We were married on Wednesday May 30, 2012 at the ROR.

We left Toronto for Montego Bay on May 26th at 6:20 am with Sunwing. I have to say, I was extremely disappointed in their customer service. We had a problem with one of our guests having the wrong name on his ticket. This was no fault but his own – he provided the wrong details at time of booking and didn’t look at his itinerary until we got to the airport. However, the matter in which Sunwing dealt with it was extremely unprofessional. First they told him too bad, he had to go home. Then when I and my mom (Also our TA) arrived at the counter they said they could change his name for $50. Then we were told there was no way we could resolve this and the only option would be to pay for a brand new ticket. $900 and an hour later of arguing we decided to just buy him a new ticket and be on our way.

The excess fees are ridiculous! $20/KG. My husband and I were permitted 30KG as opposed to 20KG as we were upgraded to their “First Class”. But my family of 5 had 7 checked pieces of luggage. On the way home, we noticed a lot of our clothes were damp and even without the wedding stuff; we still went over our allowance. We paid almost $600 total. Most of our guests were charged as well, especially with their carry-on. Make sure if you travel with them that you don’t go over the 5KG’s in carry-on luggage or you will be forced to check it or rip it apart in the airport. I understand that regardless we were over what was permitted but I work for an airline and I’ve never seen such a money grab before in my life.

We took my dress and my husband’s outfit onboard and they were placed in an overhead compartment that was reserved for bridal clothes. I was annoyed when I discovered the cabin crew had placed someone else’s carryon on top of my dress and complained about it so they moved it.

Our return flight was delayed for 12 hours due to a storm in Canada so we ended up having an extra day in Jamaica! The only problem was that there really wasn’t any food available at the resort so most of us decided to wait until we got to the airport. Little did we know nothing would open until 6:00am. When the restaurants finally did open, Sunwing decided they would try and make up for lost time by boarding early. A lot of people left hungry and annoyed at their lack of communication…

Arrival: When we arrived in Montego Bay we were transported via Bus to the Riu. We made a few stops along the way to an ocean-side café for Red Stripes & Jamaican patties. This was fine with us because we couldn’t check into our hotel until 3pm anyways. The bus ride was a lot of fun and our driver was awesome! Once we arrived at the Riu we were given a warm welcome from the Sunwing staff, crazy Sandra she called herself. She was hilarious and awesome! What a great job she has! The Riu staff took our luggage and provided us with wristbands so we could entertain ourselves until we could check in. Most of us had packed our swimsuits in our carry-on so we went straight to the beach!

The Riu was stunning. It is a massive hotel and when we first looked at the map we wondered if there was a tram that would take us from one end to the other. I’ll tell you, I definitely got a work out that week walking back and forth. The resort offered a lot of different options of restaurants and activities. We did find it very hard to make dinner reservations but I must admit I didn’t try very hard either. Here are my opinions on the restaurants.

Sir Richard a la carte Gourmet restaurant – we did have some members in our group who ate here and they said the food was just ok.

Piccola Italia Italian restaurant – I personally didn’t like this place. It was open for lunch and late night food. The guys seemed to love it because they had a ton of pasta but I don’t eat much pasta and everything else was deep friend.

Mandalay Asian restaurant – We managed to get a group booking on the night of my mom’s birthday and my cousin’s 30th. The food was pretty decent. Average Chinese fare. Nothing overly special.

Mammee Bay beach restaurant and Grill Steakhouse – This is where we hosted our diner reception. I didn’t eat much at the wedding. I thought my food was ok but everyone else seemed to love it.

Plantation beach restaurant – we had lunch here a couple of times as it was close to the pool. They had good Jamaican patties which seem to go pretty quickly. The food was pretty good.

Saint Ann buffet restaurant – This seemed to be the place to go. Everyone was generally happy with the options. They had a huge selection of food and every night there was a different theme. We ended up eating breakfast and dinner here most days and even managed to get a table to accommodate our large group when we ate together.

