Carnival Legend Wedding 3-17-13, Review

[Pyrofish]

So, it seems like mostly brides on here... My bride isn't into the review thing, and I like to spread as much information as possible, so I, the groom, will tell it like it was. It was, btw, very nicely done and we are very happy!

 

From the get-go, I was surprised at the pricing structure. From the research, it seemed that Carnival had the most flexible packages. They start low and entice you into options after that. We wanted the Deluxe Romance package but were told it wasn't available for the port/ship/months we were open to. We thought that meant someone else had it, but I now believe it's not offered in Tampa. There would have been no time for a second hour of Reception.

 

So we purchased the Welcome Aboard Package, for ~$1700 with the assurance that we'd be charged for the options later.

 

What happens between the booking and the sailing:

1. You will need to invite your non-sailing guests with a special RSVP request. You will need their full name, Birthdate, and Driver's License number. This is like pulling teeth for some folks. They read the date and say, sure I'll come, and neglect to read the rest of the invite. It is vitally important to have this information 2 weeks prior to sailing... you will have to badger some of your guests for this...

 

2. There is a mountain of options and forms. Fortunately, the people at the wedding experience and Carnival wedding will walk you through most of them. They won't know the location of the ceremony or the reception until the week prior to your date.

 

3. Start a gift registry, and make sure it is perfectly clear that guests can't bring gifts on board. They can bring envelopes & gift cards, but not actual gifts. This is a strange idea to some of your guests and may have to be repeated. We had ours shipped to my office in case anything came in while we were gone.

 

4. Music: We spent a good bit of time picking our songs for the CD for the wedding and reception. We figured we needed at least 80 minutes of music... not. We put all of our music on a CD, which didn't work on their CD player. It worked fine on our computer, but computers have better lasers... regardless we would have been stuck had my lovely wife not made me load the playlist to her iPhone the night before. Have a back up plan for the music. As far as amount of music, you need the ceremony music, the first dance, and a few more. However, some of your time in the reception is taken up with introduction, cake cutting, thanking the guests, toasts, signing the license. You'll get about 5 songs other than the ones mentioned above. One of ours was Wobble, my DW made them play it twice so they could get out and dance. Despite the lot not knowing how to do it, entertainment director Bruce got out there and led the way, Wobble baby wobble baby :p But I'm getting ahead of myself...

 

Options: We went easy on the options. The more you pack into your ceremony, the less time you'll have at the reception. They say it's an hour reception, but it's not. It's whatever time is left from the end of the ceremony till the muster drill is about to be called. If you fill that time with announcements, dances, sand ceremony, prayers, etc, all take time away from hanging out with your guests at the end. The Reception time flies by! We went with no wedding party, my wife's niece demanded she be a flower girl, so that was that... and everything else as simple as it could get. We did a first dance, but only for about 20 seconds before the DJ asked everyone else to jump in. You really want the extra time with your people.

 

Additional Food: After waiting for 2 hours in the VIP lounge prior to boarding, your guests will want some grub, or coffee at the least. We did purchase the Lido buffet for everyone, and it was well worth it. Everyone went from waiting mode, to, let's have some fun! Seriously, you could feel the smiles as they discovered the Cruise buffet. This is especially helpful for guests with kids, and it offers everyone a place to sit and hang out while they wait for the ceremony time.

 

Hotel: No matter what the hotel tells you, many of the hotels in the Tampa area offer Cruise shuttles and cruise parking. Shop around. We almost booked the Quality Inn, and I sort of wish we had. They had blocks for $110 for that weekend. They do not, however, have a bar/restaurant onsite. My wife's aunt and her boyfriend are a little ill, and don't get around very well. They wanted a hotel with a bar and food onsite. So we checked around and found the Sheraton Riverwalk at $130/room with mandatory valet parking. Minutes from the cruise terminal, unless you're waiting for the shuttle... Anyway, they offer reduced price parking for the week if you're on a cruise. That said, the service was terrible, the food was sub par, the bar was sub par, and the rooms could use an upgrade out the 80's, the decade the carpet appeared to have been installed in. So yeah, I wouldn't recommend it. They did pick us up from the port so we could get our vehicles from their garage at the end of the cruise. If you choose this option, please remember to prepay while checking out.

