Getting Married at Castaway Cay - Good or Bad idea?

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

AS others have stated, so not worth it for CC. We got married in WDW and the honeymooned on the Magic and out of the 75+ guest we had about 20 joined us on the cruise and it was amazing!!

 

[jeepnjudy]

Cake, flowers, night at Palo, ship officer officiant,wedding planner, comp steaming of dress and suit or tux, cake topper, cake knife, bottle of cuvee. That's what I remember off hand.

My DH and I had a marriage ceremony on the Wonder while on the Alaskan cruise 5 years ago and honestly we were the ONLY wedding so they treated us like royalty. The CAPT was impressed he actually had a wedding party on board so he made it a point to officiate the ceremony. (And yes, we were officially married prior to sailing). Besides the stuff listed above we were provided some type of treat daily in our stateroom, a wedding gift in our stateroom which included stuff like a huge beach towel that says something like Disney wedding and other stuff like that, and we also got tea with the Princesses which my DS was not overly thrilled with! But everyone else enjoyed it! This was a second marriage for both of us so we were not looking for all the pomp and circumstance but it was definitely an enjoyable treat to ourselves!

 

[lanejudy]

Okay... I'll roll with that.

That said, I got married in NY in 1995.
I remember something we had to fill out as part of the marriage license/application process. It said either of of us could keep our names, take each other's names, or combine them. It was our choice. The caveat was we had to declare what we we going to choose before the license was issued, so therefor on day 1 the names were appropriately recorded.

Granted, that was New York, and it was nearly 22 years ago. Anything and everything may have changed.

MG

That may well be that you had to declare name intentions upfront -- however, even in the 1990's the individual(s) changing their name still had to formally make that change with Social Security, driver's licenses, passports, credit cards, etc. It has never been a one-and-done process to get a name changed. Until the official ID has the new name, travel should be booked under the maiden name. I do think that has become more of an issue since 9/11 with IDs, as prior to that time people usually weren't scrutinized as closely. But the process of legally changing a name due to marriage really has remained about the same for many decades.

 

[chik1987]

Considering the prices of weddings here at home, I think the money is actually reasonable in comparison. A regular wedding reception is only a few hours long and typically costs 20k or more. Now they aren't the same, but the value of the ship wedding is very good. I don't look at the price per hour, but the price for the event.

You also get a $100 stateroom credit, and coordination of hair appointments, they can arrange a group Palo dinner, a cake and champagne reception, music, and access to a photographer. You can pay for extras like stateroom gifts, extra flowers, an appearance from Mickey and Minnie, and some other things.

Yep and thats exactly what we based our decision on to do a DCL wedding. Our budget was up around 18 or 20k and rising. I was looking at it going "really? what are WE getting out of all of this?" Its all fun and everything paying for all your closest friends and family to eat drink and party but I would rather spend the money on myself and my fiance for OUR wedding. DCL makes sure that the time is all about US which is how it should be and I think that gets lost a lot of the time.

 

[RedSox68]

In comparison -- we renewed our vows for our 30th in Maui on a private beach that was pre-picked for the package. The thought of marrying on CC with all those people and kids running around would not appeal to me. And the price if prohibitive. We paid a total of $900 for our vow renewal in Maui -- which included the officiate (who did the Hawaiian ceremony which we chose) and a guitar player and leis. The $3,000 fee for DCL is equal to another cruise!

Have a nice (cheaper) ceremony at home and use the cruise as your honeymoon and, if you choose, family and friend time to celebrate.

 

[cruisehopeful]

It's going to boil down to how let down you will feel if they cannot dock at Castaway Cay that day. Will you be just as happy to have the ceremony on the ship? Don't let others dictate how you do your wedding or how much you spend on what. It's supposed to be a once in a lifetime event and you and your partner's opinions are the ones that matter.

 

[tink1970]

I don't think it's too expensive at all. Weddings are crazy overpriced

I think for our 4 people (DH, DD, witness, and me) on the beach here it ran about $2500 (sans hotel and dress...add those in and it was closer to $4500-5000). Of course we did get a Blue Angels fly over gratis

My 2 cents is have it on board and spend CC relaxing but either way enjoy and congrats!!!

