Wedding on 7N West Caribbean, Disney Magic

[heapies926]

I stumbled upon these travel logs a few weeks ago, and I absolutely love reading them. I wanted to do one myself because I thought it might be helpful for anyone considering/having a DCL wedding.


I apologize in advance for being terrible at taking pictures on this cruise. All of the pics you will see were taken by someone else.


FYI – This is for the cruise that departed on May 8; It departs from and returns to Port Canaveral, and has Itinerary A.


Setting the Scene


I went on my first Disney Cruise last year (also a 7N West Caribbean on the Disney Magic) with my then boyfriend (who proposed to me on that cruise). We both LOVED it. We started to plan a traditional wedding, but I wasn’t super excited about it. My parents had offered to pay for the wedding, so I pitched the idea of us all going on a Disney Cruise with the money instead – they LOVED it! And so the planning began.


The Cast


Me (26F), my sister (25F), her fiancé (27M), my mom(60F), my dad(63M), my now husband(26M), his mom (62F), his brother (40M) and brother’s girlfriend (?F). DH and I were the only ones who had been on a Disney Cruise before.


Planning the Wedding


Disney Cruise line weddings are very simple affairs. They involve a 15 minute ceremony, and a 30 minute cake and champagne celebration (if you add a photo package, there will be another 15 minutes of photographs). It’s not a legal ceremony. You have two options - you can be legally married before the cruise, or a DCL notary will legally marry you in the terminal before embarking.


Planning a wedding with Disney is very straightforward. They email you a 30 page packet. You print it out, write out your guest list, and make your selections – which bouquet you want, what music you want, what cake you want, etc. The cheapest wedding is $3000 and includes 8 guests plus the bride and groom. You can add additional guests for $20 a person, and can make all sorts of additions to inflate the price (cake and floral enhancements, favors, more expensive champagne….) The only thing we added to the $3000 base package is a photo package. The wedding photo package is totally separate from any photo package you might get for the rest of your cruise. There are 3 to choose from – we went with the most expensive ($995) because it came with a CD of all the photos. 45 days before you cruise, you will get an email from Disney with all the information for your wedding (place, date, time). Ours was Tuesday, May 10, Deck 10 Aft, 4:30pm.


Day 0 – Arriving in Orlando


Most of our party arrived in Orlando (via Southwest) the day before the cruise. We had planned on staying at the Hyatt Regency at Orlando International Airport, but when we tried to check in, we found out our reservation was at the Hyatt Regency Orlando on International Drive! (Surely I’m not the first one to make that mistake!) Fortunately, both the Hyatt and Hotels.com were understanding, and they gave us rooms at the airport Hyatt at the same price. At the time, it was stressful, but in hindsight, I have to say we lucked out. The airport Hyatt had a much higher fare that day – we inadvertently saved $80 a room.


The airport has a small nail salon, so some of us girls went and got our nails done. We had dinner in the food court and poked around the shops before going back to the comfy beds at the Hyatt.

 

[heapies926]

Day 1 – All Aboard


We woke up early, got our bags ready for the magical express, and had breakfast at the Airport food court. Chik Fil A was popular with the rest of the group – I got a steak salad at Moe’s (Any food is breakfast food if you eat it for breakfast) We got onboard the magical express, and were in the terminal by 11. My brother in law and his girlfriend were traveling from Germany and they met us in the terminal. We checked in, grabbed our personal navigators, and waited.


We were among the first people on the ship. Naturally, our first priority was to schedule alcohol tastings, so we went to Lumiere’s to do so. Next came lunch – we headed to Cabanas and FEASTED. My MO is always to grab all the meat and vegetables (Rookie Mistake: Filling up on cheap carbs.) We were early enough that Cabanas was mostly empty and fairly peaceful.


By then, it was time for me, hubby, sis (Maid of Honor), and her fiancé (Best Man) to meet with my wedding coordinators. We met them at guest services, and then we all walked to Fathoms together. They confirmed all of my choices with me and discussed how the wedding day was going to go. It was then we realized that due to some miscommunication, the wedding coordinators thought we were already married (we were not) and had not planned on a legal ceremony for us. YIKES!! Luckily, a notary was marrying someone else on the ship so they were able to ‘squeeze us in’. (Romantic, I know) They told us to come back in 45 minutes. We explored the ship while we waited.