 

Description of the Day of:

You'll need to get your hair and makeup done at the hotel. Make sure you have a reliable friend for this, it's early. Make sure you have help to carry everything. Your checked baggage will not be available in your room, ours wasn't. We still had a garment bag, 2 carry-ons, and a wedding dress. That dang dress is heavy ladies, get someone tall to carry it.

 

You need to be at the terminal by 10AM, or at least that's what we told our people. 10:30 is supposed to be the cutoff. We were there at 9:30, and I think everyone made it in just fine. When you arrive there will be a sign for weddings and VIP members. You'll see a few people with clipboards, they are probably your wedding organizers. Insanely helpful people from here on out. Once you get to them, your day will start to get easier :D

 

Your non-sailing guests will be given badges at check-in, and sailing guests will be given a sticker. You will have to wait in a boarding line with other sailing guests, but it's a short line and moves quickly. Don't sweat it, there's a ton of waiting after this... Once through, you head to the VIP Lounge... well, a seating area behind the ticket desk that holds all of the advanced boarding people. Wedding parties get to board first, yay, aren't we special? They do this because the time constraints are tight. Anyway, the lounge. If your guests did not eat breakfast, this area provides 2 or 3 soda machines... you will be here from about 10:30 AM till 11:30 at the earliest.

 

During this time, your wedding coordinator will pull you aside and go over everything, and I do mean everything. They will want the music, copies of the brides vows if your doing own, which pictures you want set up, which tracks on the CD play when, what order things happen in. Then the Officiant sits with you and goes through what they are doing. Adding or reducing their script as you see fit. Your coordinator will also have a stack of handouts for your guests that tell them what/when/where to be during the next several hours. We did that on our own, but they had already taken care of it.

 

Once you board, hopefully early, the coordinator will take you to your room and possibly introduce you to the photographer. The photographer will tell you when he'll be back for some pictures in the room. Once they leave, you can b-line for deck 9 and get some food and down some water, watch your guests as they discover the dessert buffet ;) You still need to be quick though:

 

We boarded at 11:30

11:45 In our room

11:55 Eating at deck 9

12:45 Photographer was coming back for photos...

1:15 Groom to the Ceremony room for a run through

1:20 Guests are asked to be in the room (they've had 1 and half hours to eat, explore, and hang out, so they will probably be there before)

1:30 Bride enters

2 PM Head to reception room

2:50 Start saying bye-bye

3 PM Last guests should be gone

 

Our ceremony was in the Firebird lounge, which had great seats for our people. Cushioned, stadium style couches. The flower girl was permitted to drop flower petals as long as someone picked them up on the way out. Everything went very smoothly, my DW almost couldn't read her vows, but she got hold of herself. Afterward, the photographer did his thing with the whole group. Then he called up the family for the family shots.

 

Ceremony and Reception pics

https://www.dropbox.com/l/eybPj4wlURN5P9852YqIUd

 

Everyone was sent to deck 2 Satchmo's where the appetizers and open bar were in full swing. We entered afterward, and were announced. Then the champagne, the cake cutting, and a toast. Then a brief break in the action. They kind of call you toward what needs to be done.

 

The food was better than I expected and they even had chicken nuggets for the kids. There were servers and bar tenders, slinging blue and red drinks, beers and other mixes. It was really nice. And just like that, everyone was saying good bye. It was definitely too short... but, they all seemed to enjoy it, and it was nice to not have anything to clean up, or inlaws to listen to, or over zealous partiers falling about. 2 hours would have been better though.

