babyg

Hi there I was married at Melia Las Dunas on Dec 29th. It is a beautiful resort and Melia really knows what it is doing with the weddings. They are very organized and the wedding coordinator Lian is terrific. Let me know if you have any questions. Terri

Thanks Rheanna I wish I was going back. I can't believe all the planning is over. I will go back to Cuba, that is for sure. I hope you have an amazing time and I can't wait to hear about your review. Melia really knows thier stuff with weddings. Best wishes!!!!

Hi There Thanks for the great feedback on the pics. The weather in Dec isn't too warm but still sunny and warm during the day. You often need a light wrap or jacket at night. The temp ranges from 19low to 26 high. You can check this site out and it will tell you more about the weather. We had no rain. cuba weather statistics and averages We used the resort photographer. They have two and we got the fellow that doesn't speak any English. He was great. Terri

It worked, here are a few more:

Here ... I am trying this cut and paste... hopefully there will be a picture for you to see

Hi There The wedding coordinator was great. Lian was terrific. I emailed her prior to the trip to request that she make a reservation for all 12 of my party at the Italian al a cart for the second night we arrived as a bit of a get together. When I arrived to the hotel I found a note in my room with a date and time to get together plus reservation the reservation for 12 to the Italian as requested, the reservation for the whole group for the wedding plus three other al a cart reservations for just my family for the rest of the week. In total we had 5 al a cart dinners. The people at the reservation desk were miffed but I just smiled and said my wedding coordinator made these arrangements. We also used the musical trio and that was a nice touch. After the ceremony we had campaign and had our first dance with the trio as well as a few other dances. We took off shortly after for pics. Since most of our group was to be in the pics everyone took off and the trio just left the area, so make sure some of your guests stay to enjoy the music. lol I tried to load pics from photobucket but it keeps coming up as an error. Hopefully hubby will be able to help me to load pics. Terri

We stayed at Melia Las Dunas from Dec 26th 2008 to Jan 2, 2009. We had a wonderful time. Our reason for traveling to this resort was for our wedding. In total there were 12 people in our group. We had our three kids with us 11, 15, and 16. First the wedding was lovely. We were married on Dec 29th and we had a choice of three spots for the ceremony. We picked the lobby area. I thought it was beautiful. The beach was too windy. They take very good care of you and make sure everything is beautiful. I went to the spa for my hair appointment and brought along a picture of what I wanted. They did a great job. Our ceremony was at 3pm. Our dinner was in the Romantico at 7pm and it was also very good, filet minion and shrimp for the main course. The cake was delicious. All in all it was a very memorable day. The resort photographer was pretty good. Fights and check in: We traveled Sky Service – Air Transit Vacations. Great flight to Cuba and a great flight home. We paid the 20CUC for the VIP on the way home and that was the best money we spent. We went to the front of the line ups and got to rest in a VIP lounge before the flight. We also got priority boarding for the flight. Food: A friend of mine came back from Varadero with her teenage kids and said they didn’t see any fruit and the kids starved all week….picky I assume. I warned our kids and packed lots of snacks however there was no worry about going hungry. We had lots of choices and the food was better than I was expecting. The meals we had at the al a carts were also very good. Rooms: We were upgraded to superior rooms and they were wonderful. We had great service from the maid and always had lots of water and drinks in our fridge. No complaints. We were close to the pool and the boardwalk to the beach on the family side. Pool: Pool area is beautiful. The water is a little cold this time of year. There were always lounge chairs. The snack bar in the pool area was the best. The bar was pretty great too. Beach: The beach was very pretty. There were 2 red flag days and 2 yellow flags and a green flag. We got to snorkel one day and it was great. Otherwise it was fairly windy and cold to lay by the beach. The water was warmer than the pool though. The kids loved body surfing the waves and had a blast at the beach. Money and tipping: I am still a bit confused about the whole tipping thing. I know people are pretty poor here but I expect they make more tips in one day at the resort than most people make in a month at a cigar factory. Capitalism in a communist country? Anyway, we did tip the gardeners, cart drivers, wedding coordinator, food servers, photographer, trio band, bar tenders…. Ect. We also brought clothes, toys, nylons, soaps and makeup etc with us. The wedding bill and spa bill were put on our room bill. When we went to check out they wouldn’t take our credit cards (mastercard). And there are no bank machines. When I asked where I could access a bank machine they shrugged and suggested we could find one in another town? Not very helpful. They also suggested we contact our credit card company (this was new years day) at 2.5 cuc per minute to try to sort it out. In the end friends picked up the tab on their credit card so we could get out of the country. Lol – also I am not sure how our dollar is 1.38 to their 1 cuc. Is their economy doing that much better than ours? Excursion and extras: We went on a sunset catamaran dinner cruise. It was a nice time and it was good to get off the resort to see a bit of the area. I would go to another city next visit, but we did have a pretty busy week with the wedding and New Years Eve festivities. The New Years Festival was all day long and ended with a band on the beach. It was excellent. I also went to the spa for my hair and would have loved to go for a massage but it books up fast. When you book a spa appointment you get 1 hour of water therapy and use of the spa pools and whirlpools. The internet is 6 cuc for ½ hour and is slowwwww. Lots of people got pretty frustrated with it. Phone calls were 2.5 cuc for 1 minute. The lobby bar is amazing and makes the best coffee. People hang out there to relax and or socialize. The disco wasn't very good. The shows were ok. The resort is a little secluded. It is quite a drive to the nearest city and most excrusions are a long drive. Overall it is a very beautiful resort and grounds and if you like a relaxing resort vacation this is a great resort. Terri