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

We saw a wedding on CC last year when we were sitting on the beach area. It was a perfect day and they looked really nice. But I would mostly worry about weather and not being able to dock. you have enough believe me to worry about on your wedding day why add more uncertainly! I would love to have got married on the cruise ship though oh that must be something else! Or the GF! Wow!

 

[wilkeliza]

To be honest if that is what you and your significant other want then who honestly cares what any of us here on the Dis say. Even if you get married on a beach in a port of call they aren't private or if you get married outside it isn't private. Heck most of the time if you get married in a chapel here in NYC it isn't private as they are all tourist locations so the doors are open for visitors.

So if you really picture your day being at CC then do it there. I also never understood the whole it isn't your "real" ceremony. Heck in almost all destination weddings you have to get married either before or after in your home country so it is no difference at all.

I would just be sure you would be okay having an on board wedding in case there are any issues with Castaway Cay but again if you are planning an outdoors ceremony anyways then there will be contention plans no matter where you get married as nobody can control the weather and having a plan B, C, and D on outdoor weddings is suggested.

 

[CamColt]

We watched a wedding at CC last week and all I could think of was how much did they pay per minute for that, LOL! The actual ceremony was no more than 10 minutes. Yes it was beautiful and I'm sure the bride felt like a princess and the pictures are gorgeous, but I just felt it was almost a waste. Plus you and your guests are on this beautiful island for a limited time and you can't really enjoy what it has to offer as you are all dressed up and doing the wedding stuff. Another con we saw this time was a screeching (and I mean screeching) child right next to the ceremony. You can't control who is there. Me being a worry wart would also drive myself nuts speculating about weather and if we would dock or not.

I think in theory its a great idea and again, it was a beautiful wedding (as were others we have seen), and I can definitely see the appeal, but once I sat there thinking of the logistics, I thought maybe its not such a good idea. But as with everything, it depends on the person. Those are just my thoughts. Best wishes in what you decide!

 

[truck1]

My DH and I had a marriage ceremony on the Wonder while on the Alaskan cruise 5 years ago and honestly we were the ONLY wedding so they treated us like royalty. The CAPT was impressed he actually had a wedding party on board so he made it a point to officiate the ceremony. (And yes, we were officially married prior to sailing). Besides the stuff listed above we were provided some type of treat daily in our stateroom, a wedding gift in our stateroom which included stuff like a huge beach towel that says something like Disney wedding and other stuff like that, and we also got tea with the Princesses which my DS was not overly thrilled with! But everyone else enjoyed it! This was a second marriage for both of us so we were not looking for all the pomp and circumstance but it was definitely an enjoyable treat to ourselves!

I remember that there was little thing here and there, but I honestly don't remember what they were of hand. The officer that married us. Walter, we saw again on the Fantasys Maiden, and he remembered us. In Oct 13,on the Fantasy we asked the CD if he was onboard, and he had transferred to the Wonder, where ever she was at the time. Ray, the CD, sent the CD on the Wonder a message, and they arranged to have a picture taken of Walter in front of Diversions, with a sign that said Happy Anniversary. Its the little things like that, that sets a DCL wedding apart, from others.

 

[chik1987]

Oh and for anyone that's wondering there is a DCL thread on the Disney Weddings/Honeymoons board that has a lot of great information. Just make sure you are reading current stuff because there are post going back years and a lot has changed apparently.

 

[jeepnjudy]

I remember that there was little thing here and there, but I honestly don't remember what they were of hand. The officer that married us. Walter, we saw again on the Fantasys Maiden, and he remembered us. In Oct 13,on the Fantasy we asked the CD if he was onboard, and he had transferred to the Wonder, where ever she was at the time. Ray, the CD, sent the CD on the Wonder a message, and they arranged to have a picture taken of Walter in front of Diversions, with a sign that said Happy Anniversary. Its the little things like that, that sets a DCL wedding apart, from others.

That is cool!

 

[CampbellzSoup]

Considering the prices of weddings here at home, I think the money is actually reasonable in comparison. A regular wedding reception is only a few hours long and typically costs 20k or more. Now they aren't the same, but the value of the ship wedding is very good. I don't look at the price per hour, but the price for the event.

