Disney Cruise Reception -- Help, please!

Hi everyone!

I am new here, so I apologize if this has been asked before. I did not see a search feature, and I skimmed the main threads the best I could.

Right now, it is our intention to book our wedding on a Disney Cruise. We are both big fans of Disney, AP holders, and live near WDW. We would really prefer it to other cruise lines.

One of the biggest things we have been looking forward to for our wedding is a dance reception. No food or alcohol is required--we just want some time (maybe 1-2 hours) to dance with our guests and have fun. I know that the cake & champagne ceremony offers some time for first dances and the like. We are looking for more.

I asked a wedding coordinator, and they were extremely vague. Basically, they said they offered no options, but we could gather in a lounge. There were no other details given, just the same information repeated.

We would not mind if it was not a privately rented location. Would it be possible to set up our own stereo in a public lounge and let everyone have a dance party? I just do not see that working out so well!

I would love any advice or options. We don't want to have to choose between Disney and a dance reception.

Thanks so much for your help and advice!

We are currently booked to get married on the Fantasy in June. Pretty much the cake and champagne reception we have been told we can do what we want during that time. (it is about 1 hour). I would assume if what you want to do is dance and you have your music on cd that they would let you until your time is up. You could also move it to the "club" after. In the evenings they have music. You wouldn't get much choice as to what is playing but people definitely dance there and other cruise guest will be excited to see you/for your wedding.

Hi
We were married this January at castaway cay on the Disney fantasy.
This was one of our requests as well

Shoreside is a real pain to make any special request etc
They will always be vague and if you keep pushing the issue you will get conflicting information.

Shoreside will and really can't do anything outside the cruise package. That's how their computer system is set up. And believe it or not they don't really speak with other Disney departments.

I can tell you for us at least...once onboard things and request appear to be doable.
Our onboard cordinator expressed her frustration dealing with shoreside and still does not understand why they take special request so harsh. Other than its their DFTW department policy to say no to special request. As if they do it for one couple then they have to do it for everyone. And majority of the time it's not possible to do what is being asked. And they have had issues in the past with couple seeing what couple a did and then they wanted to do the same but it was not possible...which made couple b upset and caused issues for the company. So they have to sort of do it for everyone or no one

How many guest in total will you have?

You can do a welcome reception
But this requires food and drink purchase. And will need a min guest head count
It can only be done during the sail away party on the first day. Due to ships logistics it's diffuclt to get DCL to close off any ship space for private function. As the amount of negative guest feedback they get when this happens..it's not worth it to Disney.
It does cost a little bit extra. But this will be a private event closed to only your guest

For us the cake celebration was whatever we wanted. In the end we opted to play video and slideshows. But you could have spent the whole time dancing. And since we were doing an island wedding and rented the large cabana we wanted to get back on the island asap

Yes nothing really stops your group for going out and "taking" over a dance floor somewhere or one of the clubs. Our group travels together regularly and we like to stick together. Pretty much anytime we sent somewhere we took the space over. Or, the clubs/other areas of the ship were dead with no other guest or just a few other guest. Most of the DJs or people playing the music will take special request.

Honestly this was one of my wife's major issues...she pre cruise thought that the other guest and people on the ship would negatively impact our experience. And all of that sort of thing. You honestly don't even notice anyone else unless you want to engage and interact with them. We meet so many lovely people it would be a shame not to interact with them. We had a number people even give us gifts. How crazy is that? They really enchanced our time
Just like anything it's all about what you want and what you put into your experience.

We know the process of a cruise wedding is beyond frustrating. Hang in their and trust us when we say once we go on the ship it's completly different experience. And it was what can we do for you and how do we make your cruise magical.

Thank you for the responses!

Orion, thank you so much for the tip! It is nice to know it could be a possibility. I am okay with "waiting and seeing." I just cannot stand vague information. After making more headway through the incredibly long (and incredibly helpful) Cruise Brides thread, I can understand more of the reasons why they must be vague! I suspected she may be the only person handling the e-mails--can you imagine! I would pull my hair out.

I am unsure of the final guest count. Around 200 will be invited, but most of those will be courtesy invites. In reality, we expect closer to 80 guests to attend, but it could be as low as 40. We were hoping to stay away from a welcome reception or other food-types of affairs, though I appreciate the suggestion! I don't mind the public aspect, as long as we have control over the music played, you know?

I am so glad you mentioned a slideshow! What a great idea! I was unsure how we would incorporate that, and we had always wanted to include one. That is the perfect time. How did you set up? Did they have a projector, or did you just have a laptop?

Thank you again so much! I appreciate the help immensely.

zeemie said:

Thank you for the responses!

Orion, thank you so much for the tip! It is nice to know it could be a possibility. I am okay with "waiting and seeing." I just cannot stand vague information. After making more headway through the incredibly long (and incredibly helpful) Cruise Brides thread, I can understand more of the reasons why they must be vague! I suspected she may be the only person handling the e-mails--can you imagine! I would pull my hair out.

