Cruise,Wedding and many questions

Hello All- I am a newbie and I have so many questions.

I am torn between St. Lucia and the Cayman Islands. So many of the other locations appear very popular and extremely expensive.

My greatest concern is having my family and friends come along. I live near Galveston and the idea of leaving out of Galveston is the best economical option, but I have done that itinerary and Montego Bay is not my ideal location as a port to stop over. Although most of my family lives in Texas and financially that would be the best bet for them.

It is all about me (how selfish) so I would like to leave out of Fort Lauderdale on a different route to the Cayman Islands. Even if I selected St. Lucia they would still need to head to Florida.

How did you select your destination, based on family or all about you.

mine was a bit of both. I had wanted to get married in Bermuda since I was six years old, so that was the all about me part. The cruise is where it became about the family...sort of. It was more cost effective for everyone to cruise to Bermuda versus fly and stay. But, I'd also always wanted to do a cruise, so here we are back to the all about me. But only sort of.

Good luck with your choice!

Thanks for the input

Are you planning to wed on the ship or in port? I'm guessing the answer is in port unless you are going on Princess. What cruise line have you chosen?

If you are getting married in port I would start looking for locations and planners on both islands you are considering. We picked Jamaica first and were very limited in our location choice because not many resorts would take us. They had policies about being resort guests and not guests for the day off a cruise. Because your choices maybe more limited that may answer your question about which island and route to pick. Also, be careful with Grand Cayman and the time of year you sail. It is one of the most missed ports on cruises. We were married the first week in February and were unable to make our stop in Grand Cayman due to winds. I was very sad because we were most looking forward to it! And a couple on the ship with us didn't get to have their wedding because of it. Let me know if you have questions and I will try to help. Good luck!

Hi Andrea- Thanks for the input. I am looking at mid-July, not my choice but many fhat folks in my family are school teachers and I have a 13 year old and like other parents we invite I don't want her out of school for 7 to 8 days. I was looking at December 2011, but thought about those friends and family members that are coming and leaving others behind during the holiday. So I still have alot to figure out. It will be hot as heck in July

March132010- I love your signature stationary. I have not looked at the Bahamas. B ut since we are going in mid July hopefully the port will not be missed.

Congrats on the wedding upcoming

We are getting married on embarkation day on the Carnival Fantasy in August 2011 and we will be sailing to the Bahamas (stopping in Freeport one day and Nassau another day). We considered a destination wedding initially instead of cruise but ended up going with the cruise for several reasons (mainly because it is less stressful planning a wedding in the US and it is more cost efficient and convenient for people to go on the cruise as opposed to traveling to another country via airline.) We are okay with getting married aboard the ship because we will be able to go ahead and get the "wedding jitters" out of the way the first day and relax and party for the entire cruise. Plus, we will plan to take pictures in Freeport and Nassau to add to our wedding album so that we have a good mix of indoor and outdoor wedding pictures.