Help with our Reception Needed

[LadyLove]

Hi Ladies! I love this forum! Finally, a place where I can connect with my fellow cruising brides. I'm having a Valentine's day wedding via Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas. We are getting married in St. Thomas on the beach. Our ship is in port from 9am-6pm and our wedding is scheduled for 2pm so my bridesmaids and I can have our hair and make-up done at a salon on land. We've taken a Carnival cruise, but this is our first time with Royal and we've never been to St. Thomas. This being the case, my Fiancé and I are having challenges with the logistics of the day and would love some insight on planning the day, especially the reception. We really want a private reception after the wedding for toasts and dancing. Our ideal was to have dinner in the dining room and do something privately elsewhere on the ship, but now our travel agent who's been dealing with Royal for us, is saying that having a private room is not really an option, even though when we had booked the trip we had expressed that this is what we want and she said it would be no problem. Does anyone know about having an after dinner private reception with Royal Caribbean? We thought of doing something in St Thomas, however there really is not enough time for us to do much after the ceremony. Hmmm. Help! Please, share any ideas being used for a reception. Thank you and congrats to all the Brides!

[RiuBride2b]

 

I don't know if this is much help but I am planning a vow renewal ceremony and I haven't quite decided between CCL or RCI.

 

If you go to the cruise critic message boards under honeymoons and weddings you can get a little more insight. Carnival does allow for you to have your wedding on the island but will also allow you to rent out the disco with a dj for a couple of hours as well. I would think that RC would have to have something similar........ If I find more details I will definitely post it!

[Ecofrugal]

I'm not much help, but I'm pretty sure you can reserve a conference room or even one of the clubs for private cocktail parties.  Maybe if you called the cruiseline itself and said you wanted to book a room for a two hour long cocktail party with food they'd be able to provide you more information.  Maybe it's just having the word "wedding" attached that is making it difficult?  But I imagine you can still do everything you want to do without it being considered a "wedding reception" with the cruise line (like have dancing, food, and drinks).  Although you may not be able to have a full sit-down dinner, it might be appetizers.  At least that's how Carnival does it.  I'm an RCI bride, too, but we're not doing anything through the cruiseline and I've never sailed with them before, either.

[LadyLove]

@RuiBride2b thank you for your tip. I will definitely check out cruise critic. Good luck with vow renewal planning!

[LadyLove]

@Ecofrugal You were a lot of help. Thanks for your suggestion. I called RCI groups and was able to get a lot of info when I didn't mention wedding or already having a travel agent. Apparently, I can book a room and have a bar cost per person per hour. We have to make a submission to the cruise to find a room. The only prob is my TA has to do that I think. At least I am feeling excited again and just need to have a serious chat with TA. Congrats on your wedding!

[Ecofrugal]

So glad I could help!!  And happy you got the answers you were looking for.

 

I swear, adding the word "wedding" on anything just makes it so much more difficult and expensive!

[kks2012]

You may also want to ask about your travel credits. Depending on how many people you have booked in your group, you could use those credit towards your cocktail party. I went on a cruise w/ RC as apart of group and we received a bottle of wine and a cocktail party on the night we were at sea. One of our perks is that the 16th person is free and only have to pay taxes and whatnot (my beau and I are going to split that). I think you will have to ask your travel agent about the perks for having a group to get more bang for your buck.

 

Call RC back and ask about group sales and what benefits/perks you receive if you were to have a group and then bring that up to your TA. And ask her to get to giving you more bang for your buck!

 

 

[CruiseWedding13]

who is your TA? I was thinking of using one but RCI gave me preliminary info on group rates and made it seem possible to book private rooms or the dining room for a private event as well. Reading your posts Im unsure if I want to use a TA if they dont get all the info

[kimbrrlee]

 

oh yay another Oasis bride! We are getting married in Dec 2012. Same plan of attack too We are going to get married at port, then we will go off frolicking with our photographers around the island and the ship, then (the plan is to) have a dinner "reception" with our group in Chops Grille, Deck 8 central park. Our travel agent says she can book everyone at the 6 month mark for dinner (hopefully) and we will be able to pay for it. I hope that we can have it this way.   I have heard different things regarding booking a group in the specialty restaurants. Then after dinner we will go dancing in Dazzlers. This is the plan anywho we shall see. 

 

I will be running to chops grille the moment we board the ship to confirm any dinning reservations bc I hear they are able to accommodate better when you are on the ship.  

 

Alternative plan of action is hosting a reception at the Marriott where we are getting married at. (I don't want too tho) 

 

ps we sailed on her in May if you have any questions let me know

[LadyLove]

@kks2012 Great suggestion. And FI and I called RCI to verify what we were entitled to...and from what they lady I spoke with told me we were doing alright (minus the whole private room mess). We got some of the fare money covered for our guest count too and did as you and your beau did although we had to add a good amount cause we went for a balcony. We are also  giving everyone a $50 onboard credit and having cocktail party (detailed below) as perks. So we made progress...Thank God!

 

@CruiseWedding13 TAs are supposed to be really helpful and know a lot. And at first mine seemed that way. Since speaking to her about the private room and that all she had to do was send a message and that it doesnt cost just to have the space, we see more effort from her. She followed our instructions to communicate with the ship and after a bit of back and forth got confirmation that we could use a room privately for our reception (be it only til 8:30pm cause then the rooms with music become public space). She was able to have the ship use our group points to pay for it too so no out of pocket expense except for the music set-up. 

Just do your research and maybe get referrals to a TA who's done a great job for someone else. I definitely learned this the hard way.

 

@kimbrrlee. Congratulations! Your plans sound great. Owww I feel like I had so many questions about the Oasis before and now you offer insight and I can't think! Oh, how is Dazzles, in terms of the music played? After our private reception since its only going to be about an hour we were thinking about continuing the party in a club on the ship, but weren't sure.  

- One thing I can say, we were looking into Chops Grille for reception dinner as well and one thing they told our TA is that they don't accommodate children, I don't know if that affects you. Also, the don't accommodate (very) large groups, I can't remember the limit tho.