Here's a link to our wedding slide from Del Sol:

http://delsolphotography.com/blog/content/galleries/?gal=386

 

Hi ladies,

Here’s my review with lots of details. I hope it helps!

Wedding: A+

We started planning the wedding back in November of 2009.  My husband and I saw this resort in November of 2006 and we fell in love with it. When he proposed 3 years after our trip to Playa- we knew we wanted to get married at The Royal right away. The only other resort we considered was the Secrets Maroma (we ended up spending our honeymoon at this resort) so it worked out perfectly. I also found this forum in November of 2009 and everyone has been so helpful!  We picked The Royal Playa del Carmen because we loved the layout of the resort, the location of the resort and the wedding gazebo. Also, we keeped reading all of the reviews on www.tripadvisor.com and this validated our decision. We had an amazing and beautiful wedding that we won’t ever forget. Our guests absolutely loved it!

Travel Agent: B

 

Our travel agent was a local woman Debbie Gillespie from Travel Travel in Woodridge, IL. When it was time for the trip she had everything organized and explained everything well. The only reason I didn’t give her an A is because she’s only part time and travels a lot herself so it was hard to reach her at times.


Airline: A

We traveled with about 8 people on a direct flight to Cancun. We flew with American Airlines .My dress was my carry on so I put it in the overhead bin in a small suit.  The resort steamed press it and it looked perfect- no wrinkles. AA put on a movie on the way to Cancun and on the way home to Chicago. I’m a fan of this because it made the flights feel real short after the movies.

Arrival in Cancun: A

 

There weren’t any long lines and we went through customs and picked up our bags right away. Cancun has a nice/clean airport.

Transfer company: A

Our transfers were done by American Express provided by the TA. They were fine- my cousin had the driver stop for beer and the guy did.

Hotel: A +

The Royal is amazing! We absolutely loved everything about the resort…the beautiful architecture and especially the friendly staff! We did the 48 hr check in online so we were taken to our concierge (sits in the first floor of our room building) and we got our bracelets. It was painless. We had an ocean view jr suite and we loved it- when we return we’ll ask for this room or for an ocean front suite.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Room: A+

We had an ocean view jr suite- we loved it! The bed was big and comfortable and the rose petals came every day!  We got a fruit basket, a bottle of red wine and a letter from the romance concierge.

We loved the view because it was right in front of the pool and the ocean view was very pretty we saw the sun rise and set a few times.

 

 

 

 

 

Restaurants: A
 

Everyone loved the food!

ROYAL COFFEE HOUSE: We did not try this.
24 HR. ALL INCLUSIVE VIP LOUNGE: Chicken wings, guacamole, chicken nuggets and you can make your own drinks.  We ended up getting snacks from here on Monday night (Monday night football the bears were playing) and the guys didn’t want to go to a restaurant so we ate here. It was just o.k.
NEW! EL MEDITERRÁNEO: We went here for lunch and dinner. The lunch was very good and a few friends said this restaurant was their favorite for dinner.  I highly recommend this restaurant.
TAPAS & PINTXOS: We had our welcome dinner here and the tapas were endless and very good. I highly recommend this restaurant.

SPICE: We ate breakfast and lunch here. Everything was very good. I highly recommend this place for breakfast.  

ASIANA: We had lunch and dinner here. This was my husband’s favorite restaurant. I highly recommend this restaurant.
PELICANOS: No one in our group ate here for any meal so I can’t comment on it. Next time we go back, this will be the first place we eat at.
MARIA MARIE: We had our rehearsal dinner here. Everything was good but the portions were small. Unfortunately we were expecting more of Maria and less of Marie but it was the other way around. This was probably my least favorite restaurant but I’m still glad we tried it.

MARIA’S (AT THE GRAN PORTO): The Royal doesn’t have Mexican food and towards the end of the trip we were all craving it so we walked across the street to Maria’s and we had an amazing Mexican meal. I highly recommend this restaurant.
CHEF’S PLATE: Our group was so bad we felt bad leaving them to eat at this restaurant. Next time- we’ll try it. My cousins ate here and they enjoyed it- small portions but it was a 2 hour process.

