A Grand Princess Wedding - 4 the Final!

[Nauti-Lady]

Finally........so sorry I didn't get this finished sooner - but here it is.:)

 

PART 4

 

Now it’s vacation time!! We all agreed prior to the cruise that this was also a honeymoon and no one would put demands or expectations on the newlyweds. We saw them here and there over the next few days. They joined us again for dinner one night and had dinner with friends another. Some days they made plans with friends or relatives and some days they did their own thing.

 

 

DAY 3 - The wedding is over but the cake is still around. The top layer was brought to my daughter’s cabin, however it was too big to fit into the cabin fridge! Also the cake that came with the wedding package was delivered to their cabin last night. It was supposed to be a cake for 2 but she said it would feed 12 easily.

Day 3 was spent in Costa Maya, Mexico. Not much here but a beautiful beach and a great place to relax. After the cruise, the newlyweds said this was their favorite port!

 

DAY 4 – Roatan, Honduras. 6 of us took a tour here that we booked through Victor Bodden tours. They gave us choices on what we wanted to do and off we went. We visited the Iguana farm which wasn’t something I was looking forward to, but it was pretty neat. You can certainly get up close and personal with these creatures there. We took a slow paced driving tour of the island and our driver would stop wherever we wanted. We had lunch of grilled lobster at a resort our driver took us to and enjoyed the island very much. Our daughters new husband went scuba diving here with a friend and my daughter and her girlfriend took an island tour here too. The wedding cake still exists!

 

DAY 5 – Belize. My husband and son went zip lining here and loved it. This was booked thought Xtreme Tours. I stayed on board to enjoy the day to myself. I booked myself a spa appointment and then went to Bingo and won $125! A nice day!! The newlyweds had booked a catamaran snorkeling tour here and had a great day. They said when they returned to the ship that it looked like mold was beginning to appear on the wedding cakes, so she asked the room steward to dispose of them.

 

DAY 6 - Cozumel. My sister and I went to Chaukannab Park and did the Royal Dolphin Swim. We had booked this online months in advance. It was quite expensive but it was a once in a lifetime experience we will never forget! Then we shopped downtown before going back to the ship. We ran into the newlyweds as we were leaving Chaukannab. They went there to do Snuba and escape the crowds. They said it was a lot of fun. My son and many friends and relatives spent their day in Cozumel at Senor Frogs and Carlos n Charlies. Very few people made it to dinner this night!

 

DAY 7 - A Sea Day to relax on the way home. Jen & Ryan met with the photographer this morning. We had already decided to purchase the $750 package that included the CD of all the photos so she only had to pick out a few favorites to have prints made. Because she knew she would have the CD, this was not stressful. Tried to get our group together one last time for cocktails tonight but only a few made it. Everyone was having their own fun.

 

REVIEW-

 

Now that the salt air has settled and we’ve all had time to reflect, my daughter and new son-in-law said they had so much fun and are so happy they chose to do a cruise wedding and are even happier that they did it at sea. They loved the relaxed atmosphere and the feeling that their wedding lasted longer than most. She also said she can see many anniversary cruises in their future!

 

I asked her about having 30 people along with them on their honeymoon and they said that they had mixed feelings about that. They said they would have liked more private time as it seemed they were always running into someone from the group, but that they also liked that same thing! They also were very glad that the people closest to them were able to share in the memories of this trip. They had a lot of fun with these people. They decided they will just try to take a private weekend somewhere soon.

 

When asked what they would have done differently, they said they would have extended the reception in Skywalker’s to at least 2 hours. They felt that because of the picture taking they didn’t get enough time up there to unwind, dance and enjoy. This easily could have been arranged. Also, we would not have put the disposable cameras in the gift bags. We attached a note to these asking everyone to take pictures of their fun and turn the cameras in at the end of the cruise and we would put all the photos online for everyone to see and get copies. Out of 24 cameras, they only got 5 back! Either the notes didn’t get read or the cameras didn’t get used. I think if we had just asked everyone to forward us pictures they had taken with their own cameras we would have gotten the same number of photos.

