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*Carnival Destiny Wedding Review 6-13-11*LONG REVIEW

nimzer

By nimzer,
in Honeymoon & Wedding Cruises

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nimzer

nimzer

Posted
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Well to begin with we had a fabulous time and would do it over in a heart beat! Our cruise went to Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay, and Nassau(5 day Eastern Caribbean Cruise).

 

Pre-Wedding: We flew in on Sunday, 6-12-11 and stayed at the Hilton Miami Downtown, I was able to secure a group rate for $99 a night with tax it came to about $112. The hotel was very nice and I did not hear anyone in our group complain. Since we had a lot of people fly in from Chicago we treated everyone to a "meet & greet" at Carrabba's in Miami Beach. Due to the Miami Heat basketball game going we couldn't get a reservation in anywhere near the hotel since it was near the arena. I even had called places in Bayside Marketplace 2 weeks before we flew in and each one stated we had to wait on the outcome of the basketball game, grrr. The drive from the hotel was approximately 15 min. my dad was able get 5 vans to get everyone from the hotel to the restaurant. My husband and I were in the last van to arrive. As we're getting out of the van my brother walks towards us and says the restaurant does not have our party down and had no idea a group of 56 people were coming to dine. I'm a very organized person and save all e-mails. I march up to the hostess(my first "bridezilla" experience) and show them my e-mail conversation with the owner of the restaurant. It turned out the owner forgot to tell the manager my group was coming in this night. I was beyond pissed. After waiting 15 min they were able to clear a section out and seat our group in the same area and in the end the service was great. To compensate us each person received a glass of sangria. After dinner a group of us went out to South Beach to party for a few hours, we ended up at Mango's which was awesome! Afterwards we all went back to the hotel to get some sleep.

 

Day of the wedding: Luckily my friend's sister is a hair stylist who came with her for the cruise. She started my sister's hair at 8 and mine at 9 a.m. I used chicmakeupbyaimee who did a fabulous job on our makeup! I was getting compliments all day. She arrived at the hotel at 8 and started my makeup which I did the airbrush(def recommend). She was very reasonable too. I reserved buses to take everyone from the hotel to the port, I used Florida Trans Tour the price was $420 which included transporting 60 people to the port and returning the non-sailing guests back to the hotel after the wedding. The Hilton was only about a 10 min drive to the Port of Miami. Everyone went through the line to check in. No one had any issues getting through. After we received our sail and sign card we met with our wedding officiant and wedding coordinator. Both did a fabulous job and were very helpful!

 

After customs cleared the ship we boarded around 11:15 a.m. We were able to go to our suite which was so nice and big and we were happy in the end we decided to get one instead of the normal balcony room! We also requested to have my husband's parent's room ready so he could get ready in there. We had enough time that my MOH and 2 bridesmaids and I all changed in the suite with no issues. The bridesmaids dresses were JCrew strapless sundresses in bright seaside. My dress was silk taffeta with a sweetheart neckline. All the wedding guests were able to tour the ship and were told to go to the Palladium Lounge at 12:45 p.m. The ceremony starting at 1 p.m. The lido deck had the lunch buffet out and a lot of them headed there.

 

I ordered my silk flowers through Angels Accents, LOVED THEM! They were a combination of roses, orchids, and peonies. My color scheme was white and pink flowers they felt real and smelled good too! Keep in mind you have to order them way in advance. My photographer, Michael arrived before the coordinator came to take me down and took a few pictures. We then headed downstairs to the lounge where I met my dad. The ceremony was beautiful and lasted about 20 min. we ended up doing the sand ceremony instead of the candle light. The sand ceremony set I found on amazon.com and paid about $60. We took a few pictures with our family after the ceremony before heading to the Disco where our reception was held. The DJ introduced us, went right into the cake cutting and toast. Our cake was 3 tiered, chocolate and vanilla tiers with strawberry filling, delicious. Immediately following was our first dance to "From this Moment." The food was delicious! Everyone took advantage of the open bar. Father-Daughter dance we danced to "Unforgettable." Mother-Son dance was to "Song for Mama." Towards the end of the reception we did the bouquet and garter toss. Overall the reception went by too fast, 1 1/2 hrs is not enough! That was our only complaint, an extra hr would have been great! We did a photo book for our guest book of us growing up. The favors were anchor key chains for the women and cruise luggage tags for the men. Our non-sailing guests left at 3 p.m.

 

After the reception ended our photographer took us around the ship to take more pictures. Unfortunently it started to drizzle and we were only able to take a few pictures on deck. Since it was so humid and we were all dressed up an employee let us sit in the Library during the muster drill, which made me extremely happy. We continued to take a few more pictures after the drill. We had a total of 43 guests, both family and friends, sailing with us which was a great turn out. To thank those who sailed with us each couple were given an OOT bag(bags were from Pier 1, small resuable bag $2 each) which included, shout wipes, SPF chapstick, welcome letter, kleenex, tums, aspirin, highlighter, small tube of sunscreen,word search book and antibacterial wipes. Overall the cost was approximately $12 a bag, found a lot of the stuff at the travel bin section at Target and Walmart. I stayed in my dress all night and was getting compliments through out the night, it was a great feeling. Majority of our group ate at 6 p.m. we did do a group booking, each cabin was given a $50 onboard credit, which was great.

 

We did not have any issues through out the cruise, staff was wonderful as usual. Half Moon Cay was everyone's favorite stop because the water was so clear and the sand so soft. We ended up ordering the $999 photo package, which included one canvas, a DVD slide show, and numerous 8X10 and 5X7 photos. We were very pleased with the outcome of the pictures.

 

After the cruise we stayed at the Hampton Inn Airport, we arrived at 10:45 a.m. and they had our room ready. Definitely would recommend this hotel, free airport shuttle and continental breakfast. We flew out the next morning to St Lucia-Sandals Grande where we had our official honeymoon for the week!

 

Overall, I would recommend a cruise wedding to anyone! If you have any questions let me know, I tried to cover everything:D Oh and I will try to add pictures later this week, I left the CD of all the wedding pictures at my sister's. :eek:

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ToBeWed

ToBeWed

Posted
Posted
I finally updated all the pictures, here's a link below, please let me know if it's not working, enjoy :D

 

http://kimjoncarnivaldestinywedding.shutterfly.com/pictures

 

 

You looked so beautiful and the pictures were wonderful! I loved your hair, flowers, and dress. I also liked the variety in the poses of the pictures. Your photographer did a wonderful job. I hope I am lucky enough to get a good one when we get married in September. It looks like you had a very nice wedding and reception. Congratulations!:)

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