Carnival Valor Cruise & Wedding

[fxygal5]

Hi everyone! We're back from our wedding cruise and it was beautiful! I wanted to give you a review and will try to upload what pics we’ve received from our photographer. Let me know if you have any questions!

Before the Cruise: My parents are in West Palm Beach and were kind enough to host us and our entire group of friends (31) who came with us for the cruise. The night before we left, we had a huge catered Cuban meal and just got to know each other. It was a fun time. I had a chartered bus with International Limos out of Miami and they were a great company to work with. They met us right at the house and drove our group to the port on Sunday morning and were there to pick us up when we got back the following Sunday.

The Cruise

Embarkation Day: We were VIP due to the room we booked so we got onboard first around 10:45a.m. (ahead of our group – they were on by 11:15a.m.) and went straight to the Lido deck to grab lunch. Then we dropped my gown and his suit off at our stateroom and went to the Lincoln Dining Room to work out how to get our group sitting together. We were pleasantly surprised & excited to find out that our Maitre d’ had put our entire group in a private room in the dining room for the entire week! We had 4 tables all together and were pretty loud most nights – luckily we had a great staff to take care of us.

Dining: We expected long waits due to the size of the ship and the fact that it was spring break week for most colleges, but had no problems at all with waiting for food! A typical wait was 5 minutes for the Deli line (I was addicted to the Arugula, Mozzarella, Grilled Peppers sandwich on Foccacia bread). The longest wait we had was at the midnight buffet on Mexican night – it was about 15 minutes till we got our food. The food was all excellent. I especially loved the Deli and the Burrito Bar. There was also a Mongolian Bar (cooked to order), a Fish & Chips Bar, a Salad Bar, the Buffet with a daily ‘theme’, and a Dessert Bar. We ate at the buffet most days for lunch & snacks but ate at the Lincoln Dining Room every night for dinner so we could spend time with our friends & family. The food in the Lincoln was also fantastic – I didn’t notice any issues with the portion sizes (we were all stuffed after every meal) or the food quality. They had lobster tail and escargot (my faves) and other nice touches like the sirloin and lots of vegetarian options.

Stateroom: I strongly recommend getting a suite for your wedding cruise. It was worth it for us! We had a large 2-sink bathroom with a shower/jet tub combo, a sitting room directly off of the bathroom with a large counter & seat with 2 closets, a full bar on one wall of the bedroom, a large balcony with seating for 4 reclining chairs, and a large bedroom with lots of mirrors throughout. We used our room as a meeting/ending point with as many as 20 people in there some nights drinking champagne and hanging out. It was a fun time. I was also able to fit myself, my mom and mother-in-law, my 3 sisters, my 2 friends, and my sister-in-law in there to get ready the morning of our wedding. So tons of space!!!

Excursions: I did two excursions that I organized for our group, one in Belize and one in Roatan.

Belize: I was excited that we stopped in Belize. I told everyone in our group who wanted to go that they had to be on one of the first 3 tenders if they wanted to go on the tour, and to meet us in the Eagles Lounge by 8:15am. Luckily my husband and I went a bit earlier because they were handing out tender tickets by 8a.m. (they listed the ticket time as starting at 8:30am). We were able to get most of us on tenders 1 and 2, with my parents arriving late and getting tender #4. I spoke to the lady handing out tickets and explained our group size (24) and she was kind enough to give my parents tender #2 so they could go with us. The tenders are larger and faster than they used to be – we were in port within 15minutes of getting in the tender. I went with Cave-tubing.com due to the reviews on Tripadvisor and they were so much fun! They had a large sign right outside of the terminal with an air-conditioned charter bus waiting for us and we started out right away. They kept us entertained the entire ride to the caves by talking about Belize and keeping us laughing. Very fun group of guys! We took a moderate walk to the caves and saw a tarantula (they held it and let others brave enough to hold it also – ick!) and fed some guests termites (they swore they tasted minty but I was too chicken to try this too!) Once we got to the river and started cave tubing, they were very informative about the culture and history of the caves and some of the local beliefs about the caves (believed it was their afterlife). It was an amazing trip and totally worth the price we paid! It included lunch and water and a taste of the Cashew Wine (we bought a bottle). If you have a group going, they will work with you on the price. I believe they start out at $55/pp which is a deal!

