Courtney’s Super Awesome Dreams Site Visit

[CourtneyV]

Yep, another Dreams Los Cabos bride-to-be! I’m not really sure what I can say to add to what all the previous brides have said, but (as Tara would say), “whatev!â€.

 

Our site visit is from July 29th to August 5th.

 

 

The Flight…Alrighty, well we flew from Calgary, Canada on two flights – connecting in Pheonix. I know 99.9% of the people here are American, but holy crap… it’s a PITA to fly in the U.S. Aaron and I vowed not to get stressed out, but airports really get me flustered and anxious. We made it alright though. The total flight time was just under 7 hours, so it was nice to finally arrive in Cabo!

 

 

Cabo!

I’ve been to Mexico once, in the RM, but Aaron has never been. Let me tell you, Cabo is waaaaaaaaaaay different than the RM. Both locations are so beautiful, but there is something about Cabo that catches your eye. First of all, I’ve never seen a cactus unless it’s been purchased at the local gardening store, there are A LOT in Cabo! Haha. And the mountains, omg so gorgeous. We didn’t get away from the resort too much – we went snorkeling once, went for engagement pictures with Leigh and then went shopping one night… but we really didn’t see too much of Cabo, unless we were driving from point A to point B. There is definitely a lot more I’d like to check out.

 

We did go to dinner with Leigh when we were out for our engagement pictures in SJD. We went to a local Italian place called El Spicy Cooper’s… this place was SO good. It’s a little Italian place on the second level of a bright green corner building in the Art District. The waiter told us the restaurant has a website, but now that I look, I can’t find anything. Aaron and I both had the Fettuccini Alfredo (great minds think alike… or maybe he just mentioned it, and it sounded good!) and it was the best I’ve ever had. It had so much flavor. I would 100% recommend this place. The wait staff was friendly, the gentlemen we had was with the company for quite a while… he did seem to forget about us after a while when a large group came in after us and we had to grab him to get the bill – but it wasn’t a big deal. Definitely check this place out!

 

 

Dreams

I really didn’t want to set my hopes to high because I didn’t want to be disappointed. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I chose this resort without ever stepping foot in it and I was nervous it’d be the wrong one. Man, am I ever glad I had a site visit to get all of those nerves out of the way before the wedding!!

 

We got to Dreams at about 3 in the afternoon. Checking in was making me a little nervous at first because he couldn’t find our reservation. Thank goodness, the anal bridezilla in me kicked in before we left, and I printed off all the relevant emails before I left, so I presented that to them. Lol – the reservation was made under my first name, and Aarons last name… spelt wrong! Oops, but oh well! Neither of us cared, and it was kind of fun to get called by Aaron’s (almost) last name all week!

 

The Food

Hmm… where to start?! I’d like to give the food a rating, but it definitely varied. First, we didn’t like the lunch that was served at Oceana and Seaside grill. I mean, it was good… but not as good as I would have expected, it’s definitely geared to keep kids happy. Both menu’s at these restaurants were similar. Then, we discovered El Patio! Lol, it took us a while! El Patio is the buffet that is open for all three meals, and it was our lunch destination from there on out. I just want to add that we did visit Seaside grill and Oceana for dinner, and had no issues with it – in fact; we had some of the best steak at seaside grill! And coming from a province that takes pride in good, well cooked beef, that means a lot! Oceana is the seafood restaurant and it was really yummy at dinner too!

 

Portofino was by far my favourite restaurant. First of all, the bruschetta – YUMM! Lol. Portofino is the Italian restaurant just off the lobby, and it was soooo good. We were going to try every restaurant at least once, but we ended up skipping the Asian-influenced restaurant on the last night to revisit our fav.

 

The tasting went super well. I totally forget everything that we tasted, but we chose the crab cakes for our appetizer - they were soooooooooo good! We fought over the broccoli and parmesan and the asparagus and almond soup, both were really good too. I was a bit disappointed we didn't get to try the wedding cakes. The tasting was postponed a day because it was "accidentally scheduled on the wrong day", which I'm calling Yesica's bull shit on, but I know she's overloaded with work because Mariana had family issues, which is completely understandable. I did try the tres leches cake at the buffet one day and was happy with it.

 

Another note on Yesica, she was really nice, but we met with her twice and both time she said she'd be "right out" or "out in 5 minutes", and we ended up waiting almost half an hour for her the first day, and over 20 minutes the next... kind of annoying. If you're gonna be a while, just say so - we'll come back!

 

 

The Pet Peeve

Yes, I definitely have one with this resort, and it is the childish reservations of the poolside lounge chairs and pool floating-loungers. If I saw someone get out of the pool with one of those blue pool floating-loungers, I’d march right up and take it from them! Seriously, how childish is it to reserve these, or a spot by the pool?! 90% of the chairs aren’t even used, but I guess they want to make sure it’s there for them just in case they want it. Aaron and I didn’t spend a lot of time in the main pool, we either chilled by the beach or at the other pool – the oceana terrace pool, I guess it’s called.

