Amygirl's Dreams La Romana Review 4.28.10

[amygirl1169]

Hi ladies! We’re back and officially married!

 

I want to start off by saying that the one thing I want to stress the most is that you needn’t stress at all! I was like all of you, a major stressball before my wedding, but let me assure you its totally unnecessary!

 

Ok, aside the fact that DH forgot the most important suitcase at home and I only discovered it after standing in line to check in at the airport for an hour… but someone’s mom came to the rescue and picked it up from my house and drove it to the airport, she’s a lifesaver!!!

 

Overall, it was a fabulous vacation and wedding. Don’t forget that your guests are on vacation too and their whole trip does not revolve around your wedding or you, so just do your thing and let them do theirs as much as they want to. Whenever something would go wrong or different than we expected, we would just laugh and say ‘it’s all good!’

 

Our guests stayed for 1 week and we stayed for 10 days – Canadian ladies, you likely know how difficult it is to book longer trips than 7 days, so we basically paid a fortune for those 3 extra days.

 

Dreams La Romana A++++

I am very happy with our selection of resort. The bus ride from Punta Cana airport was actually a lot of fun and flew by. We stopped for cervezas and booze and then many pee breaks lol.

The resort is beautiful. The grounds are immaculate, majority of rooms were renovated and modern (to tell you the truth, I didn’t see the unrenovated ones, but I think some of our guests mentioned the newer buildings were nicer).

Check in was a little rocky, but everything got sorted out in time.. With 45 people, I knew there would be a few issues…

We didn’t get upgraded to the ‘suite’ until day 4 when we finally contacted our travel agent to make a complaint – we weren’t going to bother because I didn’t want to have to pack up all our stuff and move, but to have all the girls in my room getting ready would’ve been impossible in the smaller room and heck I brought 45 guests with me, we should get upgraded! I’m glad we did move, since we were staying 10 days, it was awesome to have that suite… and when else will you likely get a pimp suite like that??

 

The staff at this resort really try sooo hard to make your vacation a great experience. If you’re wondering what they say to you, they’re saying: It’s a pleasure. We tipped at most meals, not because we felt we had to, but because we wanted to. The service is top notch.

The food is excellent at this resort. Don’t worry about not eating fruits, vegetables, meats, they’re all fantastic. The water is fine to drink, but as with any resort, do not the tap water… only drink the bottled water or filtered water they serve at the restaurants. We stayed for 10 nights and still weren’t able to try all the restaurants! My favourite was the SSG, we went there for lunch most days and the wedding dinner and then our last night dinner there, it is beautiful scenery. Also, don’t miss the Jungle, it’s the outdoor restaurant, but bring bug spray!! I wasn’t a big fan on the French restaurant, but most of my guests loved it.

24 hour room service is also an awesome feature of this resort. We ordered that many times when we couldn’t make it to breakfast or lunch or for a midnight snack! If you order the nachos, be sure to ask for pico de gallo or chopped tomatoes (basically their salsa).

The buffet is also great and open most of the day and for late night snacks too (good for after the disco!).

 

Most of us had a little tummy trouble on the trip, but when you’re in a foreign country and majorly changing your diet and lifestyle so drastically, it’s BOUND to happen! It doesn’t mean the resort is not good or the food is poor. Take some immodium and get on with it!

 

The disco is also pretty good. We went there for our bachelor/ette parties and had a blast (from what I remember! Lol) Most of the young people head there at night.

 

My group spread out between the beach, preferred club pool and the swim up bar pool (also known as the pee pool, because no one ever gets out to use the washroom!) it’s where the party’s at during the daytime!

 

The Wedding:

Pretty much once I got to the resort, the last thing I wanted to do was stress about the wedding or miss out on some of the fun because I was doing wedding stuff. So I pretty much just went with the flow and I think it turned out pretty perfectly.

I had my ceremony at the gazebo (highly recommended, very private and picturesque) and reception at SSG (again, just beautiful setting!)

 

Tiara – A:

Tiara is a really lovely woman. She helped me make some wedding decisions (although I think she didn’t want to push me too much in one direction, so she was very objective). She took my decorations and set everything up as I requested.

We had the rehearsal the morning before the wedding and it went smoothly. Tiara offered suggestions, but really lets you decide how things should go. In some aspects, I wish she was a little more vocal on what everyone should/shouldn’t be doing

I upgraded to the wooden chairs, but on the day of, the rental company didn’t have them available, so I got the tiffany chairs, which were just fine with me. I was under the impression that if you rent those for the day, you get them for ceremony and reception. However, when I showed up to the reception, the plastic chairs with the sashes were set up. I was pretty disappointed but Tiara said these would be more comfortable for my guests and if I really wanted to, she would change them. But since most of my guests were already seated, I wasn’t about to make them get up just to change the chairs. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t a huge deal, I just don’t think I should’ve had to rent them for the full day if I don’t get to use them for the full day.

Tiara stayed for the majority of the reception and directed the DJ.

 

Dreams DJ – C:

Tiara had downloaded most of the songs I had requested for the DJ to play, but during dinner, the same 4-5 songs were pretty much played on loop. Then during dancing, some older songs were being played… eventually one of my guests just sat with the dj and picked out the songs to be played. I would’ve been better off to set up my computer or iPod and make playlists (this was one of the things I had planned to do once I got to the resort, but didn’t get around to… oh well…!). Also make sure to give the DJ plenty of warning when you plan to do your 1st dance or need a special song. I had our MC announce the father-daughter dance but then the DJ didn’t even flinch with changing the song, so I realized he didn’t understand what I wanted and had to go over and explain it to him.

