Serenade of the Seas Wedding locations

[Bonny-Lass]

Hi Ladies,

 

I'm to be married on the Serenade of the Seas on Sept. 2005 during an Alaska Cruise. My biggest concern is the location on the ship where the ceremony will take place. When RR said that the wedding would likely be in one of the lounges, I'm envisioning a nightclub almosphere with purple walls and stars on the ceiling, not the elegant ambiance I would like. Much to my surprise, RR has no pictures to show me of the various locations. Any comments or advice on which lounge or room would be considered "elegant" or "pretty". Library? There will be only 2 guests plus me and the groom present, so I don't want a big room that will swallow us up. thanks everyone,

 

B

[dcdiva]

I was married on Jewel of the Seas in February. We opted not to have a sit down lunch (which would be in the Dining Room) and had a buffet lunch instead. When pushed for more info on what our location might be, I got essentially the same answer from Royal Romance that you did. But with some digging I was eventually able to discover that weddings would typically be held in the Vortex Lounge (the Viking Crown lounge on some ships) or in one of the other lounges.

 

Our wedding ceremony and reception were both in the Safari Club -- on the Serenade I think they call it the Colony Club. The decor was very British Colonial and was really lovely for a daytime ceremony. The nice part is that the "lounge" was actually three or four different areas -- a cocktail lounge, a bar, a dance floor, etc. Although our ceremony was in the main area where the dance floor is, we had the whole space to ourselves for the reception. The club probably holds several hundred, and with fifty guests so it felt very roomy. The link below has some photographs.

 

http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=oy4pb0z.6i8y4ahv&x=0&y=-juhyjf

[GemOnboard]

Hi Bonny,

 

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! I just got married on March 5 on the Navigator of the Seas. We had the ceremony in the Cosmopolitan Club, which is part of the Deck 14 Viking Lounge, which ended up being a beautiful, classy, and elegant location. (I'll be posting pictures in the next couple of days.) I had to fight Royal Romance to have this location, they strongly insisted we have it in the Ixtapa Lounge -- a private, good sized room that was not anything we wanted our wedding in.

 

My suggestion would be research, research, research! Do google searches of weddings on the Splendor to see what different rooms look like. This link will also show you 360 degree tours of different Splendor locations. http://www.cruisesonly.com/c/media.asp?lineid=44&vessel=233&itineraryID=&startdate=&enddate=

 

There are many nice locations that aren't night clubs or casinos, so don't be afraid of purple walls, but do insist on getting the location you want. With two guest, the library would be lovely or one of the smaller lounges with large open windows. I'm not sure if the Splendor has a chapel...

 

Good luck!

[GemOnboard]

Here's the link for the SERENADE of the Seas, not sure why I thought you said Splendor, lol. http://www.cruisesonly.com/c/media.asp?lineid=44&vessel=416&itineraryID=&startdate=&enddate=

[Bonny-Lass]

Thanks Ladies,

 

Thanks for the pics dcdiva, and I look forward to seeing your pics Gemonboard.

 

Did either of you know what room to fight for prior to boarding the ship, or did you arrange the final location after boarding the cruise and having a look around?

 

Being a small wedding, I also fear getting "bumped" into a closet if a bigger wedding books for the same day.:(

 

It looks like the Viking/Vortex lounges up on the top deck might have some good views. The library might be nice too (although I haven't seen any pics), as long as it isn't full of computer terminals. Sigh, it's frustrating that the RR company doesn't have a stack of photos from each room that they can send to help us make our choices.

 

bye for now,

[dcdiva]

Don't panic. There are a whole bunch of beautiful spots on board where they can stage a beautiful ceremony and reception. Even if you get "bumped" for a larger party, you can count on being in a nice spot. We loved the extra space that we had -- but would have been happy at several of the other smaller lounges onboard.

 

Royal Romance can be a pain to deal with, but in the end, they did a great job making our ceremony and reception feel very special. I am sure they'll do the same for you. Just keep in mind the things that are most important to you, and keep bugging the wedding planners to make sure they get taken care of. In the beginning, I was really concerned about location. But in the end, it was one of the least important parts of the ceremony. Our vows, our guests, our flowers and our music all ended up being much more important. The lovely location was just a bonus.