Carnival Destiny Wedding Review, 4/13/12

[CruiserJess]

Wow, can't believe I am married and back writing a review!!! We planned this wedding for a year and a half and are so thrilled with the results. My review is a little lenghty, please not we did not do an embarkation day wedding. We were married the 2nday day of the cruise in Key West.

We got into Miami the day before the cruise left. We got a block of rooms at the Courtyard Miami Airport South. Free shuttle from the airport for our guests. It worked out great. They had a nice sports bar and our wedding guests really enjoyed it. We wound up renting a bus to take all of our guests to the port as we had about 30 of us all going over at the same time. We used QLS service and it worked out great. They were early, professional and well priced. I believe it was around $7 a person.

Embarkation was easy, we were at the port by 10:30 and on the ship a little after 11am. Luckily I was able to get into our room fairly quickly as I carried my dress on which was a little bit of a pain. But I would have been panicking about it of I didn’t. That night we hosted a "Welcome Aboard" cocktail hour in the Piano bar for all of our guests, all 63 of them. It was really nice to have everyone meet and mingle. It was our version of a rehearsal dinner. Planned everything through Carnival's event team. After that we all went to dinner and our wedding planner Alexandra came over to introduce herself. She was by far that most amazing person we met on that ship. SHE IS FABULOUS!!!! That night I went to bed early as I was nervous about the wedding and wanted to get some sleep as I needed to be up by 6:30am to start getting ready for the ceremony.

The next morning we arrived in Key West and I woke up at 6:30, ready to go! Kicked out DH and my MOH arrived to start getting ready. At first I had no idea where to start but glad she was there to help me because time quickly flew by. We rented trolleys to take our guests to Smathers Beach where we were getting married. The wedding planner (Weddings to Go Key West) were coming to get myself, my father and the girls. The only problem was we were docked at the Outer Mole. Meaning we were on the Coast Guard pier and I needed to get past security for my wedding planner to pick us up. We wound up needing to take the other trolley with some of our wedding guests to get outside security. I was a little upset at first but didn't want it to ruin the day. Was just grateful the trolley with my DH had already left. We got to the beach right on time and everything went perfectly. It was a beautiful, blue sky day. I could not have asked for better weather. Ceremony was short and sweet, the photos after the beach did not take too long either. I am so impressed with our ceremony pictures!! Our reception on the boat didn’t start until 4pm so we had about a 3 hour window in-between. My new husband and I went back to the room, ordered room service and sat on the balcony just the two of us. The rest of our guests went to enjoy the sun. We had scheduled pictures through Carnival to take around the ship prior to the reception. I have to admit during the photo shoot I was getting very annoyed. We really wanted to take pictures outside and by the funnel. We spent most of the time in our room until my DH asked him if we could go outside to get the pictures we really wanted. I am happy with how they turned out, just wished we would of done the ones we really wanted the entire time.

The reception was great. A few minor slip ups (Social Host announced us as our MOH & BM were walking in). But in the grand scheme of things it didn’t really matter. We did our first dance, father/daughter & mother/son dances right away. Leaving the remaining time for drinks and dancing. At first most people were too busy eating and chatting to dance but a little later people got out there. Save the good songs for about half way through of you have the Social Host.I didn’t get to eat much but what I did eat was delicious. Everyone raved about the food and bar service. Our wedding coordinator Alexandra was fantastic and brought me over some food!! We cant say enough great things about her!! The 2 hours did go by quickly but we all went to dinner immediately after. We had all of our guest at the Early Seating and were able to be seated all together. This worked out great for the entire cruise and everyone had a blast!

It was fun/crazy cruising with all our family and friends. For our honeymoon we stayed on the ship for the next cruise and I am so glad we did. We got to relax and enjoy it more. Also we knew so many of the employees from the boat and they were so friendly to us. I think we got sent at least 5 bottles of champagne and chocolate strawberries throughout the 2 cruises.

Overall I have to say our wedding day was everything I dreamed. The small blips didn’t matter and my DH were so over joyed with everything. All of our friends and family keep calling and telling us how much fun they had. They want us to do a one year anniversary cruise :) Very tempting ! Lol

Please let me know if you have any questions and I will post some of our photos below!

 

 

Link to our wedding photos:

http://weddingstogo.phanfare.com/5537089

 

 

I will post the reception ones later :D

[muah3iluvzu06]

Thanks so much for the review. Your pictures are GORGEOUS, congratulations! =]

[cmt8185]

GORGEOUS pictures, you were beautiful!

 

I have a couple questions for you..

 

*How did you get the "Welcome Aboard" cocktail hour? How much was that? What was included?

 

*Did you get your hair/make-up done on board? If so, how was that experience?

 

*Did you choose to have your reception at that time? I was thinking it'd be a little more close together.

 

Thanks so much! Once again, your wedding was beautiful!

[CruiserJess]

Thanks ladies!!

 

We did the 2 hour reception. It is only an option if you are getting married any other day but embarkation day. We chose the time because we wanted it to flow right into dinner. We originally wanted the disco but had to go into the Down Beat Lounge because we didn't want the reception to start earlier.

I was fortunate that one of my Aunt's who came on the cruise is a hair dresser so she did my hair. My MOH & I did my makeup. So dont have info on the Spa, sorry. I think the 2 hour reception was around $32 a person.