Roatan: This was actually my favorite excursion that I’ve ever taken, even compared to the excellent and highly entertaining cave-tubing trip. We took a private catamaran charter aboard the Free Radical, which is owned by a retired couple named Ed & Julie. They had a crew of 3 – a cook-Chena and a crew made up of 3 younger guys, and it was like being royalty! They treated us like we were visiting family/friends but with the quality of a luxury boat. We were picked up right outside of the port and taken to their catamaran on the opposite side of the island (it’s a beautiful island) where they met us. We got onboard and took off for the snorkeling site. It was a reef in a very quiet area and was so peaceful. We snorkeled around with the 2 younger guys and got to see some fun animals (giant starfish!) and then went back on board and rinsed off with freshwater. They had a large lunch ready for us – Ed grilled out hamburgers and hot dogs and chicken (they also have vegetarian options if you want it) and Chena made her homemade salsa (AMAZING! The 10 of us ate 3 bowls!!! Haha) and her homemade pasta salad and potato salad and…it was just delicious. We also had unlimited drinks – sodas and beers and their special ‘punch’ mix and water. On our way back we had a bit of time so Ed let out the sail and we sailed back into the bay. IT was absolutely beautiful and exactly what I’d imagined when I thought of a catamaran sail & snorkel. They also have excellent reviews on Tripadvisor (where I found them).

Wedding Day – Grand Cayman:

Ceremony: We got married at our first port stop – Grand Cayman – at the Grand Old House. I went through Desiree directly at the GOH due to the prices and reviews of The Wedding Experience (everything was priced double AND they have terrible reviews!). Desiree and I emailed and faxed everything back and forth and spoke on the phone a few times. She was great at getting back to me within the same day or the next day (which you know is important for us brides during planning!) I talked to the front desk on the Valor the night before and explained that we were getting married the next morning and our entire group would need to get off pretty early with the excursions. They were very helpful and said to stop by the front desk in the a.m. and they would escort us to the front of the tender line. The girls and me went first in the morning and had no problem getting off the boat onto a tender, and my husband and the rest of the wedding party (they left about 1.5 hours after us) went to the front desk and were escorted off of the ship onto a tender immediately. As soon as we walked out of the port area there was a driver holding a large sign that said ‘Wedding’ on it, which was us! He took us the 5 minutes to the GOH and I was taken directly to the Bridal Suite (a small room for me to get ready in) while my girls walked around and used the large restrooms to get ready and do their hair/makeup. Desiree had scheduled a hair stylist and makeup artist from a local salon to work on me and they were PERFECT! I wasn’t sure what I wanted with my hair and the woman made it BEAUTIFUL and exactly what I would have picked if I’d seen it. And the makeup artist – she was talented! I wanted a very light amount of makeup as I don’t wear it normally and she made me look flawless but not look like I was painted on. I didn’t get their names – just ask Desiree – they were both perfect!

And our ceremony was beautiful. We had a pastor from the island and he did everything I would have asked for if I’d thought about it – including asking our fathers to bless our marriage and including both sets of parents in a prayer at the front – which meant a lot to my mom and dad. It was a very sweet and romantic service. And the setup! IT was just like the pictures – cool breeze, sunny sky, bright blue ocean. I couldn’t have had a better day. We had a cake with our cake topper and it was made with real fruit filling! I could’ve eaten the entire thing on my own. J

We used David Wolfe as our photographer on the island (I’m going to try to upload the photos he sent us) and he is a very talented photographer! He didn’t force me into any awkward poses – he was more into natural-looking shots with the group and in unique settings and angles – which I loved! He’s sending us a disk with all photos on it and was kind enough to forward a few of his favorite pictures to Desiree, who sent them on to us. I can’t wait to see the rest of the pictures!

Reception: The reception was back onboard (I didn’t want to stress about what time we’d have to leave the island) in the One Small Step Disco with the DJ. They had a huge buffet setup with an ice sculpture and a LARGE cake with our cake topper on it again (we carried it back with us) and the food was delicious! We had our first song (I cried) to Marc Cohn’s ‘True Companion’ and then my dad and I danced to ‘When I See You Smile’ by Bad English (It was my parent’s wedding song – I remember their wedding every time I hear the song; it made my dad cry when he heard it) and then my husband danced with his mom. And then we cut the cake, and got to eat! Finally! I was starving by this point as I hadn’t eaten that day due to being so nervous/excited. And the food was DELICIOUS! They had pot stickers and sushi and shrimp and beef and tons of delicious hors d’ oeuvres. We all danced for 1.5 hours (the 2 hour reception is PLENTY of time!) and ate and drank a LOT. The carnival photographer was there taking pictures the entire time, and then when the reception ended he took us around the ship and did several hundred posed shots of us. I’m not a huge fan of pictures that make me put my hand ‘just like that, curl the fingers, tilt your head…’ but they came out really nice. I LOVED the coffee table book he’d made us, but it was $1,600 and had about 33 pictures in it – that was 3 times what we’d paid the professional photographer on the island! I couldn’t do it – we just bought the $750 package which included 25 8x10’s and 20 5x7’s (they have most of the pictures in an 8x10 format which is annoying – way too many big pictures!). But when I got home and saw the email from David Wolfe with his pictures – I stopped being upset at not getting all of our photos from the ship. I mean, the ship’s photographer was wonderful and took pretty pictures, but David’s look like ARTWORK or something I’d see on a magazine cover –they’re that beautiful!

