Honeymoon Cruise

[RickyBobby]

We will be going on Anthem of the Seas Fjord cruise in June and it will be our honeymoon. Does anyone have suggestions for extras to make the cruise a little more special?

[Matt]

This article might be what you're looking for: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2022/07/12/10-ways-splurge-your-cruise

[JFCruise]

22 hours ago, RickyBobby said:

We will be going on Anthem of the Seas Fjord cruise in June and it will be our honeymoon. Does anyone have suggestions for extras to make the cruise a little more special?

Call your TA/RC and tell them you want a table for yourselves in the MDR if you are doing MDR. It absolutely sucks to eat with strangers. It absolutely sucks MORE to do so during your honeymoon. You can also try to drop the 'well, it's my honeymoon'. I did that, and we got a small detail in our cabin.

If you are getting a balcony in your stateroom, bring a bottle of wine and just enjoy a quiet evening on the balcony.

Don't take the honeymoon too seriously. Have fun in whatever way you both like to have fun. You'll probably remember the funny/unscripted times more than anything else.

And, not exactly to make it 'more special', but a general advice: DO NOT volunteer during the Love and Marriage game. Definitely go watch, it's hilarious. But resist the temptation to get onstage.

And congrats.

[Happy Cruisers]

We took our honeymoon on Royal years ago.  The line really made it special with all the shrugs we got when we'd mention it to the crew.  YMMV, but in my experience, no one on the ship could care less that it is your honeymoon (and my gratuities reflected that attitude, but that's a topic for another day).  So, if you're going to make it special, it is up to you.  

I'd book the cabin you want to sail in; don't depend on any sort of upgrade, paid or otherwise. 

Good advice above re: MDR - you don't want to sit with randoms when you're trying to enjoy dinner on your cruise anyway, but much less with your new spouse. Better yet, skip the MDR altogether now that the food is on par with what they serve at a day care and go for a dining package.  Two birds with one stone. 

Book a PRIVATE shore excursion through GetYourGuide or something similar.  "Oh my God, you might miss the ship!!  You HAVE to book one of the crappy RCCL shore excursions so they'll get you back to the ship!"  Maybe well intentioned advice, but the local independent guides would have no business if their guests missed their ships often enough, and Royal's excursions honestly suck by comparison.  On the notion of missing the ship, unpopular opinion, but, and depending on where you are, legitimately who cares if you have your paperwork (and everything else you need) and have good backup options available to you (and can afford them, of course).  I've traded dinner in a nice port for an interisland flight the next morning - all in, I've paid more for worse dinners, and it's a really fun story - especially for the honeymoon.  And if you're in Europe, this is even less of an issue since you can generally hop a ferry or train to catch up with the ship.  If you want to do this, when it comes to the cruise line, forgiveness is better than permission - although I did call an hour before all aboard so they wouldn't wait around on us.  I guess they could technically cancel your reservation - they didn't ours though. 

Most importantly, just ignore everything else on the ship.  There will be jerks, there will be poor service, there will be problems.  Who cares.  You're there with your new spouse.  Everyone and everything else can kiss your butt, no notes.  ENJOY! 

 

[Curt From Canada]

Just got back from Norway in June.  It was spectacular.  Do not assume all cruise sail ins (and sail aways) will be like the 2-3 hour Fjord "sail ins" you will experience.  Some quick thoughts:

1).  @JFCruise is 100% right.  If you have a balcony you are in for a treat.  We had breakfasts, pre-dinner drinks, after dinner drinks on our Balcony ... we spent more time on our Balcony in 1 cruise than on the 25 odd Balcony cruises we took before.  If you do not have a Balcony, find a quiet spot close to the water and "soak up" the fjords.  If you let us know what ship we could steer you towards some spots.

2).  For our 43 wedding anniversary (coming up in January), we booked a speciality restaurant for dinner.  If you do get stuck at a table for more than two, at least one night you will be able to focus on each other.

3). Once in port, the sight seeing is phenomenal.  It is difficult to go wrong in any port.  If you enjoy hiking, the sights are even more "other worldly".  If you know the ports, we might have more detailed suggestions.

