Syl's Dreams Cancun Review

[cancunbride]

Dreams Cancun Trip and Wedding Review

May 11, 2009 - May 18, 2009

 

Boarding ALASKA Airlines from LAX

 

They were super sweet to me, they right away asked me if I was getting married and they allowed me to board the plane first and allowed me to store my dress in the pilots closet. They gave us a few bloody marys while we were on our way out there. It was a little cold in the plane but it was a good flight overall.

 

Once we arrived at the Cancun, MX airport, my travel agent AT VACATIONS FOR LESS, LOS ANGELES set us up with someone to have us picked up and taken the the hotel. He was there as soon as we got out of the airport with a sign. I ignored everyone as I walked through the airport so nobody really bothered us with time shares or rentals. They pick you up outside of the airport NOT inside. So if anyone bugs you inside the airport its not OK. lol

 

Check-In /Room

 

As soon as we arrived, we checked in. I asked the conciere in the front to give me paper and envelopes and I left small notes in the front desk for all my guests, welcoming them and thanking them for coming and to toss on their bikinis and to meet us in the pool area. ALL the guests were happy to receive them and were touched.

 

THE HOTEL

 

The resort was beautiful!! Everything was clean and very well maintained. The service was outstanding. Everyone is always walking around with a smile and greeting you with a smile. I requested cucumbers every morning for my eyes and I would have them at my door at 9am every morning, cold. My kids and husband swam with the dolphins on the resort and we negotiated the fee. They did $300.00 for our son, my husband, our daughter, and my nephew. Speak with Claudia, she hangs out in the back near the basketball court. Dont forget to mention that you are getting married, that always helps with any type discount. We didnt get the pictures or video because pix were $25.00 each and video was $70.00.

 

RESTAURANTS

 

We ate in every single restaurant there. The Seaside Grill was great, only thing I didnt like was that there is a dress code, men cant just walk in with shorts and flip flops after hanging out in the pool, they wont allow you in for dinner. My favorite plate here was the scallops as appetizers for dinner and shrimp skewers, mmmmmmm. We had a group of 15 there and it literally took us about 2 hours to get our food I was very upset that I complained to the hotel about the service. Seaside Grill offers an amazing shrimp vegetable soup for lunch for anyone who is hung over, this is the thing to eat with sprite. Feels sooo goood and it takes it away. We usually had breakfast at the World Cafe almost every day... the selection is amazing and I recommend the fried beans and cheese tortillas with the green sauce on top. mmmmmmmmm. The Sushi Restaurant, Himitsu accommodated us and it was ok, not really great but my favorite roll was the Dreams Roll it was amazing. We also ate at the steak house Oceana by the beach at night, I had the Rib Eye medium, with baked potatoe and ice cream. It got pretty chilly down there, the cheesecake was not good, as a matter of fact it was grosss!! I do not recommend that.

 

JET SKIING

 

There is a guy who works with Dreams near the beach who provides cayakying (?) and snorkeling for free to those staying at the hotel. He was super nice but expensive. We wanted to rent from him but he couldnt come up with a good deal so we walked over to the guy next to the hotel on the beach and we were able to negotiate the price and he gave us an hour for $55.00. We rented 14 of them and it was beyond fun!!!

 

Claudia (Our Wedding Coordinator)

 

She is beyond the sweetest person ever. As soon as I arrived at Dreams, I called and asked to meet with her to get everything set up and pay her and she immediately asked me to meet her in the lobby and we went over everything. She was flexible with things I didnt need and allowed me to switch things off for other things. For example makeup, I didnt need it and she allowed me to give it to my mom. We also extended the reception for an extra hour and she extended it at a discounted price, discounted me Mannia and didnt charge me for the kids. She gave me 3 free centerpieces that were worth $150.00, She gave me a free bag of rose petals and since I had candles to light she told me that was not going to be possible and would guarantee that she would find me a sand ceremony set and not to worry about it. She found an awesome set and sand and we used that.

I did tip her $100.00. She discounted me so much on little things here and there and lets just say my wedding went on till 11:30pm with music and lighting... *tip ladies tip!!! Just a little note, colored napkins add so much elegance to your tables ladies...

 

Also, Claudia said that she always tries to upgrade her brides to a higher room. I booked a regular room and after I tipped her I ended up in a Jacuzzi Junior Suite. It was beautiful. We used the jacuzzi once but never again, just didnt have time. Plus when you use it it tends to attract ants so I was over it real fast. lol

The Wedding Day

 

I got a green tea cellulite/firming wrap... I highly recommend this, they gave us all a 30% discount and it was amazing and worked miracles on everyones stomach, legs, wherever you wanted to look slimmer, it worked. All the girls were in love with it. The spa was fantastic and the people who worked there were very nice and accommodating. My husband got a facial same day and he loved it to.

