Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda Brides post here

well the water on this whole area is not as nice as in playa del carmen. most days it was darker in colour but it didnt seem to have all the seaweed pple have talked about in tripadvisor reviews. we didnt swim in it as it was cold! the one day it was warmer we had gone for a walk and ended up in the bluer water in front of secrets 2 doors down.

i didnt see an area to do a ceremony in the garden

yes the rooms were nice.. large with GREAT showers. everyone in our group was in bldgs 3 4 and 5. we all found room service to be good

The buildings near the beach are a bit older, but still clean and spacious. And there are several different shower designs but yeah they are pretty sweet.

We all swam in the water. Rather, waded, since it wasn't very deep. It wasn't crystal clear blue carribbean water though by any means.

Beware the 11p-1a beach party that was on a few nights while we were there. If you were out partying, fine. If you wanted to sleep though it was pretty loud in bldg 2 for example.

I had heard rumours about a garden area for the wedding too but Candy didn't mention it as an option. Beach front (which is actually a fairly secluded location) was out first option, and the area between Mexican & Italian was the second.

I should also point out to those considering the BBGE that the staff there was all super awesome. Genuinely friendly and helpful. Everyone from the dude who came and stocked our fridge each day, to the waiters, the concierges, the grounds keepers. By the end of our 10 day trip it was like we knew most of them personally.

Chris

Thanks Chris!

Hi everyone.

I am trying to get the best rates for my guests for this resort - does anyone know of a good agent, that was able to beat the usual online prices? Or is there a good website?

Maybe I should deal directly with the hotel?? Some of the prices I have seen today were !

Help?!

Thanks.

-A.

Hi Alice,

We were really frustrated finding what we thought would be reasonable pricing for the BBGE and our wedding (which we just got back from on the weekend, and which I'll post a very positive review about soon) and had gone through a couple of travel agents before settling on Bruce Bennewith of Rainbow Travel. He's located out here in BC but we did everything over email and a couple of phone calls, so I don't think you should worry about that as a limitation.

Bruce's pricing through Sunwing came in at $400 (about 20%) cheaper than Flight Centre when they quoted on the *EXACT* same trip/itinerary/duration/dates. We couldn't believe it. We asked FC to explain it and they couldn't, they simply gave the business up even though we gave them the opportunity to match. We're glad they didn't. Bruce took care of EVERYTHING for us, including booking about 30 people in from various departure points across Canada. His communication to all our guests was top notch (we received a lot of compliments) and straight forward so there were no mixups. he ended up having to use a few different suppliers to meet everyone's specific needs and never complained about a dip in commission or what not.

I highly recommend you give him a try. Feel free to send me a PM and I'll give you his contact info (I'm not sure if it's allowed to do so publicly by this forum otherwise I'd publish it for everyone).

HI everyone!

Wanted to pass my good news to you all! I am heading to BBGE for my wedding in April and we plan to have about 100 guests attending. Although Candy was nice when I did talk to her, it could get frustrating trying to get a reponse back. (as I am sure most of you have read in these posts, there seems to be a lot of frustration communicating with her prior to the wedding).

Anyway, I got a call from a new wedding coordinator on Monday named Nadia...and she seems AWESOME!! Called me right away, talked for an hour about all the details of my wedding, was sooo nice, and told me several times how much she wanted to get every detail perfect to my wedding. I write her twice since then and she responds that same day. Wooohoooo!

My thoughts on perfect restaurants....I am having our reception in the Steakhouse (restaurant on the beach) since i have such a large group. It is all windows right out over the beach, beautiful! But no AC, so make sure you pick a cooler month if you choose to do it there.

By the way, I posted lots of pics of all the restaurants and the resort in an earlier post if you click on that link you should get a good feel for the places to have your reception inside.

HI everyone!

Wanted to pass my good news to you all! I am heading to BBGE for my wedding in April and we plan to have about 100 guests attending. Although Candy was nice when I did talk to her, it could get frustrating trying to get a reponse back. (as I am sure most of you have read in these posts, there seems to be a lot of frustration communicating with her prior to the wedding).

Anyway, I got a call from a new wedding coordinator on Monday named Nadia...and she seems AWESOME!! Called me right away, talked for an hour about all the details of my wedding, was sooo nice, and told me several times how much she wanted to get every detail perfect to my wedding. I write her twice since then and she responds that same day. Wooohoooo!

My thoughts on perfect restaurants....I am having our reception in the Steakhouse (restaurant on the beach) since i have such a large group. It is all windows right out over the beach, beautiful! But no AC, so make sure you pick a cooler month if you choose to do it there.

By the way, I posted lots of pics of all the restaurants and the resort in an earlier post if you click on that link you should get a good feel for the places to have your reception inside.

Hi,

I contacted the new coordinator, and she was really prompt and helpful! I hope it continues!

I have a question about the bed sizes - I have some families of 4 that want to stay together. Are the double beds big enough? Are they queen sized? Because my travel agents call them "twin" rooms :S

It will be 2 adults and 2 kids (6 and 8 ).

Also, do any of the rooms have couches or pull out sofa beds?

Thanks.

-A.

p.s. I called the resort, but I don't think the person at reservations knew what I was referring to when I was saying "twin" vs "queen".

Another couple of questions -

-Has anyone seen any of the work done by the resort photgrapher? Is it worth the money, or should I look into hiring an outside vendor? Does he/she have a website?

-Does anyone know if you can use the "lounge" area for cocktails? Is it near a bar?

-@krs182 - the pictures of the flower bouquets in your album.... are they they standard bouquets in the package, or are they the ones that you pay extra for?

-Also, you have a picture of a setup for a reception, I believe... Do they automatically decorate the table with flowers? Or is that extra?

Thanks to anyone who might be able to help!

A.

Some of the flowers in the ones I had in the album were actually additional. Pretty much if you want calalilies in your bouquet its more. I found that out after I chose the bouquet with them in. I just told her to use a different flower and it brought it back down to what was included in the package.

No reception pictures unfortunately. I will take lots of pics of mine in APril, unfortunately, I didnt see any recpetion pics online yet.