We were actually married at the Melia Cayo Guillermo on May 12, 2009. It's taken me a while to get to this review -- sorry ladies!! Our group stayed from May 09-May 14 in 2009 and my husband and I stayed an extra week and came home on the 22nd. Anyways, enough about dates! On to the resort and details of our stay:

We weren't a ginormous group. There were 17 of us in total ranging in age from early 20s to mid-50s and one 7-year-old -- and the resort suited us all! I won't talk about the flight from Montreal (which was delayed about 4-5 hours) as that had nothing to do with the resort! 

Once we arrived, check-in was swift and easy (despite it being about 1-2 a.m.). Blissfully, the lobby bar was still open and willing to serve us as many rum and cokes as we needed to get over our long, long journey there! It was a great way to start the trip and we were all very pleased with our rooms.

ROOMS
Our group was spread out around the resort, with the majority of us in the main buildings around the buffet, however, the couple with the little girl had a bungalow-type room closer to the beach in a more secluded area. It was nice that they were given a bigger room a bit farther away as they had a child with them. Everyone was very satisifed with their rooms -- save for one couple. Their toilet broke in their room, but thankfully the guy was handy and managed to fix it himself -- at first! Air conditioning worked for everyone and our fridges were stocked on a daily basis (and I made sure to bring post-its so we could write "mas agua" for more water and leave it on the fridge everyday for more bottled water). My husband and I were also given a bottle of champagne which we didn't actually drink -- we gave it to a couple who were getting married the day we left the resort. :) They were very pleased to get it!

We had asked for an upgraded room as the couple getting married, but it wasn't available. We knew this was a possibility, but we were pleased with our room nonetheless. We were at the very end of the building with no one in the room beside us, so we felt secluded and our balcony overlooked the pool area and was the perfect vantage point to spot our group members when we wanted to know where people were!

FOOD
This was not the first time my husband and I had been to Cuba. In fact, it was our 5th time, so we've come to know Cuban food. However, the Melia Cayo Guillermo really surprised us in the food department. We ate our "welcome dinner" at the international restaurant across the street from the resort overlooking the marshy area behind the hotel. The service was great and our food was fantastic. We ate at all 3 locations on the resort -- the beach restaurant/grill, the Italian restaurant and the buffet and they all offered great selections. At the buffet, the cooks in the back were great - they all spoke English relatively well and they cooked everything the way we wanted. There was always a wide selection of meats and seafood to choose from.

The snack bar was great by the pool. The best part was getting fries and hot dogs at midnight (or later!). Often, after a night of drinking, the thing you want most is grease! We've been to other resorts where there's no food available past 9 p.m. However, Melia Cayo Guillermo delivered every night on the snacking. Hot dogs and burgers weren't always available, but the fries were! And they were yum.

NOTE FOR VEGETARIANS
I'm a veg, and I was a bit worried about what I would eat while I was there. I do eat seafood, but I didn't want to overdose on fish right away. I know Cuba is big on ham and beef, so I was a bit scared. BUT this is an excellent resort for vegetarians! There is a great salad bar in the buffet that's always stocked with fresh vegetables and there were a ton of fruits as well. Plus, there's a fantastic pasta bar with loads of choices for sauces, pastas and extras in the sauce.

BARS
There was never a dry moment at the Melia Cayo Guillermo. Drinks were readily available anytime we wanted it seemed. Even when we chose to stay up for a night of drunken madness with new friends from Toronto and the UK, the bartender from the lobby bar happily brought us tray upon tray loaded with beers and rum cokes to keep us happy as we lounged by the pool.

The beach bar often runs out of things like lime, sugar, lemon juice and other additives, but the resort isn't SO big that walking back to the pool bar is hard. The swim-up section of the pool bar is a lot of fun, but tends to fill up quickly so get your stool early! :)

The lobby bar is fantastic and usually the hang-out spot for the evening as there's also a piano in the main lobby and dancers will come through and the entertainment is right there in front of you as you sip your drink at the bar.

