gay wedding at sea - experience and/or suggestions?

[CPAatSea]

My fiance proposed to me when we were on our most recent vacation in Hawaii. We both love to travel every chance we have and decided that we would like to have a sort of destination wedding. We are thinking of setting a date in spring or summer 2011.

Our thoughts were to go on a cruise and get married one of the days we are at sea. We were contemplating a cruise to Bermuda out of NY because we live in South Jersey so we would be able to avoid airfare getting to and from the ship. Also, while some family members will be paying their own way we will be financing the trip for other family members who cannot afford to come otherwise.

My questions relate to gay marriage on cruise ships. Do cruise lines like Princess, NCL and RCCL allow this? Also, is there any advice as to how we should approach this? We are more concerned with the symbolism of the ceremony rather than the legality. We plan to get a civil union in New Jersey shortly before the event.

Right now we are still in the research phase of planning our special day. I would appreciate any and all information that could help us in making decisions. I tried browsing the internet and it is really hard to find good information related to this. Thanks everyone in advance for your help!

[Ephraim]

Princess has explicit policies in place against any sort of discrimination.

There are two other problems, here. RCL generally has weddings done in port, meaning that the person who marries you must marry you under to local laws. As far as I know, that means that you can have a legal wedding in Canada, Spain, South Africa, Denmark, Spain, etc. but not in the US.

Princess and NCL (if I remember correctly) allow the captain or an officer to do the ceremony. In that case they are marrying you under the laws of their flag of convenience. As far as I know, none of the flags of convenience countries are allowing Gay marriage. In essence, they can do a ceremony, but it has no basis in law.

If you do decide to do it on a trip to Canada then be aware that some provinces have waiting periods. (In Quebec, we still have the banns and you have to announce 20 days before you are married!) Also, divorce requires residency.

[marcoigna]

Originally Posted by CPAatSea

My fiance proposed to me when we were on our most recent vacation in Hawaii. We both love to travel every chance we have and decided that we would like to have a sort of destination wedding. We are thinking of setting a date in spring or summer 2011.

Our thoughts were to go on a cruise and get married one of the days we are at sea. We were contemplating a cruise to Bermuda out of NY because we live in South Jersey so we would be able to avoid airfare getting to and from the ship. Also, while some family members will be paying their own way we will be financing the trip for other family members who cannot afford to come otherwise.

My questions relate to gay marriage on cruise ships. Do cruise lines like Princess, NCL and RCCL allow this? Also, is there any advice as to how we should approach this? We are more concerned with the symbolism of the ceremony rather than the legality. We plan to get a civil union in New Jersey shortly before the event.

Right now we are still in the research phase of planning our special day. I would appreciate any and all information that could help us in making decisions. I tried browsing the internet and it is really hard to find good information related to this. Thanks everyone in advance for your help!

hello there,
we just returned from the sapphire princess in october, where we did get married in the chapel and had 47 guests, it was truly amazing and 1000% better than we could have imagined. princess does have a package and it must go thru their "wedding experience" department, we had 2 wedding co-ordinators on the ship - we closed off sabitinis (alternate restaurant), for the evening for our reception, had 4 cocktail parties in our grand suite as well as a "gay night" where all our gay friends in the group decorated our suite followed by dinner in the suite. after 24hours onboard, everyone seem to know we were getting married and everyone was very open, receptive and very kind......

here is my e-mail if u would like to keep in touch and i can forward u some pictures. i g n a z i o @ c o g e c o . c a, (sorry i left the spaces, its just that our e-mail has the word -n a z i- in it and it blocks it out on this sight) but there are truly no spaces

we met on a cruise ship 15 years ago and felt it was very appropriate to get married onboard. it was the best decision we have ever made....

[mjesf]

FYI according to their website, RCCL (along with Celebrity and Azamara) has no problem with setting up a same sex ceremony. Although Celebrity and Azamara do perform ceremonies on sea days (one of the reasons they fly the Maltese flag) Maltese law does not allow for same sex weddings resulting in the event just being symbolic. You'll probably run into the same issue with Princess.

Should you change your mind about legality, based on your logistics, consider having your wedding as part of a Canada / New England cruise. That way you can legally marry whilst the ship is in a Canadian port.

In any instance, have fun.

[Rotterdam]

Perhaps you can sail on a Canada cruise out of NYC w/ a stop in Boston - teh marriage would be recognized & you could get someone to marry you ashore or onboard & cover all your basis...there are lots of ships taht sail from or visit Boston.....

Good luck & congradulations....

[blu23girl]

I guess my partner and I didn't spend enough time looking, we wanted to do a cruise wedding, but found that when we called cruise lines people were less than helpful, so it put us off that idea pretty quick. We decided on a destination wedding in Key West, and then a honeymoon cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale. Good luck!!!

[Sirwinston]

Best of luck to you !!

My honey and I got married at the courthouse before the Hatefuls ruined it with Prop H8. We had just gotten of what was a big cruise for us.

Tom in Long Beach

[jame_g]

Most lines do actual weddings during the time the ship is in port preparing to board guests for the next cruise. Often the captain doesn't do it, they bring on a minister to officiate.

I think some lines do a vow renewal by the captain while at sea, so this may be an option since you aren't looking for a legal wedding, but you'd have to check with the cruise line to see if they would consider it.

