Dreams Punta Cana Brides

Hi Everyone!

I guess now its finally time to post my review of the hotel. Sorry if it is long!!

 

Flight: We left from Toronto on the 2:40pm flight which got us into Punta Cana around 7pm. We flew on CanJet (really small planes and kind of crappy - but hey... we got there!!)

Arrival: When you arrive at the airport after getting your bags, you will be approached by TONS of porters and taxi drivers trying to get you to take their cabs. If you booked a package through a tour operator that includes your transfers, just ignore these guys and walk right through. Your tour operator will have a sign with the company name on it and direct you to which bus you will be taking to the resort. When we got there we had a completely full bus of about 55 people. It was a very nice motorcoach and we arrived when it was dark out so we didn't really get to see the villages you pass on the bus. I've been there before so I know what is around. Also when we went at night in the large bus the drive didn't seem to be that bad. There has been lots of complaints on forums like Trip Advisor saying the ride was horrible and people were throwing up, this DID NOT happen on my transfer. Everyone found it fine. Since Dreams is pretty much one of the furthest hotels passed the main Bavaro Beach strip, we had to drop some people off at the Majestic Colonial (which is also a beautiful hotel - we stayed there last year for a wedding). It is about 1/2 hour to the Majestic and then another 1/2 hour to Dreams.

Check in: Upon check in to the hotel, unfortunately we were not given our private check in (which didn't really matter since my group was mainly the largest group checking in- there was another small group of about 10-12 people) and we did not get the complimentary champagne upon arrival. My sister actually arrived from Cyprus a couple days before us and paid one of the waitresses to bring champagne to our bus.

Hotel Room: There are 9 buildings with rooms in the hotel. We booked just a Deluxe room ( the lead in room category) and were never upgraded, which is fine. The only thing that was wrong with our room was that my room was right next to MY PARENTS!!!! A little awkward! LOL!! I went up to the front desk to have my room changed and they told me there was nothing they could do for me because they were at 96% occupancy (so what about that other 4% eh??!). I was told to come back the next day at 2:30pm to see if there was going to be a room available to switch. This is what I did and they did switch my room. We were originally in room 8209 and were changed to room 1217 (which was an oceanview - same size room though). A couple of my guests had problems because there was my cousin who was with her husband and their 2 twin girls who are 6 years old. They booked a Deluxe Family Suite and when they got to their room it was a king size bed and a pull out couch. By the way, the pull out couch was literally a single bed. There is no way 2 grown children could sleep on that bed. The hotel brought a cot to the room which they were okay with. My group was all over the hotel, the only buildings we weren't in were building 2 & 6!

Hotel: The staff was very friendly. The building itself could really use a fresh coat of paint, but none of my guests even noticed since for most of them it was their first time at an All Inclusive. Watch out for Tarrantiulas! (sp?) they are everywhere, but they are scared of you! This is the case in alot of the Caribbean countries, no need to be alarmed.

Restaurants: The buffet was excellent! Very yummy food! There is a wood burning oven to get pizza made fresh 24/7! I'm not a breakfast person, but I was yold that the Oceana restaurant near the beach had a great breakfast buffet, and it was much quieter than the main buffet (World Cafe). For lunch the main buffet is open and Oceana is open for a la carte, there are also about 3 or 4 different bbq's on the beach and near the pool. The one on the beach has more selection

*** MAKE SURE YOU BRING IMMODIUM!! *** Every single one of us needed it during the week. Not sure if its the food or what, but I've never had this happen before on an All Inclusive before. Some staff had said that it is because of the utensils used when cooking because the food is raw, then sits in the sun and they serve you with the same fork.

Wedding: I got to the hotel on Saturday night and there was a letter at the front desk from Deyanira letting us know when to meet her. The wedding took place on Wednesday and we met with her on Tuesday at 10:30am. Yes it did seem a little short notice, but don't be alarmed, they were amazing! Deyanira was so nice and so helpful. There were things that we had no clue what we should do and she let us know what the options were without making us feel forced to do so. We chose the free wedding package and just added on extras. We felt this worked best for us since there were things on the one you had to pay for that we wouldn't even use! On Wednesday we just brought our fans and table runners to the wedding department in the morning and I relaxed in the sun until about 2pm. I had a hair appointment for myself and my MOH at 4pm in the spa. I was pleasantly surprised on the turnout of our hair, I've had so many compliments on it! I didn't even have a picture to show them. They just gave me a couple of magazines and I chose from there. The spa staff do not speak english well at all, so don't try to explain to them in english what you want, a picture works best. It took about an hour to get my hair done, so I was back in my room at 5pm, and I just needed to do my make up and get dressed. Deyanira came to my room 5 minutes before the ceremony to get me and we walked downtogether along with my MOH and my Dad. It was so hot that day and I am so happy we chose a 6pm wedding. It was cooling off, and at this time, the sun sets at around 7/7:30pm so it made for some great sunset pics.

After the ceremony the resort photographer took all of the family pictures and then took us down the beach for some private more intimate pictures. Our reservation at the Bordeaux Terrace for the reception dinner was to happen at 7pm. When we were taking our pictures we notices an enormous rain cloud coming right for us! Once we got to the Bordeaux Terrace, which looked beautiful, unfortunately I made the call to move the dinner downstairs to the Oceana restaurant. Good thing we did because about 10 minutes later is poured for about 2 hours! It would have been nice to have the dinner outside, but it turned out fine. It was soooo hot though! I couldn't even eat I was so hot! After dinner I had to go change out of my dress. I wish I could have kept it on, but it was rediciulously hot!

