We're back! Carnival Glory wedding review 1/3/15

Just returned this past weekend from our wedding aboard the Carnival Glory. We had 41 guests at the wedding, 20 of which cruised with us on our 7-night Western- Caribbean cruise. Below is our experience!

The night before- we stayed at the Best Western Plus North Miami in Miami Springs. I HIGHLY recommend this hotel. It was the best value (paid about $10 for a suite), brand new, and free breakfast the next morning. The only down side is that it is small so make sure you advise your guest to book early if you decide to book here. There is a $10/person shuttle to the port in the AM, I recommend telling them when you check in the day before that you need a shuttle for 9 am because it stops at multiple hotels and ours arrived 20 minutes late. Some of our guests took an Uber over and it ended up less per person, however the driver told us they aren't supposed to go into the port so to say they are your family friend dropping you off.

My hairdresser arrived at the hotel at 5 am to do hair and make up for myself and 2 of my bridesmaids. We finished at 9:30 am which was perfect. Myself and my bridesmaids took a separate cab to the port because I wanted to do my best to not let my fiance see me before the wedding (which ended up not working out once we got there). We arrived at port which I imagined that we would literally be waiting right outside the ship just standing there but it was more like an airport terminal (we are first time cruisers so I had no idea what to expect). Once we checked in our wedding coordinator, Kim met with us to go over the final details for our wedding and reception. My fiance and I sat down with her to confirm everything (ruining the whole, fiance not seeing me part) and then we did the same with the officiant. I was SUPER organized after reading some reviews on here. I had a binder with everything in it, a separate labeled CD with all of our music on it, and instructions for our guest book, favors, and card box. They were great about setting all of this stuff up for us and made the table look very nice. Doing this right before the wedding kind of stressed me out. The officiant gave us the option of letting guests read one of our selected prayer and poems and so we sprung it on both of our moms right before the wedding. Our ship was given clearance to board at 11:15 which we were told was unheard of (the wedding coordinator told us that they are usually thrilled with 11:30). They opened my parents cabin and our cabin. The wedding coordinator escorted me, my mom, and bridesmaids to my parents cabin and we were told that the photographer would call to come by to take pictures and then she (the wedding coordinator) would be back to escort us to the ceremony for a quick run-through before the wedding. Meanwhile, our guests went to the Lido buffet. We did pay for them to go, but we totally could have gotten away without paying for it, they weren't checking at all and most of them removed their guest passes anyway. My fiance was given our cabin number and no further instructions or times to meet and was super confused about when and where he was supposed to be at the ceremony which was unnecessary stress for me and could have easily been avoided by some instructions on the wedding coordinator's part.

Another reason I can't say enough good things about that hotel- in all of the stress and commotion of leaving the hotel I left my brooch bouquet that my mom made with family brooch heirlooms. They found it in our room and sent it over on the next shuttle, totally saving the day! We were a little behind getting me into my dress because we had to send some of the girls down to get the bouquet and some food for us. At 12:30 the photographer, Raquel called and asked if she could come up. The girls quickly got me into my dress and Raquel arrived just in time to get some great shots. Somewhere in there before 1 (can't remember the exact time because my head was spinning) the wedding coordinator showed up to take us to the ceremony. For those getting married on the Carnival Glory, do your best to get your ceremony in the Ebony lounge. The green room is the other option and in my opinion is not very pretty, the only downside is that it is near the casino and smells like cigarette smoke outside of it. We arrived at the Ebony Lounge and Kim told me to wait outside. I assumed she was doing a walk through with everyone inside. Raquel came out to take a few more pictures of me and I asked her to take a first look with my dad, meanwhile, no one told me that the ceremony had started and Raquel missed a few of the girls walking down the aisle (not her fault, again I blame lack of communication on the wedding coordinators part). I started hearing the song I was walking down the aisle to, and mind you I thought that the mini-rehearsal was going on and people were still being seated, and starting freaking out thinking they were playing the song too early, but again, due to lack of communication soon realized that that's because the actual ceremony had started and it was my turn! I made it down the aisle and the actual ceremony was perfect, short and sweet and had everyone in tears. I had appointed my cousin as my "coordinator of honor" and in that wedding binder i mentioned in the beginning I had a list of every picture I wanted taken at the ceremony with different people (group shot, in laws, husband's siblings, my siblings, etc), and I'm SO glad that I did this because it went by very fast. We took the group shot first so those who were not immediate family could head over to the reception. I highly recommend a group shot because there is no way to get a picture with every person at your reception if you want to do any sort of dancing or mingling.

