Royal Caribbean wedding

I was thinking about getting married on a royal caribbean ship and have heard on here very bad things about it.:(

Can anyone tell me any of there experiences....good or bad please

Many Thanks x:)

You can read about my experience here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=15450857&postcount=93

Also, feel free to read some of the other posts I've made to more specific questions:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/search.php?searchid=10589584

I was thinking about getting married on a royal caribbean ship and have heard on here very bad things about it.:(

Can anyone tell me any of there experiences....good or bad please

 

Many Thanks x:)

If you really want to get married on the ship than that is what you should do. You will have to use Royal Romance (TWE) to do it, but if that is what you really want than go for it. Some people have had positive experiences. I am one of the ones with a bad experience. The key is to be TOTALLY laid back and be ok with whatever is planned for you. You don't have a lot of say in what you want and they tend to not be too customized. It also frightened me that TWE can change anything and everything about your wedding without reason or notice (including prices, location, time, etc.). However if you have the attitude where all you want is to marry your husband and you aren't concerned with the details, you should be fine. Oh yes, and a crap-load of patience helps when dealing with TWE as well;)

i am getting married in port before we leave on royal caribbean and i haven't really had too many issues at all. i have also enlisted a kick ass travel agent to do all the dirty work for me with RR. i don't have high expectations and am pretty good with going with the flow. i have about the max allowed coming to the wedding (150: 75 sailing, 75 non-sailing) and haven't had a difficult time at all! every situation is different though, i went in this whole thing not expecting too much so i have been pleased thus far!

I had a lovely wedding on Royal Caribbean. We were married onboard while the ship was in port in Key West. We had 60 guests, all of whom sailed with us. The ship was beautiful and everyone loved the cruise. We had several cruise virgins, who are now addicted to cruising and have become loyal fans of Royal Caribbean.

Granted, Royal Romance was a bit challenging to deal with. But I felt like I would have had similar isues with any out of town venue. I know others have had different experiences. But I found if you stay on top of them, and confirm and re-confirm everything they tell you, you should be fine. Once you are onboard, you can depend on the ship's staff being incredibly accomodating.

Keep in mind that if you choose a cruise a wedding, you need to accept that you won't have a lot of flexibility. The ship will determine the exact time and place, and you'll have limited options for menu, music, flowers, photography, and even number of guests. If you are happy with the packages available, you can even keep costs relatively low. But if you want to customize things, it's not only difficult, it's also very expensive. So if you want a wedding where you can select every detail, a ship board wedding is not for you.

I had a lovely wedding on Royal Caribbean. We were married onboard while the ship was in port in Key West. We had 60 guests, all of whom sailed with us. The ship was beautiful and everyone loved the cruise. We had several cruise virgins, who are now addicted to cruising and have become loyal fans of Royal Caribbean.

 

Granted, Royal Romance was a bit challenging to deal with. But I felt like I would have had similar isues with any out of town venue. I know others have had different experiences. But I found if you stay on top of them, and confirm and re-confirm everything they tell you, you should be fine. Once you are onboard, you can depend on the ship's staff being incredibly accomodating.

 

Keep in mind that if you choose a cruise a wedding, you need to accept that you won't have a lot of flexibility. The ship will determine the exact time and place, and you'll have limited options for menu, music, flowers, photography, and even number of guests. If you are happy with the packages available, you can even keep costs relatively low. But if you want to customize things, it's not only difficult, it's also very expensive. So if you want a wedding where you can select every detail, a ship board wedding is not for you.

This is correct about a wedding on-board the ship, which I know is what you are interested in. However if you choose to get married at a port and use a private WC, you can customize every last detail and make it exactly how you want it. Just about the only thing you can't choose is the day since the cruise itinerary dictates that :) Otherwise, you can pick the time, location, decorations down to the smallest detail, reception venue, food, etc. I am working with a private WC in St. Thomas, and every request has been met with "yes, I can do whatever you want." Which is wonderful since it is a day that (hopefully) will happen only once in my lifetime. I have also found that it is drastically cheaper to use a private WC. TWE really rips you off for everything, and then they change prices on you after signing the contract. This isn't a worry with a private WC, as their contracts are meant to protect them AND you. Lastly, even with a private WC, the vast majority of them will refund all of your money if something happens outside of your control and the wedding can't occur (such as a last minute change in the ship's itinerary). Anyway, as I said before if you have your heart set on doing it onboard the ship than that is what you should do. I just wanted to give you some other options.