So this is the end of my review! I hope you liked it, and I don't want to sound negative about the hotel at all, everyone had an amazing time!

I'm uploading pics to photobucket now and will post them!

Here are my pics!

 

Wedding pictures by kylie_felix - Photobucket

Nice pictures!! Thanks for sharing. Did you find the resort too big or too small? Was it very busy/crowded? Did you have an problems with booking the wedding times/location? I would ideally like to use the gazebo and have an afternoon wedding. But if you're saying it's that hot....I might have to reconsider. Although, the plan is May, so maybe that's a bit better. Ugh, so many thoughts!

The resort wasn't too big or too small. It was comfortable. Even though the hotel said they were at 96% occupancy, you'd never know. When we went to the a la carte restaurants they were never full. The gazebo is really nice, although if you want privacy this may not be the place for you. The gazebo is right outside the lobby and main buffet. I watched a couple of weddings there and they looked beautiful. I really liked the gazebo, but I figured we're going down south to do a wedding so why not get married right at the beach, which we did. Good luck with your planning and if you have any questions feel free to ask.

DreamsBride09,

 

Thanks so much for your review and the pictures!! It's really good to hear that you thought the beach was more private for the ceremony, and after looking at your pics, a very beautiful setting! I'm afraid I'll probably melt in my dress as well....oh well. One question for you, was your bouquet one of the options in your package, or was it an upgrade? (It's stunning!)

 

Thanks, and so happy to hear that you had a fabulous Canada Day wedding!!

dreamsbride, thank you SO much for your review!! definitely helpful to hear how it all worked and learn from everyone's experiences! i have already added EXTRA immodium to our list of OOT bag items!

 

a couple of questions for you if you don't mind!

-were your guests able to hear everything at the ceremony? was the mic w/ the speaker sufficient? (FI's best man is playing the acoustic guitar as my processional music.. want to make sure it can be heard!)

-were the guests on the beach close to the ceremony a nuissance at all?

-did the flower arrangement on the "altar" come with the free package?

-did you get to choose the flowers on the arch? were they included in the $300 beach ceremony fee?

 

sorry for all of the ?s!!! just little things that i have been curious about.. much easier to ask the BDW brides than the WCs! thank you SO much!!

Thank you so much, I loved it too! My bouquet was included in my package. She basically gives you a binder to choose from. There aren't that many options. I just didn't want one with carnations in it. My bouquet was pink lillies and pink roses, however the roses were supposed to be white, but no biggie! We got the free package which included my bouquet and one boutiniere, we just added another smaller version of my bouquet for my MOH and another boutiniere for the best man. I hope that helps! Oh yeah, they will bring you a bottle of champagne in the room (well actually they bring a fruit tray and a letter saying there is a bottle of champagne ready when you are. You just have to call the concierge to let them know when your ready) what I did with my flowers was I just put both bouquets in the cold water from the champagne to reduce wilting.

Hi Erin!
Here are the answers to your questions:
-were your guests able to hear everything at the ceremony? was the mic w/ the speaker sufficient? (FI's best man is playing the acoustic guitar as my processional music.. want to make sure it can be heard!)
We chose the trio as our music - it was $250 for them to play for an hour. They walked behind me playing as I went down the aisle. They continued while we signed and had pics taken. I think a guitar by itself will be fine, your guests should be able to hear it no problem.

-were the guests on the beach close to the ceremony a nuissance at all?
To be honest I didn't even notice people on the beach, but now when I look back at picture there were a couple of people watching from beach chairs. They stay pretty far away though. They weren't saying anything at all though. You won't even notice them!

-did the flower arrangement on the "altar" come with the free package?
The arrangements on the table were added seperately. We had 37 guests attend and that was one of the centrepieces we used. Deyanira just took them to the restaurant afterwards. We should have had 4 round tables and one head table (until it rained and we went downstairs) so I paid for 5 centrepieced at $95 each I think. To be honest, I really didn't care if I had them or not, but hubby thought it would add extra colour. We had turquoise table runners which looked great with the colours they chose for the centrepieced.

-did you get to choose the flowers on the arch? were they included in the $300 beach ceremony fee?
The flowers on the arch were there since we got there at the start of the week. I think they just freshen them up daily. So no, I didn't get to choose the flowers. The arch stays up all the time. When you get to the resort, if you want to see where the ceremony takes place, go to the ocean and it is to the left. It is right by the Aquatics Centre, so it is on the edge of the property, which is fine because there are no resorts on this side and the one resort that is to the right is actually closed down right now so there is no one there. This makes for a very quiet beach area which I loved.

I hope this helps! Thanks, Kylie

thank you thank you thank you!! i appreciate it SOOO much!

DreamsBride09,

Thanks for the review!!!!! helps when you read recent wedding reviews. Do you know what options you have if you choose not to do a private reception. Just thinking its pretty expensive to have a private dinner when your guests already paid for all inclusive...are the resturants available for dinner?

 

Also, im going with the hotel photographer were you happy with their work? and did they give you a CD of pictures so you can take them home and print them yourself?

 

thanks for your time!

Dreams bride Nov 27th 2009