Getting married in Puerto Rico

[wedding121212]

Just wondering if anyone here has been married in Puerto Rico! We are taking a 7 day Eastern Caribbean on Carnival Liberty on 12-8-12 to 12-15-12. We will be getting married on 12-12-12 at 12 noon on the beach through a wedding planner, not through Carnival. Carnival says you must be in Puerto Rico 2 days in advance to be married there. (which is NOT true!) This is our first cruise so if anyone has advise let us know! We've been reading and learning much from this amazing site!

 

Carnival has not been helpful at all so far.

[aprill121]

First, CONGRATS!

Are you cruising with just the two of you or are others going also? I have been cruising with carnival for 10 years, the groups department is very helpful. I am getting married in port, while on a carnival cruise, not using carnival for the wedding, and my group coordinater has been very helpful. If you have others cruising with you, call the group department. Have you been dealing with the wedding dept.? Cruises are great, please do not let one person you deal with deter you. Just find another person to talk to :)

[wedding121212]

I have been emailing the wedding department. I emailed the group department but haven't heard anything back yet, I emailed them on Wednesday so 2 days ago. As of now we have about 20 of us, but we just let everyone know what we are doing a few days ago. We invited around 80 but I think about 40 will end up coming.

[6rugrats]

. We will be getting married on 12-12-12 at 12 noon on the beach through a wedding planner, not through Carnival.

 

Carnival has not been helpful at all so far.

I am confused. If you are not booking the wedding through Carnival, what would they be helping you with?

[wedding121212]

I am confused. If you are not booking the wedding through Carnival, what would they be helping you with?

 

I was trying to book a reception back on the ship but they said that is not allowed. Then I was seeing if I could book the ceremony through them and they told me that you have to be in Puerto Rico 2 days before the ceremony (which is not true).

 

Now I'm just waiting for the group department to get back to me.

 

 

Good afternoon Eric,

Thank you for contacting Carnival Cruise Lines' Wedding Department.

Please note Carnival only performs legal weddings and in order to be legally married you must abide by the restrictions. Be advised required blood tests must include gonorrhea and chlamydia.

 

San Juan, Puerto Rico - Couple must arrive two-days prior to your wedding day in order to meet all marriage license

requirements. Blood tests may be obtained in hometown and cannot be older than 10 days prior to your arrival in San Juan. If lab work is being conducted in San Juan, couples are required to arrive earlier and additional fees apply. The medical certificate will be approved by Physician in San Juan - $285.00 fee U.S. *Plus Sales Tax of 7%.

For more detailed marriage license information, please contact “The Wedding Experience”. Please feel free to contact them at 877.580.3556 should you have any further questions.

 

Be advised if you are getting married prior to the sailing a symbolic wedding may be performed. You will need to provide proof of marriage three weeks prior to your sail date.

 

Please note you must have a wedding scheduled onboard our ships to take advantage of a reception onboard package. Packages include a 15-20 minute ceremony (legal/symbolic) along with the reception, be it one hour or 1 1/2 hour based on the package selected. See the attached Onboard Reception Request form.

 

Please contact our Wedding Department should you have further questions at 800.933.4968.

 

We hope to hear from you soon and thank you for choosing Carnival Cruise Lines for your big day!

 

Best Regards,

Carnival Weddings

Carnival Cruise Lines

Alison Torrez

Wedding Sales Agent

Carnival Cruise Lines | 3655 NW 87th Avenue | Miami, FL 33178 |

P: 305.599.2600 | e: weddings@carnival.com

 

 

 

--- Original Message ---

From:

Received: 12/22/11 3:20:28 PM EST

To: Weddings <weddings@carnival.com>

Subject: Re: Reception information Carnival Liberty

 

Alison,

 

 

Yes we got it that time. We do have a question though. We are planning on getting married on 12-12-12 in San Juan, Puerto Rico during a 7 day Eastern Caribbean cruise on Carnival Liberty from 12-8-12 to 12-15-12. In your price list it states that couples must arrive in Puerto Rico 2 days in advance to meet marriage license requirements. From what I have seen there are no residency requirements (we are both US Citizens), or any other requirements that would take 2 days to fulfill. Is there a way to arrange the wedding ceremony through Carnival or would we have to arrange the ceremony through a wedding planner in Puerto Rico? We have been planning this for a while and don't mind booking the ceremony outside of Carnival and having the reception back on ship after the ceremony.

