Married January 20, 2013

89 Guests Attending

Iberostar Rose Hall Beach

 

Rooms:

We had the oceanfront junior suite. Several guests were also upgraded to the junior suite. It looks nearly identical to a regular suite except there is an extra ‘room’ [just extra space with a small divider] which has a couch in it, and there is an extra small table against the wall. There is also a balcony with an amazing view of the ocean. From the balcony we could watch then set up the wedding which was nice.

Everything else about the rooms is the same, so the rest of this portion of the review applies to all rooms, suites and regular rooms.

 

The beds are pretty comfy. The décor is pretty nice [the standard iberostar hotel look]. No one had any complaints about the room, but one guest switched because they had ants in theirs. But one in 89 guests isn’t too bad.

 

The bathroom is nice and spacious. The shower had awesome pressure and always had hot water. It took a long time to run a bath though, but when it was full the bath tub itself is shaped very nicely for a very comfortable bath. You have to take the plug out of the shower completely to have a shower, you can’t just raise it.

 

There is a TV but I never used it. The minifridge didn’t get very cold, and several guests had the same problem. There was an iron, ironing board, hair blower, and large safe that held my laptop even. The AC only works if both doors are closed, which sucked on the wedding day since people were constantly coming in and out so we left the front door open and it got super hot. Ceiling fan is nice too and works well.

 

Cleaning staff was awesome. I donno why but they always came twice a day and made the bed in the morning and after my afternoon nap. I donno if there was a mix up there but it happened every day.

The balcony in the junior suite has thick pillars that go very high, so short people like me have trouble seeing over unless standing on my tip toes.

 

 

 

 

Beach:

When I first saw the ocean front I was a little disappointed. It was smaller than I had expected (the distance from the hotel to the water). Also the sand was a little hard packed and I had expected it to be more loose.

 

I quickly changed my mind. There are a tonne of chairs, and the beach seems much larger when you are on it. There is a restaurant right on it which is open most of the time, then volley ball nets, then there is a bar [the back of the pool bar opens up]. I think I read on here that there wasn’t much shade on the beach, but there are a lot of trees and huts, and I had no problem staying in the shade.

 

The water is lovely blue green, and the sand is a really beautiful white. I didn’t see any bugs but got maybe 2 small bites on my legs in the whole week.

 

There are a few vendors that walk the beach and row their merchandise in the water. They are very easy going though and don’t pressure you to look at their stuff at all. They also sell weed if you’re interested lol I didn’t buy any but I think a few guests did.

 

They had a beach barbeque one day and it was really awesome food. I think that was Friday. They had a beach party on Saturday night which had a fire dancer and live music, but I missed it. Our wedding was Sunday. 

 

 

 

 

 

Food:

 

The food throughout the resort was very good. We always went to the main buffet for breakfast where there was always eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, assorted breads/ buns/ muffins, fresh fruit, smoothies, pancakes, French toast, waffles, and yogurt. There is an omelette station too, and then the rest of the menu changes daily.

 

For lunch, we normally went to the steakhouse for an earlier lunch and had nachos, hamburgers, hot dogs, jerk chicken, and salad. The rest of the menu changed daily but was always very good.

For second lunch we went to the main buffet.  They have some of the same things for lunch and dinner: pizza, fries, pasta station, assorted fruits and desserts, and fresh bread, fruit, and meat. Then they have a tonne of things that change daily.

 

For dinner, the main buffet has way too much to choose from, and it is all delicious. For a la cartes, we enjoyed the Japanese restaurant quite a bit. You all get sushi and soup to begin, and then you get to chose whether you want fried rice or steamed rice. You get to chose 2 of the meat choices: beef, chicken, shrimp, salmon, squid. We have several picky eaters and they all liked it, and several foodies and they all liked it. The calabash wasn’t as good. The appetizers were really awesome, but there were mixed reviews over the dinner. The salmon was pretty dry [same complaint we got on the wedding night from the steakhouse]. The rib eye was pretty fatty. The scallops were very good but incredibly spicy. The fettucini was good but nothing to write home about. I’ve heard better things about wedding night food there, but on its own it was just O-kay. We didn’t have a chance to eat at the steakhouse except for at the wedding night.

 

Wedding night food: completely amazing. We ate at Uncle Tony’s and it was really memorable. You start with self-serve appetizers. I had a tonne of guests come and say that the appetizers were the best food on the trip. I agree, I loved the corn fritters, the cheese selection was awesome, the men all liked the chicken wings. The salad here is great and the vegetables and very fresh and flavourful.

 

For the served meals, everyone who had the tenderloin raved about it. It was amazingly tender and was perfectly trimmed so there was no fat on it. It was cooked to a perfect medium rare and was flavoured very well. I never tried the chicken but everyone said it was good. I tried the salmon and it was a little bit dry.

 

The wedding cake was very good but we were rushed and I don’t think anyone got any. The rest of the dessert was self-serve.

