Riu Tropical Bay & Riu Montego Bay April 7, 2009 Review

[TMclean]

Hi everyone, here is my review sorry it is late.

 

Resort:

 

Tropical Bay is wonderful. We had so much fun. The resort is really clean, the service is great. We made friends with Doug from room service, he was awesome. We also made friends with Ninja. He even took us out in Negril and to his house. The shows were ok, they try. The resort at night is really boring. It is dead around 10:00. We went out a few nights. The Jungle is so much fun. If you like to dance you should go. There are a lot of locals that go to this club. We went to a bar thats located on the beach, Anthony's I think is called. They had live music.

 

Our rooms we really nice. All of my guest were upgraded one level. We originally book JR Suite Ocean View, we were upgraded to ocean front. Our air conditioning worked great. I actually turned it off every night. The only downfall of being upgraded to ocean front, is they don't have king beds in those room categories. So we had 2 double beds pushed together. Lame for your wedding night.

 

The food was good. We ate at all of the Restaurants. The Japanese was really good. The buffet was also good. We found that they always had a lot of food whether you ate near the end or at the beginning of dinner service. My least favorite meal time was lunch. I found they didn't have that good of a selection, however you could always find something to eat.

 

The beach is beautiful. The water is clear blue, the beach is well kept.

 

Wedding:

 

Keineka is wonderful. she did everything we asked of her. I was in contact with her through emails months before we arrived. She had everything on record that I requested. We kept our wedding really simple. We used the free package. I didn't upgrade anything because I didn't want to be stressed out about the set up or any details. I find you get so caught up in the decorations that you forget what the day is about. The wedding started at 4:00. I recommend this time. It is perfect timing for dinner to follow at 6:30. I used the Garden Gazebo, it was beautiful. I didn't want it on the beach because so many people just stand around and watch. I felt like the gazebo was more private. We rented out the Steak House for a private dinner. I had around 30 people.

 

The wedding was perfect. It turned out better than I ever imagined. I don't have one complaint. It was a beautiful sunny day. We had a rehearsal the day before. You have to do this by your self. We made our own music, we brought it on CDs. We wrote our own vows, plus we wrote all of the readings. The judge did it exactly how we wanted it.

 

 

I was happy I rented out the Steak House. I would have been really annoyed if another wedding was having their dinner at the same time. However the Steak House is really big. It is outside, it is really nice. The food was also very good. We didn't upgrade our cake, it was pretty good. At one point during dinner, some locals came in and played music. They were really good.

 

After dinner, we went down to the beach party that the resort had. They called us up and announced that we were just married, then we had our first dance while someone sang. It was really romantic and unexpected.

 

Flowers:

 

I ordered my flowers from Angles Accents. I can;t express how much I loved my flowers. They pulled everything together. Staci was awesome. She replyed to all of my emails within a few hours. I packed the flowers in a suit case and they made it safely.

 

Photography:

 

I used SunGold. Paula and Damian are great. They pay attention to detail. They are very creative. They don't sit there and watch the clock. I wish I could have had them for the whole night, but I couldn't afford it. I haven't seen the pictures yet, but will post some when I do.

 

Makeup:

 

I used Loni Jones. She did an amazing job. She transformed me and thats exactly what I wanted. I wear makeup everyday, so I wanted to look different. At the end of the night I didn't want to wash my face because my makeup still looked perfect. It lasted all day.

 

For the 2nd week we headed over to the Riu Montego Bay. The resort is nice, it is bigger than Tropical Bay.

 

We didn't really like this resort. So I will list the positives and the negatives. I think we would have had less complaints if we didn't stay at Tropical Bay the first week because we wouldn't have another resort to compare it to.

 

Positives:

 

16 of us stayed for the 2nd week. All of us except for 1 were upgraded to suites Ocean front. The rooms are beautiful. There is a living room, walk in closet. Pillers around the jetted tub. Huge shower, the toilet is in its own room. King bed. and the view is amazing.

 

The pool was much bigger, but not that clean.