Room service: B
On the day of the wedding, I ordered 2 club sandwiches and they never arrived. Needless to say I didn’t eat lunch on the day of my wedding so I went from breakfast to dinner. Unfortunately they dropped the ball on that one. Other than that my brothers had room service every day (lunch) and they loved it. My husband and I had breakfast twice from room service and it was delicious!
 

Cleaners: B-

We had my husband’s suit, shirt and my dress steam pressed and this was a dilemma. It took them over an hour to pick these items up from our room (I guess they need you to be in the room when they pick up and drop off) and then the day of the wedding my dress arrived 10 minutes before I came in the room. I guess my husband was in the room calling them (he called them 3 times) he wanted to make sure the dress was there before I came back from the Spa otherwise I would have stressed out. Maybe have them pick these items up when you’re getting ready for dinner and you know you’ll be in the room for over an hour and then have them deliver these items at an earlier time that you’ll need them.

They did a great job steam pressing- my dress was flawless- no wrinkles whatsoever so that’s good!

 

 

Entertainment: B-
The entertainment isn’t their strong point. Since Playa del Carmen is nearby they probably rely on people going out in the town. The shows we did see were just o.k. We saw Mayan dancers, a grease rendition, a Cuban band ets…

Pool: A-
The pool was awesome! The only bad part is that the main pool water is very cold and the hot tub section is a regular pool temperature. Even in the middle of the day when it was 80  degrees the water was still too cold. The pool with the swim up bar was never full because the water was so cold. Other than that the area is beautiful, the pool entertainment staff has a lot of energy and the staff bring you drinks keep them coming! Also, if you have a room on the first floor- you can order drinks from your deck.

 

Beach: A

It was beautiful! We walked towards the left of the resort (away from the pier towards the gazebo) and there were no rocks. We played beach volleyball and went swimming.

 

 

 

Wedding Coordinator: A

 

I had Angie Hayes as a US coordinator and then she left and I got reassigned to Angie Silva. She was great to work with over the basecamp website. I’m a pretty patient person so you have to keep in mind that they’re not going to get back to you right away when you have a question.  I was ok with this because everything got answered at some point.

The week of the wedding I got Zulma Dominguez and she was also very sweet. She has this calm sense to her that just relaxes you. The way I see it- in the US we are pretty high stress and we expect things to get done right away. In Mexico they are pretty laid back and just promised that all was taken care of and that things would be perfect- and it was.

The day before the wedding we meet with Zulma in her office for an hour (if that) to go over any last questions and clarifications. I gave her a whole suit case with all of my wedding items. I typed up a sheet of instructions and I opened the suit case to show her everything. The day/night of the wedding everything was in place and the suit case was placed in my room the following day. Thank you Zulma!

 

 

 

 

Del Sol/ La Luna Photography: A+
 

Photography is most important to me so I did my homework for about a year. I read many reviews, saw a lot of their work etc. Matt and Sol do an amazing job and so do the rest of the photographers that work in Del Sol. In the end we decided to go with Jonathan and his assistant from Del Sol. They arrived in my room not a minute late. They never stopped taking pictures and I felt comfortable with them the whole time. They were extremely nice and I didn’t have any issues with them and their work. I can go on and on about them but their work speaks for itself. I LOVE all of my wedding photos and all of my family and friends back in Chicago are very impressed with the quality of their work. Choosing The Royal and Del Sol are the two best decisions we made for our wedding!

Here's a link to our wedding slide show from Del Sol:

 

http://delsolphotography.com/blog/content/galleries/?gal=386

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resort Videographer:  B

The video looks good and it got the job done. I'm sooooo happy we decided to use a videographer and not just a photographer. Even though I love photography it is very nice to know that we can one day show this video to our children and re live the moment!

Royal Florist: A

The flowers were beautiful! My bouquet of calla lilies was beautiful! We also had colorful flowers for the ceremony, 2 bouts ( a calla lily and a bright pink rose) and 4 corsages (all white flowers). The corsages have a ribbon on it and I saw it was hard for them to stay on so maybe go with the ones you pin on the dress.

