Excellence Playa Mujeres Brides Post Here!

[becky1022]

I'm not directly contacting them, I'm too upset. & my finace would be on a plane to deal with this in person if I hadn't stopped him. I have a representative with Beach Bum Vacations that is working with the resort to resolve this, but they don't seem to be giving him answers & he's getting just as upset as we are. The person on suggested on Trip Advisor isn't connected with weddings & was probably unaware of the new "policy".

[cole379]

So sorry this is happening to you. Please keep us updated!

[mcclosk2]

Hello ladies, I just wanted to chime in.  I'm Sean, becky1022's fiancee and am the one who posted on tripadvisor.com.

 

We initially started our conversation with Ileana Romera on 6/25 when our travel agent contacted her to reach out to us so we could start finalizing items for our ceremony this October.  In my first e-mail to her, I informed her that we had a contract with Del Sol and asked if we could credit the cost of the in-house photographer from the wedding package towards their event passes.

 

In her response:

 

Thanks for your message.

 

Enclosed please find our price list for add-ons. There is no additional pricing for food/beverages as our packages include  ceremony, cocktail and reception for up to 20 guests. The cost per additional guest staying in the hotel is $45 usd each.

 

Also please find below our day passes :

DAY PASS: 100,00USD per person |  From: 09:00H – 18:00H (not dinner)

NIGHT PASS: 150,00USD per person   |  From: 18:00H – 02:00H (with dinner)

EVENT PASS: 125,00USD per person | The guests can arrive one hour before the wedding and stay for all the wedding events.

On the other hand I would like to explain that unfortunately we do not allow outside photographers, our in house photographers are Blue Lens Caribe.

 

Unfortunately the items included in the wedding packages are not exchangeable nor refundable if unused.

 

As Becky said, we initially escalated this to our travel agent for clarification.  We did not want to start off on the wrong foot with our wedding coordinator!  During this time, we found out that another potential couple was told they did not work with Del Sol, and as some of you have been told, some photographers are allowed, while Del Sol and La Luna are not.

 

Some of you have asked, what the options are.  Simply, we feel you have to speak with your wallet, its the only bargaining chip you have as many of us do not have written and signed contracts with Excellence regarding our wedding ceremonies.  We're prepared to move our entire wedding party to another resort if Excellence will not allow us to use our choice of photographer.  This is a highly frustrating situation and terrible commitment to customer service IMO.  This is not an unreasonable request on our part and we will not provide revenue to Excellence as long they maintain this policy.

 

For the time being, we are letting our travel agent handle the conversation as he has the ability to escalate this to senior management at both his agency and Excellence.  Once we have feedback from Excellence on what they are willing (or unwilling) to do, we'll take it to the next step.  We'll keep all of you informed of what happens.

 

Our advice for all of you is to get everything documented in writing and to get a contract ASAP!  This has left such a bad taste in our mouth, we hope this isn't the beginning of the slippery slope for Excellence and they start trying to restrict more services to only those they approve in-house!
 

 

IliaPSU - Juan Navarro was who we were told the in-house photographer was back in October of last year when we started our reservations.  That would be the most probably reason why he is allowed to do your event.

 

[McCarty2B]

I think Juan Navarro is some how affiliated with Blue Lens Caribe; one of the blog comments on the Blue Lens Caribe Excellence Playa Mujeres webpage suggests this. From what I've read in here, he is a bit of a diva. Good luck with all of this! Our wedding is in two months and we are doing a catamaran cruise reception, so I hope they don't start to restrict third party vendors altogether...

[mcclosk2]

 

 

Originally Posted by McCarty2B 

 

Good luck with all of this! Our wedding is in two months and we are doing a catamaran cruise reception, so I hope they don't start to restrict third party vendors altogether...

 

Thank you!  That is my biggest concern as well.  Is this the beginning of a slippery slope for Excellence where they start restricting third party vendors totally except for ones they directly coordinate and arrange?  Or is this a case of Excellence trying to force out specific vendors to encourage use of their own?  Regardless, its something that puts fear into all of us that they will maintain their commitments to our weddings and is just an unprofessional way to handle their customers.

 

And if this is an issue between Excellence and specific third party vendors, then pitting your customers in the middle of it and forcing them to choose is just a terrible way to do it...

[TravelExperts18]

I know the management staff at EPM and they are usually very accommodating, if you can not get your issues worked out please email me at [email protected] and I will be more than happy to see what I can do by reaching

out to them. I am so sorry that you are experiencing problems as destination weddings are usually relatively 

stress free. We have worked with EPM on many other weddings and vacations and usually everything goes smoothly.

 

Best Wishes!

[krmiller]

I had to chime in on this comment.  We used Juan Navarro at ERC & he was awesome!!!  I have never heard of Blue Lens Caribe & do not think his is affiliated with them.  He used to be the resort photographer at ERC & EPM, but is now the resort photographer at Secrets Meroma.  We were able to use him at ERC without having to pay an extra vendor day pass since he was the previous resort photographer.  I'm sorry that you guys are going through this mess.  There is no way that they can ban outside photographers...they would lose so much business.  Good luck everyone!!! 
 

Originally Posted by McCarty2B 

I think Juan Navarro is some how affiliated with Blue Lens Caribe; one of the blog comments on the Blue Lens Caribe Excellence Playa Mujeres webpage suggests this. From what I've read in here, he is a bit of a diva.

Good luck with all of this! Our wedding is in two months and we are doing a catamaran cruise reception, so I hope they don't start to restrict third party vendors altogether...

 

[sprinkles920]

Hello Everyone--We just had our wedding at EPM and it was perfect.  Yamina is not there anymore but Ileanna was our new planner and she had everything exactly as we wanted it.  We did use Del Sol Photography so I am surprised to see they said no outside contractors?  They had told me that was the case for music but not photos.  I will say that they are doing in house photos now just of guests at the resort and they do turn out very  nice but it is unfortunate if they aren't allowing wedding photographers in house anymore but I would question that again.  The communication before you get there is sketchy--it was usually a 3 day turn around for me but once we arrived on property it was fine.   I will post pictures soon but if you have any questions I'd be more than happy to answer them!  I will say it is rainy season--we had rain the last 2 days of our trip but other than that it was gorgeous!

Courtney

[KeraSmiley]

Hi Ladies!!!
I promise to come back very soon with a full review on my wedding at EPM on 5/20/2011! I've been super busy!!

 

But here are my pictures (courtesy of Del Sol-BEST PHOTOGRAPHER'S IN THE WORLD)

 

http://delsolphotography.com/blog/content/galleries/?gal=464

 

Enjoy!!

[Sharon99]

KeraSmiley- your pics are beautiful! Congrats.

 

I am SO upset with reading all of this. I emailed Excellence 2 weeks ago letting them know we had hired La Luna & sent them their info & asked if this was okay & if there was any other info they needed. They responded & said it was fine. I am very confused & I dont think they do contracts but I am going to email them today & hopefully find out if I can still use La Luna & get a contract. I really dont understand how this can change & be acceptable. Especially seeing as Del Sol was just there. Its not fair to Del Sol & La Luna. What happens if we cant use them & we already paid our deposit & signed a contract with the photog? Now I am out that money??? This is ridiculous....

I do not want to use their in-house photographer. Whenever I hear back from someone at Excellence I will post their comments.