Gran Bahia Principe Akumal/Tulum/Coba - POST HERE!

[HereFishie]

Thank you! Yes we're super excited! With the recent terrorist stuff in the news though we're going to have to be at the airport 4 hours early instead of 3... oy!

 

Happy New Year everyone! 2010 will be fantastic!

[TATrisha]

They have corona in a bar at the hacienda, but you have to pay for it, I believe.

[HereFishie]

If you're Royal Golden/Premier Club, do you still have to pay for it ??

[swankster77]

I just read something disturbing... is it true that beverages (alcohol) are only unlimited until 11:30 pm? I don't know how this can be possible at an all-inclusive resort. Please someone tell me it's not so!!!

[~Keira~]

I just got an e-mail letting me know they have sent out my translated marriage certificate. Just wondering if anyone knows approximately how long it might take to get here to Canada? I didn't get a tracking number or anything so I just want to keep my eye out. I would hate for this to go missing like some of my Christmas prezzies did.

[SusieQ]

I remember drinking very late at night or early morning "lol"at the beach bar and there was beer and rum on tap at one of th pool areas... I hope I remember correctly!!! I stayed at the tulum side 4 years ago

[Raykel]

HereFishie - I heard from my cousin who has been there twice and she says when she was there they did serve Corona at the bars in the resort....so unless something has changed your huney should be good to go! Let me know if that has changed.....I will gently pre-warn my one family member since that is all he drinks!

[TATrisha]

It'd be awesome if they had Corona at the bars now. During my wedding, it was only at the hacienda and you had to pay for it, regardless of where you were staying (we were Gold Club). However, they definitely had all-inclusive drinks through the night at the hacienda. A lot of the bars actually IN the resort would start shutting down, but there was live music and stuff at the hacienda anyways so we always went there.

[theiseli]

Here is my review of our wedding at Gran Bahia Tulum. I will rate each aspect of the wedding out of 10 (10 being the highest).

 

Travel Agent: 10/10.

I would like to recommend our travel agent, Rudy Mees thru Vacations International (760) 512-0825. He did a wonderful job answering my millions of questions. He also would talk with Jazmin (wedding coordinator) for me when it took a while for Jazmin to respond to my emails. Rudy also got us an excellent discount for having a group of 30 go with us. He always responded to my emails within 1 day, except when he was in Mexico, and he did let me know about this in advance.

 

Wedding Coordinator: 8/10.

We weren’t too sure about her at first, because it did take her a while (5-7 days at times) to respond to some of our questions via email. However, our travel agent told us to expect that. And our travel agent would call her to get the answers to our questions if I got really antsy. Jazmin’s emails were hard to understand because her written English skills weren’t the best. However, she spoke wonderful English (very easy to understand). We did get to meet Jazmin on the day we arrived to the resort. However, we didn’t meet to confirm details until 2 days prior to the wedding. We ended up meeting for 2 hours. She went over every detail. And she had everything exactly right from all the emails that we sent back and forth. She went over all the costs in details. The package price was actually cheaper than we were quoted. Jazmin attended the wedding. She translated the actual ceremony, since it was in Spanish. Jazmin coordinated everything wonderfully. She was with us for most of the day.

 

Wedding Ceremony: 10/10.

We got married under the gazebo located next to the Tequilla. It started right on time. Jazmin made sure that our preludes ended right at 2pm, when the wedding was supposed to start. It really was beautiful. It was 90 degrees and super humid on the day we got married. Jazmin made sure that there was some water for us located under the gazebo. The whole ceremony lasted about 20 minutes. Like I said earlier, the judge said everything in Spanish, and then Jazmin translated. We did a sand ceremony and that was wonderful as well. It was super windy and we were worried that our containers for the sand would blow over and break, but they had set up so that it would blow over. Jazmin took the music cd and sand vases with her after the ceremony, and we just picked them up the next day. Jazmin also played all of our music at the right times. The ceremony was wonderful. We did have a couple of gawkers in swim suits, but that was to be expected.

 

Photographer #1: 3/10.

With our wedding package we had 10 pictures included. We had Jose Martinez as the photographer. He was only there during the ceremony since we were just getting 10 pictures. We were not impressed with him. We met him the day after the wedding to pick out our pictures, but the computer was not working so we had to reschedule for the next day at 3pm. When we got there the next day, he did not show up. He had a letter in our room that evening, stating that he was rescheduling for the next day, but we were leaving for home. So we never got to meet him to pick out pictures. He did end up emailing us 10 of his chosen pictures about 2 weeks after the wedding. I can honestly say that his pictures were no better than what my guests took.