 

Then you head to the Muster drill, still in your ceremonial garb. By this time, your feet might be killing you. If so, find a comfy chair and sit immediately, as it's not over. The photographer will seek you out. You'll be easy to spot, the wedding dress is a dead give away. I think we sat for about 15 minutes. Next up is the posed pictures... My friends, we told Carnival we didn't want their pictures, we didn't order a picture package, we weren't even sure we wanted to go with the photographer... just do it. Even if you don't buy them, these folks work magic with their cameras. For the next hour or so, you'll be put in odd feeling positions and posed together in odd places. It's worth it.

 

I wish we had planned on buying the dang pictures though. We were fortunate in that they gave us a break. The whole week we wondered, what will they look like, what will they cost? Wednesday, we got an invite in our cabin message bin, with a gorgeous black and white. My friends looked at it, and said "If the rest of the pics look like this, you're screwed..." and they were right. So we spent about $1600 on the coffee table book, all the pictures, and the DVD with all the pictures and the copyright. That was the negotiated price... As plump people, having glamour shots on your special day is pretty cool :rolleyes:

 

Posed Wedding Pics

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kqyy46srr30wsno/lZ25lQNK4P

 

I would highly recommend it when all is said and done. We spent about $3000 on the wedding/guests/buffet/tux and another $1600 on the pictures, which with enough will power we could have left. The Cruise of course, is another expense in itself, and was a great vacation. If you care to see some of the pictures of the excursions

 

Honeymoon Vacation Pics

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/eds0mf6vmfzqven/Nag3E-u_BG

[Pyrofish]

A couple of tips to go with all of that...

 

If you plan to have sailing guests, try to find out prior to booking your room. They may give you a discount for a wedding block. After I booked I asked about discounts for our guests, they told me sorry-for-your-luck. Not sure on other lines.

 

Carnival sent us, that evening, 2 champagne flutes, a bottle of champagne, chocolate covered strawberries, and the cake topper from our cake.

 

Start all of this well in advance. 3 months is not quite enough time.

[4EverHis2013]

Thank you so much for sharing your review!! Glad to hear it all went well for you and your wife :) Your pictures look lovely and you both look so happy. Your link to your posed photos doesn't seem to be working for me for some reason though...the page opens but the pictures won't load. Could just be my silly computer at work.

[Pyrofish]

It might be my album. I think it changed along the way. This one should work.

Posed Wedding Photos

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kqyy46srr30wsno/lZ25lQNK4P

Edited March 28, 2013 by Pyrofish

[lyna89]

Thank you so much for your detailed review and ceremony/reception pictures! Glad you and your wife had a great time; the pictures look like it was fun! You're a beautiful couple and congratulations!

[lazydayz]

Great review. Thanks for sharing. Was Joyce your TWE wedding coordinator?

[msargeant]

Great review nice to get the view from the husband. I really did like you pics wishing you all the happiness in the world.

 

So, it seems like mostly brides on here... My bride isn't into the review thing, and I like to spread as much information as possible, so I, the groom, will tell it like it was. It was, btw, very nicely done and we are very happy!

 

From the get-go, I was surprised at the pricing structure. From the research, it seemed that Carnival had the most flexible packages. They start low and entice you into options after that. We wanted the Deluxe Romance package but were told it wasn't available for the port/ship/months we were open to. We thought that meant someone else had it, but I now believe it's not offered in Tampa. There would have been no time for a second hour of Reception.

 

So we purchased the Welcome Aboard Package, for ~$1700 with the assurance that we'd be charged for the options later.

 

What happens between the booking and the sailing:

1. You will need to invite your non-sailing guests with a special RSVP request. You will need their full name, Birthdate, and Driver's License number. This is like pulling teeth for some folks. They read the date and say, sure I'll come, and neglect to read the rest of the invite. It is vitally important to have this information 2 weeks prior to sailing... you will have to badger some of your guests for this...

 

2. There is a mountain of options and forms. Fortunately, the people at the wedding experience and Carnival wedding will walk you through most of them. They won't know the location of the ceremony or the reception until the week prior to your date.

