Bo59rt

Congrats! And thanks for sharing your special day. Your review was amazing and I love all of the gorgeous photos! I have to say... the photo in the big tree turned out fantastic.

 

Also thanks for the antics... with the way my luck runs I will be missing my cake or who knows maybe my wedding dress! Okay just kidding about the dress, I won't let that baby out of my sight! But I hate coconut also and I will remember your good attitude when you had to get it smashed in your face! I'm glad it didn't ruin your big day and I hope that I can handle any mishaps with as much grace as you.

Thank you! I can'e believe it has almost been a year!!! You wedding will be awesome and every little thing will make it all more special. Every wedding has hiccups! and believe me if you ask my mother if i was graceful that morning before the wedding she will laugh at you!

Once everything actually started and all the planning came together nothing will be more relaxing then looking at the person who is standing in front of you.

Enjoy the stressful planning and anticipation..... it's all worth it!

Ok so I am trying to search ALLLLLL of my options for our wedding. We are sailing oct 19 on the carnival fascination. I'm looking at booking with the cruise line vs booking with an island planner. If I do an island planner I can still schedule a reception back on board. Still looking into my options further I found out we can order a cake and champagne toast to be delivered in the MDR that night at our scheduled dinner. The only downer to this is you can't get a tiered cake. You can get a HUGGGEE sheet cake. But not tiered. The event olanner told me we can bring our own cake on board.

 

Has anyone brought their own cake or plan on it?

 

Anyone using their own island planner?

 

Anyone skipping ordering the hour reception and just doing a reception at dinner and then planning an after party event at one of the clubs?

We did a sheet cake after our island wedding. the cake was amazing (we got like triple chocolate something). They saved what was left of the cake and offereed it to anyone who was linked to our booking as an option for desert for the rest of the cruise. Everyone LOVED that cake.

I see you mentioned "during your cruise".... are you planning on getting married before the ship leaves at your embarkation port or on an island.

I have a link in my signature to a thread i did about getting married on an island. Nothing the day of the wedding was through carnival, which is always an option.

good luck planning!

I love the idea of using a cooler bag! Do you mind me asking what type of bags you used and where you purchased them from?

we ordered from discountmugs here is the direct link http://www.discountmugs.com/product/lun04-custom-printed-beach-coolers/ . We ordered blanks since we didn't want people to toss them after the wedding (because who would really use a cooler that says our names on them after the trip). It was cheaper to buy a higher bulk rate so even though we only needed 17 (one for each room booked) we ordered 25 to get the cheaper per price rate.

oh and if you are really interested they have markdown and coupon codes all the time!

This cooler has become a staple for us with cruising because we use it to take beers off the ship to enjoy at the beaches (makes the carnival cheers package a little more beneficial you us!)

Honestly, the couples massage is good and a nice treat on the ship. If your on a budget though, doing the massage on an island is much much cheaper. You are spending about twice as much on the cruise when all is set and done. Our massage (normal 60-70 mins) was a little over $400 dollars. Yeah, i'll just book one at a spa on the island next time.

That's a good point! I will likely just have them made and skip the stress. Even though they do just get thrown away it might be the one thing people remember that stands out (besides a cruise wedding :D)

 

I was also thinking the same thing about OOT bags... I think they are a nice gesture, however, many friends are saying they may not even get used and it would be wasted effort and money. I definitely want to be thoughtful of my guests but I'm trying to decide if some of the items are worth it or not.

With our gift bags, most of the inside stuff was used (if needed) while on the cruise and then the rest thrown out.... but we have heard from almost every person that went that our cooler (the bag) has been used since the wedding. Which i was glad to hear about.

....check the Vista sailing.....;)

I recommend deck 7 anything since you are between two floors of rooms. We have had normal balconies, aft wrap balconies, jr suites and grand suites on this class of ship. I will always choose an aft wrap over anything else; but that is personal preference.

There is another solution that might work, if you have someone with half decent photography skills in your sailing group.

We were married on st thomas and had everything done off the ship. We also wanted to do trash the dress but not during the reception because i didn't want to walk around in a sopping wet wedding dress for the rest of the day.