We were permitted to bring as many people as we wanted to the legal ceremony, but I just wanted to bring two witnesses (my sis and her fiancé), and pretend that the ‘fun’ ceremony was our actual wedding. We did the legal ceremony outside the Walt Disney theater. It was short and sweet. Our witnesses signed the marriage certificate and we were on our way.

Hubby and I stopped back at the room and HOLY STUFF. My parents had sent us a bottle of wine and rice krispie treats, my sister had sent us the romance package for 2 (robes, champagne, rose, chocolates), and Disney had left us some nice gifts (bag, blanket, and pillow that said ‘Disney Fairytale Weddings’). (We had a small inside room, and found all the stuff a little overwhelming). We popped open the bottle of champagne to celebrate our nuptuals and finished it pretty quickly (traveling with family had been stressful).


Next it was time for the life boat drill. Our life boat drill was in Animator’s Palate – this was a first for me. I’m not sure why it was there but I will say it was much more pleasant than being shoved together on the decks. I was pleasantly tipsy from the champagne, and there were some very interesting people at our table at AP, so I enjoyed it immensely. Pro Tip: Pregame the lifeboat drill.


Then we headed up to the Sail Away party, where, as always, we were the only adults dancing. (I always enjoy the parties, even if they are a little repetitive) After the party, I popped into the spa and met with the woman who would style my hair on my wedding day, then I headed back to the room and got ready for dinner.


Next was the All Aboard show. “WHO’S ON VACATION?” “WE’RE ON VACATIOOOOOOON!” I know it’s not the most thrilling show, but I think it sets the tone for the week. After the show, a bunch of us headed to O’Gills for movie trivia. We did terrible, but it was fun!


Finally, it was time for dinner at Carioca’s. We met our awesome wait staff, ordered a wine plan, and I made my usual strange request for kids menus for the table. Why not? You can order off the kids menu, the booklets make nice trip trinkets, and you get to color in between courses! I ordered the Jose Carioca’s (a lot of us did) – I love the trifecta of meat! After a ~2 hour dining experience, I was ready for bed. When we got back to our room, we found Disney had left us a plate of fruit and chocolate covered strawberries to celebrate!


Random observation – in both cruises I’ve been on, I have been at decent sized tables full of adults. Both cruises, our table was served last by our servers. I assume it’s because they try to serve tables with children first and small tables first?

 

[Rabb it]

Very cool! I know absolutely nothing about Disney weddings, I'm excited to read on!

 

[adisneyaunt]

Sounds wonderful!!!!
Can't wait to read more

And CONGRATS!!!!

 

[heapies926]

Removing because I double posted, oops!

 

[heapies926]

Day 2 – Key West



Going into this trip, I was completely sleep deprived so we slept until 10:30. We got ready, and headed to Cabana’s precisely when it opened for lunch at 11:30 and feasted. (I’m not a fan of traditional breakfast food – whenever possible, I wait until lunch food is available) Then we headed to Fathoms to gather for our port adventure.



Me, DH, and DH’s mother have been to Key West before (briefly), so we had signed up for the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory with Aquarium (K14) so we could see something different. (The rest of our party were first timers to Key West, so they did a walking tour of the small city on their own).



After the port adventure, I feel confident about this statement: ‘I will never sign up for a Disney port adventure again.’ First we waited in Fathoms. Then we were herded outside where we stood in line and waited. Then we walked to the Aquarium and waited to get in. (Seeing a trend?) Once we were admitted, we were told we had about 30 minutes to explore. (The aquarium was small, but we got to see a shark feeding which was fascinating and amazing!) After 30 minutes, we met outside and waited. (for a very long time – about 45 minutes). Then we got on a trolley and went to the Butterfly exhibit. (It was neat, there were a lot of butterflies and the guide was very knowledgeable) After exploring the exhibit, we went outside and waited for our trolley back to the dock. After half an hour of waiting, DH’s mom (who was older and couldn’t handle any more standing) gave up and paid a bicycle taxi to take her back to the ship. My husband and I decided we would take a leisurely walk through the town to get back to the ship. Long story short – both attractions were worth seeing, I just wish I had seen them at my own pace.



