Large Group Wedding Cruise

[km5377]

Has anyone had a large group for a wedding cruise? We are looking at about 90-120 people that would sail.

We want to buy out a specialty restaurant for the night and have an outdoor venue for the wedding.

Does anyone have any experiences with this? Just wondering what we can expect. None of the cruise line’s wedding departments have been helpful, except for Disney’s which said they only have capacity for 38 people for an onboard wedding, but they would help us if we would like it on their private island. We are also looking at Celebrity or Royal Caribbean.

 

Thanks,

Kent

[cmt8185]

Has anyone had a large group for a wedding cruise? We are looking at about 90-120 people that would sail.

We want to buy out a specialty restaurant for the night and have an outdoor venue for the wedding.

Does anyone have any experiences with this? Just wondering what we can expect. None of the cruise line’s wedding departments have been helpful, except for Disney’s which said they only have capacity for 38 people for an onboard wedding, but they would help us if we would like it on their private island. We are also looking at Celebrity or Royal Caribbean.

 

Thanks,

Kent

 

I'll be having my wedding with Carnival in September on the beach in Nassau. We'll have 40 sailing guests. You plan on having a LOT of guests...have you already mentioned this to people? Honestly, unless you have super reliable people, you may not have that many guests actually attend. A lot of people think it's a wonderful idea until it comes down to committing and booking. Also, 90-120 sailing guests is a LOT to entertain and be responsible for. Just a thought :)

 

If you plan on having that many sailing guests, I suggest DEFINITELY going through a cruiseline group department. That way you can benefit from the perks of having a group sailing. I would also suggest a travel agent. I've become a mini travel agent for my 40 guests but with 90-100 I can imagine it'd get WAY too stressful.

 

I don't think Carnival has a limit for the number of guests if you have an island-side wedding. Their largest package includes 20 people. You can add people for about $30/pp with the reception for anything over 20. On top of that, they charge for transportation per person to and from the ceremony. If you have over 50 guests, they charge an additional amount for the transportation as well. You may want to look into a destination wedding company outside of the cruiseline. If you do that, you do take the chance of missing port and missing your wedding all together. Just an FYI

 

I don't have any experience about renting out a specialty restaurant so I can't really help ya there.

 

CONGRATS!

[dcdiva]

We had 60 sailing guests and ended up doing an onboard wedding on RCL. Our original plan was to have the ceremony on the beach, but as the guest list grew the cost and logistics in getting everyone to and from the ship proved too much. So we had both the wedding and reception onboard in our first port of call -- Key West. We spent the money we saved on transportation on an extra hour of open bar for our guests :D

 

 

If you can, book the cruise for you and your guests through the cruise line's groups department -- either with or without a travel agent. You'll definitely get some benefits by booking as a group, and it will make things like seating at dinner much easier. Plus, you'll have access to the group coordinator to arrange non-wedding related events onboard, i.e., dinner in a specialty restaurant, private cocktail party, etc. We were not able to book as a group (still not sure why), so ended up with 29 seperate reservations all linked to my booking number. It was a lot more work for me and I don't recommend it.

 

Even if you book as a group, you'll still have to book the wedding itself and the reception through the cruiseline's wedding department. Once you narrow down your date and ship choices, check with the groups department on booking options and with the cruise wedding department on availability. Once you book your cruise, the wedding department can reserve your date and you can begin reception and ceremony planning.

 

Even though it's a large group, most of the cruise lines should be able to accomodate you. You will have to pay for a "coordinator" for each 50 guests. So if you are over 100 people, you'll need to pay for two extra coordinators.

[km5377]

dcdiva -

 

We are also looking at Jewel of the Seas as one of our options. Where did you have your ceremony & reception onboard?

 

Thanks!

