My husband and I chose the MJC for our wedding (Oct 17^{th, 2011}).  This review is from the perspective of a bride and groom that asked 45 of their closest family and friends to join them at a 5 start resort in hopes that everyone would love the chosen resort, feel comfortable and enjoy their stay.  I’ve been to 4 all-inclusives previously for comparison; I’ve spent 4 months as a “backpacker” and have travelled for business quite extensively, so my travel experiences have been varied.

This was the first time travelling as a bride, and I learned to love the words “I don’t care!!” and “it doesn’t matter!!” …  it definitely made the entire process less stressful. 

As is echoed on the Majestic Colonial Brides FB page in several threads, it seems that every time we turned around there was an “extra fee”, “service charge” or abnormally expensive cost associated.  It started to feel like cash grab. With a 180+ person reception back home we decided we were going to limit our expenditures at the MJC.  The feeling of things being a cash grab still left a bad taste in our mouths with 45 guests there and the business we provided. 

For our wedding, we chose to keep things relatively simple.  As we wrapped up our WC meeting she was surprised that there were no extra charges.  We had one maid of honour, one best man, a symbolic ceremony on the beach led by my father in law, IPODs for music, no flower upgrade, 45 chair ties and 10 table runners from home, 6 candles for the tables, the included steak/seafood restaurant dinner, no bands, entertainment or private reception, standard wedding cake with a few beads brought down for decoration, hand fans for the guests on the beach … our room served as a gathering place in between the 3:00 pm ceremony and 6:00 pm group picture in the lobby and guests enjoyed the lobby bar as the choice hang out until supper, followed by dancing and fun after supper.

The Good:

The resort is truly beautiful and extremely well manicured.  It looks like a 5 start all the way.    

We had no issues getting loungers by the pool or on the beach.

Main buffet provided a lot of choices when it was open.  When it wasn’t open, food choices were limited.  We used the Rodeo grill buffet for lunch since it was closest to the beach … get there when it opens as food quality degrades quickly in the open air and dishes are not refilled often.

Air conditioning worked in all our guest’s rooms.

Of 45 guests … about 8 had some gastro issues.  One was severe and she went to see a Doc who gave her a potassium shot to help rehydrate as well as oral antibiotics.  The bill for Doc appt, shot and meds was $400 US.  Travel insurance would cover it but … WOW!!  Get a prescript diahreal (or cipro prescript) before going from your home doc.

Elevators were quick … most of our guests were in building 3.

Room furniture was modern, well taken care of our bed was comfortable and firm.

Beverages in room were consistently stocked up.

 The Japanese restaurant was a favorite and enjoyable for the entertainment in the tapanaki rooms.

The Michael Jackson show was a fun and enjoyable show that many people watched after supper one evening. Great talent!

Our last evening there, about 25 of us headed to the main buffet and after much persuasion were able to pull tables together to get us all set up in on long row.

Really … there is a LOT that is fantastic about this resort.  I firmly believe that if it was just my husband and I travelling to this resort for a vacation, we would have very little to critique because we are fairly easy going people and it would have just been the 2 of us for meals and activities and we would have enjoyed the grounds, surroundings and choices for food and entertainment.  That said, we were travelling with a  group of 45 ranging in age from 5 months to 89 years and we were the bride and groom that had asked then to join us there.  There is a level of planning and preparedness needed for a group of 45 and a wedding thrown into the mix and we were less than happy with how many situations were handled or played out from that perspective.

The Bad:

For us, the resort was extremely spread out.  Inherently this is not a negative, although it did become an inconvenience if you needed to run back to your room for something.  We had 2 guests in wheel chairs, 2 with mobility issues (canes or bad knees) and my elderly grandparents (“rented wheel chairs”) and this became an inconvenience. 

A few items in our room didn’t work such as the balcony Jacuzzi jets, hot water tap in one of the 2 sinks, sliding door that separates the bedroom and living.  Nothing we couldn’t live with but should be noted.

The Gourmet restaurant was EXTREMELY particular about dress code.  3 tables of 6 guests, (reserved under different room numbers) were on their way in and 2 of our guests were told they could not enter.  One guy had dress shorts on and the other (a dear friend in a a wheel chair) had dress shorts and leather sandals.  Neither had brought pants with them.  All 18 people left the restaurant reservation for the buffet.  We understand there are rules, but were surprised at how the situation was handled.

Grossly under staffed at the front desk for check in and general inquires at any time of the day.

Grossly understaffed at the Customer Service desk where dinner reservations are made.  Cannot cancel reservation without the “ticket” in hand and actually preferred that we just didn’t show up and that table stay empty.

Wheel Chairs & Shuttles: my 89 yr old grandpa and 80 yr old grandma were not comfortable travelling by golf cart (unattended) to restaurants to meet the rest of us – and the shuttles were unreliable.  We asked for wheel chairs– charge is $10 a day ($140 for the trip).  We fought for this to be complimentary and FINALLY had the charge dropped the last day.  These are chairs they have in a room just off the front desk.  A lot of arguing needed to get them comp’d.

Internet: We bought the $10/24 hour option for our room, but you cannot use this internet in the lobby (wifi) and your passcode for your room is not transferable for use in the “computer room” where you may need to print out boarding passes when you leave.

Elusive Towel Hut: Oct is low season so to exchange towels you have one location closer to the main resort (blue hut/building) and a long walk from the beach.  Seems there is a towel hut “usually” open at the beach – as that is where we kept being directed to by staff … until we finally realized it was closed.  Not a huge deal but felt disorganized and wasted time getting to the beach to enjoy the day.

