RIU OCHO RIOS REVIEW - our July 20, 2010 wedding and our stay at the resort *PHOTOS**

I'm so glad to see that your wedding turned out beautifully. It's good to know there's no worries w/chandlyn gone. I love your decor, everything looked gorgeous!

Oh and I left my questions out, lol. I hope you don't mind answering them...

 

1) It rained alot, was it just 10-15 minute periods or was it hours of rain?

2) I also ordered chairs from Tai Flora can I use them at the ceremony and the reception? We are having a private poolside dinner reception.

3) Were the pillows in the rooms hard and lumpy enough for me to bring my own w/me?

4) With the junior suite, is there really difference between ocean view and ocean front. I was looking at expedia and it lists the oceanfront junior suite as having more amenities than ocean view?

5) Lastly (sooo sorry for so many questions) did you get upgraded or a wedding "surprise gift" the next morning after the ceremony?

 

THanks for any questions you can answer.

Congratulations..pics look great!

No problem!

1) During the day the rain came in spurts, sometimes it just sprinkled and we stayed in the pool/ocean and sometimes it would storm. Regardless of the severity of the rain, it would blow over really quickly - maybe 30 minutes at the most. It was overcast a lot of the week but we actually preferred it because on the days the sun was out it was SO SO hot. Overcast gives you the heat without the sun's intensity. 3 of the nights it poured with wicked thunder and lightening which didn't bother anyone because we were at the bars which are covered,

2)The chairs I had at out beach reception were from the resort, but they looked like the Tai Flora chairs we had for the ceremony. I saw the staff packing up my ceremony chairs about and hours and a half after our ceremony (we were well gone by then). I don't know if you have to pay more to have rent them for the poolside as well, but something tells me that you will have to. Antonette can help you with this when you go to meet with her.

3) The pillows were alright. There is a spare one in the closet that I found softer than the ones on the bed. It wasn't really an issue for us especially since pillows take up a lot of luggage space and there were more important things to pack. I had read this as well before we left but of all the things to worry about, the pillows didn't concern me.

4)The Oceanview rooms are a class of rooms that are a step below the jr. suites (they cost less). Our guests booked into both and we couldn't see any difference, to be quite honest. We were mostly in the same area of the hotel and the rooms looked to be the same size. We did have friends who booked a jr. suite and they scored an amazing ocean front room which was the same size as mine (so just a regular jr. suite) but they were at the very tip of the jr . suite block above the beach gazebe (room #1163) so they had an incredible, incredible beach view. Through Sunquest we had the option of King Suite ($$$), jr. suite, oceanview or standard. It just so happened that some of the jr. suites are in between the king suites so they have the ocean front view.

5) We were already in the jr. suite and I believe that if you are in a standard room or an oceanview, then you are available for a room upgrade. We didn't get one because the next room up is a king suite and (I assume) they are unavailable for an upgrade because of the cost of the room - they are really expensive and there are only a limited number of them. The resort was full for the majority of our stay so it might have been a case of them being unavailable. We received our free gift the day before our wedding - 2 'just married' t-shirts and a coffee mug with a small bottle of rum cream.
Our breakfast in bed was amazing!! 2 omelets, coffee, orange juice, a whole plate of pastries, 2 plates of fruit and a plate of toast - we couldn't finish it all and kept it in our fridge in our room.

I hope this helps! send any more questions my way if you need to

Congratulations JesseLyn10! I am happy to know your wedding was everything that you wanted it to be. Your pictures are beautiful!

Congratulations on your weddding and thanks for sharing your review!! The pics are beautiful, and it looks like you had a fantastic time You may want to resize the first pic of the view from your room because it's huge, and the mods may remove it. Just a suggestion

I have been having trouble with this one! On my screen it is the right size but sometimes it is huge! It's just a tester photo so if it's removed, it's no big deal. Thanks for letting me know though

Congratulations on your wedding!! I am so glad that everything was the way you envisioned. Thanks for the review.

Everything looks beautiful and your flowers are gorgeous! Congrats!

Thanks for answering! As for the DJ did you bring a cd with your first dance songs on it, or were you able to give him the names of the songs and he has them. I'm worried about the selection of music that he has.