 

Flowers / Cake

 

I absolutely LOVED my bouquet and my centerpieces they turned out better than I expected, as a matter of fact they were gorgeous. I gave Claudia a picture of what I wanted and she did a better job.

 

I also loved my cake, and it was DELICIOUS, I went with something not to sweet since we had just had the desert. I got vanilla cake with strawberry filling and the cake was all white. I added white wooden letters that said I do around the table standing up with rose petals around them!! I am normally not a big cake person, but I loved the cake. Only problem was that the letters got lost and the cake was never delivered to my room. Although, Claudia did offer to pay me for the letters. I will be providing her with a receipt since I am gluing those letters on my wedding frame.

 

The ceremony was beautiful, I could not have asked for a better location to be married. The weather was perfect, not hot not cold. We decided to go with the red carpet and have my son toss the flower petals that Claudia gave us. The judge was a female she was a little hard to understand at times, but overall it was a beautiful ceremony. We exchanged vows that she gave us, which were beautiful and then we handed the kids rings and we both exchanged vows with them and then we did the sand ceremony and then she read a love poem and pronounced us husband and wife. I heard from several people that our ceremony was beautiful. We rented the sound system, and the technician played all of the music correctly. We gave Claudia our cd with three songs,

 

The wedding party walked into

YouTube - Forrest Gump Theme - Alan Silvestri

 

Then I walked into

YouTube - Katie Melua - Just Like Heaven

 

We all walked out to

YouTube - Lenny Kravitz - I Belong to You

 

We had about 60+ onlookers, but I honestly didn’t care they were all cheering us, it felt great. As we all walked out we were greeted by the waiters handed everyone a glass of champagne, even my kids got a glass, I had no clue until they told me they drank weird apple juice. haha I wasnt upset it was a beautiful day!

 

BTW, we did rent the sound system, its a must its soo noisy up there and i made fans for everyone to place on their chairs..not necessary as its pretty windy up there already but it was a nice touch.

 

Cocktail Hour

We had the cocktail hour in the garden area, and they brought out our drinks, an appetizers. I heard the tempura was amazing.. she allowed me to chose three cold and three hot. I got the trio, they put everyone into the drinking mood. We didn’t spend too much time as we needed to get our pictures done.

 

Dinner / Reception

 

We had our dinner and reception on the beach. It was so nice being right on the beach! Our table was set up like a square so that we were facing all our guests who were seating in circled tables. We rented the white flags to add a touch to the setting and we also rented the illuminated dance floor. For dinner, we had the scallops, and lobster bisque (never saw the cheese bread) Then for our main entree we had the shrimp and steak dinner with rice. It was good just the food servers were kinda slow and people were waiting for their food to arrive. So we decided to do the speech to keep everyone entertained. We asked for the champagne to get served so as they were bringing out the food we had the speeches going and champage being served. As soon as my husband and I finished eating, and the speeches were said we did our first dance. So some were still eating but we were dancing. Then I danced with my father, By your side, Sade and my husband with his mom and then I danced with my brother.

 

The reception flew by! Our dinner, first dances and speeches took up some time but not much, as soon as all that was done, we started the dancing... Carlos from Mannia was amazing.. he played everything and got the party started quickly, not one person was sitting down, we kept ordering rounds of tequila 2 for each person so everyone always had something to drink.. Carlos played spanish and english and everyone loved it. I then did the flower toss and he played Single Ladies we all danced and I tossed it. YouTube - Beyoncé - Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)

 

Then came the garter toss, He played YouTube - Divinyls - I Touch Myself

 

I sat in the middle of the dance floor and my hubby was naughty and took it off with his teethe.. lol I tossed it and then then partying/dancing continued...

 

Cake cutting time came and he played pour some sugar on me. lol

MANNIA introduced the wedding party one at a time, they each stood up and everyone saw who was who.

 

MANNIA provided me with 4 cds of all our songs from the wedding. I tipped him $100.00 he was awesome.

 

Once 1130 came, Claudia came and asked me if I wanted to give thanks on the mike so i did and so did my dad.

 

 

Keepsakes:

 

I purchased starfish necklaces for all my female guests and money clips for all the males. They all loved their gifts. You can see the necklaces on the girls.

 

Shoes

 

I wore Christian Louboutin hot pink slip ons.. To be sold. There a size 9

 

Hair piece

 

Feather hair piece, to be sold also.. in mint condition

 

Undergarments..

white lace panties with lace white nipple covers since I couldnt wear a bra.. hubby loved it.

