Disney Cruise Wedding, Castaway Cay, Questions!

[starrydominique]

I'm sitting here at midnight going through our wedding packet for our wedding this December in Castaway Cay and I had some silly questions I feel funny asking the wedding coordinator. So if anybody knows the answer to any of these before I take the plunge and as the coordinator I appreciate it!

1. The Civil Ceremony. I have this thing about getting married "twice". When you do the civil ceremony on embarkation day, do you just sign yourself into marriage or do you have to go through all the vows, kiss, yada yada?

2. Palo Dinner. Our entire guest list is adults and we wanted to go to Palo as a group on the wedding night. Have other people done this before? There is only 9 of us total.

3. The Beach Enhancements. Are they worth it?

4. Hair Appointments. It says we are only allowed to pre-book 2 hair appointments for our beach ceremony. But by it saying pre-book, can we try to book additional appointments once we board the ship?

5. Makeup. I see that there is no formal makeup services offered on the ship. Has anyone contacted somebody aboard the ship that could by chance? I'm not very good at makeup and neither are the 4 ladies coming with us so... was hoping there was a solution to this problem or we will need to get to practicing.

6. Music. Is the music by a live musician or is it all a CD?

Thanks for the help on the many questions I'm sure to have!

 

[lorimay]

I can just answer a few from my vow renewal on The Magic in 2012. We did our renewal on deck 7.
Palo- They have a private backroom you can try and book, not sure if you need a certain number to do it. I believe it holds 15 people.
Hair- I was the only one to do my hair and I believe the wedding coordinator made the appt. for me before we sailed.
Make-up- The girl who did my hair said that they sometimes have someone in the salon that can do make-up but its not a guarantee.
Music- We made a disc and gave it to wedding coordinator when we met with her on embarkation day, but there was also a keyboard player there, she played as we entered.
We had just our kids and their significant others and our 2 young grandchildren, just 8 of us total.

Congratulations and good luck!

 

[orion2185]

we had a Castaway Cay wedding on the Jan 3 2015 Fantasy sailing.
It blew our minds...it was way better than we could have ever dreamed of.

will also answer your questions- since we also did the Castaway Cay Wedding and it's only been a few months

1)

1. The Civil Ceremony. I have this thing about getting married "twice". When you do the civil ceremony on embarkation day, do you just sign yourself into marriage or do you have to go through all the vows, kiss, yada yada?

yes, the civil ceremony was just that of any normal wedding
vows, kiss, yada yada we did it all


2. Palo Dinner. Our entire guest list is adults and we wanted to go to Palo as a group on the wedding night. Have other people done this before? There is only 9 of us total.
The wedding bride and groom Palo dinners would be the only "free or comped" out of the group
everyone else will have to pay or you pay their cost.

since your group is smaller you might have a "chance" on booking it
I know for larger parties the answer is a FIRM NO

do know the private table is very popular and is hard to get (even with help from Disney)


though you did not mention what ship your sailing on...so can't give exact details on Palo
as each set up is slightly different.

3.The Beach Enhancements. Are they worth it?

Hard choice huh?
that's up to you to determine.

We had the palms and shells to form an aisle (will see if we can dig up some photos)
but it's literally a few palm leaves and a couple of shells
and rose pedals (which wind loves to blow away)

it's so quick it's hard to take notice of these little details.
if budget is a issue- the money would be spent better on something else.
ones of those "nice to have" but not needed at all
our wedding coordinator told us most Castaway Weddings go without any added extras


4. Hair Appointments. It says we are only allowed to pre-book 2 hair appointments for our beach ceremony. But by it saying pre-book, can we try to book additional appointments once we board the ship?

yes, shore-side will pre-book 2 hair appointments
based upon my wife's experience - they only had 2 stylists working that morning (they come in just for you) as the Salon was closed off to other guest


5. Makeup. I see that there is no formal makeup services offered on the ship. Has anyone contacted somebody aboard the ship that could by chance? I'm not very good at makeup and neither are the 4 ladies coming with us so... was hoping there was a solution to this problem or we will need to get to practicing.

no makeup team onboard
you might get lucky and one of the hair stylist also does makeup
it's a roll of the dice

6. Music. Is the music by a live musician or is it all a CD?

the music will be all live
UNLESS you request a CD

we went with the CD
but still ened up having the live pianist at the ceremony and reception...which we had no clue she was going to be there.
so we ask her to play instead of our CD
as she knew all the songs we requested (todays popular music) She was AMAZING
we saw her around the ship prior to wedding day - so we ditched the CD and the LIVE music was a much better choice



One thing we say that is a MUST for Castway Cay weddings is renting the Grand Cabana
we were the first guest to use it and was the PERFECT addition to a Castaway Cay wedding - it should be apart of the package or offered as an upgrade

since your on the island then back on the ship for reception
if you want to go back on the island afterwards- all spots are taken

plus it was a nice way for everyone to keep the wedding reception going on the BEACH!


let us know if you have any other questions

 

[starrydominique]

Our wedding will be aboard the Dream via Cape Canaveral. Thanks for the info!

If that's the case for the civil ceremony, we may just do it here in Texas prior to leaving. Stinks but oh well.

Is the wedding musician a pianist on the beach as well? Why no island music? hehe. A pianist would be nice though, we are going for a toned down affair so either or will be okay.

Thanks for the advice on the Grand Cabana. Hopefully we can get that. We are sailing concierge for the wedding so hopefully we have better access to some of the perks. I know we get to book things 30 days prior to everyone else and I'll certainly be ready to go when that time hits.