Our solution was to rehire our photographer a week later when our honeymoon cruise (we did a b2b) stopped back in St. Thomas. So we got all dressed up again just to go out for a few hours and get some around the town shots and trash the dress.

So here is my idea for you. If you have other island stops after your wedding stop, ask someone from your party to take the pictures for you. Get all dressed up, walk off the ship, (revel in all the compliments again) and have FUN! You are going to be on such a tight timeline with your wedding day its hard to enjoy letting go and being goofy, and that's what you need for trash the dress shoots. Or if you have the financial ability and another island stop after your wedding, hire a local photographer. Ours was willing to pick us up from the cruise port, drive us around the island and hit all of her favorite stops. She then took us to the beach we got to go play in the water, changed out of our wet wedding clothes and went back to the ship.

I have the review of our wedding and some pictures of our trash the dress day in my signature below..... I hope i gave you an alternative option that could possibly work out for you! Hope you get to do everything you want to!

i am a huge fan of punto de vista, i haven't been to their new location on the rooftop of milano though. Can't wait to go back there in April!

Well my favorite thing was how we were treated our whole wedding cruise. Even though we were married on an island and not the ship, everyone was ridiculously nice to us all week. Also, on our 2nd part of the b2b (honeymoon) we were sung happy honeymoon three times! that was interesting.

Those turned out great! I was thinking of doing the ticket for the RSVPs. Did you do save the dates yourself as well?

We ordered magnets from vistaprint for our save the dates.

We did "ticket" invitations. They were a lot of work but fun to do! And it was probably a lot of work since we made 65 sets :) Here is the link to the paper crafts I did for our wedding

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2001252

We just got off The Liberty and it was fabulous.:p

 

As soon as we boarded we met Maria from the Casino Bar. She had a table set up for the Cheers program. We had it within 1 minute of boarding.

 

Then we let the tipping begin.:p Drinks that is.

 

Have fun and tell Maria Hello from the Flat Granny Couple.:p

We Met Maria during our wedding cruise in April!!! We LOVED her! By far the best bartender we have ever had. Hoping to see her again this coming April when we are on the liberty after it repos to San Juan!

When we went in April (2014) there was the Harley Davidson store in the terminal. It is a pretty small store.

I wish I could enjoy a coffee since I have heard so many good things about it but unless it's caffeine free my system can't handle it....and asking for decaf just seems so wrong!

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Thanks for the suggestions, I'll look into them!....we are staying at Milano because I fell in love with punto de Vista last time we were there and now they are located on milano's rooftop terrace. (And it's a cheaper place in the heart of osj)

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Hey all!

So we are staying two days before our cruise in OSJ. I was looking for recommendations for a good breakfast spot. Last time we stayed before our cruise we just ended up going to Starbucks. I know there is a place the morning walking food tour hits but they don't give out the names of the stops. (we are doing the afternoon one which doesn't stop there).

Thanks!

I went through contacting the groups department and found mine....she is awesome I wish I could get you get information on here but that's a big no no (which sucks).

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We were married on St. Thomas using Island Bliss Weddings. We Chose where/when/what ship by chance. We knew we wanted to get married in the Caribbean at a US port so that includes Peurto Rico and St. Thomas on while on a Carnival cruise. We jokes about April fool's day with a friend and happened to look it up. The next week we were booked for our April fool's wedding while on the carnival liberty which was in St. Thomas April 1, 2014.

If you have any idea that you want (sandy beach, rocky cliff, rain forest looking atmosphere, you can find an island that has that perfect setting and a planner willing to do it for you!)

To give you an idea of "dream it and the islands will deliver".... My husband said whatever we do "i'm getting married on a beach", i wanted a full reception with a gorgeous setting, we worked it out with our planner: married on Magen's Bay beach and a reception up on the mountain at a beautiful house on a nationally registered botanical garden! I have the link to my wedding/cruise review in my signature.

Happy planning!!!

