Mrs. Ram

Jumping in and changing the subject a little but I do have an internet question. I have the 250 minutes of anytime use. Does this mean I could call my husband from the ship through facebook messenger using that? Do you receive a message once you have reached your 250 minutes?

12 minutes ago, tallnthensome said:

You’ll be safe the week AFTER Thanksgiving.

Woohoo!!!!

Hi all! I am traveling on the Breakaway for the week right after Thanksgiving. I am leaving my husband and children at home this time and just wondering if anyone has traveled at this time and are there a lot of kids? Guessing no since they will be back in school but I know sometimes are much busier with children than others! It will not make or break my cruise either way, just curious 😄

Thanks @Two Wheels Only and @Ptroxx I feel like there is so much to learn going from one line to another but sounds very similar. I was hoping you would say that the MDR would be fine. I love the old days of cruising being all inclusive. I dine at a lot of fancy restaurants for client dinners that I am fine not paying extra for the fancy meals on the ship.

Are there any Norwegian favorites/ must try when it comes to food/ desserts? I love the warm chocolate melting cake on Carnival and always look forward to that.

Anything that is not to be missed for first timers?

I am booked on Norwegian Breakaway and this is an excursion offering for Great Stirrup Key. 1 1/2 excursion to pig island for $109/ adult. I am considering it but only 55% recommend so still researching if it will be worth it.

Just booked a mother/daughter(me) cruise on the Norwegian Breakaway for the Nov 30th sailing to Eastern Caribbean and I know nothing about Norwegian. I assume I could just wait until I get onboard to learn all the things but thought I would ask the experts(you!) a few questions. I may be new to cruising Norwegian but I have been on around about 14 cruises with Carnival and Royal. We have an inside cabin on 13th floor (did not know anything about Haven until browsing this site so not in Haven.) We did get the drink package and the spa deal for $199. I looked through 11 pages here and did not see much about what exactly the premium drink package includes (sodas? coffee?) or if the main dining rooms offer good food. Wondering if we will need to splurge on the specialty dining or if there are certain nights/ items in the main dining to be sure to try. Any advice/ tips are greatly appreciated!!

I'm only going to miss it on days where I don't feel well and stuck in the cabin. This was very nice for anyone that got sick during. They will now be going up to infect everyone else instead lol

Sorry for the delayed response. Our reception was just over $1000 and WELL worth every penny. The food was really delicious and beautiful. The cake was one of the best cakes I've ever eaten (especially the red velvet!) and the drinks were top shelf and everyone left feeling better than I've ever sen them lol. Everyone says that even though it may have been one of the smallest receptions they've attended, it was by far the best! We had 22 guests.

My Mom had one in her room on the Fascination. It is exactly that. It is under the bed and you pull it up ad raise it. It's definitely nothing fancy and the mattress appeared to be pretty thin. I don't have any pictures though unfortunately

We had the 2 hour reception and then planned for formal dinner right afterwards. Our wedding just happened to be on formal night so we all wore our wedding attire. The Maitre D actually announced us and had us dance in front of the entire dining room. I contacted the dining dept. right before our wedding and had our entire party sitting together for dinner. It was nice!

Just to give a little insight, I believe Carnival was charging $3,400 to get married on the beach at the Grand Lucayan! The first place we had booked in Nassau was a base price of $2,100. That included NOTHING! Just the beach. You had to pay $10 per chair, $400-$500 for an arch, $28pp for transportation and if you chose to arrange your own transportation, they charged a fee of $5pp to greet them. That's just an idea of the extra charges! I have to say I was a very happy bride and I'm still very happy with how we did our wedding!!!

Hi all! I am not much of a writer so this is going to be short and sweet and simply to give a little info since I found very little while I was planning.

We went on the Fascination 4 day out of Jacksonville. We were married on the first day in Freeport. Initially we had our wedding and everything booked through Carnival's wedding dept. but then the vendor in Nassau wanted to charge us a service fee since we had 1 person over the 20 person limit (even though one of our guests was a 6 yr old) I was stubborn and just on principle, I cancelled our ceremony 3 weeks before the cruise left! We did lose a $150 deposit but it ended up being SO worth it! We were having a symbolic ceremony and our Pastor traveled with us so we didn't need half of what they provided anyway!

My amazing husband ended up calling around and speaking to a VERY nice lady at The Grand Lucayan on Freeport and he ended up snagging us the most amazing gazebo on the beach WITH 10 chairs for $500!!! She was even there the day of our ceremony and helped everyone get organized. I appointed one of my guests to be our coordinator (she went with the groomsmen and threw some rose petals down and hung a few flowers on the chairs and voila! we were ready! I also took my portable BOSE stereo and downloaded our songs so she could hit play when it was time. It was honestly the most STRESS FREE wedding I could imagine! The Carnival photographer ended up offering to come along and take photographs even though we didn't book our wedding with them. We DID go with their 2 hour reception with DJ in the nightclub. THAT was a blast. Everyone realllly enjoyed the food and drinks and the cake was out of this world good! I am posting this to hopefully answer questions! I get on here just a few days a week so be patient if you have questions! I will get back on here and post more details as soon as I can!

A couple pieces of advice....first of all try to get some lunch on the Lido Deck if you have anytime at all because I didn't have a chance to get a bite at the reception...it just goes so fast...also, I asked the groomsmen and the groom to not wear their shirts and ties to lunch before the wedding (my husband is famous for spilling, you can't take him anywhere (just one the quirks that makes me love him even more) and I didn't want food on their shirts and ties for wedding pictures. Also, my daughter and step daughter (my matrons of honor) put on their dresses after they got on board as well, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have spilled, but I just felt better about it.

