Diana's (DC22173) Dreams Cancun Wedding Review 4/25/09 Very Long!! Pic Heavy!!

[dc22173]

Cancun Airport/ Apple Transportation – B/B

We arrived at a time when 3 other flights had arrived. Immigration and customs took us about an hour. Once you clear customs and you are on your way out of the airport you will encounter a bunch of sales people trying to sell you timeshares. They basically line up across the hallway so that you have no choice but to walk by them. I think I had to say “no, thank you†about 15 times before I made it out of there. Once outside we encountered a bunch of representatives from different transfer companies. We booked with Apple Vacations so we were on the lookout for the guys with the red flowery shirts. They were not hard to find at all. We had a small glitch with the transfers for my kids but it worked out at the end when I started to speak to the representative in Spanish. It appeared that they were not understanding me in English and I overheard one of the guys say that my kids would need to go on another bus to the hotel. At that point, I made it very clear to him that my kids were not staying behind at the airport and that they needed to get this straight immediately. I don’t know if he was more shocked that I spoke to him in Spanish or about the instant attitude that I got when I heard him say that my kids were staying behind. They got is straight within a few minutes and we were on our way. The ride to resort took about a half hour if that much.

 

Dreams Resort - A+

When we arrived the valet took our bags and gave us check in tickets to bring to the check in desk. Once you check in they take your luggage to your room. This was nice to see since I thought I was going to have to roll my luggage around until our room was ready. We were staying at the tower but my kids were booked with my mom at the pyramid. They have two different check-in locations for the buildings. Someone escorted us to the tower building for check in where we were offered bottled water, sparkling wine or a drink from the bar. I have to say that check in was a breeze!!!! Our room was ready for us when we arrived at 1pm. However, the guests who had to check in at the pyramid had to wait until about 2:45pm for their rooms to be ready.

 

Almost all of my guests received upgrades upon check in except for my mom and my sister. My mom asked about being upgraded and they basically told her she needed to pay for the upgrade. My other sister checked in a few minutes after her and she was given an upgrade without asking for it. My younger sister checked in after her and was told that she needed to pay for her upgrade. I am not sure how they determine their upgrades but all of my guest had booked the same room type. The one’s that were upgraded where told that they had run out of the regular deluxe rooms so they were being upgraded to an ocean view room. Needless to say, my mom was pretty upset that everyone got an upgrade and she did not. I went to the front desk later on that afternoon and spoke to one of the reps regarding getting mom’s room changed. They told me that that they were booked up but to have her come down in the morning and they would upgrade her. She eventually got over the whole upgrade thing and decided to keep her room. Another guest had been upgraded to an ocean view room but when they went to take a shower the water came out yellow. They called the front desk and they were upgraded to the one bedroom suite in the tower.

 

We booked the Jr. Jacuzzi suite and that is exactly what we got. We were not upgraded to another room. Our room was huge!!! I expected a smaller room after looking that the pictures that some brides had posted here. They hung a honeymooners banner across our door which I thought was a nice touch. The dining room table had a bottle of champagne and our bed had huge heart made of rose petals with two towel swans in the middle. It looked so nicely done that I did not want to remove the rose petals to lay on the bed. Our room, 6086, faced the gazebo and had an awesome view of the beach. We saw plenty of weddings during our time there and they were all beautiful. The balcony had a table with chairs and the Jacuzzi. We did not get to use the Jacuzzi but it was nice having it. The bedroom had a flat screen TV, a small table, a dresser, two night stands and an clock radio where you could plug in your Ipod. I was concerned that since it was an older hotel that the rooms where going to show their age but it looks like they keep up with the maintenance and unless you really look you would never know that this was an older resort. The staff keeps it spotless at all times. I must warn everyone that the walk to the tower is very windy all the time. I thought it might have been the time of day or that a storm might be passing by but we were there for 6 days and it was windy day and night. If felt like a hurricane to me every time we walked back to our room, ha ha.