 

Photographer #2: 10/10 so far (we haven’t seen pictures yet).

We hired Erick from Claudia Rodriguez Wedding Photography. They did a special photo package for us for 2 hours of coverage for $1,000. They will send us our photos on a CD using fedex shipping within 4-6 weeks after our Wedding Day. We will get approximately 100 pictures with special effects and editing. Erick was very professional and friendly. He spoke perfect English. He actually ended up spending an extra ½ hour with us. We didn’t ask for this, but he said he wanted to try a few more poses. We have not seen his pictures yet. However, my brother stood behind the photographer and took a few pictures and those turned out great, so we expect the professional photos to be even better.

 

Dinner 8/10.

We ate at the La Gran Tortuga. We had reservations from 6-8pm. We were ready to go by 7:30pm. The food was amazing. They served the meats on swords and they just kept coming with more food…we were so stuffed. My only complaint about the dinner was that there was no one to greet us or explain how things worked there. We just had someone point us to our reserved tables. Most guests filled up on the salad bar, because they were not aware that more food was coming. The other thing I wish I would have known is that we could have brought our own music to play during the dinner. Also, when they ask if you want Mexican coffee…say yes. It’s really cool how they make it!

 

Dance/Reception 5/10.

We had a pool side dance from 8:30-10:30pm. We paid $8/person to have the dance be private…for that price, we got beer, wine, and margaritas. Jazmin was there and welcomed us and had the bride/groom come out for the first dance. We had our first dance on a CD, but that was the only music we brought. The DJ we had was thru the resort (it cost us $140/hr). We attempted to hire DJ Bob, but the resort is now trying not to use outside vendors. The DJ spoke very little English. So he did not announce anything the whole nite. He just played mostly hip hop music. He played a couple of slow songs at the end. We tried to request music, but he never played any of the requested songs. Prior to our trip, we had thought about just bringing our own music and playing it on a CD player that the resort could have provided. I am glad that we didn’t do that. We saw another wedding party that did that and no one danced and it was much quieter and there were no lights, like we had with our DJ. We did have 2 people who crashed our dance. They didn’t speak English or Spanish. We tried to explain to them that it was a private party. As soon as Jazmin saw us talking to them, she came and asked us if they were in our group. When we said no, she took care of it and escorted them away. I assume that DJ Bob would have been much better, but that wasn’t an option for us. So my advice is to use the resort’s DJ for their equipment, but bring your own music on CD’s and ask one of your guests to announce any special dances. On a side note, since the dance was so close to the pool, my groom pushed me into the pool at the end of our dance. It was very funny…by the time I got my head above water, we had 15 people who joined me in the pool fully clothed. Even though I only rated the dance/reception as a 5/10, we had a blast. We made the best of it and danced even to the songs that we didn’t know.

[theiseli]

Here is my review of our wedding at Gran Bahia Tulum. I will rate each aspect of the wedding out of 10 (10 being the highest).

 

Travel Agent: 10/10.

I would like to recommend our travel agent, Rudy Mees thru Vacations International (760) 512-0825. He did a wonderful job answering my millions of questions. He also would talk with Jazmin (wedding coordinator) for me when it took a while for Jazmin to respond to my emails. Rudy also got us an excellent discount for having a group of 30 go with us. He always responded to my emails within 1 day, except when he was in Mexico, and he did let me know about this in advance.

 

Wedding Coordinator: 8/10.

We weren’t too sure about her at first, because it did take her a while (5-7 days at times) to respond to some of our questions via email. However, our travel agent told us to expect that. And our travel agent would call her to get the answers to our questions if I got really antsy. Jazmin’s emails were hard to understand because her written English skills weren’t the best. However, she spoke wonderful English (very easy to understand). We did get to meet Jazmin on the day we arrived to the resort. However, we didn’t meet to confirm details until 2 days prior to the wedding. We ended up meeting for 2 hours. She went over every detail. And she had everything exactly right from all the emails that we sent back and forth. She went over all the costs in details. The package price was actually cheaper than we were quoted. Jazmin attended the wedding. She translated the actual ceremony, since it was in Spanish. Jazmin coordinated everything wonderfully. She was with us for most of the day.

