riu palace punta cana

good morning everyone,

 

so it looks like im gonna have to wait till at least sept to book and look at prices again.

 

i really need your advice everyone do you think its ok to wait till sept or later to book if we plane on getting married in may 2009 or maybe june 2009? did anyone ever book 6 month in advance? any tips or info i would really appreciated.

 

thank you all

Enabella,
Def take what Mrs. Petti takes into account. If you stay at a different Riu than th guests, you will actually have to pay for them to attend the wedding (which is nuts, I know). I have stayed at RIU properties before and they are nice! When we were researching our wedding though we nixed this one because of the pricing on packages and the amount of people coming to our wedding (and also the day passes pricing -- for people coming to the wedding but staying at another resort altogether...yes they DO make you pay for that, individually).
Just do your research and if this one matches what you want, go for it!

if you stay a different resort than the guests you wouldn't have to pay for them to attend you would have to have the wedding wherever they are staying...the rule of thumb for all Riu resorts is that the wedding must be held where 80% of the guests are staying. So you guys could do the Riu Palace and get that experience and the rest of the guests can stay at any 1 of the other 5 Riu properties (they are all right next to each other). And because you are at the Palace Punta Cana you can use all 5 of the resorts but they cannot use your resort.

thanks ladies for the advice.

since prices for next year are way out of our budget and our guests looks like i have no choice but to wait till maybe sept and see if the prices drop a little mean while im gonna look for a less luxury hotel in punta cana and that might help the situation .

 

do you girls have any suggestions for a decent hotel?

The dreams punta cana looks like a nice resort and I believe it is cheaper than the Riu Palace. The Riu bambu also looked nice and is a lot cheaper than the Palace. I have also heard some good reviews about the Ocean Blue and I believe it is cheaper.

thanks you mrsp im going to try to look and get prices and hopefully ill have better luck

I'm in your same situation (June 2009)! I went online to funjet today to see if I could get prices. Of course I couldn't for my dates. But, we weren't planning on booking anything until August anyways due to us wanting to save more money first. Which still gives everyone eight months to pay in full. I feel since everyone already knows we are doing a destination wedding they should be saving as of now. So money shouldn't be an issue. I know that is a little selfish but it is my wedding day!! Not sure if that helps you are not. Just my two cents!

I am also in the same situation as you!

 

My FH are trying to come up with a rough figure that each of our guests will need to pay, but it's hard to do that with no airfare prices! My travel agent told me that prices will be available in May or June!

 

How soon after you book the hotel do you have to pay in full for your wedding?

It totally depends on the resort. Some resorts dont even require a deposit, you just pay for everything when you get there and meet with the WC to make your final decisions. Other resorts require a deposit and you just pay the balance upon arrival as well.

Enabella, if price is really such a huge issue, why doesn't your FI's family wait to book because the prices will go down.

 

When we were quoted $1650+230tax to go to Mayan for our wedding we booked only the 10 required people to secure our group. Everyone else ended up paying $1100+277 tax when they booked in Sept.