 

 

 

Do you have information and pricing if we did just the reception back on board?

 

 

 

 

“SHIP BOARD & SHORE SIDE” WEDDING PACKAGES

While in the port of San Juan, Puerto Rico

(Embarkation day only)

Just for the Bride and Groom: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,395.00*

Welcome Aboard Package: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,835.00*

Deluxe Romance Package: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,995.00*

The Ceremony and Wedding Luncheon: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,500.00*

San Juan - (Island-site):

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,500.00*

Please ask your Wedding Coordinator about floral upgrades. An additional service fee of $150.00 will apply for

every 50 guests attending an onboard wedding; this count includes the bride & groom.

San Juan, Puerto Rico - Couple must arrive two-days prior to your wedding day in order to meet all marriage license

requirements. Blood tests may be obtained in hometown and cannot be older than 10 days prior to your arrival in

San Juan. If lab work is being conducted in San Juan, couples are required to arrive earlier and additional fees

apply. The medical certificate will be approved by Physician in San Juan - $285.00 fee U.S. *Plus Sales Tax of 7%.

For more detailed marriage license information, please contact “The Wedding Experience”.

 

 

 

Thank you,

 

 

Eric and Sandra

 

 

From: Weddings <weddings@carnival.com>

To:

Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2011 12:26 PM

Subject: Reception information Carnival Liberty <<#682944-2119146#>>

 

 

Good afternoon Eric,

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Please advise if you had luck this time.

Best Regards,

Alison Torrez

Wedding Sales Agent

Carnival Cruise Lines | 3655 NW 87th Avenue | Miami, FL 33178 |

P: 305.599.2600 | e: weddings@carnival.com

 

 

 

--- Original Message ---

From:

Received: 12/22/11 12:16:17 PM EST

To: "weddings@carnival.com" <weddings@carnival.com>

Subject: Reception information Carnival Liberty

 

Alison, I do not see the enclosures.- Thank you.

 

 

 

----- Forwarded Message -----

From: Weddings <weddings@carnival.com>

To:

Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2011 9:56 AM

Subject: Re: Wedding information Carnival Liberty <<#682944-2119146#>>

 

 

Good afternoon Eric,

Thank you for contacting Carnival Cruise Lines' Wedding Department.

Congratulations on your upcoming Wedding! We will be happy to assist in planning your big day!

Carnival Cruise Lines' Weddings Department offers wedding programs on board the ship on the day of sailing or at various ports-of-call, either on board or on-island.

In addition, the Weddings Department offers two packages for the Renewal of Marriage Vows. The ceremony will be performed by the Ship's Captain, while at sea, based on staff and lounge availability. Carnival Weddings is unable to grant requests to perform the ceremony on embarkation days, formal nights or on the open decks.

We have enclosed our Wedding packages for you to review. Please contact our Wedding Department @ 800-933-4968 for availability. Our hours of operation are Monday - Friday, 9:00am - 7:00pm EST. Any of our wedding coordinators will be happy to assist you with any questions you may have.

For cruise availability and rates please refer to our Reservations department at 1-800-CARNIVAL.

Be advised we recommend you confirm if there is wedding availability prior to booking your cruise. We will provide a one-time 48 hour courtesy hold so that you may book your cruise. Once you have booked the cruise of your interest we will begin the wedding process.

We look forward to speaking with you.

Best Regards,

Alison Torrez

Wedding Sales Agent

Carnival Cruise Lines | 3655 NW 87th Avenue | Miami, FL 33178 |

P: 305.599.2600 | e: weddings@carnival.com

 

 

 

--- Original Message ---

From:

Received: 12/22/11 2:32:59 AM EST

To: "weddings@carnival.com" <weddings@carnival.com>

CC:

Subject: Wedding information Carnival Liberty

 

I'm looking for more information and pricing for wedding reception packages on the cruise ship, Carnival Liberty. This will be our first cruise. We are thinking about taking the 12-8-12 7 day Eastern Caribbean. We have a wedding booked in Puerto Rico (not through Carnival) on Wed Dec. 12 and would like the reception to start at 3:00-4:00 pm on Wed Dec 12th. We plan on having 40-50 guests.

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for your time.