 

Disappointments - Mainly the photography and this is something we didn’t realize until we got home. While there are many beautiful pictures that we are very happy with, we realized that there are only 3 or 4 pictures that show the sea in the background. Other than those few, you’d never know the wedding took place on a cruise ship!! Also, we realized that the only pictures taken of the guests were the ones that were posed for. No candid shots of guests were taken at the reception. There is not a single professional picture taken at Skywalker’s that shows the magnificent view. All the pictures the photographer took there were taken in the dance floor area – the center of the room. And, as I said before, the photographer never showed up later in Sabatini’s to take pictures there. I never even thought that we would need to direct the photographer. So, the lesson learned here is to think about what you would like to see ahead of time and communicate that. Don’t just assume the photographer will think like you do!

 

Another thing that got goofed was the rose petals that were supposed to have been on the dinner tables in Sabatini’s. We had extra boxes of petals to be sprinkled in the center of each table. Now this must not have been important because after dinner I realized that I didn’t remember seeing them. I did see the candle holders we brought but couldn’t say if the petals were there. My daughter didn’t know either! I asked several people and some said they were there, some said they weren’t. When we got home we confirmed through the photos that they were not there. Maybe they all got used on the giant cake – we just don’t know! But since we never missed them that night they truly were not important. Since I was never charged corkage fees for which I should have paid, I am not about to complain.

 

Exceeded Expectations –1) The Flowers. Jen’s bouquet was the standard package bouquet and it was better that expected. The flowers are not made until the day of the wedding so the day before they confirmed with her the type of flowers and colors. She could have even changed her mind at that point. The flowers also were very fresh and fragrant. In addition we did not expect the flowers in the chapel to be as pretty as they were.

2)The Grand Princess Staff – From the onboard wedding coordinators to the disc jockey to the waiters. Every member of the staff made us feel as if they wanted to make sure this wedding was perfect. We really felt that the service went well beyond good.

3) The Ceremony – I know this was mainly due to the Captain and could be very different on another ship, but this was truly the highlight. It had a wonderful warm and intimate feeling to it that you just don’t get in a large wedding.

 

Hopefully, this very long (sorry, I just kept thinking of things) review has helped all of you in your planning stages. Please feel free to e-mail me with any questions or if you want pictures of anything in particular.

 

Best wishes to all,

 

Deborah

[cruiseknotter]

Thank you for your detailed review!

I think one of your previous posts, you said you ordered a cocktail party or something directly with the cruise.

I'm trying to organize a cocktail party in my suite and TWE said I can only do this before dinner, but I don't want to have this during the pre-dinner show. So I'm thinking of ordering a cocktail party onboard. But I wonder if I should call the cruise directly and order in advance.

I have seen those giant cruise wedding cake photos. Your daughter got another cake later that comes with a package. I thought the reason for the cake being so huge is because they combine both cakes together:p I'm getting a fondant cake and understand it doesn't taste good. What kind of icing did you get?

[Nauti-Lady]

Yes, I would ignore TWE on that. Our travel agent helped us book the reception as a cocktail party through the groups department. They had a very nice list of things to choose from and made it very easy. I'm sure this could be done in your suite also. Just contact either your TA or Princess directly.

 

Our daughter's cake was fondant. We did not make a specification and had expected butter cream. We just sent a picture of what we wanted it to look like. The cake was very good, they did the top 2 layers white and the bottom layer chocolate. The frosting wasn't great but I wouldn't say it was bad either. It looked beautiful. My dsughter has some better pictures of it which I need to get.

[Crown08]

That cake is huge! :eek:

 

Thank you for such a great review. I can't tell you how helpful it has been.

[sunrise2008]

Thank you for taking the time to do such a detailed review! Very helpful!

 

Congrats to the newly weds!

 

Caroline

[redtraveler6]

WOW! A thousand thanks for this post! Sent to my parents and fiancee--we are getting married onboard Star Princess in May 08. Thanks for the info-ESPECIALLY the cocktail hour through Princess!!!!