[dcdiva]

Both our ceremony and reception were in the Safari Club. We had the entire club area to ourselves -- if you look at the deck plan it includes the Zanzabar Lounge, Congo Bar, Safari Club and Serengheti Room. Plenty of room for our group, plus a whole lot more and it felt very private. Since the ship was in port, not many people were onboard anyway. It almost felt like we had the whole ship to ourselves. :)

 

We loved the Jewel and all of the Radiance Class ships, because they feel very elegant. They are not too big, but still offer alot of the amenities of the larger ships. They are also built with tons of glass making them light-filled with views from everywhere. I can share some photos if you'd like to see how the ceremony and was set up.

[JonandJess]

Has anyone had a large group for a wedding cruise? We are looking at about 90-120 people that would sail.

We want to buy out a specialty restaurant for the night and have an outdoor venue for the wedding.

Does anyone have any experiences with this? Just wondering what we can expect. None of the cruise line’s wedding departments have been helpful, except for Disney’s which said they only have capacity for 38 people for an onboard wedding, but they would help us if we would like it on their private island. We are also looking at Celebrity or Royal Caribbean.

 

Thanks,

Kent

 

Hi Kent. My fiance and I started booking our cruise back in January, and right now we have approximately 75-80 sailing guests traveling with us (the deadline is next week, wedding is in September). We have definitely learned a lot about the benefits of cruising with a group:

 

1. By booking as a group, you automatically rack up amenity points to use in lots of different ways. The options include things like a one-hour private cocktail party for you and your guests (perhaps you could consider this your cocktail party before your reception, or even use it as a welcome party on the first day of the cruise), chocolate covered strawberries in each cabin upon arrival, 1 bottle of wine per cabin, on-board credit, and I think a couple of other options I can't remember.

2. I would highly suggest you book through a travel agent. This has made our entire experience completely stress free. The travel agent has kept in contact with our guests as far as booking dates, information about your cruise, and deadlines. We didn't like the idea of "pestering" our guests with this kind of stuff, so we let someone else deal with it.

3. In my opinion, working with the wedding coordinators on the cruise is not only extremely challenging, but also a HUGE waste of money....UNLESS you are planning on having your wedding ON the cruise (a lot of people opt for a wedding at port/on shore). We found a local wedding coordinator in and did a TON of research on this company. They were extremely reputable, and have been a breeze to work with...and are around $5,000 cheaper!

4. All of your on-board activities can be planned by the group department as "group" activities instead of wedding activities...and this will save you thousands!

5. One last thing...I would also suggest against using the on-board photographer. We realize this is frowned upon, but we found an up and coming photographer who was willing to trade her services with unlimited photos on the wedding day and a high resolution CD of all of our images for a free trip on the cruise! Plus, the group department credits your group 1 free cabin for every 16 rooms booked. So...we used this extra cabin to provide her and a guest with a room. Ta-da! Free photographer![/color]

 

Please let us know if you need any other info! ;)

[LilBlackDress]

Each Cruise line offers different perks for large groups. It is best that you check with Celebrity and Royal Caribbean as to what the perks are. I am sure everyone means well by telling you what they are getting but you might not be offered the same things.

 

As for getting married outdoors...I only checked with a RCCL and Carnival and found out to have an outdoor wedding on embarking day the options were under 40 guests total on the ship or they have access to beach areas near most ports that can hold up to 200 guests (I believe). We had a small group so it didn't concern us. Our options were beach wedding/reception or beach wedding/cruise ship bar reception or ship, indoor or outdoor, Wedding/Bar reception for embarking day.

 

It is very hard to get answers from the wedding dept. If you have time emailing them is normally the best option but they can take up to a week or so to respond.

 

Another option is getting married at a port and using a port local wedding planner. They are normally less expensive and more personalized. Lots of Pros using a local wedding planner at a port, only one main Con to this option is if there are non sailing guests and how many would want to travel to a port and not take the cruise.

 

JonandJess mentioned the ship photographer. If you do get married on the ship the photographer is included in the package. The pictures are extra. Let them do their job and then you can either opt to buy some from them or not. As for bringing your own photographer I was told as long as they do not get in the way of their photographer and they do not look like a professional (having a ton of gear) there will not be any problems.

 

Best Wishes

[katefdh]

Wedding Cruise is awesome ...!! you will have a lot of fun ... and you will think going again