You also get a $100 stateroom credit, and coordination of hair appointments, they can arrange a group Palo dinner, a cake and champagne reception, music, and access to a photographer. You can pay for extras like stateroom gifts, extra flowers, an appearance from Mickey and Minnie, and some other things.

How much would a Mikcey and Minnie appearance be? Do they wear their formal wear - thank you so much

 

[Terapin]

How much would a Mikcey and Minnie appearance be? Do they wear their formal wear - thank you so much

I don't know. Sorry! I'm sure you could call and ask though.

 

[truck1]

How much would a Mikcey and Minnie appearance be? Do they wear their formal wear - thank you so much

From what I remember it was pretty expensive. I want to say it was 500 a piece. There were some restrictions like they couldn't be in the actual ceremony.

 

[NAB]

I felt sorry for the couple this week , it was so hot and humid and they were all dress up in a beautiful long dress. There at least 4 other brides waiting for pictures on the ship one night too. They were all beautiful .

 

[starrydominique]

All up to opinions really, we did and it was the best decision ever. We were just featured again on another blog I linked below. We took our original budget and spent it on a really nice vacation. There was a very real threat we wouldn't dock at Castaway due to choppy waters and the coordinator was in contact with the Captain and us most of the night. Bad weather is a threat to any outdoor wedding though and we knew that going into it. Captain ended up docking crazy early at 5AM and we received a call at 6:30AM letting us know we were good to go. Yeah it wasn't the most private of things but we don't regret a bit of it, the island is perfection and Disney made the process super easy. We did the civil ceremony prior to embark and it was just the two of us. It may not have been the legal ceremony but the castaway ceremony was what we wanted to give our parents (we had talked pretty seriously about eloping). We rented a Cabana for our parents and siblings and we spent the afternoon on the boat taking photos. We weren't concerned about missing Castaway because our honeymoon was 3 weeks later on the Fantasy (ironically enough, we couldn't dock that time, lol). The Disney crew was so amazingly good to us and our onboard coordinator Alina was just the best thing ever. Logistically speaking, everything went off like clockwork. Alina escorted all of us everywhere with her fancy little key that gives us solo elevator access almost immediately and there was crew all over the place on headsets relaying information. My dad couldn't believe how perfectly planned everything was. Our family was escorted back up to the small reception first while we took photos on the beach and when we were on our way back to the ship another call was made and they were already holding an elevator for us the second we walked back onboard. Since it was just adults and there was only 8 of us, we managed to book a table for all of us at Palo the evening of the wedding and that was kind of our fancy dinner. We didn't pay for Mickey but we accidentally ran into him on our way back to the ship and being in a big white dress, everybody let me cut in line for a photo. We also saw Donald and cut in line again at the Castaway Christmas tree (seriously, learn to work the dress, hehe). We were married in December, the weather was a little cloudy at first, but a nice 70 or so degrees outside, not humid to us but we are from south Texas, it was almost cold to us. Yeah it's a lot of money but we've been to a lot of weddings and we've never seen one run so freakishly smooth as ours did, I didn't worry about a single thing from the second I walked on that boat. If you are easy going and big kids like us, its just perfect.

http://thisfairytalelife.com/castaway-cay-disney-wedding/

 

[ladyofthetramp]

starrydominique-your pictures are just beautiful!

 

[olookasquirrel]

Would it be an option, since you have to get officially married before the cruise anyway, to just unofficially get married at CC? You could have someone in the wedding party say the words. You could even do the old fashioned thing of getting everyone little disposable cameras to take pictures! Little disposable waterproof cameras!! (do those even exist anymore? Now I kind of want them for our next trip - google, here I come!). But since you don't go to a special location or anything, what's to stop you from showing up in your wedding dress and standing around the beach for a bit? You wouldn't get the other perks, but, outside of the photographer, they seem to be excessively charged for what they are. Then you would have an extra say $2500 for a honeymoon cruise!

I'd also see about doing a double dip cruise, if it's possible. That way, if one trip to CC is shot, you have another chance.