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Royal Caribbean cocktail hour?


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I'm getting married through an outside coordinator while on a cruise this March. I had this clever idea to try and schedule a cocktail hour after the wedding (and before dinner) on the ship.

 

Our travel agent has been trying to contact the Royal Caribbean food/events people to schedule it for over a month, and they have not replied to her. Is this unusual, or is it the typical mode of operation? From reading that you don't find out your wedding location and time until 2 weeks before the cruise, it kind of leads me to believe that maybe they just don't schedule these things until very close to the departure.

 

That said, if it seems like it is NOT going to happen, I'd like to try and schedule something else instead.

 

Has anyone else tried to plan something like this, and if so when were you able to schedule the event?

 

Thanks!!!

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We're doing the same thing on princess, and were told that they should be able to plan this approx. 45 days out (possible closer to sailing). Since your sailing date is so close, i bet your TA will hear soon. You may also want to post a message on the Royal Caribbean board to ask others who have organized group cocktail hours how early they heard. And, you could contact RCCL directly.

 

Good luck!

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Same problem here - doing the non-RCCL wedding at end of this month, and trying to organize a post wedding private cocktail party on the ship (not a "reception," per se) for our 30 guests. Getting answers from our group coordinator has been trying, to say the least, and my TA is a cruise specialist, so it's not for his lack of trying.

 

She doesn't answer emails and then when she finally does, she sends information that is irrelevant. I'm hoping she gets her act together soon - I need to print up itineraries for my guests, and we need to make sure the info is correct. I honestly believe they put people in these positions that have no event planning or hospitality management experience whatsoever.

 

And this has nothing to do with Royal Romance - I'd be livid if I were dealing with this same bad customer service on the ceremony part of things... Thankfully that's gone well outside of the RCCL/RR/TWE loop.

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monkey and scottishflower,

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

Scottishflower, I think we are trying to plan the same sort of thing.. I want a cocktail hour with some hors d'ouerves maybe... not through the Royal Romance/wedding coordinators on board. I also want to come up with some kind of itinerary for our guests. The only information I have right now is about the ceremony (thank goodness!). What else are you putting in your itinerary?

 

Sooo... I guess that's just how that department works - whenever my travel agent contacts them they keep asking for seating charts for our group, or other irrelevant information (Shouldn't we just need to give them a number of people?). It could be they just do all of this at the last minute, but it would be nice of them to tell us (like it sounds like Princess did) that we will get the information X number of days before the cruise! :mad:

 

I'm trying not to get tooo worked up over it... if the cocktail party doesn't work out we'll buy a few rounds of drinks for everyone at Senor Frogs!!! LOL.

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So far, my itin looks something like this:

 

7 am, ship arrives in port

10 a.m. - Taxis to the Ceremony location

10:30 a.m - Wedding Ceremony

11 a.m. - See sites, have a drink, etc ...

1 p.m. - Wander back to the ship

1:30 pm - Don't miss the boat!

2 p.m. - Onward to next port

3 p.m. - Cocktail Reception in the ?????

 

My problem is I want to know that 3pm IS the time and where the heck it will be held on the ship so that my guests know what, where and why, not too much to ask... I think low key planning favored by some doesn't work when you have a big group of guests to worry about.

 

I'm trying to be calm too - the ceremony was the most important thing to me anyway, I wasn't going to let RCCL/RR rain on my parade in that dept.

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For the sake of sharing, here's my wedding day itinerary :)

 

Wednesday, March 8th, 2006 - The Wedding Day, Paradise Island, Bahamas

 

9:15 a.m. Carrie & Oak meet Sandra for licensing and to review ceremony details. Sandra will meet you at the information desk of the Junkanoo Welcome Center, Prince George Wharf and will be carrying a sign. You should be back on the ship by 11:30 a.m.

4 p.m. Carrie, Oak and guests board 29-seater Leisure Tours buses. The bus drivers will be carrying signs and will be waiting at the information desk of the Junkanoo Welcome Center, Prince George Wharf. (Due to restrictions on the dock, the bus will not be able to meet you at the cruise ship)

4:15 p.m. Buses arrive at Paradise Beach. Hostess greets group; flowers are distributed; guests and groom are escorted to the wedding site. Hostess reviews processional, ceremony and recessional procedures with Oak and Carrie. Photographer captures pre-ceremony moments.

4:30 p.m. The Wedding Ceremony begins

4:45 p.m. Ceremony ends; cake & champagne are served; photographer continues taking photos

5:45 p.m. Carrie, Oak & guests return to Prince George Wharf via buses

 

Then, the unknown:

 

 

6:00-8:00 Sometime in this time frame, our cocktail hour

8:00 Late dinner seating

10:30 or 11 pm-1am Possible trip to Senor frogs or another bar on land, or possibly attend a dance party on board.

1am Leave Nassau

 

 

I guess RCCL suspects we can just make an announcement of some sort to our guests, but I'd really like to have the location in print and in my guests hands ahead of time, you know? Instead of our guests wandering around the ship because they forgot the name of the place we were supposed to meet in!!!

 

I'll keep my fingers crossed for us! Let me know if you hear anything!

 

Carrie

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My Travel Agent was able to book and confirm the cocktail hour for me. I will not get the location on the ship until a few weeks beofore we sail, but I do know that my party is booked for 4:30-5:30 just before dinner.

