Vow Renewal on Epic $499

[cruiseyesplease!]

Has anyone here had a vow renewal while on a cruise before? I was quoted $499 and thought that was a bit expensive. They call it a "Private Vow Renewal". I wasn't given any other options and was wondering if there is anything less expensive? It will be just me and my DH, no guests. Any thoughts or suggestions?

[david_sobe]

What do you get for $499. Its hard to say if its worth it if there is no offerings ;)

 

I would hope to see something like:

Dinner for 2 at Cagneys with a bottle of wine

A couples massage at the spa

Small cake

And vow renewal ceremony

[cruiseyesplease!]

What do you get for $499. Its hard to say if its worth it if there is no offerings ;)

 

I would hope to see something like:

Dinner for 2 at Cagneys with a bottle of wine

A couples massage at the spa

Small cake

And vow renewal ceremony

 

 

 

Email states:

Bottle of sparkling wine, chocolate covered strawberries & canapés in stateroom

Vow ceremony performed by a ship officer

Ceremony music

One single red rose

Couples cake

Champagne toast

Keepsake vow renewal certificate

8x10 professional portrait in engraved frame

[conandrob240]

Sounds pretty standard for a destination vow renewal. Vow renewals are expensive. If you'd like a laugh, look at Disney cruiselines packages- $1000s of $ for basic ceremony.

[LorraineP]

We are celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary. I looked into it also but was not worth it for us. First when I called the lady said the price was $599 that it was the current pricing and the one on the website was the old pricing. After a few emails back and forth, I told her for the price it was not worth it. She then said they would honor the $499. We will be in the Haven and we already get champage, a bouquet of flowers (not just a rose), chocolate covered strawberries and canapés every day. I just wanted the vow renewal by an officer. Waiting until we get on ship and see what the concierge can do.

[david_sobe]

Email states:

Bottle of sparkling wine, chocolate covered strawberries & canapés in stateroom

Vow ceremony performed by a ship officer

Ceremony music

One single red rose

Couples cake

Champagne toast

Keepsake vow renewal certificate

8x10 professional portrait in engraved frame

I would say its borderline worth it. They charge for playing music? funny!

If they threw in a nice dinner at Le Bistro or Cagneys, it would be worth it IMHO.

Remember that everything at sea is more expensive than on land. The only thing of value is the engraved frame with the photo. That would be very nice and very memorable! The bottle of sparkling wine worth about $7, the strawberries $10, the cake $20, one flower $5.00. Having the experience on the ship? Is that worth the extra? I would say it depends on the person. I would say go for it but I still think a nice dinner is appropriate ;)

[LrgPizza]

Wow. That's more than I paid for my real wedding, since my dh and I eloped at the Courthouse. No way would I pay that. That said, if the ceremony of the whole thing is important to you, that would be kind of a cool way to do it.

[Merriem]

First of all once is enough, and like the previous poster said and I second, our wedding 46 years ago cost less.

[Dblack87]

We did the $499 vow renewal on the Breakaway in August. We did it as our wedding, and brought in our own officiant. We checked on a few other cruise line prices, and found NCL to be pretty reasonable. They don't mention in the email that they actually provide a photographer for the event as well. On other lines they charge extra for this. You have to pay for the photos, but you get 1 free, so it's usually pretty good.

[LorraineP]

We did the $499 vow renewal on the Breakaway in August. We did it as our wedding, and brought in our own officiant. We checked on a few other cruise line prices, and found NCL to be pretty reasonable. They don't mention in the email that they actually provide a photographer for the event as well. On other lines they charge extra for this. You have to pay for the photos, but you get 1 free, so it's usually pretty good.

 

We will be on the Breakaway in June. So many questions for you:

Where was the ceremony held, what kind of music, how long was the ceremony, how many pictures did they take? Personally would you think it worth it for us being that we are in the Haven, as explained in an above post that we get quite a few items included in package already? Thank you for your time answering.

[lfk60]

We just did this on the Getaway last month. They set it up in Moderno, along the aft of the ship. There was a columned arch with flower arrangements on top, a side table with the cake and champagne.

