Norwegian Breakaway Wedding Review..Embarkation Day 4/24/16

Let me start off by first saying despite any of its hiccups, at the end of the day I married my bestfriend/soulmate of 11 years and am the happiest I have ever been :D Now onto the Review....

BACKGROUND

My HUSBAND (love saying that) and I live together in Eastern Long Island. He is 29 and I am 35 ;). We were engaged last christmas eve and about a month later our wedding was booked. I have wanted a cruise wedding for the longest time and had been stalking these forums for what felt like a lifetime. We have been on 2 cruises together previous to our "familymoon". The first was the Norwegian Jewel and the second was on carnival.

After doing a lot of research and going over the pros and cons we decided to go with Norwegian. We knew we wanted an embarkation day wedding as we knew everyone we wanted at the wedding would not be able to sail with us. There weres some pros to carnival the main one being that it seems you get more bang for your buck when it comes to the wedding however we wanted to get married during Spring Break as I am a center Director at a childcare and knew we would be down that week and an embarkation day wedding during the time we wanted would have been on either a monday or tuesday I believe. Norwegian was def a bit more pricey, however we were able to be married on a Sunday, we would be going to Bermuda which I had never been before and since our families were sailing with us we knew it would be much easier to have just the right amount of space/family time that we desired. Also the Breakaway is one of their newer ships so we were very excited about that.

The Planning

I did a forum previously where I spoke a little bit about the planning process. This review will be broken up a little bit as I have a lot to say but if you have any questions that I haven't covered especially about pricing and contracts feel free to ask. The planning itself almost didn't seem real to me until litereally the night before the wedding...crazy I know. I had thought about this wedding for so long that it didn't actually hit me until the night before in the city. The best advice I can give is to really be as prepared as possible because just when you think you have everything figured out..bam someone hits you with another question and 9 out of 10 times your first reaction is "**** I didn't think of that." If I had to do it again I would have a friend/coordinator to deal with all of the pre wedding stuff.

I will say that Puneet from Royal Ocean Events who is one of the event coordinators you will be dealing with was amazing. She responded to everyone of my annoying emails and was very helpful even when it came to planning group events like dinner reservations with the group on the ship.

Night Before the Wedding

So since we live about 1.5-2 hours away from the city we decided to stay in the city the night before that way we would not have to worry about travel time on top of everything else. We arranged for a party bus to pick us up and bring whoever wanted to stay in the city as well. At first everyone teased me about how big the bus was, however it ended up being the perfect size for everyone and their luggage. Anything smaller and we would have been crammed and uncomfortable. There were 11 adults and 2 children. All but 2 ppl were going on the cruise so you can imagine how much luggage there was. I wish I had thought to get some pics of the actual bus but I was using snap chat the whole ride and forgot to save any pics/footage from the bus. There was a compartment underneath to store all of our luggage and there was a bathroom on the bus which made me happy even though I never used it. Overall we had a fun time headed to the city, however, the driver ..oh the driver..a lot of short stops and a very bumpy ride. He also passed the hotel a time or two but in the end we made it in one piece. I was going to have my husband call limo company to make sure we didnt get the same driver on the way home but we forgot about it with everything else going on. In terms of payment my father put down a deposit on both trips (getting to city/home from the cruise), and then we split the rest with everyone else. I had hoped to surprise everyone and cover it ourselves but it just wasnt in the budget :(

Once we arrived at the hotel it was a little chaotic. Some of us were waiting outseid with our luggage, others were attempting to check in. Eventually all the luggage was brought in and all the check ins were complete. We stayed at the Comfort Inn Midtown West which I think was perfect and served its purpose. The rooms were a little small but its the city so expected. Rooms were very clean and hotel was very accomodating. Our travel agent had set up a wedding group rate and I was very satisfied. Due to the expenses of the wedding and trip my husband family and I decided that instead of going out to dinner in the city we would have a casual rehearsal dinner at the hotel that consisted of beer, wine and pizza :D This was perfect for us as we are very low maintenance and one of our favorite thigs to do together is to vedge out with pizza watching snl on a saturday night. My maid of honor supplied the beer and wine and my inlaws bought the pies. We had a few more ppl coming into the city that were driving in and the timing just worked out perfectly. They arrived to hot pizza and drinks :). The hotel did not have a private area/conference room but they told us previously that we could use their lobby area which doubles as the free breakfast area and it actually worked out perfectly.

During dinner we gave out little gifts to his parents, my dad and the bridesmaids. At this point my nerves were really starting to kick in so we said goodnight..my hubby and I stayed in seperate rooms..I stayed with my maid of honor and he stayed with me dad. A few of our guests went out to explore the city and I think his family went to a rooftop bar which looked really nice from the pics. Some of my bridesmaids stopped in my room for a bit for some girl talk and prosecco and then it was time to shower, wash the extensions and gat my beauty rest :).