 

We ordered room service almost every day. The pizza is the same stuff from the lunch buffet and is soo good. I think it’s the cheese in Jamaica, which is really good. My fiancé liked the chicken nugget a lot. The tacos were good. Some friends got the salads and said they were fresh too. The food takes 45 minutes consistently. 

 

 

 

 

 

Disco:

The disco was hit or miss. The first night it was PACKED, like a nightclub in Canada. Then it was dead for a few nights, then got packed again. Sometimes it played good music, sometimes a little outdated music. But they always take requests. The bartenders are fast and awesome. A little tip goes a long way! 

 

 

 

 

Wedding Coordinator :

The wedding coordinator was very good, very relaxed, and helpful. The down side was that they didn’t really give me any options, I had to have pre-researched anything I wanted done. This made me stressed on the wedding day when I didn’t even know what song I was going to walk down the aisle to, and really had no idea about what was going to happen at all. Looking back, its probably easier that I wasn’t given options for every little thing, and I should have just put more faith into the coordinator to get things done. 

 

 

 

 

Lounge in Toronto:

The airport lounge in Toronto was the Premium Plaza lounge. Sunquest gave all of our guests access to the lounge to use for our 4 hour lay over, but you can otherwise purchase a 3 hour pass for $30. It is well worth the money. There is a shower, tonnes of chairs which can be pushed together to sleep on, hot food, drinks, internet. The food was pretty good but we were only there for breakfast so didn’t get any drinks. Alcohol is only served after 10 am. For food there was eggs and sausages, tortillas and salsa, salad bar, sandwiches, cereal, buns, bagels, cookies, and desserts. I think it was well worth $30. 

 

 

 

 

Make up

I got my make up done at the spa. It cost $70-80. The make up artist did an amazing job. As other brides have mentioned, they have lower quality make up, like L’oreal and Cover Girl, but her first question was whether I brought my own make up for her to apply. I used my own foundation, primer, lip stick and lip liner. I used her eye make up and blush. She did a really spectacular job,  I couldn’t have been more happy with it. It stayed on all day despite sweating and crying.

 

I should mention that I cried almost all of the night before and day of, so I went to the spa with VERY puffy eyes and blotchy skin, but they completely covered it up and made my eyes pop anyways.

 

 

NOTE: The hotel has a policy that they do NOT apply fake eye lashes for you. You can put your own on and they will do the rest of your make up. Apparently there was an incident 5 years ago and they don’t do it anymore after that.

 

 

 

Hair:

The hair stylist was very good. I asked for a loose French twist with lots of volume. The first time she did it it was a little tight to my head and I thought it looked a little severe and therefore a little old. I’m 24 and wanted something younger. My mom was with me and got her hair stylist to come in and add more volume while I was getting my make up done, and she changed it to exactly what I was looking for. They then applied my veil and tiara and I loved it.

 

Couples Massage:

We got the couples massage included in the package. It was pretty good, but they only did my back and scalp. That’s probably where I needed it the most, but it was unlike any other massage I’ve had where they massage everything.

 

If you do the massage then you get access to the pool area, which has several different temperature ‘hot tubs’ (some roman baths, others Jacuzzi style bubbles), and different types of showers, sauna, and steam room. They were nice, but not as nice as the ocean or pool.

 

 

 

 

Ceremony:

For the ceremony I brought my own chair sashes and starfish garland for the huppa. We hired the Reggae band ($900). We started at 3:30, I walked down the aisle at 3:40, then were done the ceremony by 4:00. We then did a champagne toast on the beach with the reggae band still playing, and then group pictures.

 

The Minister was pretty good. He spoke clearly and loudly so everyone could here. He had a microphone. We just read the script that I had provided.

 

If I could do it again then I would have brought fabric for the Huppa too. I think it makes a big difference. Everything else was perfect.

 

Everyone said the reggae band was amazing. I didn’t chose the songs because I got too carried away with things, but the wedding coordinator chose for me. I don’t even know what songs they played but I remember being happy with them as I walked down the aisle.

 

After the ceremony we did formal pictures with the families and wedding party. This took about 2 hours which was much longer than I expected.

 

 

 

Reception:

 

We had dinner at Uncle Tony’s at 7:00. We had the DJ (450 for 3 hours) and national open bar (7 per person per hour).

 

The food, as I mentioned in the food section, was AMAZING. Best food of the week. The drinks were good, although I had requested slushy drinks and they weren’t available. The house wine was surprisingly good, both red and white.

 

The DJ was good, just played whatever he chose in the background and it was nice.

 

We rented the projector for the slideshow. RIP OFF. It cost $300 to rent, in CASH, and didn’t even have the cord to play sound. The MC taxi’d into town to buy the cord since my fiancé really wanted the slideshow. If I were you I would buy a projector before you go, then re-sell it after (or find another bride to share it with).