 

Photographer: HDC Photo: B+

Francisco is the photographer that covers the DLR weddings for HDC. He was a great guy and got the standard wedding poses, but I had really wanted more candid type shots. I also thought for some reason that we booked him for 4 hours, as 3 hours really seemed to fly by. I would definitely recommend to book them for longer. I had wanted to do shots in the spa and wooden walkway areas, but with the extreme heat on my wedding day, everyone was losing patience for photos… and DH was having some stomach issues.

They sent another guy, Juan, 2 days later with a cd with all our photos, some were already edited and looked great… however, some of the photos had been too photoshopped and they had blurred out DH sister’s face in about 3 of them, because she was squinting. I can’t show her those photos, as she’ll be crushed that she looks like a ghostface. We reviewed them, and then a day later had our 75 printed photos and our dvd with music. Overall, it’s good, and I'm happy with most of our pictures.

 

 

Dreams Spa: D (for hair, makeup and nails) A++(for massage)

I did do a hair trial and it turned out great!!! … however, on the day of it was a different story! (same hairdresser) but I ended up with a hot cross bun glued to the side of my head! I quickly left and headed straight to my room to try to figure out how to fix it…

Luckily I’m fairly inclined in this area and decided not to freak out about it, just wanted to figure out how to fix it. I took out all the pins and brushed out all the tiny curls and re-curled each piece to try to make it look more normal. Then I re-pinned it all back in loosely. It eventually turned out exactly how I wanted it and I spoke to the preferred club manager and they removed the salon charges from my bill. My mom and bridesmaids also got their hair done and it was again, glued down but ok. My mom got her makeup done as well and when she showed up in my room to help us get ready that’s when I almost freaked… I had to fix her makeup as they used a really bright gold colour on her eyes that was hideous and even went straight up into her eyebrows. I tried to remove most of it and tone it down with normal colours, but I still was not happy with the look, but really didn’t have time to fix it. Either do a trial with the makeup or go for a few lessons at MAC beforehand and just do it yourself. Earlier in the week I had also gotten my toes re-painted and the polish used was kind of clumpy and smudged later that day even though I was really careful with it (you know when the polish is so thick it just never dries?), so I had to redo that myself as well.

 

I do highly recommend the couples massage. We sent my parents for one and then on our honeymoon we went as well. I had Hector and it was the most amazing massage I’ve ever had, but not for the shy!!! He really got almost every nook and cranny! My parents also said it was the best massage they’d ever had. DH thought it was just ok, but I think the bed was not that ergonomically designed (when you’re lying face down, it’s easy for your knee to become disjointed and uncomfortable).

 

Seavis Tours (Alexander): A+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thank you so much to Heather (dolphinluck) for recommending me to Seavis/ Alexander. We booked a daytime snorkeling/snuba excursion to Saona Island and then a sunset cruise for the following day.

Alexander and his crew were incredible!!! Very knowledgeable about the history and wildlife, they made our 2 excursions amazing experiences for all my guests. They went way above and beyond for our group and even hung out with some of our guests in the evenings. There was a large music festival happening in Bayahibe and they were very helpful in showing us around.

The daytime trip to Saona was awesome, we took 2 speed boats to the island and they stopped along the way to show us neat things and explain the history. Then at the island we did snorkeling and snuba and had lunch (which was REALLY good, everyone said it was fantastic food). The beach is a little rocky when first trying to step in, water shoes would’ve been useful here, but if you have flippers on, then it won’t bother you. On the way back we stopped in shallow water and had a few more drinks and did a toast.

The sunset cruise was great, the crew taught us how to dance a few dances and led us in group dances all night long. The sun was fogged over, but the moon was an incredible view. Again, everyone had a fabulous time, but I suggest a long dress or shorts for this one as my light dress kept getting blown in the wind!

The resort was NOT happy that I booked with Seavis because they tend to charge much more and tried to talk me out of it, saying it wasn’t safe, etc etc… they’re really just looking to make money, so don’t let them bother you.

 

Overall the wedding and vacation was fantastic and all of our guests had a great time. You’re in paradise with all your loved ones, so don’t sweat the small stuff and just enjoy your time down there.

 

Hope that’s everything… pm me if you have any questions!

 

Here are a few pics courtesy of HDC:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[KPEG]

WOW!!! Just wow Amy. You were a beautiful bride!! Congrats to you and Roy. Love the review and love your pics. We have 10 days and I am more than excited. Thank you so much for coming back to the forum to share! All the best with your new husband!

[fyniac]

Congrats Amy!!! Thanks for the review, and details. You looked great, best wishes to you and your husband

[mlabbe]

Amazing review, thank you! Congrats on the wedding and you looked stunning!

[roo66]

You look so pretty your hair and makeup amazing.Your flowers look great to and i love the lanterns hanging from the gazebo. x maria x

[*Linds*]

Great review! Thanks for taking the time to share! You are absolutely stunning! Congrats!

[Cindy*]

Congrats, thanks for the great review. You were a beautiful bride!! Everything looks perfect.

[dolfinluck]

Congrats Amy!!! So glad everything went great and you look so beautiful! Good to hear Seavis was awesome, we are doing the snuba tour with them.

[vlynnw]

Congrats, you looked beautiful and your hair turned out great!

[KimmyD]

Congrats Amy! You looked so beautiful. Thanks for the wonderful review!