Royal Carribean Cruise Line

My wedding on the Liberty of the Seas in Fort Lauderdale was chaotic. I was warned only a week before my wedding that the boarding time of the ship might be delayed because the ship was arriving from Europe so it takes longer to clear the boat. A few months ago the story I was told was that my guests would get to enjoy an early check and and get to walk around the boat and take pictures. That didnt happen. We were told to arrive at 10:30am. The wedding coordinators were not that visible to my guests as they were not holding a sign that I was told they would be holding. My wedding was scheduled at 1pm. I didnt get on the boat until 1:30. I had to rush to get ready in the bathroom by the Sphinx room. Good thing my ceremony and the reception were in the same room to save more time. I had the ceremony in the Sphinx room because not everyone would fit in the chapel. The floral pilars did not show up. I dont think the coordinators read all the specific requests i had in the contract. In fact they were asking me at the terminal the order of the ceremony when its all outlined in the contract. The wedding songs were all screwed up. The coordinators really tried their best knowing so much went wrong which i appreciated. The food and cake from Royal Carib were good. Dj didnt show up so I ended up using Pandora from my friends Iphone to start the wedding (good thing i had a sound technician that could at least do that). I was immediated reimbursed for that and for a wedding coordinator not being able to board the ship (I never noticed they were missing a coordinator on the ship). Everyone felt that the wedding was rushed. The photographer and some really good pics but the majority were blurry and I had NO PICTURES OF MY GUESTS!. So remember to request that. I don't think I would have done it that way if I had known we would check in so late. It was a hassle for my guests to come from so far and wait all day for a rushed 2 hour wedding. Guess I got what i paid for.

This is the letter I wrote to Royal Romance in requesting additional reimbursements. They were granted to me after some arguing. The text is screwed up from the pasting and copying:



First I would like to thank my weddingcoordinators for sincerely doing the best job that they could. Withthe delay in customs clearing the boat and the fact that my DJ did not show upat all, I thank my coordinators for being able to almost pull itoff. My wedding started an hour late but the two hours of the receptionwere delivered. I thank you for extending the amount of time mynonsailing guests could stay in the reception. While I understandmishaps can happen during weddings, there were several services that were notdelivered that I am kindly asking for reimbursement.

· In the contract I requested that the champagnebottles not be opened and that they be delivered to my cabin. This did nothappen. I request that the cost of the sparkling wine bottle bereimbursed.

· Several of my guests complained that their drinkswere either never delivered, delivered with extremely slow service, orthat they did not have alcohol. I request for an hour's worth of alcoholservice be reimbursed because the service was unacceptable and verydisappointing.

· The DJ did not show up. I request the full reimbursement for this.


In addition to these requests, I would like to makenote of some of the other services that did not go according to plan. Iam unable to put a price on these mishaps. Perhaps we can negotiate a partialreimbursement of some sort.

· The quality of the food was excellent, however mymother informed me that there were several instances of the food being emptyand her having to remind the servers to refill the food.

· The incorrect songs were played during theceremony.

· The silk floral arrangements and pillars neverarrived. This make the expensive photography I paid for come out less thanideal.

· I have not received a certificate.

Thank you to the last reviewer...

We're in the process of planning the wedding of our dreams, and all we've had so far are numerous unanswered emails for over a month, and when I eventually try to call them for clarification I found them rude and even had the phone 'accidentally' put down on me as soon as they couldn't answer my question..... not bad for over 50 years of experience hey!! We daren't go any further with them... they've now lost a lot of potential business. So sad to see companies behave this way, its fortunate we have the internet to express out reviews..

Royal Carribean should definately find a different company to organise weddings...

The Royal Romance Wedding Coordinators I worked with were amazing. I would highly recommend them to anyone looking to have a destination/port of call wedding.

To say that our experience with Royal Romance was a negative one is a major understatement. We experienced unanswered e-mails, unreturned phone calls, miscommunication within the company, insulting customer service, and inept handling of major details.

Let me begin with the guest list. We had selected Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas, for our wedding location. Royal Caribbean contracts Royal Romance to coordinate their weddings. In order for wedding guests to be allowed to board the ship to attend the wedding only, you must provide certain guest information. Royal Romance requires a list of each guest's name, DOB, nationality, and passport or Driver's License number. For those guests that are sailing, they require their name, cabin room and booking number. Depending on your guest list, this can be quite cumbersome. Royal Romance informs you, that if any of the guest information you provided to them does not match the identification presented by the guest at the time of embarkation, your guest will not to allowed to board the ship to attend your wedding.

As required, we provided Royal Romance with the guest list after checking an rechecking it. Royal Romance entered all of our guests' data into thier system and then sent it back to us to proof read. Why? We were confused by this since they already had our original guest list. Were we supposed to do the proof reading for them? Were they not capable of doing this themselves?

Nonetheless we did it anyway, and sent the list back for the second time. They returned it to us to proof read again. Their were still errors!

Can you imagine reviewing the aforementioned guest list information for 92 people three times? Concerned that this process may go on ad nauseam, we contacted Royal Romance with our concerns. The representative's response was "Don't you want your guests to be able to board?". Unhappy with the way this was being handled, we asked to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor assured us that the guest list would be corrected and we would never see it again.

Eight days prior to our wedding we received the guest list to be proof read again!This time their were THIRTY-TWO errors. When we contacted Royal Romance we were told by a supervisor that 32 errors on a guest list of 92 is within the realm of human error. The stories on this particular issue could fill a book.

