Is Royal Romance That Bad?!

[pandabebe]

I'm planning on getting married on one of the Voyager ships (RCI) in Summer of 2006. However, I heard so many bad review about Royal Romance that I'm kind of getting scared off. Are they really that bad? Does anyone have any good experiences with them? Would I be better off having my ceremony on land (an island/port) and hire a local wedding coordinator to organize things or is it mandatory to go through Royal Weddings if you're getting married during your RCI cruise? Help!!!

 

And if anyone has gotten married on a RCI ship before could you please give me a breakdown of how much everything cost (ceremony, reception, photos, etc). Thanks! :p

[Jodyflower]

I am getting married 1/15/05 on Splendour of the Seas. Royal Romance is very disorganized. You will be dealing with at least four different people and nobody talks with each other so be prepared to fill out paperwork not once, not twice but possibly three times and have to fax and re-fax and re-fax. Here we are nine days away from our wedding and have not received our marriage license document (which we have to sign and return before we sail). I received an email today from them stating the court house rejected it because our 'county' on the application was incorrect. So, Royal Romance sent me an email requesting a response within 2 hours or they would call me to expedite it - Well, they never called and when I got home from work tonight...lo and behold, there is that email stating they would call me, and they didn't. So of course tonight I am panicking and I sent them an email back with the information and I am going to call them tomorrow.

 

As for an island wedding, all I can tell you is we originally were going to get married in Grand Cayman but during our planning, they got hit by that devastating hurricane and we lost contact with them for months. After alot of thought, we decided against that because the ship might not even stop there (you have to tender into Grand Cayman and they frequently have heavy surf which prevents tendering). SOOOO, to avoid having to have the great disappointment of having the wedding canceled by not stopping in a port, we went with Royal Romance, even though we have read all the reviews on them which pretty much is the same experience we are having with them.

 

Well, a ray of light may still shine, because even though people have had difficulty with RR, the ones that did eventually get married through them have said it all worked out fine. I just don't appreciate the extra stress they cause by being so disorganized. I will post my review/wedding experience upon my return to let you know how it all turned out.

 

Congratulations to you, by the way!

[nycruiserbruiser]

:D I had a great experience with Royal Romance. They were kind, patient and courteous. I only spoke with one wedding coordinator and her name was Terry in St Thomas, and she was awesome. Just call them and ask for her. She will make you very comfortable. She answered all my calls, and all my emails and made my day perfect. You shouldn't let someone's crummy experience with one unorganized coordinator ruin your special day.

Rachel

[dcdiva]

I am getting married on the Jewel on Feb 7th. It's been a bit of challenge with Royal Romance, but I wouldn't be scared off. We have a large group (over 50 are sailing with us) and we've had many special requests. So I suspect our plans are a bit more complicated than most.

 

On the down side, it's a bit frustrating to speak with a different person each time. And I have found that I need nudge them at times to follow up on things. That being said, everyone I have dealt with has been very pleasant and helpful. If they didn't know an answer, they found out for me (eventually). We've had quite a few additions and changes to our plans. But with a little patience and persistence, I've been able to arrange everything we need. The wedding is still a month away -- but so far, so good.

 

My one piece of advice is to keep on top of them. If you don't get a call back, call them again. If you are waiting on confirmation of something, call and ask them about it. Go ahead and be a pest.

[pandabebe]

Thank you for your responses.

 

 

It seems that RR is very unorganized. There seems to be a lot of follow-up required. I’m still skeptical about booking with RR but I heard there are as many headaches booking through a local wedding coordinator. *Sigh* As if we don’t have enough to worry about already!

 

 

Do you know how accommodating RR is with special requests? For example, if I want a specific flower/style for my bridal bouquet will they be able to accommodate that request? And if I want to book the entire specialty restaurant for my wedding dinner will RCI allow me to do that?