 

Dinner took us the 2.5 of the 3 hour allotment for the restaurant so we were really tight at the end trying to cram in the bouquet toss, cake cutting, garter toss, and first dances. This might have been because we arrived 15 minutes late, and had a lot of speeches and 2 slideshows, but we did that while people were eating so I’m not sure why it took so long. They didn’t kick us out though, and I hung around taking pictures and talking for 30 minutes into the bon fire lol.

 

After the dinner we did the bon fire beach party with a steel drum band. The band was very good. We also had an open bar which was well used. The bon fire was good, but took some time for it to get really big.

 

We did the sky lanterns that I really liked. They were probably the highlight of my trip.

After the bon fire we moved to the disco.

 

 

Reggae Band:

I hired the reggae band through the resort for walking down the aisle. They played for one hour: while guests got seated, for walking down the aisle, and then after the ceremony for the champagne toast a bit afterwards. I was so overwhelmed I don’t realy remember hearing them, but a tonne of guests said that they made the wedding really special. I didn’t see any other brides do it for the rest of the time I was there, so I think it ws special too. I remember being impressed with their talent too. They cost $900 per hour.

 

 

 

DJ:

We hired a DJ for the 3 hours we rented Uncle Tonys. It cost $150/hour, minimum of 3 hours. I think this was well worth it too. I didn’t choose any songs myself, but he played nice music for the background, and handed over the mic for the MC to run the program and for the speakers to do their speeches. He played the songs we wanted for the first dance and father daughter dance from our iphone. He supplied the rest of the music.  

 

 

 

Excursion 1: Dunns Falls and Tubing Down the River

Tour provided by Daina Tour and Taxi. The drivers were great but the busses broke down TWICE, leavin our 80 guests on the side of the highway for an hour, and then a second time for 1.5 hours. Very disappointing. Once we got to the falls the rest of the tour went smoothly. 

 

Dunns falls was well worth it, everyone loved it. If you ask to go up the right hand side then it is a much more difficult climb. The more adventurous people did that and it was very memorable.

 

After the falls we stopped for lunch at the Ruins by the Falls restaurant. The food was good, and it was a buffet ($16 per person). It was chinese food which was kind of too bad because I would have preferred something authentic. But still it was good, and since we were running 2.5 hours late, it was nice to  have anything.

 

We went tubing down the white river. A lot of people said this was their favourite. It is more fast paced than the lazy rivers I have been on in the past. It was a lot of fun, and the guides were amazing. They work so hard, often running on the rocks beside the river in their bare feet. At least 10 of our guests gave them our watershoes after and you could see that made them very happy.

 

 

 

Excursion 2: Margaritaville Negril and Rick’s Café

 

Tour was provided by Island Routes. Well really we just asked for a driver for the day. It cost about $25 per person, for a driver for 12 hours to take us anywhere we wanted. We stopped for snacks and booze, and he provided a cooler to keep it in. We picked up people from another resort. We went to Margaritaville which was a little boring in my mind. I could have skipped it, it was expensive and was nothing unique to Jamaica. We stopped at the lighthouse in Negril and that was definitely worth it! Very amazing views and we even saw dolphins jumping out of the water.

 

Rick’s Café was DEFINITELY worth it. It is on the most Western point of Jamaica so everyone goes to see the sunset (the most amazing sunset!!). There are cliff jumpers and places where you can jump if you want to. It is quite high so I didn’t, but it looked like a lot of fun. The food was good and the drinks were awesome [try a Sex with Rick… yummmm]. The views are amazing at this place! Also, right across the street from Ricks are a few vendors, one selling jerk chicken off his barbeque. It’s pretty good!! 

 

Pictures:

 

Uncle Tony's view from the patio inside. The Buffet is straight ahead. 

 

 

Ceremony set up. At the back of the chairs is where the champagne toast is served. 

 

 

Head table set up

National open bar set up

 

Table set up

 

Floating Lanterns

 

Champagne toast

 

 

bonfire national open bar

standard cake with the package

reggae band

 

 

table set up

 

The path the bride walks. You hide behind the corner where the star is, then walk down the path, down the stairs, then down the beach towards the altar.

 

National open bar

The dance floor area in the Uncle Tonys patio.

 

Professional Shots: 

 

 

 

 

Standard flowers with the package

Bathroom 

 

Professional shots

 

 

The huppa without the fabric

 

 

Giving our thank you speech

 

professional shot

 

 

bonfire on the beach

 

 

professional shot

 

 

my dad and I

 

 

Signing the papers, and the flowers that come with the package for the signing table

 

 

 

 

 

the chairs without the covers on them

 

 

The optional arch (we ultimately chose the huppa). 

 

 

View from our room. 

 

 

the pool and pool bar

 

 

flowers included in the package

 

The junior suite

 

The cajun restaurant

 

 

 

hair and veil 

 

 

 

 

The groom

make up