Suffice to say, the dialogue between Royal Romance and my husband continued. On the wedding day, 3 guests that I am aware of were told they were not on the guest list at all! In the end, all were permitted to board. Unfortunately, one guest had to wait 45 minutes before being permitted entry. I am not sure this would have happened if it had not been for our experienced and knowledgeable travel agent who had a copy of the correct guest list in hand.

Poor or no planning on the part of Royal Romance was another problem we encountered. We were told that on our wedding day we were to report to Royal Caribbean's port entrance at 10:30 Am. We asked if it would be possible for my husband and I, not to see each other prior to the wedding, and we were told that this would not be a problem. If a plan had been implemented to honor this wish, I was not aware or privy to it. My first observation of any attempt to keep us separate was by a phone call I received five minutes prior to arriving at the port by one of the Royal Romance wedding coordinators.

I was still on the phone with the wedding coordinator when I pulled up to the port entrance for Royal Caribbean, and unfortuantely so did my husband. I saw him, and then he was whisked away.

Since no plan had been initiated by Royal Romance, and they did not respond to our final attempts to contact them, we tried to incorporate our own plan. Which was as follows: After I arrived, and was tucked away safe and sound, I would then call my husband and let him know that the coast was clear. That was the plan anyway.

But now, with my husband whisked away, I was left at the curbside, with both my husband's and his parents belongings, so his parents could park their cars. In our self-made plan, my Mother-in-Law would wait at the curbside with their belongings, as her husband and son(groom) parked the cars. Left with no choice, I started grabbing and asking guests to please help me carry the belongings on board. In the chaos, I forgot who had grabbed what. When my Mother-in-Law asked where her dress and her husband's suit were, I had absolutely no idea! At this point, I had guests running all over the place trying to locate the missing items. All this could have been averted with simple communication and planning by Royal Romance.

The list of fiascos is endless.

1. I received my DJ song selection form 10 days before my wedding, after reminding THEM to send it to us. The form stated that it was to be completed 30 days prior to the wedding.

2. Purchasing wedding insurance was a painful process. I called numerous phone numbers provided to me by Royal Romance in an attempt to purchase insurance. Each attempt met with the same answer: "We do not sell insurance for Royal Romance". I called my travel agent in frustration. He in turn called Royal Romance, and then instructed me on what to do. I did as directed by my travel agent, only to receive an email a few days later from a Royal Romance supervisor telling me that was incorrect. Finally, the matter was settled.

3. Obtaining the cost of a huppah, was equally painful. After they did not respond to my first request for a price, I called again. They had no record that I had requested a quote. They asked me whom I had spoken with. I did not recall the name; I could only tell them that it was a male. They said, "Oh, he no longer works here".
And so they quoted me a price for the standard huppah--$350.00. On September 27, 2007, we inquired about the cost of the upgraded huppah.I received no response. I sent another email on October 15 and then again on October 25.I finally received a response on October 26, and they quoted me $2075.00. After receiving this information I called Royal Romance to order the standard huppah for $350.00. The representative seemed confused and unsure of the price.I told her that is what I had been quoted initially. She then told me that when I receive a quote, I should order the item immediately. How does one make a choice on what huppah one wants without obtaining all the information first?

4. Our Flower girl went down the isle prematurely. This in itself, is no major catastrophe. However, Royal Romance REQUIRED us to have 3 additional wedding coordinators at a cost of $477.00, in additon to the one that is included in the wedding package. Why FOUR wedding coordinators could not direct a flower girl down the isle at the appropriate time is anyone's guess.

5. The background music we had selected for our ceremony was not played.

6. Our reception was only 2 hours long. My Maid-of-Honor informed me that when she arrived at the reception, after taking pictues, the plates and utensils were not out, but the food was.

7. The DJ missed the first half of our reception. Due to the abscence of the DJ, our entrance and first dance songs were played on a boom box.

8. We had provided Royal Romance with a CD of our music on our wedding day with all selections clearly marked on the jacket cover as well as the DJ form. Despite having all of this information, they played our "First Dance" song to introduce us. Quite upset, my husband immediately informed a wedding coordinator that they were playing the wrong song. The mistake was corrected.

9. Our First Dance was intermixed with periods of silence, because the scratchy boom box was not working and faded in and out.

10. We had inquired about the possiblity of having 2 easels available for our pictures, and whether or not a table could be provided for our guest book and favors. Also, we wanted to know if we could use cake toppers. We never received a response, and although they were provided, we did not know until we boarded the ship.

11. We had emailed our placement requests for the cake toppers, in the event they could be used. Once on board, we again provided the wedding coordinator with a written description of how we would like the cake toppers to be dispalyed. The six inch cake, was to be delivered to our honeymoon suite. It was not. It was displayed at the reception with a cake topper. It was not supposed to have a cake topper. And furthermore, the cake topper was placed incorrectedly. So it was on the wrong cake and positioned incorrctely.

The second cake that was supposed to have a cake topper did not. The third cake was displayed as per our request. One out of three ain't bad!

12. Our parents gave the champagne toast. Our wedding video shows my Mother-in-Law lifting an empty hand into the air. She did not have any champagne in hand to toast us with. Unfortunatley, many of the guests did not receive champagne in time to join in the traditional toast.

13. Royal Romance displayed a keepsake marriage certificate at our reception. We were married on February 7, 2008, unfortunately, the certificate read February 4, 2008.

In conclusion, I hope that my review will be helpful to those future brides and grooms considering a wedding aboard Royal Caribbean. It is our intent to prevent this from occurring to anyone in the future. Perhaps it was just our wedding that they so poorly handled, but it was one too many in our opinion.