I stayed at the Royal Resort in Playa del Carmen October 20 - 29, 2010. We had our wedding at the resort on October 24th. It was amazing!!

 

Hotel – A+

It’s a beautiful resort. The service is great and the staff are wonderful. The rooms were beautiful and housekeeping did a great job. The minibar was restocked everyday and they would even give us extras of the things we ate and drank the most of.  The food at the restaurants is very good. Asiana was our favorite restaurant. The only one we didn’t try was Chef’s Plate (our room category didn’t include dinner here). Some of our friends who stayed in Oceanfront or higher ended up not going to the Chef’s Plate anyway because they didn’t like the menu options.

 

WeddingCenter– A+

We had Denys as our WC. She was great. She went above and beyond to make sure our day was great. She even offered to get flowers from another florist at cost if we brought our own vases. We went to the Mega a few block down the street and picked up glass bowls. 18 total – 3 for each table. Those cost us about $2-3 bucks each.  She got gerber daises for each of the bowls ($36 for 18 gerbers) and recreated the centerpieces that the resort sells for $15 each.

 

Welcome Party/Cocktail – A++

 

We decided about a month before the wedding to do a welcome cocktail. Most of our guests were staying at either the Royal or the Gran Porto so we didn’t think it was worth the added expense to have a dinner off the resort. We planned a private cocktail reception for 1 hour on the Sunset Terrace (just outside of the 24 hr lounge). This was amazing! It turned out better than I could have hoped. They provided music and a sound system with mic. Too bad I didn’t know about the mic until after we made our speech!

 

The food was delicious and more than enough to fill people up. Glad we didn’t do the extra expense for dinner. There was even food left over. We had an open bar and once the 1 hour was over all our guests moved inside to the 24 hour lounge to continue the party. The location was perfect! Even our off resort guests were able to hang around for another hour or so after the cocktail reception ended. We basically took over the lounge and no one asked them to leave. If you’re thinking of doing a cocktail reception then I would highly recommend this location!!

 

 

Spazul / Wedding Day Hair and Make-up – B+

 

The spa is amazing. If you get a massage go early so you can enjoy the “hydro therapy.” I’ve been to a few spas before, but the Jacuzzi, sauna, steam room, outside showers, etc. at the Spazul blew me away. We got the couples massage as part of our package (Luxury Package). Hubby had never had a massage before so he was a little weary. He walked out a changed man! He loved it! Couldn’t stop talking about how great it was.

 

Alicia at the spa did my wedding day hair and make-up. It looked great! My only complaint is that my hair style (up-do) didn’t hold up as well to the wind and the eye make-up colors that she used on the wedding day were a bit different from the colors she used when I did my trial make-up a couple days before. I think I preferred the trial make-up colors. Lesson learned – bring a picture of exactly what you want. I guess she forgot what colors she had used before. Oh well, it still looked good. I have to say I was a little concerned about the make-up, which is why I did the trial, but she did a good job. If make-up and hair are included in your package then I would recommend using them.

 

 

 

I was not impressed with the manicure/pedicure. I got this done the day before the wedding and I can’t remember the names of the girls who did my mani/pedi. They took a lot of time and care working on it, but it didn’t hold up very well. I opted for the French manicure, so I paid $15 extra. They put the white for the tips on so thick that it still wasn’t dry 2 hours later. I ended up messing up a few of the tips, so they had to touch these up the day of the wedding. If you’re doing the manicure I would recommend sticking to something simple. The pedicure was fine, but the color options they have are limited.

 

Hubby got the Face Saver treatment (shave) that was included in our package. He said it was very painful! It looked good the day of the wedding, but the next day he had a rash all over his neck. I wouldn’t recommend this if your guy has even slightly sensitive skin.

 

Ceremony (Gazebo at the Royal) – A+

 

The gazebo location was very private compared to the beach ceremony options, which is why we chose it. It was beautiful! I was very happy with our decision.

 

Of course, it rained the day of our wedding. Our ceremony was planned for 5:00 p.m. Well it started pouring down rain at 4:55 p.m. Luckily the rain let up after about 20 minutes so we went ahead with the ceremony in the gazebo as planned.  I must highlight that it seemed the entire resort staff was at our disposal to adjust the wedding due to the weather.  The chairs were all wet, so they had to bring in new chairs and switch out the sashes. A small army of trained staff performed this feat in less than 10 minutes. The ceremony got started around 5:30. The rain held off for about an hour, which was enough time for us to get in the ceremony and some pictures. Thank God!

 

 

Minister – B

 

The minister was very good. She spoke clearly and with meaning. The only reason I’m not giving her an A is because I thought she could have worn something a little nicer. She was dressed a bit too casual for my liking.

 

 

Flowers – C

 

I think my flowers were delivered the day before my wedding, which was on a Sunday. They looked a bit wilted by the time I got them and the groom’s bout was falling apart by the end of the ceremony. The colors weren’t exactly what I wanted either, but I was prepared for this. It’s very hard to get what you want when you don’t have the opportunity to meet with the florist.

 

 

I’m very glad I didn’t spend the money for the resort’s centerpieces. They probably would have been a disaster. I brought my own lumies and had the gerbers in glass bowls as described above. I was happy with how these turned out. And I saved a fortune!