Whiskeys and scotches are available at the lobby bar as well.

ENTERTAINMENT
The entertainment troop at the Melia Cayo Guillermo was great! Even though we were there for 2 weeks, we only saw the show once. It was well choreographed and you could tell they put a lot of effort into their routines and costumes. It was quite enjoyable. There's also a disco on the resort that we hit up at the beginning of our stay. Great selection of music (North American and Cuban), but the bar is uber small and it gets pretty crowded with the drunkards pretty quickly!

Throughout the day the intrusions by the entertainment troop are kept to a minimum. If you want to escape the megaphone and music, head to the beach as they tend to stick around the pool where they play games for the children and the drunk people (dance competitions, salsa lessons, dress-up games, etc., all for bottles of rum).

The second week, when it was just my husband and I, it rained nearly every day in the afternoon. The entertainment troop made sure everyone stayed happy! They held golf comeptitions in the main lobby (out of the rain) and kept everyone smiling and entertained despite the gloomy weather!

Every Monday at the Melia Cayo Guillermo they hold a "white" beach party. They ask that all the guests wear white and they host a cookout near the beach bar (pit in the ground with a pig roasting). White beds are strewn across lounge chairs and white sheets are strung on palm trees to give a really ethereal sensation -- like being at a chic LA beach party where only the rich and famous are invited. They entertain with fire dances, fancy bartending moves, and they hand out hot rum with coffee beans (best drink, ever!).

Every Tuesday is "love day" which is quite appropriate because they hold their weddings every Tuesday. Generally there were 1 to 2 weddings every Tuesday. One of the entertainers dresses up as Cupid and there are hearts everywhere -- kind of cheesey, but in a sweet way!

WEDDING
This resort was not our first choice for a wedding. It was a recommendation from our travel agent, and I'm so glad we listened to her.

Maria was our wedding coordinator and she was fabulous. We met with her the day after we arrived to choose our location for the ceremony, our flowers, to give her decorations and to choose the location for our dinner and the meal. Because we were more than 15 people our wedding was free. Flowers and ceremony were included in the package as were the notary fees, etc. Dinner would have been included, except we did something different.

We asked to have our dinner on the beach. They set up a table just beside the beach bar (which was also ours for the night with our very own bartender as well), away from the resort and the other restaurants and people, and we asked that they left the sheets in the trees from Monday to give the area ambiance. There were also little ambiant lights left in the sand and around the walkway for us as well. We didn't bring very many decorations (just chair ribbons), but Maria handled it with ease. Dinner on the beach cost an extra 35 CUC per person, but was well worth it! We had surf and turf (steak and shrimps) and the meal was fantastic.

For music, I brought my own iPod loaded with music and they had two large speakers on stands that we hooked up with an AUX wire and it worked out perfectly (untl the iPod ran out of juice!).

Unfortunately, the Melia Cayo Guillermo has a very, very shallow beach. Because of this, it's actually impossible to get married ON the beach. Instead, there's a pier and we chose to get married at the very start of the pier, on the beach, under the archway that was decorated for us with fresh wild flowers.

My flowers were gorgeous. I wasn't picky about colours but they did a great job giving me a tropical bouquet of gourgeous white and yellow flowers. My flowergirl was also given freshly picked petals from the gardner, and he even gave her a basket made out of palm leaves to hold them! Super sweet. :)

We chose to get married at 4 p.m. and it was the perfect time. We could have been married at 2 p.m. (and there was a wedding before us that day), but it would have been way too hot. Four was ideal as the sun was less vibrant and the wind was a bit stronger near the beach. Overall, ideal time.

We also brought our photographer with us, so I can't comment on the resort's in-house photographer. Though I do remember him showing up randomly while we were doing some shots after the ceremony -- it was kind of weird because we hadn't hired him.

