Carnival Glory Wedding 4/15/12 - Questions

[khutson]

My fiance and I will be getting married aboard the Carnival Glory on 4/15/12, departing out of Miami. I have a few questions for those who have gone through this process....

 

1) Any recommendations on hotels to stay at in Miami before the cruise. We are looking for something that has shuttle service to both the airport and the cruise port???

 

2) Ceremony music... we recieved the ceremony layout sheet and it gives you options on what songs you would like played during the ceremony, however, after reading other posts people have mentioned that they have brought their own ceremony music? Am I reading this correctly? How does this work?

 

3) Flowers... I don't want the boring white flowers that the cruise provides, and I dont want to pay for an upgrade. Any suggestions on bringing flowers?

 

4) Does the photographer try and steal you before the reception is over or do you have a say in when you get your pictures taken around the ship? If you wait until after the reception... do you have problems with other guests being in the background?

 

5) I am planning on bringing my own cake topper, probably my own flowers, and I may bring my own party favors.... anything else that is a must have?

 

Excursions

We will be going to Belize, Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Isla Roatan. I know my fiance wants to do some deep sea fishing and we also want to go ziplining.

1) Is their a specific island that is better than others to do these at?

 

2) What about outside tour companies that are cheaper than booking your excursions through the cruise ship?

 

Thanks for your help!!

 

Khutson!

[cruisinthemed]

My fiance and I will be getting married aboard the Carnival Glory on 4/15/12, departing out of Miami. I have a few questions for those who have gone through this process....

 

1) Any recommendations on hotels to stay at in Miami before the cruise. We are looking for something that has shuttle service to both the airport and the cruise port???

 

2) Ceremony music... we recieved the ceremony layout sheet and it gives you options on what songs you would like played during the ceremony, however, after reading other posts people have mentioned that they have brought their own ceremony music? Am I reading this correctly? How does this work?

 

3) Flowers... I don't want the boring white flowers that the cruise provides, and I dont want to pay for an upgrade. Any suggestions on bringing flowers?

 

4) Does the photographer try and steal you before the reception is over or do you have a say in when you get your pictures taken around the ship? If you wait until after the reception... do you have problems with other guests being in the background?

 

5) I am planning on bringing my own cake topper, probably my own flowers, and I may bring my own party favors.... anything else that is a must have?

 

Excursions

We will be going to Belize, Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Isla Roatan. I know my fiance wants to do some deep sea fishing and we also want to go ziplining.

1) Is their a specific island that is better than others to do these at?

 

2) What about outside tour companies that are cheaper than booking your excursions through the cruise ship?

 

Thanks for your help!!

 

Khutson!

 

Welcome & congrats!!!! There is a board for wedding/honeymoon cruises. Just go to the boards page and scroll down further. There will be lots of info there about getting married on a cruise.

 

We will be going on the Glory in Nov. for a B2B (2 weeks) and getting married while in St. Thomas.

 

There are also port of call boards, that have ifo on each port and hotel recommendations. We are planning on staying at the Intercontinental hotel in Miami.

 

A lot of brides order flowers on-line, there will be some recommendations on the wedding boards. Many bring their own toppers too.

 

Good luck with your planning:)

[pcrum]

I can't help with the wedding stuff, but for a hotel in Miami, I know a lot of people love the Intercontinental. Some have even got great deals through priceline, as I believe it's the only 5 star hotel in the downtown region. With your cruise being near spring break for some schools, I don't know if the deals will be there, but it never hurts to try!

 

Congratulations! Enjoy the Glory. We were on her for spring break this year and loved it!!

[Colorado Kat]

Best zip-lining - Roatan. Longest line in hte Americas - Extreme Zip-line. (Pirates of the Caribbean?) The Port of Call Board on Roatan will have the info. Plenty safe to go with private excursions.

[shortnsweet7676]

Congratulations! I was married on the Glory in April 2010. Check out my review (the link is in my signature). There is tons of information on the wedding/honeymoon cruise forum on this board.

[bonnys]

First, congrats and best wishes!

 

DH and I were married on the Glory in 2004 and we loved it!

 

My fiance and I will be getting married aboard the Carnival Glory on 4/15/12, departing out of Miami. I have a few questions for those who have gone through this process....

 

1) Any recommendations on hotels to stay at in Miami before the cruise. We are looking for something that has shuttle service to both the airport and the cruise port???

 

2) Ceremony music... we recieved the ceremony layout sheet and it gives you options on what songs you would like played during the ceremony, however, after reading other posts people have mentioned that they have brought their own ceremony music? Am I reading this correctly? How does this work?

 

I brought our own music but we had to bring something to play it on during the ceremony. For the reception I made lists of music and made sure to bring my own CD's of the songs that were a must just in case they didn't have them.

 

3) Flowers... I don't want the boring white flowers that the cruise provides, and I dont want to pay for an upgrade. Any suggestions on bringing flowers?

 

I didn't bring any and just paid for what I wanted. With all the rush of getting ready, getting on the ship, and everything else that had to be done I really didn't want to have to worry about flowers. It was well worth the money spent. Don't feel like you need to but extra flowers for the room. What they provide is just enough.

 

4) Does the photographer try and steal you before the reception is over or do you have a say in when you get your pictures taken around the ship? If you wait until after the reception... do you have problems with other guests being in the background?

 

The men had pics before the ceremony and then there were the standard pics after the ceremony in the room. Then we went to the disco for the reception and we did the cake, champagne, food, dancing, etc. During this pics were being taken. We were pulled out for some pics...some with just us and a ton with various family members. After the reception we went around the ship with the photographer and got any and all pics we wanted. If other people were around and we wanted a pic the photographer just politely asked people to stay out of the shot.

 

5) I am planning on bringing my own cake topper, probably my own flowers, and I may bring my own party favors.... anything else that is a must have?

 

The biggest must is to just relax and enjoy your day. I made my choices and wishes known to our coordinator and let her deal with everything...and our wedding turned out wonderfully. The one piece of advice I can give is do not buy the pictures the first time they are offeres. We waited until the last day and got an amazing deal. We paid about 1/4 of what the original price was.

 

Excursions

We will be going to Belize, Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Isla Roatan. I know my fiance wants to do some deep sea fishing and we also want to go ziplining.

1) Is their a specific island that is better than others to do these at?

 

Roatan is AMAZING!!! We used Victor Bodden (our driver was Will) for a private tour of the island and had an outstanding day. You can also zipline with them.

 

2) What about outside tour companies that are cheaper than booking your excursions through the cruise ship?

 

The only island you listed that I went through CCL was Belize. I just felt safer...and we had a great time on the Range Rover safari with them. For all the other islands we used independent contractors.

 

Thanks for your help!!

 

Khutson!

 

Hope this helps. If you have any other questions I'll be happy to help.