tlomlad

view of gazebo wedding set up from our room red carpet INDOOR TERRACE- lobby of Tower building

okie… so here we are! David & I went for our site visit to Dreams, Cancun on Superbowl Sunday. We departed from Atlantic City, NJ had a layover in Atlanta, Georgia (which is by the way the “busiest†airport in the entire world, like literally) and arrived in SUNNY Cancun @ approximately 11:00 o’clock in the morning. AIRPORT Get ready to be ambushed! This really really turned me off. You get about 40/50 people yelled at you in English that is not that understandable. They want you to get a taxi/shuttle from their company versus the next guy so they all yell on top of each other to get your attention. I didn’t sleep through the night cause of our red-eye and I was just not having it. Dave was fine though… it didn’t bother him much; we went outside and started boozing, lol. Once you get outside there is public transportation options for you as well as arranged pick-up shuttles. To the best of my understanding, Dreams doesn’t have their private shuttle to take people to & from the airport. The shuttles that are available are through companies like… AppleVacations, Expedia etc. If you haven’t arranged transportation with one of those companies you are on your own. Like us! We had the option of paying $15 USD per person [$12 UDS + $3 USD ‘tax’/ person] for a shuttle [down side… you had to wait for the shuttle to be filled up by others… multiple stops] or paying $59 USD for a cab. The shuttle was fine… we waited like 15 mins. before departing and were the last of three stops. DREAMS CANCUN ARRIVAL! I was getting very anxious on the ride there, the anticipation was CR@ZY. I think that the tourism guide that set us up with the shuttle somehow called Dreams and made them aware of our soon arrival. We exited the shuttle, gave our last name and it was all taken care of already. We had a gentleman by the name of Rafael personally walk us to our room and give us a small tour of the property. ROOM Claudia hooked us up. We ended up paying $89 / person / night. We stayed at the Tower on the 11th floor, suite 6113. It was awesome; great balcony view of the gazebo, pool, and private beach. She had a welcome letter laid out for us, thanking us for our business with champagne and a fruit basket. We had turn-down service every night [i didn’t think that I wanted turn down service for my wedding, you know cause it comes with the package, not after having it it’s really nice… they left a rose every night which I thought was a nice touch]. Room service was awesome. SERVICE So about that… it was astounding! Every single employee in the entire resort always carried a smile on their face. They were more than willing to help you with whatever you may have needed. There was an “entertainment team†whos sole purpose is to make sure that you are having a good time. Their activities start as early as 7 ‘clock in the morning with yoga in the gazebo to private tennis lessons in mid-afternoon. [i participated in the water aerobics, very fun but clearly I was out of shape… couldn’t finish the exercise!] If you and two of your friends decided that you wanted to play volleyball but didn’t have enough players, this team would get people pumped up to play and join in. The entertainment team would also plan events to go off and enjoy the Cancun nightlife. While we were there they went to Oasis (on SuperBowl Sunday) women were free, men paid $40 USD, they provided transportation to the club but not back. What blew Dave and I out of the water was our experience at the Seaside Grill the afternoon that we arrived in Cancun. We sat down for lunch and ordered glasses of champagne. Towards the end of our meal we order shots of Jack Daniels with desert. They were full double shot glasses. A couple of mins later we get up to exit the restaurant and ‘el captian’ [the ma’tro’de] is walking towards us with two more shots of Jack and the bottle of champagne. At this point in time, we knew that we picked the right resort for us… FOOD AMAZING! All you can eat anywhere @ anytime. They hold true to their staple ‘unlimited luxury.’ Nothing was ever capped out for us. If you want three appetizers, a soup, one salad, and an entrée they would accommodate you. The Tower had its own breakfast buffet and it also had snacks and canapés @ five o’clock in the afternoon with cocktails in the lobby. Tower Bar opens at 11:00 and closes at 11:00. Room service was great as well… one thing that I was expecting from a previous review was buffalo chicken wings… they didn’t have them there. But who wants that when you have so many other things to choose from [me!]. Seaside Grill- you have to try their grouper, fantastic! It was my favorite dish in the entire resort. They have the surf&turf there which [according to Claudia] is similar to the one on the Banquet menu for the wedding. HItmisu- fun presentations… secluded. Good sushi, considering we were in Mexico. [we were there the night of the superbowl… so we were a little absent minded, lol] Oceana- we went here for lunch. The food was ok… we were a bit tipsy and tired so I don’t think that we were able to enjoy the entire experience as much as we should have. [aka… I was being a bit moody] We did hear that their dinner was amazing. World Café- It was what any buffet would be. I was pleased to see that the buffet was ‘fully’ stocked at any given time through out the serving. We went to breakfast here the last day… they have much more to offer than the Tower breakfast, they had a fun ‘traditional’ Mexican breakfast station along with your typical breakfast menu items. Lobby Bar- didn’t have food there but did have lots of drink! Cool place to hang out in the evening time, they have live music 6 out of 7 nights a week from like 8:00/8:30-11:00/12:00. Swing Bar- we didn’t try the coco locos… for some reason I was always napping in the late afternoon. ATMOSPHERE The hotel, as you have probably read before, is a family hotel. Yes, there were kids present but it wasn’t a zoo. The Tower side is mostly reserved for couples, with your private beach and pool there really isn’t any reason to leave, so it gives you the ability to be secluded and romantic. We went to the main pool on afternoon and there were more families and such but still fun. CLAUDIA!!! She was as cute as a button. Very sweet and knowledgeable, she has all the answers that everyone is searching for. She has about a wedding a day, rarely two. Last year alone she did 280 weddings. She apparently gets like 300 e-mails a day… God bless her little soul. She had a folder; in it were some of our previous e-mails, our contract, and the questionnaire. Claudia also had binder and photo album. The binder contained all the pictures for each aspect of the wedding, i.e.: location, decoration, photography&videography packages, flowers, etc. When picking the menu, we turned to her for some help in the areas that we weren’t sure about. We choose the Gold Menu with the Ultimate Package and she said that the clam chowder was their best soup. Dave is allergic to chocolate [i know, I know… what a shame] so she was able to give us other options for desert. We bumped into her the day after our meeting in the lobby on our way out to the hotel. She was all smiles and wished us a safe flight home… [i think I’m in love, lol] I was worried about the destination wedding idea but the site visit defiantly put my mind at ease. It was great to finally put a face to the name and to see the grounds. If you girlies have anymore questions, feel free to ask. I’ll check the thread as often as possible. Now ladies, to what you have all been waiting for… PICS PICS PICS

