Bo59rt

6:30am eastern and aarp has $100 gift cards up on their site

just snagged 5 $100 cards at 6:15am eastern! yay!!!!

There are always activities on board the ship, however there will be much more variety on the port days. I enjoy spending time on the ship while everyone is in port; good opportunity to enjoy the typically more crowded areas (serenity, mini-golf, main pool area, high ropes course/sky-track if open).

And there are always options for lunch; Mongolian wok, the ever changing buffet options, guys burgers, blue iguana (Mexican). I have never been on one of the newer ships but i'm sure the Asian and Italian restaurants have the free lunch and the seafood shack will be open for an up-charge.

Your Welcome. I loved the Villa and I have talked to other people who used that reception venue and they loved it too. The only downside is the added transportation costs.

I wish I was looking forward to the wedding again! Happy planning and your going to have an amazing wedding!

they have a past guest-early saver deal right now until Aug 31st on my sailing (repo NYC-MIA) that includes 50% deposits.

We have sailed on the liberty 4 times.... first was because of the date of the sail, Second it had NYE cruise itinerary we liked, 3rd was for our wedding because it was at St Thomas the day we wanted to be married (April fools day) , and the fourth time because they switched valor and liberty before our cruise at the port of San Juan.

I will always be happy to go on the liberty, its like a home at sea to me now :D

Does no one go through their PVP? I always just call my PVP and request it. Better yet when I call to make payments, she automatically checks all the crazy booking rate codes for me (which is the only reason I still call to make payments and don't just do it online)

oh and honestly, I would be very weary of looking into any tendering port, for example Grand Cayman. Any hint of bad weather and the ship will not anchor there.

My best advice for you would be to research all you can on your port options. I went into my planning with two important things.... I wanted to be married on April Fools day, and on an island where the marriage was legal (us territory). I lucked out when looking through itineraries that my favorite ship was going to be in St Thomas on April 1st.

You are lucky that you have an open time frame, but you are looking at the first half of hurricane season. If there was a hurricane ships have been known to switch islands or even whole itineraries (east vs. West Caribbean). My DH and i went into this knowing what would and would not get refunded if we were to miss the island. And what our back up plan was.

There are a TON of reviews for weddings on this board (including mine, there's a link in my signature). Research research research.... you will fall in love with something.

Oh, and on the islands, almost anything is possible for your wedding to be what you want it to be. My wedding planner offered packages including weddings on a catamaran and helicopter trip to more remote areas (if it was just the two of you).

Start looking, you'll eventually get too many great ideas from these other past and future brides/husbands!

you should be able to contact your PVP. If you can't get a hold of them, you can fill out the form. I have done both when booking through a PVP.

Definitely go check out the wedding/honeymoon boards!! TONS of info over there. I have a review of my wedding aboard the Carnival Liberty in my signature. I was married on the island of St. Thomas with a private wedding planner, nothing through carnival but the cruise itself. My DH and I wouldn't change our wedding for anything!

We did 32 in the steak house as a "rehersal dinner" for our on island wedding. We had half of the steakhouse which was nice, but we had to order from a limited steakhouse menu. Everything was still awesome except for the exclusion of the chocolate sampler dessert :( I think it varies ship to ship, we had to reserve the steakhouse under the groups planning department.

They pick you up at your hotel. We are staying at the OSJ Sheraton and they are getting us there. They only do that if you book the combo tour. If you only want the biobay tour or the rainforest tour they won't supply transport.

I just did the tour with Kayaking PR and as long as there are at least 6-7 people going from OSJ they will supply transportation at an extra cost..... ours was and extra $23 dollars a person. Well worth it for us!

I happened to notice on the cruise i just came off of last weekend that the faceup blackjack (ugh) was the only hand shuffled blackjack table I saw.

I recommend Punto De Vista in OSJ at the rooftop of the Milano Hotel. Laid back, great mofungo, and buy one get one free mojitos all day!

honestly, The three hours commuting for the cave tubing is worth it. We did the cave tubing and loved it. If we do another stop in Belize i have a feeling we would do that again.

Posting here so I may find it easily and continue reading as I plan my wedding on Grand Turk August 2016!!

Grand Turk was gourgous! That was a port after our wedding! Enjoy your wedding planning!!

Thank you for posting such a great review! Very beautiful!

 

We are using Janelle and Elisha on Jan 2016 so this was very useful :)

You will LOVE them! Both were so great to work with!!!!!! I get so excited when i hear a bride is using them both.....just means your day will be spectacular and so will your pictures!!

So the poster is going to actually put in 8 oz of soda so she can drink soda while husband is drinking a beer. So the husband will buy a beer and not get the wife a soda?

 

Of course, the flask will get warm very quickly only being 8 oz which is slightly more than a 1/2 can of soda.

