Rzexmail

How did it all turn out!?

It’s included in all of the packages that come with receptions and it is a free dinner at the steak house that you may use at anytime during your cruise.

I got them from amazon Almost everything for the wedding came from there or Walmart or Etsy.

So we are 31 days out from our wedding onboard the carnival vista! If you are bubbling with excitement like we are I definitely don’t recommend doing your ship tour too early. We are even more excited and can hardly talk about anything else.

We were originally scheduled to have our ship tour on July 6th but that was when vista had its engine issues and canceled its next three cruise. I feel so sorry for the poor brides who had to  rescheduled their weddings, I know I would be a reck! 

I am on this site all the time and have read over 100 reviews so honestly the ship tour did not give me any extra insight. However it was very beneficial to see the process my non-sailing guest would go through once they arrived. The info the coordinator gave me over the phone in regards to parking did not work at all for the port of Galveston. Yet when I simply asked one of the many people directing traffic. I was easily directed to a parking garage that is way too expensive to park for the cruise(we have free cruise parking at our hotel) but was a flat and reasonable all day rate for one day parking. This garage was also literally just across the street from the ship and was very easily accessible. That was a major plus!

We were asked to arrive at 10:30 and we were finally parked and starting the check in process at 10:29 oops. It all worked out however I remembered to say you here for a wedding tour/wedding and they sent us through priority boarding. It took us a total of 8 minutes to check in.

Everyone during the check in process seemed to know exactly where to send us(they have a whole wedding section to wait in). Yet once in the section it was very awkward. There was only one wedding that day(A small one about 17 ppl total). And they kept looking at us like what are you doing here, we didn’t invite you. And we were looking at them like yes we know we are just here for the tour. 

This was still interesting to me cause I got to see the whole process I was always reading about. Bride and groom pulled to the side, coordinator met with them. I was prepared not to speak with the coordinator as her priority is the bride and groom but I was wondering if the guide I was told who meet us would come. That never happened, this annoyed me at first. At 11:04 they announced the ship was clear and for the wedding couple and guest to follow them they also said over the loud speaker that they had a wedding and many other cruise guest were cheering. Not wanting  to steal anyone’s shine we just sat there, when the guy who was rounding up diamond and platinum guest saw we were not moving he said follow along. We told him we were not wedding guest but we’re on a wedding tour. He said that’s fine follow the wedding party and guest, so we did. Right before he noticed us my mom tried to ask the coordinator(stand offish kinda rude woman/ I hope she is not my coordinator) what we should do as to not over step on the wedding couple and their day. She barely listened to my mom and waved her away saying guest need to just follow behind.

once on the ship I knew the wedding and ceremony would not start immediately because of all the reviews I read. I figured this was the best time to go see the venues and get a feel of the distance of them from our room and all that jazz. I immediately went to the limelight lounge where some of her guest and family were setting things up. I told them that we were doing a tour and not trying to intrude at all, they were very nice and congratulated me and encouraged me to take pictures, I declined out of respect(I did however take pictures of the reception because no one was in there when I walked by.) and just wanted to see the space and what it would actually look like. At that point the wedding coordinator walked it, we were all dressed in street clothes unlike the wedding guest. She asked us are you guest of the wedding? To which I replied no we are here for a wedding tour, she then with the same dismissive attitude said that we you are not supposed to be here. You are supposed to go to guest services to get a guide who will then show you around. This was the first I was ever hearing this so I apologized and left. Now I read on reviews before that if you check in they give you visitor passes. I had already looked at every YouTube video of the Vista as possible and only wanted to see what I was interested in(we are bringing our own friend/photographer) which was the venues and places I wanted to take pictures. So we never went to guest services, we explored the ship and everyone thought we were guest. We ate lunch, hung out on the lido deck, and even could have went for a swim if we had brought our swimsuits. Overall it was an amazing experience my fiancé, his best man, and my mom enjoyed it. Everyone has been thinking our wedding will be on a small scale and they have no idea how nice cruise ships are and I have planned this event with our own personal touches to make it an amazing event, we are so excited for that!

Lastly I will say having cruising carnival before on the freedom and valor, although the Vista is bigger just about every room/even space(atrium, comedy club, show room, piano bar) seem a lot smaller. With some rooms even being by half. 

Thats all, my full wedding review will be coming soon!

Also I’m getting married on the carnival  Vista September 21st

I’m only bring on wedding favors, supplies for the sand ceremony, our guest book, and cake topper.

I’m doing an embarkment day wedding and plan on changing my dress 3 times! It’s not as crazy as it’s sound seeing that the top all see through lace layer of my wedding dress comes completely off for a reception dress. Then I found this amazing $30 dress that I can really party in! It fits my lace beach theme and looks so good with my crown, wedding jewelry, and wedding shoes. 

