At long last I am finally getting around to getting my review done from our recent wedding at Iberostar Laguna Azul in gorgeous Varadero, Cuba.  We were married on May 4, 2011 (Kelly & Reese).  As many of you know, I am also a travel agent and arranged the travel for 63 guests to our wedding.  I am also working with several brides on this site and others who have chosen the IBL as well for their big day.

 

I suggest if you have a large group to organize a meet n greet upon arrival where you can introduce everyone and answer any week-planning questions.  The resort is LARGE and it doesn't take long to realize that finding people who are stragglers can be exhausting!  My suggestion is to have a mutual meeting place every morning/evening where you can compare notes and decide what (if anything) you may wish to do as a group that day.  I also suggest you leave all of the a la carte reservations to your guests as trying to plan an a la carte for large groups can be daunting.  You will need all of their room numbers/names as we all know, oftentimes plans can change and most people don't like to have their entire week's time planned.  The wedding dinner is of course one a la carte that you will all attend!  Also it is a good idea to assign one person the job of maintaining a log of room numbers/guests and ask that all of your guests keep that person advised should they change their room.   Most importantly...RELAX and ENJOY.  This is a holiday for you as well!  Don't forget your Bubba Mugs (Thermal insulated mugs) and LOTS (at least two bottles for one week) of sunscreen.

 

We flew out of Halifax/Vancouver/Toronto via Sunwing and I have to say we had great service and I would certainly not hesitate to fly again with them.   The food was surprisingly tasty and the several brides on board were all treated like royalty.  I would also like to mention that during our stay the Sunwing rep at the resort was definitely the one who maintained a presence there the longest and was always available to answer questions/book excursions, etc at all hours of the day.  I did note that many of the others were only there for a brief period in the morning and then left their books there for the guests to peruse.  I preferred having a knowledgable body to speak to!

 

We were given an exclusive bus from the airport to the resort (which Sunwing will provide to larger groups).  The trip was great and the gentleman who was providing information sang and entertained us until we arrived.  The resort offers an awe-inspiring first impression for you and your guests.  It is definitely one of the nicest resorts in Varadero.  On check-in there were several girls on the front desk and they were fast and courteous.  We were checked in and in our rooms within 30 minutes (and that is the entire group!)  We arrived late so we all rambled around the resort taking in the sights and a small group of us headed to the all-night snack bar down by the beach.  The pizza and hamburgers were very welcomed!  Just a note to those who will be planning the palapas...this is where they are located so keep that in mind as the snack bar never closes.  Personally, I have seen receptions/dinners held at various locales and I don't prefer the palapas..I much prefer a more private venue that offers exposure to the gorgeous weather, but also a bit more shelter/privacy.

 

Rooms:  The rooms are all very nice at this resort.  We did have a few people change rooms so that they could be closer to other family members, but other than that, no complaints.  I do recommend the following buildings however over the main building ~ Building 10 or 11 and Building 19 or 20.

Buildings 15 and 16 can get quite noisy as the lobby patio stays lively late into the night.  I also recommend booking a suite if you can.  There are only 24 in the entire resort and each of them offers an ocean view, larger balcony, two rooms with a living room area, kitchen, two bathrooms, two showers, walkin closet, four poster King bed...it is certainly worth the upgrade and it is really nice to have the extra room when you and your bride are getting ready the day of the wedding.

I should mention as well that the resort was very good about changing rooms for those who requested it.  The resort was almost to capacity on several days and they still will go out of their way to ensure you are happy with your room choice.  Re Suites...I would try for the third floor if at all possible as there is a line of trees between the resort and the ocean and your view would be unobstructed.  Our room was cleaned daily, towels replaced as needed and mini bar replenished with no issues.  Suites should be booked at time of booking your package to ensure availability.  It is also cheaper this way s the resort will charge you 100CUC per night to upgrade from a room to a suite.

