Hints for Barcelo Maya

[heather007]

I have a ton of tips for future brides. I was making them in my head as I went along, but I just never wrote them down. Mind the spelling because I just broke my finger.

 

1) Bring more than one container of hairspray. I have a lot of hair, more than what people think, and it's curly too. It was lovely down there. Being there for two weeks, I basically went through a can of hairspray in 8 days. I couldn't believe that!!!! But, I used probably 1/2 the can on my wedding day.

 

2) Only bring the clothes that you know you are going to wear. I packed way too many things. I only wore about 1/4 of my cothes, and I lived in my bikini tops. We did a ton of excursions, so I found that I would want to jump into a cenote or something then walk around. I didn't want to bother changing all the time so I wore a bikini under everything. I only brought 4 bikini tops and two bikini bottoms, which was a mistake. I should have brought more. Plus, when it comes to clothes, bring lots of matching things. I wore a lot of black and white, which was great.

 

3) Use the landry service at the resort. They get it done in half a day, not 24 hours like what they say. Plus, it is not that expensive. We used it at the beginning of our second week, did probably 3 loads of laundry and it cost us about $30.00 USD, which isn't bad at all.

 

4) Bring your pashminas!!!! I brought along 5 pairs of pashminas and used them all. They work great for the restuartants, because they are cooler, and the are light enough to for the rest of the evening to keep the chill off. You don't need a sweater at all.

 

5) Watch out for bats!!!! There are a ton of bats at the Barcelo, which is really cool. Because the Colonial is all open, they swoop in and out of the hallways all the time. We had one little guy that liked us and he spend an entire evening dive-bombing us on our patio; it was awesome. Just remember to keep the patio door closed.

 

6) The locks on the patio doors have been removed, but there is a huge bolt lock on the top which is more secere than those little door locks. We slept with the screen door open all the time open, so we never ending up locking the patio.

 

7) Tip the towel girl that comes to your room. I'm all about saving the environment, but the towels do not dry during the day, it's too humid. If you see the towel girl, tip her, she will always come around to you and give you plenty of fresh towels, which, because we did excursions and snorkelled, we took a lot of showers.

 

When at the shopping centre and looking from jelwery, by from Louise. Ask for him, he will give you the best deal ever. He is the manager/owner of three of the four jelwery stores there. Tell him you know us even: we spent probably close to $2000.00 with him. Haha, my fiance loves buying stuff and I love recieving.

 

9) You need to check out the disco, even just for a laugh. The go-go dancers/ strippers rock. It is very European.

 

10) Book your restuarants early, as soon as possible. We got stuck with 9:30 p.m. times and it sucked. Also, stay away from the Mexican restuarant. Almost everyone from our group got sick there, plus, the food really sucks and the service is even worse. They forgot about our table, even though we kept asking them for stuff.

 

11) Drinking. You need to drink in the Peubla Bar in the Colonial. It's the nicest and the most relaxed. Ask for the martini: Lipstick. It's one that my sister made up here is Canada, asked him to make it for her, then our group got hold of it, they starting drinking it, and then other ladies in the bar started ordering it. Literally, it took the Colonial by storm, I heard people talkign about it at another bar. You can only get it at the Colonial Peubla Bar though.

Also, if you aren't a martini drinker- order these ones: Francis' drink: margerita on the rocks, so good. Just remember to clarrify if you want it a lime margerita though, because I found that they would make them in an assortment of flavors. My drink: memosa, champagne and orange juice. Yummy!!!!

Plus, bring your travel mugs, they work wonders!!!!

 

12) Eat the nut assortment in the Peubla Bar too. I stay away from nuts most times, and for the first week I did, but the second week I tried it and it was amazing. I was always seen, when I was there, with nuts and a memosa in my hand.

 

13) Tip!!!! They do not make a lot of money and they basically live off their tips.

 

14) Take a walk on the beach at night with your hubby. We only did this once and it is one of my best memories of the trip. Lay on a beach chair, look at the stars, soak in the ocean spray, it's amazing. Plus, no one goes on the beach at night, literally, the place shuts down, which is nice because it's fairly busy during the day.

 

15) Reserve your beach/pool chair early in the morning. I got up at like 6:30 a.m. and took a walk around the resort/beach and saw a lot of people throwing towels over chairs. The place is taken up with towels so finding a great seat is hard during the rest of the day. I did it once, got the best seats for the beach. It worked great.

 

16) Watch out for the speedos. As I said earlier, there are a lot of Europeans there, so be prepared for speedos and topless women.

 

17) Don't expect much from the beauty salon hair stylists. They aren't great and my hair fell down within minutes, plus it took almost 2 hours for her to do it.

 

1 You will get your new wrist band once you meet with your WC, just be sure to remind them about it. Claudia told me that sometimes brides and grooms get it right away, other times, the WC need to go with them to the front desk to get it. Either way, it's so worth it. You get awesome better drinks, internet for free, and some other stuff. Overall, it was well worth it.

 

19) If you plan on playing in the ocean a lot, buy water shoes. It's very rocky, the waves a forceful, and there is also broken shells on the bottom of it. When we were snorkelling, I got beached and scrapped up my belly because of it.

 

20) Bring bug spray if your plan on going mini golfing. I never got to it, because I drank too much tequila and passed out by 1:00 p.m. [opps] but my husband and his family went and they got bite by mosquitos.

 

21) The buffet is amazing at the Colonial. If you eat eggs, and like omletes, I don't, but my husband does, and he says that the omlete lady is the best. She's older, there everyday, and makes the best ones.

 

22) Even though the resort is suppose to be non-smoking, people smoke everywhere. The Colonial wasn't bad, because it was all open and the smoke just blows out, plus their bar is totally no smoking, so it was nice. However, the Cirbe/ Beach/ and Tropical smelt like smoke. It was gross.

 

23) Stay at the Colonial. I am not bias because we stayed there, we were originally planning for the Tropical, but we are so happy that we stayed at the Colonial. The Tropical is very similiar, very pretty, but the fountains in it are very loud, so sitting in the lobby was tough. Plus, their bar was very smoky and loud, and I'm not talking about their cigar lounge. The Cribe and and the Beach were both dark, low ceilings, and very very loud and smelly. They have a geat beach, but the hotel lacks for everything else. Plus, the Colonial is the one that is located in the center, so the shopping plaza, mini golf, disco, shows, spa, restuarants, everything is located right there. It's the best. We walked over the the Place and we didn't like it. Once again we found it very loud because of the lounge's location. When we walked on the beach [at night] right in front of the hotel, all we could hear was loud drunk people. The decor is okay, supposedly contemporary, but very European, but dated European. Plus, you pay so much more for it, save the pennies and stay at the more relaxed Colonial.

 

24) Go with the Ocean Scents package. The upgraded location, meal packages, etc., are well worth it. The meal was fantastic.

 

I will upload some pictures here in a bit.

 

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[IndianBride]

Thanks heather!!! Great hints!

[Shannond4156]

Thanks Heather! This is great info!

[iceapple]

Thanks for the tips.....

[BethBride1]

Thanks for the tips! It seems like you had a great time!

[scottgm2]

lots of info. thanks

[tata2]

Great tips, I am getting married at the Tropical on Nov. 12/09 and am even more excited after reading your post.

thanks,

Tamasin

[finzup]

Thanks for the tips!! I want one of those martinis right about now

[MsZ]

Great tips, thanks for sharing!!

[BlakleyBrideToBe]

Thanks Heather! Great hints!!