Here are just a few pics of hotel lobby area/ rehearsal dinner :)

Wedding Morning

My maid of honor made sure I was up at 6:15 am on the dot. The make up artist came a little before 7 to start setting up. I could not believe how nervous and anxious I was all morning. I thought I would be cool as a cucumber but a lot of pepto was required that morning :eek:. My MOH and I had made a list of what order everyone would get their hair and make up done which we ended up having to deviate from a little bit as my make up artist did an amazing job but was starting to fall off the schedule a bit. My father in law had arranged for two shuttles to pick us up in two groups that morning. The first 10 ppl leaving at 9:45 which was my husband, his parents, his aunt and uncle, my dad, matrons husband my sister and cousins boyfriends and of course my nephew/godson/ring bearer. The rest of us were to be on the shuttle by 10:30 the absolute latest which ended up being 11:00. On the plus side my husband and I def arrived sepearately which was my main concern. I just did not want him to see me with my hair and make up all done, that was the one traditional aspect that really meant a lot to me. While we were getting primped my sis in law came in with a card and gift from my hubby..oh PRADA sunglasses..he did so well!!! I had my MOH bring him his gift which was a little book I had make up using lovebook online that had pics and pages of all the reasons I love him. Before you judge I had splurged on a 70 inch tv for xmas to surpise him so the sunglasses were well deserved haahaa. I got a cute text from him that morning that the book made him emotional which made me excited bc previous to the wedding he expressed that he had never cried from happiness before. The tinman shed many happy tears that day!

So finally after several calls from the ncl coordinator Tammy and two gallons of pepto we were on our way to the terminal which luckily is two blocks from the hotel!

Embarkation Process

Once we arrived at the terminal my father in law found us and brought us up the elevator. Tammy was waiting and eager and she grabbed me from there. This was the quickest check in ever..Im not sure if it was bc of the wedding or the fact that we were late or a combination of both but we were checked in and on the boat in no time. I heard there was some sort of coast guard hold up which delayed the boarding process and actually worked in our favor since we were to board before everyone else. My husband was in a secluded area somewhere the whole time just relaxing and listening to his headphones.

Once we got on the ship my bridesmaids, flower girl and ring bearer were brought straight to my room. Tammy looked stressed and told us we had 15-20 min until she was coming back to get us as the ceremony was scheduled to start at 12:30. We had more than enough time as I just stripped everything off and had my girls tie me up. We even had time for some pics on the balcony.

The only part that had me confused at this point is that they previously said we were able to have 2 other additiional rooms open which we chose my inlaws room (assuming thats where they and my husband would wait) and my fathers room as he had medical supplies that we wanted him to be able to put away. It may have been because of the time crunch but my husband and his family were directed straight to the manahattan room and that is where they stayed until the ceremony began.

Ceremony

Tammy came to get us and was shocked that we were ready to go. She had the photographer with her and he was going to take some pre wedding shots but the space was tight so we just headed straight to the Manhattan Room where the ceremony and reception was to take place.

As soon as I saw my dad I started to tear up as I hadn't seen him all day. I can not say enough good things about the ceremony. It was sweet, cute, funny, romantic, everything I wanted. Captain Arnold did an amazing job and we received so many compliments about him. However, this is where the frutrations began to unravel.

We had discussed with Puneet the orginal corrdinator from Royal Ocean the we would go straight from the ceremony into cake cutting. Since this is not a traditional wedding and you are short on time we wanted to get all of the taditional stuff out of the way first and then allow enough time for dancing and mingling. This did not happen as we were directed out of the room from the ceremony. Seems like not a big deal but now we had to make another entrance which we had no song picked for and if we were going to do it that way I would have had a song picked and I would have had our parents and bridesmaids do an entrance as well.

I brushed it off as it was our wedding day and in the moment just seemed a little hiccup that would not make or break my day. After we were introduced we went straight into our dance then mother/groom and father/daughter. Now the plan which had also been discussed was for my father and I to go last because about half way through our slow song I had surprised my dad with a venga boys song that he loves to lighten the mood and to get the rest of our guets on the dance floor. My mother passed away February of last year and the wedding had us both very emotional but my dad and I are typically happy easy going ppl so I wanted to do something fun for him. I had to go over this plan several times with the coordinators on baord before it finally sunk in and then after my dad and I danced the DJ did not really follow up with what I would call dancing music and this would be a reoccurring theme through out the reception.

You get an option for a sound tech or a DJ and we selected the DJ. Maybe what I think a DJ is and what they really are are two diff things but this guy def seemed more like a sound tech. He did not play upbeat music, the music wasnt even that loud and he never made an attempt to get anyone out on the dance floor. He actually didnt even announce us or the first dances, the coordinator did.

