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

Ladies who did table overlays, did you order 54", 72", 85" or 90" and how did they fit? Do you have any pics you can share? Thanks!

Kendra I just saw your pictures from Victor Herrera and you look stunning! everything looked so beautiful.

So here is our review, which is REALLY long and takes up two posts.. lol sorry!

Airline-

We flew Continental Airlines and we have mixed reviews about them. First off let me just say that these things do not reflect the airline as a whole, but simply some of the people who work for them that we had to encounter. Overall, our flights were amazing. They were on time and went as smoothly as possible. We especially liked that there was a TV at each seat with Direct TV. (Which of course you had to pay 6$ for, but to keep us occupied we didn’t mind at all.) The problem came in when we were boarding the plane in New Orleans (where we are from). The lady who checked our bags specifically told me to ask if I could put my dress in the first class closet. So, when we loaded the plane I asked and the man looked confused. So I told him I would ask the stewardess. He did not realize that my fiancé’ was loading directly behind me and when I walked off he said “I don’t know what she’s so worried about that thing for, she’s going to wear it once and then sell it on EBAY! Who cares if it goes in the closet?†Well, if you would know my husband, you would know this didn’t go over well with him. The stewardess that I decided to ask about the closet was just as rude, and the dress ended up in the overhead compartment. Now, when we got to Houston it was a COMPLETE change. Everyone at IAH was extremely cordial about it. The guys transporting people on golf carts all stopped to say congratulations and when boarding the plane the steward stopped me and asked me if he could put the dress in the closet for me. So, maybe it just depends on which airport you go to.

Ground Transportation-

We chose Best Day Travel to do our transportation and we had no problems at all. They did not realize that on our flight alone we had 14 people traveling with us, but they were quick to get a larger van to accommodate us. The driver stopped for us to get a drink on the way to the hotel and even let one of our friends sit in the front with him and listen to HIS IPOD. (The driver had some interesting choices on the IPOD, too. It was hilarious!) He cut up and joked with us and also told us some of the best places to go while we were there.

Hotel-

This hotel is AMAZING. It is the cleanest, most well kept hotel I have EVER been too. Everywhere you go someone is working on something or cleaning something. While we were there we saw them gardening, painting, changing tiles, etc. They do all of this without interrupting your stay, and you’re actually grateful to see them doing this. They definitely take pride in their work. They are also very accommodating. My father-in-law drinks whiskey and whiskey only and they didn’t have any in his room so they brought him a whole fifth of it. We thought that it was really cool that there is a photographer walking around to take pictures of you. One day there were two parrots you could take pictures with. Another day there were two guys dressed in authentic Indian outfits, there was a huge iguana, and one night they were out there taking romantic pictures of couples. You are not obligated to buy any of these pictures, but you can go to the photo station any time while you are staying there and purchase them if you wish to. It’s kind of like a cruise line does.

Restaurants-

The only restaurant that our group had complaints about was the Mediterranean restaurant. There were so many of our guests who did not like the food there that my FI and I chose not to even try the place. So, I can’t give you first-hand knowledge of their food.

We ate at Spice every morning and it was so good. Gabriella makes the best omelets! So good that I wish I could have brought her home with me. At breakfast Spice has an omelet station and a pancake or French toast station along with the many many choices on the buffet. We only ate dinner at Spice one night (our first night there, because none of the guys wanted to get dressed for dinner) and the spaghetti bar and grilling stations (with steak or chicken) are pretty good. My sister does not care for too much spaghetti and she went on and on about the spaghetti there.

We ate at Asiana twice and it was great. When you get there they give you spring rolls as an appetizer and they were really good. The fried rice tastes more like Thai rice, but it was still good. The steak and the beef filet were my favorite choices. I would not try the duck at Asiana, two people who were with us did not like it. It was very fatty.

Maria Maries was by far our favorite restaurant. It is a little nicer than the other restaurants on site. I think the guys had to have a collared shirt to get in, but it’s worth it. They steaks there are phenomenal and the grouper was just as good. We ate there twice as well and would have probably eaten there more if possible. The only advice I have is that when you order a salad at the restaurants they usually serve them with a balsamic vinaigrette unless you ask for something else. I was kind of confused the first night when my ceasar salad didn’t come with ceasar dressing, but the waiter fixed it immediately.

