Not long got back from a two week stay at the Gran Porto Real. So depressing writing this, the last time I came on this forum was before the wedding :(

Anyway there were 11 of us including me and my husband.

ROOMS - When we arrived we got a free upgrade to a Junior Suite as we were the bride and groom. Whist we were really happy with our room, for me it feels as though that should have been a standard room rather than the upgrade. Don't get me wrong it was really nice, but seeing my families standard rooms I felt they weren't 5 star.

If you are getting married there and it's peak season, I would recommend booking an upgrade before you go, just incase. I'm not going to lie, I would have been really disappointed if we got a standard room as the bridal couple.

My family were on the third floor opposite the so called 'Tranquil pool'. After lunch it gets rowdy as people start to get on the booze. This wasn't a problem for us, the pool bar closed at 5pm and the noise would stop, but if you wanted an afternoon nap round there you wouldn't really have the chance. There is the main pool downstairs but it always looked busy and as there was 11 of us it would have been impossible to get sunbeds, so we just prefered it upstairs. 

Anyway, so when we first arrived, a few members of my family complained about the rooms. Their main problem was that the rooms were small and quite dark and dingy. This is true, however they all did see the photographs of the standard rooms before they booked, so if they had reservations on the size they should have paid for an upgrade or something. They got moved without a problem and they were all happier with their rooms then. I think it's just the rooms opposite the pool that are dark as they have no balcony so no real natural light can get in. My cousins and my husbands’ uncle stayed in the rooms they got so they can't have been that bad.

Every one agreed the beds are so comfy!! And the showers are lovely too. They're really powerful. The TV we had was a flat screen and it had USB ports so we'd plug our iPods in there to listen to them through the TV and to charge them. The DVD player was dual region, so it played our English DVDs that my husband brought with his portable DVD player to watch on the plane.

I must say that this is the cleanest hotel I have ever stayed in. I never saw any dirt or bugs in any part of the complex. They also have pots of hand sanitizer where ever there is food or drink, at the entrance to dinner, at the 24hr snack bar, at all the bars....

FOOD - Albatross - In general, I thought the food was nice but some times you couldn't really make a meal from what they had. But then it's free, so there’s nothing stopping you getting separate plates of stuff. Lunch time seemed to be much nicer than dinner which is odd. They seemed to put more effort into that and you had a lot more options. I didn't go into the restaurant every day, but when I did I never had the same meal twice.

Breakfast was also lovely and there was a lot of variety. I usually had granola with yoghurt and fruit, or peanut butter on toast, or an English breakfast. The deserts were lovely and I usually hate foreign desert, usually it's never as nice as at home, but this hotel was the exception. They had a lovely chocolate cake and a cake that tasted like a Snickers :)

Italian - I went to the Italian (can't remember the name of it) 3 times. The first time I went I couldn't compliment it enough. The food was beautiful and very well presented. The steak was amazing, and I'd actually go as far to say that it's the best steak I've had. Whilst the staff was very polite, the service is very slow in there. The third time we went we were sat there 30 mins before any one took our order and the steak this time was rare rather than medium rare which I’d ordered. That meant there was blood on my plate which I can't stand. My Dad, Cousin and husband also had the steak, and they were all raw apart from my husbands, which is disappointing after the great experience the previous times. 

Mexican - In our opinion the Mexican wasn't great. Having only eaten "English" Mexican we'd never eaten that food before, so it may well be a case of just not liking proper Mexican food. Some things were nice, the burritos we're lovely, but everything had guacamole on which I don't like, so the Mexican restaurant was never on to a winner with me.

24hr snack bar & Beach Snack Bar - Can't fault either of these really. The 24hr snack bar had a variety of bits and bobs, chips, fish fingers, burritos, cakes sausages etc etc. and late at night they'd put sandwiches out and they were so nice. Me and my Dad would eat about ten each every night, haha. The 24hr bar also has a selection of alcohol to serve yourself with once the main bar closes at 12. It's not really a bar you can sit and drink in. It's small, really cold and the lights are really bright. More often me and my hubby would just fill a cup with vodka and a few cups of mixers and sit upstairs on our balcony and have a few.

The food at the beach snack bar is what you expect, burgers, hot dogs, chips and all the trimmings. Really nice if you're soaking wet and you can't be bothered going into the restaurant.

All the staff was amazing. All very friendly and helpful and they seemed as though they genuinely enjoyed their jobs.

WEDDING - It was absolutely FANTASTIC. It really couldn't have been any better, it was absolutely PERFECT.

Me & the other girls got our hair done in the salon across the road in the Royal and they did a great job. I thought it was a bit over priced, 55USD just to clip in extensions and curl my hair (!!!) but they did a good job so I don’t really care. I did my own make up so I don’t know what that is like.

We chose to get married in the Gazebo which was beautiful. The ceremony was at 3pm which I was originally a bit hesitant about thinking it would be too early, but it was a lovely time to do it. We went from the ceremony over to the swing bar area for a Cocktail Reception which lasted an hour. It was set up on the beach with tall tables to lean on with umbrellas for shade. The staff were serving champagne. The canapés were so nice, but unfortunately me and my husband didn't get to enjoy the cocktail hour as we were having our photos taken for about 40 mins of the hour, but our guests seemed to really enjoy it.

After that we had the reception which was also in the swing bar area on the beach. The food was fantastic. We had spinach soufflé to start, beef steak for main, and cannoli for desert, it was all beautiful. We did our speeches inbetween courses so we didn’t waste any of our dancing time as you get 3 hours for the reception.

As soon as the sun started setting the staff put blue lights underneath the tables which made them glow, and they lit tiki torches around the dance floor. It was so beautiful. We hired the Mariachi band for the reception. We didn't pay through the wedding coordinator, we just approached them directly one evening when they were playing in the hotel. I can't remember what we paid now, but we obviously got them much cheaper as it was cash in hand for them.

After they had left I plugged my IPod into the sound system.

Our photographer was brilliant, his name was Caesar. He was really nice and he did a wonderful job. We’re both so pleased with the photographs.

Our wedding coordinator was Denys. She was lovely, so friendly and helpful. She was fantastic.

All in all we had a brilliant time. The hotel wasn’t the best I’d ever been to, but it was lovely and it was clean. The only complaint I have about the hotel was that they close the bar and turn the lights off in the main bar at 12am, so if you’re finishing your drinks or whatever you have to do it in complete darkness. I thought that was stupid. The 24hr bar is uncomfortable to drink in, so it would have been much better if they left the lights on in the main bar and we could get our own drinks and bring them back through. But oh well.

We had a brilliant time and the wedding was just amazing. All my guests said it was genuinely the best wedding they’d been to. If you’re getting married at GPR, trust me, you will not be disappointed.

I can’t think of anything else! I’ve probably missed out loads of things, so if any one has any questions I’d be happy to help J