This is correct about a wedding on-board the ship, which I know is what you are interested in. However if you choose to get married at a port and use a private WC, you can customize every last detail and make it exactly how you want it. Just about the only thing you can't choose is the day since the cruise itinerary dictates that :) Otherwise, you can pick the time, location, decorations down to the smallest detail, reception venue, food, etc. I am working with a private WC in St. Thomas, and every request has been met with "yes, I can do whatever you want." Which is wonderful since it is a day that (hopefully) will happen only once in my lifetime. I have also found that it is drastically cheaper to use a private WC. TWE really rips you off for everything, and then they change prices on you after signing the contract. This isn't a worry with a private WC, as their contracts are meant to protect them AND you. Lastly, even with a private WC, the vast majority of them will refund all of your money if something happens outside of your control and the wedding can't occur (such as a last minute change in the ship's itinerary). Anyway, as I said before if you have your heart set on doing it onboard the ship than that is what you should do. I just wanted to give you some other options.

And I just have to add.....

The last time a bride to be (pre wedding) posted all about how she was "so laid back" and "not worried at all" and "didn't need to control anything about her wedding" and "was fine with the way TWE was interacting with her and handling things (because she was so darn laid back)" she came back from her wedding and admitted that TWE messed up on several things and, while she really wasnt happy about that, she wasn't going to let it affect her overall experience.

So, either she wasnt as laid back as she claimed,or TWE really got to this "very laid back person".

I do think that there is a bit of truth in her summation that she wasnt going to let the few things that TWE messed up on affect her over all experience. RR/TWE messed up on a number of things on my wedding day but my guests either didnt know, or were polite enough not to comment. And it didnt affect my overall wedding and cruise. The experience was still great.

I guess when you hire "wedding coordinators" you just expect a certain level of professionalism, interaction and "product". None of which I felt that RR/TWE delivered.

If I had to do it all over again, I would go with a location wedding coordinator.

My husband and I were married on the Mariner of the Seas before it sailed from Port Canaveral on 6/22/08. We were very pleased with the whole experience. I learned a lot from reading other posts on this board and knew what to expect up front. I kept all documentation and brought it with us on the wedding day. The wedding coordinators we had were very professional and went out of their way to make things go smoothly (including taking my parents on a search for the bag with their travel documents that accidently got loaded by a porter).

I kept the details of the wedding very simple and corresponded with TWE mostly by e-mail. Given the choice, I would choose the same type of wedding again. All of the stress mainly occured way in advance of the wedding - getting all of the info needed for sailing and non-sailing guests. I loved the whole experience!

I must say that my daughter's on-board sailing day wedding on Mariner, June 1, was great. RR (TWE) was very good to work with, the coordinators were great, food was excellent. Nothing was messed up.

As far as prices changing, it seems that is only for things which are reserved but not yet paid for? We booked and paid for things well in advance, then when the prices were later raised, no one came to us asking for more money for those items. In fact, we were contacted a few weeks in advance, and given notice that the prices would be going up, so we had a chance to book any additional items at the current pricing.

We felt like we had a good balance of getting lot of details pre-planned and handled -- this is a package wedding after all -- and still had a chance to customize some aspects of it.

You can see a more detailed review on this forum, also.

Best,

Mary

We had a cruise wedding but opted to go with an independant wedding coordinator vs. going through RR. We felt while the overall wedding packages were very reasonably priced, it was very expensive to upgrade or add items to the package. Our wedding coordinator was fantastic and organized the wedding of our dreams. Granted, I think with any DW you have to be prepared that things may not always go as planned and I think you have to be somewhat flexible.

Remember, though, that if you want to be married on the ship, you must go through RR/TWE.

Yes, you won't know the times and venue for the wedding & reception until 10 days - 2 weeks ahead of time. We had to remember that weddings weren't the only groups that could book events pre-sailing.

So, I can understand that RCCL makes venue decisions only when they get close to the deadline for booking. But, we knew that going in.