We ate Pelicanos for lunch most days because of convenience. It was extremely close to our room and there was no dress code. The salmon, tuna, seabass, scallops, shrimp, aracherro are all good. When you arrive they give you salsa and guacamole to start off with. The salsa throughout the entire resort is more of a pico de gallo than a salsa, but it’s still good. We did have a visitor, an iguana, one day while eating at Pelicano’s, but he did not bother us. We were actually interested in seeing him, since this was the first one we had seen the whole trip.

24 Hour VIP room-

This is basically the only place in the hotel, other than your room, that is ICE COLD! It’s nice to go in there and get away from the heat every now and then. They have a fully stocked bar and two kegs of beer in here. There is a buffet full of food (Which is usually cold), and I didn’t care for it too much. It’s usually chicken nuggets, jalapeno poppers, onion rings, chicken wings, etc. There are two pool tables and a ping pong table. There are also a few TVs and a bunch of board games that are in a hutch by the door. There are sofas and chairs to relax on and even a balcony with lounge furniture for those who smoke.

Room Service- We ordered room service twice and both times it was extremely slow. We ordered about an hour and a half before the wedding for the girls to have a snack and it got there literally five minutes before we were set to walk down the aisle. Needless to say we were scoffing down food. The other day we ordered it after a long excursion and we fell asleep before it got there.

Bars- Our room was right next to Tradewinds bar, so we spent a lot of time here during the day. Luis and Lopez took good care of us. I read a lot of reviews about how the bartenders did not make the drinks strong. Well, those people must have some strong livers, because our drinks were usually half liquor. At night we went to the lobby bar or tequila bar. In the lobby bar there was entertainment every night. Usually it consisted of a band, live act, musical show, and something that got the crowd involved. The first few nights we sat and watched, but after that it seemed like the same thing. There are also two pool tables in the lobby, so some nights we stayed there and played a game or two. The tequila bar is outside, so it can get muggy every now and then. The waitresses there knew us by name and joked around with us a lot. One of them kept hitting on my husband, which I thought was hilarious so I egged it on as much as I could. I loved the tequila tasting section. It basically looked like a pirogue filled with ice and ten different kinds of tequila. There was one that I wanted to try but wasn’t brave enough to do. It was in a clear bottle with no labels and had a bunch of whole peppers in it. I wish I would have tried it now, but I was too chicken then. Oh well!

Pools- we stayed in the back pool the entire time. This is where the swim up bar is located. The ONLY complaint that I have about the pools is that they close at 10. There were several nights where we would have enjoyed going for a late night swim to cool off and we couldn’t. It was quite frustrating. The entertainment staff at the pool is hilarious, especially Rosario and Alex. There was aqua aerobics, soccer, drinking contests, bracelet making, salsa dancing, fresh coconuts filled with rum, etc.

Girls,

I am currently at Royal PDC, did the menu sampling, will post pics and comments later.

Zulma is super sweet! and so far the weather is very nice, except it poured last night, and the reception at the Central Garden had to squeezed into the time share sales office! I am sure I saw some of the girls' wedding during this week...heehee..they were all beautiful:-)

Wedding Coordinator- We had Denys and I LOVED her. She makes sure that everything is taken care of. The only complaint I have about the whole wedding situation is that we had to meet with her on Wednesday at 4:00, Thursday at 10:30 to do the blood test and then Friday was the wedding. This made it difficult for us to make plans or go on excursions. Most excursions don’t come back to the resort until 6 and they leave at 10, so it wasn’t very convenient. But she had a stack of other weddings she was working on that week. The day we did our blood work there were 8 other couples doing the same so she was busy. She was so helpful, though, in calming me down. We found out an hour before the wedding that all of the playlists had been erased off of our IPOD. My husband says he has no clue how this happened, but I’m pretty sure he tried syncing it before we left to add more music for the plane and he forgot to sync the wedding playlist too. I started to panic for a moment and then everyone started working. Denys told me to sit and stay calm while she went find a CD player because luckily I had brought my ceremony and dinner music on CD’s for backup. Then, my girls all started going through their I Phones to make playlists. Literally, in 20-30 minutes the problem was resolved. Also, when they were setting up they had put all of the chairs and whatnot inside of the gazebo and I thought this was just to clear the walkway until the ceremony started for other guests, but when I asked her she realized that they had made a mistake and she was quick to have them move everything.