We just got back from our wedding at Melia Las Dunas on Jan 2nd. I am about to post a review. It is a beautiful resort and you are treated very special as a bride and groom at this resort. They know what they are doing in regards to the weddings and all the details are taken care of. Just beautiful!!! You picked a great resort. Terri

Hey There We are getting married at Melia Las Dunas on Dec 29th. I just found this great facebook fourm, Melia Las Dunas Brides. There is lots of info in the existing forums and you can ask anything you want. I will have some details for you in a little over a week. lol All the best

Hi All We leave on Dec 26th and our wedding is Dec 29th. I am getting excited. I think I am all ready for both our wedding and Christmas dinner I am hosting at my house. Things were a little difficult with the planning. We had a number of glitches. The last one was that the tour company canceled our flight from Friday Dec 26th and tried to move it to Sunday Dec 28th. Our Wedding was booked at Playa Costa Verde Cuba for Dec 29th and because we are getting married the week after Christmas and the week of New Years there were no days to change the wedding to so they were not going to be able to marry us. The wedding is our reason for spending all this money on this trip. By the way we booked all this in April and this change occurred way after the final payment was due end of Oct. These kinds of travel industry games make it impossible to plan a destination wedding. I was told my flight was full since the end of Sept. How the heck do the cancel a full flight unless that was a lie to begin with. My wedding logo didn't have the destination on it so I was lucky that the items I had ordered and made were not garbage. I hadn't printed up my welcome book, etc, yet. Whew! I was about to cancel everything when the travel agent found us a new resort - Melia Las Dunas - for the same flight dates and same wedding day and pretty much the same costs. The resort looks amazing so I am happy. My group started out with 23 people who booked and paid deposits in April to our final numbers of 12.... so we have a small intimate group. The only sad part is neither of our parents are able to come (health issues). This is both John and my second wedding. We thought this wouldn't bother us so much not having our parents with us but it is a bit. We bought them digital picture frames for Christmas and will make a nice wedding album when we get back. I had hesitated writing in the forums for a bit as I didn't want to discourage/ scare other brides planning a DW. It all works out in the end. Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday season! Terri

Hi All We leave on Dec 26th and our wedding is Dec 29th. I am getting excited. I think I am all ready for both our wedding and Christmas dinner I am hosting at my house. Things were a little difficult with the planning. We had a number of glitches. The last one was that the tour company canceled our flight from Friday Dec 26th and tried to move it to Sunday Dec 28th. Our Wedding was booked at Playa Costa Verde Cuba for Dec 29th and because we are getting married the week after Christmas and the week of New Years there were no days to change the wedding to so they were not going to be able to marry us. The wedding is our reason for spending all this money on this trip. By the way we booked all this in April and this change occurred way after the final payment was due end of Oct. These kinds of travel industry games make it impossible to plan a destination wedding. I was told my flight was full since the end of Sept. How the heck do the cancel a full flight unless that was a lie to begin with. My wedding logo didn't have the destination on it so I was lucky that the items I had ordered and made were not garbage. I hadn't printed up my welcome book, etc, yet. Whew! I was about to cancel everything when the travel agent found us a new resort - Melia Las Dunas - for the same flight dates and same wedding day and pretty much the same costs. The resort looks amazing so I am happy. My group started out with 23 people who booked and paid deposits in April to our final numbers of 12.... so we have a small intimate group. The only sad part is neither of our parents are able to come (health issues). This is both John and my second wedding. We thought this wouldn't bother us so much not having our parents with us but it is a bit. We bought them digital picture frames for Christmas and will make a nice wedding album when we get back. I had hesitated writing in the forums for a bit as I didn't want to discourage/ scare other brides planning a DW. It all works out in the end. Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday season! Terri

oops a small correction. The translation cost is $48 per document and there is a $32 fee to have them mail me back the package. Terri

Well I wish I had good news. I am getting married in Cuba so your requirements maybe different. Here is my story: I am a widow and my FI is divorced. I need to get my marriage cert and the death cert noterized, translated and legalized by the cuban Conulate. My FI needs to have his divorce Cert put through these three steps too. I have an appointment with my lawyer on Tuesday to do the noterization and it will run about $60 plus tax for the three docs. I then have to send them in to the Cuban Consulate with a money order or certified check for $1136. They will translate the documents for $32 per doc (x3). Then they will legalize the 6 documents (3 english and 3 spanish) for $160 per document. It will take about 10 days for them to do this work. I found some good information on Debbies Caribbean Resort Review... which lead me to the Cuban Consulate in Toronto. What a huge expense. I was not expecting it to be so much

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I didn't take before shots. I will post after shots once the swelling goes down, but I don't know that you can appreciate the difference as I am very fair with not much in the way of lashes at all. When I take my makeup off my face disappears. lol I will post a pic on Sunday. The lady who did the permanent makeup told me the procedure doesn't hurt bc of the anesthetic but I did feel it and it hurt at times. And if you have ever had a tattoo, it isn't the needle that goes in and out. She uses a blade that looks like a scalpel and does a flicking motion across the spot. It is a little freaky. My eyes are still swollen but they said they could be for up to 72 hours so I am not panicked yet. Terri