We did request the chapel, and kept checking back. We were basically told that unless we went over 40 people total, we were pretty sure to get it. And we did.

With ALL destination weddings, there is more of an element of chance than with a normal home-town wedding. That's just how it is.

It was a relief to get the venues settled, and then we did realize we'd really like to have a DJ, once we knew we were in the Lotus Lounge.

It wasn't a must-have, or we would have gotten that locked down sooner.

But, the DJ was available, so we were able to book him late. He was wonderful & well worth the money.

Best,

Mary

Mary - I love your thinking. What a great attitude you have. I'm so glad your daughters day was everything that you expected and more!

Dear Royal Caribbean,

Here's my experience so far;

We booked twelve cabins on January 17th. According to the web site at the time, if you booked twelve or more Cabins, the basic wedding was included. We thought it would be fun to get married onboard since we are avid sailors and we are already engaged and the complimentary package, while not a deal maker, was an incentive to book with you.

In February, I called to talk about the details. After half an hour on hold, I finally got an operator that could do nothing more than record my contact information and promise to have someone call or email me. The only information she could give me was what she was obviously reading from the web site. There was supposed to be a downloadable brochure but the site said, "coming soon".

My cruise consultant then tried in vain to find a wedding planner and, after considerable time on hold, was told that the complimentary wedding was no longer offered as of January 30th.

The next day, I spent the better part of an afternoon on hold or being bounced from one department to another. Finally, I got Sharon Kirby on the phone. She was great and she confirmed that, because we booked before January 30th, a complimentary wedding was included. She also sent me a copy of the brochure that I couldn't get on-line.

I have since sent two emails and have not received a response in four days. One email included very specific instructions and questions as well as the dates and our booking reference. The included wedding is just a part of our plan. We will want to book dinners, decorations, receptions and musicians, in other words, we plan to spend considerably more than what is included in the package.

Here's a bit of business 101, If a customer is trying to contact you in an effort to book an event that will likely cost thousands of dollars, you should, at the very least, return that customer's emails. Here's a direct quote from your brochure:

"And peace of mind,

with complimentary planning included. With your vision and

input, our Royal Romance Specialists bring to life a beautiful,

one-of-a-kind event that truly reflects you."

Here's how it should have been worded.

"After half an hour on hold, you will be connected with someone that can do nothing but read to you from our web site and take down your contact info. After that, it is highly unlikely that you will hear from us ever again. Welcome Aboard!"

...See the difference? So here's what I'm going to do; I'm going to post this saga on every travel review web site I can find and let the entire planet follow my experience for the next ten months. You will be judged by millions of potential customers and your competitors. On top of that, they will be prospective wedding customers - I imagine, because of the multiple bookings for friends and family and the expensive onboard ceremonies, that wedding clients are people you want to attract.

Keep in mind that, first and foremost, we are your customers, our deposit is refundable and there may be more bookings in addition to our existing group. This depends greatly on the level of service you provide going forward.

An prompt, professional response from someone with the experience and cranial capacity to go beyond reading from the web site would be appreciated.

Regards,

Richard Mitchele

We love Royal Caribbean and would have loved to get married on board but we decided to get married in port using a local company. It cut down our costs by more then half. We were reading so many negative reviews a year ago when Royal Caribbean chose to handle weddings on their own and after struggling to get answers we felt it was right for us. We get both the cruise we wanted and the a wedding on the beach. We are traveling with 40 guests and did it as a group so we get some good group perks. We also decided to rent out Portofino's for a reception. We leave in a month and are so excited!

Bowguy, if you are so displeased with the customer service, why don't you get your deposit back and book with another cruise line or use a private wedding planner ashore? It seems crazy to me to suffer through the next 10 months just so you can voice your complaints on various websites.

This is correct about a wedding on-board the ship, which I know is what you are interested in. However if you choose to get married at a port and use a private WC, you can customize every last detail and make it exactly how you want it. Just about the only thing you can't choose is the day since the cruise itinerary dictates that :) Otherwise, you can pick the time, location, decorations down to the smallest detail, reception venue, food, etc. I am working with a private WC in St. Thomas, and every request has been met with "yes, I can do whatever you want." Which is wonderful since it is a day that (hopefully) will happen only once in my lifetime. I have also found that it is drastically cheaper to use a private WC. TWE really rips you off for everything, and then they change prices on you after signing the contract. This isn't a worry with a private WC, as their contracts are meant to protect them AND you. Lastly, even with a private WC, the vast majority of them will refund all of your money if something happens outside of your control and the wedding can't occur (such as a last minute change in the ship's itinerary). Anyway, as I said before if you have your heart set on doing it onboard the ship than that is what you should do. I just wanted to give you some other options.