 

Food - A+

We ate breakfast a couple of times in the lobby of the tower because we did not want to walk to the World Cafe Buffet. I am not a big breakfast person but they had everything that you would want for breakfast. The World Cafe has an even bigger variety. They had an omelet station, a hot cereal station and a pastries station as well. The food was great for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We only had dinner there during seafood night and it was excellent. I have my rehearsal dinner at Oceana. We waited about an hour and a half to seat 16 people. We tried to make reservations ahead but they do not accept reservations. There was a bar right across from the restaurant so we hung out and drank while we waited for our table. One thing I have to say about their food is that you do not get very big portions. I ordered an appetizer that included a small crab claw and a one scallop. I reminded me of the gourmet food you see being served in French restaurants. If you want to get full you might want to order an appetizer, soup, salad and a main course. The food tasted very good. A lot of people ordered the surf and turf and they loved the steak. My youngest son had the chicken supreme and he loved it. A few of my guests ate at Himitsu and they thought it was really good, we never got around to trying it. I also did not visit the seaside grill for dinner because kids were not allowed. My kids are 12 and 18 but they would not allow the 12 year old in. We had planned to eat at the Palomita Bonita restaurant attached to the hotel one night but after seeing their prices we decided against it. I swore I saw a salad for $18.00. I am really finicky over my Mexican food so I did not want to take the chance of going and then not liking it.

 

If you are hanging out by the pool the servers have a limited food menu from which you can order. I tried the hot dogs and hamburgers and fries and they were really good. We hung out at in the pyramid pool because it was just too windy for me to lay out by the tower pool. They also have a small coffee shop by the spa where you can get coffee and pastries. If you are coffee fanatic ,like I am, you will probably love this place. It is not Starbucks but it kept me happy for 6 days J. My husband truly appreciated the fact that I was able to get my morning coffee and did not have to hear me complain about how terrible the coffee is.

 

Wedding Coordinator - Cecilia A+

When I first started planning my wedding I was put in contact with Daniella. They then replaced Daniella with Gaby and lastly they hired Cecilia. Cecilia was head of the front desk at the pyramid so she had a lot of knowledge of the hotel. I was surprised to see how young she was. I had imagined her to be older. After I found out that Gaby had left I gave up trying to contact anyone over there. I figured once I got there I would get everything figured out. Cecilia emailed me a couple of weeks before my wedding to tell me that she was my new coordinator and she was looking forward to working with me. I responded back letting her know that Gaby had allowed me to make some replacements to items on my package and I was expecting those to be honored. Gaby had also allowed me to have two meal choices instead of the usual one meal choice. The only stipulation was that I need to give her an exact headcount a week before the wedding. Cecilia said that they would honor all the promises that Gaby had made. In addition, I got her to trade out the desert during dinner for an upgraded cake and the sound system for the ceremony and reception instead of the Mexican trio. A couple of days before my departure I got an email from her just telling me that my wedding day was getting closer and she could not wait to meet me. I thought that was very nice of her to say.

 

I set up a meeting with her at 3pm on the day of our arrival. She met me in the lobby of the tower and we went through everything on the contract. At that point, I ordered the table centerpieces for the book that she had. We also went over the locations for the cocktail hour and reception. I initially had the cocktail hour and the reception set for the beach but after seeing how windy it was I changed my mind quickly. They have two beach locations available one is near the gazebo and the tower and the other is by the Himitsu restaurant. The one by Himitsu is not windy but another bride had already picked that location. I settled for the cocktail hour in the terrace and the reception in the tower lobby. I figured my guest would be grateful that they would not be eating sand with their dinner ha, ha. We scheduled a rehearsal for the day after at 5pm so that we could go through how everyone would enter the gazebo. The rehearsal took about a half hour and I was sure that everything was going work out just fine at that point. I had given Cecilia my bag of stuff to put on the tables with sticky notes on how I wanted everything set up. I told her that if she did not get it right I would probably just fix it for her. I did not want her to get offended if she saw me rearranging her work. She said that they had a couple of students who were doing an internship with them and she would get them to help her out with the set up. I was glad to see that they are finally getting some help!!!

 

The day of the wedding everything was put out the way I had envisioned it if not better. I did not have to fix a thing!!! Cecilia asked me if everything was ok because she was worried that I would not like it. I told her it was perfect. The table had been setup the way I wanted it and so was the cake table and guest book table. The flower centerpieces were beautiful and Cecilia added a couple of glass centerpieces with sand and shells to the dinner table. She stuck around from the entire wedding and was always available if I needed anything. We did not use the DJ and opted to use the sound system to save us $1,000. There was a guy running the system and he basically handled the changing of playlists on my Ipod. We felt like we had our own DJ with the exception of making our own announcements for the first dance and cake cutting. At one point during the reception my husband pulled Cecilia on to the dance floor to dance with us. I know she must have been thinking we were somewhat insane at that point.