 

Food:  We were pleasantly surprised with the food.  We stayed for two weeks so I was worried that I would quickly be bored, but there is definitely something for everyone.  We attended all of the a la cartes and recommend some more than others.  I do suggest that the morning after your arrival that you go and book your a la cartes as they do fill up fast.  The room to do this is just past the lobby across from the cigar bar.    The buffet had a good variety and I really enjoyed all of the food being prepared to order on the back wall.  They made fresh pasta and pasta sauces daily, prime rib, salmon, pizzas, omellettes, tacos.  They would either feature pork, roast beef, turkey or fish.  The bread is amazing at all of the venues.  The omelette chef, Joel is very friendly and will go out of his way to make your breakfast memorable. 

 

A la cartes:

 

Japanese:  This one seems to be the most popular, but to be honest ended up being one of our least favorites.  Most likely because we really love Japanese food and the food served here is NOT Japanese as we are accustomed to.  Essentially we had a stir fry with eggs, chicken, shrimp, lobster and veggies.  The chef was very entertaining however and the night was fun, but also take note that this restaurant is very hot ~ no air conditioning.

 

Romantico:  This was our favourite.  We actually booked this twice!  The smoked salmon/crab appetizer was absolutely wonderful and the beef was to die for.  My son actually kept eating mine!  The entire meal was a hit and I did not hear one complaint about this restaurant ever!

 

Italian:  This was the first a la carte that we attended and I have to say we really enjoyed it.  They have a wonderful mushroom risotto and those who ordered pasta also raved about it.  The soup was equally appealing.  Dessert was a hit as well (tiramasu).

 

Del Chef:  This was where we had our wedding reception and it was amazing!  We had beef tournadoes and the guests raved.  They served soup as an appetizer and the wedding cake was absolutely delicious!!  The staff was quick to replenish your drinks and offered lovely service and attention to detail.  They will offer a chicken alternative to those who don't eat meat and/or children. The bride/groom were served lobster (which is also good), but after hearing the comments I had wished we had the beef!   As a result of the wedding ahead of us running late, our reception was actually an hour later than we had originally been advised.  The staff did a great job in turning around the restaurant and getting our decor in and the tables set up ~ especially for such a large group.  We simply enjoyed drinks at the lobby bar until the restaurant was ready. 

 

Cuban:  The Cuban was very enjoyable.  We had beef tenderloin ~ preceded by a salad.  While looking around I saw a Surf n Turf which looked incredible..lobster, shrimp and chicken all on one plate.  I would recommend that!!   The staff at this one is very friendly and attentive.

 

Steak House:  The beef tenderloin is definitely the better option here over the rib-eye (which is tough).  I would suggest if you normally order medium-rare to order medium as the tenderloins are quite thick.  All in all it was an enjoyable meal and the dessert was great.

 

Coffee:  The best coffee is either at the lobby bar or at the restaurant immediately behind the large pool (Insular) (which serves a great little breakfast buffet in the morning).  I found the coffee at the buffet didn't taste like coffee at all....more like lightly flavoured water! 

 

Wedding:   We had no issue at all with Yahimara, as a matter of fact she went out of her way to make not only our wedding but our entire stay enjoyable.  When you check in there will be a note from Yahimara telling you when to meet her.  (Usually the next day in the lobby).  Be prompt as she does have a lot of weddings to handle in one week.  The best way to ensure you have exactly what you want is to be organized!! 

~ Bring a travel alarm clock!  There are no clocks in your room...

~ Bring pictures of how you want your wedding/reception decor set up.   This will eliminate any confusion.  Go over all of this with Yahimara and leave a copy with her to refer to.  If you want pics of the reception before your guests arrive, designate a guest to go down ahead and take some candid shots.

~ Bring two copies of the seating arrangement for dinner (if you have one) and go over it with Yahimara at the meeting as each restaurant offers different seating arrangements.  Let her know at this time if any of your guests have allergies, etc and require an alternate meal.

