AI vs. Non-AI ????

FutureMrs.L · January 23, 2008

I am torn between two places Dreams and Cabo Azul time shares. Dreams is AI and Cabo Azul is not. For those of you that got married at a Non-AI what types of things did you guys do i.e. entertainment, food, alcohol, etc. Did you plan fun activites in the evenings to keep your guests entertained? Did you find it to be much more expensive than an AI? Did you wish you did things differenly and went with an AI? Help!!!!

Maura · January 23, 2008

not sure that my answer will be a ton of help, but... in mexico they dont really do welcome or rehearsal dinners and entertainment for guests outside the actual wedding day (at least this is what all of my FI's relatives in mexico are telling me). we are getting married at the westin, which is not AI.

my girlfriends are all flying in on weds or thurs morning the week of my wedding, and one of my mexican girlfriends is organizing a bachelorette outing with everyone who can go. its a pay for yourself type outing.

we are also doing a meet-and-greet at one of the hotel bars the night before the wedding day with all our guests -- but that is a "we're going to be at x location at x'oclock, we hope youll stop by to say hi before the big day" -- i am planning to do a small dinner with my bridesmaids beforehand, which i'll gladly pay for.

its all pretty different to me to do things this way, but its much simpler i think and im glad i dont have to worry about paying for extra stuff. we are thinking about organizing a deep sea fishing excursion for the guys because my FI really badly wants to do it, but that will be a pay for yourself thing too.

my FI has a friend who had a DW in puerto escondido in november, and they didnt do any activities or anything to entertain people and everything went fine, nobody bitched about it. i think it's an american thing to think you have to bend over backwards if you ask people to come to your DW, because im finding that with all my mexican friends, they think doing that stuff is over the top and unnecessary.

we realize a non-AI will be a bit more expensive, but our mexican guests wont really eat at the hotel much anyway, so we aren't too worried.

Celina · January 23, 2008

Last November we did our scouting for hotels in Puerto Vallarta. Although both of the hotels we stood at had small kitchenette's, I was somewhat envious of those who were at the all inclusive hotels. We ended up purchasing groceries for breakfast and snacks, but still - you're on vacation. Do you really want to cook? Then, you have to take taxi's in to town or eat at the overpriced hotel restaurants. We stood at Paradise Village in Puerto Vallarta and paid $50 for two hot dogs and fries, two club sandwiches, a bottle of water and a diet coke. That was our first and last meal at the hotel. If people are traveling with kids, AI is the way to go. You can eat and drink whenever and whatever you want. If you plan on staying at the hotel a lot, go with AI. If you are going in to town, you can find some better deals at restaurants, but then take into consideration the cost of round trip taxi's - plus dinner. Also, if people are coffee drinkers, some of the hotels charge a fee to use the in room coffee maker. I think ours was $15 to use the in-room coffee maker.

I know for our wedding we are definitely doing AI. After forking over hundreds of dollars in taxi's and restraunts for a week, it would have been worth it to go AI.

Hope that helps!

TammyWright · January 24, 2008

dreams will def. be less expensive than a non-AI...it is $25 per person for the reception and that includes a 4 course meal and open bar...it is pretty much unbeatable in terms of price.

cheese_diva · January 24, 2008

I think all our guests really appreciated staying at an AI. It was great hanging out at the pool and yelling "this rounds on me" lol as you order 6 drinks.. seriously though it was nice not worrying about who's paying for what when you go to dinner..you eat when and where you want to and not worry about breaking the bank or having cash on hand.

As far as planning other events for our guests.. it was pretty easy to organize a welcome dinner to thank everyone for coming down.. at $24/pp I couldn't have beat that price anywhere.

I never felt obligated to take care of my guests but I wanted everyone to feel comfortable about traveling so far (many had never been out of the country).. having extra events just extended the party.. but some of our best times were just hanging out in the pool drinking and laughing.