Help with Reception on Allure of the Seas

[jackibees]

Hi everyone... I just booked my wedding cruise on the Allure of the Seas and I'm trying to figure out the logistics/budgeting for the wedding/reception. We are having the ceremony in St. Thomas (using Island Bliss), having a little mini reception on the beach, and then I was hoping to do a dinner reception at one of the Specialty restaurants. I looked into buying out Giovanni's or Chops and for the number of guests we're having (60), it just doesn't make sense financially (Giovanni's cover is $15/person but it costs $3,500 to buy out with a "set menu"). Can any other Allure brides share what they are doing for their reception? Any other ideas of how to achieve a nice, semi-private reception on the Allure? Thanks so much in advance! This forum has been super helpful to me as I start planning all of this!

[fldogmassage]

I am getting married on the Allure. However my wedding is on the allure as well as my reception. So we will have a private reception. They have price ranges from $32 per person up to $48 per person. We are only having immediate family, in order to keep the price down. Wish we could have 60 people.

[jackibees]

Congratulations on your wedding and thanks so much for the info! I am thinking about doing a cocktail reception at Iggie's Beach Bar, having dinner in the main dining room where we'll pick up the tab for drinks, and then having a cocktail reception in one of the lounges where our guests can do an open bar and we can do the dancing, speeches, etc. Any feedback you guys have on this plan would be amazing! You girls all have your weddings planned so amazingly well!

[km5377]

We are having our wedding on the Freedom of the Seas - the buy outs are a bit cheaper. We're paying the same price for Chops. Anyway, there are also private sections in the main dining room that you can use for all your guests to sit together. We plan to dine together every night and we have 60. It looks like on the Oasis class the private dining rooms hold either 40 or 148. They do not charge extra for you to sit in these rooms and the menu is the same as the main dining room. Otherwise you can rent out a lounge and have just a cocktail hour on the ship. A group specialist can send you all the info. Below is a link to the facilities on the Oasis Class for Groups.

http://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal...lass_Guide.pdf

[jackibees]

Wow, that is definitely the most amazing document that I've ever seen when it comes to planning this out! Thank you so much for sharing it with me and for the info. Congrats on your Freedom wedding!

[LilBlackDress]

I don't know how RCCL are handling things now. I heard they dropped TWE... but what I would look into is a private cocktail party of sorts through a TA vs the wedding department. If all the guests are sailing you should be able get a bar/club for an hour or 2.
If you go through the wedding department I think you will have to pay for a whole package and a per person price for the reception

[jackibees]

Thank you so much for the advice. I am not going to go through Royal Romance because of both the package cost that you're talking about and the fact that I see everyone has had a very rough time working with them. I am hoping to reserve a lounge for two hours after dinner for a reception and then we will just go dance in the nightclub in our wedding formalwear. I figure it's kind of a funny way to end the night. Thanks so much for all of your help. You've all helped a ton!

[kamusta1]

Originally Posted by jackibees

Thank you so much for the advice. I am not going to go through Royal Romance because of both the package cost that you're talking about and the fact that I see everyone has had a very rough time working with them. I am hoping to reserve a lounge for two hours after dinner for a reception and then we will just go dance in the nightclub in our wedding formalwear. I figure it's kind of a funny way to end the night. Thanks so much for all of your help. You've all helped a ton!

They no longer outsource Royal Romance so everything is in house. We got married on Allure in August and have nothing but positive things to say about the new Royal Romance. We got married on Day 1 in the Chapel and rented out Chops for our reception at night.

Definitely contact your TA if you want to reserve a lounge.

[fldogmassage]

Kamusta1, can you please give us your review. My wedding is booked for July 21 on Allure and would love to hear about your day and everything leading up to it.

[PunkyB]

I would love a review, too. We are using Royal Romance in case for whatever reason the wedding cannot take place at our desired location. Then we have a backup plan.

[wellsme1]

I must say, RCCL still doesn't have their act together. We are thirty seven days away from our Allure onboard wedding and have yet to hear from our wedding specialist.
We've made various calls since August 2011 to try to get some questions answered and until the last couple of weeks, no returned calls. After b%*@&$#g (and I never complain) we were finally contacted by a specialist's assistant. He was trying to be helpful, but he did not have the answers we were looking for. They are a month behind we were told.
I would not recommend RCCL for any type of wedding at this point. The lack of communication is unacceptable.
Also, keep in mind, we were told that you can not take any wedding cake off the ship and no unity candles.
So far, the whole process has been very stressful and a disappointment............AND I'M THE GROOM!

[PunkyB]

Really? Ugh. My travel agent called yesterday to book ours on St Thomas in Jan 2014. She said they call you back in the order of the wedding or something and that it would be like a week. Makes me wonder how many other couples are doing this.

I think the problem is they probably have one person for all these events. You have weddings, receptions, etc. The Oasis and Allure are so popular it is probably very common to have a cruiseship wedding. I can't imagine how many they have booked on those ships alone. Also, they are not wedding coordinators. They are just event planners.

They really need to get their act together. Luckily there are places like this where you can warn other people.