We did our commitment ceremony on a beach in Hawaii on the third day of our cruise. It was the first day of the overnight stop in port. We rented our tuxes and brought them with us. We had a limo meet us at the ship, take us to the beach where we were met by the minister and the photographer. We performed the ceremony, there was clapping from some nearby onlookers. Then took photos. Afterwards we went and had a quick lunch, did some shopping and sightseeing in the limo, then off to luau for the "reception". We found a wedding planner on the island who took care of all the arrangements for us.

If you do a wedding in port you need to be cautious because we all know sometimes ports are canceled. We didn't feel it was very likely to happen on this cruise, if anything we might have been late since it was an overnight stop, but that would not have had a significant impact.

[West Coast]

Hi everyone,

Jeff and I were married on the Dawn Princess on May 12/06. This was a repositioning voyage for one night from Vancouver, BC to Seattle. We didn't go through The Wedding Experience but instead we did everything ourselves (well, almost!). We're both seasoned cruisers (Elite members) and have been on the Dawn many times.

In a nutshell, we had a fairly easy time. Primarily because in my real life I do a lot of Project Management!

We invited 35 guests to come coming on-board as our guests. We wanted a small wedding and when weighing the cost of a one-night cruise vs doing something on land, the cruise idea won hands down. In addition to our guests, we also brought along our own wedding commissioner, coordinator and photographer... again, as our sailing guests. We booked one of the AA suites (the Monaco Suite) for ourselves, and except for family, booked all of our guests into outside cabins. We gave them the option of upgrading if they wanted. Of those who did upgrade, they were later upgraded by Princess into AC and AA suites. All of the outside cabins were also upgraded to balconies... So, in a sense, Princess did come through - but we were not expecting this to happen.

We kept things light... ceremony on deck (Aloha Deck Aft), cake and champagne in our suite, sailaway party, pre-dinner cocktails and dinner in the PC dining room. We used the Princess on-board coordinator (who doesn't work on-board and provided little value) to order our cake and make dinner reservations. Everything else we organized with the assistance of our own coordinator. Our coordinator is a close friend (out trusty TA) and has plenty of cruising experience so she knows the ins and outs of how a ship runs.

We also chartered a bus to bring everyone back to Vancouver (our hometown) from Seattle on the Saturday morning and later that evening we were off to the airport to begin our "Honeymoon in Vegas!"

Everything pretty much came together without a hitch which is a great feat considering it was all pulled together in less than 3 months... and on budget!

Our pictures are posted on-line at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/toddand...39726000/show/

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to drop me an email.


Todd
(West Coast)

[CPAatSea]

Originally Posted by West Coast

Hi everyone,

Jeff and I were married on the Dawn Princess on May 12/06. This was a repositioning voyage for one night from Vancouver, BC to Seattle. We didn't go through The Wedding Experience but instead we did everything ourselves (well, almost!). We're both seasoned cruisers (Elite members) and have been on the Dawn many times.

In a nutshell, we had a fairly easy time. Primarily because in my real life I do a lot of Project Management!

We invited 35 guests to come coming on-board as our guests. We wanted a small wedding and when weighing the cost of a one-night cruise vs doing something on land, the cruise idea won hands down. In addition to our guests, we also brought along our own wedding commissioner, coordinator and photographer... again, as our sailing guests. We booked one of the AA suites (the Monaco Suite) for ourselves, and except for family, booked all of our guests into outside cabins. We gave them the option of upgrading if they wanted. Of those who did upgrade, they were later upgraded by Princess into AC and AA suites. All of the outside cabins were also upgraded to balconies... So, in a sense, Princess did come through - but we were not expecting this to happen.

We kept things light... ceremony on deck (Aloha Deck Aft), cake and champagne in our suite, sailaway party, pre-dinner cocktails and dinner in the PC dining room. We used the Princess on-board coordinator (who doesn't work on-board and provided little value) to order our cake and make dinner reservations. Everything else we organized with the assistance of our own coordinator. Our coordinator is a close friend (out trusty TA) and has plenty of cruising experience so she knows the ins and outs of how a ship runs.

We also chartered a bus to bring everyone back to Vancouver (our hometown) from Seattle on the Saturday morning and later that evening we were off to the airport to begin our "Honeymoon in Vegas!"

Everything pretty much came together without a hitch which is a great feat considering it was all pulled together in less than 3 months... and on budget!

Our pictures are posted on-line at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/toddand...39726000/show/

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to drop me an email.


Todd
(West Coast)

Your wedding looked beautiful! Thanks for posting those pictures it made me very excited that we can have something equally special.

[wallypbear]

My husband Walt and I had our commitment ceremony on the Enchantment Of The Seas ,May 2003. The ceremony took place on the ship in the Viking Crown Lounge while docked at Port Everglades. We used the RCI Royal Romance package.There are several to choose from.The Royal Romance Wedding Coordinator, everyone shore side,the ship's staff and crew were all wonderful! They made our special day and the cruise that followed one of the most memorable treasured weeks of our life!

[Newportmen]

My Partner and I looked into getting married at sea...you can do it, BUT it doesn'tmean a thing. It's not leagal....kinda costly for not meaning anything. They have some great packages to choose from. Congratulations to you!!!

[JAMESTOWNMEN]

just get married ! !

[Newportmen]

We too were thinking about getting married on the cruise, however it would not be legal. The cruise line will allow gay marriage however they told me that it will be ceremony only not a legal marriage. The cost was 1800.00 (starting cost). The ship captian will do the service but he will not sign the marriage cert.