ROYAL PLAYA DEL CARMEN BRIDES: were kids allowed for the day? ...and other questions

I hope I am doing this right...here is my review:

@ Royal Wednesday, Oct 21 through Friday Oct 30, 2009

Thursday

Met w/ Zulma-12:00-you will set your appt with her about 2 weeks before your arrival. She is super nice and makes you’re her priority during your entire stay! Which may help explain the long time between email responses from her. We went through all of the options that came with our package (Luxury package). We had about 25 guests. I gave her a picture in a magazine of what I wanted my flowers to look like…when I saw them I was very pleased. They looked exactly like the picture I gave her. Our package came with a photographer, but since we wanted Del Sol only Zulma said that Fun Ever does the photography and the video, so she would just have them extend the video time to make up the difference. We also gave her our sign in book, champagne glasses, koozies & maracas for our table. Maracas were bought for $1 each on 5th.

Friday

11:00-mani & pedi

Do NOT try to do everything the same day as your wedding. That’s just too much!

Ladies-don’t forget to eat enough the day of your wedding! Try to call room services so you can snack and drink a couple of glasses of champagne (it helps with the picture taking).

Catamaran

Catamaya :::::::::: CATAMAYA :::::::::: was awesome! 65 foot Catamaran. We told all of our guests ahead of time that we had a special “thank you†surprise for all of them. On Thursday we told them what is was. Everyone was super excited! We got the basic package ($2200 + Transportation-$10 per person). We snorkeled, fished-and caught fish, made Civiche out of the fish we caught, they played music, and we had an open bar.

Saturday

Hair & Make-Up @ Spa-2:00

Wedding - 4:00

Reception-5:00

The Gran

We had A LOT of trouble getting guests over from here to The Royal. We were told 10 different things by everyone. No one seemed to know what was going on. It was truly ridiculous! I recommend that NONE of your guests stay there if you want to see them during the trip.

Tipping

You don’t have to tip, but we did. A dollar here, a dollar there…will get you better service. We also tipped the maid who cleaned our room and the turn down service.

Ceremony

We had our wedding on the gazebo (which they will decorate with tulle at no extra cost). All guest chairs were placed on the gazebo (with chair covers-at no extra cost). I decided to put my hair in a side pony incase it was super windy. We chose the violin option. Our hors d’oeuvres were served in the garden area (they were very yummy), while the Mariachi band played. While that was going on, Matt del Sol Photography took pics of Brent and I while his assistant took pics of our guests.

Photographer

We booked Del Sol for 5 hours. Worth every penny! Matt is awesome! He is from Atlanta but lives in Mexico with his wife who is also a photographer and he speaks excellent Spanish! Matt came to my room as we were getting ready and his assistant went to Brent’s room as the boys were getting ready. Matt literally saved our beach wedding. Zulma called me about 30 minutes before the ceremony to tell me that she thought it was going to rain and we could have the ceremony outside, but it would be best to have the reception inside. I panicked and said ok. Then Matt jumped into action…looking up the weather on the computer and watching the clouds. He told me to call her back and tell her know that it wasn’t going to rain. So we did. And I am so grateful! It didn’t rain! I would have regretted that so much!

Reception

Our tables were beautifully set up on the beach (which was right behind the gazebo-best/most private place). We rented the lounge furniture from the Royal around $200-250. We used the lounge furniture. Get it! They also set up plants, lights and decorations (at no extra cost).

After, we took our pics we sat down for dinner. We were more concerned with dancing. So we asked Carlos to speed up the dinner. The dinner and everything about it was wonderful. When we initially met with Zulma we picked our salad, soup, dessert & cake. We asked her if we could do a menu tasting to decide on the entre. She said we could taste 3 items. She set up our tasting for Thursday. It was at Spice. We got to meet the Chef who would be cooking for our reception. This was when we got to meet Carlos for the first time. We chose the filet for our main course and got the salmon dish for my one vegetarian friend. Everyone bragged about the food! The steaks were cooked perfectly!