I will be putting an Itinerary of the wedding day with times and places for the whole day in their goodie bags. They will then have the time and location of the party.

 

:p

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I don't know about RCI, I'm sailing NCL so it might be different, but I am doing the same thing for a cocktail/hors deourve reception. Are you booked as a group? Since we're having our ceremony privately on St. Thomas, our TA told the group booking representative that we wanted to have a cocktail party as a group (not a wedding) and she got back to us in about a day with a time and place. We wanted it to be later than the time she offered, and two days after, my TA called me back to say that they could do it during the time we wanted. Instead of going to the events department, it might help just to go through the group depatment.

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I am pretty sure that my agent is working with the group booking department. She has been complaining about Royal Caribbean's handling of this, so I am sure NCL is probably better in that respect :) We're actually NCL fans but wanted to do a shorter cruise to save money for our guests... NCL doesn't do those any more :(

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Scottishflower,



 

Today my travel agent was *finally* able to get some information, as far as cost and additions for the Royal Caribbean cocktail hours in a word document. It looks like ours is going to be at 7pm, right before dinner.

 

We have to decide on the grade of liquor (house/call/premium), and some other options still..

 

If you are interested in seeing the word document (if you don't have it yet), let me know and I can email it to you.

 

Carrie

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I am glad things got worked out for you. My agent said that she ended up getting a different contact person... the original one never took any actions on anything - maybe our travel agents were both working with that same woman!!! haha. :)

 

Which of the options did you get? I think we are going to get premium alcohol, but no food, etc because we are going to dinner right after the cocktail hour.

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Carrievision - check out my "royal romance how to get things done" post.

 

It contains a lot of info on both RR/TWE and non RR/TWE stuff - such as arranging a hair appointments prior to boarding, and who to contact directly and your cocktail hour info...

 

As a 'group' sailing you are entitled to request a "breakout room" where your party can meet at particular times. My wedding party will meet there on Sunday to assemble wedding favors and programs and go over the wedding checklist. We have also reserved the confrence room close to the wedding location so that we can use it as a base of operaions on the wedding day.

Contact:

Nicole Fernandez

Dining Coordinator VI/RH

RCI Trade Support and Services

nfernandez@rccl.com

 

Give her the ship, departure date, times you will need the room and the number of people. If you have particular confrence rooms in mind then go ahead and specify them.

 

Say that Customer service gave you her email address. You will have to follow up with her but you should be able to book the rooms.

 

Did you know that you can have a cocktail party with hot or cold appetizers, alcoholic or non alcoholic? Nicole would also be the one to handle that. cost for hot appetizers and one hour of bar service is around $16 a person.

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Thanks, sas80, for bumping up your post :)

 

Here are the prices that we got for the cocktail hour.. food is about $10/per person - but dry snacks (pretzels, chips, etc.) are included in these prices:

 

By scheduling with the group department, we're using our amenities (which apparently were converted to cash). So it won't really "cost" us anything. Sweet!

 

House Cocktail Party (House brands only) $12.25 p/p per hour add an hour for $9.25p/p

Call Cocktail Party (call brands only) $15.25 p/p per hour add an hour for $12.25p/p

Premium Cocktail Party (Premium brands only) $18.25p/p per hour add an hour for $15.25p/p

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Hi Carrie - I really don't know the catering / bar particulars of the reception b/c my father and step-father are arranging that; I was pushing for answers on periperhal issues, like music capabilities, salon services, priority embark/disembark, things like that; it was by getting involved in these things that I found out how unresponsive the group coordinator was being. To my relief, things still seem to be under control. I can't say how glad I am that I didn't coordinate my wedding through RR and have to deal with similar treatment!

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Things seem to have worked out :o

 

Our cocktail hour is going to be in the Viking Crown Lounge on the Sovereign, where we'll have a sectioned off area (not as cool as having a bar to ourselves, but oh well). Unfortunately it seems that we have to pay the full price for people that won't drink, like the kids. Luckily I think everyone except the 2 kids will have at least a few drinks :)

 

We went with the premium brands, and no food (except the dry snacks), since we'll be having cake on the beach, and then dinner at 8:30.

 

I need to browse the old cruise compasses to see if anything else is happening in the lounge at that time. :cool:

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  • 11 years later...
So far, my itin looks something like this:

 

7 am, ship arrives in port

10 a.m. - Taxis to the Ceremony location

10:30 a.m - Wedding Ceremony

11 a.m. - See sites, have a drink, etc ...

1 p.m. - Wander back to the ship

1:30 pm - Don't miss the boat!

2 p.m. - Onward to next port

3 p.m. - Cocktail Reception in the ?????

 

My problem is I want to know that 3pm IS the time and where the heck it will be held on the ship so that my guests know what, where and why, not too much to ask... I think low key planning favored by some doesn't work when you have a big group of guests to worry about.

 

I'm trying to be calm too - the ceremony was the most important thing to me anyway, I wasn't going to let RCCL/RR rain on my parade in that dept.

Over a decade ago...i know. But in trying to plan this now. How did you timing schedule work for you? Did people actually get to enjoy the island? And how was the wedding and reception? (I hope you still have cruise critic)

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