~ If bringing your own music, put all music for each event/venue on separate CD's.  IE.  Procession song and background music for wedding on one, dinner music on another, First dance and other dance music on another.  Bring a back up for each in case yours gets scratched/misplaced.

~ Go around the resort several times with your fiance before your wedding and pick out any special areas you want to have wedding photos taken.  This will eliminate trying to select venues the day of.

~ If you want your wedding/reception decor back, it is IMPORTANT that you let the staff at the reception know this.  Yahimara DOES NOT remove the decor, the staff does and this is where the products are getting lost.  I suggest if you want to bring them home for a future reception you designate someone from the wedding group to ensure everything gets repacked into a box/suitcase immediately after the reception and brought to your room.  We chose to leave our decor with Yahimara to be used for future weddings but I do understand that some of you would like to reuse it. 

~ Go over all of the charges with Yahimara at your wedding meeting and ASK QUESTIONS.  For instance, it is not Y's responsibility if you order the antique car (60cuc) and then the driver convinces you to go to another venue for more pics..thereby charging you another hour!  Always verify pricing BEFORE the event.  GO OVER ALL CHARGES.  Write them down and verify with her. 

~Be sure to make your hair appointments early in your holiday as there can be as many as three brides jockeying for hair appts in one day.  The hair dresser is very nice and will do whatever you like as far as wedding hair.  I actually had her do mine twice as I didn't like the first outcome and she was happy to oblige.  Bring pictures of your preferred style.  She did myself, my Mom and three daughters in under an hour!  If you happen to see any nice wedding style hair clips while shopping at the dollar stores, bring them down as she could use these as well as bobby pins.  She has no issue lending out hair decor, but certainly would need it back.   The wedding hair will be billed to your room and paid upon checkout so be sure to leave a tip with the hairdresser the day of your wedding. (Bridesmaids, etc can be billed to your room or theirs)

~We did hire the wedding photographer and I do highly recommend doing so.  It is nice to be able to look at your pics so quickly after the wedding (next day) and her quality of work was quite nice.  Keep in mind however that she does not go to the reception/dance.  We had lots of people with photographic talent taking pics so we weren't too worried.  We didn't hire the videographer and I personally regret not having done so! 

 

WEDDING DAY:

The day of the wedding Yahimara will advise the husband of a time to bring all of the guests to the lobby.  She will come and meet you all and bring you up to the Spa Terrace or down to the beach.  Once everyone is there she will then go and get the bridal party.  I suggest you ask your guests to be there 15 minutes early as this is where most delays start.

Yahimara showed up at my room and had a golf cart waiting to shuttle all of us to the Main building.  There were lots of tears/giggling as we headed up the elevator and took our places.  One of my favourite parts of the day was when my son, George (16)  met me at the elevator as he was giving me away.  He leaned in and asked if he could kiss me before he gave me away and I had to fight back tears.  He was so nervous..he had been practicing the wedding walk and was a bit confused when I was almost running to the 'alter'.  : )

We were married at the Spa Terrace and I was absolutely thrilled with the location.  Initially I was dead set on the beach setup, but the week we were there it was quite windy.  I visited the beach the morning of our wedding and could envision glasses of champagne and decor blowing away~ not to mention all of my guests being pelted with sand and wind...so I half reluctantly advised Y that I would change to the Spa Terrace (which she was trying to convince me to do all week!)  I am so glad I did, because all of my guests were both shaded from the hot sun and the wind and it certainly seemed a lot more private.  We had the Renewal of Vows ceremony as we had been privately married by a JP at home just before we left.  The Cuban vows are quite legal sounding, so we also performed our own vows.  Keep in mind that in Cuba you don't kiss until the VERY END...The notary will tell you when you can..we tried to a bit earlier!  : )  We then had Reese's brother stand and perform the Sand Ceremony.  We were both married before and I have 5 grown children and Reese has two.  We had a large heart shaped vessel into which we each poured our own colour of sand (Reese and I) from a shell.  We had picked up some minature heart-shaped bottles at Michael's with 7 different coloured sands and each of the kids then layered their sands on top of ours to symbolize the joining of the two families.  We now have a gorgeous center piece/conversation pc for our mantel! 

