Barcelo Maya

[MagsieMexico]

Thanks dear, great advice! I am starting to get stressed out. Bu tmostly because I am so swamped with work and travelling a bunch with work throughout January, so I feel like I don't have time to do everything right!

 

Thank you so much!

[MagsieMexico]

And you reckon welcome brunch at the Caribe is better than Tropical? Good to konw.

[stltk]

Hi there Melissa.

I noticed you had your wedding at Barcelo. I am really considering this, the new Palace looks beautiful. The reviews are mixed since it just opened in dec 07, but guess that's to be expected. Anyway, how was your experience there? How was their wedding packages/facilities in your opinion? I wasn't able to get much info about what they offer, so thought I would check with someone who actually was married there already. Thanks so much and sorry about all the questions...

 

teri

[MelissaH]

Here's the edited (but still long) version of my experience;

 

Quote:

Okay folks...get your coffee...popcorn ...whatever makes you happy...this is a long one   Our flight landed at the Cancun airport at around 7pm, our luggage was first off (bonus!!) and we were on the bus heading to the resort by about 8pm. We arrived at the resort around 9:30pm and by the time we checked in (they upgraded us to a junior suite!! woo!!) and got to our room all the buffet restaurants were closed so we decided to order room service because we were starving (despite having a huge meal on the plane!) and holy cow it was one of the best meals we've ever had (beef tenderloin) - it actually made me glad we missed the buffet haha. After dinner we unpacked our bags, watched a little TV and crashed - we were exhausted after a day of travel!   The next morning we had an appointment with the doctor (they have an onsite medical office) to get our blood tests done.... I don't even want to get started on this, but I'm going to tell you all about it anyway just for a laugh - ASK FOR THE DOCTOR TO TAKE YOUR BLOOD, DO NOT LET THE NURSES NEAR YOU WITH ANYTHING SHARP AND POINTY!&*#@)%*#% Just joking...I'm sure they're fine normaly (no one else has seemed to have had any problems), we just didn't have a great experience.   I went first because needles don't bother me (John needed some time to work up to his hehe). She couldn't get any blood out of my right forearm, fine, whatever....so she tried my left forearm....nothing there either....so then she tried MY WRIST...like right where that knobby bone is on the inside of your wrist....HOLY FRIG I've never felt pain like that before. Anywho, no blood there either...and when she was pulling the needle out she slipped and scraped it across my hand so now I have a nice big cut across my left hand (I'm sure it looks great in my pictures!). I was so upset/in pain that I started to cry...first time I've ever cried because of a needle. Because I was so upset she decided that she was going to try to get blood from John to give me a break.   She said she couldn't find any veins in John's arm...he has BEAUTIFUL veins in his arms...nice big blue ones...everywhere....I'm not a nurse and I'm pretty sure I could take blood from him hehe...so she decided she was going to take blood from his wrist too! It hurt him so much he passed out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He came to after a couple of seconds but it was so scary! But right after he came around she tried to go after him with a needle again...like are you friggin kidding me? After that there was no way he was having them take any more blood! He was absolutely livid...they had gotten about 1mL of blood from him and he made them call the doctor (who was about an hour and a half late coming to work that day) to see if 1mL was enough to do the tests. Thank God it was or they would have had some issues   Once I calmed down I had to go through all the poking and prodding again, and they finally managed to get some blood out of my right wrist this time.   So that was the end of that...we were outta there so fast you wouldn't believe it! I swear they had no idea what they were doing!! We asked one of our guests (who's a nurse) what she thought and she was shocked...she looked at us both and said we both have beautiful veins and she'd have no problem getting blood from us...   Anywho, on to bigger and better things!   After the butcher's...I mean doctor's....we met up with our WC, Gabriela. This girl is so awesome! We were in and out of her office in half an hour and had absolutely everything planned (and didn't even feel rushed)!! She had big binders full of pictures of everything...different set ups for the ceremony and reception, flowers, cakes, food, everything! And we had 3 awesome menus to choose from for our reception (we chose ceasar salad, an appetizer plate which was a chimichanga, a quesadilla, a big spare rib, a big chicken wing, and a stuffed jalapeno pepper...it was all sooooo yummy!, then for the main course we chose a ribeye steak with grilled veggies and baked potato, then a vodka infused sorbet to cleanse the pallette hehe and then a chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream for dessert).   All we had to do now was wait a few days until the wedding to start!! (Oh and make a trip into PDC to find some favours for our OOT bags because of that place I ordered from earlier not shipping my stuff! We ended up finding the cutest shot glasses and filled them with Jose Cuervo, Baileys & Kahlua filled chocolates - everyone loved them!)   On the Sunday we met all of our guests (except the few who weren't arriving until Monday) at the Caribe buffet for a welcome breakfast - we hit a little glitch there but the buffet staff worked it all out for us (one of the managers told us she'd have a section reserved for us, but when we got there that manager was nowhere to be found, there was no section for us and they told us they wouldn't set aside a section for us, but i batted my pretty eyelashes.....and yelled a little bit...and they sorted it all out).   