 

3. Start a gift registry, and make sure it is perfectly clear that guests can't bring gifts on board. They can bring envelopes & gift cards, but not actual gifts. This is a strange idea to some of your guests and may have to be repeated. We had ours shipped to my office in case anything came in while we were gone.

 

4. Music: We spent a good bit of time picking our songs for the CD for the wedding and reception. We figured we needed at least 80 minutes of music... not. We put all of our music on a CD, which didn't work on their CD player. It worked fine on our computer, but computers have better lasers... regardless we would have been stuck had my lovely wife not made me load the playlist to her iPhone the night before. Have a back up plan for the music. As far as amount of music, you need the ceremony music, the first dance, and a few more. However, some of your time in the reception is taken up with introduction, cake cutting, thanking the guests, toasts, signing the license. You'll get about 5 songs other than the ones mentioned above. One of ours was Wobble, my DW made them play it twice so they could get out and dance. Despite the lot not knowing how to do it, entertainment director Bruce got out there and led the way, Wobble baby wobble baby :p But I'm getting ahead of myself...

 

Options: We went easy on the options. The more you pack into your ceremony, the less time you'll have at the reception. They say it's an hour reception, but it's not. It's whatever time is left from the end of the ceremony till the muster drill is about to be called. If you fill that time with announcements, dances, sand ceremony, prayers, etc, all take time away from hanging out with your guests at the end. The Reception time flies by! We went with no wedding party, my wife's niece demanded she be a flower girl, so that was that... and everything else as simple as it could get. We did a first dance, but only for about 20 seconds before the DJ asked everyone else to jump in. You really want the extra time with your people.

 

Additional Food: After waiting for 2 hours in the VIP lounge prior to boarding, your guests will want some grub, or coffee at the least. We did purchase the Lido buffet for everyone, and it was well worth it. Everyone went from waiting mode, to, let's have some fun! Seriously, you could feel the smiles as they discovered the Cruise buffet. This is especially helpful for guests with kids, and it offers everyone a place to sit and hang out while they wait for the ceremony time.

 

Hotel: No matter what the hotel tells you, many of the hotels in the Tampa area offer Cruise shuttles and cruise parking. Shop around. We almost booked the Quality Inn, and I sort of wish we had. They had blocks for $110 for that weekend. They do not, however, have a bar/restaurant onsite. My wife's aunt and her boyfriend are a little ill, and don't get around very well. They wanted a hotel with a bar and food onsite. So we checked around and found the Sheraton Riverwalk at $130/room with mandatory valet parking. Minutes from the cruise terminal, unless you're waiting for the shuttle... Anyway, they offer reduced price parking for the week if you're on a cruise. That said, the service was terrible, the food was sub par, the bar was sub par, and the rooms could use an upgrade out the 80's, the decade the carpet appeared to have been installed in. So yeah, I wouldn't recommend it. They did pick us up from the port so we could get our vehicles from their garage at the end of the cruise. If you choose this option, please remember to prepay while checking out.

 

Description of the Day of:

You'll need to get your hair and makeup done at the hotel. Make sure you have a reliable friend for this, it's early. Make sure you have help to carry everything. Your checked baggage will not be available in your room, ours wasn't. We still had a garment bag, 2 carry-ons, and a wedding dress. That dang dress is heavy ladies, get someone tall to carry it.

 

You need to be at the terminal by 10AM, or at least that's what we told our people. 10:30 is supposed to be the cutoff. We were there at 9:30, and I think everyone made it in just fine. When you arrive there will be a sign for weddings and VIP members. You'll see a few people with clipboards, they are probably your wedding organizers. Insanely helpful people from here on out. Once you get to them, your day will start to get easier :D

 

Your non-sailing guests will be given badges at check-in, and sailing guests will be given a sticker. You will have to wait in a boarding line with other sailing guests, but it's a short line and moves quickly. Don't sweat it, there's a ton of waiting after this... Once through, you head to the VIP Lounge... well, a seating area behind the ticket desk that holds all of the advanced boarding people. Wedding parties get to board first, yay, aren't we special? They do this because the time constraints are tight. Anyway, the lounge. If your guests did not eat breakfast, this area provides 2 or 3 soda machines... you will be here from about 10:30 AM till 11:30 at the earliest.

