ROYAL PLAYA DEL CARMEN BRIDES: were kids allowed for the day? ...and other questions

[rosieposie]

thanks, yes i'll try to relax.

have to tie up loose ends for AHR this weekend and just let things go from there  =)

 

 

Originally Posted by prettypigpig 

Rosieposie,

Relax!! Just go with the flow...

I haven't plan anything for my AHR yet...heehee...

 

[RGWedding]

Hi Ladies,

 

I need some package advice.

 

I want a 4 hour private reception with a ceremony in the Gazebo. I'll probably have 30 guests. I don't know which package to go with. I've only seen the details of the packages on the website. Is there a pdf file or something like that with details of the packages and prices. My coordinator on "base camp" doesn't seem to understand my questions.

 

Thank you for your help! I feel kinda lost right now.

 

[SBBride]

I just sent you a message with a comparison sheet - hope it helps!

[Aricak64]

Hello Future Brides,

I got married at the Royal on April 11, 2011.  As tradition here is my review of the resort and the wedding…..

WEDDING: A++++

We (well I should really say I, my now husband wasn’t much help lol) started planning the wedding back in October of 2010.  I picked this resort because of the gazebo.  I goggled wedding gazebos in Playa Del Carmen and immediately fell in love with the Royal’s gazebo.  I also found this forum in December of 2010 and everyone has been so helpful! Besides photographs we had not seen the resort prior to arriving for our wedding.  I must say I expected the resort to be great, but once we arrived the resort was way beyond great.  I don’t think words truly describe the beauty of the resort. We had the most amazing and beautiful wedding that we won’t ever forget. Our guests absolutely loved it!  In fact many of our guests are planning on returning to the Royal next year.

AIRLINE: B

As I previously stated we flew with Continental Airlines.  I carried on my dress and since I did not purchase a first class ticket, I had to put my dress in the over head bin.  Our flight was not straight through so I was stuck carrying my dress around between flights.  By time my dress arrived at the resort, I was soooo over dealing with it.  I was afraid to unzip the dresses bag and see how wrinkled it was.  I would recommend taking a straight through flight and if you are worried about wrinkling your dress, purchase first class tickets.  The bell boy at the resort was absolutely awesome.  When we arrived he took one look at my face and came running over and took my wedding dress from me.  Then they handed me a drink, and life was good.  J

ARRIVAL IN CANCUN AND SHUTTLE SERVICE TO RESORT: A

When we arrived the customs line was not long at all.  We had a total of five people on the same flight and we booked Lomas airport shuttle service.  When we walked out of the airport, a Lomas employee was their holding a sign with my name on it.  We ended up having a private shuttle to our resort.  My husband learned the hard way; do not purchase beer at the airport.  6 bottles of Corona was 30 dollars.   We soon learned our shuttle had bottles of Corona for the ride which cost 2.50 each.

 

RESORT: A++++++++

Again the resort was amazing!  The staff is so wonderful and friendly.  When we arrived our room was not ready yet, so the bell boy took our bags and the resort gave us our bracelets so we could go eat and drink.  Our room was the ocean view Jr suite and we loved it.  One of our guests had the swim up suite and I must say it was amazing.  When we return next year we may get a swim up suite, but it depends on the price. Our room had big comfortable bed that was decorated with rose petals every day!  We got a fruit basket, a bottle of red wine and a letter from the romance concierge.  Our bath tub was right in front of a large window overlooking the pool area.  The shower in the room was the most amazing shower I have ever seen.

We ordered room service a couple of times and the service was great.  The food was good and arrived fairly quickly.

The food at the resort was really good.  We ate at the following places:

24 HR. ALL INCLUSIVE VIP LOUNGE:  If your drunk then the food is great, but otherwise it is just average bar food.

PELICANOS: We did not want to pay for a welcome dinner so all 16 of us went to this restaurant without a reservation.  They were able to seat all of us together and the food was really good.  I recommend having dinner at this restaurant.

