Did you pay for the buffet?

My understanding is that there is a big time gap between the time we get on the ship and the ceremony. Would it make sense to then pay so that my non-sailing guests have access to the buffet. I was concerned with paying for this because they will also eat after the ceremony. I don't want my guests to starve, but I don't want to waste money. What are you all doing?

Which cruise line are you getting married on? We are getting married on NCL and I asked about that but they said was not an option, however I have found that different people sometimes give you different answers at the wedding department.

My understanding is that there is a big time gap between the time we get on the ship and the ceremony. Would it make sense to then pay so that my non-sailing guests have access to the buffet. I was concerned with paying for this because they will also eat after the ceremony. I don't want my guests to starve, but I don't want to waste money. What are you all doing?

I am not paying for the buffet, I can't justify that cost when I'm paying $30 per person for the reception (we have 69 sailing and 29 non-sailing). We are also providing a breakfast at the hotel that morning.

I've been to a wedding on a Carnival ship and the reception food is really delicious! We are in the process of finalizing our menu now and even though it is heavy hors d'oeuvres I think my guests will be fine. Our wedding is slated to start at 1:00pm and our ceremony is short so by 1:30 or 1:45 they will be able to eat. Surely no one should be starving by that point!

We did not pay for the buffet. Honestly there wasn't that much time. The only person who was a bit upset by waiting to eat was my 2 year old nephew whose father refused to pack any snacks that morning when he was told to. One of our sailing guests offered to go get him a banana from the buffet but Daddy wouldn't let them. Needless to say he survived and he enjoyed his special plate of chicken nuggets and fries after the wedding but he especially enjoyed his cake. lol

I kind of wonder if I should. I know the reception is immediately after the ceremony, and the ceremony is short. However, my guests have to be at the port early in order to get priority boarding. I figure that 9:30am until after the ceremony can be a while.

I kind of wonder if I should. I know the reception is immediately after the ceremony, and the ceremony is short. However, my guests have to be at the port early in order to get priority boarding. I figure that 9:30am until after the ceremony can be a while.

You might consider having a small welcome bag with a bottle of water and a snack in it for each person. Of course I suppose if you have a large number of guests you may not want to. Honestly the buffet then a short ceremony and a reception may mean your guests don't eat the reception food that you have already paid for. Or let your guests know they may wish to bring a bottle of water and a snack if they think they will need it. Of course the wedding coordinators tell most guests that if they are non sailing and just take off their visitor badge they can eat the buffet without anyone questioning them. Whether you want your guests taking advantage of that or not is entirely up to you

We paid for the buffet. We felt that many of our guests traveled that morning, and a couple of our guests have diabetes and the groom's mother has hypoglycemia, it would have made for some serious consequences had we not paid for the buffet. Also, I had my hair and makeup done onboard by two of our guests and it was nice for our bestmen to run up and grab some food for them to munch on while they were working on me, AND it was nice to have a distraction so I didn't get too crazy nervous while waiting. I guess I just thought that our guests were spending a good chunk of money to travel to our wedding, and give us gifts (we registered on the Carnival Weddings site and our guests bought excursions, drink packages, photos, etc, as we are an older couple and already own our home and have way to much stuff anyway), so the least we could do is make sure they are comfortable. Even with the reception food and the buffet we still got off way cheaper than a caterer would have charged for a land based wedding.

We paid the extra for the buffet for our guests. We only had 10 non-sailing guests, though. But, I didn't want sailing guests to go eat and have non-sailing guests left out. It also helped give guests something to do between boarding and ceremony. And I didn't want to worry about anyone being hungry. Everyone enjoyed the buffet, BUT they didn't realize that there would be as much food at reception as there was. Many of them filled up at the buffet and regretted it because the reception appetizers were so good.

We told everybody there would be delicious food at the reception so keep that in mind. However, we were on the ship before 11 and the reception wasn't until 1:30 so a couple hours passed between the buffet and the reception.

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I just don't want anyone to be denied access to coffee, or food. I may have 20 non sailing.

How much is the buffet?

In my package, I remember it being $10. I think $9.95

I can't look right now, but I'm pretty sure.

I didn't pay for it, my day of coordinator said it was a good thing I didn't pay for it cause there was hardly any time to actually eat at the buffet and everyone was able to get snacks and stuff off of the buffet anyways

I do worry that it isn't worth it. 😕

Our wedding was on the Sensation June 11, 2015. We did have plenty of time before the ceremony but we chose not to pay for the buffet. We did dinner the night before and breakfast the morning of. Sure enough once we were all seated in the terminal the coordinators told the non-sailing guests to simply take their badges off if they'd like to go upstairs and get something to eat or drink! I didn't know about this until afterwards, but a few did go. They didn't fill up or anything because they'd heard how good the reception food was!

We aren't paying for the buffet. When we did the ship tour (Carnival) the person giving the tour said that our guests were welcome to enjoy the buffet.

After our tour, he even told us to enjoy the buffet and do whatever we wanted until the ship was ready to depart around 4. We went through the buffet with no questions asked and we even had the non-sailing guest badges on.

Our wedding coordinator even said to just have them take off their guest badges and go through the buffet. That is the only thing that says they aren't a sailing guest anyway.

Such good info to know!!! Thanks!

We have decided not to pay for the buffet for two reasons. First, we intentionally chose the Hampton Inn as our pre-cruise stay so that those that stayed there could have a good and filling complimentary breakfast. Secondly, 1:30 is a normal time to eat lunch and I would hate our reception food to go untouched.

On top of that, there is the coordinator telling them if they are hungry to just remove their badges.

I think I'm deciding not to. When I went on my ship tour, we were easily able to grab food. We all ate a burger, and had tea/lemonade to drink. The wedding coordinator (for the bride of that day) told my little ship tour party that we could just take the pass off and eat. I had my guest pass clipped, but I don't think the workers are really worried.

It's the first day, people are swarming, they are just trying to get food out.

I've heard if a non sailing guest wants an alcoholic beverage or soda before my wedding, they can be charged on their credit card.