How can I work with a private WC? Where would I start? I'm so new to this!

How can I work with a private WC? Where would I start? I'm so new to this!

Depends where you want to get married. You just look for planners on that island. A lot of them know people do "cruise weddings" so actually have packages that cater to them. Best things...1. they actually answer emails and phone calls (basically they treat you like customers instead of acting like you are bothering them) 2. they will make changes to packages for you (example...I didn't need an officient or license as I will get married 1st in my country bc it's easier) so they took the prices of that off and replaced it with other things that I needed 3. pricing is MUCH better, you can pay by deposits, prices haven't changed, and they will reimburse if something happens and the ship doesn't make it.

I emailed Royal Weddings countless times with many questions. 2 months later....after I finally quit and decided to go with an on land WC, they responded with only 1 answer.... all prices are set see brochure. Seriously......:mad:. From what I've read, you pay the full price up front which screws so many people over because they change prices and never get back to you until right before the wedding. I'm NOT laid back. I'm by FAR a bridezilla...I'm laid back when it comes to the wedding itself, but I am VERY concerned with costs my guests will have to pay and making sure I get the best deals, not just "you have to pay for things you won't even need, and pay a CRAP load onto a package to add 1 or 2 things).

Anyways....I LOVE cruising, and am SUPER excited about using RCI to get to Nassau and going through their groups department to have my Cocktail Party reception. It's the whole Royal Romance that is a hot mess. I have a journal in which I am logging in my whole experience for people like you (and honestly people like me) to read to find out info. I've LOVED reading though these boards and other people's jounals and blogs about their whole process. Good luck, and congrats :)

Depends where you want to get married. You just look for planners on that island. A lot of them know people do "cruise weddings" so actually have packages that cater to them. Best things...1. they actually answer emails and phone calls (basically they treat you like customers instead of acting like you are bothering them) 2. they will make changes to packages for you (example...I didn't need an officient or license as I will get married 1st in my country bc it's easier) so they took the prices of that off and replaced it with other things that I needed 3. pricing is MUCH better, you can pay by deposits, prices haven't changed, and they will reimburse if something happens and the ship doesn't make it.

I emailed Royal Weddings countless times with many questions. 2 months later....after I finally quit and decided to go with an on land WC, they responded with only 1 answer.... all prices are set see brochure. Seriously......:mad:. From what I've read, you pay the full price up front which screws so many people over because they change prices and never get back to you until right before the wedding. I'm NOT laid back. I'm by FAR a bridezilla...I'm laid back when it comes to the wedding itself, but I am VERY concerned with costs my guests will have to pay and making sure I get the best deals, not just "you have to pay for things you won't even need, and pay a CRAP load onto a package to add 1 or 2 things).

Anyways....I LOVE cruising, and am SUPER excited about using RCI to get to Nassau and going through their groups department to have my Cocktail Party reception. It's the whole Royal Romance that is a hot mess. I have a journal in which I am logging in my whole experience for people like you (and honestly people like me) to read to find out info. I've LOVED reading though these boards and other people's jounals and blogs about their whole process. Good luck, and congrats :)

by far NOT a bridezilla :')

Oh yes! I completely agree! We'll be sailing to Key West first so that's where I'd like to do the wedding. I've looked into venues there but haven't found anything just yet. So great of you to be documenting all of your experience! I just joined so I'm sure I'll spend a lot of time going through and reading these boards. How would I be able to access your experience when it's done? :)

Oh yes! I completely agree! We'll be sailing to Key West first so that's where I'd like to do the wedding. I've looked into venues there but haven't found anything just yet. So great of you to be documenting all of your experience! I just joined so I'm sure I'll spend a lot of time going through and reading these boards. How would I be able to access your experience when it's done? :)

Hopefully this works:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2487952&highlight=journal