Below is the “third dress”.

On 8/28/2018 at 5:02 PM, sandyzag said:

Hi Everyone,

I appreciated everyone writing reviews and providing critical information, so that I somewhat understood what would occur on the big day. I figured I will try and pay it forward and here it goes.

Our wedding was on the Carnival Dream out of New Orleans.

Documents instructed to get there at 10am, so 10am it was. We had to wait about 10 minutes before they opened up the doors into the terminal. During that time, I was definitely sweating my make up off.. lol.. Once the doors opened up, they let us go in first. Up the escalators we went and then directed to the left, where the priority lines are. Check in was very quick and efficient. Make sure to instruct your NON wedding guests to state they are there for a wedding and are not sailing. Their check in is a little different. Also, keep in mind that if anyone is in a wheel chair, the elevators are roped out for about another 10-15 minutes before they let those people upstairs in the terminal. After checking in, you then go through the Xray and screening machines. After that, you meet your wedding coordinator right after security, She then brings you to the holding area. All none sailing guests have to walk allllllll the way down the terminal to guest services where they will provide their photo ID and get a visitors badge. They will then walk all the way back up to the front of the terminal and all wedding guests then sit in a designated area and wait until the ship is cleared. I have to note that as the bride, it was a bit chaotic and hectic. If you think you will have time to introduce people and such, you probably wont have time to do that. At this time, the coordinator will also take you aside and run through the whole ceremony and reception and how it all should flow.

Once the ship is cleared, they call your party. You are first to go through the line and on to the ship. At this time, all other guest are instructed to feel free to roam around the ship. They are provided a map, with the wedding room and reception room highlighted and the time for both indicated on the map. The coordinator then takes the bride to the cabin used for dressing. I told the whole wedding party to come with me, because right after she dropped me off, she took them up to the Burgundy lounge to do a walk through. Then my girls came back to the cabin. I was told that around 12:50, she would be back to get me to bring me up.(1 pm wedding ceremony) The photographer called the cabin and asked if she could come to it, probably around 12:30 pm. She came and took pictures of us. The girls then left at 12:45 pm to go up to the ceremony room. At this time, I had nothing to do but pace the cabin, waiting for the coordinator. And waiting.. and waiting.. apparently everyone did not get to the ceremony room when they should of, so she was waiting for them all to get there, before coming to get me.

She came to the cabin and up we went. Everything from there went at warp speed. Ceremony was short and sweet, just as I wanted it. The only time you really have to take pictures of EVERYONE as groups is in between the end of the ceremony and the beginning of the reception. It was approximately 20 minutes. We then moved into the reception area where guests were already eating and drinking it up. We got announced by the DJ, did our first dance and they moved right to the cake cutting and the champagne drinks. We thanked all of guests and then the Best man and the MOH did their speeches. From there, it was get your party on. The photographer took a ton of "snapshots" during the reception of everyone. I forgot to mention that the coordinator set ups your favors/guest book in the reception room. You just need to assign a "guest" to bring those favors up to the reception room.

My coordinator was TOP NOTCH. She waited on me hand and foot. Getting me drinks and even volunteering to get me food(which I declined because I felt weird having her do that)

All in all, I would rate the whole experience a 10. The only thing that sucks is the photography packages.. in order to get ANY digital photos you HAD to purchase the 2 grand package. Its as if they kidnap your pictures because they know you will LOVE them and you have to pay a price to get them. Yuck.. I wish they just had an all digital package, but they dont. I should also mention that after the reception, bride and groom went off to take pictures around the ship. We also got to miss the muster drill, due to the picture taking.

If anyone has any questions at all, let me know and I'll be glad to try and answer them.

 

oh! one more thing.. I ordered the tropical bouquets for both myself and my bridesmaids. They were absolutely PERFECT and breathtaking. I was glad I did not go with the standard white roses.

How much time did you all have for your reception, the 1 hour or the 90mins

51 minutes ago, Antlove30Pipes11 said:

I can't believe it is June 2019 already! 

 

Seems like some brides have already gotten married this year. Please come back to our board for 2019 brides and share your experiences. Those of us still waiting until the end of the year i'm sure would appreciate it! Anything happen during your cruise wedding that surprised you? Anything you would have done differently? Things we might be worried about but shouldn't...?

 

If you are getting married in June what are the last minute things you are worrying about or trying to accomplish? What are you most excited about now that your month has arrived? Just so happy to read everyone's stories and keep planning for my day in November.

We are all dying to know all and any details! Especially since many reviews are from the old price package. Please update us!!!