 

 

Photographer - Cecilia Dumas

 

We booked Cecilia from 3:30 to 6:30 and she was wonderful! She came to my room at 2:30 and took some photos of us getting ready and then proceeded down to the gazebo to take some photos of the guys. She was very easy to talk to and very fluent in english. She made us feel very comfortable. I didn’t even notice her there during the ceremony. She came the following day and took our TDD pics and then she came to the hotel and delivered the pix on Sunday. She also gave me the cd with all the pictures on it. 600+ pix

 

Video Guy from HOTEL

 

I was going to not go with this video and go with the gazebo decoration.. wow!!! IM SO GLAD I DIDNT, THE VIDEO IS AMAZING AND I CRIED WHEN I SAW IT. I WILL SEE IF I CAN UPLOAD IT SO THAT YOU GIRLS CAN SEE IT.. ITS AMAZING. The video was delivered to my room the following day with chocolate covered strawberries. BRIDE AND GROOM.

 

Weekend Partying.

We went to Daddy O's. They wanted $35.00 per person but we were able to negotiation girls free guys in for $25.00 and we had unlimited drinking. It was fun, had a blast. Took some pics and they glued our pix on a tequila bottle and sold them to us for $15.00

 

EXPLORERS CLUB AT DREAMS

 

Kids get checked in at 9am and they do all kinds of activities with them, the kids didnt want to come out of there so they were there till 9pm every night. They had a blast. Everyone checked in there kids and they were able to be comfortable without having to check up on kids every 5 minutes, they even fed them.

 

PASSES FOR YOUR GUESTS

My guests didnt have to pay, I gave them a room number and once they got there they just said the room number and were able to get in without a fee.. I had two of my guests actually spend the entire weekend with other friends there without being questioned.

 

MOVIE RENTALS

See the concierge on your floor. They are free and you can just take them up to your room and return them the following day

 

 

 

 

 

[cancunbride]

 

 

 

 

 

the kids signed the certificate

[Andi]

Welcome back Mrs. and Congrats!

 

your dress by the way is GORGEOUS!!!!

[melette]

CONGRATS SYLVIA!! Love your pictures!!

[TammyWright]

congrats!!!

[Jacilynda]

YAY!!!! I'm so excited to hear you had a great time! I've been dying to see photos!

[cancunbride]

centerpieces

 

 

[**~Jenn~**]

Welcome back & Congrats!! Thanks for your great review! Everything sounds like it went great...And I will be sure to Tip Claudia well, she seemed like she was really accomodating to you.

 

I can't see your pics from work, but I can't wait to get home to check them out

 

I have a question about the CD you made for your ceremony music, did you just make one CD and label which song was for what?

I was going to make diff CD's with one song each on them, just so they wouldn't get mixed up.

 

Anyway...Thanks again for the review and I am so happy you had such a great time:-)

[cancunbride]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhillyBride09 Welcome back & Congrats!! Thanks for your great review! Everything sounds like it went great...And I will be sure to Tip Claudia well, she seemed like she was really accomodating to you. I can't see your pics from work, but I can't wait to get home to check them out I have a question about the CD you made for your ceremony music, did you just make one CD and label which song was for what? I was going to make diff CD's with one song each on them, just so they wouldn't get mixed up. Anyway...Thanks again for the review and I am so happy you had such a great time:-)

Make one cd. Put the songs in order. Claudia will stand with you and has a walkie talkie and she is communicating with the sound guy. She tells him when to play what songs. With me she said play song 1 then she told him stop, I need the bride song now because she is coming and he played it... it sounded very smoothe. I say put them in order in one cd dont do too many.

[destination]

Wow, it sound like everything was wonderful! Congratulations Mrs! You look stunning, you have this amazing high fashion air about you that I love! The whole wedding party looked great. Can't wait for mor pics.

Did you organize a lot of details before you went or just wait til you got there? Sounds like Claudia was not nearly as stingy as everyone makes her out to be.

I like the idea of leaving notes at the desk for your guests. Do you think they would do this even though i have guests coming at all different times and days?

Did you do any kind of welcome letter or brochure/oot bags? Just wondering what the response was. I am still deciding whether I should try to arrange a couple excursions or just set everything up when we get there.

I wish I had known about the room upgrade. We reserved the jr jacuzzi suite, should have just went with the standard one I guess.

One last question, did you have the honeymoon package too?

 

Sorry about all the questions, I am just getting excited and want to know first hand what really matters to do and what I can worry about later...or never!

Congratulations!!