Overall – I LOVED MY CARNIVAL WEDDING!!!! I’d recommend it to any bride considering a less-stressful wedding option. I had nightmares of picking out colors and linens, so this was perfect for me and my family and my husband and his family. I would do it again if I had the choice (maybe adding on a back-to-back cruise for just us two to relax!!!).

Feel free to ask any questions. I hope I covered all the details here!

[katieandaron]

Congratulations! It sounds you had an AMAZING day! Best wishes on your marriage!

[grapes2110]

Congratulations! I'm getting married on the Valor July 31st. Quick question, what type of suite did you get? We booked a Junior suite and I'm hoping it's big enough. Also, do you have any pictures of the actual ship you'd like to share? Thank you!

[fxygal5]

Hi! We only had two options for a suite - the Ocean Suite or a Grand Suite. We got the OS (GS was about $1500 more) and it was perfect. If it's the same as a Junion Suite, then yes, it should have plenty of space! Especially if youre Maids of Honor/Bridesmaids are staying in a normal cabin (ex: Interior, Oceanview), then they'll appreciate the extra space to get ready in also.

 

As for pictures of the ship, we have HUNDREDS on facebook. Search for me on facebook (nicolecamacho@bellsouth.net or Nicole Stanojev) and friend me. There are just way too many for me to try to post on here... :-)

[grapes2110]

Thank you for the info! I appreciate it :)

 

I'm not able to find you on facebook. Wonder if I'm doing something wrong! Can you look for me and friend me? Christine DeLuca or email: grapes2110@yahoo.com. Thanks so much!

[Lipz]

Congratulations!!!

Beautiful....

[pinkdiamonddolly]

Awwww Your photos were beautiful and your wedding looked magical. You are the first bride I have read a review for that had a destination wedding with an independant coordinator and then a reception with Carnival. I know this is somewhat nosy, but I am having such an issue finding this information, was it difficult to just do the reception with Carnival and if not was it terribly expensive? I have emailed TWE and I can't seem to get an answer. Again CONGRATULATIONS, you were a stunning bride. :)

[fxygal5]

Hi PinkDiamond,

 

Thank you for the compliments! And I don't mind answering at all -that's why I posted my review. I couldn't find anyone else who did what I wanted to do, which is go independent for my wedding and use Carnival for my reception. TWE charged SO MUCH more for the wedding at the exact same location (Grand Old House) and Carnival was so reasonable for the 2 hour reception that I went this route instead.

 

First, it depends where you'd like to get married. Grand Cayman was our first port of call, so that's where I started looking. I contacted TWE first and got a list of their venues with pricing, and then realized it was way over budget. So I looked at their Venues online and found that a few of them also do wedding independently of TWE, which led me to pick my favorite (GOH) and contact them directly to get pricing. It was MUCH more reasonable. If you look on their website, they have packages starting at $650, ranging all the way up to where you'd like to go. Ours was a bit more than that due to the amount of guests, including transportation, pianist, David Wolfe as our photographer, champagne toasts, cake, decorations, etc. But it was beautiful!

 

Second, I contacted Carnival about doing an onboard wedding reception. THey were wonderful! I got the exact same service that I would have if I'd done my wedding onboard also - it was beautiful! The 2hour reception started at around $800 I think, plus the DJ and any additional guests over 20.

 

I hope this info helps! Please let me know if you need more details or have more questions. I used cruisecritic for ALL my questions and it was so helpful to see what others had done!

[flgatormom29]

First, i LOVE your dress!!! I was a lil worried about buying a "poofy" dress, just for the fact of space and carrying it on. But i did anyways...glad to see another person did too!

Your making me want to change ALL my plans and get married in Grand Caymen at the same place! We are booked for key West (which is our day 1) on the ship, but your wedding was BEAUTIFUL!

Congratulations! If you have anymore pictures, please add them!

[fxygal5]

Thanks FLGatorMom (I'm a FSU fan myself...lol)~

 

I LOVED my dress. I was looking at all of these 'beachy' dresses but the fabric was just SO HEAVY! So when I found my dress, oh it was heaven. It's silk taffeta (I had no idea what that was either) and is the lightest wedding dress I'd ever tried on (It was my 5th store!). SO I had to have it. And it fit our personalities pretty well - vintage/unique. I loved it! And a Day 1 wedding would have been a bit less stressful - not worrying about whether we'd miss the port due to weather (Caymans are a tendered port) but I loved every second of it. Good luck on your day!

