Royal Plantation Jamaica Review 7-7-08

[KarmaB]

KarmaB's (FutureMrsB) Wedding Review

 

I know that I am about two months late doing this, so I’m going to use pregnancy as my excuse. I'm sorry it has taken me so long. This review is pretty long; I hope that I included everything. If you have any questions about the resort feel free to ask. Here goes:

Misc Vendors

 

Lasting Impressions Bridal (Dallas): A

Their on site seamstress: A+

 

I really had a rather uneventful experience with them while purchasing my dress. I went in once and tried on about 5 dresses and found the one. My dress was a little late being delivered, but this was out of their control. I still had plenty of time for alterations. The alterations came out AMAZING. Considering I purchased the dress when I was not pregnant and then needed to wear the dress 5 months pregnant she worked a miracle and the work was completed in minimal time.

 

Neiman Marcus (Dallas, Willow Bend Mall): A

Their onsite seamstress: A

I bought a second dress to change into after the wedding from Neiman’s and they were amazing. My sales lady was a dream to work with. She was not snotty at all to the fact she was selling a “wedding†dress to a very pregnant women. I had alterations done and my second dress was perfect for what I wanted it for (comfort)!!

Papyrus (Dallas, Willow Bend Mall): A

 

We bought our invitations and seals and wedding napkins from Papyrus and I can only say great things about them. They were so nice and friendly and really were a joy to work with. We will be doing all of out “paper†goods here in the future!

 

American Airlines (DFW): A-

 

I normally love AA and have had no problems but this time there was a slight exception. I called the customer service line BEFORE we left to see if my wedding dress would count toward our carry on allowance and they assured me it would not. The day of our flight, Steve and I both had 2 small suitcases, plus I had my very large purse and he had his laptop case. PLUS, we had my wedding dress. We ended up having to do some major consolidation and rearranging at the gate. It was just a pain in the butt, which could have been avoided.

Evita’s (Ocho Rios): A

 

Since all of our guests were staying at different hotels in the area, we decided to go off site for our rehearsal/night before dinner. We choose Evita’s and I am glad we did. Eva was very nice to work with and had everything perfect for us. We requested a TV because Steve had made a video for me and our guests to watch before the wedding and she took care of that for us without a problem. Everyone enjoyed the food and at the end the tab was not that expensive.

 

 

Royal Plantation

 

Royal Plantation: A+++

 

I really cannot say enough about RP. It was the most amazing hotel stay ever for Steve and I. And we have stayed in some amazing places. It made our $600 a night stay in the villas at the four seasons feel like a Holiday Inn. Seriously! RP was like a dream come true. You get such personalized service since it is such a small resort (70 rooms total) and the decor and scenery is unbelievable. The staff is amazing. From the moment we arrived at the airport Royal Plantation made us feel like Royalty! Here are some of the details:

 

After we cleared customs we were directed to the Sandals waiting room. They immediately offered us refreshments. Minutes later our private driver came dressed in a suit to pick us up. He brought our things to a private van, which was very nice. He took care of everything and handed us our welcome envelope to read while he put our bags up. He had the car stocked with red stripes, cokes, and water for the drive. The ride was nice and peaceful.

 

Once we arrived at the hotel the beauty of the resort immediately blew us away. We were led a comfy couch to relax while we were checked in and immediately offered chilled towels and champagne. After we were checked in we were given a short tour of the resort.

 

Rooms: A

 

When we opened the door to our suite we were again blown away. We stayed in room 355, which had one of the best views in the whole resort. The room was beautiful and they had a gorgeous very large floral bouquet waiting for us (wedding gift). The bathroom was to die for. It had a beautiful large Jacuzzi tub and a large shower. The shower was all marble huge and had no door. It was amazing and so romantic! The bathroom area had a ba-day. Even the toilet paper was embossed with RP’s initials! We were taken back by the amazing balcony that our room had. It was huge! We had a large dining table, two full size lounge chairs, and a large bar (fully stocked) with a sink. The bar had premium liquor and champagne including cokes, sparking/spring water. It was really nice. We spent so much time on the balcony because it was just so amazing!

Food: A

 

On our first night at the hotel we were tired from traveling and decided to go to the most casual beach side restaurant (The Grill). We were shocked to find that casual for them was a menu with T-bone steaks and Rib Eyes!! It was delicious and really set the bar high for the other restaurants. Breakfast and lunch was amazing every day as well. Most of the meals were 3-5 course meals though, which could be time consuming, but this is a place were you go to enjoy decadence and luxury so we got use to it. The French restaurant (Le Papillion) was AMAZING. The food was really fancy and delicious but not so fancy that it wasn’t edible or didn’t fill us up. We left stuffed both times we went. Different nights have different dinner themes and options. Like Monday night is Steak and Lobster grill out night on the terrace. They serve all you can eat Steak and Lobster grilled right in front of you. Another night was the market place night where they let you choose your cut of fresh fish, beef, and chicken. Even the food they served on the beach was amazing. My favorite beach lunch was the lobster BLT. Which was stuffed with tons of fresh lobster. It was great!

