Does anyone have a review posted that includes after the reception??

[dawnie216]

I am loving all of these amazing reviews but im a little anxious about how the rest of the trip may go after the actual wedding. I was wondering if any of you ladies could share your extended review?? How many people sailed with you? Who sailed with you? How did you divide your time? How did you go about booking excursions together? Dinner together? Did you enjoy your honeymoon having friends and family on board??

[gymbomb]

My wedding review is posted a few threads down -- Norwegian Dawn embarkation day. We didn't have a reception, instead we had dinner with our sailing guests the following evening and a cocktail party the last afternoon which I described in the review.

 

We had 15 sailing guests and saw them all fairly regularly throughout the trip, although the one dinner and cocktail party were the only planned events. We happened to go on some excursions with some of our guests and went on some on our own as well. We had dinner by ourselves 2 nights (we told people we planned to have the last night's dinner be just us) and with various guests the other nights. Had most breakfasts/lunches on our own, but a few with guests.

 

Overall we were very happy with the division of time between just us and hanging out with other people. None of our guests live anywhere near us so it was important for us to spend some time with them but we absolutely did not want to spend every minute with them or be responsible for planning a lot of group activities.

 

I will mention that we had lived together for over a year before getting married and had cruised a couple of times before, including this same cruise last summer, so maybe for us having a "just us" honeymoon wasn't as important as it would be for some other people. Instead of coming home to a lot of changes/different life we feel relieved that things have settled down and we're back to normal :)

[dawnie216]

Thanks for the help .. Our situation is pretty similar. I have been on a few cruises and my other half went on his first with me last summer and fell in love with them so we are taking another together in Nov :-)

We have lived together for quite a few years and are pretty much home bodies and attached at the hip.. I think I just spend so much time over analyzing, thinking and planning lol

But it's nice to hear other people's perspectives and how the whole trip was so thanks again

[gymbomb]

I over analyzed and planned and worried a bit too, but it all turned out great. If I had it to do over again I'd do it exactly the same way!

[LilBlackDress]

We had 11 people sail with us. His parents and youngest brother, My parents, My oldest sister her husband and daughter, My 2 nephews (from my sister that didn't sail with us)and my stepson. My parents actually had some friends on the same cruise unknowingly til about a week before hand.

 

We had dinner together every night. This was at my request and all agreed. Since it was a small group and all family it wasn't that difficult to accommodate us in the main dining room. We all agreed that to do our own thing and if our paths crossed great, if not oh well, we would have dinner.

 

We had a great time and ran into people throughout the days and on excursions which was a nice surprise.

[dcdiva]

We had 60 sail with us. Our wedding was in our first port on the first day of the cruise. So you had to sail with us to attend.

 

We didn't plan many 'official' group functions other than dinner each night. After much drama with RCL, I was able to arrange specific seating assignments for our group in the dining room. We were at a group of tables in the same part of the dining room, but table sizes varied from 4 to 12. We made arrangments in advance so that we were able to move around among our assigned tables. So each night, bride and groom sat with a different group of guests. If you plan to do that, please make arrangements with the Maitre d in advance, as it has an impact on wait staff and servers.

 

We contemplated arranging group excursions and outings. But throughout the planning process it became clear that our guests had different ideas in mind for each ports. Rather than schedule for them, everyone sort of did their own thing during the day. Which seemed to make everyone happy.

 

We did schedule an unoffocial nightly gathering. Each night, we selected a different bar or lounge as a meeting spot for pre-dinner cocktails. Not everyone came each night, but most people did show up. I was surprised at how well the informal gatherings worked out. It was a great way for for people to share their adventures that day, and make plans for the following port or just for later that evening. I recall that in Costa Maya, there was a group planning a trip to the ruins at Tulum. But the group was made up mostly of people who had never met before our cruise!

 

With such a large group, we had very little alone time. But we knew that going in and wouldn't have changed the time we spent with family and friends. About 6 months later, we took a true honeymoon cruise with just the two of us.