... and about choosing Cancun over Cabo... we are from Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love! It would be more expensive for our guests to get to Cabo (which is on the west coast of Mexico) in comparison to Cancun. and truth be told, we feel in love with "Dreams" not Cabo, Cancun, or Punta Cana, but "DREAMS" just the idea of unlimited luxury is fascinating to us (especially since we are in the service industry) ... i hope that our site visit fortifies the idea that we made the right decision

msmandee... my parents are very VERY old school and they refuse to go to a wedding that isnt done by the catholic church, but times are changing and this is what i want. However, ever "little girl" dreams of the day that her father will walk her down the isle and i want that more than anything! So in order to satisfy both parties involved we are having a destination wedding [with thirty or so of our close friends] after our "offical wedding" in my hometown, in my parent's house for family and friends. we figured this is the only way to get the best out of both worlds... home wedding that you have dreamed of as a girl. with your father walking you down the ailse. to the destination wedding that is your dream now. what i have come to relieze is that this wedding is about david and i. and before anything else i must put us. Im sooooooo excited to see what comes of our commitment to each other... i hope this helps.. ana <3 P.S. when i was first planning my wedding my mother said that a destination wedding was a bad idea because no one would show up (which would in turn make me angry) i just came to find out that my close family memeber [like cousins, aunts & uncles] will be going to cancun in late ju8ly (just when my wedding is scheduled) goooo figure... my advice... do what you want and enjoy every min of it.... i will take lots of pics, i promise

congrats hope your day is all you dreamed!!!!!!!!!!!!

