Carnival Weddings HELP!!

[ashleyrae911]

I have been going back and forth with the idea of possibly getting married on board a Carnival ship. Of course it would be out of New Orleans, probably on the Fantasy. I have soooo soooo many questions about Cruise weddings with Carnival. Any help or pictures would be greatly appreciate. I am looking at booking the Deluxe Romance Package.

 

 

1: Does anyone know if you have music at the reception. so that You can have your first dance as husband and wife, father-daughter dance, etc?

 

2: Can you do upgrades on the cake if needed? (like to serve more guest)

 

3: How long do your non-sailing guests get to stay at the wedding/reception?

 

4: Who should pay for the extra guest, ie: our sailing guest have agreed to pay the 24.00 per person to attend (just added to their trip cost). So should we ask our non-sailing guest to pay for the 24.00 per person fee. Or should we take care of that?

 

5: Does anyone know what kind of Hor' dorves, and alcohol is served during the 1.5 hour reception?

 

6: how far in advance should you book you wedding and cruise?

 

That is a few questions that i have for now. Any one with any information please respond it will be greatly appreciated. I would also love to see some pictures if anyone has any to share.

[DiverGal]

Hi Ashley! My wedding is in two and a half weeks aboard the Victory, so I can't answer all of your questions with any authority, but I'll address the ones I can.

 

1: Does anyone know if you have music at the reception. so that You can have your first dance as husband and wife, father-daughter dance, etc?

 

I've been assured, and have read in many reviews here, that you have music and get to dance that first dance. The kind of music you have depends on what you arrange. You'll have your choice of a DJ, pianist, or a group of musicians, or can bring your own CD. We've arranged to have the disco and a DJ, but will be bringing our own music for specific dances.

 

2: Can you do upgrades on the cake if needed? (like to serve more guest)

 

I was told I would get a cake large enough to feed all my guests (52). Of course, I have yet to see just what this means! :) I'm trusting them on this one. According to reviews, couples often bring their own cake topper and decorations.

 

3: How long do your non-sailing guests get to stay at the wedding/reception?

 

I was told they get to stay until 3 pm. Some have reported their guests got to stay a little longer, but I wouldn't bank on that. The ship's main order of business is to get the cruise underway!

 

4: Who should pay for the extra guest, ie: our sailing guest have agreed to pay the 24.00 per person to attend (just added to their trip cost). So should we ask our non-sailing guest to pay for the 24.00 per person fee. Or should we take care of that?

 

As you see fit. We're paying for all our guests. I can't say I have any idea how others have handled it. :)

 

5: Does anyone know what kind of Hor' dorves, and alcohol is served during the 1.5 hour reception?

 

We have the Deluxe Romance package, which includes an open bar for the reception. The hors' deouvres will be chosen by the chef, but there will be at least eight -- four hot and four cold -- and reviewers have said there may be more. I specified to my Carnival wedding coordinator that I have vegetarians among my guest, so she said she'll make note of that to the chef so he can take that into account. I'll put in my review how well that turns out. :)

 

6: how far in advance should you book you wedding and cruise?

 

We booked ours the first week of October for a July 9 wedding. We booked that early because we wanted to book several cabins for cruising guests, so needed to do so while the pickings were good! One thing to keep in mind if you book that early is that you won't hear again from Carnival for a VERY LONG time! I'm only now in regular communication with my Carnival wedding coordinator about locations and details. Also, you will have a separate coordinator for the ceremony itself, to handle details like the officiant, the vows, the flowers, and stuff like that.

 

Hope you're enjoying this exciting time!

[southern cruising couple]

I have been going back and forth with the idea of possibly getting married on board a Carnival ship. Of course it would be out of New Orleans, probably on the Fantasy. I have soooo soooo many questions about Cruise weddings with Carnival. Any help or pictures would be greatly appreciate. I am looking at booking the Deluxe Romance Package.

 

 

1: Does anyone know if you have music at the reception. so that You can have your first dance as husband and wife, father-daughter dance, etc?

 

2: Can you do upgrades on the cake if needed? (like to serve more guest)

 

3: How long do your non-sailing guests get to stay at the wedding/reception?

 

4: Who should pay for the extra guest, ie: our sailing guest have agreed to pay the 24.00 per person to attend (just added to their trip cost). So should we ask our non-sailing guest to pay for the 24.00 per person fee. Or should we take care of that?

 

5: Does anyone know what kind of Hor' dorves, and alcohol is served during the 1.5 hour reception?

 

6: how far in advance should you book you wedding and cruise?

 

That is a few questions that i have for now. Any one with any information please respond it will be greatly appreciated. I would also love to see some pictures if anyone has any to share.

 

 

Hey Ashley! I just got married aboard the Carnival Valor on May 20th this year. I posted pictures in a thread yesterday...maybe they will give you an idea of how things look! I have answered your questions below...I wish you the best and hope you have as wonderful of an experience as we did!

 

1. I booked the DJ for an additional amount (i think it was $75) and brought my own CD with my dances listed

2. I don't know for sure, but I am sure you can. I only had 27 people come with us, so my cake was plenty and we still had left overs that they served us at dinner one night

3. They were asked to leave 5 minutes before our reception ended

4. We took care of the cost of the reception for all guests because we were not paying for their trip, so we treated it like a normal reception

5. The bar is an open bar, so they can have any drink they want. If you have it in the disco you get really quick service since it has a bar in it and waiters aren't needed to go back and forth. The food was good. There was veggies and dip in glasses, some hot chicken kabobs, shimp crostini things, and deviled eggs, a few other things that I am forgetting, but definitely plenty

6. I booked mine 1 year in advance and the Deluxe Romance package was already taken for my date so I had to get the standard Romance package , which was fine bc i was set on my date and itinerary!

 

I hope that helps. let me know if you have others...I remembered how much others helped me on this board, so I will answer all I can. Plus I have more pictures I have not uploaded yet. There may be specific pictures if you have specific details you want to see...