Disney Cruise Brides - Let's Chat about our Weddings/VR's!

[Goldeelox9]

I too had Photo issues Nessa...Not at bad as yours, but the second I got on the ship I headed to Shutters and introduced myself and told them I wanted the most experienced Photographer they had. If that is who I got I would hate to see the inexperienced ones. I, thankfully, know a bit about photography and guided my DH and the photographers on how to shant and locations I wanted and all, I think it turned out ok, but if there is one think I can STRESS to new brides....take a photographer or do some research and let them know exactally what you want. I didn't even think about the dirty lens, or the possibilty of one. If I had it to do over I would have made DH clean the lens for the photographer just to be safe...LOL

Can you link to your Magic Kingdom Pictures? Also tell us more about staying an extra week!!!

 

[CinderelliT]

Beautiful Nessa!

 

[Vegas]

Hey guys, in debating between a WDW and a DCL the cost for the guests has come up. Do you feel that it is less expensive to go with DCL or if not less expensive but worth the money?

Thanks!

 

[Goldeelox9]

What time of year are you thinking? My Wedding was in November, a 4 night and my guest (2 adults) could sail for 4 nights for under $1000 with an inside room. This $1000 included all of thier food and entertainment! For 2 Adults for 4 nights at WDW it would have been over $1000. Park Tickets for 2 Adults for 4 days is $450.00 plus tax so $479.26 with out park hoppers or waterparks. Hotel will be atleast $100 a night if you go with the All Stars or Pop so $400 there so with out food you are already at $879.26 . Even if you only add the basic Meal Plan at around $40 a day per person that would be an additional $320. So in my opinion it would be cheaper for your guests to do the cruise!

Cost aside the best part about the cruise wedding is that you get 4 days (oe however long of a cruise you pick) to spend with your guests. Each night is like a wedding reception. You all have dinner together and there is only so many places during the day to go to so you are always around the people who came to share your special day with you!

The choices are limited for the weddings on the cruise, photography is hit or miss and you only have 3 differant locations to choice from (I vote for the beach on Castaway Cay). BUT there is sooo much for adults (even the adults who don't love Disney) to do. It was our dream to get married on the beach and DCL was a perfect way to do it. Another big thing for us was it was simple to plan and elegant and wonderful. I loved spending the time with my guests!!!

 

[Vegas]

What time of year are you thinking? My Wedding was in November, a 4 night and my guest (2 adults) could sail for 4 nights for under $1000 with an inside room. This $1000 included all of thier food and entertainment! For 2 Adults for 4 nights at WDW it would have been over $1000. Park Tickets for 2 Adults for 4 days is $450.00 plus tax so $479.26 with out park hoppers or waterparks. Hotel will be atleast $100 a night if you go with the All Stars or Pop so $400 there so with out food you are already at $879.26 . Even if you only add the basic Meal Plan at around $40 a day per person that would be an additional $320. So in my opinion it would be cheaper for your guests to do the cruise!

Cost aside the best part about the cruise wedding is that you get 4 days (oe however long of a cruise you pick) to spend with your guests. Each night is like a wedding reception. You all have dinner together and there is only so many places during the day to go to so you are always around the people who came to share your special day with you!

The choices are limited for the weddings on the cruise, photography is hit or miss and you only have 3 differant locations to choice from (I vote for the beach on Castaway Cay). BUT there is sooo much for adults (even the adults who don't love Disney) to do. It was our dream to get married on the beach and DCL was a perfect way to do it. Another big thing for us was it was simple to plan and elegant and wonderful. I loved spending the time with my guests!!!

Awesome. I was considering Nov/Dec. Are there some kind of discounts you get when booking a wedding (group) I think we'd have 9-10 staterooms.

Also our guests would have to pay for airfare ($200-$250 roundtrip) and a Passport card (about $50)

Has anyone paid for any part of their guests trip?

 

[Goldeelox9]

November is Cheaper before Thanksgiving (Obviously). Flights are cheaper then too.

There is a group discount if your have more then 8 staterooms.

We paid for the Welcome Dinner at Ohana (about $900) and we paid for the transport to and from the airport/hotels.

 

[SI-Jen]

I wanted to know how much and how to go about geting pictures done at the magic kingdom in florida?