On the way back to the ship, we each picked up our allotted two six packs of beer at CVS, and managed to fit all 24 bottles in our cabin’s cooler. We were feeling hungry, so we grabbed some hamburgers and fries from Pete’s to hold us over while we got ready. (I LOVE Pete’s fries. They are the ultimate fries. Always hot, crispy, and salty. I’ll say it - I think they are better than McDonald’s fries)



The show that night was the Magic & Illusion of Shawn Farquhar. For the first half an hour or so, I was a little unimpressed, but the finale blew me away.



After the show, we headed down to O’Gils for some 50s and 60s music trivia. My dad joined us and we did pretty well – but still lost by one point.



Dinner was at Lumiere’s that night. 3 of our party were at Palo, so we had 6 at our table instead of 9. I have to admit, I enjoyed that. 9 is really too many people at a table. But OMG, Lumieres dinner was my favorite meal of the trip (aside from Palo, of course). I had the duck confit for an appetizer. My sister got escargot and made me try it and I am surprised to say I loved it. For an entrée, I got the duck breast. Most of the table got the filet steak. We tasted each other’s food and it was all amazing.



After dinner, DH and I walked the decks a little, then headed off to bed. Tomorrow was the big day!

 

[heapies926]

Day 3 – At Sea/Tangled Day/Wedding Day

We woke up on our wedding day and decided to try the sitdown breakfast at Lumiere’s. We ran into two others in our party already seated there. The staff at Lumiere’s quickly accommodated our request for the four of us to sit together. I ordered a custom omelette – it was delicious, but it was so tiny! My brother in law ordered pancakes and I laughed at the tiny stack in front of him. I think Lumiere’s is very high quality – even the coffee tasted better than at Cabanas! But in the future, I will stick to Cabanas. More options, bigger portions, ocean view.

After breakfast, we went to the Art of the Theme Show Tour and learned some very interesting things about the ship.

When we returned to our room, I had a call from my wedding coordinator. Due to high winds anticipated for the evening, our wedding (which was supposed to be on deck 10 outside of Palo at 4:30) was now going to be in Keys. We also had a call from our photographer asking if we had any special photography requests for the evening (we didn’t).

We headed to Cabanas for lunch to find they had a whole section of Tangled themed foods! I tried some sausages and potato salad – it was very good. Cabanas also had my favorite today – mini corn dogs. They are so crispy and delicious!

After lunch, my sister and I lounged on deck a while before heading to our hair appointments at the Spa. (While we did that, the rest of our party was doing a wine tasting at Keys. They all said it was excellent – 5 wines and one sparkling champagne) I thought that getting our hair done in the spa was a little pricey, but I think it came out pretty good.

My sis and I went back to my room to get ready for the wedding (my husband was getting ready in my sister’s room with her fiancé). My one little ‘bummer’ about getting married on a Disney Cruise (at least on the Magic, not sure if it’s true on other ships) – You have to do your own makeup. Which is fine, except that I am challenged in all things girl and I don’t really understand how to makeup. My sister did her best to advise me, but I just made do with minimal makeup.

The rest of the party congregated at Keys while I waited in my room. My wedding coordinator came and got me, and we walked down to Keys together. I met my dad outside, who was going to walk me down the aisle. (Everyone else was already in position in Keys) We walked down the aisle, he handed me off to my husband, and then Captain Andy performed the marriage ceremony. After the brief ceremony, we took some pictures.


We were all served glasses of champagne, and a few in our party gave brief toasts. We cut the cake and everyone got a piece. Next was the first dance (We chose ‘Can I Have This Dance?’ from High School Musical 3) You’re allowed to choose some ‘extra songs’ for the allotted time, so we chose ‘You’ll Be in My Heart’ from Tarzan, and used this as a joint mother/son - father/daughter dance. We also chose ‘Gangnam Style’ and made everyone dance to it. I love that my guests can all say they danced at my wedding.


And that was it. Next, our incredible photographer took us around the ship and took some pictures. It was a little awkward – there were people everywhere and they kept telling me congratulations! He wanted to take us outside to get some pictures with the ocean as a backdrop, but it was way too windy. (I think he did a great job, but you can judge for yourself – I’m including a subset of the 129 photos in this post (only including the guests who are okay with their pics being up here) ) After the last photographs – I checked my watch. It was 5:37pm. The whole affair was an hour and 7 minutes!


