Carnival Magic Wedding Review - 6/3/12

Hey ladies! I'm finally getting around to posting my review. Before I get to all the negative stuff, I wanted to say that I loved my wedding and I am so glad I picked this route. Everyone had a great time at the wedding and on the cruise. Everything went better than imagined. We had 50 sailing guests and 30 non-sailing guests.

I'll start with last call. When she called, she did an awesome job of going over everything. The only bad thing is, she told us we were going to be in the conference room for the ceremony and the main show lounge for the reception. When I had talked to them previously, they made it sound like my ceremony was going to be in the main show lounge and my reception in the spotlight lounge. I asked if this could be changed and she said it couldn't because there were two other weddings the same day.

We hated our travel agent, Nanette Freye with Elite Travel in San Antonio. She was really slow and screwed up a lot of things. Please don't ever book with her!

Hotel the night before: We booked a hotel block through Comfort Inn and Suites in Webster. Turned out they over booked their rooms and asked us if they could move us to a hotel close by. My husband agreed, only if they would give us three free rooms because it would be a hassle for us to tell all of our guests the accomidations changed and they had already told two of our guests they were completely booked and they booked with a different hotel. The manager agreed, but then went back on his word and didn't give us the free rooms. They also were a total pain to work with in trying to fix their problem of overbooking us and moving us to the different hotel. We ended up at Holiday Inn Express and they were great. I'm kinda glad we ended up with them instead. We decided to stay in Webster rather than Galveston because the summer rates at the hotels in Galveston are much higher than booking in Webster and paying for parking.

Dinner the night before: We had dinner at Mamacitas in Webster and they were awesome to work with. A couple weeks before we had asked for a menu for our party of three items so ordering and service would be faster. When we arrived, they handed out their normal menus, but when we told them they quickly fixed the problem by creating the menus we had asked for and they gave us free queso for the entire group. Our bill with drinks and gratuity came out to around $560 for a group of about 35 people. They were really quick with their service and I am really pleased with how the night went.

Morning of: I woke up around 5:30 and had my cousin do my hair and I did my makeup. Had the continental breakfast at the hotel which was fine. My husband left about thirty minutes before I did, but I found him unloading his car at the terminal. (I think he got lost or went to the parking garage first). We paid for parking online before we got there through the Galveston website. We ended up going with the Galveston Park N Cruise which is right across the street from the terminal. The walk to the parking place with all of our luggage after the cruise was a bit of a pain, but I bet we could have had one person go get the car and load up at the terminal if we really didn't want to walk with the luggage.

Terminal: We didn't find out about the time to be there (9:30) until right before also, but we had originally told all of our guests 10 so we left it at that. The terminal was busy with people leaving and a few coming. All of the porters were still helping the people leaving (we got there at 9:45) so we left someone with our wedding stuff while we took our check in luggage to the right place. Going in was a breeze. We were escorted to the area where the VIP/wedding check in was and all of our guests went up to the counter to finish the check in process. The wedding coordinator found us and sat down to talk to us before we boarded. I don't really remember her name. Maybe Paula? She had blondish grey hair. She also had an assistant Amber. We went through all the details.

We asked her if she would play the rest of the cd while we took formal pictures and her reply was 'this isn't a normal wedding, so I'm not sure if that would be possible.' She didn't play it!

We had a jazz band for our reception and we asked that they would play LOVE by Nat King Cole for our first dance and What a Wonderful World for our father/daughter mother/son dance. She accidentally wrote wonderful world in the first dance section which I corrected her, but she didn't put anything above it saying what we wanted for our first dance. I had a paper of my own that I gave her saying exactly what we wanted on everything so I thought it would be okay. Needless to say the song they played for our first dance wasn't that and it sounded very sad.

We also told her the best man would NOT be giving a speech, but she asked my husband THREE times at the reception if he was, so he finally said yes and suprised his brother with that one. I didn't like our coordinator at all.

On the boat: We waited for about an hour for the ship to clear customs. Getting on the ship was easy. I think Paula escorted me and the moms to my room, and Amber escorted the guys to the in-laws room. My aunt went to the lido deck to get us some food to snack on. I know my husband went to the bar with a lot of the guys and I think a lot of people walked around the boat to see it all.