 

During this time, your wedding coordinator will pull you aside and go over everything, and I do mean everything. They will want the music, copies of the brides vows if your doing own, which pictures you want set up, which tracks on the CD play when, what order things happen in. Then the Officiant sits with you and goes through what they are doing. Adding or reducing their script as you see fit. Your coordinator will also have a stack of handouts for your guests that tell them what/when/where to be during the next several hours. We did that on our own, but they had already taken care of it.

 

Once you board, hopefully early, the coordinator will take you to your room and possibly introduce you to the photographer. The photographer will tell you when he'll be back for some pictures in the room. Once they leave, you can b-line for deck 9 and get some food and down some water, watch your guests as they discover the dessert buffet ;) You still need to be quick though:

 

We boarded at 11:30

11:45 In our room

11:55 Eating at deck 9

12:45 Photographer was coming back for photos...

1:15 Groom to the Ceremony room for a run through

1:20 Guests are asked to be in the room (they've had 1 and half hours to eat, explore, and hang out, so they will probably be there before)

1:30 Bride enters

2 PM Head to reception room

2:50 Start saying bye-bye

3 PM Last guests should be gone

 

Our ceremony was in the Firebird lounge, which had great seats for our people. Cushioned, stadium style couches. The flower girl was permitted to drop flower petals as long as someone picked them up on the way out. Everything went very smoothly, my DW almost couldn't read her vows, but she got hold of herself. Afterward, the photographer did his thing with the whole group. Then he called up the family for the family shots.

 

Ceremony and Reception pics

https://www.dropbox.com/l/eybPj4wlURN5P9852YqIUd

 

Everyone was sent to deck 2 Satchmo's where the appetizers and open bar were in full swing. We entered afterward, and were announced. Then the champagne, the cake cutting, and a toast. Then a brief break in the action. They kind of call you toward what needs to be done.

 

The food was better than I expected and they even had chicken nuggets for the kids. There were servers and bar tenders, slinging blue and red drinks, beers and other mixes. It was really nice. And just like that, everyone was saying good bye. It was definitely too short... but, they all seemed to enjoy it, and it was nice to not have anything to clean up, or inlaws to listen to, or over zealous partiers falling about. 2 hours would have been better though.

 

Then you head to the Muster drill, still in your ceremonial garb. By this time, your feet might be killing you. If so, find a comfy chair and sit immediately, as it's not over. The photographer will seek you out. You'll be easy to spot, the wedding dress is a dead give away. I think we sat for about 15 minutes. Next up is the posed pictures... My friends, we told Carnival we didn't want their pictures, we didn't order a picture package, we weren't even sure we wanted to go with the photographer... just do it. Even if you don't buy them, these folks work magic with their cameras. For the next hour or so, you'll be put in odd feeling positions and posed together in odd places. It's worth it.

 

I wish we had planned on buying the dang pictures though. We were fortunate in that they gave us a break. The whole week we wondered, what will they look like, what will they cost? Wednesday, we got an invite in our cabin message bin, with a gorgeous black and white. My friends looked at it, and said "If the rest of the pics look like this, you're screwed..." and they were right. So we spent about $1600 on the coffee table book, all the pictures, and the DVD with all the pictures and the copyright. That was the negotiated price... As plump people, having glamour shots on your special day is pretty cool :rolleyes:

 

Posed Wedding Pics

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kqyy46srr30wsno/lZ25lQNK4P

 

I would highly recommend it when all is said and done. We spent about $3000 on the wedding/guests/buffet/tux and another $1600 on the pictures, which with enough will power we could have left. The Cruise of course, is another expense in itself, and was a great vacation. If you care to see some of the pictures of the excursions

 

Honeymoon Vacation Pics

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/eds0mf6vmfzqven/Nag3E-u_BG

[CruiserBren]

Great review and LOVED your pictures!!

