The Cruise
Last Updated: June 25, 2003
Feb 17:WEDD is online. Attendees may use this password-protected system to look up contact, excursion, and dinner seating information.
"Jump" Links to the Main Sections of this Page:
Cruise Logistics
Travel Agent Information
The "Official" Group
Cruise Rates, Prices, Tipping
Staying in Miami before the Cruise
Attendees
WEDD (attendee list and grouping aid)
For More Information
Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean
Ship: Voyager of the Seas (Flagship and largest ship in the world as of 1993)
Dates: Sunday, May 4th to Saturday, May 11th, 1993
Statistics of Note:
- Voyager Passenger Capacity: 3114
- Percent Capacity Dedicated to Wedding Party: 1.1%
- Number of Party Injured: 8
(1 damaged eardrum, 4 seasick, 1 sun poisoning, 1 injured foot, 1 upper respritory infection)
- Number of Hangovers: 34
(note: hangovers unevenly distributed amongst sample set)
- Head Waiters Harassed with Chicken Jokes: 1
- Number of ID Lube Tubes Used: [CLASSIFIED]
Ports of Call/Itinerary
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day 1: Sun. May 4 - Miami, set sail in afternoon
day 2: Mon. May 5 - At Sea (wedding day)
day 3: Tues. May 6 - Labadee, Hispaniola - private section of Haiti
day 4: Wed. May 7 - Ocho Rios, Jamaica
day 5: Thurs. May 8 - Georgetown, Grand Cayman
day 6: Fri May 9 - Cozumel, Mexico
day 7: Sat May 10 - At Sea
day 8: sun may 11 - Miami, arrive 8:30am
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Karen Didion
Didion World Cruises
703-299-3490
800-524-6258
820 North Fairfax Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
http://www.didioncruises.com
cruisedidion@aol.com
In summer 2002, when prices were good, our travel agent "blocked" about 30 rooms of varying types to lock in the prices. The $250/person deposit was due by December 1, 2002 and the final payment was due by February 23rd. The Voyager sold out of balconies over 6-months in advance, so only by blocking a large number of "DA" balcony rooms were we able to get so many (over half the group had balconies).
Travel insurance also needed to be acquired by the final payment date. Although it is not required, it is highly recommended. Everyone received info on insurance options -- Access America and Royal Carribean -- from the agent.
Key Notes on the Group
- We switched from Early to LATE DINNER SEATING, meaning that formal dinner will be at 8pm-ish each night. We made this changed based on talking to several indivuduals who had been on this particular cruise. After coming back from the cruise, we were VERY GLAD we made this choice. The days *flew* and it was dinner before you knew it!!
- You need a PASSPORT to go on a cruise. If you don't already have one, APPLY EARLY. Also note, you must book using the exact name on your passport. Go here for more info: http://travel.state.gov/passport_services.html
- Also note, you're probably not going to want to go as a single person - all rooms are priced for at least double occupancy. So if you go as a single, it costs 175% of the prices quoted.
What is and is not included in the cost of the ticket as quoted above?
What IS included in the cost of your "cruise ticket price" - All port & govt fees are included in the rates quoted.
- Your ship-board accommodations
- All meals in the main dining room, on deck, or in your room
- Entertainment & social features aboard ship (pools, theatre, sports, gym, movies, etc.)
- The Voyager's rock-climbing wall & ice-skating rink are also included
What is NOT included in the price:
- Tipping to the cabin/dining room staff, alcoholic beverages & bar items such as soft drinks! (coffee, tea, milk, juice are included items), gambling (obviously), shore excursions, & all items of a personal nature such as massage, laundry, beauty shop, etc.
- There is one "specialty restaurant" on board called the Portofino which charges a $20 per person cover charge to eat there....the meal itself is included in the cruise price.....and requires reservations on board. (This is SO WORTH IT.)
- Your airfare & transfers to the ship are additional as well. Airfare thru the cruise line is typically bad, so it pays to book your own flight. We just booked our own vans from the hotel, which would have worked great had the hotel not called two competing van companies who hated each other... but I digress.
We didn't trust the airlines to get us there on time. Period. So, most of us flew down to Miami a day in advance.
The "official" wedding hotel was the Courtyard by Marriott. We were pretty darn happy with the price, and it was only a 5-10 minute cab ride to the port/docks. Lots of big hotels are clustered in this area, near the convention center.
The Official Scoop on the Courtyard by Marriott- Miami Downtown:
200 SE Second Avenue
Miami, FL 33131, USA
Phone: 1 305-374-3000
800: 1-800-321-2211
Fax: 1 305-374-8454
(opened fall 2002, approx 200 rooms, I believe)
- The block was for the night of Saturday May 3rd - just one night. Not too many people flew in on friday, and the people who did seemed to be doing it to visit friends or stay in a higher-end hotel to actually see/enjoy some of Miami. We had approximately 14 rooms, so the Marriot upgraded Steve and Tanya to the top floor suite (ooh-aah).
- Rate was $79/night + Tax based on double occupancy (so approx $40/person). Taxes are high, so I think the room ended up to be $88-ish.
One nice benefit of staying here, which we didn't realize until we got there, was that we were within walking distance of the Bayside Marketplace (http://www.baysidemarketplace.com) which is a shopping/dining complex on the Bay (similar to Baltimore's Inner Harbor, for those who have been there). We ended up eating our pre-boarding dinner with about 80% of the cruisers at Coconuts, under Hard Rock Cafe, with a great view of the water.
Our Attendee list also includes contact information, initial excursion decisions (although some of these changed during the cruise), and initial seating at the four tables (which was pretty much thrown to the wind when we got there and our tables were TOTALLY different than we had asked for). We store all this data in a database/application that Steve built.
Because we are including names and contact information, we are password-protecting these pages so that web spiders can't see/index it. If you need this username/password, please contact me. Then click here to enter the WEDD system
Royal Carribean
If you want to read a little bit more about the cruise, you may visit the Royal Caribbean Web Site at http://www.royalcaribbean.com You may look up the cruise we are on, view (small) diagrams of the Voyager ship, and request a Caribbean booklet.
You may be able to see this exact cruise in the Royal Caribbean database at this URL. However, they seem to change their website about once a week, so it might not work.
Other Cruise Sites
- Cruisecritic.com has a review on Voyager and some info
- A private individual at voyager-class.com has assembled a lot of photos. It takes several clicks to get into it, but do the Internal/Virtual tour and you can go deck-by-deck!
- Go to www.mytravelco.com for "360-degree Ship Tours" of several parts of the ship, including the chapel, powered by Java.
USA Passport Services
You need a PASSPORT to go on the cruise. You must book using the exact name on your passport. Go here for more info: http://travel.state.gov/passport_services.html
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