 

[hawky7]

Hey all you DCL brides!!! Question for you, does the DCL package come with a reception at Palo? If it doesn't come with it, how much does it cost to add it? And for either option, what do you get, alot of dancing time?? I want to dance dance dance!!! But I'd like to know all I can before really inviting all my family so they can know if there is more than just the ceremony.

PS- Here is a little about us. We are planning our 10 yr VR ceremony for DCL on CC in May,2011. We met 11 years ago this month, when he worked in a restaurant, and my friends and I were his loud obnoxious customers that they always stuck in his section. LOL We've been married for 8.5 years, and have no kids. Disney is a huge part of our lives, we are AP at DL, and go to WDW once to twice a year. Even though I'm the bigger Disney lover, my DH is a great guy who goes because of how happy it makes me. When I brought up a VR on disney I thought he'd laugh, instead he said, well since Disney has been such a big part of our first 10 years together, seems only fitting to me. Awww made my heart melt.

So any details you guys have on what happens after the ceremony would be greatly appreciated!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!

 

[chepic]

Hey all you DCL brides!!! Question for you, does the DCL package come with a reception at Palo? If it doesn't come with it, how much does it cost to add it? And for either option, what do you get, alot of dancing time?? I want to dance dance dance!!! But I'd like to know all I can before really inviting all my family so they can know if there is more than just the ceremony.

PS- Here is a little about us. We are planning our 10 yr VR ceremony for DCL on CC in May,2011. We met 11 years ago this month, when he worked in a restaurant, and my friends and I were his loud obnoxious customers that they always stuck in his section. LOL We've been married for 8.5 years, and have no kids. Disney is a huge part of our lives, we are AP at DL, and go to WDW once to twice a year. Even though I'm the bigger Disney lover, my DH is a great guy who goes because of how happy it makes me. When I brought up a VR on disney I thought he'd laugh, instead he said, well since Disney has been such a big part of our first 10 years together, seems only fitting to me. Awww made my heart melt.

So any details you guys have on what happens after the ceremony would be greatly appreciated!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!

You get dinner for 2 at Palo. If you have more people than that, you need to pay the going rate for dinner add on (at the time it was $10 for us, but I think it has gone up since then.) There is no dancing at Palo. You get your area (we were in sessions) for 1 hour which includes the ceremony, cake cutting, toast, dance, and whatever else you can fit in. If you are using a photographer, they will take pictures throughout. We had 1.5 hours between the ceremony and Palo: our choice, so we could get the kids settled that were in our party, and so that Dave and I could have pictures taken throughout the ship. We went dancing later that night in the clubs...I kept my dress on. If you click on Betsy's TR, you will see some pictures of her at the club after. It was lots of fun.

the day is really what you make of it with your guest. There were just over 20 of us, with kids. Only the adults went to dinner at Palo. We all had a great time on the Magic, and pretty much hung out at different times throughout the trip.

I agree with you, Disney for us was the best way to spend our anniversary.

Hope this helps. It has been 2 years since our trip....can't believe that much time as gone by, but I would do it again without hesitation.

cheryl

 

[29apr00]

We just got off the Wonder a month ago for our 10th anniversary VR........We were in Cadillac Lounge and had time for 1 dance before we cut the cake, had about 10 minutes of "mingling" before we went for pictures. We had 15 mintues for Pictures then it was time for our Palo reserveation. Our VR was supposed to be 430pm...but we started about 15 minutes late. Looking back now i feel like it was pretty rushed......but at the time everything just seemed to flow. Until you just asked about dancing, it didn't even occur to me that we only danced to 1/2 of our song, and nothing else! Oh well.....I'm still happy with the VR that we had.

Time to plan for 15 yrs......

 

[hawky7]

You get dinner for 2 at Palo. If you have more people than that, you need to pay the going rate for dinner add on (at the time it was $10 for us, but I think it has gone up since then.) There is no dancing at Palo. You get your area (we were in sessions) for 1 hour which includes the ceremony, cake cutting, toast, dance, and whatever else you can fit in. If you are using a photographer, they will take pictures throughout. We had 1.5 hours between the ceremony and Palo: our choice, so we could get the kids settled that were in our party, and so that Dave and I could have pictures taken throughout the ship. We went dancing later that night in the clubs...I kept my dress on. If you click on Betsy's TR, you will see some pictures of her at the club after. It was lots of fun.

the day is really what you make of it with your guest. There were just over 20 of us, with kids. Only the adults went to dinner at Palo. We all had a great time on the Magic, and pretty much hung out at different times throughout the trip.

