willingham74

[Soon2bMrs]

Hi Mandy,
I've spoken to you before and I have a question about the catermeran that you rented at you wedding.
Who did you rent it from and how much?
My wedding is getting closer and I'm starting to get ideas. One is to have a mini reception back on the ship as we leave port, another was to have lunch on St. Thomas after the ceremony, but now I'm thinking a catermeran ride would be pretty cool.
Any ideas?

Thanks,
Kathy [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[MandyGirl]

Hey Kathy!! I'll be up in your neck of the woods - visiting Hershey this summer - flying into either BWI or PHL. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] Anyway...

Website: [url="http://www.adventurervi.com/"]http://www.adventurervi.com/[/url]
Originally spoke with Alyson there: [email]alison@adventurervi.com[/email]

We tentatively booked through her, but after we started using a wedding coordinator (all the 'what-ifs' running through my mind), it was all transferred through her - hence the additional 18% tacked on for wedding coordinator fee.
I don't know if costs have changed since then though... However, here is what they were for March 2003: For a 90-minute charter, this cost $50 per person plus the boat company’s 20% service charge (then tack on wedding coordinator’s 18%). For 3-hours, the cost would have only been $65 + 20% + 18%. We had to guarantee a minimum of 15 persons for Calypso (40') or 25 persons for Adventurer (53').

Just email Alison your ideas - maybe take everyone over to Red Hook and go from there so you can sail over to St John or around the cays off St Thomas.

Here's a portion from my review on that:
Reception:
Choosing the reception catamaran [url="http://www.adventurervi.com/"]http://www.adventurervi.com/[/url]
While visiting St. John in November, we had already researched and booked a catamaran for our private reception. However, we told white lies to our families and friends – we told them that the reception would be wedding cake on the beach. Okay, so it was wedding cake onboard a chartered catamaran while sailing the waters of the US Virgin Islands. We booked the 40-foot Calypso catamaran for the reception. We had to guarantee 15 guests for this and it would accommodate up to 25. The crew of three were great. It had an open bar, champagne, hors devours, shaded seating, sunning area, etc. During our November trip, we sailed on the sister catamaran, Adventurer, which was 53-feet and held more guests. Unfortunately, you had to guarantee 25 to book Adventurer, but the Calypso was fine.
To get from wedding beach to catamaran, we were transported by hard-bottom dinghy (details on website). It could carry six passengers at once easily, so we made three trips. It was so neat seeing the Calypso come into the bay where only a few of us knew what was going on. I told my grandmother that we had to walk to the other end of the beach near the rocks to catch the taxi. She later told she had never been on a taxi like that!
The first dinghy took the Bride, Groom, and both sets of parents. The first thing Curt and I did was go get naked underneath. (Just kidding). We changed out of wedding attire into swimsuits.
We sailed east towards Trunk, Cinnamon, and Maho bays, then circled back to head towards Red Hook. We sailed up through the cays off of St. John, and ended up at Red Hook dock at 11:30ish. For a 90-minute charter, this cost $50 per person plus the boat company’s 20% service charge (then tack on wedding coordinator’s 18%). For 3-hours, the cost would have only been $65 + 20% + 18%, but we didn’t want to keep the family on the catamaran that long since we were on a cruise all week anyway.
During the sail, we had the Best Man do a champagne toast, we cut the cake and fed each other, listened to great Caribbean music on the CD player, and enjoyed the views. The wind was not strong that day, so we mainly used motor the entire time. Honestly, where else can you attend a wedding reception wearing swimsuits in the most gorgeous part of the world?
The crew onboard took care of us – serving drinks, sharing tidbits about what we were seeing, letting us enjoy the moment.

~ Mandy

[MandyGirl]

One more thing... There are various docks you can board (or get off) at. On St John, they can use the dock at Caneel Bay - a beautiful resort on the northwest side (closest side to St Thomas). We were dropped off in Red Hook at the private dock - not the ferry dock - but the two docks are right there close to each other. My Granny is 70, and the docks were just fine for getting on/off. She even did just fine getting from dinghy to catamaran - nobody took an unexpected swim.

We absolutely loved having the reception on the catamaran. We knew we could eat real food on the ship, so wedding cake and open bar sufficed! They also had non-alcoholic drinks for those in our group who don't drink.

Bottom line... when we decided on the reception, we wanted something to fit the beach wedding theme. I could have had a reception lunch in a restaurant back in Dallas, but we figured for the USVI it would be perfect to do something everyone would remember. Sure, it cost us some money, but we also knew that for some of our family members this would probably be their only trip ever to such a beautiful place.

If our standby flights work out this summer, the first thing I will do after we arrive is book a boat day of some type. It is so peaceful!!

~ Mandy

[Soon2bMrs]

Hi ya,
You'd probably want to fly into Philly I think it's closer. but there will be lots to do in Baltimore if you came by this way!

