Honeymooners
The romantic trimmings
To make your special cruise as memorable as possible, many lines go out of their way to provide extra touches for honeymooners. Royal Caribbean, for example, invites honeymooners to a private cocktail party for complimentary drinks and yummy hors d'oeuvres. Lots of lines also pamper newlyweds with a special cake in the dining room one night.
Now if you got the bucks to book a suite, you'll automatically get all of the extra lux amenities that come along with it. The suites in the Celebrity and Crystal fleets, for example, include butler service. The charming tuxedo-clad butler brings hors d'oeuvres to the cabin every day before dinner and is basically at your beck and call 24-7 to do things for you like laundry, shine shoes, and even serve you a five-course dinner on your private verandah.
Now, there's nothing quite like a visit to the spa. Sign up for a sensual massage for two or choose Rasul, a soothing mud bath and steam treatment for couples Celebrity offers in its awesome Aqua Spas. Even the smallest of ships generally have a hair salon and at least one masseuse to dole out the pampering. Treatments will cost you anywhere from about $25 to $400 a shot. The gals may want to make an appointment for a fancy hairdo before the captain's cocktail party on formal night, or for him, why not a pedicure to get those tootsies back in shape. For more relaxation, consider having room service deliver a bottle of wine to your cabin before dinner. Or, grab a couple of beers from your mini-fridge (many, but not all, cabins have them) on some lazy afternoon or a split of champagne before retiring one evening (if you lose track, not to worry, the cabin steward keeps track of what you drink and it automatically gets added to your account). Now, of course a honeymoon wouldn't be complete without some great photos to prove to your friends back home just how much fun you had! Formal portraits are taken just before dinner on formal nights and candids are taken, well, nearly every single minute of the cruise. One 5x7 photo normally runs about $7 or $8 a pop. But, hey, there's no obligation to buy, so go ahead strike up a pose, and have a ball searching for your pictures each night from the photo gallery display. You may even like what you see!
The Ultra-Lux ships are floating palaces
The Ultra-lux, cream-of-the-crop cruise ships have wonderfully romantic features built right in to their top-shelf amenities, whether you're honeymooning or not. Take Windstar's sleek high-tech sailing ships, they ooze romance with their towering masts, yards of white sail and intimate size. These small, intimate ships are some of the most romantic you can find. It's not much of a stretch to feel like you're on your own private yacht. You get treated to five-star cuisine, a casual no-jackets required dress code, an unregimented schedule, and a port of call per day in beautiful regions like the French Rivera, Greek Isles, and off-beat islands of the Caribbean. For even more high-end pampering, on board one of Silversea Cruises' four ultra-deluxe ships you'll be treated to not only spacious suites with marble bathrooms, Bulgari green-apple shampoos and soaps, private verandahs, and the best service at sea, but to a bottle of chilled champagne as well as a pair of fluffy robes and comfy slippers. The Silversea ships are among the most all-inclusive you'll find, with unlimited spirits and wines includes in the cruise rates, along with gratuities and port charges. The sexy 110-passenger SeaDream yachts are another love match, offering amenities made for canoodling couples, including over-sized daybed chaise lounges for two on the pool deck to fun toys like ski jets and MP3 players.
Extras to pre-order before you go
Even more special romantic touches can be pre-ordered before the cruise. Tell your icruise agent you're interested in pre-booking some extras, often referred to as "bon voyage gifts." Or, you can order them from a cruise line's web site, or wait for the order form you'll get when your cruise documents arrive and just call and order! Most cruise lines sell a variety of honeymoon packages you'll just love, from the package Carnival offers for $75 that includes a bottle of sparkling wine, pair of engraved champagne flutes, two T-shirts and visors, bar coupons, and a reusable flash camera with extra film that Carnival, to an over-the-top treat like Norwegian Cruise Line's $329 Honeymoon Package that includes champagne and chocolates in the cabin when you arrive, hors d'oeuvres delivered to the cabin one night, an invitation to a special champagne and cake cocktail party, a photograph from the party, a romantic dinner for two in Le Bistro with a complimentary bottle of wine, a massage for each and tea service in your cabin. Celebrity's packages are also a great deal; for $169, you and yours get breakfast in bed served with champagne, engraved champagne flutes, Emilio Robba keepsake floral arrangement, a red rose, a pair of logo bathrobes, Cova pralines, and a personalized honeymoon or anniversary certificate. For high-class tastes, Windstar offers a bottle of Dom Perignon and tin of caviar at $195 a pop, or for $86, a bottle of Iron Horse Wedding Cuvee champagne, pair of Windstar champagne glasses, keepsake picture frame, breakfast in bed, massage oil and a plate of chocolate-covered seasonal fruit. . Guys don't even have to worry about packing a tux for those fancy formal nights. Most lines allow you to pre-arrange a tuxedo rental for about $75, complete with shirt and shoes, that will be pressed and waiting in the cabin.