I’m a vista bride coming up this September 2019!!! As you mentioned Carnival’s packages have changed and become more expensive for newer ships. I am debating if a 1 hour reception will be enough time, we decided to only do our first dance, the cake cutting and toast. I have read to add a 1/2 hour could cost as much as 2,500 for 50 guest. That is not worth it to us as we plan on having a housewarming/newlyweds party once return home for friends, co-workers, and church members.

On 9/14/2018 at 11:49 AM, Fortress8363 said:

Hi, I'm new to this forum and am planning my wedding for February 27, 2019. I chose a embarkation day wedding because this is the 2nd time for both my fiance and I and we wanted something affordable, good value with zero fuss and stress. A cruise wedding seemed like the answer. Having read so many reviews and experiences I'm now not so sure.

 

We're are doing the Southern Caribbean 7 day cruise honeymoon and doing the embarkation wedding in Barbados as this is where we live. My main concern right now is about delays or changes in port, as well as all the added planning details that I wasn't aware of when I first had the idea - not the mention all the exhorbitant additional costs for photography especially.

 

I'd like to say though that this forum has been invaluable to me to point out many of the pitfalls and has provided many tips on thigs I hadn't really considered. I'm hoping and praying that everything goes smoothly and right now I would just like to get it over with. I'm pretty much doing everything myself. We're an older couple and I have adult kids, 2 of whom reside in another country. My bestie also lives outside the country so I'm pretty much doing this alone, of course with the support of my fiance, but let's face it, he will go along with whatever makes me happy.

 

Anyway, I'm very glad I found this forum and will provide a review after my wedding. All the best to everyone getting married this year and next who are now in the planning stages.

How was everything? I’m desperate for new reviews as I have booked and are getting married this September 2019. 

Hello Brides!

We are getting married on carnival Vista September 2019!!! I’m so excited I can barely stand it. We are having 50 guest most non sailing but that’s fine with us, we just got engaged in February(Valentine’s day on carnival Valor) and had less than a year to plan. 

Yes, from the reviews I read you do. My wedding isn’t til this September but the photographer is too high in my opinion and we have a friend photographer who is stepping in!

I have already booked my wedding for this September as an embarkation wedding. I went with the carnival classic gold package. Also beware that price on the brochure change depending on the ship. I booked on the vista that is one of their new ships and my starting free was about $850 more than the brochure.

Family and friends can bring their own cameras and take photos. They just can’t set up any try pods.

DJ: you can either give him a iPod or phone with a list of songs already in order for $150(we chose this option.

Or you can pick a theme for 250: did not like the themes none really fit our music style which is really all over the place.

Your guest can eat at the buffet before the wedding but it’s an extra $17 per person. We decided to skip this option seeing that the reception will have food. However any guest who are sailing may of course eat at the buffet.

Lastly, an hour feels super rushed to me too. So when they sent me the form of how we wanted our reception( first dance, dad and bride dance etc.) we decided to just do an introduction of just us, our first dance, and then enjoy our guest. Especially  since most are not sailing with us.

Hope this helps! I will do a full review after my wedding.

3 minutes ago, Cruisingbells2016 said:

Very helpful! Thanks so much! I will call Carnival and ask...wasn’t sure if they would give you the info before you book or not.

They will!

Just relax, everyone probably won’t come. I’m getting married this September on the vista and already people who said the are definitely coming have started to drop out. Have no hard feelings and just know you are marrying the man of dreams on the beach!

On 4/5/2019 at 9:22 AM, Cruisingbells2016 said:

Thank you for your replies. I have looked at the brochure on their website but it's more of a general "starting at" price and we all know how that can skyrocket once you start adding things on or have additional guests.  Once you book, I believe they send you more detailed price lists regarding certain options and add-ons.  A friend of mine booked a wedding in 2015 and sent me all of the documents they sent her after she booked but the structure and prices have changed since then.

 

Tigergenesis when is this photography price list from?  This matches the one she had in 2015...

 

I would be having it in Charleston so it wouldn't be too far for family and friends who did not want to cruise to come.

 

 

I booked my wedding for this September as an embarkation wedding. There are definitely extra cost that’s not on the brochure!!!! I went with the carnival classic gold package, this package is more expensive depending on the ship( I booked on the vista and because that is one of their newest ships it cost me about $850 more than the brochure). Also Brochure prices are only for 20 guest, it’s about $30 per adult after that and about $18 per child.

Other things that cost extra:

photography: insanely expensive (My friend will be on board during mine for me but beware you can’t have outside photographers but family and friend may have cameras)

DJ: you can either give him a iPod or phone with a list of songs already in order for $150(we chose this option.

Or you can pick a them for 250 

** Best way to get real pricing is to call Carnival wedding department. They will give you actual prices for exactly what you want and on what ship. Hope this helped! #148moredays!