[lightskinedgyal]

Awesome review!

[2013CruiseBride]

Thanks so much for the review!! And your pictures are lovely!! We are getting married on the Paradise leaving from Tampa, but we chose to not have the wedding at embarkation, but on the ship while it is in Grand Cayman. It did mean our guests HAVE to sail with us, but I'mhoping that it will still go off without a hitch.

 

Congratulations to you and your beautiful wife!

[Twin A]

Thanks for this detailed review! It's chock full of useful info and great tips!

 

And congrats to you and your wife!

 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

[fldogmassage]

Thank you so much. You have posted what I have never seen and have been looking for. Even though I am getting married on another line. I think it will be about the same.

[Shatima]

You Better Wobble (That's my jam, and its the best work out song ever, lol)!!!! lololol I LOVE it... I can't tell U, how happy I am to see A MAN doa review and to get UR point, true feelings, tips, idea, and pix... U are the BOMB, and SO was this Review and PIx,, I have to tell U this, UR Pix were So Clear, I think it made my top 3 pix.. (Having Clear Imanges are EVERYTHING TO ME, and that the biggest thing for me :) Again Congrats and may GOD bless You and Your Wife...

 

Wobble bay Wobble baby :)

[banditbabe01]

Thank you for the review - not only was your wedding gorgeous, your honeymoon looked amazing. Would you mind sharing which excursions you took in which ports? The monkeys and seal got my attention!! How fun!

[jaxie001]

Congratulations and thank you so much for sharing, beautiful pictures!!

[Versace12]

Thank you for such a detailed & informative post. I Love the pictures, I have been searching for a review like yours. We are getting married on the Legend in Oct & I was worried about what it will look like in Pictures.

 

I have 2 questions, I know Satchmos is a smoking lounge...Did it smell smoky in there?? I went for a walk thru & it was very smoky, I have asthma & allergies to smoke. They said they would clean it with an ozone cleaner, but I'm wondering how well that works.

 

2nd- do you have to bring an aisle runner for the ceremony or did they provide that?

 

Thank you in advance. :)

[Pyrofish]

It's been a while since I checked back here. CC only emailed me the latest reply. I'm glad everyone could gain some insight from what I posted. We didn't know half that stuff when we started, even after reading here for a while.

 

I'll start backwards first: Satchmos was very clean and not a hint of smoke that I could smell. I don't remember smelling anything onboard except food ;)

 

They had the runner and any decoration you see. We brought my wife's dress, her jewelry, and makeup. Everything else came with the package.

 

If you plan to do the Wobble, ask them to get the entertainment director nearby. Those guys/gals lead groups doing the Wobble about 10 times a week. Once Bruce got on the floor he made the rest of the ladies feel comfortable enough to get out there and have fun.

 

I'll do excursions below.

[Pyrofish]

Excursions:

First Port:

The Sealions were VERY cool. This was at Chankanaab in Cozumel. We took a cab to Chankanaab with no real plans except to check out the Eco-park and snorkel. Don't worry about being first off the ship, they don't open till 2 hours later, (Coz time vs ship time). There was a kiosk up front with someone selling animal experiences. Dolphins and manatees we see alot of here in Florida, and the price seemed steep. The Sealions however, were only $59/each and that included snorkel rental, entry into the park, and a locker for your stuff. There was some confusion when we entered though, and we didn't get our snorkel rental. We could have had we waited, but we decided to walk the natural part of the park as the animal experiences don't happen to 11 Coz Time.

 

The park was nice, interesting trees, interesting replica ruins. We got to the end and my wife saw a massage place on the beach. She opted for the hour massage ($60 IIRC), and I opted to massage my bottom into one of the beach chairs with a margarita or 5.

 

We headed back to the entrance for the Sealions, there's a show we missed in our relaxation mode, c'est la vie, and were directed to a waiting area. When you entered that morning they gave you a wrist band indicating which, if any, experience you had chosen. With about 10 minutes, the Sea lion trainers showed up and scooped up the 4 of us with that color wrist band. They put us in life jackets and began talking sealions and explaining what we would be doing.