 

 

Jodyflower – I hope you have a wonderful cruise and wonderful wedding. I know everything will work out as planned (despite all the headaches planning for that special day). Please post your review when you return! And if you don’t mind, I would love to see photos from your wedding ceremony!

 

 

nycruiserbruiser – Thanks for the encouragement. I hope my wedding plans go as smoothly as yours did!

 

 

dcdiva – I’m also sailing with a large group (60+). Do you have any tips/suggestions for traveling with such a large wedding party?

[dcdiva]

Pandabebe -

 

If you are traveling with a large group, make sure you book through the group department. For reasons still unclear to me, RCI would not allow us to book as an official "group" even though we have 54 people sailing with us. And it's been a nightmare. I still have no idea if we will even be seated together at dinner. They say they have linked our party for seating purposes, but it was like pulling teeth and I am skeptical that they have gotten it right. On top of that, even though we have 54 people sailing, we are getting nothing from RCI -- no group discount, upgrades, perks or freebies. Because I am traveling with my wedding gown, I tried to request priority boarding, but they won't consider it. They made it quite clear to me, that we are entitled to nothing and that's exactly what we'll get. And today, they actually hung up on me when I called with a question. :mad:

 

I know many of these problems would have been easily handled through the group dept. So be sure to avoid my mistake.

 

And about Royal Romance, they were very accomodating about special requests. Of course, everything comes at a price. For example, they'll do flowers and bouquets that you request, but they will certainly cost extra. We have very unusual music requests, but they were able to work with us to get us what we need. The flower option was a bit more than we wanted to spend. So since my sister is a floral designer, she's creating silk bouquets for the bridesmaids. But I'll have fresh flowers. Just be sure to give them plenty of lead time with your speical requests and be sure to follow up.

[DoubleAK]

I am dealing with Royal Romance for our wedding, but not RCI directly for the booking.

 

RR has been fine so far, but we haven't dealt with them much. We have just paid for our reservation and received the info packet, which went smoothly.

 

For our group booking, we are using a travel agency who only handles cruises. Everyone who is cruising with us just needs to call them to make their deposit. The agent put a hold on a bunch of different cabin categories to make sure everyone got the category they wanted, and is making sure everyone is seated with the same waiter for dinner so we can all sit together in the same area. They even send us an email each time someone books so we can keep our guest list current.

 

We are getting nice rewards for acting as the group leader too. So far we have 32 people in 16 cabins , which has earned us 2 free cruise fares, a bottle of champange in every cabin, and a $50 credit for each guest! :D

[pandabebe]

Double AK - thanks for the group booking tips. I will be booking w/ a travel agency as well and hopefully they'll give me as good as a deal. I booked a cruise with them last year and I was able to get the same "perks" you did. I'm crossing my fingers! Please let me know how your future dealings w/ RR go. I've asked for an information package but have yet to hear back from them.

[eatapeach3]

I got married on Royal Carribean's Voyager of the Seas in August at the port of embarkation. I organized the entire thing through Royal Romance and didn't have any problems. They were always nice on the phone, explained everything, and sent me a lot of information. Sometimes you have to wait a while on the phone to get someone, but that was the worst of my problems. I had 40 non-sailing guest and 3 sailing guest. My cruise was booked first and then me and my fiance decided to get married on the boat. A lot of times, it's easier to email them. They actually emailed me a file that had all of the information about their weddings.

 

As far as pricing goes, most of it varies depending on the ship, if you get married before sailing or at a port, and which port or embarkation city you get married at. I had the Harmony package before departing and I believe it was about $1700. There is a $100 surcharge if you get married on a Voyager class ship. You also have to pay $150 for each additional wedding coordinator you need (depends on how many people are there). I had a buffet reception. It was $45 per person for the first hour and $15 per person for the second hour. This includes alcohol, but it is waiter service. Cake and champagne are included only for the bride and groom. For a bigger cake it ranges in price per person based on how many people are coming. I'm not sure about the champagne. Live music prices vary also depending on where you're having the wedding. I just made CD's and brought a small stereo. The wedding coordinator played our CDs over the speaker system in the room we were in, but they normally don't do that. As far as the flowers go, the standard bouquet was beautiful, but you can upgrade it for additional charges.

