Review-The Royal Playa Del Carmen

I just got back from my wedding at The Royal in Playa Del Carmen and wanted to leave a detailed review about it. Hope it helps!

 

Hotel-The Royal (A)

The hotel is amazing, the staff is even more amazing! The minute you walk in they hand you a cold towel and a glass of champagne. Everyone from the bellboy to the maids say "hola" every single time you pass them. Everyone is so unbelievably friendly. The entertainment crew is awesome as well, they definitely know how to get people involved! The front desk staff is a bit cranky, but you really never have to deal with them, so no worries there. The room service is EXTREMELY slow in the peak hours, so be careful with that. It took around 1 1/2 hours at times to get food. The food was also sub par compared to what you get in the restaurants. I did get sick at Spice which is the buffet restaurant on the resort. Unfortunately I decided to eat some late night food the night before my wedding. I woke up at 5:30am and started puking insistently. My advice to all brides is to be VERY smart and go to your local drug store to buy probiotics. I know it sounds nuts but ask the pharmacist. They will know what it is. I took one of those and was better in 1 hour. One of my bridesmaids ate with me and got sick as well. She took one too and was fantastic! It basically kills all bad bacteria. Best decision you will ever make!

One more word of advice...Do Not get the beachfront walkout. We did and totally regretted it. It was a beautiful room with a fantastic view, but the bugs were out of control! It got so bad the last night that I had to call the front desk and have them bring me raid. I killed 60 ants and 4 spiders in my room alone! It rained and they were all running in. It was horrible! All week though it was pretty bad. You are right off of the sand so it is only natural that you get bugs. I would do a balcony for sure. The oceanview rooms my guests got were amazing! Couldn't really see the ocean all that great, but the rooms are fantastic.

 

Hotel-Gran Porto (A)

A couple of my guests stayed here and they liked it. The rooms were a lot smaller than The Royal, but there were a lot of great features. They had an outdoor buffet which The Royal did not have, but could have used. You couldn't swim with a drink in the pool which sort of stunk, but they had some great late night shows that rivaled our resort. The two restaurants there were good as well. Maria's is where we held the rehearsal dinner, and definitely was my least favorite of the two. Pescatore's is a Italian place and very yummy! Also if your guests want to eat at Asiana at The Royal they can for 50% off. It is well worth it because to me this was the best restaurant in the whole place! So good, we ate there at least 3 times.

 

Dinner Rehearsal-(

Maria's at The Gran Porto was very accommodating. They let me come in early and set up everything, which was nice. The food was sub par. I had the avocado with crab which was really delicious! The dinner we chose was the beef with mushroom, and the beef really looked sad. It was thin and just not something you are proud to serve your guests who paid a fortune to get there. I did discover some guests who had shellfish allergies, and Maria's helped me out in trading out dishes, so that was nice. The dessert was the fruit with the hard chocolate shell...not sure of the exact name, sorry. It was really good as well. I gave it a B because of the meat.

 

Wedding Coordinator-Zulma (A+++++)

Zulma is amazing. Not only did she have every single detail nailed down when I got there but she actually was reminding me of things that I forgot about. I would suggest going there with a list of things to ask and remember because when you are face to face you sort of blank and forget a lot. You are seriously so busy that it is best to have everything written down and organized. I made a list for Zulma, the DJ, the Photog, and myself. I unloaded all of my decorations on her and she was so nice and took everything, even though it filled up her office. The day of the wedding she was so on top of everything! I even drove her nuts after the wedding asking questions about when other appointments for spa stuff was, etc. she was still so accommodating! Have no fear I know for a fact that she is all over your details. She has a folder just for you on her computer and in her file cabinet with every email you sent her and a full list of what you want and what day you want it. Amazing that she can keep up with all of it!

You do need 4 witnesses who have to have their passports and their tourist cards with them. They go into the office with you for your consultation. Make sure you remember to do this.

 

Wedding-Gazebo (A+)

I was so nervous it was going to rain, but it was perfect all day/night. I decided to put the table at the edge of the gazebo and have all of the guests sit outside of the gazebo. I had 8 bridesmaids and 8 groomsmen so I had them stand until we walked down then I made all of them sit, except for the maid of honor and best man. It worked out perfectly. We had the videographer with our luxury package videotape it all. It was nice, but not something I would have paid for otherwise. The judge was great. She spoke English and even included some words of wisdom and a poem. We did the sand ceremony prior to the exchanging of the rings (there was no limitations on this) and the sand ceremony wording included the words "God" and "Christ" multiple times. There were no problems with that. I even walked down with my grandmothers rosary. I didn't give the wording to Zulma nor did she ask me for it before hand. Overall it was amazing! I even had an airplane come overhead saying "coco bongo" during our vows and it just made it all the more exciting and real. Everyone loved it!

The cocktail reception after was sort of a bust. The mariachi was great, and people stuck around to listen, but it was so hot we just all wanted to go to the lobby bar for drinks instead. The appetizers were pretty awful. They were all the cold apps, and not something I would really consider good food.