After the wedding we headed down to the beach and throughout the resort for pictures.  We then joined our guests in the lobby bar for drinks and more pics until we were summoned to the reception dinner.

Although we didn't have a 'private' reception, with 63 of us you couldn't even see if there were people at the other end of the restaurant!  We had a beautiful set up.  Our MC had the music all cued up and he did a wonderful job of keeping things rolling.  In lieu of tapping the glasses for a kiss, our guests were told that the entire table would have to stand up and sing a song with 'Love' in it if they wanted us to kiss.  Who knew the Oscar Meyer song had love in it??  We had five speeches and they were all heart-warming.  The wedding cake was an absolute hit with everyone.  I believe there is Fluff and Nutella in the cake, but I may be wrong.  Again if you bring down a cake topper, and want to keep it, I suggest you take it off the cake immediately after cutting it. 

Once everyone finished their cake, we decided to have our first dance as we knew that there were a lot of people (older guests) who weren't' going to make it to the disco.  So...we had our MC cue the music and we started to dance to "Endless Love"...about two minutes into the song the music changed to "Feel the Same Way Too" by the Rankins and the bride and groom did their own little choreographed dance and started to pull the guests up onto the floor....it really was amazing!!  Once the dancing stopped, we all slowly headed for the lobby bar where we ordered drinks and waited for the disco to open.  I actually think that the dancing at the restaurant was just as private/personal as it would have been at the disco...but that is obviously a personal thing. 

 

We had no issues at all with our wedding ~ it was everything we had hoped for and more.  I would say go down with an open mind and be flexible if need be.  Have a back up plan re venues in the event of bad weather.  We never imagine it raining or windy in Cuba...but it's always best to be prepared. 

 

Just a note, if you wish to arrange a special meeting/dinner for your wedding group upon arrival, the Sunwing rep will help you to do this.

 

I brought down a lot of stuff...looking back perhaps too much, but I am a bit of a detail freak.  I brought down aqua tulle (four rolls of it), aqua lanterns, battery-operated tea lights, small mirrors, aqua coloured pilar candles in different sizes, aqua coloured(mixed) decorative glass pebbles, large white glass starfish (from Beauclair), real white finger starfish, tons of shells, aqua coloured personalized matches.  Aqua coloured small buckets for the tables to hold candy/matches/cigars and candy cigars.  I brought down two large aqua coloured platters and filled them with sand.  Then I had all of the placecards put in the sand.  The guests grabbed their cards when they entered and found their table.  I made table markers out of shell photo holders.   On each plate I had a Cuban post card placed.  I had a small basket of pens on each table.  During the dinner the guests were asked to put their wishes/comments on the cards and put them in the basket at the entrance.  We had so much fun reading all of the comments the next day! 

I also offered my guests an OOT bag upon arrival.  I did up one bag for each room and each one contained:

A carved wood fan (to be brought to the wedding)

Aqua coloured wedding bubbles (to be brought to the wedding)

A Neutrogena sunscreen

Hand sanitizer

Two packages of tissue

Two packages of gum

Two packages of Reese's Pieces (my husband's name)

A lanyard to hold their room key

The Wedding Program (to be brought to the wedding)

A Thank you card (seeded flip flops to be planted at home)

A Welcome card (handmade)

Aqua coloured facecloth wrapped around two shell-shaped soaps (there are no facecloths in Cuba!)

(those with children had various pool toys)

 

These were just standard Kraft paper bags with handles that I stamped with a rubber stamp (shells on aqua paper) and stuffed with Aqua coloured tissue paper.

 

The bridemaids each received a canvas tote that I ordered on Vistaprint.ca with the same ingredients plus a thin, foldable padded chair cushion for the chaise loungers.  They also received a pendant that was a silver starfish and aqua coloured beach glass to be worn the day of the wedding.

