Geting married in Grand Cayman/still doing a tour?

[fortunatemaria]

HI! I have a cruise booked for Nov 2009 and now we are planning on getting married while on the cruise. We were going to get married before and then the cruise was going to be the honeymoon but have decided to change our plans.

 

My question is if it is possible to get married in the morning and then still do a tour of some sort before haveing to be back on the ship? We really want to go the stingray tour but I dont think we will have time after the wedding.

 

Any tips, advice, info on getting married in Grand Cayman would be great! Thanks in advance!!!:)

[PINEVIEW01]

HI! I have a cruise booked for Nov 2009 and now we are planning on getting married while on the cruise. We were going to get married before and then the cruise was going to be the honeymoon but have decided to change our plans.

 

My question is if it is possible to get married in the morning and then still do a tour of some sort before haveing to be back on the ship? We really want to go the stingray tour but I dont think we will have time after the wedding.

 

Any tips, advice, info on getting married in Grand Cayman would be great! Thanks in advance!!!:)

One tip, you may want to go with the original plan. Grand Cayman is a tender port and in November the odds are you may not be able to get off. I have been to GC many times and have spent many cruise on the ship or tendering late due to the rough waves.

[fortunatemaria]

about not being able to tender and am worried about it. Do you know what the odds are? We would love to get married there but if the port is missed 50% of the time, we might change our minds. Or kust have a back up plan to get married when wereturn home, if we too.

 

Thanks for the respons!:)

[drew sailbum]

Tendering is a touchy issue on this site. Every time it is brought up, replies are disproportianately from those who have missed GC, particularly more than once.

 

Cruise lines demand a certain level of reliability. If they can't make the port at least 90% of the time the the destination risks losing 100% of its business. GC has no problem having 90% reliability, but read on:

 

If GC is missed 10% of the days, that is 36.5 days per year. Of those, many (say two-thirds or 24 in this example) are in the five month peak cruise season of mid-November to mid-April. Only in the winter do cold fronts drop far enough south out of the Gulf of Mexico to give us a Nor'Wester and shift the winds. Even then, there is an alternate tendering site on the south shore of the island which can handle 3 ships.

 

(The remaining missed days are due to the occasionaly tropical storm/hurricane in the off peak season. In such a case, cruise lines often shift the entire route for a cruise, such as a Western Caribbean Cruise suddenly changing to a Eastern Caribbean route.)

 

As to November specifically, it is a generally quite stable month for winds maintaining their tendering-friendly easterly direction. Very rarely do Nor'Westers come so early. However, November is still in the hurricane season, and the Western Caribbean tends to peak a bit later in the season than the Eastern Caribbean. Keep that in mind when making plans.

 

Finally, IMHO, a wedding is quite enough to plan for one day. Unless you have a particularly long port of call, I would not encourage you trying to fit in a Stingray trip as well unless you plan to charter your own boat.

 

Local wedding planning companies can help you with the specifics and with meeting the legal requirements.

Celebrations 1-345-949-2044

Cayman Weddings 1-345-949-8677

Simply Weddings 1-345-525-6551 or 1-345-949-5014

or others listed in the Cayman Islands Yellow Pages

[fortunatemaria]

thanks so much for response!!

[mscrad2009]

Hello Drew

 

Thank you for your info. Question based on your comments it sounds like If you bypass the peak season you should be in the clear somewhat. But based on your months I did not view May. My wedding is in may 09. I to am getting married at port in GC. Should I be nervous?

[drew sailbum]

Looking at the averages in a different way, figure that 4 or 5 days per month are a wash out in peak season. Only 1 or 2 are a wash out in off season (mid-April to mid-November). Some months have no missed days. Other months get more than their "fair" share.

 

Nor'Westers are very uncommon in the off season. May is before the official start of hurricane season. Whether your wedding day will be affected :rolleyes:

 

With no offense to the matrimonially minded, I think a cruise is a fine honeymoon. I wouldn't personally plan a wedding at any cruise port of call. For those who choose to do so, I encourage you to have a Plan B.

[jdybnsn]

We got married on Grand Cayman (off the Disney Magic) in February this year......if you are prepared to go with the risks (and have a plan B), then it really is the most wonderful place to marry.:)

 

However, your time in port at Grand Cayman is very limited compared to other ports and fitting a wedding in, no matter how low key, from my experience is going to be quite stressful enough without 'rushing through it' to get yourselves off on a tour also.:eek:

 

We relaxed after our wedding, had a most excellent leisurely, informal lunch at Grand Old House (just 8 of us... and that included the photographer !), did some fun wedding beach shots at nearby Smith's Cove and swam (in my wedding attire !).......the day went in an instant !

 

Whilst I was sorry not to see anything else of the island that day (other than the inside of a hairdressing salon !), I knew that we would be back (hopefully sooner not later) to celebrate an anniversary - because my husband promised we would !...and what better excuse to go back and spend longer on the island next time ???

 

Even if you are keeping it low key ..make the most of your special day together.....I don't think I'd want to be sharing it with a bus full of strangers...I'm so glad we kept it such an initmate affair (as it was intended from the start...hence the lack of relatives !)..... just me and my husband & kids for the most part..(and our witnesses & photographer at the meal).

 

Don't try & do too much ......just enjoy your special day together - you can always comeback and do these tours and more......but (hopefully) will only marry the once !

 

Good luck with your plans.:)