Weather foils Monroe couple’s wedding cruise plans

Published 10:54 pm Sunday, July 18, 2010

MONROE — Michael Foote and Micheal Anne “Mikey” Whitmore have a piece of advice for couples who’d like to get married on a cruise.

Read the fine print.

The Monroe couple tried — and failed — to get married July 1 while on a Princess Cruise to Bermuda, an experience that, to say the least, put a damper on the rest of the trip.

Foote, 47, and Whitmore, 57, had been together eight years when they decided this spring they’d tie the knot.

What would be more fitting, they thought, than to marry on a cruise ship run by Princess Cruises, the same company that owned the Pacific Princess, also known as “the Love Boat.”

They decided to book a cruise and marry at one of the boat’s planned port of calls, the capital city Hamilton in Bermuda.

The company sells wedding packages that start around $2,500 — that’s on top of the $1,300 per person trip fare. That seemed steep for a ceremony for just the two of them, so they did the legwork.

They made arrangements for a Bermuda marriage license, booked an appointment with an officiant in Hamilton and ordered flowers and a car to pick them up. She packed a wedding dress with a five-foot train and he packed his tux.

Everything was going fine — right up until the morning of their wedding.

The bride was fixing her hair and makeup when the captain’s voice came across the ship’s intercom.

“The announcement was that the weather had been bad overnight and we weren’t going to stop in Bermuda,” Foote said. “We looked at each other in total shock.”

Foote immediately appealed to the ship’s purser, Raul, for help. Is there some way the ship could help them make arrangements to get to Bermuda so they could marry? Could the captain marry them himself?

“We didn’t want anything for free, just some assistance,” Foote said.

Since the couple hadn’t booked their wedding through the cruise line, the answer was “no” — unless they wanted to fork over an additional $2,500.

The ship’s crew did give them a free call to Hamilton to let their officiant know they wouldn’t be coming.

“She cried the whole day,” Foote said. “I was so angry I could have spit bullets.”

A spokeswoman for Princess Cruises said they recommend people book weddings through them. The company can’t guarantee a boat will stop at every port.

“It’s always hard to plan a wedding around a cruise,” spokeswoman Karen Candy said. “We don’t make it to every port on every cruise.”

All that’s in the contract sent to passengers before a cruise. Foote contends it’s a little hard to know that when the contract came a week before they left on their trip.

“The thing that made me really angry is they didn’t care about us because we hadn’t booked our wedding through Princess Cruises,” she said.

The two still aren’t married.

Their marriage license in Bermuda is good for three months and now they’re considering another trip to Bermuda to try again, Foote said.

If they do go, one thing is for certain: It won’t be by boat.

Debra Smith: 425-339-3197, dsmith@heraldnet.com.