Phtotgraphy and Videography: We brought a friend of ours to do all of our pictures. Sorry I don't have any to share yet. The cruise's photographer came by with a paper I had to sign. I had to put why were were choosing not to use the photographer, which kinda caught me by suprise. I felt so bad for the photographer, but I'm really glad we brought our own. We bought the deluxe video package. I'm glad we bought it, but it's not amazing quality. When he was asking me the questions before the ceremony it was a little weird because he was filming in the mirror and I had to look at the camera in the mirror. He asked that someone play with my hair while I was answering the questions. It turned out fine. Just a little awkward. The videographer was really cool to work with. His name was Fredrico. He went with us on an excursion during the cruise. We went on a zip lining tour in Jamaica.

Ceremony: I was worried about the vows not making it to the ceremony and the photographer's wife volunteered to take it for me. I told her to give it to my husband before the ceremony. All of my family that was hanging out with me in the room left for the rehersal so I was by myself for about 20 minutes before Amber came to get me. Paula called me while I was waiting and I asked her to be sure and double check that my husband had the vows. Which I think would have been gone through during the rehersal, but I guess not. She acted like I was pissing her off by asking about it and she didn't ask if he had them. The ceremony went well. The photographer's wife came up during the ceremony to give us the vows when my husband said that he didn't have them.

Reception: We were escorted into the reception and were told to go straight to cake cutting. There were two guys at the cake table who were there to help us. One immidiately took my bouquet and set it in front of the cake. (P.S. I made my bouquet rather than using theirs, but their bouquet was sitting at the cake table when we got there.) The other guy was pretty annoying while we were trying to cut the cake and drink the champagne. He was telling us to cut a very small piece from the top, then he cut in to take the piece to a plate. He cut the piece in half so we only had a VERY small piece to feed each other. He poured our champagne and then was directing on us to hold the glasses together for a picture and kept moving us around before he would finally let us drink.

We went straight into our first dance and the parent dance. The band was great. I think they did a good job with the music during the whole reception. No one danced, but it wasn't really that type of reception. The coordinator said it was time for all of our non-sailing guests to go and she sounded like a drill sargent or a kindergarten PE teacher. Some of the sailing guests lingered in the lounge and talked for a while. They didn't try to kick us out or anything. I also saw that the two wheel chairs I had requested for our two non-sailing grandparents that weren't great at walking were there to pick them up. I'm not sure if they got this while getting on the boat, but I was glad to see it there for afterwards.

Cruise: The cruise was awesome! All of our guests got along well together and our guests became good friends on the cruise. The seating arrangement I had given them for dinner's was mostly followed. There was just one person who was placed at a different table because the table she was supposed to be at was for 8 instead of the ten which I had planned for. After the first night, some of our guests sat at different tables to meet everyone in the group, but my seating arrangement was a great starting point for the dinners. Everyone came to dinners which we thought was a great way to figure out who was doing what for the evening and the next day.

On the morning of Jamaica, my husband went down to the medical area to get some aloe vera for me. While there he asked for some pepto because he had been drinking WAY too much the first two days. They quarintined him for 24 hours because they said he had the flu (which he didn't). He was SO upset about this. We had our excursion with the videographer that day and we were doing a trash the dress in Cayman which was within the 24 hour window he was quarintined. He fought it for probably two hours with everyone telling him there was nothing they could do about it. He finally got a doctor to let him off, but she had to call someone in the center for disease control or something like that to get a password to override the quarentine. It was a mess and we got off the boat probably two minutes before the excursion was supposed to start. In short, don't ask them for any medicine unless you are truely very sick.

If you made it though all that, you deserve a special or some other nice yummy drink. Hopefully this will be a help to future brides and if you have any questions feel free to ask. Here is one picture our photographer sent us and one from the ceremony a guest showed us.

Wow thanks for the great post. I will definitely have questions for you as time goes on....looking forward to seeing your pics.

Thanks so much for the detailed review! Glad you had an awesome time & congrats! =]

Forgot to add, we decided to bring on our own officiant. There was a blonde lady with leather looking skin walking around the terminal who was an officiant, Jane maybe? The coordinator seemed annoyed with her while we were sitting there going over the details when she walked up. She gave us her card even after we told her we had our own. On the ship right before the ceremony while the coordinator left me to grab my dad, she appeared and asked to take a picture of me. I thought she was kinda weird and made me glad we had brought our own. I'm sure there are some other great ones out there, this lady just rubbed me the wrong way.