 

 

Eric and Sandra

[muah3iluvzu06]

On Carnival's website it says:

 

Island weddings can be performed in the following locations:

 

Barbados, Montego Bay, Cozumel, Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman, St. Thomas. Key West, and Half Moon Cay

 

I am guessing that they just don't do wedding in Puerto Rico for whatever reason. I know you can definitely book wedding receptions only with Carnival and not use them for the ceremony, but it sounds like they don't even do those on days that they are in Puerto Rico. You may want to call and speak to a supervisor to confirm.

[muah3iluvzu06]

I just checked their wedding brochure and it says weddings can only be performed in Puerto Rico on embarkation day only.

 

http://www.carnival.com/cms/fun/weddings/pdf/wedding-info.pdf

[Herbaltees]

I would suggest you contact the groups travel dept and ask about hosting a pvt event and Don't lable it "reception".

[wedding121212]

I would suggest you contact the groups travel dept and ask about hosting a pvt event and Don't lable it "reception".

 

We have emailed the group department with no response yet. I'll call next week if I don't hear back from them by like Tuesday.

 

My next question was about private events. Does anyone know the time frames and locations available and if you can pay for open bar for the event?

 

We are looking at reserving half of the steakhouse for our group to eat then have a private event afterwards depending on how late you can have them. We are thinking like 9-midnight or something. Thanks for everyone's help!

[aprill121]

I have been emailing the wedding department. I emailed the group department but haven't heard anything back yet, I emailed them on Wednesday so 2 days ago. As of now we have about 20 of us, but we just let everyone know what we are doing a few days ago. We invited around 80 but I think about 40 will end up coming.

 

 

Call the groups department, they can get pretty busy. However, once you call and set up your group, you can deal with just that person, just like having a TA. also for every 15 full fare passengers you get a free berth, you could get you and your hubby to be's cruise almost for free! also depending on the cruise you can get ammenity points that you can use towards onboard credit, gifts, ect. for EVERYONE in you group.

You can also use these points for a free cocktail party for you group!

[aprill121]

On Carnival's website it says:

 

Island weddings can be performed in the following locations:

 

Barbados, Montego Bay, Cozumel, Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman, St. Thomas. Key West, and Half Moon Cay

 

I am guessing that they just don't do wedding in Puerto Rico for whatever reason. I know you can definitely book wedding receptions only with Carnival and not use them for the ceremony, but it sounds like they don't even do those on days that they are in Puerto Rico. You may want to call and speak to a supervisor to confirm.

 

 

You can book through a private wedding planner on the island, who can also arrange an on island reception if you wish.

[aprill121]

We have emailed the group department with no response yet. I'll call next week if I don't hear back from them by like Tuesday.

 

My next question was about private events. Does anyone know the time frames and locations available and if you can pay for open bar for the event?

 

We are looking at reserving half of the steakhouse for our group to eat then have a private event afterwards depending on how late you can have them. We are thinking like 9-midnight or something. Thanks for everyone's help!

 

I have been on 8 carnival group cruises ( I am the group leader) in my experience they hold the private events in the afternoon, they will not shut down a bar for a private event. It may be different with weddings and receptions, I am not sure.

[wedding121212]

I have emailed the "Group Department" on Dec 21st and Dec 26th with no responses. I called them yesterday (Dec 29th) and found out the information I needed about setting up Groups. She quoted me the same exact rates as the early saver. After 8 rooms have been booked they give you 1 free berth. Depending on which rooms you book the majority of, the discount will save everyone around $30-$50.

 

We are booking the ceremony through a private wedding planner as well as a small meal/cake for our group of 40.

 

We would like to have a cocktail party back on board as a reception/get together. Does anyone have experience with this and know how much time you can book a cocktail party for. We would like it to be from like 9-midnight. Also do you know if music is available or if I could bring a 200 watt computer speaker setup to play music through my laptop?

[wedding121212]

Update-

 

Called the group department and they quoted me the same rates as what is online for the ES. They mentioned the 1 free berth/8 rooms booked but didn't mention any other other perks. Carnival has not been much of a help from the beginning. We've just begun speaking with a TA to see if they are more helpful. Good thing we have 11 months to go!

[wedding121212]

Also wondering if Puerto Rico gets "skipped" a lot due to weather or other circumstances???