 

I'm sorry, but it's not soda. It's hard to carry out a mouthwash bottle filled with rum, so you transfer it from the mouthwash bottle that was smuggled on, to the flask because really, you would get strange looks if you were chugging from a mouthwash bottle.

Im pretty sure i did say a smaller then normal flask of bourbon, which i would be purchasing with my cheers package to fill my flask. The drink package would also would be buying our beer that we take off the ship.

We have taken unopened beers off the ship before that were purchased with the cheers package. We have a cooler to take those unopened beers which would also keep a flask cold of whatever i chose to put in it but honestly. NO ONE who appreciates a bourbon minds if it is warm; most balk at cold whiskey.

So if i was to take a 6 pack of soda on the ship costing maybe 4 bucks. That would be my grand total to drink on the island over my cost of the cheers package.

Why would you bring an empty flask back on board? Taking alcohol from the ship to a port is like bringing sand to a beach.

The question would be getting the flask (or the booze to fill the flask) on board the ship at embarkation. If the flask is empty and doesn't "ping" the security screening for your carry on or luggage screening if you pack it, you'll probably be able to get it back on board at a port once empty.

 

But what's filling the flask? Bon Voyage booze out of your cabin? Smuggled booze via a rum runner or shambooze container? Buying drinks on board and clandestinely pouring the drink(s) into the flask? Unless you truly "need" to have some rare long aged top of the shelf bottle because all the "bar stock" tastes like a bad batch of Grandpappy's imitation moonshine:D, there are plenty of places to buy a drink in port at equal or lower cost and certainly fewer grey hairs from sweating about getting a container back on board.

 

That said, I have brought rare booze back in clear water bottles with zero detection. There used to be a restaurant in Mahahual, 100% Agave, where the owner had a private collection of tequila stored in oak barrels and he would sell you up to a pint (rather cheaply), provided you brought your own container. Alas, the place is no more.:( But it was a really good 100% blue agave anejo that was a great sipping tequila.

We are partaking in the Cheers package. On our last cruise husband drank on island for free by taking unopened beers off the ship that he bought with the drink package the night before. I however do not drink beer so a couple of neat bourbons ordered right before turn in will fill my flask for me. Why spend money on the islands for expensive drinks when I'm already spending money on board for cheers?

Empty is the key word. Empty it is just a container. No reason to confiscate. Now if it has something in it, that is another story. I have one ship person ask me to pour out my insulated tumbler before coming back on board. It was ice tea but since the color similar to whiskey I guess they didn't want to take a chance.....

Thanks! I hope empty is the key word. i bought a flask special for this because my normal party flask was just too big. knowing me i would pour a ton of whiskey in it and then have to dump it out because I didn't want to finish it. Found a nice zippo 3oz one on amazon. Good for two drinks while off the ship!

Mine happened to be full. But I think I just got lucky. I totally forgot it was in there. I WONT be doing that again. :D and it was a hot pink metal flask.

you got lucky! wouldn't that have been fun for you son to be questioned over a hot pink flask!

They didn't take mine from Cozumel. And it was in the bag my 16 year old was carring. :eek: I totally forgot about it when we boarded. Went through the scanner and nothing was said. YMMV

Thanks for the reply. I hope they don't take it, its really small, too. just enough to take a few oz off the ship to throw in a soda while DH enjoys his beers on the beaches of the Caribbean!

Has anyone had an empty flask confiscated while returning to the ship from a port? I was planning on bringing a flask with me on my next cruise to take onto the islands. I just don't know if they would care when you return to the ship if your carrying an empty flask.

Beautiful!! Love it all! Your dress is gorgeous too!! I have a corset dress myself, and that’s a great tip about loosening it till the final moment…

Thank you!! Sitting was a B***h after it was tightened. I couldnt imagine the car ride to the court house or waiting sitting in the car with the dress tightened. And by some small miracle i didnt have to go to the bathroom all day. blaming that on the adrenaline. Good luck with your dress! Im sure everything is going to be amazing!

We did this for our wedding cruise. We had to book as a group though; which means we had two weeks from the first booking to get of first 8 rooms booked. After that we could add rooms as we pleased. We received an average cost of two berths by the time we were finished booking all 18 rooms. Didn't quite cover our aft wrap but it was a nice wedding gift. As for freeloading off our guests with this, We treated everyone to an open bar cocktail hour and dinner in the steakhouse which exceeded what we got in cash from carnival.

Instead of the cash you could get points which were spent on a bottle of wine for everyone's room, a cocktail hour, gift cards for pictures, take home robes/towels etc. We could not get the points because we asked for early saver for everyone in lieu of that program. Which also got everyone on average 150-200 off their original bookings. I am very glad i had a group PVP who was amazing at keeping all of this together for me.

We used an island planner on St. Thomas (Island Bliss Weddings). If you are okay with wrapping your head around the idea of the ship missing your wedding port; i fully recommend an island wedding! I have a link in my signature to the review of our wedding cruise last year if you are interested.