Memorable wedding-honeymoon combos are a cinch by pre-booking the line's lavish Royal Romance Duet package ($895 per couple), which includes an officiated wedding ceremony aboard ship, plus a bottle of Moet's Royal Romance champagne with a personalized label, small wedding cake, three white roses tied with a ribbon for the bride, groom's boutonniere, recorded music, and an 8 x 10 portrait taken by the ship's photographer along with an engraved frame. Upgrade this package ($1,095 or $1,495) and get more flowers, more pictures and more champagne. Royal Caribbean also offers picturesque weddings on the beach at Magen's Bay in St. Thomas, but if you truly want a wedding like no one else, for $1,795 a couple, consider getting hitched on a glacier in Alaska! From Juneau, hop on a helicopter for a landing on Herbert Glacier for an official marriage ceremony (the pilot and photographer act as witnesses)!
Getting married at sea
Dream of getting married on some exotic island or on board a ship, warm breezes gently blowing your veil into the sweet island air? Well, your dreams can easily become reality. Just about every cruise line invites passengers to get married on board or in port, and offers a handful of different packages for you to choose from. Passengers can get married by a local justice of the peace or a church official or rabbi on board the ship before a cruise departs from any U.S. port as well as while in port in Bermuda and several Caribbean islands. For instance, Carnival offers wedding packages in Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, Jamaica, Key West, Nassau, and Vancouver, and while anchored in Grand Cayman or Barbados. Packages range from a few hundred dollars to over $1,000. On most ships the ceremonies take place in a nice lounge, but lots of ships these days have their own wedding chapels, including Princess's Golden, Grand, Coral, and Island Princess, Royal Caribbean's Navigator, Adventure, Explorer, and Voyager of the Seas, Carnival's Spirit, Pride, and Legend, and NCL's Norwegian Sun and Dawn! They're lovely rooms decked out beautifully with fresh flowers and frilly ribbons.
Now, if only the sky's the limit for you, why not have the captain himself marry you !? Offered only by Princess Cruises on the Coral, Island, Star, Golden and Grand Princess the captain performs several bona fide civil ceremonies per cruise on sea days (to be one of the lucky ones, you'll have to make your arrangements well ahead of your cruise date). One of the handsome officers, decked out in his smart dress blues, is on hand to escort a bride down the mini-aisle. Princess offers three different ceremony packages, starting at $1,400 per couple, and including all the trimmings you'd expect, from flowers and cake to photography, video, music, and salon treatments for the bride. And if you've got friends and family on board, reception packages start at $28 per person (per hour), and include hors d'oeuvres, champagne, and wedding cake.
To get more info, many cruise lines, like Princess and Carnival, have wedding departments. For those that don't, just call a line's main 800 number and ask for the person in charge of wedding packages. Now, there are some details you have to be aware of before tying the knot. Each country has different rules and regulations you must follow, and many cruise lines will assist you with the paperwork. But, no matter where you choose to wed, you will need a marriage license. For example, to get married in the USVI, license applications must be received by the Territorial Court in the USVI at least 8 days before your wedding day (the license application fee is $50 and you can reach the USVI Territorial Court in St. Thomas at 340/774-6680 for an application). Now in Bermuda, couples must file a Notice of Intended Marriage with the office of the registrar general in Bermuda at least 6 weeks in advance (the fee is $186 and you can get a form from the Bermuda Department of Tourism at 800/223-6106). For the Bahamas, you must be there at least 24 hours before marrying there (the fee for a marriage license is $40 and you can reach the Bahamas Tourist Office at 800/422-4262 for more info). You can always do a wedding ceremony on board your cruise ship the day it departs, from say Miami, New York or Los Angeles. The benefit of this route is that friends and family can come on board for a few hours for the ceremony and reception, and can be off the ship before it departs.
