Negotiating wedding picture cost with Carnival

[damaranicol]

Has anybody had the experience that I keep reading about - how they tell you the package is $2000 for your pictures and that's all that they can offer you? I can't afford this and I'm really worried about it. Are they willing to negotiate? Any pointers on wearing them down? All I want really is the cd!

[rainysundays]

Hi- we just wanted the CD, too, but they would NOT just sell us the CD. They did end up giving us all of the pictures, the CD and a ceesy DVD slide show thing for $700. That's after a meeting with the two of us and the photographer, a meeting with the photographer and our parents, a meeting with the photographer's boss and our in-laws, and another final meeting with us and the photographer. Lots of negotiation and honestly we were pretty ready to walk away from it all. I think the photographer situation is one of the worst things about a cruise ship wedding. You should be able to get everything for about the same cost we paid but be prepared to walk away. They will tell you that they no longer negotiate, etc., but just hold firm, and have your guests take a lot of photos just in case. Good luck!

[jnj0292]

Sorry to say, but there is no way they are going to give up that CD without having you spend atleast $500-800! This is the unfortunate, but true reality of the cruise ship wedding photography fiasco. Carnival changed our wedding crusie itinerary and our whole wedding was postponed two days and we did not even get any special "deals" on the photography.

 

They will give you a price for the whole set and then they will give you an individual picture price. Once you know the individual price, that is when you have to haggle and drag out how much you have to spend inorder to get the CD.

 

Even though the pics are way over priced, I must say that our photgrapher was really nice and he did take some really nice shots on our wedding day.

 

Good luck and try not to let this picture issue spoil your wonderful wedding day. I hope you have a great wedding!

[Isabelle21]

I just got married on the Valor and our photographer first showed us the pictures on Saturday and we were going to be getting off the ship the next day. He said just look through them first, then he told us the price for the entire package was going to be about $1600 - which included the cd. He said that if we wanted to we could choose out only the ones we wanted and then he would give us a new price. There were a bunch of duplicates and some that we really did not like, so we were able to edit it down and get the essential pictures. I think we got about 50 pictures for $650 and he also said we could have a picture cd only with the pictures we purchased. Well when we loaded the pictures onto our computer we had all of the pictures! We tipped him pretty well, so maybe that helped, I'm not sure. But the way I figure is that $650 is pretty reasonable considering how much it would cost to have a photographer and then order pictures if you were having a wedding at home. We knew how much we were willing to spend. I'm glad we didnt' have to haggle.

[dottyparka]

I just got married on the Fantasy in New Orleans, and our photographer Hector was great. He came to the cabin after I was dressed and took a few photographs, then discreetly photographed the ceremony as well as the reception. After the reception, he took us around the ship and took a lot of photos. There were a few certain poses/locations we wanted for sure and he had no problem with that. He tried to get us to take a bunch in front of prom-like backdrop. We took one and then firmly told him we weren't interested in these photos.

 

He was very considerate the whole time. We had already heard about how they will try to sell you the whole package and had made up our minds that we would purchase a few (as in 3 or 4 of the best) and then just scan them when we got home. We looked at the pictures with him, picked out the ones we wanted and told him which sizes we wanted and asked if he could do certain ones in black and white. The prices were very reasonable: 1 8x10 and 5 5x7s for $55. We also had family and friends taking many pictures, but these we felt looked the most professional.

 

Not once did he try to hardball us. We tipped him modestly after we took the last of the pics (like $5) and he was great. I guess if you want the whole "professionally photographed wedding" with the really posed pics, you'd probably want to spend the amount they ask in the beginning. I honestly don't know how much Hector would have charged if we wanted all the pics, since it didn't come up.