Barcelo Maya Palace Brides

[LynnP]

I know it seems they like to nickel and dime ya, doesn't it? Its gets a little crazy, especially after the amount already spent on the package, hotel etc, much less all the people you bring along. BUT I have to say the resort is beautiful.

[Avens]

I think all hotels get you for that.  I was hosting a conference, and they said they had free Wifi, but recommended we use the hardline internet for a better connection.  Needless to say I wasn't impressed with a $120 PER DAY charge to run a cord from the wall to our laptop. 

 

 

Originally Posted by 780chick 

I have Lillian Vargas. She's been pretty good at correspondence but all the fees get to be a bit much. We figured out that for the price of dancefloor $1209 and slideshow equipment $440 from the hotel, we could hire an outside dj and rent the dancefloor and equipment from them  for roughly the same price and that includes 5 hours of dj services! Oh but wait...$95/hour to use the hotel electricity 

 

[Brenners]

Yes, all the extras add up so we are trying to keep it simple.  I read on a thread on Unofficial Barcelo that a bride chose not to go with a dance floor or dj and just brought her own iPod and their guests thought it was great.  The sand did not deter anyone from dancing and everyone had a ball.  I bought an iPod (now I use it whenever I want!) and set up an event on FB and invited our guests to the "event."  I have asked guests to submit song requests and they are pretty into it.  I have received quite a few requests and think our guests will love that they helped to choose the songs for the reception.  Just an idea.  We want to keep costs low.

[780chick]

We have 78 people going and my fiancé decided that a dance floor and slideshow was a must. So I looked into outsourcing a DJ. 4/5 companies I contacted will rent you a generator so it is $200 instead of $95/hour for electricity for our 5 hour reception. It ended up being $1649 for dancefloor and slideshow from the resort or $1800 for outside dj but includes a dj for 5 hours, dance floor, slideshow, generator , balloons, and cold fireworks. We are using discomovilcancun They are a smaller company but have great reviews
 

Originally Posted by Brenners 

Yes, all the extras add up so we are trying to keep it simple.  I read on a thread on Unofficial Barcelo that a bride chose not to go with a dance floor or dj and just brought her own iPod and their guests thought it was great.  The sand did not deter anyone from dancing and everyone had a ball.  I bought an iPod (now I use it whenever I want!) and set up an event on FB and invited our guests to the "event."  I have asked guests to submit song requests and they are pretty into it.  I have received quite a few requests and think our guests will love that they helped to choose the songs for the reception.  Just an idea.  We want to keep costs low.

 

 

[FireyNurse]

Thanks for the answers everyone, so we haven't quite booked at the resort yet as we are still quite far away (planning for Nov 2012) therefore I don't have a WC to ask questions of but I sent a general msg to ask the coordinators a few questions and I heard back from a Victoria Vazquez Robledo. Her answer to my question regarding the use of the gazebo for a symbolic ceremony was that all my guests need to stay at the palace or for anyone staying at another hotel I would have to pay $15 per person. I have sent her an email back to get clarification if its guests staying at one of the other Barcelo resorts (Tropical/Caribe/Colonial/Beach) or just people coming from another hotel that I have to pay for.

 

I forgot to ask her in my email, maybe someone here could help, for outside photographers is it $500 we have to pay per person, for example $1000 if he has an assistant, or just $500?

 

Thanks!!!

[JoanneIreland]

FireyNurse - it's a $500 fee with or without assistant. It would be worth checking online travel sites such as Expedia and Travelocity, and also signing up for deals direct from Barcelo.com for offers, as it pay end up cheaper than $500 to have the photographer stay at the hotel for 2 nights.

[jess102784]

FireyNurse,

 

If your guests are staying at any of the other Barcelo hotels (Beach/Caribe/Colonial/tropical) you do have to pay a fee to have them go to the Palace.  It's a way for the hotel to make money with guests staying at the lower hotels. At least thisis what we were told when we asked about our guests.

 

The $500 fee is for both photos. If you book a hotel room, you will have to pay for 2 people in the room. I originally booked a room for my videographer and was told that he would bring an assistant. I was going to have to pay for the second person in the room. The $300 fee worked out to be cheaper. The fee has gone up from $300 to $500. 

 

 

hope this helps!

[LynnP]

As far as a 'fee' goes for guests not staying in the Palace section of the hotel... your wedding package  (depending on which one) will include a certain # of people, and any above that number you need to pay extra for. For instance.. we have the strawberry passion pkg, that only includes 15 people. We have about 45 people including myself and the groom, so we will need to pay $69 / per extra person (over the top of the initial cost of the pkg which i think is approx $3200)..... $69 x 30 ppl =$2070 (this is for the wedding) ceremony set up reception etc. If your vacationing guests want to eat at any of the restaurants at the Palace during their stay they would need to pay for an upgrade the day they are going to do that. Does that make sense?

[JoanneIreland]

Just to add to the above, we had all our guests stay at the Palace except for 4 who stayed at the Tropical. We had our welcome dinner at an A La Carte at the Palace, and had to pay $15 per person for any guests not staying at the Palace. We were lucky it was just 4 people, so only $60. Because we paid the $15 each, these guests were able to hang out and drink with us after the meal at the Palace bar for the night as well.

 

One day these 4 guests joined us at the Palace pool bar, but they were asked to leave. To be fair to the Palace staff, they were very nice and discreet about it. They came up to my husband and explained that they couldn't be there. I totally understand, if I was there on vacation and paid more for the Palace and I saw guests from other sections being able to use the facilities I paid more for then I would be annoyed so I completely understand why they try and enforce this.  

[FireyNurse]

Thanks for all the replies!  We actually would prefer to stay at the Palace ourselves but wanted the option to keep prices lower if people want/need, I am just in love wih the gazebo and want the ceremony there. $15 per person as the WC quoted is not bad and I will definitely pay it to have the ceremony where I have always dreamed!

 

I know as far as extra fees per guest above the 15 included in the package and access to restaurants etc, it was just the ceremony part I wasn't sure about where we would be allowed to have it.

 

Jess102784 thanks for the tip on the photogrpaher fee, as our photogrpaher will have another person with him it may end up being more than the fee to kodak, we will consider all our options.

 

 

As far as the upgrade to stay at the Palace, what does everyone think of it...is it worth it??

 

I am SO thankful for everyone on these forums, you are making it a whole lot easier to do all this planning, I don't feel we're going in blind like I thought we might!

Thanks!