Tuesday (the big day!) came up super fast...John and I didn't stay in separate rooms the night before, but in the morning we exchanged our gifts to each other (he bought me the prettiest gold anklet), gave a quick kiss and he left to go to his brother's room. I caught up with my parents for breakfast and then went back to the room to finish up a couple of last minute things. At around 11:30am Gabriela called to say that my flowers were there and asked if she could bring them up to the room. She dropped them all off and holy cow they were gorgeous! After that my sister and I headed to the spa to get our hair done. My sister's hairdresser was about half an hour late so it put us a little behind, but no biggie. Both of our hairstyles turned out beautiful! Mine wasn't exactly how I'd wanted it, but it was pretty close, and still super pretty anyway! We didn't get out of there until about 2:10pm and we still had to get back to the room, do our makeup, get dressed and all ready to go for 2:55pm. It was a bit of a rush but we did it and we looked hot hehe   At 2:55, Gabriela came up to the room to make sure we were ready, and took us down to the cute little golf cart they have...it's too adorable! She let us (I had my sister, mom and dad with me) take a few pictures and then she drove us over to the wedding site. When we got to the wedding site we were greeted with cheers from a crowd sitting over at Capitan Morgan's...it made my mom cry LOL It was so nice though - thanks if any of you were sitting there hehe   The set up was absolutely beautiful! The mariachi band was there and I think they were playing some nice soft music (but I could be mistaken...too excited to notice!), John and our best man looked soooo good standing up at the front of the aisle, I just wanted to run down there and hug them hehe   I was able to hide behind a shower (don't worry girls, it doesn't look like a shower from the side the guests were looking at it from...just looks like a stone wall!) so no one could see me before I walked down the aisle, it worked out perfectly. My sister walked down the aisle first...it was too funny because she decided she couldn't walk in the sand in the shoes she was wearing and kicked them off halfway down the aisle (the guests couldn't see them though, thank God LOL) and when I started to walk down the aisle with my parents we had to try and find a way to manouver around them without it looking too obvious We had a good laugh though, it helped to kind of relax us all a little bit (and keep my mom from crying more). Oh and then I realized just about where we hit the shoes that I'd left my copy of my vows in a bag that I'd handed off to my uncle/videographer just before we were about to walk down the aisle...so that was kind of funny too because I think all my guests heard for half of my walk down the aisle was;   me: "oh my god, oh my god, oh my god" dad: "dont you remember them?" me: "oh my god, oh my god, oh my god" mom: "can't you improvise?" me: "oh my god, oh my god, oh my god"   We managed to grab them quick before everyone got seated and it didn't end up being too much of a deal!   The rest of the ceremony was kind a blur...I was just so excited to be up there!!!!!!!!! Everyone else said it was beautiful though LOL   After the ceremony we were all served champagne and then we started our family photos with the resort photographers. They were OK but I felt really rushed and like they just wanted to get out of there (I don't remember the photographers name ). We spent just about an hour with them and then met up with Erick Rodriguez (from Claudia Rodriguez's team) who took us to Akumal for the rest of our photos.   We didn't have a receiving line or have anyone welcome the new couple as we entered the hall...I couldn't be bothered with all that stuff...we just kind of chilled out in the lobby and mingled with our guests until we were told that the banquet hall was ready (in the meantime they were serving these super yummy lime slushy drinks...i couldn't get enough hehe) we let everyone go in first and we followed and went right into our first dance and then father/daughter dance. John dances like my dad. My dad is a terrible lead. But it was fun!   After we got that out of the way we had one of our close family friends say grace (it was so beautiful!) and then dinner was served....everyone ranted about how good the food was!! I was so happy we picked what we did....even the presentation of it all was fantastic! And the waitstaff were phenomenal...they were so fast and friendly and everything was timed just right! During dinner we had planned to play our own music, but our WC had put in a CD with some beautiful soft music and we decided just to keep that on - it was so pretty!   In between courses we had a couple speeches...(me, then John, then my dad and John's dad)...we didn't want everyone doing toasts so we told them that if they wanted to wish us well that they could grab my dad or my uncle and they'd take a video of their well wishes. It ended up working out really well! Especially for those who wanted to say a few words but aren't really comfortable getting up in front of a crowd.   After dinner we did the cake cutting (I couldn't resist, I had to smush) and the bouquet and garter tosses...it was so hilarious...the bouquet toss was pretty normal, but when the garter toss came it got interesting. John had a headlamp that he uses when we go caving up north in the summer...he put it on and climbed under my dress to "Hot in Herre" by Nelly...he had put a bag full of things under the chair without anyone knowing and started pulling them out and tossing them over his shoulder one by one so it looked like he was grabbing them from out of my dress. I almost peed my pants laughing. I really hope someone got pictures because it was too friggin funny.   Then we had a wee bit of dancing (more time would probably have been nice, but hindsight is 20/20) and we all headed off to the theater for the show. After the show we were going to head to the disco for more dancing but it had been such a long day that John and I just wanted to crash! We left all our guests to do their own thing, but most of them were in the same boat as us and just went to bed hehe   That was it for the night (well...that's all I'm telling you at least hehe)   We did hit those few minor glitches, but everything worked out just fine and the wedding was absolutely beautiful. I really couldn't have asked for anything more!!   The rest of our trip was spent relaxing, spending time with our family and friends, and drinking as much as possible The weather was great, the resort is absolutely beautiful and we had so much fun! I'd highly highly recommend the Barcelo to anyone who's looking to have a destination wedding!!! It was such a great feeling to have 41 people with us and not hear one single complaint the entire week!   Sorry for the novel LOL I'm sure I could have written more, but I'm sure I've already bored you enough by now hehe