 

It looks like a lot, but I did not spend a lot girls!  I shopped like crazy for a year, checking out bargains.  The dollar store is invaluable (facecloths, soap, hand sanitizer, Reeses Pieces, tissue, chair cushions).  We lucked out with sunscreen at the end of summer last year at Costco.  They had a package of three full-sized Neutrogena sunscreens for $4.99 so we bought twelve...giving us 36!!   Michaels is a great place...but check out their sales and their clearance area.  I received a box of fans (missing one only ) for $7.99!!  I then found another one on another trip for $5.00!!   Vistaprint is worth checking out as well.  You can get free product on here!! I got my wedding programs and several bridesmaids totes for free.  (postage only)

 

EXCURSIONS:

 

We organized a small trip into Varadero with our guests where we all hopped the double-decker bus (5CUC each) and off we went to spend the afternoon in Varadero.  We all ate ate a great Italian restaurant near the end of the strip with two lions out front and an Italian coloured awning.  The pizza/pasta was fabulous and four/five could eat with wine for under $20!!  Visited several flea markets and took several old convertibles back to the resort. 

 

Catamaran Tour:  I HIGHLY recommend this one!  We booked our tour through the Sunwing rep at the resort and ended up with 36 people from our group.  It truly was one of our favourite days!  The bus meets you bright and early at 8:30am in the lobby.  You are taken to the marina where you board the large catamaran.  Drinks on the boat are free.  You can lounge in the sun on the netting.  There are washrooms on board as well.  Half way to your destination the catamaran will stop and allow any interested guests to disembark to snorkle.  Bring some banana from the breakfast buffet as the fish love this!   Following your snorkel you will proceed to visit the dolphins.  This was incredible.  For a donation yu can swim with the dolphins!  You can also get your picture taken with the dolphin and they will sell them to you later that night in the lobby for 10CUC (large 8x10).  Following your dolphin adventure you are taken to Cayo Blanco....an absolutely idyllic island with white sand and gorgeous clear azure water.  you will spend several hours here and you will be served a lovely lunch with lobster, chicken, shrimp, drinks and dessert.  Once you've had your fill of sun and sand you will reembark on the catamaran and head for 'home'.  Be sure to pack lots of sunscreen and some head protection as it does get quite hot on these!!    Don't miss this one!!

 

The Havana tours and Tropicana are both wonderful excursions as well.  Although we didn't attend them as we had done them in the past, several of our guests did and they all had a wonderful time.

There are jeep adventure tours, as well as skydiving and lots more offered either at the reception from your tour operator or directly with the resort.  Some adventures are offered independantly on the beach.  We rented mopeds and toured Varadero one day and we highly recommend it.  It's a fun way to see some of the real town and go off of the beaten path. 

 

I had to visit the resort doctor so I do recommend being sure that you have medical insurance.   The prescription was quite costly and has to be paid upfront as does the doctors visit.  Bring Immodium and/or Pepto-Bismol as several guests had small tummy issues for a day or so at the beginning of the trip (Most likely as a result of all of the liquor they were consuming!).

 

Many of you bring down little gifts for the maids, which are always welcome...but may I suggest you seek out the lesser acknowledged staff such as the gardeners, Star Friends, wait staff and front desk crew who all do such a great job.  They all work very hard for such long hours and truly are very appreciative.  Also, take the time to enjoy Gloria playing piano in the lobby in the evening until 9:00pm.  She is a wonderful, interesting lady who loves to hear all about your own adventures.

 

In closing, we visited several properties while in Cuba ~ Iberostar Varadero, Iberostar Playa Alameda, Paradissus Varadero, Barcelo Marina Palace and I can honestly say that the two best were the Iberostar Varadero and the ILA.  The Paradissus was very high end and gorgeous...but adult only..and not the same friendly atmosphere as both of the Iberostar properties.

 

If you have any questions/concerns I would be happy to answer any questions.  You can get me at [email protected]  or [email protected]