't book through them and we weren't able to dock at our destination??

 

I think a Royal Caribbean ship on a Caribbean itinerary will be perfect for us and our group. We are young and like to have fun and so do our friends and family!

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Wow!!! Thank you so much for taking the time to write that fantastic response!

 

The legality part is going to be very important because I want to have a ceremony with a marriage certificate and vows, and not just a symbolic ceremony. And I definitely want to get married in the Caribbean! There's something about a beach that just calls my name.

 

I'm looking to have a destination wedding in a port of call vs on the ship.

 

I must say, your photographs are absolutely stunning!! You can definitely tell that they weren't taken by the ship photographer in the very cheesy poses, there is some genuine emotion and candid shots. After seeing those vs some of the ship ones, I'm leaning towards going the corporate/group booking instead of the wedding to be able to bring my own photographer. The added flexibility of being able to customize parts of the ceremony is also appealing. I'm just nervous that if something happens and we aren't able to dock for any reason there is no insurance to be able to have the ceremony on the ship. I wonder if the ship would be able to accommodate a symbolic ceremony if we didn't book through them and we weren't able to dock at our destination??

 

I think a Royal Caribbean ship on a Caribbean itinerary will be perfect for us and our group. We are young and like to have fun and so do our friends and family!

 

 

The Caribbean is going to be STUNNING. Plus you'll have so many fun options!

 

So missing port is always the biggest fear, and there's no way to get around the possibility completely. There are ways to mitigate it though. Ports that have tenders are the most likely to be missed. I didn't know what a tender was when I first started, so just in case you don't either, it's when the ship anchors out at sea and a little boat ferries people back and forth. It takes forever, and even a couple foot swells can create unsafe conditions on the tender boats. The ships that are able to dock directly to a pier are fine. I would focus on ports that have the infrastructure to support the ship docking directly. Next, see if you can find a docking schedule. Sometimes, if a port is really crowded, the pier will be full and a ship will have to tender anyway. Luckily the pattern for when/where all the ships are going to dock and who is going to get the tender is set a year or two in advance. It's subject to change, but it'll help give you an idea. Also, the earlier a ship comes into port, the more likely they are to have a pier spot. Finally, avoid hurricane season :-).

 

If for some reason you did miss the port, you will have an unexpected sea day. I'd ask the onboard group coordinator (the Royal Caribbean one) if there is any way they can accommodate a symbolic ceremony. Make it clear you know there won't be decorations, etc., and they may be able to help you. Another option would be to try and use your reception space. You already have it booked out and if it's symbolic you don't necessarily need the legal stuff at that point. The other option I can think of is expensive, but you could just buy the cheapest package with the understanding you'd only use it if the port was missed. No matter what though, I'd get travel insurance.

 

Off the top of my head, I'd recommend looking into St. Thomas. It's built up and rarely has a tender, so unlikely to miss port. Plus, because it's a US territory, you can get a US marriage license. This means you won't have to get married under another country's government and then get the US to recognize it (a process on it's own). There are several companies on the island that specialize in destination weddings there, so you could hire one of those if you wanted help in planning the day while in port. It's also pretty far south of the hurricane belt so even if there were a late season storm or something, you'd probably be ok.

 

As a final comment, I'd still look into the package deals just to make sure it won't work. For Princess, there was only 1 port location option (I hated it, they had plastic trellises and lawn chairs), and the photographer was non-negotiable. However, you may be able to waive the photographer portion of the contract with Royal, and they may have better port options. I'd then compare prices with wedding planning companies on the island, and then just doing all the arrangements on my own. I loved booking as a group/not as a wedding. I found it much less stressful and like I had more control over the day itself. However, this also meant no real decorations at the reception (no wedding coordinator to put them up). I didn't mind since the ship is already professionally decorated, but just wanted to warn you in case you had visions of bringing trunks of decorations on board!

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