 

1 hour of photography was included and it was $75 for each additional hour. You buy the photo packages after the wedding. Our photographer was great. The pictures came out wonderful and he left us a message in our room 2 days after the wedding saying the proofs were ready. We set a time, looked through them all and ordered our package. It was about $850 and we got a lot! 82-5x7, 7-8x10, 1-6x8, 2-portfolios with pictures of the ship, 2 8x10 frames, 3-20 picture 5x7 albums, 50 wedding announcements, a CD with all of the pictures taken on it, and all the negatives. Our photographer was so nice and had our order ready 2 days later. Once we got home, our CD actually broke. We called the cruise line, they got in touch with the photographer and they sent us a new CD. Just be wary of the time whileyou are taking pictures or you will miss your whole reception.

 

Hope I answered some of your questions and if you have any more, please let me know. Here's a link for the pictures from my wedding. These are from the CD we received from the photographer. (And I'm not red because of the camera, I was really sun burnt!)

 

http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=sg1da26.cbzvb7y&x=0&y=wi6fc2

[pandabebe]

eatapeach3 - thank you for sharing your wedding details and your beautiful photos! i guess i have a lot to think about and a lot to budget for. what made you decide to hold a lunch reception? originally i was not going to have one b/c of the price - $45 per person seemed quite expensive considering dinner at the specialty resturant is only $25 per person. do you know if they will let you book the entire specialty resturant for your reception (i have around 70 - 100 people cruising). in addition, did you "upgrade" your flowers and cake? i haven't booked my cruise yet but i did contact RR and ask them about flower and cake options but they haven't responded to my email yet. if you have any other tips i would love to hear them! thanks again for your help!

[tree25]

Since Royal Romance (which is the same company as the Wedding Experience) gave me horrible customer service and you had to wait forever to get them on the phone I vowed not to use them as I don't do business with people that don't answer the phone...

 

So the only other option was Holland America which is the only major cruiseline that the Wedding Experience aka Royal Romance doesen't handle

 

from the Wedding experience site it says

 

"The Wedding Experience is the exclusive wedding service provider for Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Carnival Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Line, Windstar Cruises and Holland America (Europe)."

 

So Holland America U.S. is the only one who uses another provider- Royal Ocean Events.. they answer their phone right away everytime, can't find any reviews for the quality of their services though..

[eatapeach3]

pandababe:

 

I had the lunch reception because only 3 of my 43 guests sailed with us. They all had to leave before the ship sailed, so I did not have dinner at the restaurant as an option. I'm not sure if they let you reserve the whole restaurant. I chose not to upgrade my flowers, but you can see the options for flowers on the RCCL web site under all about cruising, weddings, and then enhancements. There aren't really options to "upgrade" the cake. The just make it bigger and add more layers depending on how many people you have. I got a choice of cake flavors and filling flavors though. The price per person goes up for the cake the bigger they have to make it. I found that getting in touch with Royal Romance was easier in the morning soon after they opened than it was in the late afternoon or evening. As much as it's a pain, you just have to be patient and stay on hold. Once you get in touch with someone I found them to be very helpful and always able to answer my questions. My biggest tip as I mentioned in my other post is to pay attention to the time while you are taking pictures. It's very easy to loose track of time and miss a good chunk of the reception. When I got back to mine everyone was wondering where we had been. The photographer's are trained to keep taking pictures, so it's up to you to tell them when you've had enough. In retrospect, even though I loved my pictures, I would have had him take more pictures in the reception room with my family and not so many of just of me and my husband. This way you have a greater variey of pictures and you get to spend time with your family and friend.

