Latest Riu Ocho Rios Wedding Review

[JUSTUSTWO]

I hate to admit it but prior to finding BDW I was a member of another wedding forum, which I've since abandoned cuz I LUV BDW . Anyway, I got an email notification today of the latest post from that site & found this review. After reading it, I immediately thougt that I HAVE TO share it with you because there are sooo many of has having our wedding at ROR. However, I thought twice (more like 5 times) about posting it here because I don't like to get people unneccessarily worked up/stressed out/frazzled, but I figured it would at least be helpful to everyone if we know to take extra precautions. While this bride raves about the wedding, it's the other incident that plucked my nerves. She also refer's to her TA who was there to overlook her wedding.

So against my better judgement here is a review of a bride's wedding at the Riu on January 12th.

 

Re: Riu Ocho Rios and other Qs

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 7:54 PM

"I got back last week from our wedding at the RIU and let me just say - everything was beautiful - but, THANK GOD FOR TAMMY!!!!

 

We arrived on Wednesday and I met with Chandlyn that day to confirm everything - it was short meeting and she was very nice (she just has tooo many weddings going on to keep everything straight - I suggest having outside help - TAMMY!). We were able to get everything we wanted - steel drum band, sushi for the cocktail hour, an ice sculpture for the nightclub we rented out, the specific color changes we needed for our flowers, EVERYTHING!

 

Friday night we had a rehearsal and things went smoothly, Tammy did tell Chandlyn to drape the back of the gazebo with white sheers for the wedding (we were married in the pond gazebo) so the backdrop wouldn't be the purple of the building - it turned out beautiful and it was something I wouldn't have ever thought of (Thanks Tammy!!). After the rehearsal we had dinner at Mammee Bay ( I think this is an awesome place to have your rehearsal or your reception - very very pretty and overlooks the beach). The food was great, the drinks were strong (you must have the RUM CREAM!!), and everyone had a great time

 

Saturday morning we wake up to get ready for the wedding day and discover that money was taken from our room while we were at the rehearsal dinner. I go to get myself ready at the spa while my husband and Tammy deal with the hotel. They take the statement and tell us not to worry and to enjoy our day and it will be handled accordingly - so we don't worry and go about getting ready. (BTW: the money was locked in our safe)

 

The spa: I loved my hair and my girls' hair...the makeup - ehhh..it was nice but I had it done here before we left at MAC and there was no comparison. So if you can do your own makeup I would suggest it. The girls at the spa were fantastic though - just super sweet and did a great job on my nails and hair!

 

The ceremony was beautiful and the minister did a wonderful job. We got the chair covers and I was thankful we did - the chairs are just plastic brown chairs and looked so much nicer with the covers. After the ceremony we took pictures and had the cocktail hour. I would suggest paying for at least an additional hour of photos - the photographer takes beautiful pics but we were only in one location for the alloted time and Tammy told us to switch up the location to get some different shots - they turned out FABULOUS and I am sooo thankful she said something! We would have just had the standard shots with the standard time - we ended up with beach shots, pond shots, and other resort location photos - perfect! The sushi for the cocktail hour was a big hit - we had other little things to eat but the sushi was the first thing to go and definitely worth the money ($10/person).

 

Chandlyn did a nice job setting things up, but that is kinda as far as she goes. She didn't really tell us what to do at the rehearsal or really help with the flow of the actual day and transitioning from cocktails to dinner and so on - Tammy did!

 

We had our dinner reception at the Plantation since we wanted it to be private. I was a little concerned with how it would all look since it isn't the prettiest place during the day - but with the flowers and tables set it looked beautiful!!! The food was really good - we requested the same server from the night before and we was AWESOME - his name is Newton and he took great care of us. The cake we chose was chocolate with strawberry filling - what we got was chocolate but I didn't see any strawberries and Chandlyn was supposed to put orchids on my cake and she didn't...not a huge deal but somewhat annoying since she had told us she would to match our flowers. The cake was ok - not fabulous - but definitely better than I expected

 

After dinner we went to Pacha, the disco, for dancing. Little did we know, while were there Tammy had arranged for our flowers from the reception to be placed in our room! It was SO beautiful and reallllly brought a huge smile to my face when we walked in at the end of the night and saw orchids and roses and lillies EVERYWHERE We loved the centerpieces we chose and were soo happy to have them in our room for our stay - looked like something out of a movie!

 

So...the wedding itself went very very very well - everything ran smoothly and what didn't was worked out by Tammy without me ever really noticing that things didn't. After the wedding - things with the hotel got a little interesting. We went 3 days without getting to speak to anyone with any authority about our robbery. We kept getting told to come back at different times and it was just ridiculous. Sunday night we went to dinner at one of the restaurants and my sister's room was broken into and they drilled the lock on her safe. They stole electronics and the jewelry she had worn at my wedding. This was what set my husband over the edge - he was furious about their lack of response to our robbery and now having this second one occur. Tammy had flown home the day after the wedding so we ended up calling her after we couldn't get things resolved and she immediately started getting on the phone with managers and corporate and higher and higher up she went until she got the right people involved to help us with everything. It turned out the manager of the hotel was out of the country at the time and the people we had been dealing with were his assistants and were pretty useless. Tammy ended up taking care of the situation - we got our money back and the value of my sister's items and Tammy also worked out some other wonderful compensation for our trouble She truly is amazing and without her I think our honeymoon wouldn't have been as wonderful as it was....we didn't worry because we knew we were in good hands...she was taking care of everything for us so we could enjoy our time in Jamaica - I will FOREVER be grateful to her for that...she really managed to turn the situation around.