 

You start off in the tank up to your chest. The trainer brings out a teenage Sealion and tells you about him/her. They do some tricks, and he tells you to put your hands straight out above the water, palms down. He gives the command and the sealion starts doing swim-bys letting you touch as she goes by. Then the trainer commands stop and she stays there for you feel the flippers and the like. Very cool, it's soft hair, not fur. Next up, you get up on the stage and they continue the learning part. You do a trick with a ball. Then comes the kiss. You lean in, the sealion gives you a smooch on the cheek, which is when you discover sealions have a plush-soft nose with bristly whiskers. Then, if you want, turn your head and kiss the nose. If she feels your lips on her nose she sticks her tongue out at your chin level. Very cute! Next up was the juvenile of the bunch. He didn't listen very well and just wanted to play. You hold a hoop and he'll jump through it while swimming VERY fast.

 

The entire time, a park employee is snapping off photos. That's where they get you, as it seems all places like to get you there. Later, you head into the shop and find out how bad they plan to decimate your wallet. That's why you only see one photo of the Sealion smooch. They wanted $30/each for the pictures, or $120 for a CD. No thanks! It was a great experience though, and I highly recommend it. It's a bummer to not get the pics, but we got so many from elsewhere, we didn't need them.

[Shatima]

WELL WELCOME BACK :) LOL THANKS FOR THE HEADS UP, i WILL SEEE IF HE IS OPEN.. bUT PLEASE TRUST ME, MY GROUP HAS NO PROBLEM GETTING ON THE FLOOR FOR THAT ONE, BUT I DO UNDERSTAND WHAT U ARE SAYING, HAVING THEM START IT OFF OR AND TELLING U HOW TO DO IT MAKES OTHERS FEEL AT EASY :)

 

 

 

 

It's been a while since I checked back here. CC only emailed me the latest reply. I'm glad everyone could gain some insight from what I posted. We didn't know half that stuff when we started, even after reading here for a while.

 

I'll start backwards first: Satchmos was very clean and not a hint of smoke that I could smell. I don't remember smelling anything onboard except food ;)

 

They had the runner and any decoration you see. We brought my wife's dress, her jewelry, and makeup. Everything else came with the package.

 

If you plan to do the Wobble, ask them to get the entertainment director nearby. Those guys/gals lead groups doing the Wobble about 10 times a week. Once Bruce got on the floor he made the rest of the ladies feel comfortable enough to get out there and have fun.

 

I'll do excursions below.

[Pyrofish]

Excursion Day 2: Belize

This was supposed to be a Tasting tour... it was canceled, only no one told us. Coral Breeze tours just kind of blew it off. We waited in the bar per their instructions, and I ended up asking someone hawking tours outside the bar if they knew why our guide was an hour late. That's a long story, they gave us free rum punches until they work out that THEY were supposed to that tour, but their van was broken... and they could get us in another van, well, Belize city tour is nothing to write home about. I would not recommend the Tasting Tour. Most folks I've read here say there's was canceled also...

 

Excursion Day 3: Roatan

 

Wow what a day! We booked a freestyle tour through Ronys Tours. We are ecstatic with how that went! It's a 15 minute or so walk to get to where they allow the taxis to sit. There was our driver Angel with a sign. We told Angel we wanted to visit monkey, snorkel, and do the glass bottom boat. Please show us around in such a way that we get back on time.

 

Angel started by saying, If you want more than monkeys, I highly recommend the butterfly farm instead of the monkey farm. As a manly man, the butterfly farm wasn't even on my radar :rolleyes: Angel was right and in spades! After a quick stop on a mountain top overlooking the island, and some non-cruise-vendors, we pulled into the butterfly farm. We were introduced to our tour guide Jorge. Within minutes, we were holding a baby howler monkey, the black one you see in the pictures. We thought we were going to have to give it back before we walked into the butterfly part of the farm, nope, you keep it for a while?!?! Nice! The little girl Howler was so dang cute. We took turns holding her while Jorge explained the intricacies of butterfly farming. We enjoyed it thoroughly.