Then it was back to cruise as usual, and there was a new Tangled show we needed to see. We rushed to meet the rest of our party at Tangled (I was still in my wedding dress). Despite the fact that it is a shot for shot remake of the movie (a little disappointing, compared to the creative twist they did for Cinderella), it was incredible. I love the music from Tangled and I enjoyed the performance immensely. The ‘I See the Light’ scene was particularly magical.


After the show, I was feeling overwhelmed from attention and needed to get out of that wedding dress, so I went back to the room and changed. We came in to find that Disney had left us the top layer of our cake with cake topper, a bottle of champagne, chocolate covered strawberries, and the floral from our wedding. How exciting! While I changed, some of our party went to O’Gils, where they were having the Snuggly Duckling (bar from Tangled) takeover. It sounded really cool. They did a sing a long to some of the songs from Tangled - the piano player had a hook on one of his hands that he was using to play the bass notes!


Then it was time for dinner at Animator’s Palate. My husband and I bought a bottle of Imperial Ice (a champagne we had tried at a wine tasting on our last cruise and adored) for the table. The food was fine, nothing special. I think Animator’s Palate has the weakest menu on the ship. We had the color show at Animator’s Palate – I adore the color show. I actually like it much better than the animation show. It’s what Disney is all about!


Match Your Mate was going on at Fathoms tonight. It would have been cool to go – I have a feeling we may have gotten picked to be a part of the show! But my family was there, and I have seen that show enough to know how awkward it would be for your family to see you on it! So we just walked around, enjoying the ship at night.

 

[Flossbolna]

Lovely report! You look fabulous in your wedding pictures and if you had not told us about the make up challenge, I would not have known about it.

I think Keys is such a pretty space and perfect for a wedding. Having to move inside must have been a disappointment, but at least the alternative was a very pretty spot, too.

Smart decision to not go to Match Your Mate. I have seen shows where couples had family around and while it adds a new level of amusement for the other guests, I think for the couple it does make it a bit awkward. Not something I would want to have on my wedding evening.

 

[heapies926]

Thanks, Flossbolna!

Actually, at the time, I was a little relieved the wedding was moved inside. I was worried about the wind and sun. Looking back, an ocean backdrop would have been amazing, but you're right, Keys is a beautiful location.

 

[Rabb it]

Great photos! What an amazing experience, congratulations!

 

[heapies926]

Day 4 – Grand Cayman


My husband and I woke up and enjoyed one of my favorite things to do on a cruise – have a nice leisurely meal outside. We ate outside at Cabanas and sipped coffee, enjoying the view.

Today was Grand Cayman, and our group had agreed to split up. My husband and sister’s fiancé had scheduled ‘Shipwreck and Reef Snorkeling’. (they both said it was great, but were totally sunburned when they returned). Husband’s brother and girlfriend went to ‘Shipwreck Snuba’, which they also liked and they saw lots of cool sea life. My parents and hubby’s mom went to theGrand CaymanIsland Tour - Adult Only Departure. They seemed to like it, despite a brief downpour of rain. The tour included tourist attractions like ‘Hell’ (a famous rock formation) and the turtle farm, which I saw on my previous trip and it was really cool. The pictures here are from that excursion – my dad was better at taking pictures than me!

My sister and I had planned to go shopping in Grand Cayman, but my sister was feeling lazy and I hadn’t been to the pool once yet, so we spent a few hours swimming and hanging out by the pool instead. At some point, we took a break to eat lunch at Cabanas, and we watched a cute little character show that was going on at the family pool. After a few hours, we grabbed drinks and headed down to deck 4. We sat in shaded lounge chairs, while we read and watched boats come to and from the coast.

Around 4, we met the boys on the top deck for second lunch (Pete’s burgers and Pinocchio’s pizza!).

That night was the showing of Captain America Civil War, which we all went to and enjoyed. Dinner was at Carioca’s with the Prince and Princess menu. I had the asparagus spears (good), Coronation of Mixed Leaves (decent salad) and the New York Strip Steak which was good. I had the flourless chocolate cake for dessert – I didn’t care for it. After dinner, we walked around the ship and listened to some live music.

 

[heapies926]

Day 5 – Cozumel

Today was Cozumel and the group was splitting up again. DH and I were scheduled for Fury Catamaran Sail Snorkel and BeachParty port adventure, but we really just wanted to relax together. We went to Guest Services and bailed on our port adventure anyway.