We decided to do to dreams cancun 2marrow for 2 night 3 days and would like to know what anyone needs from down there what pictures you would like taken questions to ask claudia etc etc sorry it was short notice but we just booked it so we will try to get what you need i will read this right before we go and print out a list we leave at 4 am estern time

hey all thanks soooo much for all the support it makes me feel really goos about them. To answer a few questions yes i used a template from here i belive it was the original one posted on here as i shearched for std boarding pass and used the first one i found.......2nd it took me 8 hours to cut them all plus another who knows how many to design them the way we wanted them. i only had to make 35 but after trial and error with a paper cutter and rounder and alot of failures i ened up cutting each one out the old fashion way by hand with a pair of scissors. i just got the clip art from my word clipart that was on my computer. lets see what else oh TLOML stands for "the love of my life" a theme we are using for the wedding and the name of our first dance song. i orginally was going to use the rsvp card and just add postage to the back with return address which was possible but got worried at last minute and added to the newsletter to just rsvp by phone website or email. hope i answered most of your questions if there are any more feel free to ask or pm. oh and by the way i saw someone noticed the bag of chips in the first pic i need ed some energy for all that cutting....light chips though lol lol

What a mess... i think they came out ok...

We are thinking of jetting setting off to dreams this sunday for our site visit we are just waiting to hear from claudia to confirm but we wanted to know what the meeting with here consists of do we get to try the food does she show us around etc or do when need to plan this with her and going on short notice is not a good idea? Thanks for any advice from you past girls that have done your site visits!

thanks alot girls this really helps me i am going to email him and see if he has anything else he could send me and thats a great idea about giving him some examples of the style that i like i was also going to ask him if i could pay him extra so he would take care of us since its included i could afford to pay him something on the side!! If anyone else out there has actuallu used him and might have some pics that would be great to. thank

thx i really am excited now that i have my date i have to kick it to high gear as i know the time will fly bye i have spent 5 hours working on my invites as i want to get them out 2marrow friday at the latest thanks for all the support!!!!

My budget has taken a hit due to some unforseen factors and we are now considering just using the photog that comes with the package had anyone used them or seen pics or have any pics availble that i might be able to look at if so that would be an amazing help thanks girls!

After 3 months we have got our date set Dreams cancun 7/20/08 i am sooooooo excited!!!!

doews anyone know about the nightlife in punta cana or is anyone worried that there will be a lack of nightlife. we are changing over to punta cana from cancun and will have a large party 100+ and aare worried that there will not be anything for our guest to do at night any help will be greatly app ana

hey love & welcome to the forum... i would reccomend a hotel complex that has activities for the children. Its important that the parents are able to relax and enjoy themselves because in turn your finance and you will. Im getting married at Dreams, Cancun. It's an all-inclusive resort that has many things for kids. They have an explorer's ship thing where they babysit your kids and a dolphin pool where they can go swimming with dolphins [for an additional charge-but at least they can see them] the dreams website has a forum that you could become part of on it they have a lot of pictures. ~let us know what you choose to do~ ana&dave

omg... so excited for you. i hope that i get to do my soon ConGraTuLatiOns !

welcome welcome!!!!!!!!

here goes nothing im going to try and post these pics here .......................IMG]http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg116/tlomlad/dreams_cancun_resort_front.jpg[/img]..................hope this works!

Does anyone outthere no where i can find cheap black flat river rocks that i can paint on as i will be using them as sort of a table runner as well as seat nams for my tables. i have found a few sites online but they were all either small shinny rocks that wouldnt work or an assortment of colors i need jut black rocks to go with my black and white col! Thanks for any help!

Congrats Girls!!

My fi is having trouble picking his best man so we were talking about having one of them read the ceremony since we are going to do the legal stuff here in the states and the wedding will be symbolic down in cancun. Has any one done or heard of this before and would the resort have any regulations against it? Thanks for all your help ladies!!!!!

great idea

CONGRATULATIONS you guys... cant wait to see the amazing photos [im sure youll only have a few ] but on a serious note, hope the first day of the rest of your life together is as magical as you have always 'dreamed' ... CoNgraTuLaTiOnS

so my FH and i were debating on weather we should do our wedding in Cancun, Mexico or Punta Cana, DR but after he stumbled upon these pictures of Dreams and we were convinced. CANCUN it is! below is the attachments with the pictures ... they are amazing sorry about the attachment ladies... i couldnt figure out how to post the pcitures directly after my message for all of you to view; if any of you know how ... can you let me know ... thanks ! and for those that dont want to waste your points opening these up... just leave my your e-mail adress or PM me and ill email you them as soon as i get a chance lighthouse&sunset.doc dolphins&water.doc beachreception.doc gazebo.doc pools.doc