Gran Bahia Principe Jamaica

[kerrij]

YAY! finally some GBP peeps! lol

Oh i have so much information on GBP!

Yes you have to pay for meals, but i think that is everywhere? i went with the "free package" which gets me 16 ppl free and $25/person after. so for our wedding of 50 it's only $1200 including the minister fees which isn't included in the free package.

we almost went with the blissful love pkg which is $1350/30 ppl and includes the $400 minister fees and $40/person after that. i think most places you have to pay per head afterwards.

Dinner is in a restaurant but it's semi private and still decorated for us. I was hoping to find someone who's been married here to see what it's actually like. silly, but whatever, i don't mind really. you can however, get a private place for $2500...no thanks! and you can't have your dinner on the patio or beach due to heath regs

the dance floor...you can rent the gazebo for 2 hrs, from 9-11pm which includes the beach area beside and includes a DJ for $500...totally worth it in my books! we'll do our dances and all the fun stuff there. but you also have to pay for a bar to be down there since there isn't one there, and you don't really want your people running to the bar all the time and then get distracted and not come back! hahah it's $20/person. which really isn't bad.

i totally agree it's so lameo that we take 50 people and bring in so much money to their resort and we still have to pay for food and beverages at an all inclusive! but everywhere else i looked is the same way, so i just sucked it up. so stupid eh!

I'm pretty bummed that our group has each paid $2000/person flight hotel taxes and i just looked 2 days ago and the price dropped to less than $1800 inclusive! ugh! i think i will contact the hotel and see if they can help us out and discount some rooms.

$100/night is awesome, we were quoted a month ago for $1175 for one week per person.

and Chrissi, no we don't have to pay $2000 down for the wedding. We don't have to pay for anything until we get there. I email Beverly often and she's great! she's the WC there and i asked if i needed to pay a deposit and she said, no nothing until we get there.

 

4 months today until we leave!!!! Yay!!!

 

Chrissi could you tell me Karelia's contact info please

[chrissik82]

@breeze: thats actually pretty funny. my travel agent tried to convince me to go with Iberostar because they have so good connections, bla bla... but I never saw a great picture of a wedding venue even though they promised to send me some of the possibilities... I am so in love with the gazebo at GBJ that I think my travel agent wont be able to convince me to choose Iberostar, unless they provide me with crazy cheap rates... but of course I gave her the possibility to get back to me with a comparison... lets see... as far as I compared the prices on expedia, Iberostar is way more expensive...

it is just annoying when travel agents try to keep up their relations with resorts in order to get the most advantages for themselves... I dont know what they think is more helpful and profitable for them: the customers who actually book and pay the travel and who spread the word about good experiences with this travel agent or the resort which uses the travel agents as a marketing strategy... oh well... I will keep you posted as soon as I get more information

[tim-juleswed]

Hey! So we are all booked and the wedding is set. We have 43 confirmed guests and are holding a raffle at the engagment party to give out a free trip! So there should be a good turn out.

 

Beverly has gotten back to me with the following quote...

 

Restaurant close out fee - USD2500.00 to include dj, microphone

Wedding package - USD1350.00 - 30 persons (Blissfull Package)

Supplement fee - USD40.00 per additional guests

Bar - dinner bar - house champagne, house wines, sodas, beers, water.

Government taxes - 8.25%

 

We have over the 30 guests so we will have to pay the $40 per person but only for about 5 people max so it's worth it to me. $5000 for the whole deal is way better than the $30,000 I'd spend here in Toronto. So I'm all for it.

 

Although Beverly just e-mailed me today and said I had to give a 25% deposit down, I guess to reserve for the private function maybe...that's okay with me too. Whatever makes the day as stress free as possible. I also don't want to have to spend too much time with her when we are there, want to enjoy the vacation with my friends and family.

 

All that is left to do now it buy the dress and grooms clothes and rings!! Woohoo...it's coming fast.

 

So, how will the flowers etc...work? Do I pick off a web-site or will she send me ideas? Not sure how it all works, or when I start with that stuff...

[chrissik82]

Hi kerrij,

 

here is the email address of karelia: knunez@bahia-principe.com

she is the manager of USA reservations. but I am sure she can help you with the roomrates... so sorry that you had to deal with those horrible travel agents... I know exactly how it is... everybody just tries to make the most profit... and wedding people are just too easy to rip off because of course everybody wants a special day...