 

Now the questions everyone asked me when I told them the story about being robbed - would you go back there? would you do the wedding there if you had to do it over again? DEFINITELY! You can't beat the location, what you get for your money, and just the atmosphere and ambiance. It really was unfortunate that we were robbed, but the reality is that it could happen anywhere and it does. Would I lock my things in a hotel safe again? Probably not. I would find alternate places to put important things since it was an inside job and an employee had to have done it. We think it was someone involved in reservations since this happened while we were at dinner both times. The poor customer service we got from the manager's assistants was pretty bad, but after getting the whole story when he returned to Jamaica the general manager will be dealing with it accordingly and has assured us this isn't the norm. We know it isn't - we went and stayed there last April and had a FABULOUS time, and everything was perfect. We just happened to be those unlucky people those nights - that's all. My suggestion would be to just watch were you store your money and high price things while you are out of your room - which is true anywhere you go.

 

Overall, I am extremely glad we chose to do the wedding this way. I am even happier we booked everything through ----- and had Tammy by our side through this whole thing. What she says is true - she is out to make sure we have the wedding of our dreams - she realllllllly does care about her brides and she will make sure you are taken care of. She was able to get some upgraded rooms for the wedding party and just all sorts of wonderful extras for us - and she took care of us - which was the most important thing. I can't sing her praises enough - I can't even imagine what we would have done without her, from the planning process and dealing with Chandlyn to the actual wedding itself, and then she went above and beyond for us and dealt with the mess with the hotel to make sure we were able to enjoy our honeymoon."

 

If you'd like the link to this post, I'll gladly share it.

So again, this isn't to alarm anyone, just to inform.

[starchild]

I think that is a helpful review and the person who wrote it was very honest and had the right attitude about things. Sadly, that stuff happens all over the place, but I wouldn't let it ruin my wedding and I'm glad she didn't. Thanls for sharing, it's a good reminder that the hotel safes are not safe!

[Bride010101]

Thanks for posting! I agree... it defintely gives a reality check to be smart while travling. And it is great to get more positive reviews on wedding stuff, the spa and flowers! Any chance she had any pictures posted?

[Ilandking]

Wow, that sounds great. I hope our wedding goes as well as hers.....fyi when we go away we never use hotel safes, what we do is find a compartment and hide it in our suitcase and lock it up...just a suggestion and it always works us.

[bobbi-francis]

Definitely helpful...thanks for the post...now we can all be a little more careful with storing our belongings.

[bobbi-francis]

Definitely helpful...thanks for the post...now we can all be a little more careful with storing our belongings.

[JUSTUSTWO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by naga0066 Thanks for posting! I agree... it defintely gives a reality check to be smart while travling. And it is great to get more positive reviews on wedding stuff, the spa and flowers! Any chance she had any pictures posted?

She didn't have any pics posted but I sent her a PM asking to either post them on the site or to email them to me. I'm hoping she responds. Ofcourse if she sends them, I'll post them here.

I'm glad that you all found this helpful. As I said I thought twice about it but figured we should hear all the bad with the good.
I usually use the hotel safe & have never had any problems. But considering this, I am leaning towards not using it & "hiding" our impt stuff within our luggage & locking it up. I mean, in retrospect, no matter what you do, there's always a chance that someone will go thru your things.

[JUSTUSTWO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by naga0066 Thanks for posting! I agree... it defintely gives a reality check to be smart while travling. And it is great to get more positive reviews on wedding stuff, the spa and flowers! Any chance she had any pictures posted?

She didn't have any pics posted but I sent her a PM asking to either post them on the site or to email them to me. I'm hoping she responds. Ofcourse if she sends them, I'll post them here.

I'm glad that you all found this helpful. As I said I thought twice about it but figured we should hear all the bad with the good.
I usually use the hotel safe & have never had any problems. But considering this, I am leaning towards not using it & "hiding" our impt stuff within our luggage & locking it up. I mean, in retrospect, no matter what you do, there's always a chance that someone will go thru your things so unfortunately it is what it is.

[JUSTUSTWO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by naga0066 Thanks for posting! I agree... it defintely gives a reality check to be smart while travling. And it is great to get more positive reviews on wedding stuff, the spa and flowers! Any chance she had any pictures posted?

She didn't have any pics posted but I sent her a PM asking to either post them on the site or to email them to me. I'm hoping she responds. Ofcourse if she sends them, I'll post them here.

I'm glad that you all found this helpful. As I said I thought twice about it but figured we should hear all the bad with the good.
I usually use the hotel safe & have never had any problems. But considering this, I am leaning towards not using it & "hiding" our impt stuff within our luggage & locking it up. I mean, in retrospect, no matter what you do, there's always a chance that someone will go thru your things.

[JUSTUSTWO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by naga0066 Thanks for posting! I agree... it defintely gives a reality check to be smart while travling. And it is great to get more positive reviews on wedding stuff, the spa and flowers! Any chance she had any pictures posted?

She didn't have any pics posted but I sent her a PM asking to either post them on the site or to email them to me. I'm hoping she responds. Ofcourse if she sends them, I'll post them here.

I'm glad that you all found this helpful. As I said I thought twice about it but figured we should hear all the bad with the good.
I usually use the hotel safe & have never had any problems. But considering this, I am leaning towards not using it & "hiding" our impt stuff within our luggage & locking it up. I mean, in retrospect, no matter what you do, there's always a chance that someone will go thru your things so it is what it is.