NEW! EL MEDITERRÃNEO: We went here for breakfast and lunch. Both meals were very good and a few friends said this restaurant was their favorite for dinner.  I highly recommend this restaurant.

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

CLEANERS:

Ok the cleaners.  This was a major issue for us.  We arrived on Saturday and our wedding was on Monday.  My previous wedding planner Jael scheduled the cleaning for 11 am on Sunday.  The cleaners are not OPEN on Sunday.  So when I arrived I found out they were hoping I arrived before noon so they could get my dress.  I guess the cleaners close at 12 on Saturday and all day on Sunday.  My new wedding planner, Lili, advised me we would now have to have the dress expressed cleaned on Monday.  This cost me an extra 30 dollars on top of the 60 dollars I had already paid to have both the suit and wedding dress cleaned.  So after getting over the extra cost, I dropped off both items to Lili to have them cleaned on Monday.

My wedding was at 4 pm, my dress and the suit arrived at our rooms at 3:40 pm.  Yep 20 minutes before the ceremony.  The worst part of it was that I had to have my mom sit in my room waiting for the dress all day since I had a hair and makeup appointment.  At first I was stressed about the whole situation especially since my dress laced up and took a long time to put on.  Then I thought about things and figured the wedding wasn’t going to start without me, so if I am late so what J

When the suit and dress finally arrived, they both looked amazing!

 

 

POOLS: A

The pools were awesome! I thought the temperatures of the pools were perfect since the weather was around 90 degrees.  The pool staff was great about keeping the drinks coming and taking care of you.

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.  Swimming in the ocean was one of our highlights of the trip.

Wedding Coordinator: A

 

I had Jael as a US coordinator. She was great to work with over the base camp 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 Lili and she was also very sweet. She has this calm sense to her that just relaxes you. In the US we are pretty high stress and we expect things to get done right away. In Mexico everything is “no problemâ€, and they were right, everything turned out perfect.

 

The day before the wedding we meet with Lili in her office for an hour (if that) to go over any last questions and clarifications. At this time I gave her our chair sashes, candles and other decorations.  Lili about died when I told her we wanted to light a unity candle.  She advised us it would be too windy and she was afraid we would never get the unity candle lit.  We decided to light the candle at our reception which was in door.  It all worked out perfectly.  I took copies of everything, which turned out to be very important since LiLi did not have my revised wedding script.

 

 The day/night of the wedding everything was in place and all of the items were placed in my room the following day.

 

PHOTOGRAPHER: A

 

My father In-law is a really great photographer so we decided we would use him and the resort photographer.  I just received the resort photographer’s photographs and I must say they are amazing.  I have compared them to other photographs from outside vendors that previous brides hired and they are just as good.  My brother videotaped the ceremony and it came out great. 

 

Royal Florist: A

The flowers were beautiful and exceeded my expectations!

 

Hair and Makeup Spa Azul: A+++++

 

I got my hair and makeup done at the Spa Azul and they did a great job! I gave myself 4 hours to do this and I was in there for about 3 hours. I brought a picture of what I wanted to do with my hair and I loved it. I had over 50 bobby pins in my hair and probably a whole can of hairspray so not a single hair was out of place the whole night. I also brought a picture of what I wanted for my makeup and she did an amazing job of matching it.  I could not have been any happier with my hair and makeup, Alicia did an amazing job.  I also had a pedicure and manicure done by Alicia.

 

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.  Everything was set up exactly how I wanted it to. We had a CD with one song for walking down the aisle and another song for after the ceremony. The music was spot on. The ceremony was beautiful and very intimate. This section of the resort is the most private- I’m glad we choose this spot. I took the ceremony and added our own poems and vows.  The minster did an amazing job following the revised script.  After the ceremony we did a toast and took all of our photos with our guests and then by ourselves.  We did the 1 hour cocktail party, so while we took our photos our guest were served appetizers and drinks.

 

We had another CD with music for the cocktail party and we did not have any issues with the music.  Lili took care of it.