 

thanks for all the communication, girls... it is really helpful

[chrissik82]

@ jules: wow I am impressed. this offer sounds great... I think it would be nice to have a private location for our guests, but I am also tempted by the gazebo dancefloor... hmm.... maybe it will be possible to do both, but then it is kinda weird to send people back and forth, from the gazebo to the restaurant, from the restaurant to the gazebo and then maybe back to a bar, when it closes at 11pm... tough decisions...

oh well...

about the flowers.. I am not sure, but I think with the different packages you can probably choose the color theme, the flower combinations and all the decoration stuff, they provide on this funny website taiflora.com

I looked through their pictures, I dont know if I am so crazy picky but their decoration didnt sweep me off my feet. but I think you can still combine different possibilities and make it your own style... if they charge you a lot for that is the other question...

[chrissik82]

wow, I am starting to get addicted to this forum... so my travel agent called me back after I forwarded her the email of karelia... I asked her if the price for the room rate I got would drop down even more if we book it through her (I mean $105 per night is difficult to underbid if you consider that people use their ammenities, sleep in a suite, can eat and drink 24h, get their rooms cleaned everyday, etc. but I was curious)... and guess what... she told me, it will be "around that price, but it all changes so fast and nobody can predict when the hotel raises the price".... isnt that incredible?!?!? I told her that if people start to put down their deposits they definitely cant just raise the price and she had to agree... so... well... I am sorry I have to start cursing now but... wtff is going on?!? and then, after I explained to her that I really like the fact that people have to put down "only $100" to reserve their rooms (according to karelia), she said: NO, there is a $150 deposit required... what on earth makes her say that?!?! does the travel agency keep the other $50 per person or what?! that is lots of money for doing nothing... at the same time I was waiting for her to get details I gathered a million more information by doing it myself.... she had no clue what is going on.. instead she just disagreed with everything Karelia told me... the funny thing is, she suddenly got a "very important and urgent call" and hung up, telling me she would call me back after that... it is almost 3 hours ago.... that makes me a liiiiittle sceptical...

[KPT]

WOW! I'm so excited to see more information about the Gran Bahia Principe Jamaica!! I'm also getting married out there in about 6 more months. Our date is, 1 May 2010. Were so excited. Very interesting information I see on here. Seems your prices are much more cheaper then what they were offering to us! I guess I thought there were only 3 set package deals and of course we went with the most expensive deal, cause there were certain things that I wanted for the big day! Now I'm thinking of changing...? Gotta save some money!!

[breeze616]

Hello Ladies,

 

So do you have to put a deposit down to book your date? If not, I may just go ahead and do it just incase...

[chrissik82]

@ KPT and breeze: I was talking to Karelia (the manager for USA reservations for gran bahia) today and I was asking her a few things that really helped me understand their system... I was a little skeptical about this whole deposit stuff and the weird forms they send you to fill out (credit card authorization, etc.)...

about the packages: they provide them in order to get an idea about what people want but actually you could change everything you want... so what I did was to choose the cheapest package (renewal of vows for $700 because we will get married in the US before we go there to avoid all the paper work)... I did that because of several reasons:

1. getting a marriage license and getting married before in your own country is way cheaper and so much more uncomplicated

2. you can really enjoy the wedding without thinking about all the legal paper work, you dont need to go back and forth to sign papers, etc., you can stay the whole day with your guests and just relax :-)

3. the renewal package is cheap and the deposit of 25% is only $200 which secures you the date, the time and the venue

 

Karelia explained to me that as soon as you put down a deposit you get a confirmation sheet which tells you your date, time and package choice so that you have something in black and white in case something goes wrong.... she also said that it actually doesnt matter which package you choose, you can still upgrade or change it.

 

@kerrij: I am surprised you didnt need to pay that deposit... somehow I think its cool :-) but somehow I just want to have some kind of proof that I booked something..

[tim-juleswed]

Breeze616 - I reserved my wedding date with the GBP and Beverly the wedding planner there said it was of no cost to me and if I have to cancel that was fine. So we booked the date of the wedding before we even booked the hotel. I still haven't given any money yet, but it's only about 4 months away give or take so now she is asking for 25% deposit on the wedding package, not on all of the extras so still a pretty good deal to me.

 

Fingers crossed it all goes well...