 

It was just DH and I, but they set up rows of chairs to form an aisle, which was a little weird with no one sitting there...lol..

 

The officer that performed the ceremony was very sweet, but struggled with reading the vows.

 

I had a playlist on my iPod, and they were able to set that up for us.

 

The photographer was great! He took lots of pictures during the renewal, and then set up pictures with the champagne, cake cutting, and even offered to take us around the ship and take shots at various locations, which we did. We were able to chose the 8x10 we wanted, and it was put in a wooden frame engraved with the ship name.

 

We also purchased other photos at a slightly reduced price, but not at 'bundle' price you can get for regular photos.

 

While I thought it was a bit overpriced, our objective was to celebrate our 25th anniversary by renewing our vows at sea, so mission accomplished!

 

The staff was lovely and made us feel very special and we have great memories of saying 'I do' again with the sea as our beautiful backdrop!

 

We then went to Cagney's on our own! :)

[LorraineP]

Sounds so nice. You have me thinking once again maybe I should just do it and forget about the price.

[Annmeat]

Sounds so nice. You have me thinking once again maybe I should just do it and forget about the price.

 

Congratulations on your 50 years. You should do it if you have even the slightest inclination. Regret stinks!,,,and You will have an awesome memory. I wouldn't count on the concierge being able to arrange an officiant , but I know that when you get back to your suite you will find lots of surprises.

 

My husband celebrated his 50 th birthday on Getaway and it was spectacular.

They even made a 3 tier wedding style cake out of towels and decorated with flowers for our nightly " animal".

[LorraineP]

We just did this on the Getaway last month. They set it up in Moderno, along the aft of the ship. There was a columned arch with flower arrangements on top, a side table with the cake and champagne.

 

It was just DH and I, but they set up rows of chairs to form an aisle, which was a little weird with no one sitting there...lol..

 

The officer that performed the ceremony was very sweet, but struggled with reading the vows.

 

I had a playlist on my iPod, and they were able to set that up for us.

 

The photographer was great! He took lots of pictures during the renewal, and then set up pictures with the champagne, cake cutting, and even offered to take us around the ship and take shots at various locations, which we did. We were able to chose the 8x10 we wanted, and it was put in a wooden frame engraved with the ship name.

 

We also purchased other photos at a slightly reduced price, but not at 'bundle' price you can get for regular photos.

 

While I thought it was a bit overpriced, our objective was to celebrate our 25th anniversary by renewing our vows at sea, so mission accomplished!

 

The staff was lovely and made us feel very special and we have great memories of saying 'I do' again with the sea as our beautiful backdrop!

 

We then went to Cagney's on our own! :)

 

Any pictures you're willing to share. I can give you my email if you don't want to post here.

[maggieworkman]

Can you have people attend or does that cost extra (i.e. bump it up to a different package)?

 

Thanks,

Maggie

[lfk60]

Can you have people attend or does that cost extra (i.e. bump it up to a different package)?

 

Thanks,

Maggie

 

You can have people attend for no extra charge, unless you wanted more than the 1 hour they provide and/or more than cake and champagne.

 

They really do a nice job!

 

We were in the Haven, and when our butler realized it was our anniversary, she decorated our room that night with towel swans, rose petals and balloons.

[LorraineP]

Well we decided to do it. Thank you all for your comments. Called and spoke with a coordinator. Now have to pick date and time and request it. Also they will check to see if we can do it on our son's Haven Penthouse wrap around balcony. There will be 6 of us altogether. So so excited.

[Dblack87]

We will be on the Breakaway in June. So many questions for you:

Where was the ceremony held, what kind of music, how long was the ceremony, how many pictures did they take? Personally would you think it worth it for us being that we are in the Haven, as explained in an above post that we get quite a few items included in package already? Thank you for your time answering.

 

Hi!

 

We requested to have the ceremony done in Fat Cats. They took pictures during the entire ceremony, and also pictures after the ceremony including cutting the cake. We also had a family member who was a professional photographer there, so we weren't that reliant on the ship photographer. We actually didn't know one would be provided until we got on the boat.