[fxygal5]

PinkDiamond: I forgot to mention - when you decide to not do your wedding ceremony through Carnival, you also lose all 'guarantees' in case something happens. For example, if there had been bad weather and we couldn't tender to the Caymans, I'd be out of luck. No wedding - I'd have to scramble to get something done back in the states (I was pretty worried about this for a few weeks!). Or if the Captain decides to reverse the order of ports - again, you lose all guarantees. BUT most on-site wedding places will work with you on this and rearrange your wedding days for you. But again, you're stuck if the port gets cancelled altogether (also means you lose most of your deposits!).

 

I meant to include this in my original response but got carried away with how great everything was. :-D I was stressed the week before about missing port, but forgot completely about that once I stepped onboard.

 

Good Luck!

[fxygal5]

A few more photos:

[pinkdiamonddolly]

PinkDiamond: I forgot to mention - when you decide to not do your wedding ceremony through Carnival, you also lose all 'guarantees' in case something happens. For example, if there had been bad weather and we couldn't tender to the Caymans, I'd be out of luck. No wedding - I'd have to scramble to get something done back in the states (I was pretty worried about this for a few weeks!). Or if the Captain decides to reverse the order of ports - again, you lose all guarantees. BUT most on-site wedding places will work with you on this and rearrange your wedding days for you. But again, you're stuck if the port gets cancelled altogether (also means you lose most of your deposits!).

 

I meant to include this in my original response but got carried away with how great everything was. :-D I was stressed the week before about missing port, but forgot completely about that once I stepped onboard.

 

Good Luck!

 

 

Can I just tell you how AMAZING you are! Thank You to the moon, I have been trying to find out this information forever. I really really want a beach wedding (to the point I was planning to schedule 2 weddings) BUT I also want a really nice reception on the ship! I wish they would advertise this better or at least respond to emails LOL! They seriously need to work on their destination wedding pricing, its as much as a wedding/reception package and honestly I just don't see it. You are an absolute doll and I truly appreciate the info and looking at your gorgeous pictures!

[jdybnsn]

Thank you for sharing your day.

We got married at Grand Old house too off our Disney cruise in 2008 .....you brought back so many happy memories !

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=758276&highlight=grand+cayman

Thanks.

[fxygal5]

Jdy -

 

Wow! Your dress was gorgeous! And I'm jealous - the horse-drawn carriage company no longer operates in Grand Cayman so we couldn't do that (I really wanted to!).

 

And I'm pretty positive that we were both married by the same minister. :-) Pretty crazy right? I'm so glad I found the GoH - it was absolutely beautiful! Our pictures look like they're from a magazine - it's just that beautiful there!

 

Thank you for sharing your pics with me. I wish I was back there!

[disneykins]

We were on the same cruise but never ran into you to offer our congratulations. You had a beautiful wedding, glad everything went so well. Dont know how I would deal with the stress of tendering. Did you wear your dress on the tender? Or get dressed when you got ashore.

 

We're trying to talk our DD into doing a similar wedding. Just wondering about pricing. Do we pay for all the guests cruise and airfare or do they book it themselves? The Carnival reception, does it include food and drinks?

 

Thanks,

Debbie and Tony

[fxygal5]

Hi Debbie & Tony!

 

Thank you for your compliments! I would recommend any bride to get married on a cruise - it was perfect! Any questions are welcome as I had a million before the wedding and CC members were great at getting back to me.

 

I got married at the Grand Old House in Grand Cayman and carried my dress on the tender there, got ready at the GOH in a small 'bridal suite' they had reserved for me, and wore it on the tender ride back. With the tenders being so much larger, there weren't any worries about getting splashed with water. I did worry a little bit about bad weather potentially canceling our tenders, but we've been to the Caymans 4-5 times and have never missed the port (as my parents like to remind me), all times in the month of March.

 

As far as pricing - our guests paid for the cruise themselves (unless they needed financial help, then we helped if we really wanted/needed them there) and airfare themselves. We provided housing for when the got to FL. We used a Carnival Vacation Planner (PVP) to book all our guests in the same 'group' with the same dinner seating and rooms all in the same area of the ship. It also helped with their questions to all talk to the same person (Ramon was wonderful at keeping our group organized!). We covered the reception/wedding costs, just as you would in a normal wedding. The carnival reception was PERFECT! It included 2 hours of hors d'ouevres and an open bar. And the food served was delicious! We all ate too much!

 

I think if we'd had a smaller wedding - under 10 people - we may have tried to cover their cruise and/or airfare costs. But with 31 people traveling with us, it wasn't reasonable. It did help that most of my family were already booked on this cruise as a family trip before we'd even been engaged. So when looking at different wedding options, the cruise made the most sense as most of my family was there already and wouldn't have to travel more than planned, and then his family would just fly down for the cruise. It worked out great!

 

Let me know if you'd like any additional information!

 

~Nicole

[sescobartx]

We just got married on the Valor Jan 2012. You MUST ask for Patrick as your photographer if he is still there... HE IS AMAZING! I have pics if you want to see.