**Cattie**

[cruiser123cba]

Mary:

 

Can you please send me the link to the packet you referenced here? Thanks in advance!!!

 

Esbie,

 

I am so sorry this happened to you!!!

 

Even with a "packaged" wedding, there is still PLENTY to arrange, get set in your mind, and then have it turn out wrong & really, really upset you.

 

today is probably not the day to listen to alternate suggestions..... so come back and read this later....

btw, it may well be that someone did indeed book out the entire Portofino restaurant, and even if you'd had your reservation, you could well have been bumped, anyway. Not great, but it can happen.

 

As you may know from reading my posts, my daughter had an on-board, sailing day wedding. (yeah, you got the whole packet from me, so you know all about it!). We did the lunch reception, and and then also had early dining in the main dining room. I wondered if people would even be hungry again, but we all managed to eat. My daughter wore her dress to dinner, and in fact kept it on all night and really enjoyed doing so! We asked everyone to stay in their wedding attire through dinner, and we all looked really nice and got a lot of nice comments from folks. Nikki so enjoyed wearing her dress to dinner in the main dr, and into the casino & dancing that night.

After all, when will you get to wear the dress again?

 

As far as what to do with all the time...... see what types of things are available in port for a few hours. After all, you have the Portofino dinner money to play around with .....

 

Hang in there. It's a rare wedding that doesn't have these moments.

 

Best,

Mary

[brookw]

I'm a TA and we book groups in Chops and Portofino's all the time, price starts from $2500.00 from 600pm to 10pm, most hold from 54 to 100 guests depending on the ship, and can be booked far far in advance. P.S. doing a buy out is the only way to be 100% sure that you will get this on your wedding night, due to the high group buy out demands for these restaurants.

[esbie11]

I have known several other brides who reserved Portofino's for their wedding night without buying out the restuarant. We just couldn't do this because someone else beat us to it by buying it out. We are not buying it out, and are only paying per guest. We only have about 23 guests, so it wasn't worth it for us to buy out the restaurant for $2000 when it would cost about $500 for a group reservation. We realize that we won't have the restaurant to ourselves, but we weren't going to pay an extra $1500 to have it private. And when my TA offered us the buy out option, she said it would be $2000. I think it all depends on who you talk to. People always say "oh you can't do that" only to find out that it has been done many times before. So I think it comes down to who you talk to and how accommodating they choose to be.

[Cattie]

Esbie,

 

Did your TA talk to a supervisor at Royal? I'm just not sure if I should just immediately ask for a supervisor or not. I'm kinda leaning towards I prolly should just in case!

[esbie11]

Esbie,

 

Did your TA talk to a supervisor at Royal? I'm just not sure if I should just immediately ask for a supervisor or not. I'm kinda leaning towards I prolly should just in case!

 

My TA talks with her group contact at RCCL for everything. This is why I wish I wouldn't have gotten a TA in the first place. Every question goes to her, and she asks someone else, who asks someone else, and so on. It would be much easier if I could call RCCL myself. That being said, at one point I called RCCL myself anyway to try to arrange this, and was told by the customer service rep that only TAs can arrange group reservations ahead of time. I don't know how true that is though, and I certainly wouldn't let it discourage you from calling again and again if needed:)

[Pug3636]

I've also tried to call RCCL on my own and been given the same line about the TA needing to call. They told me it's in their contracts with TAs to only communicate directly with them.

 

We arranged a cocktail/appetizer reception after our wedding on the ship. I've been asking my TA for a LONG time now when we need to pay for it. I wanted to know if it's added to our Seapass account on the ship or paid for before we leave. Anyway, I got fed up and emailed RCCL with the reservation information and my question. They said they can't help me and to refer to my TA for assitance. I still don't have an answer.

[Cattie]

See, I'm not dealing with a TA. I'm the "leader" of our group. So everything has to go through me! Not sure that helps or anything!!

[Pug3636]

It's nice because you can get answers right away and not wait for your TA...

[Mary loves to travel]

Atlanta Pair --

 

see this thread for info on "the packet"

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=871982

 

Mary