I also was married on st Thomas with an on island planner. We had a large package that included many different people. I had my father handle all the tipping during the day. And that is my first huge word of advice. Do not have yourself or your groom handle the tipping. you will be doing so much that its difficult to track people down when you are being whisked off to here or there. I talked to my planner about tipping policies and this is what my father and i had planned to do:

Wedding planner - it was the owner of the company and etiquette online stated she did not have to be tipped since she was owner. I gave her a thank you card and a small gift (necklace that i found that was there company logo)

Photographer- Also owner/ didn't work for a photography "group". So i did not tip her.

Steel drum player (we had two) - both received between 35-50 bucks depending on how they were to the guests i'm pretty sure we did the full 50 each.

Officiant - We did between 50-100. I really don't know how much was given to him.

Servers- My wedding planner told me not to worry about tipping servers.

Bartender - I'm sure my father tipped generously at the beginning and bartender made tips from people throughout the reception.

Drivers- we had two safari type "busses" each driver received 30-40 dollars. (a dollar or two per person).

you should be able to ask your planner and they will give you a good idea of who needs to be tipped.

We did a group booking with our wedding.

 

here are some quick points i can elaborate more later if you want:

-we booked our family at the first 8 rooms. We then added our friends /extended family later (total of 18 rooms)

- We all booked DIFFERENT room types/categories

- We all booked early saver so we didn't loose out on any price drops. The only thing you lose when you do this is the points amenities which can get you the free cocktail hours and wine bottles and such.

- The thing you will be loosing out on if you don't book a group - you get the average price of a berth (one person) for every 16 berths booked (8 rooms at double occupancy). So we received almost $1600 bucks back two weeks after the cruise)!!!!!

 

- we booked through a group carnival PVP. she is now my normal PVP we loved working with her! Definitely talk to a group PVP before you do anything! you might miss out on some great stuff.

 

 

Sorry i am trying to type this fast before i leave work, if you have any questions i can answer them for you. I just went through all of this for our wedding last April.

Oh and you have 2 weeks to book your first 8 rooms if that is of any help.

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We did a group booking with our wedding.

here are some quick points i can elaborate more later if you want:

-we booked our family at the first 8 rooms. We then added our friends /extended family later (total of 18 rooms)

- We all booked DIFFERENT room types/categories

- We all booked early saver so we didn't loose out on any price drops. The only thing you lose when you do this is the points amenities which can get you the free cocktail hours and wine bottles and such.

- The thing you will be loosing out on if you don't book a group - you get the average price of a berth (one person) for every 16 berths booked (8 rooms at double occupancy). So we received almost $1600 bucks back two weeks after the cruise)!!!!!

- we booked through a group carnival PVP. she is now my normal PVP we loved working with her! Definitely talk to a group PVP before you do anything! you might miss out on some great stuff.

Sorry i am trying to type this fast before i leave work, if you have any questions i can answer them for you. I just went through all of this for our wedding last April.

Here are the ship codes then you just attach it to the correct address Maitre d' vs. Steakhouse.

Maitre d' - xxmaitred@carnival.com

Steakhouse - xxsteakhouse@carnival.com (for ships with a steakhouse)

BR Breeze

CQ Conquest

DE Destiny

DR Dream

EC Ecstacy

EL Elation

FA Fantasy

FD Freedom

FS Fascination

GL Glory

IM Imagination

IS Inspiration

LE Legend

LI Liberty

MC Magic

MI Miracle

PA Paradise

SE Sensation

SL Splendor

SP Spirit

TI Triumph

VA Valor

VI Victory

IMO i would always at least try to email the steakhouse for reservations of chef's Table. We always email before hand and get the confirmation email. There are such limited spots (two dinners of 12 guests per 7 day sailing) that they could sell out before you embark. The chef's table is getting popular on the carnival board and i know that we have many people from our roll call booked/or looking to book.

The two times we have booked the Chef's Table we email before the cruise. I emailed about a month ago for our cruise in April. We received the confirmation email a few days after requesting spots. We email the request and include names, booking number, sailing date, and room number.

You would need to email ISmaitred@carnival.com to contact the maitre'd on the inspiration since you said there is no steakhouse (otherwise you would be emailing the steakhouse).