Open letter to NCL

Congrats on your nuptials.

Tough to wade through the whole thing. I get the jest, I think. As with most weddings, not everything came out as planned. That sux! 6 months from now you'll find this humorous. If this is the worst that happens to you in your marriage, consider your self fortunate and blessed!

OP so sorry about what happened and I'm glad you shared as maybe others considering doing this type of nuptial will reconsider. I had no issue reading your letter and hope that you get some type of refund for the spoiled day. Congrats and enjoy your new married life.

So sorry for the mess up that you endured after all of your planning. Not what you had envisioned, I am sure.

But...congratulations on your marriage! Wishing you both a long and joy filled life together!

I read this as...simple wedding first on land, incredible honeymoon after wedding...no stress...

Congrats on your wedding...I hope you have many anniversaries to look back on this and smile.

There was just so much overwrought drama to wade through.

I got to the part where the world stopped turning because a guestbook was in a bag instead of on a table, and wondered if there was an efficient summary.

 

Thanks to kitkat343 for providing just that.

So sorry, OP, that so many who have NOT walked in your 'shoes' can be so critical, downplaying your personal experiences (and examples). Just read the overly emoted example above, stating "the world stopped turning".....I don't believe I read that ANYWHERE in your post! Talk about being "overwrought with drama". I hope that you can ignore these un-empathetic posters who would have been HAPPY to have these circumstances happen to THEM!! Congratulations on your marriage and wishing you many years of happiness!

i reached out to Royal Ocean Events with some questions about 2 years ago. I could not get a straight answer from them on anything in terms of what our options were. It was very frustrating, and i gave up.

at that time i decided that if we were to get married, we'd get married in port prior to sailing then board a ship for the honeymoon. I didnt dare take a chance on ROE.

sorry you went thru all this, i would definitely demand some money back.

Welcome to Cruise Critic. Your first post was an interesting read (as most first posts of this kind are).

It was way better than post # 1,462 from you.

Congratulations on your wedding. Thank you for posting your issues. Hopefully, it will alert NCL to the errors in their wedding planning and packages. Perhaps they should be reconsidering their relationship with their meeting planning service. Your post also gave valuable information to other couples planning a wedding at sea. Prior to my retirement as a travel consultant, I planned many destination weddings. One point I always stressed is that destination weddings are more likely to encounter "issues" than stateside venues. In most cases you are not dealing directly with the staff who will be executing your plans. This can cause the communication problems that you encountered. The important thing to remember is that you brought your guests with you on a wonderful voyage. Your friends and relatives were able to bond together to celebrate your marriage.

Have a happy life!

Thanks. I have done. I still love NCL, and truly believe it is mainly ocean events, but they are working in partnership.

Best regards.

Jim

Thank you for posting your story. I think it serves as an important cautionary tale for anyone planning a wedding on a Norwegian Ship. Given how awful Norwegian's customer service often is generally, I don't think anyone should risk planning something as important as a wedding with them.

After reading the original post, I was curious enough to look up "Royal Ocean Events" online to see what this was all about.

For those interested, here is a sample package they offer on NCL. I assume anything not listed here must be arranged separately.....

Weddings at Sea Package – LEGAL – $2995.00

• Onboard Group Service Coordinator
  
• Ceremony Conducted by the ship’s captain
  
• Traditional bridal bouquet made up of 12 roses tied with silk ribbon
  
• Matching groom’s boutonniere
  
• Pre-recorded ceremony music
  
• Ceremony vows provided
  
• 6” wedding cake for the bridal couple
  
• Dinner for two in Le Bistro
  
• One bottle of sparkling wine from Norwegian’s Private Selection
  
• One bottle of house red or white wine
  
• One bottle of Prosecco
  
• Champagne toast for bridal couple
  
• One Hour Basic Photography Services*
  
• Canapes delivered to stateroom
  
• Chocolate covered strawberries delivered to stateroom
  
• Priority Tendering
  
• Priority Debarkation
  

*Photography packages are available for purchase.

Weddings At Sea Package available on select itineraries only and must be booked 75 days in advance.

Available on the Norwegian Breakaway, Norwegian Epic, Norwegian Escape and Norwegian Getaway.

Additional exceptions and licensing fees apply.

Your first mistake was expecting NCL to care that your requests/reservations were in order. They really don't. It's a big ship and they will try but if not, too bad. Most of the staff wants to help but are really clueless.

