Transportation For Bridal Party -- Use Coordinator?

[missliad]

Hi -- i am planning a wedding on Jewel of Seas for Dec 06. One of the questions I have right now is about transportation from hotel to port. The port is FLL -- what has been your experiences in getting to the port -- do you arrange transportation on your own or do you use RRomance's transportation?? (Which is less $$)

[MandyGirl]

Although we did not marry through Royal Romance, we did handle all air/hotel/transportation to port arrangements for our guests. In the Fort Lauderdale area, we used Larry's Limo. http://www.larryslimo.com/ They also transport to Miami if you are flying into FLL and cruising out of Miami. We had a mini-bus that comfortably held the 19 of us with room leftover, including our luggage. You may also find other posts about them here on CruiseCritic, which is where I learned about the company originally. Usually taking out the "middle man" saves some bucks. Good luck!

[dcdiva]

I was married on Jewel of the Seas last February. She's a gorgeous ship and we loved both the cruise and our ceremony. I'll be happy to share photos if you are interests. Are you getting married in FLL before you sail? Or are you getting married in one of the ports?

About ground transport in FLL. Generally, transportation to the FLL port is relatively inexpensive from any FLL hotel. I would imagine that RR's fees would be greatly inflated, so I'd avoid it.

That being said, we did not arrange transportation for our guests. We had over 50 guests, but all were sailing with us. We actually had folks staying a number of different hotels the night before we sailed. So they arranged their own transportation to the ship and no one had any problems. Some had rented cars and others just took a cab (fare was typically less than $10). But most used the complimentary shuttle provided by their various hotels. You will find that most Ft. Lauderdale hotels near the airport/cruise port offer complimentary shuttles. So you may want to look into that.

[missliad]

Thanks for the reply! I am leaning strongly towards a wedding on embarkation day in FLL. We will most likely not have very many sailing guests as we live on the west coast and most family/friends will be coming from west coast and it will be easier for them! I would LOVE to see your photos! If you cannot post the link here, my email address is echohawk89031@cox.net.

I had another question re enhancements. I know I want to get flowers and the cake from outside vendors. Is this something I can do outside of Royal Romance or do I have to use them/go through them to order? I guess this question is more towards the cake -- i have one in mind that i really really want from a vendor in Orlando that could deliver but I dont know if I would be able to do that. If I could, does Royal Romance give you a $$ credit since you are not using them for those things??