After we ate we did all of the other traditional wedding stuff then danced. We got Ivan from DJ Doremixx http://www.xcancun.com/doremixx/home.html & his light up dance floor. We did not book him through the resort. They were wonderful. Ivan will find you at the resort a few days before your wedding to get to know you and see if you have any special requests. They have a HUGE list of songs and were able to play everything we requested. They can also plug in your IPod or IPhone if they don’t have a song you want. The light up dance floor was AWESOME!

Zulma was there nearly the entire time. I don’t know when the WC’s sleep! She was behind the scenes, out of the way, but the second she thought I needed something; she came running from out of nowhere! It was very comforting. Right when the sun sets, mosquitoes come out! Very briefly (like 30 minutes). So Zulma and Carlos got someone to grab bug spray for us. (I’m from Louisiana and am very used to mosquitoes, but I even thought they were bad.)

Reception Food

Wedding Cake-Tres Leche (3 milk)-wonderful, cold cake (not hard like an ice cream cake) with a naturally sweet taste. You can try it at Pelicanos.

Salad

Soup

Main Course

Dessert-Cheesecake

I have pics of the 3 main courses we sampled at Spice.

Carlos

He had only been working at the resort for about a week when we met him. He came from a resort in Cabo and was training to manage at the Royal. He was great! He seemed to be everywhere! He was the first person to greet me by my new last name.

Climate

I could have walked around in my bathing suit from sun up until the time I went to bed. It was a breezy 80-85 degrees the whole time. Don’t waste space packing little sweaters/jackets, long dresses. Try to dress as cool and comfortable as possible.

Restaurants

Spice-not much A/C going on. A good place to go for breakfast! They have an egg bar, omelet bar, waffle/pancake/French toast/crepe bar & tons of other great things.

Pelicanos/Tapa-Open air bar-Great for lunch/snacks. You can go in there wearing a bathing suit cover up. Food is awesome!

Maria Marie-It was very hot in there when we ate for dinner. They said there was an A/C issue. One of my least favorite restaurants.

Chef’s Plate-Cool inside. More dressy. Food is wonderful. You must make a reservation.

Activities Committee

These guys were fun & very entertaining! They are everywhere & apparently don’t sleep (like the WC’s).

There are always activities at the pool & in the Lobby at night.

Most Important

Enjoy your time. Don’t freak out. These people are all amazing and will do everything they can to make sure your experience is wonderful!

Congratulations Tracy! Thanks for your very detailed review! Very helpful.

Our ceremony is at 4 oclock. I am guessing that lasts 20-30 min. Then the cocktail hour is an hour. Obviously So, do any of you ladies know if you can request to have your reception start at 630 -7 pm rather than right after the cocktail hour (Luxury Pkg)? I feel like being done at 8pm is going to feel way too early. Also way to early to hit the town!

Thanks!

Jen

thanks for the review, tracy!!

Hi Tracey,

Thanks so much for your review. I wanted to ask you if you could please explain a bit more regarding the problems you are having with The Gran Porto. We have almost half of our guests staying at the gran. Did you have problems on the wedding day for them to be allowed on the property? what exactly was the problem? I was told by WC Michelle that guests at the Gran need to go to the lobby of Royal, tell them they are there for our wedding and give our names, and then should be able to walk to the Gazebo 30 min before the wedding is to start. Im so scared now all of them will have the problems you had.. any help you can offer would be great!

Thanks!

past and future brides -

I was thinking of possibly having The Royal provide some sort of dessert tray, or cookie or tray or some type of goodies they can provide late night during the reception, after the meals.. say around 9 or 9:30pm...

I feel like people might get hungry later at night or want more food - is anyone else thinking of doing this or even think it would be worth it?

Past brides - were you guests just ready to party after the meal or do you think a cookie or brownie or goodie tray would have been good to do?

Jesmcan-

Did you ever ask The Royal if the food they provided during your tasting was the actual portion size they will be serving during the reception?

Thanks!