After reading the original post, I was curious enough to look up "Royal Ocean Events" online to see what this was all about.

 

For those interested, here is a sample package they offer on NCL. I assume anything not listed here must be arranged separately.....

 

Weddings at Sea Package – LEGAL – $2995.00

• Onboard Group Service Coordinator
  
• Ceremony Conducted by the ship’s captain
  
• Traditional bridal bouquet made up of 12 roses tied with silk ribbon
  
• Matching groom’s boutonniere
  
• Pre-recorded ceremony music
  
• Ceremony vows provided
  
• 6” wedding cake for the bridal couple
  
• Dinner for two in Le Bistro
  
• One bottle of sparkling wine from Norwegian’s Private Selection
  
• One bottle of house red or white wine
  
• One bottle of Prosecco
  
• Champagne toast for bridal couple
  
• One Hour Basic Photography Services*
  
• Canapes delivered to stateroom
  
• Chocolate covered strawberries delivered to stateroom
  
• Priority Tendering
  
• Priority Debarkation
  

*Photography packages are available for purchase.

Weddings At Sea Package available on select itineraries only and must be booked 75 days in advance.

Available on the Norwegian Breakaway, Norwegian Epic, Norwegian Escape and Norwegian Getaway.

Additional exceptions and licensing fees apply.

So no priority embarkment (although if the arrived at 11:30 and were on the ship by 12:30, it seemed pretty quick anyway).

Contact NCL and Royal Oceans Events. Neither work here.

That's true. But a lot of us are interested in hearing OP's story, even if you are not.

OP, I don't think that your post was excessive in any way. I read it as you wanting to give the details about all that went awry, instead of just saying "NCL dropped the ball." I am willing to bet that if you had not been detailed, you would be getting flak for complaining but not giving enough info.

I want to agree with many others on this thread, though - your wedding is one day; the point of it - your marriage - is what really matters in the long run. How stressful and sad that things went so wrong for you. But I hope that you have many many years of happiness and now you have a humdinger of a story to tell forevermore. I bet most weddings have glitches, not as many or as problematic as yours usually. I still remember that no pictures were taken of my brother-in-law, and no flowers were on the chupah.

So no priority embarkment (although if the arrived at 11:30 and were on the ship by 12:30, it seemed pretty quick anyway).

I saw a wedding group last year getting VIP boarding for Getaway. We were one of the first groups, and early enough to g get Vibe passes for 5 of us just to set the tone for time. So that wedding group we saw got on board fast.

OP I've pondered your post for two days. I think you had a very good balance in your letter. Its regrettable that your Wedding day was impacted by so much incompetence. When planned at arms length such as this, the process has to be flawless. I can see an odd one-off issue occurring that can be salved over, but you do have me convinced that this was a larger mass of incompetence and quite frankly, indifference that resulted in terrible memories and disappointments.

Setting that aside for one brief moment, I wish you a Both a very Long and Happy Life together with all the Best of everything that Life has to offer. Be well.

Priority boarding for wedding parties is only for those who’s wedding is actually on embarkation day.

http://royalwed.com/norwegian-cruise-line-weddings/what-you-need-to-know/

Priority boarding for wedding parties is only for those who’s wedding is actually on embarkation day.

http://royalwed.com/norwegian-cruise-line-weddings/what-you-need-to-know/

Daa - that sort of makes sense in that on the second cruise day what good would Priority Boarding Embarking be of any useful merit !

The wedded couple did not miss the boat but NCL and the contracted caterer sure did !

I believe that what we have here is a classic case of "Failure to Communicate" or "Coordinate" !

Shame is that it upset a blissful moment at the start of their wedded union.

Lets pray that by the first anniversary that this is resolved without further issues - then there will be something to celebrate.

They’re paying 3,000 for a wedding ceremony. I think it would be nice if ncl included priority embarkation, simply since it helps people have a more relaxing wedding/honeymoon. But since ncl doesn’t promise that, it should be taken out of the letter. Plus all the stuff about a lack of wedding coordinator needs to be removed since an earlier poster noted the website only states a group coordinator will help with your wedding.

Now, that being said their wedding vows and music shouldn’t have been lost, and the coordinator should have ensured everything was okay with your dinner reservation (I have no idea if they can reserve seats for 32 people at a show)