 

Reception-Beach outside of Pelicano's (A+)

The reception was amazing! I can't even explain how amazing it was. The wedding was at 2pm, cocktail at 2:30 and reception at 5. We decided the morning of the wedding to extend out the reception an extra hour. We just decided that 3 hours wasn't enough and it was SOOOOO worth it! I can't express that enough. Our group was very lively and full of energy so we knew they wouldn't want it to stop. The dinner was fantastic. People kept talking about how good it was. We had the salad with goat cheese and it was nothing like I thought it would be. It was so good. We then had the beef for dinner and it was delicious. Everyone was saying what a good cut of meat it was and perfectly cooked. The soup was the princess cream soup with mint and it was lick the bowl good. The dessert was cheesecake, and I didn't eat that. But everyone said it was amazing. One of the bridesmaids thought it was so good that she ordered cheesecake every night in her room after the wedding. I probably wouldn't recommend that. The set up was exactly how I envisioned it and Zulma again did fantastic.

 

DJ Ivan (A++++++)

he was late for the meeting, but had a valid excuse. He took down all of our notes and we paid him then. The night of the wedding I can't begin to tell you how fantastic he was. He is worth EVERY penny! The stage is also a must if your people love to dance. He even extended out the wedding an extra 20 minutes at the end because nobody wanted to get off of the dance floor. At one point one of my bridesmaids said she wished he would have played a bad song so she could give her feet a rest. We requested no slow songs and no wedding typical songs. I did this because I knew the people who were attending and knew what they would like and want. I suggest you do the same since you want everyone to have fun. I opened up requests to whoever wanted to and it worked out great. He definitely made the party! His dance floor made you feel like you were in a club also! It was great. At one point the staff even let us get behind the bar and mix our own drinks. We had people coming up to us the next day saying that they saw our wedding reception and it looked like the most fun wedding they have ever seen. They said they wanted to crash it. We had 3 different groups of party crashers come in and unfortunately we had to boot them out or else we would have to pay the $60/person...no thanks. So most of them stayed on the beach by our dance floor and danced by the ocean with us. Pretty funny!

 

Photographer-Cecilia Dumas (A+++++)

I haven't gotten the photos yet but she was amazing to work with. She did all of the shots I wanted without even asking. She definitely has a flair for what looks good and what doesn't. She is very honest and will tell you if you looked bad in a pic because she wants to make sure you look the best in every photo. We also did the trash the dress with her and I think they will turn out amazing. We were very open to whatever she wanted because we had full trust in her and her abilities!

 

We went to the Blue Parrot for the fire show after the reception and it worked out great. I emailed the manager ahead of time and they had tables and chairs reserved for us. It was great. The show was amazing also. The dance floor is crazy too, they dance all night.

 

Spa-C

I give it a C because I really didn't like my hair. It was my fault because I didn't speak up. It was just that the humidity was so horrible there that my hair wouldn't cooperate. I had to do something to keep it up. It wasn't horrible, just not what I had envisioned, but oh well. The makeup was awesome. The massage was seriously fantastic. The manicure and pedicure sucked. I would not recommend it. We also didn't do the face saver treatment because of all the bad reviews. The spa wasn't fantastic unfortunately, but the staff is really nice.

 

The whole week went by so fast and I was so busy that I barely enjoyed a vacation. But it was all worth it to hear everyone say that it was the best wedding they have ever been to. That is a great thing to hear after planning for a whole year.

 

Bring a lot of tip money with you, you will need it! You tip everyone. Oh and we tipped all of the wedding related people 15%. The coordinator I tipped $100 only because she sort of planned it all. The judge I didn't even get to tip since she ran off so fast, so I gave it to the DJ as an extra thank you for the 20 extra minutes.

 

If anyone has questions I'm sure I can give some answers, just let me know.

Yay!!! I'm glad everything was so beautiful and fun. Thanks for posting your review. When you went to the Blue Parrot, did you pay per guest? Thanks!

Congrats on a wonderful day! Can't wait to see pics.

No I emailed the manager ahead of time and asked him if he would allow us VIP access and he said he wouldn't charge us. Just tell them the name of your wedding party and that is everyones password to get in. If you need the email address you can PM me. I will be at work on Friday and can send it to you.

One other item I forgot to mention is the cake. We went with a standard wedding cake and we did do the tres leches. I asked about the heat and Zulma said it wouldn't be an issue, only when it is a multi layered caked is it an issue since it is heavy. It was out for at least an hour and it didn't melt at all! So worth it because it was yummy!

Great, I will PM you! I know the girls on The Royal thread all talk about that cake being delicious and I really want it but my FI keeps saying he doesn't like it :-(

Congrats!! Great review, thanks for sharing.

 

In regards to the witnesses how far in advance did they need to arrive at the resort prior to the wedding?

Thank you so much for your review! It really helps. I am so glad you got better...I am definitely going to the pharmacy and buy the probotic!!

Thank you for your review and the info! Sounds like it was wonderful overall and I'm very happy for you. I can't wait for my turn.

It says in their "rules" that they need to be there 3 days before the wedding, but it depends on your package. Really they just need to be there the day that you have your meeting with your coordinator. So I got there on a Wednesay and had my meeting on that Thursday. Just choose 4 people that are with you, doesn't really matter who. They do need to get up during the ceremony though and sign the certificate, which was something they didn't tell us. No biggie, but something you should know.