As for the marriage license and documents needed for the marriage. I think this has changed, but we didn't have to get any of our documents translated. We simply had to give our passport information, along with our witness passports (Maid of Honor and Best Man). Everything else was handled by the resort and Maria. We were given a license from the ceremony, but the ACTUAL marriage license arrived in the mail a few months later. However, the marriage IS legal right away. We left Cuba husband and wife. :)

Guests were pretty respectful the entire day of the ceremony. Throughout the beach ceremony we had a few bikini-clad gawkers, but all in all everyone gave us our space. And I don't remember seeing ANYONE while we were eating dinner and dancing in the sand all night. :) So, the beach dinner location was a stellar idea. If we hadn't had it there, we would have been in the buffet or the Italian restaurant with everyone else.

EXCURSIONS
As a group we all went to Playa Pilar, another beach near the resort. It's a gorgeous beach with a huge, pristine beach and a little bar for snacks and drinks ... as well as a farm of guinea pigs (which we found strange but cute all at once). That excursion also includes snorkelling and lunch on another island off Playa Pilar. Bring bread! The fish will love you and you'll have a great time. It was good to get away from the resort for an afternoon and it's not an expensive excursion.

The second week my husband and I went on the Jeep Safari. This is an entire day excursion and involves a a lot of driving! You actually get to drive your own jeep as well as a speed boat (super fun!) and go snorkelling. We got to see the local city of Moron (and my husband even made a stop at a local Cuban bank to exchange some money) and we had an amazing guide, Lino. As soon as he got into the jeep with us he popped in a CD and I'm pretty sure the first song was "Apple Bottom Jeans" -- hilarious.

Throughout the day we stopped at a crocodile farm where you get to feed crocs fish on a stick. Beware if Poncho the pelican if he's still there ... he took a nice chunk out of my leg. All he wants is fish, but don't be fooled by his beedy little eyes ... he's greedy and mean! :-p We also stopped at a local turkey farm at the top of a huge hill that offered a gorgeous view of the area and we had lunch there.

The speed boats through the mangroves are awesome and so much fun. They really are impossible to tip over (believe me, we tried). And there's a snorkelling adventure in the mangroves that's a little freaky, but super cool.  

It's a long day, but you get to see so much of the area and if you get a good guide like Lino, you'll learn a lot about Cuban culture and life in general.

We also went horseback riding around the resort with a group of people we met from Toronto. We were about 8-10 in the group. The horses are well-behaved (generally, I think they are too starved and old to care about anything too much) and the route we took was quite nice -- through the marshy area behind the resort and up the beach. It was a great outing until the hurricane-like rain and wind showed up at the very end. It was like the world was ending! But, again, not the fault of the resort or the rancher who owned the horses! However, the horses behaved very well despite the scary weather! We all arrived in one piece, albeit a little wet. :-p

RESORT
Overall, the Melia Cayo Guillermo is a fantastic resort. On more tha one occassion we spotted people with the Sol Cayo Guillermo bracelet at our pool and on our beach because it was better. A few people from our group went over to the Sol for lunch (we were allowed to eat at the Sol, but no one other than Melia people can eat at the Melia) and the buffet was not good at all. There was barely any selection compared to ours.

The resort is clean and well-kept. There was always someone painting something, fixing something, maintaining something, so it's clear they care about the resort a great deal.

On our actual wedding day, the manager of the Melia showed up and congratulated us. I thought it was a really nice touch and made us feel like they really cared that we'd chosen their resort for our big day.

The store, cigar store and gym are also very well kept and stocked. My husband used the gym and was quite pleased with the equipment -- despite the room not being air conditioned!

The pool was very clean and not too chlorinated.

There is also a massage hut in the middle of the resort where you can get a chocolate massage/wrap. There were a few girls who had this done while we were there and the smell is incredible! The whole resort smells like chocolate -- yum!

We really can't wait to go back and celebrate our wedding anniversary there. Melia Cayo Guillermo was a fantastic choice and everyone from our wedding party would agree!!

If you have any questions or want more information from me about my stay, feel free to drop me a line! :)