I agree with you, Disney for us was the best way to spend our anniversary.

Hope this helps. It has been 2 years since our trip....can't believe that much time as gone by, but I would do it again without hesitation.

cheryl

Cheryl- thanks for the help! Did you guys use Disney photographer? Is it like a photopass type photographer like at WDW... that wouldn't appeal to me. LOL, I could just get one of my siblings to do that.

I'm sooo excited!!! I know, its still almost a year and a half away, but seriously I spend every waking minute that i am not at work on the disboards and looking up dresses! I've become obsessed!!!

I really just want to do one slow song and maybe one or two others, and then cake, so it should be okay I would hope....

We just got off the Wonder a month ago for our 10th anniversary VR........We were in Cadillac Lounge and had time for 1 dance before we cut the cake, had about 10 minutes of "mingling" before we went for pictures. We had 15 mintues for Pictures then it was time for our Palo reserveation. Our VR was supposed to be 430pm...but we started about 15 minutes late. Looking back now i feel like it was pretty rushed......but at the time everything just seemed to flow. Until you just asked about dancing, it didn't even occur to me that we only danced to 1/2 of our song, and nothing else! Oh well.....I'm still happy with the VR that we had.

Time to plan for 15 yrs......

29apr00- LOL!!! I know, I'm like hmmm, can I have a VR every year??? Don't think DH will go for that! DARN! I saw your pics on one of these threads, beautiful!!! Your kiddos looked darn cute too!! Looks like you guys had fun! Were you originally planning on CC? Can I ask you what changed your mind? We were thinking of CC, then I saw some pics with all those people in the background..hmmm can't decide now. And I would like to actually be able to enjoy CC.

So I know everyone was really discouraged ( yes I've been reading this thread ALL day, going in reverse order. I'm 40 pgs in ) but all in all, can you give me any advice or anything to make it perfect. I really am fine with just the basics. Like I don't need a fancy cake or flowers....But I do want to dance a little, as we never got to since we got married in Vegas. So that would be my first pick and a quick cake cutting. Did you guys take the rest of the cake with you??

I just want my MK photoshoot afterwards !!! is that sad, that is the main reason for my VR?? Not that I wasn't already thinking of a disney VR, just once I found out about the MK photoshoot, I was like ohhh yep thats what we're doing...

Okay and one other thing, I know, I'm full of all sorts of q's... we're going on the Wonder for a 3 night in 11 days, do you think they'd let me sit down with a wedding coordinator on the ship just to ask all sorts of q's???

Thanks ladies!!!

 

[DisneyDmbNut]

If you have a CC ceremony, the Palo reception is included.

We didn't do the dancing at the ceremony..we had our cake moved to the private room in Palo so our dance time was spent taking pictures on deck

But we did sorta take over the club that night..it was karaoke night and our group from the VR met up with other friends from the boards and we danced..some people even danced on the bar!! Haha
The host even had us come up and dance on the stage

 

[hawky7]

Oh those pics of you guys onstage are awesome! Love it!! I watched your VR video on youtube!! Looks amazing! I wanted to know how long the actual ceremony would last, so thank you for posting that!! And thanks for starting this thread, its been so SO helpful to me. I think my DH is about to take the computer away from me, I'm always like yeah sure I'm paying attention when secretly I'm just reading the disboards!!! JK sorta!!

So it only comes with Palo reception if you do a CC wedding? If I change and decide to do a onboard ceremony on the secret deck, can I add the reception type thing to palo for us and our guests, or is it just basically a dinner in palo that you can add? So the reception is just basically what we chose to do with the time directly after the ceremony...is that pretty much how it works??