Thanks for the insite... I think after talking to my mother that we will just do the wedding ( later in the day) have the cake and punch on the beach... then go back to the ship for a cocktail hour before dinner. I would love to do the catermeran, but it just doesn't fit into our budget. We are trying to buy a house and it's just getting soooooo expensive around here! My fiance Derek has since quit Southwest and works fulltime w/ the Maryland Air National Gaurd as a A-10 mechanic. And I'm still plugging away w/ school.

Did you leave out of ft. Lauderdale? And if so did you get there a day early and where did you stay? We are looking to book a block of rooms for like $80. So far I'm getting $129 as the lowest rate. Yeah right!

PS I saw one of your posts about being a Redskins fan? I am too. That's my guilty pleasure... hey I grew up near DC... can't take the skins out of the girl and I'm soooo excited that Joe Gibbs is back couching! I am now though I diehard Ravens fan ( and it's easy to get tickets around here!)

Thanks again
Talk to you soon
Kathy [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[MandyGirl]

Hey! I totally understand about the $$$. We footed the bill of our wedding/reception, and were so glad to finally get it paid off! And I too just bought my first house 2.5 years ago and dearly remember scrimping/saving every penny! Hang in there though!!

A reception on the beach is still awesome! You won't regret it at all. Plus, you are getting married in such a beautiful place! [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

We left out of Miami on that wedding cruise, and chose a cheap hotel near the port. It was awful. However, on our last cruise, we went out of FLL. Check Hotwire.com and look on the Hotels board of CruiseCritic. We stayed at Embassy Suites Fort Lauderdale.
[url="http://www.ftlauderdale.embsuites.com/"]http://www.ftlauderdale.embsuites.com/[/url]
Free transportation from FLL to hotel and also hotel to port. We flew down two days early for that one so we could see Fort Lauderdale (never seen Fort Lauderdale before except for the airport!). We walked down to the river boat landing (forgot the name - it's by the Marriott), went along the canals ($5/day pp), and also walked across the huge bridge to go up to the landing of the Hyatt to watch the ships leave the night before we left. On Hotwire, we got the room for either $62 or $65 per night. Free cooked-to-order breakfast, manager's happy hour (free), and all suites. 12 floors, and small balconies. We had the larger of the balconies, 12th floor, and perfect view of the ships in port. Most suites have 2 double/queen beds and also a sofa bed in the other room. Definitely a two-room suite. But look on the hotels boards and look for BurBunny (Amber)- she can tell you how to really know which one exactly is the Embassy Suites. I can't remember - 3.5 or 4-star, and choose "downtown" Fort Lauderdale and look for the S designation under amenities for Suites. There are two Suite hotels right by each other that use Hotwire: Embassy and AmeriSuites (think that one is 2.5 stars). Plenty of restaurants, an Eckerds, grocery store, wine stores, etc in walking distance. Great for picking up last minute items. We will definitely return there if we get such a great deal. Also great pool area. It was great not having to worry about transportation at all, and it is so close to both the airport and port. I spent lots of time on the balcony in the morning/evening watching ships come in and leave!!

Redskins - well, I do enjoy watching football and got to go to a Redskins game here in Dallas! A student of mine - her family has season tickets and had two extras one weekend and gave them to me!! I think we are going to go through BWI for Hershey. We are hooking on a trip after Hershey to St John, and had won standby passes on US Air (for employee and one dependent). It seems everyone flies US Air through PHL (they have a nonstop to St Thomas) so we will go BWI-Charlotte to hopefully have better chances getting on. (Fingers crossed!) But good luck to Derek!! I had worked for SWA for awhile and hated losing the standby privileges when I left, but now I've married back into the privileges! [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] But... when we DEFINITELY need to be somewhere or want to DEFINTELY go on vacation, we still buy tickets instead of relying on unpredicatble standby. I've certainly had my share of one-way car rentals because I've gotten stranded!!!

Let me know if you have any other questions! You will have sooo much fun!! [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

~ Mandy

[Soon2bMrs]

Thanks,
I want to stay at the Embassy , BUT I'm trying to book for like 8 rooms. they said they could do $129. YUK! My cousin is looking into it for me becuase I'm starting to stress out and it's my last week of classes!
Did you know that SW flies to Philly now? Couldn't you fly there and then catch USAir to St. Thomas/St. John's or did I not read that right/
I haven't been to Hershey in years. It was fun when I went.
I posted a question about booking for a group online. I hope I can, if not I'm on priceline bidding for that Embassy! I've only heard great things about them and we are flying down Friday the day before the cruise. BWI gets very busy come Fridays, so we wanted to get out of dodge before everyone else does. LOL
Thanks for your insite.
Kathy [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[MandyGirl]

Kathy -
I think you can do Hotwire for multiple rooms. Might be worth a shot. Hotwire gives you the price up front.
Yep - SW started service in PHL this weekend. I just knew it was a slightly shorter drive to BWI, and I'm familiar there. We'll see though!
Don't give up on Embassy Suites though. Or try AmeriSuites. They are right next door!
~ Mandy