 

Reception dinner: A

 

We choose to have our reception at the Asian Restaurant.  The reception was for 16 people, counting us.  We had a semi-private balcony room all to ourselves.  The food was amazing and the staff was extremely professional.  Due to the heat we were glad to be in doors and in the air conditioning.  Our guests are still raving about the food, saying it was the best meal they have ever had.  We had the Avocado stuffed with crab pulp au fresh dill vinaigrette, Beef fillet tournedo with fresh wild mushrooms sauce, and the Cannoli trio stuffed with praline & raspberry coulis.  Our cake was absolutely wonderful; we had the rose flowered Kahula cake.

 

When we went to leave the restaurant, I walked down the stairs into the main area and received a standing ovation from all of the guests in the restaurant.  The staff at the resort made me feel like a princess.

 

Playa del Carmen: A+

 

After the reception we went to the Fusion Hotel for the fire show.  As we walked through town the entire town started yelling and clapping at us, telling us congratulations.  We decided to stay in our wedding clothes and it was a great experience.  Once we arrived at the Fusion Hotel two teenage girls ran up to me and asked if they could have their picture taken with me since I looked like a princess.  I must say they made my night even more perfect.  The Fusion Hotel lost our reservation, but was able to get us a table and bought us a round of drinks.  Drinks were cheap and the fire show was good.  I would not call the show excellent since it was short.

 

On Saturday when we arrived all of us younger “kids†decided to do the party hopper.  We had the time of our lives on the party hopper excursion.  They pick you up at the hotel and you visit three bars, Senior Frogs, Congo Bongo, and Charlie’s.

 

Photos coming soon!

 

Arica

[JHarris]

Hello Ladies!!

 

It feels like forever since I've had a chance to log-in!! Work just gets in the way of fun!!

 

JoZee - so glad to hear your dress finally arrived!! You must have amazing patience! I would have had a melt-down by now.

 

RosiePosie- so sorry to hear that you got stuck with the AHR bill. Just breathe and know what you want will be here soon!!

 

Speedy - i can't believe it's already your time! WOW!!! Have an amazing time -can't wait to hear all about it.

 

Aricak64 - congrats on your wedding! Thank you for such a detailed review. Everytime I read a great review - it keeps me sane and happy with having my wedding at The Royal.

 

Welcome New Brides!! The is an amazing forum!! Definitely helped me with awesome ideas.

 

We have some amazingly gifted DIYers and creative brides on here. Love the Classy Sombrero themed Engagement pics and those fun OOT bags! 

[prettypigpig]

RG,

unless u want everything in the package, I would have to say, it is cheaper to do a la carte.  I built an excel spreadsheet model (sorry, I am a financial analyst) to go thru it.  Unless, you like and want everything in a package, it is usually $1000+ cheaper to go with a la carte.

[SweetLe]

Arica,

         Congrats and thank you for the review! It was really good timing for me to read a great review today... felt like I was on the verge of a meltdown with all the little issues with planning lately. Now, I am back on track ready to work on my welcome booklets.

[kellygrrrl]

hey bonnie - will you send this to me? I'm a financial analyst as well, but I hadn't itemized to that point because I figured if we were thinking private reception for ~20, it was better to go with a package. ; )

 

thanks!
 

Originally Posted by prettypigpig 

RG,

unless u want everything in the package, I would have to say, it is cheaper to do a la carte.  I built an excel spreadsheet model (sorry, I am a financial analyst) to go thru it.  Unless, you like and want everything in a package, it is usually $1000+ cheaper to go with a la carte.

 

[orange_peel]

Arica - Thanks for the very helpful review! I'm glad (most) everything turned out great, and all the glitches ended up being fixed. I have a question for you about how you personalized the script for your ceremony - did you get a script beforehand that you adjusted (with your vows/readings) or did you come up with your own? Any more details along those lines would be great! Thank you in advance!

Also - we were planning to do a Unity Candle as well (outside at the Gazebo) - and now we are rethinking even bringing it! Our reception is outside at the Central Gardens. The candle was my Mom's idea anyway... 

[JoZee84]

Hi Ladies, just wondering is anyone else doing a legal ceremony?