Swim Up Bar Service: Tipping at the swim up bar is necessary to get service.  If you wait to tip based on service, you probably won’t want to drop a $1.  Try tipping BEFORE to get their attention and speed up service for that day. 

We gave all our guests travel cups and several got attitude more than once because it was an extra effort to empty out the mug (old limes, etc) before refilling.

Steak/Seafood restaurant : Basically a huge open aired restaurant with a buffet option open to everyone.  We had all headed there for supper one night and they refused to deliver steak to the seafood restaurant side and vice versa (literally 15 feet separated the 2 “sides”  … but only one menu depending on which table you were sitting at.  Super inflexible.  In the end we just split into 2 groups and reconnected after supper which was fine, but felt there could have been more done to accommodate.

Resort Recommended Videographer: The one item that we DID cave on was purchasing the service of the resort recommended videographer.  We thought it was pricey by our Canada standards.  The experience became a bit annoying as he often failed to get the “shot” he wanted and requested that we keep redoing actions … the last thing I wanted was a video that looked cheesy, fake and contrived.  Picking up my earrings to put them on 3 times starting grating on me, as did the “fake make up application” and the gazing out the window .. .b/c that’s what all brides do on their wedding day!! LOL!!   He also requested my mom and sister keep redoing a “congratulations” to the camera as they were assisting me in getting into my dress.  He definitely had a checklist he was working off of and very little creativity.  We were grateful that my friend Katya, along for the wedding day and to take some pictures, started being a buffer for me and I gently explained that he needed to work with her and take her lead going forward.  I’m not a “blowing a kiss” into the camera girl and if I didn’t feel it was me or authentic, then I refused.  I’m glad I did only what I was comfortable with b/c I ended up with footage that was real … what I wanted to have in the end.

The Ugly:

Dress Disaster: The sash to close up my corset back was looped into the dress when they took it to be steamed and as I was getting dressed to go down to the beach, we realized the sash didn’t make it back with the dress.  We needed to use a brown chair sash to close my dress.  The WC’s response was “you should have let me know sooner” and “oh well, it will probably show up somewhere in your room later”.  We were scheduled to get married at 3:00 and this was discovered at 2:50 … AND she was not in the room to offer any solution or help.

Microphone Mishap: The WC verbally scolded my father in law who led the ceremony because he errantly touched a button on the microphone and shut it off as he was about to start the ceremony.  She stood there, as our guests looked on, saying she may need to go ‘far away’ to reset the mic before we could continue and “I told you not to touch the button”.  I kept smiling and asked her to take care of it/make it happen … the mic ended up coming back on and we proceeded, but handled in such a poor manner!

Décor Recovery: We provided chair sashes, table runners, and 6 scented candles to the WC for use at the beach ceremony and in the Steak/Seafood restaurant for the wedding dinner.  It seems we were lucky that there weren’t “charges” for setting these things up as there now seems to be.  The issue that we had was retrieving the items afterwards. When we asked the WC for the items she said we were supposed to gather up all items that night as we left the restaurant.  We were sent on a wild goose chase to track everything down before we left as she didn’t have any of it in her office. 

Wedding Dinner Food:  Steak/Seafood restaurant was used for the wedding supper.  Reservation was 6:30.  We pre-selected the lobster and steak for everyone ... so no individual orders were taken.  Keeping it simple!! We received our meal around 8:00 pm … lobster was extremely dry and overcooked but the steak was done well. This wasn’t a HUGE issue for me, however, when my mom carried my 2 year old niece over to the buffet to get her some watermelon and a chicken skewer to hold her over as we waited, she was told by staff to go back to the table we were at and wait for her dinner to be served since she was “alacarte” that evening.  My mom was in disbelief.  The WC saw the confrontation, and approached my mom to reiterate that she needed to wait for the food to be served and couldn’t take food from the buffet.  When mom asked when we might be getting our food, since we had been waiting for 1.5 hours the WC response was that we would get the food when it came out. My mom was furious and still walked away with a chicken skewer for my niece, being extremely upset by the whole incident. 

Photographer vs Friend Debacle:  My friend Katya Nova recently moved to Punta Cana and is setting up a photo business with her husband Rob.  We purchased a day pass for her to attend the wedding and naturally she brought her fancy camera with her to take pictures.  We had 4 individuals at the wedding with DSLR cameras and some fancy lenses.  My uncle, who was in my suite along with my mom, sister and niece as we got ready and took several wonderful pictures of the “getting ready”.  He also walked me down the aisle.  Our good friend who was also our best man had passed his camera off to his wife for the duration of the ceremony but brought it along for pictures afterwards, as well as one other guest who took pictures of friends and family while we went off for our own pictures.  Finally, we had Katya, there complete with a fully paid day pass – I have the paperwork and receipt - to witness our wedding and to also take pictures.  As she is in the process of starting up her DR business and it became painfully clear that she has been targeted as a threat to the MJC business by nature of her wonderful photography skills.  To read how this “debacle” ends, please visit my FB page or Katya Nova’s blog for the details.  I’ve gone into greater detail on my own personal page about this.

Overall … we didn’t let the hiccups ruin the day and everyone that was there thought it was fantastic and fun.  Knowing what we know now, I cannot say that we would have chosen the MJC as our resort. 

If you have any specific questions about our experience please let me know and I’ll do my best to answer!