Ceremony- We had our ceremony at 2:00 p.m. and it was HOTTTTTTT! My dress was not heavy at all and I was sweating my butt off. It was so bad that I had seen a short white linen dress in the window of the resort gift shop that I liked and I ended up buying it to change into. Also, the direction the sun is coming from makes it difficult to see without squinting. If I could change anything I would have done the ceremony later that day, but there were other ceremonies after us so it wasn’t possible. The judge speaks English fluently and said some very moving words. Don’t ask me what they were, though, because my husband was holding my hand and shaking so much that’s all I could concentrate on. Matt is definitely right about having the ceremony inside of the gazebo. I mean it would have been nice because it was cooler in there and there was less of a glare, but it was SOOOO dark in there for the camera that it was hard to adjust. It did look like they had lights in the gazebo so I would ask if you could use them. The champagne toast after the ceremony lasted about 30 minutes, but words to the wise the champagne is strong. My MIL does not drink much and after two glasses was almost drunk.

Dinner- Everyone is still raving about the food at our wedding. This was by far the most delicious food we have ever had. We had the salad off of the vegetarian menu. I think it was the three lettuces salad with tomato & warm watercress. Then we had the Beef fillet with Dijon mustard varnished with Provençal herbs and mashed potatoes au gratin. Lastly, we had the cheesecake with chocolate. All of it was soooooooo good. We got all of the filet’s done medium and no one complained, even my sister who likes hers burnt. I would try to speed dinner up a bit. It seems that they wait until everyone puts their fork down, but some people were just picking at the food that was still in front of them, because they were waiting for the next course. It took us an hour to finish everything.

Reception- My one piece of advice is that you should definitely pay for the extra hour. By the time we finished the first dance we only had about an hour and a half left and we were just getting things cranked up. One of our friends ended up putting up his credit card to pay for the extra hour, which he didn’t get to enjoy because he was in the office trying to pay for it. It was just a big mess. We didn’t even have time for bouquet tosses or garter tosses. I wouldn’t change a thing, though, because we had SO much fun. Everyone is still raving about it, and our single friends have all declared that we should be ready to go to their wedding at the royal. They loved it so much that they want to do the same thing. A few people on here mentioned that they standard dance floor looked like two pieces of plywood and this could not be more wrong. When we got there we were surprised to see that the standard dance floor was actually white and lit up. Now, it did not light up different colors, but it did light up. One thing I did not notice until the end of the reception was that the lights under the tables were not lit up. I was a little disappointed about that because when I showed people pictures of what it would look like, that’s what I showed them. The waiters there will wait on you hand and foot. Jose’ was dedicated to me and my husband only and I blame him for how drunk we were. LOL No really, he will not let your glass go empty and he is very good about keeping time for you. Actually, when we walked up he made us two fresh tequila sunrises and brought them to us without us even asking for a drink. He kept on telling us that it was “our party†and that he would make sure we enjoyed every minute. He was amazing! There were also three or four other waiters there that were for your guests. The open bar is huge and contains anything you want.

Photographer- I brought my photographer with me from Louisiana. She is AWESOME at what she does and I could not have asked for anything better. Her prices were so reasonable that we thought it was too good to be true, but she went above and beyond. She followed me around all day long and got shots of my hair and make-up being done, we did some pre-bridals with just me, and she took some pictures of the guys. She also did the ceremony, reception, and trash the dress. We felt very comfortable with her, because she was very upbeat and happy the whole time. She was not a bossy, demanding, or uptight photographer at all. You can tell she enjoys what she does!

Flowers- We had the resort do my bouquet and the centerpiece at the altar and they were gorgeous! My flowers were so fresh you could smell them from a distance.

Hair and Make- up- I was a bit worried about this prior to the wedding, but it all turned out well. Needless to say I think I had two cans of hairspray in my hair by the time they were done, but it was probably for the best because my hair did not move an inch or frizz out. This is difficult to accomplish with my hair. I did a simple up-do to the side with flowers in my hair so it wasn’t anything that she couldn’t handle. They had books and pictures for you to look through when you got there, but I had come prepared with my own. My make-up came out wonderful, but while she was doing it I got REALLY nervous. When she began curling my eye lashes, I did not know what was going on. When I opened one eye to peek and see what was going on, I saw that she was curling them with a SPOON! Yes, a spoon that you eat with. We all got a good laugh out of it and a somewhat decent picture of it.

Duprke - thank you for such an awesome review! I am still laughing about the spoon lol by the way so where did the blood work happen? did you have to wait a while. By the way looks like they upgraded on their dance floor. That is such a nice dance floor! when we went on our site visit the weddings we saw just had these wood planks.

Kenlyn - I know I can't wait to be there lol love the reception at Pelicanos they should give that option to everyone. What a great spot.