[huntstep]

Thanks for posting your info about your wedding day and your pictures. They were wonderful. We are also possibly thinking about getting married on Voyager on the day it leaves out of the first port, in may/june 2006. However, we are still not sure. Did you find that everything ran smoothly, and that you didn't feel rushed to fit everything into a 3 hr time frame? How was it having non-sailing guests there, and were their problems with their boarding, etc... Also, what did the chapel and the lounges look like? We will possibly have a large party of around 75. As you can tell, I have a lot of questions. any help would be appreciated.

thanks

-stephanie

[pandabebe]

eatapeach3 - thank you once again for sharing your wedding tips. i love it when people can share their experiences and help others!

 

hunstep - i'm planning on getting married june 2006 on one of the Voyager class ships as well. I will also be having a large party sail with me. If you have any information to share I would love to hear it!

 

Has anyone heard anything about the Freedom of the Seas? Other than we can't start booking until February and that there is no intinerary yet.

[DoubleAK]

what made you decide to hold a lunch reception? originally i was not going to have one b/c of the price - $45 per person seemed quite expensive considering dinner at the specialty resturant is only $25 per person.

 

We have a lot more guests sailing with us than not (34 to 10), so we couldn't justify a lunch/buffet reception. Why spend $45/person on food when the majority of our guests will be eating free for the next 7 days?? So we were dead set on the hor'derves (aka hot n cold) reception. Only problem with that is for some stupid reason, RCCL/RR limits this type of reception to 35 people. We had to do a lot of complaining/pleading with RR to get them to make an exception for us (that's a whole other story). So now we're allowed 44 guests for the hor'derve reception, but not one more.

 

If the majority of your guests are non-sailing, then the lunch would make more sense. After all, free food is always appreciated! But if most of your guests are going to be eating unlimited free food the rest of the cruise, its a waste of money. In fact, we don't even care about the hor'derves... they'll be nice to have, but we just want to host a reception that includes an open bar! ;)

[eatapeach3]

huntstep:

 

I did feel that everything ran very smoothly. Once you get there a table is set up where your non-sailing guests sign in and you meet the wedding coordinators. One was assigned to all of our guest and one was assigned to me and my husband. They led the group wherever they needed to go at the pier and once we first got on the ship. We had our own waiting area at the pier also which was nice. Once everyone got on the ship they where taken to the chapel so they knew where to go and then were free to walk around the ship. Everyone had to be at the pier by 10:30 and we boarded a little before 12. The ceremony started at 1 so everyone just had to be back at the chapel by then. At that point I wasn't really involved in anything because I was getting ready. The wedding coordinator came back to my stateroom to get us and brought us to the chapel. Everyone was there so I have to assume there weren't any problems. We didn't encounter any problems at all having the non-sailing guests.

 

It is a short reception, but I didn't necessarily feel "pressed" for time. As I mentioned before, just be careful of the time while taking pictures. That's the easiest way to miss a lot of the reception. I would suggest bringing a watch so you can make sure you're not gone for too long. Since we were all at the pier by 10:30, I did get to spend a lot of time with everyone before the wedding. Everyone had to be off the ship by 3:45 so when all was said and done, it was almost the length of a traditional wedding anyway.

 

The chapel was beautiful, but small. There was a large stained glass skylight that brought in a lot of light. I found a link that has a pretty good picture:

 

http://oasis.fortunecity.com/tropicana/431/Voyagertour46.html

 

The Seven Hearts and Cloud Nine rooms were also were I had my reception. There was a wall between them that was moved and the rooms were combined. You have a large party of 75, so most likely you will be in one of the lounges, possibly Cleopatra's Needle. You will also have the ceremony there because the chapel only holds about 40 people.

 

http://oasis.fortunecity.com/tropicana/431/Voyagertour15.html

 

When you speak to Royal Romance you can tell them how many people you are having and ask them what the different possibilities are for a party of your size. They can't guarantee a certain area, but they will tell you what the choices are for your size.