 

Whether it is worth it or not really depends on you. I think it is worth it if you want to have a private ceremony. The things we got that were included in the package didn't matter that much to us, it was about the experience. But, this was something we did in place of a large wedding ceremony on land, so while it was technically a vow renewal because we had gotten married before boarding the ship, it was really more like our wedding.

 

Also, you should get all of the things with the package twice, so if you like those things...then why not?!

[Imasima752]

I seriously thank cruiseyesplease! for starting this thread!!!

At first I thought no way, as like some others here, we eloped which cost us a lot less. But then I started thinking about my mom missing out on our original ceremony (we were supposed to have a big wedding afterwards but had to cancel) and how this year's cruise will probably be the last time she'll be able to travel with us, and suddenly it turned into being a great idea. My mom suggested we renew our vows a couple of years ago and our anniversary is less than two weeks before we sail, so why not surprise her on the Escape :D! Hoping the coordinator will get back to me tomorrow to schedule. I still have some of our original wedding invitations left so I think I will try to edit one with whatever date we get and then give it to my mom once we're on the ship or the day before the ceremony. I'm so excited and cannot wait to surprise her - I don't know how I'm going to keep this from her for the next 9 months! I only wish my wedding gown could still fit me as the only time I wore it was during my fittings, but that would take a miracle :eek:!

[cruiseyesplease!]

I seriously thank cruiseyesplease! for starting this thread!!!

At first I thought no way, as like some others here, we eloped which cost us a lot less. But then I started thinking about my mom missing out on our original ceremony (we were supposed to have a big wedding afterwards but had to cancel) and how this year's cruise will probably be the last time she'll be able to travel with us, and suddenly it turned into being a great idea. My mom suggested we renew our vows a couple of years ago and our anniversary is less than two weeks before we sail, so why not surprise her on the Escape :D! Hoping the coordinator will get back to me tomorrow to schedule. I still have some of our original wedding invitations left so I think I will try to edit one with whatever date we get and then give it to my mom once we're on the ship or the day before the ceremony. I'm so excited and cannot wait to surprise her - I don't know how I'm going to keep this from her for the next 9 months! I only wish my wedding gown could still fit me as the only time I wore it was during my fittings, but that would take a miracle :eek:!

 

 

 

You are welcome! You guys basically talked me out of it and now seeing your excitement I want to go ahead and go through with it!! LOL! I still have it reserved. I might just keep it :) Thanks for your newfound excitement!!

[3DBeach]

Thank you OP for this thread! Hubby and I want to renew our vows for our 10 year anniversary next year and never thought to do it on an NCL ship (we live in Hawaii so assumed we would do it here). Sounds way more fun to do on a ship :)

 

 

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[AlicanteMac]

Hi All! Interested in this thread as we plan a sort of VR next Feb on Epic. We are not doing the package as we (10 of us) have UBP and UDP. Am hoping to get a venue around 12.00 to 1.00 pm where we will provide some canapes for our friends before lunch in Taste. Hopefully near a bar so we can make the most of our UBP!

 

Waiting for NCL to get back to me re this.

 

Let me know how you all get on.

Karen

[piper45maru]

Here's a couple more threads about vow renewals, and one has pics.

 

Congrats on 50 years!

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2242934

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2216436

Edited September 28, 2015 by piper45maru

[xriva]

My wife and I renewed our vows on the Getaway on our 15th anniversary in February. The Captain did our ceremony because we had the deluxe package (which seems to have vanished.)

 

I'm glad we did it. I was trying to come up with something special for our anniversary and I assumed (correctly) that nobody in either family was going to go along no matter what we did - with the possible exception of one brother-in-law and sister-in-law, so I decided if we could have the ceremony on our exact anniversary on the ship, that would be fun. The Getaway happened to have an itinerary that fit the schedule.

 

It was fun. There were more NCL staff than guests, but it was a great party. The ceremony was short and sweet (because I wrote it), the staff was very helpful, and when else am I going to get the Captain of the ship to serve me and my wife champagne?

 

It was completely different from our wedding, which was on a schooner off Key West, but it had been fifteen years, so we needed a slightly larger boat!

 

Edited September 30, 2015 by xriva

[AlicanteMac]

Sounds lovely Xriva!