 

The Beach: A+

 

There were two separate beaches to lounge on. Both were amazing and kept in immaculate condition. The beaches were both more than big enough for the size of the resort. The service on the beach was amazing. As soon as you go down the beach attendant rushes over and asks where you would like to sit. He then moves the chairs anywhere you like, and then sets them up for you with towels, head pillows, and comfy pillow top pads. You are also given a blue flag, so you can call your beach butler! The beach butler will bring you whatever you want to eat or drink quickly! In the mornings they bring around mango-mimosas and a large fruit tray to serve you snacks. It really was a dream come true. It was so relaxing. You truly never lift a single finger.

Water Sports: A

 

The resort supplies lots of water activities for free. We did a snorkeling tour and took a sailboat. They also had scuba, but we did not participate.

Entertainment: A

 

This resort is not somewhere to go if you want to party all night. It is really relaxing and romantic. Nightly on the terrace was always some sort of entertainment, including live bands, singers, fire dancers and other fun acts. The bar is open till around 1 and was so nice. They served so many different cocktails and martinis. They had a book full of pages of different drinks they offered. The bartender knew us very well by the time we left. He always made me special non-alcoholic drinks in martini glasses to make me feel special (since I’m pregnant). It was really nice of him. The resort also does a teatime every day at 4:00 it was so much fun. We loved the different tea and the beautiful silver pots it was served in. They also served a large array of tea sandwiches and pastries. They were really yummy! If you want to go and get a little more entertainment, you can literally walk over to Sandals Grand and use their facilities. We had no need or desire to do this, but it was nice to have the option.

 

 

Wedding Stuff

RP Spa/Wedding Hair and Make-up/Dressing Assistant: A

 

I absolutely loved the way my hair came out. It was exactly what I wanted my hair to look like on my wedding day. The style stayed really well and didn’t look plastered to my head. I was really, really pleased with my hair. My make up came out nice. I love make up and probably honestly could have done a little better job, but I was not unhappy with it in any way. The same girl who did my hair was also my dressing assistant. She was wonderful and really sweet. I could not have got my dress on without her since my guests were all late getting to the hotel.

Flowers/ Tai Floral: B

 

RP uses Tai floral for larger floral pieces like arches and urns. I wanted ALL white roses during my ceremony but instead got white and pink flowers on my $800 arch. I was really, really disappointed by this but it was because they ran out of white flowers and only had pink left so they had to fill in the bare spots with the pink. It was a minor detail, but for that kind of money they should have found white flowers! LOL! My wedding coordinator redeemed him self by taking all of the pink flowers out for my reception where they reused the arch and my reception table looked AMAZING. All of the other flowers came out nice and I had no problems with them.

Butterfly/Dove Release: B

 

We wanted a butterfly release but the butterflies did not make it in time because of some delays they had in Kingston. So we had to have doves instead. They came out beautiful though and everyone said the doves were better than butterflies would have been.

 

Onsite Photographer: B-

Onsite Videographer: C

 

Our wedding package included pictures, so we used them in addition to having a family friend take additional pictures. The photos really were not the highlight of the wedding. They took forever to get all of the pictures taken. Steve and I really wanted to relax a little bit after the ceremony and spent the entire cocktail hour taking pictures. We wished we had been able to participate with out guests in that. The video is really, really, cheesy! LOL. It looks like a throwback from 90’s! That is all I can say.

Offsite Wedding Coordinator: A+

 

Shaunette is the offsite wedding coordinator. She was really easy to work with and always responded to my emails within minutes, literarily. I probably sent her about 100 emails and she was always polite and prompt. I really enjoyed working with her.

 

Onsite Wedding Coordinator: A++++

 

Andre is the onsite wedding coordinator at RP and all I can say is WOW. This man knows his stuff and is AMAZING. I can’t say enough about him. By the time we left we had become good friends. We both had tears in our eyes when I left! Really! He spent so much time with us before the wedding going over every little detail of the wedding and reassuring us everything would be perfect. I brought a huge suitcase full of my own décor and he used everything perfectly and I didn’t have to worry about a single thing. He even mc’d part of our reception and was hilarious. All of the guests loved him so much. We were his complete focus on our wedding day. Even after our wedding, he would find us on the beach or at lunch and come and talk to us and see how everything was and if there was anything he could do for us.

