Princess Cruise Private Reception

[ckolish]

My fiance and I are planning to get married onboard the new Sky Princess in 2021. I've been told from Royal Ocean Events that they cannot confirm if we will be able to have a private 2 hour reception (with our own DJ, cake cutting, open bar, etc.) prior to booking. They said they request this of each ship, sometimes it is honored and sometimes it is not. If it is not, they would rope off an area of a public bar for all of our guests. We are expecting at least 50 people.

 

Has anyone else run into this and have any advice? I'm having trouble coming to terms with signing the contract without knowing if this will be available. We'll be spending a good chunk of change, I can't imagine not at least being able to cut our cake, have first dances/private toasts, and dance with our guests privately. Help please!! 😞 

[CruiseCrabs]

Hopefully, your wedding is still on track. I'm sure COVID has been an added pressure during planning. 

 

The third party vendor, Royal Oceans Events, was a bit of a nightmare nightmare for us. Why Princess doesn't handle wedding planning in-house is beyond me. They would not answer questions without a signed contract. Once signed, theey didn't offer many concrete answers and the package is largely one size fits all. Several questions and requests were answered by saying it was up to the ship and they would request but could not make guarantees, much like what you are hearning. Thankfully, our travel agent was very experienced with Princess (and they with her). She served as a central point of contact for guest reservations and was our advocate who worked directly with Princes to resolve Royal Ocean issues that did not make sense. In short, find a good travel agent who does a lot of group business with Princess. That person can both help your guests with reservations and can smooth over any Royal Ocean bumps that may arise. 

 

Keep in mind that a Princess staffer, not a Royal Oceans Weddings rep, will be your on-board coordinator. He or she will meet with you on embarkation day and will work with you to accomplish your goals, if possible. Ours was simply amazing.