Barcelo Maya Palace Brides

[svetayasofiya]

Quote:

Originally Posted by t&kJanuary2010 Laura4ever and Sabrina, I am actually fighting this battle currently. They are telling me that I can not make reservations at any a la cartes for over I think it is 30 or 35 people (I will have to review my emails and verify that for you). We have 62 people booked and that really make me angry that we are bringing that much revenue in and they can't bend the norm!! I only wanted to do this for the "Welcome Party/Rehersal Dinner" not even for the whole week. The WC suggested a cocktail hour and then set me the menu and prices, which were $14-20 per person for food and then another $10-13 per person per hour for the bar. Needless to say my FI hit the fan!! We chose the Palace verses the other properties so that our guests could enjoy the a la cartes on ALL DAYS of their stay. With the other properties you only get some many reservations for a la cartes depending on your length of stay (ie. 4 nights stay 1 a la carte). This has us furious right now, we are already paying at min. $8500 for the wedding not to mention upgrades and things. PLEASE let me know if you hear anything different from your coordinators!! I would love to get more info regarding this.

Hey guys! Not to be devil's advocate but... I just wanted to shed some light as to why they have a policy like this. They have to set a maximum # for reservations because the kitchen can not handle 50-65 people all at once wanting dinner. AI or not, it is very normal for a restaurant to say over such and such amount of people we have to sell you a set menu. That way they know exactly how much to prep. 50-60 people ordering off the menu... eating all at the same time... is just not possible. That's why à la carte restaurants take reservations... to time out the tables.

If you want to be a big group althogether for a couple dinners, I know it's not as fancy, but I have heard the WC will reserve a section for you all to be together in the buffet. I am planning on doing that for a Welcome Dinner. I'll book my Rehersal dinner in an à la carte but we'll only be 11 people... as I only want to have our parents and siblings.

Don't be frustrated. It's not a Mexico thing, it's a restaurant thing.

[laura4ever]

ACtually the RIU will do group reservations for large wedding parties and all the a la cartes have 2 seatings so it would not be that hard to seat large wedding parties.

Everyone shows up for the seating at one of those 2 times whether you are with the wedding party or not

We were told the same thing if over 30 people no group reservations.

Since we would only take up one seating at 1 of the many choices there I dont think it is a big deal and find it insane that they seem to frown on large wedding parties

Had i known this up front this would have made a decision in our wedding booking

We are already eating breakfast and lunch at the buffets we dont want to eat there every night

We are paying for the wedding night, rehersal night and all we ask is the other 2 nights guests are there Wed and Thurs for reservations...I think the forum might want to fight this one....

[harv0136]

I agree....we're bringing a lot of business to these hotels. Seems like they've been hurting for business lately so they might want to try to accomodate us a little better. we're already paying close to $400 a night to stay here!

[diamondpooch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by t&kJanuary2010 Laura4ever and Sabrina, I am actually fighting this battle currently. They are telling me that I can not make reservations at any a la cartes for over I think it is 30 or 35 people (I will have to review my emails and verify that for you). We have 62 people booked and that really make me angry that we are bringing that much revenue in and they can't bend the norm!! I only wanted to do this for the "Welcome Party/Rehersal Dinner" not even for the whole week. The WC suggested a cocktail hour and then set me the menu and prices, which were $14-20 per person for food and then another $10-13 per person per hour for the bar. Needless to say my FI hit the fan!! We chose the Palace verses the other properties so that our guests could enjoy the a la cartes on ALL DAYS of their stay. With the other properties you only get some many reservations for a la cartes depending on your length of stay (ie. 4 nights stay 1 a la carte). This has us furious right now, we are already paying at min. $8500 for the wedding not to mention upgrades and things. PLEASE let me know if you hear anything different from your coordinators!! I would love to get more info regarding this.

Yes, I was told by Claudia that you can't have more than 30 ppl at once in the a la cartes. So, we are having our welcome dinner at a buffett. Claudia told me we could get our tables near each other but that they wouldn't push any tables together. Has anyone had tables pushed together? I really would like to have at least groups of 8 instead of 4.

[FutureMrs.D]

Hi everyone! I was just wondering if any of you are considering hiring the Mariachi Band for your reception? I've read a lot of reviews from past brides who loved having the Mariachi band.. I guess I'm just trying to figure out if it's worth the 400$ for 45 minutes... any thoughts?

[Sandra&Mario]

Definitely hiring the mariachi band for our cocktail hour. It'll set the mood just right for margaritas and wedding fun to come! What's a wedding in Mexico without one honestly?

[diamondpooch]

No mariachi band here. I'm considering the fire dancers tho, but my reception isn't in the sand, so I'd have to be close enough to some sand that I can move my wedding party to the sand for the show. I think they are so hot and so worth the money!!! Barcelo says they have some they use consistently so we wouldn't have to hire an outside vendor.

[Jenny84]

Hi Everyone! Now that our travel agent has booked the first group of people, the planning starts. I am so excited for all the other barcelo palace brides! The resort is so beautiful and I know everyone will have such a fantastic time there. Congratulations to all.

[FutureMrs.D]

Quote:

Originally Posted by diamondpooch No mariachi band here. I'm considering the fire dancers tho, but my reception isn't in the sand, so I'd have to be close enough to some sand that I can move my wedding party to the sand for the show. I think they are so hot and so worth the money!!! Barcelo says they have some they use consistently so we wouldn't have to hire an outside vendor.

Hmmm.. fire dancers.. that could really interesting too! Do you know the cost to hire them?

[laura4ever]

I think we are hiring the band for the cocktail hour, but to keep the FI family happy I think we are going to move the cocktail hour to the first night...long story

So then have them for one hour that night

I think it is fun to have one special thing such as marachi or fire dancers when in mexico