 

Ceremony: A

The ceremony was perfect. It went very smooth. Everyone was sat and a wedding coordinator brought me down promptly. The minister was good and read our script perfectly. The location was amazing; it was right on the beach under amazing trees, which provided wonderful shade. The beach was on the secluded side, so there were absolutely no un-invited on lookers.

 

Cocktail Hour: A

 

Although we were unable to participate in the cocktail hour because we were taking pictures, all of the guests were very pleased and amazed. The guests were led into a beautiful out door location and served a delicious array of hor’dorves and champagne, as well as other cocktails. They were waited on by waiters in white gloves and were entertained by a local calypso band. Everyone loved it!

Reception Dinner: A++

 

The reception dinner was AMAZING. I cannot begin to describe how well this went. We were brought up after everyone was seated and two waiters opened the double doors and we were properly introduced as husband and wife. There was a live band playing. The décor was just spectacular. I was blown away. The table was set beautifully. We opted to have a champagne toast with Moet, so the sommelier came and opened the bottle for us with his sword. It was so much fun! The actual dinner was so delicious. We had 5 separate courses. The entrée was a very decadent Steak and Lobster. The guests were served champagne throughout the dinner. Everyone was so stuffed and so amazing by the presentation of the food. White-gloved waiters delivered each course. We had 4 waiters all to our selves. It truly was a dream come true. The wedding cake was yummy and was the perfect size.

 

Beach Bonfire/Reception: A++

 

The beach reception was amazing and so much fun. Everyone went and changed clothes after dinner before we headed out to the bonfire. When we got down there the DJ was spinning music and our entertainment was waiting for us. The bonfire was HUGE. There were beach chairs set out with covers for everyone to sit on and a full bar was set up just for our group. It was so much fun. We danced the night away on the beach, our wedding coordinator blocked off the entire west beach for us, so if anyone even tried to walk down there and look they were asked to leave the area. It was so nice for our group to have its privacy while we danced and had a great time under the stars!

Fire Dancers: A

 

Our guests were amazing when they saw that our entertainment for the night aside from the DJ was a group of three fire dancers/eaters. They started getting the crowd excited by doing limbo and getting everyone involved. They ate fire, and breathed it along with many other amazing tricks. It really was a lot of fun and worth the extra money for sure!

 

Other Stuff at RP:

 

Romantic Private Dinner on the pier: A+

 

Included in our wedding package was private dinner on the pier. This was amazing and so romantic. We had a private butler who served us a wonderful dinner with candles all along the pier. They had roses for me waiting as well. It was so nice!

Room Escapade/wedding Decorations: A

 

Also included was a romantic room escapade. They sprinkled rose pedals all over our room and set up the cutest doves made out of towels. There were candles everywhere and a hot bath already drawn for us. They also had a chilled bottle of champagne and chocolates waiting for us.

Customer Service: A++

 

If you ever need anything at this hotel all you have to do is call 0. It was so nice. I called so many times I felt like they were my BF! Once we needed scissors to complete some wedding projects and they sent them up within minutes. Really it was amazing, one of the hardest parts of leaving was not being able to call 0 and have literally anything I can imagine delivered to my room. They would even call after we had room service to make sure everything was perfect.

 

I hope I didn’t miss anything. If I did or you have any questions let me know. I love talking about RP it was really a dream come true!

 

Now a few pictures: (Sorry some are grainy, I scanned some, and some are non-pro)

 

[KarmaB]

[~*petals*~]

Karma-- what a BEAUTIFUL wedding!! I am especially loving that hot reception dress, girl! Congratulations-- I'm so happy everything turned out so perfectly.

[kate.com]

Very Pretty Karma! It looked magical and you are gorgeous! Lucky guy!

[Alyssa]

Karma!!! girl you look beautiful! great review and i love the pics - your dresses were absolutely perfect

[JUSTUSTWO]

Great review Karma! You have me wanting to get on a plane & go to RP right now.

I must say, you were really glowing on your day & looked beautiful. Both dresses are gorgeous & that reception dress is just too hot! I also love your veil. It was a pretty touch. Again, everything was just beautiful! Congrats!

[Myda77]

Wow everything looks great. You guys look like you had a great time. You look amazing in your dress.

[JennyK]

Karma - you are a stunning bride and the pregnancy glow you got.. wow So nice! Glad to see you had a great wedding Congrats!

[Sloan]

Wow! Everything is gorgeous! Your dress is awesome! I've never seen pics of Evita's before, very nice! I cant wait to get married in Jamaica!

[Danniellou]

Looks like your day was perfect! Love the dress change BTW. Congratulations!