 

 

 

 

Hair and Makeup Spa Azul: A

 

I got my hair and makeup done with my mom at the Spa Azul and they did a great job! I gave myself 2 hours to do this and I was in there for about 2 hours and 10 minutes so maybe allow for an extra half an hour. I brought a picture of what I wanted to do with my hair and I loved it. I had a lower right bun and not a single hair was out of place the whole night. I also brought a picture of what I wanted for my makeup and I thought she did a beautiful job. I did bring all of my MAC brushes and MAC makeup to use on me so I’m sure that helped. I’m pretty specific with my makeup so I had to direct her a few times but she didn’t mind. I also brought false lashes from home and she did a good job putting them on and making sure they stayed on. All in all I was very pleased with them. There were 3 weddings the day of my wedding and the other 2 brides were in and out of the Spa. One girl was from L.A and the other girl was Canadian- they both looked great.




Ceremony at the gazebo: A+

 

Our ceremony was at the gazebo at 4pm. I had our guests sit outside of the gazebo for lighting/photography purposes.  Zulma and her crew set up the ceremony exactly how I wanted it. The programs were on the chairs, the violinist was playing and the red carpet was removed as requested. The photographer and videographer were in place and we were given microphones to recite our vows. The ceremony was beautiful and very intimate. This section of the resort is the most private- I’m glad we choose this spot. The ceremony was about 25 minutes long, we did a toast afterwards and took some photos with our guests before the reception.

 

 

Cocktail hour: No grade

The ceremony immediately followed the reception at 5:00pm

Reception: A+
 

Personally I couldn’t imagine having my reception in any other place other than the beach. I figured if I’m in a resort next to the ocean might as well take advantage of it and we’re glad we did. The sound of the waves and seeing the full moon shine over the ocean all night at our reception while we danced was simply beautiful. We choose the beach area right across from Pelicanos because it’s the biggest and the bathrooms are near. I absolutely loved this location for our reception!!

We saw a reception in the central garden and this spot felt less private because people are walking up and down the aisles right next to the reception. I also saw a few people just run up to their dance floor to join the party. Our reception was done a little earlier than there’s and I felt bad but I had to walk up and down to the lobby a few times while their reception was going on- just something to keep in mind.

 

We had a light up dance floor and tables around it. Our reception was beautifully decorated! The tables were decorated with sea shells around the luminaries, aqua blue bottles that held drink stirrers, sand table numbers, sea shell place cards, sunshine yellow menus, and aqua blue/yellow favor bags that added a little color to the crisp white décor. Our sweetheart table had a colorful floral centerpiece and a “Just Married” sign I bought on etsy in front of our table.

 

 

 

 

 

Reception dinner: A

Here is what we had for our dinner.

 

 

 

Salad: Spinach souflett with blueberry and white wine. 

It was good.

Main course: Beef fillet tournedo with fresh wild mushroom sauce.

It was very good.

Dessert: Paris chocolate shell stuffed with fruit.

It was good.

 

Wedding Cake: Tres Leches .

It was amazing!

 

Sweetheart table setup: A

 

We loved it!

 

Cake: A

This was included in our package which feeds 35 people- I could have feed 55. We chose tres leche which was so delicious! I made sure to try the cake but a lot of our guests were dancing so they didn’t get a chance to try it L.

We had an R cake tooper with diamonds on top of the cake and it looked great!

 

 

DJ: A

We hired Doremixx to DJ our wedding. He did a great job playing every song on my play list. There were probably 5 songs I didn’t recognize from my list otherwise they were all my picks. We got the light up dance floor which was worth it! Everybody loved it and I honestly believe it made the reception- everyone loved the dance floor. He also provided long balloons and of course they were fun! We got the cold fireworks at the end of our first dance:

 

 

 

 

 

Playa del Carmen: A+

 

Having the option to leave the resort and just walk up and down 5^th avenue was a plus. Everyone in our party at some point or another went out to 5^th ave. We went to Mandala the night before the wedding and the music was great- we did a lot of dancing. Other people in our party went to Senor Frogs and Coco Bongo and had fun. One day we we walked around had had a few beers at one of those bard with swings- good times had aby all on 5^th ave.

I hope this helps someone. Please feel free to ask any questions.

Good luck to all the future Royal brides…you’ll LOVE it there!