Hola to everyone! We are back from Beautiful Los CAbos! Now it is time to write my review. I think I will do it the way Susan did it because I would really like to make it as comprehensive as possible and hopefully it will help future brides. So this review will be in segments.
WARNING about Sunset da Mona Lisa
Hello Ladies! I just want to provide an update on Sunset da Mona LIsa. I e-mailed Emma about the charges on our credit card (e.g.
$600.00 for 163 bottles of Fiji water which I did not authorize on top of almost $ 4000 dollars in alcoholic beverages! There were only
28 adults in our party and only about 10 adults in our party drank alcoholic beverages! It was mostly family in our group and we did not drink that much water) and I still have not heard from her. I had been advised by my credit card company to settle this with the merchant first but since I have not heard back from Sunset da Mona Lisa, I will take this up with my credit card company. I just want to warn all of you who are having their wedding at SML, be very careful! It is a beautiful location but I learned later from other sources that they have been known to have charges like this appearing on the credit card bill.
RIU PALACE:
B+ - The main reason I could not give it an A is because of the inconsistencies at the RIU Palace. Overall, customer service was not up to par to other RIU Palace we had been to. I had been to the one in Playa del Carmen and Cancun. We had several guests who would tip to get their drinks but the server will not come back. One couple were very displeased and lost two days of their vacation because their room did not have air conditioning, toilet flush did not work for two days, keys don't work that they had to change the locks and could not get in for a whole day! They were moved to another room and still the A/c did not work and when they were getting ready for my wedding, the water shut off when she was taking a shower and shampooing her hair! Other guests had commented that the customer service at RIU Palace was mediocre at best. The people at the front desk can be rude and abrupt. I consider the front desk to be the front lines in customer service and care. In general front desk staff was not consistent with attentiveness, friendliness or customer service skills.
There were some at the reception desk who were wonderful like Jorge. My mother-in-law loved him because he was so professional, so courteous and would take the time to make sure that her stay was comfortable.
Food at RIU Palace- A - The food was very good even at the buffet. I was impressed with the quality of the food for an all-inclusive.
Our room had ocean view (we asked for an upgrade) and we did not lose anything. The housekeepers were always courteous and did a good job cleaning our rooms. Jed and I did not have any problems with our room at the RIU Palace.
Location of RIU Palace- A - The location is excellent (very close to town) and the grounds were beautiful. The water in the pool was a bit cooler than expected, however, you could get used to it. The pools were clean.
WEATHER: It was perfect during the day, sunny and in the 80's. Not humid at all. At night, it was cool sometimes too cool for me, like in the
upper 60's. I wished I had gotten pashminas for the ladies had I known.
Please get pashminas for the ladies if it is within your budget. They will make excellent and functional gifts. RIU SANTA FE: B- --It had just opened. Front desk needs major improvement. We had 6 families stay here and for 3 families, their credit cards did not work! They lost several hours of their vacation trying to settle the matter with the front desk and calling their banks. What was hard was they tried to tell me about it but I was getting stressed about the wedding to be of much help. One family arrived the night before the wedding and I just wanted to go to our room and rest.
RIU Santa Fe is divided into two sections. The garden view rooms are located at the back of the RIU Palace. The ocean view rooms are located in front beside the RIU Palace. I would recommend to stay only at the ocean view rooms. From the back (garden view rooms), the walk was VERY LONG to go to the ocean. They need golf carts for a hotel this size. Most of my family stayed at the garden view rooms which were located at the back. There were NO ELEVATORS in the garden view buildings (only three floors but it was hard with luggage or if you have kids). The hallways in the garden view buildings are DARK - there were no lights! This could be dangerous in the evenings. There were three or four pools, a few in the garden view section and adult pools are in the front (ocean view). The pools were great, there was nice entertainment at the pools only in the garden view section. I did not see any entertainment in the adult pools section. The water in the pool in the ocean view section where they have a fountain and infinity view was very cold. Very few were in this pool.
If you are staying at the RIU Palace you could eat at the Santa Fe. If you are staying at the Santa Fe, you could not eat at the Palace. At Santa Fe, Chinese restaurant did not have good food but the steakhouse had good food. Try to make reservations at the Steakhouse as often as possible. The food at the buffet was better at the Palace, many times we did not care for the buffet at Santa Fe. Breakfast at the RIU Santa Fe buffet was very good. Overall customer service was better at the RIU Santa Fe than at the Palace.
RiU Santa Fe had a miniclub. The location was in the back where the garden view buildings were. It was very nice. It had a playground, kiddie pool, small treehouse.
BEWARE: One of our guests had money stolen from their room at Santa Fe. She had her money in her wallet which was inside her purse and in the drawer. Make sure you put your valuables in a safe place. I had lots of cash in a safe in our room at the Palace and we did not lose any money.
Due to the inconsistencies at both RIU hotels,
I wished we had all stayed at Dreams! RIU AIRPORT TRANSFER: C+ - INconsistent! Three of the families who had arranged for airport transfers were not picked up from the airport. My brother and a friend's family were not picked up and had to pay more than a hundred dollars for the ride to Santa Fe. They all had kids and were not very happy about this. They were also not reimbursed by the hotel for the cab ride they had to take to get to the hotel. Jed and I were lucky because we didn't have any problems regarding airport transfers. Make sure to arrange for transfers 5 days prior to your arrival in Cabo and for pick-up, 2 days prior to leaving your hotel. All our guests had pre-arranged their transfers but some were still unlucky and were not picked up. The pick-up from the hotel was better. Everyone was able to avail of the transfer from the hotel to the airport.
Here is a question I received from sodria regarding Airport Transfers:
"Jessica,
I read your review - great review by the way. I absolutely love your TTD pictures, you look gorgeous.
I wanted to ask you, I'm getting married at the Riu Santa Fe on March 22nd. I know guests have booked their reservation directly through the Riu web site and I wanted to try to avoid some of the transportation issues you experienced. Do you suggest that I called at least 5 days prior our arrival and confirming them?
Also, can you tell me anything about the Steakhouse? I know you said you liked it. We're planning on having our wedding dinner there, first we thought to do it at the Asian restaurant, but Mark wanted the steak house.
One more thing if I may. So you can use your Riu pass and eat at the Palace?
Thanks again for all of the feedback,
Sandra "
Hi Sandra,
Thank you for the wonderful compliments!
REgarding RIU Santa Fe, our guests who had experienced difficulties actually booked 5 days in advance. But they had problems anyway. So there is no guarantee. It is a hit and miss. Our observation is that for those who arrived early before 1 pm, they did not have problems. My brother and friend all arrived later in the afternoon and early evening. So if you have people in your party arriving later, I suggest you go to the front desk of RIU and inform them that you have guests arriving later and they need to be picked up. Hopefully you are arriving early to take care of this.
The steakhouse is good, at least when we were there it was the best specialty restaurant. No, you cannot use the pass for Santa Fe to eat at the Palace.
Is it okay with you if I post this on BDW so others will see my reply too?
Best to you!
Jessica
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Jtds2713 Cabo Wedding Review 
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