 

 

The Room

Well, we were upgraded to honeymoon suite, but only for the nights that we were paying for. I kind of thought that was annoying that they wanted to switch our rooms, but I didn’t end up saying anything, and when the day came that we were suppose to switch, I didn’t hear from them so we just stayed in the honeymoon suite! Omg, what a room! Seriously, we had no idea we’d get upgraded an it was definitely a great surprise. Of course, we have pictures!

 

We did tour the renovated rooms with Yesica, and they look great! Our room did have the new furniture, but the old décor. We have absolutely no complaints about the rooms whatsoever.

 

 

Activities

Well, to be honest – once Aaron and I got to the resort, laziness settled in and we didn’t do much! Lol, but there was a lot to offer. We did go shopping on Monday night. I was a little surprised that the shuttle dropped us off at the mall, and the area was really, really touristy, but it was still nice and we wandered away to the more local areas.

 

We also went on the snorkeling trip that Dreams provides for $10 a person, twice a day on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. We went Thursday morning, and the beach is pretty close to dreams… but was really dirty. I swear, I’m not much of a diva or care about garbage here and there, but there was broken glass everywhere!! Even though our guide took us to “the VIP areaâ€, there was still glass where we set our stuff down. The snorkeling was good, there were lots of fish and we had a blast; but just a heads up about the glass!!

 

I loved the Movies on the Beach provided by Dreams. It’s such a great, fun idea. One night they had a Wii tournament and the kids seemed to be having a blast at it.

 

There were a stinkload of other activities, most of which are included in a daily newsletter delivered to your room at turn-down service cruiseship-style!

 

 

Overall Service

The service was great. Omg, it’s so great to get spoiled for a week! These people will work incredibly hard to make you happy. The only thing is that they were sort of forgetful. A few times we’d order something and they wouldn’t remember. Lol once, Aaron ordered room service and he called for some juice. So room service guy picks up the phone, Aaron says, “Ya, I’ll get some apple juiceâ€

Room service guy, “sorry, we only have apple juice or orange juiceâ€

Aaron, “Uhh…Ok, I’ll have some Apple juice!â€.

Ya.. what’d they deliver?! Lemonade! Haha, we found it pretty funny, but things like that happened more than once. No big deal, but I could see it getting a little annoying.

 

 

Leigh Miller

Ok, honestly I can’t say anything bad about her. She’s so much fun and so incredibly easy to talk to. We had the engagement session on Thursday evening and I had the bd session on Friday morning, both were so easy and so comfortable. Obviously I haven’t seen any pictures yet, but I know I won’t be disappointed.

[CourtneyV]

Pictures!!!

 

The honeymoon suite:

 

 

 

 

 

The view from our room

 

 

 

We saw the set up for Lee's wedding at the oceana terrace from our balcony...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chillin' on the hammock. FYI, below the bride and the groom on Aaron's shirt, it says, "Game Over". lol

 

[CourtneyV]

 

Aww, towel art! And like a complete nerd, I kept this elephant (?) tucked off to the side for the entire trip! I loved him! lol

 

 

 

Umm....we were in room 2220, and I was pretty excited about it...?! lol

 

 

 

Barracuda bar

 

[starchild]

Another detailed Dreams review. Thanks Courtney! I think few resorts are flawless but there seems to be way more pros than cons. Great flicks too...you had a killer view!

[CourtneyV]

The gazebo from the back...

 

 

The view from the El Patio restaurant. You can see a bit of the gazebo off to the right

 

 

In front of the gazebo! I refused to go "in" it though, I had to save that for the wedding day!

 

 

 

 

and I think that's it for now!!

[Jessalyn]

aww...great review and I love the pictures!! so cute!!! I think we ate at the same italian restaurant. Was there a large painting on one of the walls? I can't remember the name of the restaurant we went to, but the pesto was to die for! yummy!!

[TammyWright]

i didnt get a towel elephant only a swan the elephant is sooo much cuter...

 

i liked portofino also...it was kind of romantic and fun

[CourtneyV]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jessalyn aww...great review and I love the pictures!! so cute!!! I think we ate at the same italian restaurant. Was there a large painting on one of the walls? I can't remember the name of the restaurant we went to, but the pesto was to die for! yummy!!

Ummm... maybe there as a painting?? lol I don't really remember. We sat on the super skinny balcony outside. It was SO good though! Leigh took a picture of us outside of it, maybe she'll post when she gets back.

[CourtneyV]

Quote:

Originally Posted by host i didnt get a towel elephant only a swan the elephant is sooo much cuter... i liked portofino also...it was kind of romantic and fun

Haha, we got the swans too... but their necks wouldn't hold their heads up... maybe they felt bad and made the elephant to make us feel better??!

[Jessalyn]

hmmm...Tony and I have to go back there next time we're in cabo....so yummy!! We didn't have time last trip...the wedding got in the way ...LOL