A Royal Wedding? Unable to book.

[helloxxannie]

Hi all, 

I met my fiance on a Royal Caribbean cruise a few years ago and we always thought it would be amazing if we got married on one. 

 

Obviously with ever-changing things with the pandemic, we are pretty flexible and we were thinking of trying for one a year for now in January 2023. 

 

I inquired with royal weddings today and they mentioned that they are not booking any new weddings until further notice. 

 

Has anyone booked or had their wedding on RC recently? I'd love to know your experience, or any advice if I should just wait it out or forget the idea in general. 

 

Any other wedding advice for Royal Caribbean would be appreciated as well! 

[D4]

I don’t have any helpful information, but your love story sounds like a feel good movie! ❤️
 

Please tell us more … How/where did you meet on the ship?  Did you then have a long distance romance?

 

I wish you both the best!

[cruise1957]

Can't speak about a "wedding", but my daughter was supposed to get married at a stop in St. Thomas a few years ago. One medical emergency later, stop in St. Thomas was skipped, so no wedding.

 

We asked about a ceremony on the ship, not possible without advance planning, but they did do a non-legal commitment ceremony, which was absolutely fantastic, she got to wear her dress, they provided beautiful flowers, had a photographer and the photo ms were stunning, they took them all over the ship to take the photos. There was hors d'oevures, Champagne and cake for a "reception".  Everything was great.

 

My husband had gotten ordained a few years earlier to perform a marriage ceremony for friends, so when we got home they got a license a when we were together for Thanksgiving a few months later, they said I do in between dinner and dessert.

 

Best wishes for whatever you plan to do.

Edited January 12, 2022 by cruise1957
add info

[Ourusualbeach]

20 hours ago, helloxxannie said:

Hi all, 

I met my fiance on a Royal Caribbean cruise a few years ago and we always thought it would be amazing if we got married on one. 

 

Obviously with ever-changing things with the pandemic, we are pretty flexible and we were thinking of trying for one a year for now in January 2023. 

 

I inquired with royal weddings today and they mentioned that they are not booking any new weddings until further notice. 

 

Has anyone booked or had their wedding on RC recently? I'd love to know your experience, or any advice if I should just wait it out or forget the idea in general. 

 

Any other wedding advice for Royal Caribbean would be appreciated as well! 

The weddings department received notification first thing yesterday morning instructing them to cease all wedding and vow renewal bookings.

 

I had just talked to them on Monday and received a whole bunch of information that I passed on to clients who called Tuesday when we found out about the change.

 

They are not able to provide ,many of the services promised and so as not to disappoint guests they have put a hold on all weddings.

 

I suggested to my client to look at doing a vow renewal on one of the islands and then celebrating with a specialty restaurant for their small group.

[helloxxannie]

16 hours ago, cruise1957 said:

Can't speak about a "wedding", but my daughter was supposed to get married at a stop in St. Thomas a few years ago. One medical emergency later, stop in St. Thomas was skipped, so no wedding.

 

We asked about a ceremony on the ship, not possible without advance planning, but they did do a non-legal commitment ceremony, which was absolutely fantastic, she got to wear her dress, they provided beautiful flowers, had a photographer and the photo ms were stunning, they took them all over the ship to take the photos. There was hors d'oevures, Champagne and cake for a "reception".  Everything was great.

 

My husband had gotten ordained a few years earlier to perform a marriage ceremony for friends, so when we got home they got a license a when we were together for Thanksgiving a few months later, they said I do in between dinner and dessert.

 

Best wishes for whatever you plan to do.

That sounds so beautiful, and a great way to make the best of a situation out of your control! Thanks so much for sharing this, glad to hear they were able to accommodate something despite skipping the port

[helloxxannie]

16 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

The weddings department received notification first thing yesterday morning instructing them to cease all wedding and vow renewal bookings.

 

I had just talked to them on Monday and received a whole bunch of information that I passed on to clients who called Tuesday when we found out about the change.

 

They are not able to provide ,many of the services promised and so as not to disappoint guests they have put a hold on all weddings.

 

I suggested to my client to look at doing a vow renewal on one of the islands and then celebrating with a specialty restaurant for their small group.

Thanks so much for your insight, as disappointed as I am, it does make sense that they'd rather hold on weddings while they figure everything out. I think I will wait it out a month or two before finding a plan B. 

 

Did they have been to provide you with any insight on how long they'll be holding off for?

[Ourusualbeach]

1 minute ago, helloxxannie said:

Thanks so much for your insight, as disappointed as I am, it does make sense that they'd rather hold on weddings while they figure everything out. I think I will wait it out a month or two before finding a plan B. 

 

Did they have been to provide you with any insight on how long they'll be holding off for?

Given that they are not even taking any bookings for 2023 sailings I'm guessing that it may be a while.  They may also be re evaluating what they will offer with the packages and perhaps come out with a scaled down version that they can confidently offer.