I must admit I didn’t have much of an appetite the entire time I was there. When it’s hot, I don’t tend to eat a lot. I was disappointed at their fruit options though. I was really looking forward to fresh tropical fruit but it seemed that most of what was available wasn’t ripe to eat and therefore hard or flavorless. The bars at the hotel were good. Service was awesome and everyone was very friendly. Everything is scheduled to open at certain times throughout the day so that the guests don’t all stay in one place. I liked that. If you have munchies for chips or chocolate then I might suggest you bring some with you. If you’re a ketchup person then I would also suggest you bring your own. The one at the Riu is watered down and really sweet! My husband loves his ketchup and we were warned in advance so we just brought a small bottle of Heinz.

Drinks: The Top 5 best drinks at the resort!

1.        Blue Oceans – vodka / gin. Biggest hit! Like a blue slushy that’ll knock you on you’re a**.

2.        Mango Daiquiris – these are amazing but consider asking for easy on the rum. 

3.        Mojitos

4.        Baby Makers – Vodka. We had a few newly married couples that we encouraged to drink these regularly 

5.        And finally, non alcoholic is the lattes. These were the biggest hit amongst the guys in our group. Most of the restaurants or bars have these little Nescafe machines. I don’t know why, but the lattes are so good. We drank at least 3 of them per day. Some guests, maybe more!

Rooms: The rooms were ok. Our room had the biggest balcony so we spent a lot of time out there. Just a note that your air conditioning automatically turns off when your patio door is open! Don’t leave food in your room otherwise you will have ants. They are like vultures… I’ve never seen so many, so quickly in my whole life! We were offered an upgrade to the deluxe suites at $50/category per night. We didn’t bother taking it though.

Activities: The entertainment staff are awesome! They were always getting people up to do something. I did aerobics one morning with one of the guys. It was a good class too. We did take a ride with the Jet ski’s who were not legally affiliated with the Riu. Just be careful with how much you pay, they will try and rip you off… We did take out one of the small catamaran boats. It was really windy though and we ended up flipping the boat. I got a huge bruise and my hubby lost his $300 sunglasses which sucked but now we laugh about it! We played a few games of pool volleyball, Frisbee and dominos throughout the resort. The only thing we didn’t do that we wanted too was the intro scuba lesson. Make sure you do this 48 hours after you arrive and 48 hours before departure.

We didn’t spend too much time watching the nightly entertainment but from what I saw it was pretty good. The acts were entertaining and funny. We spent a few nights at the nightclub, Pacha. It’s a tiny place and very Smoky inside!! The music is ok. A little too much Reggae for me! SO, my hubby is a part-time DJ and he asked if they would let him spin one night. So the night before we left (Friday) him and the house DJ played a couple of hours together. It was totally awesome!!

TIPS: Bring some $1 with you. The service is generally amazing and the workers don’t make a lot of money so anything you can contribute to them is nice!

My only real complaint about the Riu is the elevators located in Building 3. It’s like a sauna. It’s tiny, it’s hot and there are no windows. One of our friends got stuck in the elevator during a power outage. I can’t even imagine it must have been horrible for him.

Excursions: We did a few excursions during our stay.

As a gift to our guests, we booked the Dunn's River Falls Cruise with Cool Running’s. We left the hotel about 12:30 by bus. We boarded the boat and were served juice and water. I swear this is probably the soberest our guests were all week. They took us a few miles out to do some snorkeling which was really neat. They were accommodating even to those who weren’t good swimmers. We then got back onto the boat where they took us to the Dunn’s River Falls. That was unreal. It wasn’t easy and we soon realized why they kept us sober. My step son said it was the best day of his life! After we climbed the falls we got back onto the boat. The music was pumping and the drinks were flowing. The whole boat was dancing all the way back. Everyone had an amazing time!

The next day a few of us booked a bobsled and zip line experience with Mystic Mountain. I have to say it was a little expensive for what you got but we had a lot of fun. The bobsleds were pretty neat and we got to drive them ourselves. The park had a water slide which the boys found amusing but by far the best part was the zip line. At first I was really nervous, I’d never done it before and I thought it would be scary… They took us to the top of the mountain by chair lift where we got to see over the entire coast. It was beautiful. We were led by 2 instructors who were hilarious. They played little tricks on us throughout but they kept us laughing and having a great time. I would definitely recommend this tour!

A few days later some of the group went on an ATV / Dune buggy tour. I didn’t attend but my husband and his son went with several other guests and said it was a great time. 7 hours later they came home smiling and covered in head to toe with dirt!