At the end of the reception, there was a lady named Milana, she was our during the cruise coordinator, she told me she would pick up everything at the reception (luggage box for cards, bouquets, guest book, etc) and have them delievered to my room. She delivered everything later that evening, but I wish I had grabbed my bouquet because I didn't have it for the pictures we took after the reception. I didn't have a need to talk to her for the remainder of the cruise, but she left her pager number with us just in case.

I honestly wouldn't have changed anything besides the travel agent and the hotel block. Everything went really well and better than I possibly could have imagined. I know this review sounds negative, but I really wanted to get out all the little details that happened so there maybe fewer suprises for future brides.

How was bringing your own photographer? Was Carnival okay with it? I've talked to lots of brides who have brought their own and then several others say Carnival doesn't allow you to. Did you simply say he/she was a family friend, how did that process work? Thanks!

How was bringing your own photographer? Was Carnival okay with it? I've talked to lots of brides who have brought their own and then several others say Carnival doesn't allow you to. Did you simply say he/she was a family friend, how did that process work? Thanks!

The coordinator seemed pissy about it when I told her we had a friend taking our pictures. They didn't do anything though. Just had the photographer that was supposed to do our pictures come to the room and had me fill out that paper. I felt really bad though when I had to say why we weren't using him. I think I said poor overall picture quality. I felt like I was personally insulting the guy who was supposed to be doing our pictures. Our photographer brought some pop up lighting his wife and mom held for formal pictures. Nothing was said to him, even though the paper TWE sends you says no lighting or tripods.

Wow thanks for the great post. I will definitely have questions for you as time goes on....looking forward to seeing your pics.

Hey are weddings are a few days apart very exciting!

This was a great review helping me allot with the planning!

Thanks!

Yessss I cant wait to see ur pix.. Thanks so much for ur lovely Review :) Ur Planner seem a lil on the mean side, I would have had to tell her about her self.. U just wanted to make sure everything was taking care off... I cant belive they were going to hold ur Hubby :( I have learned before though they dont take light to folks not feeling well..Glad he got out of it :)

Again Congrats,

Tima

The coordinator seemed pissy about it when I told her we had a friend taking our pictures. They didn't do anything though. Just had the photographer that was supposed to do our pictures come to the room and had me fill out that paper. I felt really bad though when I had to say why we weren't using him. I think I said poor overall picture quality. I felt like I was personally insulting the guy who was supposed to be doing our pictures. Our photographer brought some pop up lighting his wife and mom held for formal pictures. Nothing was said to him, even though the paper TWE sends you says no lighting or tripods.

I'm sorry that you thought that about the pictures. Mine were actually wonderful wedding pictures. Some of the best I've seen. I know going into it I just thought it was one of the photographers that take your picture before dinner who would be taking the pictures and I was a little worried. But, that actually isn't true. Carnival hires a few photographers on each ship that do I think its called 'dream' photography. They do all the weddings and cruisers can hire them to be taken around the ship or into port to have professional pictures done. It is actually very neat. And they are amazing. I'm sure your friend takes wonderful pictures and they will turn out beautifully, but I hate that you missed out on Edwin because he was perfect!

I'm sorry that you thought that about the pictures. Mine were actually wonderful wedding pictures. Some of the best I've seen. I know going into it I just thought it was one of the photographers that take your picture before dinner who would be taking the pictures and I was a little worried. But, that actually isn't true. Carnival hires a few photographers on each ship that do I think its called 'dream' photography. They do all the weddings and cruisers can hire them to be taken around the ship or into port to have professional pictures done. It is actually very neat. And they are amazing. I'm sure your friend takes wonderful pictures and they will turn out beautifully, but I hate that you missed out on Edwin because he was perfect!

I agree, they are the best that I have seen too. But previous ones haven't been done that well. Pictures were the one thing that I didn't want to leave to chance and not be able to see the previous work of our photographer before hand. I was just trying to say that I was completely caught off gaurd when I had to answer the question on the sheet. If my mind weren't going in twenty different directions and I had a little more time to think about my answer, I probably would have come up with something that didn't sound quite so harsh.

The one request my husband had for the wedding was pictures in Grand Cayman, which isn't possible for the ship photographers because they have to have a work permit.

Another thing that swayed our decision was price. For the price of our friend and his wife's cruise, we get wedding day pictures, trash the dress pictures, and their company on the cruise, while the cost of the on ship photos were still unknown to us.

I think your pictures turned out great and I'm so happy that it worked out well for you.