This became a huge issue for me because now we had ppl basically just sitting at the tables the whole time which also wouldn't have bothered me however there was basically no food! We payed for an hour and a half of hor derves and cocktails and that did not happen. Straight after the first dances we were taking pics with the photographer and our family, that had to take maybe 30 min and straight after that I had guests complaining that there was no food left. I had my MOH speak to the coordinator whose response was that they planned for the amount of guests we had. This really frustrated me as we had 5 guests cancel last minute, my husband and I gave our food to a bridesmaid that had nothing and I later found out that the coordinators and waiters were at a table eating! Maybe if the DJ was an actualt DJ ppl would have been distracted but that did not happen.

Now let me just say by no means did this ruin my day..as I stated in my first post I married my bestfriend, had an amazing trip (I will post a review of that on NCL forum this week) and had a smile on my face the entire day, however it did bum me out quite a bit bc you do want your guests to be satisfied as well.

More on how this situation was handled coming up....

Goodbye

It was so sad saying goodbye to our non sailing guests. I wish they all could have sailed with us. Ryan and I stood by the exit of the manhattan room to thank everyone for attending. After the non sailing guests left we want to our room to relax..we had about a half hour until we had to meet the photographer for photos around the ship. That was actually one of my favorite parts and I was happy tp hear that it was actually my husbands as well. My bussell had started to come undone a bit so my hubby had to stand behind me the whole time lugging my dress as we pranced around the ship at diff spots for photos. Everyone oohed and ahhed and congradulated us...it was really nice. This part I wish I had been a bit more prepared for or at least remembered I was prepared for. For the most part I was happy about how the photos had turned out but I had pinned a few ideas that I wanted and I just completely forgot about it.

After the photo sesh was done he informed us he would call us later in the week to select our photos.

That night we stayed in our wedding attire for dinner with our families in the manhattan room. We retired early to do husband and wife things...SLEEP haahaa!!!

Let the negotitations begin

So my in laws had heard that I was upset about a few things from the wedding so the next day they came to speak to me about what my issues were and discuss what we would fee would be appropriate compensation would be. The night befire after we left dinner someone from guest services asked them how everything was going and they had scheduled a time to discuss our issues. The best part of the whole thing was that nobody wanted to stress me out so my in laws and husband handled the whole thing.

I really didnt have a dollar amount in mind that would satisfy me, I just really wanted Norwegian to do something that made me feel like they valued us as loyal customers and that they felt bad about what had happened. There was a lot of back and forth from what I heard, I think they started with offering champagne and strawberries which is ironic considering part of the wedding package is to have champagne delivered to your room on the wedding night and that did not happen. They alo originally offered vibe passes which normally I would have liked but it was a little chilly on some of the sea days and we had splurged for an aft balcony.

The end result was kissing our asses during a group dinner at the hibachi restaurant with a song and cake, we came back to ur room decorated which would have been nice the night of, I dont understand why they dont just do that to begin with. We received $250 onboard credit, couples massage and access to the haven. I wish we had more time to spend in the haven as that came 2 days left and the last sea day my husband was seasick although we did eat in the restaurant twice and it def was the two best meals of the trip.

We did end up booking the same cruise next year for our anniversary as we want to try and cruise once a year and overall I really did enjoy our familymoon. I plan on emailing ncl and coordinator as well just to make it clear what we were and were not satisfied with. I was hoping to surprise my hubby with haven but way out of price range so aft balcony it is haahaa.

Final Tips!

1. Make lists for everything..will make your life a lot easier.

2. Leave someone in charge of little things you cant be bothered with day of..give favors to someone with instructions..decor ..ect

3. Go over all details of your wedding with coordinator morning of to make sure you are on same page

4. Bring ideas/lists for photographer

and lastly DRINK a lot!!!!

Hope this helps..if you have any questions feel free to ask :)

Thanks for taking the time and writing out a review. The pictures are great and you guys look so happy!

Sorry to hear about all the mishaps, it wouldn't be a wedding without them! haha

I'm glad they at least gave you something in compensation!

Isabel

Wooooohooooo, Congratulations. Thank you for your review, it was very exciting. Thank you for the tips. I'm sorry to hear you had a few hiccups along the way, however very happy to hear your happy married now and had a wonderful time.

Well wishes

Crystal

Sounds like everything worked out in the end! Congratulations on your wedding, everything looked beautiful!

My son was a groomsman in a wedding one year ago but they got married in Bermuda on the beach after sailing there on the Breakaway. Their reception was also in Bermuda. I was thinking it would of been easier for them to marry in NYC instead of a foreign country.

I so wish my husband and I married on a cruise! We've been on so many since our marriage, starting with our honeymoon! We will be on the Breakaway in three weeks and I would love to re-new our vows on this trip.

Congratulations on your marriage!