 The WEDDING

We were married on Wednesday. We arrived on Saturday which meant we had 3 1/2 days until the wedding. This was ok but it seemed that as soon as the wedding was over, the week flew by… we chose the free wedding package with a few add-ons.

Renova Spa: I had my make up done by one of my bridesmaids but I did book appointments at Renova Spa to get my hair done. They took a look at the photo and my hair was done within 45 minutes and looked fabulous! Everyone was very nice and professional. I’ve heard horror stories about resort salons but I read up a lot on Renova before we left and was confident they would do a good job. It’s not cheap, but I was definitely happy with their work. My husband and I also booked a massage. I realized throughout the week that there were actually 2 locations set up on the beach for massages. I popped in to see where our massage would be and found out we actually booked a therapeutic massage which had to be done inside. The girls were kind enough to change it to the couples massage ocean side. This was amazing, especially after the wedding. We were so relaxed and rejuvenated. I highly recommend their services. 

Wedding Coordinator: Keisha was very sweet. We met on the day before the wedding for almost an hour (because I talk a lot). We made some decisions and changes from my original plans and she was even kind enough to throw in a few extras. She knows her stuff and she’s done this a thousand times at least. Everything was on-time and when she told us to be there, she was ready and waiting. The last time I saw her on my wedding day was right before I walked down the aisle. She said whenever you are ready and I said; “I’m so ready, let’s do this”!

Ceremony Location: We chose the beach gazebo and the only downfall to this location is that we were located in Building 3 of the resort which meant we had to walk across the entire property to get there. There was a

FREE DJ there to play music – you could provide your own or they would play Caribbean tunes. We provided an iPod and asked our Emcee to be in charge of telling them when to hit start. After the ceremony they provided rum punch and music for about 40 minutes. There was another ceremony scheduled shortly after ours so we didn’t have a lot of time. Originally I had booked our ceremony at 5:00pm because of the heat, but half way through I discovered dinner started at 6:30pm and I wouldn’t have enough time for everything I wanted. So the only other time available was 1:00pm. It was hot but ended up working out pretty good for our day.

After Rum punch and photos we went up to the Dunn’s River bar on the top deck for a cocktail reception. We had drinks, Hors d'oeuvres and yes I paid $490 for a steel drum band. I know most of you think that’s crazy but it was special to us. I love steel drums and always wanted them at my wedding, in Jamaica or not. So we made it happen. They were fantastic. They played a lot of music we were familiar with and everyone very much enjoyed them.

After the cocktail reception we had a few hours to chill out until dinner. I thought this would be a problem but it ended up being great! Our guests took the time to go for a swim, change or nap. Dinner was at 6:30 at the Mamme Bay restaurant. I had some friends of the family go early and set up the centerpieces and favors for our guests. When we arrived everything was done nicely for us and we just got to sit down and relax. Dinner was approximately 2 hours and our server was fantastic. The salad and soup were buffet but every guest had a choice of their main course which was ordered from the menu and served. Just a quick note, the wine at the restaurants isn’t very good. The red is ok, but the white I awful. Only the high end restaurants serve good white wine and you could maybe even get some with a tip ;)

When we first got there I saw a wedding set up on the beach for a private reception. I thought it looked beautiful and I was kind of sad we didn’t do that. But then I started thinking that it was on the beach which meant sand and food and well I decided I was glad mine was where it was! After dinner we decided to change and head over to the private bonfire we arranged. We ordered a private bar which was good because the other bars were quite far away and people in our group like to drink so we knew it would keep them around. My husband is a DJ part-time so we didn’t need to hire one. We actually just rented the equipment and set up a play list. This didn’t last long because he ended up on the mic for the bulk of the evening. Which was fine, he did a really great job of getting everyone up and dancing. We even had wedding crashers from other weddings that were taking place at the same time.

We had our cake and champagne served at the beach bonfire. The cake was nothing special and I did request chocolate but got vanilla. I didn’t really care at the time. We also had our first dance and the bouquet & garter toss on the beach.

The next morning we had breakfast in bed delivered to our room. This was a free add on. They brought us everything from sauces to omelets, cheese, bread, coffee, and fruit. It was a lot of food.

Our wedding was absolutely perfect. I wouldn’t have changed a single thing about it. I got to marry the love of my life in paradise and I couldn’t be happier. The saddest part is that now we’re home and back to reality.