I agree, they are the best that I have seen too. But previous ones haven't been done that well. Pictures were the one thing that I didn't want to leave to chance and not be able to see the previous work of our photographer before hand. I was just trying to say that I was completely caught off gaurd when I had to answer the question on the sheet. If my mind weren't going in twenty different directions and I had a little more time to think about my answer, I probably would have come up with something that didn't sound quite so harsh.

 

The one request my husband had for the wedding was pictures in Grand Cayman, which isn't possible for the ship photographers because they have to have a work permit.

 

Another thing that swayed our decision was price. For the price of our friend and his wife's cruise, we get wedding day pictures, trash the dress pictures, and their company on the cruise, while the cost of the on ship photos were still unknown to us.

 

I think your pictures turned out great and I'm so happy that it worked out well for you.

Thank you! And I completely understand about price and not being able to see the pictures. It was a concern for me too and luckily they came out perfect.

I can't wait to see your pictures! I love trash the dress shoots!

Pictures are here!!!!

http://niknik15.shutterfly.com/

Holy mother of god. I love your pictures. Bring tears to my eyes. Your photographer was amazing!!! Who was it again??? I'm so requesting him. Wow. Amazing.

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Omg Nikki you have me seriously freaking. Can you give me the name and number to your photographer? Sooo considering booking him. Wow.

How much did you actually pay him if you don't mind me asking.

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He is a really good friend of mine, so you will have to talk to him about pricing. Here is a link to his website.

http://www.sixfourteenphotography.com/

Thank you ladies! I'm really happy with how they turned out as well. We had so much fun with the trash the dress pictures.

I called him. Man. I hope I can figure this out. Also would help knowing before hand how much the photography would be.

Did he do any photos during the cruise around the ship?

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I called him. Man. I hope I can figure this out. Also would help knowing before hand how much the photography would be.

 

Did he do any photos during the cruise around the ship?

 

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He did the handful of pictures at the end of our wedding album on the boat right after the reception. We wanted him to be able to enjoy the cruise and not feel like he had to be on duty the entire trip, so no we didn't have any pictures during the cruise. Just Cayman and day of the wedding.

Pictures are here!!!!

 

http://niknik15.shutterfly.com/

Loveeeeee your pics!!! Was that in the theater ??? Amazing... And I guess you had the 3 pc band ? Love your world map idea !!!

Loveeeeee your pics!!! Was that in the theater ??? Amazing... And I guess you had the 3 pc band ? Love your world map idea !!!

Yes ma'am! We chose the quartet on the sheet, but when it came around to it, we had a choice between this jazz band (3 people) or a different 4 person band that would sing. We wanted it to have more of a cocktail hour feel to it so we decided on the jazz band.

I am so glad we ended up doing the map. I still need to get the glass to hang it, but I can't wait to start dotting it up with the places we've been! I was a little worried about if I needed a sturdy mat and how I would get that on the boat or if we could use a thin sheet and it not get damaged during the cruise. We went with the thickest paper Kinkos would print on at that size without charging us an arm and a leg and it only has a few crinkles in it that aren't even noticable.

Pictures are here!!!!

 

http://niknik15.shutterfly.com/

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Those are beautiful!

LOVE the pix.. ANd ur hubby face was SO funny when u were about to go down in the water.. LOVEEEEEEEE. Thanks for sharing with us..

Wuestion where did u get that Hanger from with ur name?

Nikki,

Your pictures are awesome! I actually contacted Colton yesterday and I'm pretty sure I will be doing some bridals with him. I would like for him to shoot the wedding onboard in Key West but I'm afraid there may be issues getting him through port and Carnival security in time. I know you also said that Carnival wasn't to thrilled at the idea of an outside photographer. Thanks so much for your recommendation!

LOVE the pix.. ANd ur hubby face was SO funny when u were about to go down in the water.. LOVEEEEEEEE. Thanks for sharing with us..

 

Wuestion where did u get that Hanger from with ur name?

Thanks everyone!

If you are asking me about the hanger, I made it. It's not too hard to make. Just write or print out what you want it to look like, then follow the lines with wire. I got the wire at home depot. I think it was somewhere around 14 gauge? Then I just glued it to the hanger with E6000, although other glues should work just as well.

Lol. I'm glad I'm not alone.

I try not to steal other items from brides but those photos where just too amazing.

I booked Colton that same day myself. He's a great guy.

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