[Jodyflower]

I got married on Splendour of the Seas 1/15. Royal Romance aka The Wedding Experience pulled it off just fine even with a few road bumps. My advice is to just keep on them especially when it comes down to getting the marriage license document sent to you. They didn't send it to us until 1/7 and we had to get a notary to stamp it and send it back to RR to which they had to bring it to the courthouse and have them stamp it and get it back by the wedding date. It was very, very close and caused us a bit of unnecessary stress. Also, they will tell you to meet them at the cruise terminal at 10:30 for priority boarding. We were there at 10:15 and they didn't show up until after 11:00. So when you arrive at the terminal just go right to security, check in and get your seapass and photo and wait for them in that area so when they arrive that part of it is all done. They got us on the ship at 11:30, which was good because my daughter and I had salon appointments at 12, which they did a fantastic job! We had plenty of time to get dressed and be at the ceremony at 1:45. I did my make-up before we got to the terminal.

 

My wedding was small; we had 8 sailing guests with us, four of which flew in that morning at 10:30 but they made it to the wedding without a problem.

 

The only thing RR forgot was to give me my flowers when I walked down the aisle. Not really a big issue especially since our wedding was informal; My daughter and I wore sarongs and I was barefoot and my husband and son wore khaki shorts and hawaiian shirts. But they also forgot to give me my flowers when we went off with the photographer so I have no photos with my flowers. Like I said, not really a big issue but it would have been nice.

 

As for the photographer, my advice is to just keep in mind if there is any certain photos you want, tell him. I had to ask to have a photo with my father and he only took one, which did not come out good. If it's cloudy out, you might want to forego outdoor photos as ALL of our outdoor photos were terrible because the lighting was bad and it was windy. When it came time to review our photos, we were only happy with a handful and were not willing to pay $500 for the cheapest package because alot of the photos we didn't even want. We waited until Thursday night (our cruise ended Sat. 1/22) to tell him what we wanted and he finally broke down and said we could pick and choose which photos we wanted for $6.99 each (5x7's). We ended up purchasing 7 photos out of over 100. But, we also had three people taking pictures and two people videotaping the ceremony so we are not missing out at all.

 

If anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them!

[huntstep]

thank you eatapeach3 for answering my questions. one more thing, did you get to tour the boat before agreeing to sign the contract to get married or before booking your cruise? if so, can you tell me how you went about doing that? i would probably be more convinced to book if I could see some of the potential rooms they would offer on the ship for us to get married in.

thanks,

huntstep

[pandabebe]

DoubleAK - I wonder if I can do the same convincing and have hor'derves instead of lunch? I wonder why they limit hor'derves to groups of 35 of less? Was it that difficult to convince them to let you do it? I have a group of 70+ so it may be more difficult for me. I guess what it just comes down to is that I can't justify paying $45 per person for lunch when we all eat for free anyway. *sigh* - am I just being too picky?

 

Jodyflower - welcome back! Thank you for sharing your wedding details with us. Where on the ship did you get married? Did you upgrade your flowers, cake, etc? Do you have any pictures that you can share? Any other tips would be greatly appreciated!

[Phil&Pam]

Eatapeach, it's great reading your review. I'm taking a lot of notes from you.

A couple quick questions if I may.

We are also bringing our own music (iPod) to the Mariner OTS in April. We just want to buy the "soundsystem" option, but no DJ.

1. Was it difficult to get them to let you use it?

2. Did the soundsystem include a microphone?

3. What type of plug in was required to connect to it? (red/white RCA jacks or 2.5mm headphone or the larger type)

Thanks in advance.

Phil

[eatapeach3]

huntstep:

 

No we didn't get to tour the ship before we booked the wedding. I had been on the Explorer before though so I knew what the rooms looked like. I'm not really sure if they offer tours of the ship before you book. I know they do it for travel agents, but I'm not sure about everyone else. I would ask at the regular Royal Carribean number and see what they say. If they don't offer tours, I would then ask Royal Romance what possibilities there are for your wedding with a party of your size and then search the web for pictures of those rooms. There are a lot of general information cruise sites that have tons of pictures.