Meanwhile the parents went on Cozumel Highlights, Ruins and Discover Mexico Cultural Park – Adult Only Departure. I took this tour last time I was in Cozumel and it’s pretty good. The first stop was to see the Mayan Ruins. The second stop was at Discover Mexico Cultural Park, where you were provided a meal of authentic Mexican tacos. The last stop was a chocolate factory. It was a lot of cool stuff to see. My sister and her fiancé stayed on the ship, and hubby’s brother and brother’s girlfriend explored Cozumel on their own.

Hubby and I had a leisurely morning, eating breakfast and lunch outside at Cabanas, and hanging out on the mostly empty ship. We did have to stop by Shutters and choose what wedding photos we wanted printed (in addition to the cd, we got something like 50 prints). That took about 45 minutes, but I was smiling from ear to ear seeing how great the photos came out!

In the afternoon, we met up with my sister and her fiancé and we finally did the Aquadunk and the Twist’N’Shout slides. Even though this was my 2nd weeklong cruise on the Disney Magic, I had never been on either of the slides before! I didn’t really enjoy the Aquadunk – it was a little jerky for my taste, but the Twist’N’Shout was fun. Then we had some more pool time, before hitting up Pinocchio’s for pizza.

Tonight was Pirate night! DH and I went to the show – Junk. It was a great show, they were very entertaining. We stopped by O’Gils for Villains trivia and did okay. Then we went to dinner at Carioca’s (Pirate Themed Menu). I had the crab cake (yum!), the lamb shank (also good!), and the rum soaked chocolate cake (okay). Then we headed to the Pirate party. We enjoyed the fireworks/show, and danced most of the night away. It was a blast!

 

[heapies926]

Day 6 – Day at Sea

Hubby and I woke up and got ready for our 10:00am reservation at Palo for brunch. We had been to Palo brunch once before and were psyched to go again! (So many people have told me I should try Palo for dinner, but I feel like brunch is better. Dinner is great every night. I don’t really want to pay extra for it. Breakfast/lunch on the other hand? Yeah, I’ll pay for the FAR superior Palo alternative) We tried a ton of different things from the buffet and everything was delicious. There was parmesan cheese in aged balsamic that was incredible. For entrees, I got a frittata (okay) and the veal (very good). My husband got a pizza and two pasta dishes (all of which I tasted and were awesome)! Half of his pizza was grape and gargonzola and I think it was my favorite thing I tasted all trip. I can’t wait to go back and get it again! All the desserts were fantastic, I had way too many. Special shout out to the walnut brownie!

After we were sufficiently stuff and feeling lazy, we wondered into a DVC presentation and grabbed a free drink. (Since I was totally cruise obsessed, I wanted to see if it was a good idea to become a DVC member to use points on cruises. Spoiler alert – it’s not.) We stopped by the reservation desk to book our next cruise (7 night Alaskan cruise on the Wonder), and stopped by guest services to sign up for the Castaway Cay 5K the next day. Then we hit up some trivias (Disney Trivia and Disney Tunes Trivia), learned to draw Olaf, walked around deck, and popped in the shops. I won a cool key chain at the Disney Tunes Trivia. We lost track of time and actually missed the show that night (Voiceplay, and a capella group). First show we ever missed – mega bummer!! Then we went to O’Gils for Know It All Trivia

Then it was time for dinner at Lumiere’s – fhe famous Captain’s Gala dinner – famous, of course, because lobster tail is on the menu! Most of our table got lobster, but I had learned from my last Captain’s Gala dinner that I hated lobster, so it was Venison for me, which was good. The chocolate lava cake for dessert was nifty and delicious!

After dinner, my husband went to a whiskey tasting with his brother, which he said was amazing. While he was at the tasting, I relaxed in the room with a drink and a cheese plate from room service.

 

[Rabb it]

I'm glad to hear they have so many trivia options! So much fun

 

[heaven2dc]

Congratulations!! Love that you included your family on a cruise for the wedding We have never gone on a Disney cruise but hopefully someday in the future! Your wedding photos turned out great - you looked so beautiful! Loved your dress and hair. So fun to just relax a few days after the stress of wedding planning although it seems Disney helped with taking a lot of stress away. So nice that your family were able to enjoy together time as well as alone time - sounds so much like our family which is nice especially on family vacations.

 

[bbn1122]

Congratulations!!! Love your TR! Many Happy Years together.