Wedding review Melia Las Dunas

babyg · January 6, 2009

We stayed at Melia Las Dunas from Dec 26th 2008 to Jan 2, 2009. We had a wonderful time. Our reason for traveling to this resort was for our wedding. In total there were 12 people in our group. We had our three kids with us 11, 15, and 16.

First the wedding was lovely. We were married on Dec 29th and we had a choice of three spots for the ceremony. We picked the lobby area. I thought it was beautiful. The beach was too windy. They take very good care of you and make sure everything is beautiful. I went to the spa for my hair appointment and brought along a picture of what I wanted. They did a great job. Our ceremony was at 3pm. Our dinner was in the Romantico at 7pm and it was also very good, filet minion and shrimp for the main course. The cake was delicious. All in all it was a very memorable day. The resort photographer was pretty good.

Fights and check in: We traveled Sky Service â€“ Air Transit Vacations. Great flight to Cuba and a great flight home. We paid the 20CUC for the VIP on the way home and that was the best money we spent. We went to the front of the line ups and got to rest in a VIP lounge before the flight. We also got priority boarding for the flight.

Food: A friend of mine came back from Varadero with her teenage kids and said they didnâ€™t see any fruit and the kids starved all weekâ€¦.picky I assume. I warned our kids and packed lots of snacks however there was no worry about going hungry. We had lots of choices and the food was better than I was expecting. The meals we had at the al a carts were also very good.

Rooms: We were upgraded to superior rooms and they were wonderful. We had great service from the maid and always had lots of water and drinks in our fridge. No complaints. We were close to the pool and the boardwalk to the beach on the family side.

Pool: Pool area is beautiful. The water is a little cold this time of year. There were always lounge chairs. The snack bar in the pool area was the best. The bar was pretty great too.

Beach: The beach was very pretty. There were 2 red flag days and 2 yellow flags and a green flag. We got to snorkel one day and it was great. Otherwise it was fairly windy and cold to lay by the beach. The water was warmer than the pool though. The kids loved body surfing the waves and had a blast at the beach.

Money and tipping: I am still a bit confused about the whole tipping thing. I know people are pretty poor here but I expect they make more tips in one day at the resort than most people make in a month at a cigar factory. Capitalism in a communist country? Anyway, we did tip the gardeners, cart drivers, wedding coordinator, food servers, photographer, trio band, bar tendersâ€¦. Ect. We also brought clothes, toys, nylons, soaps and makeup etc with us. The wedding bill and spa bill were put on our room bill. When we went to check out they wouldnâ€™t take our credit cards (mastercard). And there are no bank machines. When I asked where I could access a bank machine they shrugged and suggested we could find one in another town? Not very helpful. They also suggested we contact our credit card company (this was new years day) at 2.5 cuc per minute to try to sort it out. In the end friends picked up the tab on their credit card so we could get out of the country. Lol â€“ also I am not sure how our dollar is 1.38 to their 1 cuc. Is their economy doing that much better than ours?

Excursion and extras: We went on a sunset catamaran dinner cruise. It was a nice time and it was good to get off the resort to see a bit of the area. I would go to another city next visit, but we did have a pretty busy week with the wedding and New Years Eve festivities. The New Years Festival was all day long and ended with a band on the beach. It was excellent. I also went to the spa for my hair and would have loved to go for a massage but it books up fast. When you book a spa appointment you get 1 hour of water therapy and use of the spa pools and whirlpools. The internet is 6 cuc for Â½ hour and is slowwwww. Lots of people got pretty frustrated with it. Phone calls were 2.5 cuc for 1 minute.

The lobby bar is amazing and makes the best coffee. People hang out there to relax and or socialize. The disco wasn't very good. The shows were ok. The resort is a little secluded. It is quite a drive to the nearest city and most excrusions are a long drive. Overall it is a very beautiful resort and grounds and if you like a relaxing resort vacation this is a great resort.

Terri

Virg · January 9, 2009

THANK YOU for a great review!! I look forward to seeing pictures! We getting married there on June 30.

How was the wedding coordinator? Did you use the musical trio for the wedding ? The private conference room?

I knew about the MasterCard thing, the reason they don't accept it is because MC is a US based company - so I have beent old previously . Visa should have been ok, as it is British ( I think)

Amarillis · January 9, 2009

Great Review Terri!!!!

Congratulations!

Pics hun... pics!!!!!!

cubamer · January 9, 2009

Thank you very much for the review.

It sounds like you had an amazing wedding.

babyg · January 10, 2009

Hi There

The wedding coordinator was great. Lian was terrific. I emailed her prior to the trip to request that she make a reservation for all 12 of my party at the Italian al a cart for the second night we arrived as a bit of a get together. When I arrived to the hotel I found a note in my room with a date and time to get together plus reservation the reservation for 12 to the Italian as requested, the reservation for the whole group for the wedding plus three other al a cart reservations for just my family for the rest of the week. In total we had 5 al a cart dinners. The people at the reservation desk were miffed but I just smiled and said my wedding coordinator made these arrangements.

We also used the musical trio and that was a nice touch. After the ceremony we had campaign and had our first dance with the trio as well as a few other dances. We took off shortly after for pics. Since most of our group was to be in the pics everyone took off and the trio just left the area, so make sure some of your guests stay to enjoy the music. lol

I tried to load pics from photobucket but it keeps coming up as an error. Hopefully hubby will be able to help me to load pics.

Terri