 

Then we exited the butterfly portion to go see the rest of the place. There were 2 capuchin's running around, 1 of them was very jealous of the little howler and jumping all over us. Jorge fed him and shoo'ed him away. We checked out toucans, deer, racoons, and then ran into another small group and swapped babies. The guide took the howler, and handed us baby lemur. They called it a golden money, or a lion monkey, but it was a lemur. She yawned and a several inch long tongue popped out, which illicited many Awwwwwe...s Definitely better than the Monkey Farm, which I will get into later.

 

Next stop, Half Moon Bay for glass bottom boat, lunch, and snorkeling. The glass bottom boat was very cool. They took us a good way out and over some nice ledges maybe in the 40' range. We were the only 2 onboard, so they sent down a guy to to tell us what we were looking at. I'm a diver, not on this trip, but usually, so it became a competition between him and me to spot and say each fish when it popped up. It was AC'd and there tons of fish. We ate lunch here as well, which was just OK. The service was incredibly slow. SO slow in fact, that we ended not having time to snorkel...

 

We did have time to hit the other Monkey Farm though. So we asked Angel to if that was possible and he said absolutely. This place felt rushed. The animals didn't look happy, and the guide was kind of a jerk. Turns out, he was Victor Boden's brother. The animals here will jump down on your should while he feeds them a few seeds, you cannot touch them. The tour was quick, maybe 10 minutes. The Macaw in the picture came at me talons first and left my cheek bloody, our guide just giggled. Had that happened to my wife, it wouldn't have been so easily dismissed...

 

Anyway, I highly recommend Rony's, the Butterfly farm, and the glass bottom boat. All very cool!

[Pyrofish]

After Roatan, is just Costa Maya. I'm not sure what you can do here besides party and shop. Though the Lion cub picture was taken here. The policeman assured us that the price of the picture was going to a Mexico City big cat preserve. We have mixed feelings about that pic. That cub was in a crib all day and obviously not very happy. Hopefully it had good evenings. There's no beach here in Costa Maya that I could see. We did the tourist thing, then took a bus to the promise of less touristy-digs at Mahual... there's a beach here, sure, but it's still pretty darn touristy. Unless you absolutely must get in the ocean, I would have just stayed at the Sr Frogs in the port. Sounded like a pretty wild time. Mahual was much calmer, and relaxing, but it was still a Sr Frogs they took you to.

 

All in all, this was a fantastic trip. We really enjoyed the ship and the ports of call. We did the chef's table one night, which I thought was MORE than worth the $75. If you even consider yourself a foodie, this is an experience not to be missed. Then for a free tasting from the same chef, catch the cooking demo in the steakhouse, which was followed on our cruise by a wine pairing seminar for $15.

 

This was our first cruise... we're already talking about our next :D

[lightskinedgyal]

Hey!

 

 

I just reading your review again and saw that your reception was only one hour long did you mind that you paid for an hour and half? Did your wedding start late for some reason?

[Pyrofish]

Hey!

 

 

I just reading your review again and saw that your reception was only one hour long did you mind that you paid for an hour and half? Did your wedding start late for some reason?

 

We wanted the longer one, but only the "Welcome Aboard" package was available. That only includes the 1 hour reception, so that's what we paid for. We actually boarded on time, and while we had a little time to eat a quick lunch, we were moving at a pretty quick pace to get to the ceremony. Given the timing we experienced, I'm not sure the deluxe romance is even an option at Port Tampa. We could have squeezed it in, but had we been 10 minutes later boarding, it would have been a mad rush getting ready. As it was, it was a good pace.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[tinkerbell_82]

Thank you so much for this detailed report PyroFish. It really helped me get a feel for how things should go on the big day. The details were awesome!