 

Phil&Pam:

 

I'm not sure if you can actually purchase a sound system package. We were told if we wanted to bring our own CDs we could, but we would have to supply a battery operated CD player, nothing that needed to be plugged in. we never asked to use the sound system, the wedding coordinator put the CDs in the system himself. I don't think he was supposed to do that, but I certainly wasn't going to complain. The room that we were in didn't have a microphone, but it was one of the smaller rooms. If you are having a large party and are in one of the lounges, I'm pretty sure there has to be a microphone, because the entertainers use it once the cruise begins. Again, whether or not they will let you use it without the DJ, I don't know. As far as the plugs go, I'm not sure about that either, because they told us whatever we brought had to be battery operated. Hope this helps!

 

Let me know if you have any more questions I might be able to help with. :-)

[Phil&Pam]

Thanks for the info. I guess we will have to get very specific with RR on what we can/can't do.

Have a great week.

Phil

[stephp6]

Eatapeach3 -

 

I am also Jewish planning to marry on the RC Empress in June. Did you have any problems bringing your own chuppah? Did you sign the Ketubah after the ceremony? In the pics, it looks like you did. Did you do the buffet lunch after? I am deciding what to do and scared it will be "cheesy." I'd love to hear your feedback!

Thanks,

Stephp6

[eatapeach3]

stephp6:

 

I posted a longer reply to you in the RC Reception Photos? thread that, hopefully, answers your questions.

 

Let me know if there is anything else I can do to help.

[DoubleAK]

DoubleAK - I wonder if I can do the same convincing and have hor'derves instead of lunch? I wonder why they limit hor'derves to groups of 35 of less? Was it that difficult to convince them to let you do it? I have a group of 70+ so it may be more difficult for me. I guess what it just comes down to is that I can't justify paying $45 per person for lunch when we all eat for free anyway. *sigh* - am I just being too picky?

 

No, you're not being picky... I couldn't justify it either. But with 70+ guests, I would say its very doubtful they'll make an exception. We were lucky to get ours...

 

We have 44 guests (9 people over the hor'derves limit) and just couldn't bring ourselves to pay for all that food. So I called RR to discuss our options. Our rep was busy, so I talked to the woman who answered the phone. I explained the situation and our feelings about the food, and she basically said 'that's our policy, there's no way to change it, too bad'. I was speechless. I told her I was very disappointed by this policy and by how inflexible they were being. Nothing phased her. She wasn't even apologetic. After pleading with the Brick Wall for a few more minutes and getting nowhere, I was getting angry and started threatening to cancel the whole wedding, reception, and cruise altogether. I asked her if she felt RR/RC was willing to lose 35 cruise fares, and $3000+ in wedding reservations over this little policy? Her response? 'Well, we handle over 300 weddings a year so it wouldn't matter much'. Yes, that is what she said. At that point I calmly told her I would call my travel agent to explore other options and hung up.

 

I immediately called my TA and explained what I just went through. Since she has nothing to do with the wedding plans, there wasn't she could do, but offered to contact the RCCL regional representative to escalate things. She said Regional Reps have booking quotas to meet, so unlike RR, this person did have something to lose by having 35 reservations cancelled. So hopefully the Rep could make things happen. The TA asked me to put the whole complaint in writing to make it easier to understand and email it to her.

 

Before I did that though, my Fiancée called RR and this time spoke to our designated rep Robert. She explained the situation, and instead of blowing her off, he said he would talk to a supervisor about it and call back. About 30 minutes later, he called her and said the supervisor will allow an exception for 9 extra people, but not one person more. They definitely gave the impression that this type of exception is rare, but they can be flexible to accommodate their clients.

 

So while we're in a tough situation now because we can't add even one more guest without upgrading to a lunch buffet, we are glad that RR can and will make exceptions to policy to ensure a happy day.... it all just depends on who you speak to!!!