[MelissaH]

As for the packages, they've apparently changed quite a bit since my wedding so I can't comment much right now - but at the time they were pretty good. The only thing I didn't like was only have 3 hours in the banquet room for our reception before having to pay money.

 

Here are the links to the 2008 packages;

http://www.unofficial-barcelo-maya.c...edding2008.pdf

http://www.unofficial-barcelo-maya.c...tholic2008.pdf

 

The wedding site we had was great, the only thing I didn't like were the tacky lamposts they had there but I'm sure they looked nice at night and I didn't really notice them during the wedding.

 

The banquet hall was nice but you have to do your own decorating if you want it done, all they will do is decorate the tables for you and there were no windows so it was a little drab.

 

Here are the some of the menus you have to choose from - again, the food was great!

 

http://www.unofficial-barcelo-maya.c...DONQUIJOTE.pdf

http://www.unofficial-barcelo-maya.c...ddingAGAVE.pdf (this is the menu we used)

http://www.unofficial-barcelo-maya.c...ddingCAPRI.pdf

http://www.unofficial-barcelo-maya.c...ARENOSTRUM.pdf

http://www.unofficial-barcelo-maya.c...ingSantaFe.pdf

[MelissaH]

Also, for TONS of wedding info at the Barcelo check out www.unofficial-barcelo.maya.com, it's such an informative site!

[Leticia]

melissa, every time i read your review i get so excited!!!!!!!!! yay!!!!

 

Magsie i am so jelous your next!!! hows the planning going?

[MelissaH]

Your date is coming up super fast!! I'm so excited for you!

[Leticia]

Magsie when do you leave? it must be soon!!

[Virg]

I must say ladies that you have picked a spectacular resort! This place looks AMAZING! I emailed the wC yesterday and already received a detailed response!

 

I think this is the only resort in the Mayan that offers a private dinner in the package for less than 2000$ ! AMAZING!

 

Was the service as excellent or just ok?