 

Negatives:

 

My Grandma had to wait until 6:00pm to get her room. They didn't have her in their system. She didn't get upgraded, didn't get her room that she paid for. Very disappointing.

 

Having the planes fly over the resort did not make it seem like a 5 star resort.

 

The resort is much bigger than Tropical Bay. The service sucks. At one point the front desk hung up on me.

 

The food at the buffet ran out and did not have that good of a selection. By the 2nd week we were sick of the food. We went to Kentucky Fried Chicken a few times.

 

The beach was pretty rocky and had a lot of seaweed.

 

We would never go back to the Riu Montego Bay.

 

Tours:

 

We only went to Ricks Cafe when we were in Negril. It is awesome. The food and drinks are pretty expensive. WE just took a taxi there. We didn't care to go on a cruise.

 

When we got to Montego Bay we hired our own driver and we went to Bob Marley, Dunns River and Glistening Waters.

 

Bob Marley: Very long drive, very cool to see. it cost $15.00 USD. It is pretty short tour, so plan 2 tours for that day.

 

Dunns River: is not that far from Bob Marley. I thought the water was going to be really old, but it wasn't. It was so neat to see. Because we did the falls on our own we didn't have to hold hands the whole way up. When you book through a tour company you have to hold hands while you climb the falls.

 

Glistening Waters: We ate dinner at the restaurant, it very good. Then you go in a boat at night. Something to do with organisms the water lights up. Very interesting. There is only 3 places in the world that has this.

 

We also did the Zip line. It was lots of fun. it was only 10 minutes from the resort.

 

 

 

I think thats it. I tried to cover everything. If you have any questions, please ask.

[baj]

Great review thanks for sharing

[Sloan]

Congrats! Too bad I didnt realize we were at RPTB at the same time, we coulda had a drink! We loved it there too. Wouldnt hesitate to go back.

[beach2009]

Congrats on your wedding. Glad to hear you enjoyed RTB. Too bad about the planes flying overhead at RMB. My FH works near an airport so he'd go crazy if there were planes flying over our resort.

[slgscot]

Thanks for the reply, thats great! Were getting married there in October, so trying to get everything organised! Can i ask you about the ceremony at the gazebo....did you actually get married in the gazebo or at the bottom of the stairs? Cant wait to see your pics..i wanted sungold too, theyre work is great but unfortunately theyre booked on that date. Congratulations on becoming a MRS!

[TMclean]

Quote:

Originally Posted by slgscot Thanks for the reply, thats great! Were getting married there in October, so trying to get everything organised! Can i ask you about the ceremony at the gazebo....did you actually get married in the gazebo or at the bottom of the stairs? Cant wait to see your pics..i wanted sungold too, theyre work is great but unfortunately theyre booked on that date. Congratulations on becoming a MRS!

Yes we got married in the gazebo. We had our guest sit near the back, where all the flowers and water is. Then we walked up the stairs and everyone watched us. So we had it that the stirs of the gazebo was actually the back.

Sungold was awesome. My friend wanted to book them too but they were unavailable for her wedding, so she ended up using one of their students. I just saw her pictures and they looked really good.So you might want to ask them for that info.

[tdmitchell]

THanks 4 sharing! Great review. I'm glad you all had a blast! Do you have any pictures of The Garden Gazebo at Tropical Bay? I chose MONTEGO bay because I like the plaza Gazebo, but your review is making me question the choice.

[latricej919]

Great review....Glad your wedding turned out great.

[slgscot]

Thats good you were able to get married inside the gazebo..coz i have seen pics of people being married outside it which i didnt think sounded great! Another stupid question....how many people do you think you could fit in it other than the B & G? Thanks!

[TMclean]

Quote:

Originally Posted by slgscot Thats good you were able to get married inside the gazebo..coz i have seen pics of people being married outside it which i didnt think sounded great! Another stupid question....how many people do you think you could fit in it other than the B & G? Thanks!

The gazebo is pretty small. It will be tight to have more people other than Bride, Groom & Judge. You could maybe have them stand behind the judge, but not sure if that will look good. When I post my pictures you will be able to see how it looked.