 

I know it has been mentioned before, but my daughter's college roommate did my hair (she doesn't have a mother, so we sort of "adopted her") and she followed us to my stateroom while we got dressed and stayed with me when everybody else had to leave for the rehearsal, to keep me company and do touch ups after I got dressed, so I wouldn't freak out. It was also nice that she and I had a chance to pray together before the wedding.

 

The most important thing is to have fun, and don't let the details stress you out, it will be beautiful and you will likely be the only one who will know the little things didn't happen as you planned.

 

Also, I am a retired teacher so I probably go a little overboard on planning stuff, but I put together a 10 page "Welcome Letter" with a schedule and everything. I also wrote out our entire wedding outline and script including our vows. I'd be happy to share with anybody who wants to see.

 

Oh one more thing, we had a friend as our officient, she got ordained to do my daughter's wedding in April and since she was coming along on the cruise anyway we asked her to do our wedding, so we were able to have a quick "rehearsal" at the hotel the night before. We ran through the entire thing so we could time it, to make sure we were under the time limits.

I would LOVE to see the letter jamiee321@yahoo.com

There is a reason for everything! I am actually more excited about the wedding now! I think the location is a lot better and for a fraction of the price! 5 weeks!!

I have nothing to say but I completely feel your frustration. I hope Carnival can help work it all out. I am glad to hear that at least there is a plan B for you. Best of luck!

Thank you! Carnival was not able to do anything so we cancelled our wedding through them (only lost $150, thank goodness) My fiance worked some MAGIC and contacted a resort on Freeport that has offered to let us use their venue for the price of one night's stay at the resort ($178.) Which means we will have a room at the resort to get ready in and then can use the resort for the rest of the day! Plus, we are saving almost $3000!!! I am one HAPPY bride now!!! I must be completely insane though because I don't know any other bride that has completely cancelled 1 month out and started all over! It is completely worth it to me though! :D

Guess I should say a pretty public beach where nobody will hassle us lol! I know there is nothing but beach there :D

I need some assistance! Is there a beach on Nassau or Freeport where I can take my bridal party for pictures?! I need info fast!

Well, I called Carnival and asked our planner there to speak with Royal Ocean Events about waiving the fee. If they don't we will be cancelling the ceremony with them. Carnival said we are welcome to move the ceremony back onboard which will save us $2000. Our Pastor will be traveling with us so we will save ALL our money, take cabs to a beach for a quick ceremony and pictures and then have our 2 hr reception back on the ship as planned. I don't like being taken advantage of!

I have just a little over 1 month until we set sail for our wedding and I just turned in our documents for the ceremony. Our guest count has gone up and down this whole time as I'm sure many do and we ended up with 21 (1 being a 6 year old.) Well, our vendor (Royal Ocean) that Carnival makes you use when having a wedding on Nassau, charges a fee of $150 if you have over 20 guests. We explained to them that one of our guests was 6 so I was hoping they would waive that fee since we are only 1 over and they said no! Now before the by the book police jump on me, I understand that if they say over 20 guests will be charged a fee then that means 21 but give a a BREAK! $150 for WHAT?! haha I think it should be addressed by Carnival as to why exactly they need an additional $150 for 1 child. It's just another stupid stress that they could eliminate but their vendor could care less. Carnival basically throws money at them by having no other options for brides to choose from. Now, we weren't scheming and trying to plan to have as many as possible and throwing an extra child into the count to see if we could push it, we honestly just ended up with 1 extra person once our guests all confirmed. If we had even 22 or 25 I wouldn't even try to get out of the fee but come on! UGHH! I wrote Carnival wedding dept. hoping that they can help but if they don't I'm honestly ready to throw in the towel and tell them that we are doing our ceremony at home and just do a reception on board. I am the stubborn one that refuses to just throw away my money, especially to someone that hasn't done anything for me! SO Frustrated!!!! I put my wedding off for 5 months after finding out I have a bad kidney so I can have a surgery for it and then they throw this at me yesterday right as I found out my Grandmother passed away so I may be more emotional but I think it's wrong of them!

You have mail!

Mind sending to me as well please?! jamiee321@yahoo.com

I could be wrong as I am no expert on Carnival ships anymore but I thought that the Conquest had the waterworks, not Fascination. I think the person that replied may have gotten the two mixed up.

I'm really hoping I get that call for our wedding cruise in March. I want a suite! Doubt I will be so lucky though!

On Princess ships you will be charged an automatic gratuity of about $11.50 - $12 per person per day for the cabin steward and those whose work supports your cabin cleaning and laundry. You will be charged for any alcoholic drinks, sodas, and specialty coffees and those charges will incur an automatic 15% gratuity. You will be charged for any purchase you make in the ships various boutiques. You will be charged for any Princess sponsored shore excursion you reserve. You will be charged a $20 - $25 per person cover charge if you dine in one of the specialty restaurants such as the Crown Grill, Sabatini's, or the Crab Shack.

Thanks nukesubsailor!!

Hi all!

My fiance and I are getting married in Nassau on March 7th. We will be cruising on Carnival Fascination. This is my 13th (or so) cruise but I have never been on Princess, only Royal and Carnival. I'm kind of bummed that we chose such a small, old ship for the wedding but it was based on price and location so that more of our friends and family could attend so now I'm hoping to jump on a beautiful ship for the honeymoon as soon as we get back from our wedding cruise. I am looking at the Royal Princess and I was hoping you all could tell me things about Princess that a newbie won't know such as what will cost extra $ onboard. I don't know how ANYthing works onboard a Princess cruise so any info is great info!

Thanks!!