 

Wedding Ceremony: 10/10.

We got married under the gazebo located next to the Tequilla. It started right on time. Jazmin made sure that our preludes ended right at 2pm, when the wedding was supposed to start. It really was beautiful. It was 90 degrees and super humid on the day we got married. Jazmin made sure that there was some water for us located under the gazebo. The whole ceremony lasted about 20 minutes. Like I said earlier, the judge said everything in Spanish, and then Jazmin translated. We did a sand ceremony and that was wonderful as well. It was super windy and we were worried that our containers for the sand would blow over and break, but they had set up so that it would blow over. Jazmin took the music cd and sand vases with her after the ceremony, and we just picked them up the next day. Jazmin also played all of our music at the right times. The ceremony was wonderful. We did have a couple of gawkers in swim suits, but that was to be expected.

 

Photographer #1: 3/10.

With our wedding package we had 10 pictures included. We had Jose Martinez as the photographer. He was only there during the ceremony since we were just getting 10 pictures. We were not impressed with him. We met him the day after the wedding to pick out our pictures, but the computer was not working so we had to reschedule for the next day at 3pm. When we got there the next day, he did not show up. He had a letter in our room that evening, stating that he was rescheduling for the next day, but we were leaving for home. So we never got to meet him to pick out pictures. He did end up emailing us 10 of his chosen pictures about 2 weeks after the wedding. I can honestly say that his pictures were no better than what my guests took.

 

Photographer #2: 10/10 so far (we haven’t seen pictures yet).

We hired Erick from Claudia Rodriguez Wedding Photography. They did a special photo package for us for 2 hours of coverage for $1,000. They will send us our photos on a CD using fedex shipping within 4-6 weeks after our Wedding Day. We will get approximately 100 pictures with special effects and editing. Erick was very professional and friendly. He spoke perfect English. He actually ended up spending an extra ½ hour with us. We didn’t ask for this, but he said he wanted to try a few more poses. We have not seen his pictures yet. However, my brother stood behind the photographer and took a few pictures and those turned out great, so we expect the professional photos to be even better.

 

Dinner 8/10.

We ate at the La Gran Tortuga. We had reservations from 6-8pm. We were ready to go by 7:30pm. The food was amazing. They served the meats on swords and they just kept coming with more food…we were so stuffed. My only complaint about the dinner was that there was no one to greet us or explain how things worked there. We just had someone point us to our reserved tables. Most guests filled up on the salad bar, because they were not aware that more food was coming. The other thing I wish I would have known is that we could have brought our own music to play during the dinner. Also, when they ask if you want Mexican coffee…say yes. It’s really cool how they make it!

 

Dance/Reception 5/10.

We had a pool side dance from 8:30-10:30pm. We paid $8/person to have the dance be private…for that price, we got beer, wine, and margaritas. Jazmin was there and welcomed us and had the bride/groom come out for the first dance. We had our first dance on a CD, but that was the only music we brought. The DJ we had was thru the resort (it cost us $140/hr). We attempted to hire DJ Bob, but the resort is now trying not to use outside vendors. The DJ spoke very little English. So he did not announce anything the whole nite. He just played mostly hip hop music. He played a couple of slow songs at the end. We tried to request music, but he never played any of the requested songs. Prior to our trip, we had thought about just bringing our own music and playing it on a CD player that the resort could have provided. I am glad that we didn’t do that. We saw another wedding party that did that and no one danced and it was much quieter and there were no lights, like we had with our DJ. We did have 2 people who crashed our dance. They didn’t speak English or Spanish. We tried to explain to them that it was a private party. As soon as Jazmin saw us talking to them, she came and asked us if they were in our group. When we said no, she took care of it and escorted them away. I assume that DJ Bob would have been much better, but that wasn’t an option for us. So my advice is to use the resort’s DJ for their equipment, but bring your own music on CD’s and ask one of your guests to announce any special dances. On a side note, since the dance was so close to the pool, my groom pushed me into the pool at the end of our dance. It was very funny…by the time I got my head above water, we had 15 people who joined me in the pool fully clothed. Even though I only rated the dance/reception as a 5/10, we had a blast. We made the best of it and danced even to the songs that we didn’t know.