 

 

 

Cocktail Hour – C

 

As I mentioned, it ended up raining right before our ceremony (thank you Hurricane Richard!), but the skies cleared in time for us to have the ceremony in the gazebo. They moved our cocktail hour and reception into the ballroom. I was disappointed about this, but I think it turned out great. The ballrooms were much more comfortable (A/C and bathrooms close by). The Mexican trio that we had gotten for the cocktail hour ended up escorting our wedding guests through the resort to the ballrooms while they were playing. I didn’t get to see this because we were taking pictures with the photographer, but everyone said it was amazing!

 

I didn’t realize it at the time, since we missed the entire cocktail reception, but some of my guests told me that they thought the food looked a bit skimpy. And the cocktail hour ended up not quite being an hour with the transition from the gazebo to the ballroom and the delay to our ceremony start time. Plus they had to move all of our reception set up from the beach to the ballroom. (We didn’t make the call to move things inside early enough – my biggest regret.) This meant that when people were ready to head to the ballroom for the cocktails, the staff wasn’t finished setting up yet, so our guests had to wait in the hallway outside the ballroom for about 10-15 minutes. The Mariachis played during this time though, so hopefully people weren’t too bored with waiting. In the end I think we probably got less than 30 minutes for the cocktail hour.

 

 

Reception – A+

 

The food was nice and hot - probably another benefit of being in the ballrooms. We had the Alexandra salad, princess soup, beef filet and fruit mousse. Everything was delicious! We had the basic cake that was included in our package. We got chocolate cake with raspberry filling. I honestly can’t remember what the cake tasted like – I only had one bite during the cake cutting. I will say that it was WAY more than we needed. There was a lot left over. They didn’t set up a bar in the ballroom, so we had to ask the waiters for drinks. This probably slowed down the consumption of alcohol a bit, but that might not have been a bad thing with our crowd. They tend to get pretty rowdy when they’re drunk.

 

The ballrooms were set up very nicely, but I wish they had given us a bit more room. The cocktail hour and reception were in the same space and it got a little crowded. They didn’t want people to sit at the tables until the cocktail hour was over, but there wasn’t really enough room for everyone to linger where they had set up for the cocktail reception. We had about 50 guests in one salon/ballroom (6 tables of 8 people, a sweetheart table, a light-up dance floor, and lounge furniture).  Let’s just say it was cozy. I saw another wedding set up in the ballrooms later in the week and they had a larger space even though it looked like they had fewer guests. If you’re doing a ballroom reception make sure they give you enough space.

 

 

Music – A++

 

We had the harpist at the ceremony. I don’t remember much about this, but my hubby thought he was great.

 

As I mentioned before, we had the Mexican trio that was included in our package. We requested that they play for the cocktail reception because we hired the DJ for the reception. The Mexican Trio was great. We missed the entire cocktail hour because we were taking pictures, but they stuck around to play a couple songs for us when we arrived. That was really nice.

 

The DJ was great! We booked the DJ through the resort and got DJ Ivan’s company. We met with Ivan the day before the wedding to go over the songs we wanted for the entrance, first dance, father-daughter and mother-son. And they got all the songs right. The only snafu – we asked DJ Ivan to fade out of the first dance song after we did our dip, about 3:00 minutes in, because we had choreographed our first dance song. Well they must not have been paying attention, because they kept playing the song and didn’t set off the cold fireworks until we walked off the dance floor. But other than that, they were great. They even brought balloons and masks, which were a big hit!

 

 

Photographer – B

The resort photographer did a better job that I had expected. We asked a friend who is a good photographer to take pictures too and between the two we have a ton of great pics. If you go with the resort photographer just keep in mind that any additional photos outside your package will cost you $10 each! You’ll meet with the photographer a couple days after the wedding to pick out the pictures you want (schedule plenty of time for this – it took us 2 hours to go through 200 pics!). Then the next day he’ll have them ready for you on a cd.

 

Some pics from the resort photographer:

 

 

 

 

 

Videographer – A+

 

Our package included the 30 minute video of the ceremony. This turned out way better than we had expected! I honestly didn’t think that the video would be very good, but we were pleasantly surprised.

 

Excursions – A+++

We also planned excursions for our guests after the wedding day. These were the highlights of trip. So glad we did this. It was a great chance to spend time with everyone. We almost went crazy trying to make sure we spent quality time with everyone who came!

 

Tulum Ruins

We booked three 15-passenger vans through American Express travel and headed to the ruins at Tulum the day after the wedding. Go early, it gets crowded. We got there just before 9:00, so it wasn’t very crowded yet. But by the time we were leaving 1-2 hours later it was very crowded. We bought our entrance tickets and hired a tour guide when we got there. My hubby is fluent in Spanish, so I let him handle all this. We saved a ton of money by planning the Tulum trip ourselves. The 3 vans were about $600 for 5 hours ($40/per van, per hour). The entrance to the ruins and tour guide were about 100 pesos ($8) per person. We had about 34 people on the excursion, so it ended up costing about $25/person. Some of the tours that I looked at were $50 – 100 per person!

 

Cozumel Reef Snorkeling and Sailing Adventure

This was AMAZING! http://cozumelcruiseexcursions.com/snorkelingcatamaran.htm

Definitely one of the highlights of our trip (besides the wedding). There were about 25 of us on a boat that accommodated 50. There wasn’t a cruise ship at port that day, so we ended up being the only group on the tour. We had the entire boat and crew to ourselves. The crew was great and on the way back they served drinks non-stop. We had a blast!!

 

 

Overall everything was perfect. The resort was amazing. The staff goes out of their way to make sure that everything exceeds your expectations. The WCs work their butts off to make sure your wedding day is perfect. Denys, our WC, was great! I’d go back there in a heartbeat!