[cruise1957]

2 hours ago, helloxxannie said:

That sounds so beautiful, and a great way to make the best of a situation out of your control! Thanks so much for sharing this, glad to hear they were able to accommodate something despite skipping the port

She was devastated at first, but she was really happy with how it all worked out. Now of course it's all good, the celebrate 2 anniversaries one in July and one in November, and of course it's a great story that we can now laugh about.

[Ktrvlr]

On 1/12/2022 at 4:43 PM, Ourusualbeach said:

The weddings department received notification first thing yesterday morning instructing them to cease all wedding and vow renewal bookings.

 

I had just talked to them on Monday and received a whole bunch of information that I passed on to clients who called Tuesday when we found out about the change.

 

They are not able to provide ,many of the services promised and so as not to disappoint guests they have put a hold on all weddings.

 

I suggested to my client to look at doing a vow renewal on one of the islands and then celebrating with a specialty restaurant for their small group.

Can you please share a bit more?  I’m supposed to be getting married in April and I called yesterday and nothing was mentioned about any changes. The woman was very obviously distracted by something else while on the phone with me but said a coordinator would be assigned to me very soon. What type of services are they not able to provide right now? We aren’t very particular about little details but would still like to get married on the ship. 

[Ourusualbeach]

5 minutes ago, Ktrvlr said:

Can you please share a bit more?  I’m supposed to be getting married in April and I called yesterday and nothing was mentioned about any changes. The woman was very obviously distracted by something else while on the phone with me but said a coordinator would be assigned to me very soon. What type of services are they not able to provide right now? We aren’t very particular about little details but would still like to get married on the ship. 

Unfortunately there is nothing more to share.  They are not booking any new weddings and they do not know when they will be starting back up. 

 

I got know how they are handling current weddings.  I would be asking very specific questions to your Co ordinator about every detail. 

 

Edited January 14, 2022 by Ourusualbeach

[Ktrvlr]

1 minute ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Unfortunately there is nothing more to share.  They are not booking any new weddings and they do not know when they will be starting back up. 

 

I'm surprised they told you that about the Co ordinator.  Co ordinators are not assigned until 90 days prior to the sailing. 

My wedding has been booked for over a year. I’m now within the 90 days. She said one would be assigned within a week. I guess we shall see. Fingers crossed!

[Ourusualbeach]

Just now, Ktrvlr said:

My wedding has been booked for over a year. I’m now within the 90 days. She said one would be assigned within a week. I guess we shall see. Fingers crossed!

I just saw that and edited my post. 

[wellsme1]

It sounds like the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Long story short. I booked a small wedding on Allure back in 2011 for a 2012 ceremony on embarking day.

There was next to no communication for months from the outsourced wedding department despite my frequent request for answers to my numerous questions.

I was finally contacted about a month before the wedding to go over the details.

Final outcome was that early boarding didn’t happen, we were very rushed, I didn’t have time to shower and shave (good thing I showered before leaving the hotel) suspenders and cummerbund missing from the supplied tuxedo. 
The ceremony and reception turned out okay and we’re still happily married, but as far as communication goes, it was lacking, big time.

Fast forward to three months ago.

I’m planning a surprise (my wife doesn’t know, so keep it quiet) 10th Anniversary vow renewal on Adventure this November.

I called Royal Weddings twice (here we go again) before someone got back to me.

 I told them about my past experience (lack of communication, etc.) and was assured that a different outsourced company was now doing Royal’s weddings. 
Even after being apprehensive, I still decided to sign the contract and send the deposit, but you can bet I’ll going to be on top of things.

Best of luck.

 

 

 

Edited January 14, 2022 by wellsme1

[John&LaLa]

On 1/12/2022 at 4:43 PM, Ourusualbeach said:

The weddings department received notification first thing yesterday morning instructing them to cease all wedding and vow renewal bookings.

 

I had just talked to them on Monday and received a whole bunch of information that I passed on to clients who called Tuesday when we found out about the change.

 

They are not able to provide ,many of the services promised and so as not to disappoint guests they have put a hold on all weddings.

 

I suggested to my client to look at doing a vow renewal on one of the islands and then celebrating with a specialty restaurant for their small group.

 

Uh oh.

 

What if it was already booked?

[wellsme1]

2 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Uh oh.

 

What if it was already booked?

I’m on Allure now and tomorrow I’m going to see what I can find out.

[Ourusualbeach]

4 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Uh oh.

 

What if it was already booked?

Sounds like they are trying to do the best they can.  Given that it was just stopped it sounds like it is a reaction to the most recent changes due to Omicron and that they had been operating somewhat normally prior to this.  

[helloxxannie]

I received a new update today from their company, guess I'll have to look for a plan B! This was from Royal Ocean Events.