I am unsure of the final guest count. Around 200 will be invited, but most of those will be courtesy invites. In reality, we expect closer to 80 guests to attend, but it could be as low as 40. We were hoping to stay away from a welcome reception or other food-types of affairs, though I appreciate the suggestion! I don't mind the public aspect, as long as we have control over the music played, you know?

I am so glad you mentioned a slideshow! What a great idea! I was unsure how we would incorporate that, and we had always wanted to include one. That is the perfect time. How did you set up? Did they have a projector, or did you just have a laptop?

Thank you again so much! I appreciate the help immensely.

Click to expand...

Your welcome.
Trust me we understand your frustration we had to deal with it for a couple years.
During our course of working with DFTW cruise department we had 3 different shore side planners...as two of them left the company. Looks like most people don't last long.
we would get an email saying xyz and then 45 minutes or a few hours later another email with conflicting information countless times. During the course of doing email they must have forgot they already responded and then send a new email,and forgot what information they were able to confirm. And just give the standard cant do that response.

There could be a few more options for what your trying to do. But it won't be easy to get Disney to agree to doing it. And they would all require spending money on food and drink along with some other fees.
We can private chat about those if your interested. As they are not for the faint of heart

The slideshow and video was one of these request we were told no to countless times. I did allot of back and forth with them and the ship about it. And finally got someone to agree in writing. Even after the yes...I had to keep telling shoreside we have been told it's fine and they have agreed to doing it.

Of course there are extra charges to do this. Set up fee, tech fee, and so forth
We worked with the ships tech department as to what our requirements and needs were. If we were going to play off DVD or laptop etc
We used our laptop and had to tell them what cables we needed and all that fun stuff.
We had a screen set up and the sound equipment and everything was set up. Just had to connect laptop and go.
Just keep in mind you have limited time and any video will eat into that time as well.
We used our just for background not sit here and watch this.

Can look up the price...but keep in mind pricing with Disney is never the same. They quote it different every time and they change pricing by the day it looks like.
The price forums changed a few times...with the offical price being locked in just a few weeks prior.
Should also note they made it a point that the ship has the final say and could pull the plug on the video at a moments notice. Since a ship has so many logistical issues by the hour...something could prevent them from setting it up. So Disney likes to never say yes 100% just in case something happens. Allot easier for them than dealing with the fallout should it not happen...if they agreed without the disclaimer.


Side note
We had no clue that a panionist was going to be at the Cermony and reception. We supplied our own music via cd and thought that was it
No panionist was at both events.
On the fantasy we had Clara..we saw her a number of times around the ship and at the Disney music trivia. She is amazing and very talented
So at least we knew who she was..we ended up ditching our cd music and had Clara play. As she was just sitting there doing nothing.
She knows allot of songs and even knew the song the wife wanted for her first dance and played it for us.
So glad she was there and we ditched the CD..really enchanced the experience

We went with a cd as both my wife and myself work in entertainment industry. And know events with no reshursal or control always run less than smooth and we did not want that added headache
As with a cd is pretty much push start and when they feel the need they push stop

I agree with orion. Shoreside has been frustrating so far and we are on wedding planner number 2. Our first one sent me the info for a FL marriage license when I asked about that process... Our cruise leaves out of Vancouver CANADA! when I pointed this out to her, she pretty much told me, well we do a lot more in Florida so thats just what I send. I couldn't believe it. Luckily we have a wonderful Disney Travel agent that is helping keep everything on track and keeps reassuring me that it will be so much better once we get on board. We are not interested in a huge wedding, and getting married on a Disney Cruise is our dream wedding so I am trying to let the little things go and just keep my eyes on the goal. 108 days to go.

Thank you all again, so much! This is incredibly helpful information. I will add it to my list of considerations.

This info is so helpful!!! The whole true "reception" concept with fun and dancing has been a pain point of my planning as well. I keep telling myself it will all come together, but it's driving me crazy not having certainty on everything. Glad to know it's not just me and all of us brides experiences this with DCL.

Sorry to hijack your thread but I have just found myself in a similar situation. My partner and I have finally decided to tie the knot officially after 19 years. We want to do this on our upcoming Alaskan cruise in 71 days! Since it will just be the two of us and one friend (3 people total) I really didn't know if I should splurge for the Disney deal or try to plan something separately. But honestly, I don't know where to start

Thanks for all of the great information! Our son and his fiancee are planning on getting married during our cruise in November on the Fantasy. They want to get married on the ship instead of on Castaway Cay. They've applied for the Florida license. It's now just speaking with Disney for the rest of it. There will be 17 of us. One question if anyone knows the answer....it states on the website that there is a cake topper. Does anyone know what it looks like? I think that we're going to probably make the two flower girl wands and save a fortune there. We're really excited for this special day!

Good question on the cake topper! I haven't seen a recent photo, but here's one I saw in a PJ here from 2012.....

We were married on the Fantasy on Castaway Cay this Jan

Here's the cake topper we got
you will also get the knife and cake server you use (it's engraved with Disney Fairytale Weddings Logo)
and you will get a bunch of other stuff (we let those be a surprise...and not sure if the ship gives out the same things each wedding)