We arrived at the White heat night club and were immediately summoned to the dance floor for our first dance, this was the worst mess up of the wedding for me because the DJ played the WRONG song despite the music CD that I burned and submitting our reception music on paper months in advance. I was so caught up in the moment that by the time I realized it it was too late, we made the best of it. Next came the father/daugther dance and mother/son. We opted not to do garter and bouquet tosses since the reception was so short. After these dances we went over for best man and maid of honor speeches, cake cutting and a few more pictures. After that, the buffet was opened. The food was absolutely beautiful and everyone raved about it especially the eggrolls. However, the food that I actually ordered was no where to be seen. My husband is very picky and I took out some of the more exotic foods and added some things he would like from the alternative menu, none of which was there so all he ate was a few chicken nuggets. I also ordered a signature drink and instead the waitstaff carried around an assortment of all of the signature drink options. They tasted good, so it was fine but again, not what we ordered. We selected "top 40" music on our reception form and the dance floor was empty for a few songs so I went to the D booth and requested Brick House and the genre of music for some of the baby boomers which kicked off the dancing. Before we knew it, the last song was being played and it was time for the non-cruisers to leave. They all said how much they wished they would have cruised because they were having so much fun. We purchased the "let's celebrate...big!" package which was supposed to be an hour and a half and it went on for closer to 2 hours which was a nice surprise.

I am SO happy with the pictures. I was very very nervous about them as I was not too impressed with some of the other pictures I've seen, I thought some of them looked too photoshopped and posed but I am really happy with ours. Our photographer was willing to work with us and customize our package. At first she said we could have all of the pictures and a bunch of extras that I wasn't interested in (such as the photo book, 3 canvas prints, the dvd, etc) for $4,000!! I almost passed out when she showed us that number. We decided to go through all of the pictures and pick out the ones we really wanted. Raquel let us combine the cheapest two packages and trade in some of the things we didn't want for their value (for example, the canvas was $80 and the candid prints are $10 so we traded in the canvas on the second package for 8 candids, and the pro-portraits were $30 and we didn't hit the number of those that the package came with but had way more candids so 1 pro-portrait for 3 candids, hope that makes sense). I don't think she was supposed to do this but it worked out perfect for us and we spent under budget (less than $1500) and walked away with over 100 pictures. Also, I told my husband going in, whatever happens in there, no matter how nice it looks, do NOT let me get the photobook. My first made her own online for $500 instead of $1,500 that they wanted for it, although it really was beautiful.

We handed out out OOT bags at dinner that night, we had one group excursion on the cruise but everyone hung out together the whole time nonetheless.

All in all we had a beautiful wedding and I wouldn't have done anything differently. Everyone raved about what a fun and unique wedding it was and will definitely be one that they remember. We will be contact Carnival this week about the mistakes mentioned as we felt as though we paid way too much money for such disorganization and lack of communication. The Wedding Experience department also almost messed up our marriage license but that's a story for another day. I will post pictures later tonight or tomorrow!

Sounds lovely in spite of mix ups an miscommunications! Can't wait to see your pictures.

I tried to upload a few on here but am having trouble. Here's a link to the album to view our entire photo album of professional pictures

https://rossolwerthwedding.shutterfly.com/pictures/

Enjoy!

A fellow Whovian! Love it. We have T.A.R.D.I.S. on our kilt pin blinkered and a few intermixed in my brooch bouquet.

A fellow Whovian! Love it. We have T.A.R.D.I.S. on our kilt pin blinkered and a few intermixed in my brooch bouquet.

That's awesome! I tried very hard to find an actual tardis card box but they were all super expensive to have them made and I didn't have time to make one myself so I ended up buying a cookie jar on amazon which worked well and it even lit up and made noise when opened and closed :) That was one of my favorite wedding additions :)

That's awesome! I tried very hard to find an actual tardis card box but they were all super expensive to have them made and I didn't have time to make one myself so I ended up buying a cookie jar on amazon which worked well and it even lit up and made noise when opened and closed :) That was one of my favorite wedding additions :)

Love it!

Getting married on the glory in May! This post makes me feel so much better! Your pictures are absolutely gorgeous!

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THANK YOU for sharing this! I teared up looking at your photos! Beautiful wedding!!!! Your pro pics are awesome! My wedding is in 62 days on the Conquest...can you PLEASE come help me organize? LOL You will have to share your license story with us.

I tried to upload a few on here but am having trouble. Here's a link to the album to view our entire photo album of professional pictures

 

 

https://rossolwerthwedding.shutterfly.com/pictures/

 

Enjoy!

Your pictures look awesome! I am getting married on the Glory in Miami on 6-13! I have a few questions for you. Did you bring all of your own flowers or did you get them through TWE? Also who did your make-up? TWE wants to charge way too much in my experience I just don't know where to start looking on my own.