4). Only for out of the box thinkers: If you want to really focus on each other, take basic dance lessons before the cruise and take advantage of the live music throughout the ship.  My soulmate and I spend hours on RCL ships (which have great live music) holding each other close and making every night "date night" on a cruise ship.

5). @JFCruise is 100% wrong about the Love & Marriage show.  YOU HAVE TO TRY OUT.  It will be the highlight of your cruise (or maybe the highlight for the other 2,000 to 4,000 other cruisers ).  @JFCruise ... please say you were just joking .  We need a steady stream of new competitors.   They need to know it is very calm, sedate and not embarrassing in the least.   The prizes are incredible. 

I set the record for s in one paragraph.  I hope people get the humour in that paragraph.  As @twangster says ... "Canadian humour is sometimes hard to get".

Curt from Canada

[Xaa]

1 hour ago, Happy Cruisers said:

YMMV, but in my experience, no one on the ship could care less that it is your honeymoon (and my gratuities reflected that attitude, but that's a topic for another day).  So, if you're going to make it special, it is up to you.  

This is true.  There are so many people celebrating what to them is a really important date on the cruise.  The crew isn't able to extend extra exuberance to any specific set of passengers at the expense of the others.  Please do go in knowing that and hopefully don't diminish your gratuities if the crew finds every passenger special and not just you as newlyweds.

[JFCruise]

1 hour ago, Curt From Canada said:

5). @JFCruise is 100% wrong about the Love & Marriage show.  YOU HAVE TO TRY OUT.  It will be the highlight of your cruise (or maybe the highlight for the other 2,000 to 4,000 other cruisers ).  @JFCruise ... please say you were just joking .  We need a steady stream of new competitors.   They need to know it is very calm, sedate and not embarrassing in the least.   The prizes are incredible. 

You know what? I think I was hacked. You are right. Honeymooners SHOULD! try out for the LMS. It's looks so fun and I wish I did it during my honeymoon. And with those amazing prizes, we were dumb.

Or - y'know, do it because I need to be entertained.

[RickyBobby]

Thank You all for your suggestions.

I think it's interesting to see how different people are, one piece of advice above is to eat alone in the MDR and I think the two of us would prefer to be at a table of 20 sharing stories, laughing and meeting new people. We also both hate fine dining, we both prefer dinner at the bar over sitting at a table.

We do have a balcony and plan to bring bottles of wine.

We definitely plan to do two non RCCL excursions in Flam and Olden, we feel the RCCL excursions usually have too much down time and never really give you exactly what you want.

Love and Marriage game show sounds right up my alley, I love making people laugh even if they are laughing at me.

As far as special attention from crew, I don't expect it, we'll have a few honeymoon T-Shirts and if it catches someone's eye that's great otherwise no big deal.

Thank You,

Ricky

[smokeybandit]

13 minutes ago, RickyBobby said:

I think it's interesting to see how different people are

Which is why cruising is so popular. So many different personalities and walks of life can enjoy a cruise.

[Last2Know]

On 11/7/2023 at 2:32 PM, Happy Cruisers said:

We took our honeymoon on Royal years ago.... So, if you're going to make it special, it is up to you.  

Great advice.  35+ years together and every cruise is another honeymoon for us.  

[Mike n Ky]

Quote

"It absolutely sucks to eat with strangers. 

To each their own but my wife and I have enjoyed meeting random others in the MDR. Prior to Covid, when we cruised alone, we were usually seated with two other couples. Since Covid however, when we haven't been cruising with friends, we are usually seating at a two person table.

[Geezer Of The Seas]

Our Southern Caribbean cruise on Jewel last Thanksgiving had a wedding/honeymoon on board. On the second 'formal' night the wedding party emerged from the MDR, walked into the Centrum area and was greeted by spontaneous applause and shouts of "Congratulations" from the top to the bottom of the Centrum, from passengers they didn't even know. Mrs. Geezer and I joined in, (we're 47 years into our 'life sentence'). I'm betting the newlyweds won't forget that moment.............