 

[29apr00]

we were originally planning on CC, but we changed for 3 reasons. the 1st being the $1000 savings to do it on board......money got tight last year and we just couldn't swing it. 2nd, i wanted my guests, and us, to have day to relax and enjoy the beach at CC. We were at disney, doing it commando style like always, the week before the cruise. if we would have done the VR on CC, that would have been saturday, and we return home on sunday, and back to work monday! We'd have had no time to relax. (and since our weather was crappy anyway, we would have been moved and i'd have wasted that $1000 and that would have pissed me off!! 3rd was just logistically it worked out better. if the VR on CC was at 1030am, then back to the ship for cake and champagne in Palo....the change into bathing suit/shorts for lunch on the island, then back to the ship, shower and redress in wedding attire for our adults dinner in Palo??? no way! too much rushing around and I know no one would have wanted to get dressed up again after being at the beach during the day. I'm glad we switched....it really worked better for everyone. maybe a 7 day where you have more time, the CC would be better.

 

[DisneyDmbNut]

We booked the private room a few months before the cruise date..as I understand it ..they will only book it 30 days out now. You must have a minimum of 12 and a max of 14 to book the room. Cheryl just booked regular Palo bookings but the manager worked it out to have them at a big table in the center.

Our ceremony was at 5:30 and we had the Palo reservation for 6pm. We did the ceremony, walked around deck with the photographer while our guests headed to Palo. I think we were there by 6:15pm

 

[CinderelliT]

I can't help you with the reception part of it - but I did spend the entire day of our VR in my dress. We could go into any of the clubs on the ship and dance if we wanted. (Great pics Betsy- btw!) We did our vr on deck 7, and we had the deck just to us for quite a while. The nice thing too was that I made a CD of music, so after the pianist left, they put it on and just let the whole thing play. We did get to dance to a couple of songs and it was very romantic being out over the water.

We did our cake and champagne there on the deck and mingled with our guests, and as they all left and the clean up started, we danced to our cd again that was playing. It was just me and DH, while my kids were pigging out on cake. And yah, you get to keep your cake while on the ship. We shared it with 12 other people and then ate it the whole next day, and there was still cake left over that had to be thrown out!!

MK photo shoot was also like EXTREMELY important to me. It was also as magical and romantic as the VR. My pics should be online in about a week!

 

[hawky7]

CinderelliT- Thanks for all the info!! BTW, saw your posted pics so far! Gorgeous!!! Love the shoes! I think I commented on them on the shoes thread! LOL!!! I can NOT wait to see your MK photos!!!! Those are my favorite pictures! Its actually the main reason we are doing a vow renewal. I mean don't get me wrong, I love my DH more than anything, and we'd do a vow renewal regardless, but the photoshoot makes it HAVE to happen at Disney!!!

So you can stay on the deck after they're done? Like what you said, I can keep playing my cd, and dancing and doing whatever we want...that would be pretty nice!

I want to spend the entire day in my dress too!!! Can I wear it to the shows that night?? Its not often that we get to be a princess, so whats the harm in wanting to be one for the entire day??




29apr00- Thanks for the help! Thats what my DH is worried about too, about not having any time to relax on cc day.And we are only doing the 3 night cruise (that way we can go on our actual anniversary) So did you get to choose what day you did your ceremony onboard? I was wondering about if you couldn't dock at CC, so you just get screwed out of the $1000...thats sorta BS!!! Well not sorta, but IS! I suppose they'd pull the whole, weather related we don't have any control, so bla bla bla.... Anyways, thanks again for all your reasons for switching, it does bring up alot I hadn't thought about. I'm thinking deck 7 sounds pretty nice....

 

[29apr00]

One other thing for you to keep in mindy Hawky7, is guest count. The Maximum number of guests for deck 7 is 18, ie 20 TOTAL with bride and groom. And......as i found out once we got on board.....DCL only provides chairs for 12 of those guests....everyone else is expected to stand. If you have more than 20, you'll be moved into the lounge.

 

[DisneyDmbNut]

I went everywhere in my dress..clubs, bars, Palo..we even walked around the atrium and had our pictures taken with the backdrops

 

[29apr00]

I wore my dress to the Pirates in the Caribbean Deck party. Not the best idea as the button for the bustle broke and we couldn't bustle it....so i hiked it up over my arm to dance with....I'm sure i looked real Klassy!