 

Dreams Spa- A+

My package included my hair styling and makeup so I emailed the spa a couple of weeks before the wedding to set up the appointment. The spa supervisor responded to my email and set up a time of 11am on our wedding day. I also set up appointments for my bridesmaids, maid of honor and mother. I paid for their hair as a thank you for being in the wedding. In total their hair styling cost me $140.00 for 3 people. They all have long hair so the cost was $55 per person minus a 15% discount. Everyone was happy with the hairstyles that they picked out of a book while waiting in the salon. I was clueless on what I wanted to do with my hair but I saw I bride the previous day who had her hair done there and I wanted done like she had it done. The girl who did my hair did an excellent job. My hair did not move an inch while walking down the walkway to the gazebo. I told her I wanted my makeup very natural and that is exactly what she did. I was impressed with the job that they did!!! In addition, they offer you drinks while getting your hair done. I started drinking margaritas at 11am to calm my nerves down. I think I had 3 of them while sitting in the chair getting my hair done. I was pretty relaxed by the time I left.

 

The package also included a couples massage, which I scheduled along with the hair appointments. We waited until everyone left on Monday to get our massage. It was a great experience getting a massage in a hut while listening to the waves crashing. I highly recommend this to everyone. You have the choice of an indoor massage or an outdoor one. You can get an indoor massage anywhere but an outdoor massage by the beach is truly an experience. I normally get deep tissue massages but the couples massage is a Swedish massage. It is more of a body rub down they do not work on specific areas of your body. It was free and it was very relaxing so I cannot complain too much. These massages normally cost $225.00.

 

Photographer – Cecilia Dumas A++++++

I cannot say it enough… This woman is the bomb!!!! She arrived at my room promptly at 3pm with her assistant. She took the pictures of the details and then starting taking pictures of me getting ready. She directed me for the pose shots but all in all she stood out the way while we got dressed. She made sure to get us our pictures before we left on Tuesday morning. She came to the resort at 10pm on Monday night to deliver our pictures from the wedding and TTD session. They are amazing!!!! Along with the pictures I got 2 cd’s of all the pictures taken. I would recommend her to anyone looking for a photographer. She is also reasonably priced.

 

Videographer – A+

We had Mike Cantarell shot our video. I honestly did not notice him being there until after we were done with the ceremony and were taking group pictures. The edited video was excellent and I have watched it over a dozen times already. I told him the songs to add to the video and he added them with no problem. The video is exactly 30 minutes long and I am glad that we decided to do it. I told Cecilia that it was very important that he be there because the video was going to my grandmother in Puerto Rico who could not attend the wedding. She assured me that he would be there no matter what. He got a lot of footage of things that I missed because we were taking pictures. He also dropped off the video Monday night to ensure that we had it before we went home.

 

Ceremony – A

We had a symbolic ceremony since we had gotten married at home a few days prior. I really did not care too much about the ceremony script but I requested that we have a woman to perform the ceremony. Cecilia said that the woman who was going to be doing the ceremony spoke very good English. Our ceremony was at 4pm and I did not meet her until a few minutes before the ceremony. I asked her to keep it simple and quick. We wanted to move along with our celebration. In my opinion, I think she did an excellent job. We had the sound system with the microphone for the ceremony so everyone got the chance to hear her speak. Personally, I do not know how anyone can hear anything without a microphone in the gazebo with all the wind blowing. The ceremony was perfect except for the point where we exchanged rings. I was so nervous that I put his ring on the wrong hand!!! I should have known something was wrong when the ring would not go in easily. My husband went along with it and then put his hands behind back to switch the ring over to the correct finger. I guess everyone has one event that they will never forget during their wedding.

 

Cocktail Hour/ Dinner/Cake – B

Once we finished the group pictures my guests went over to the terrace for the cocktail hour. I really cannot comment on the food because by the time we got back from taking our pictures all the food was gone!!! There were some onion rings in one of the pans but I did not order onion rings so I do not know what that was all about. I had Cecilia bring out the cake so that the photographer could take pictures of a fake cake cutting and the table decorations. I have to say that the cake was halfway how I wanted it. I had asked for one of the upgraded cakes but with fuchsia and orange ribbon around it. I also wanted small beads around the second layer of the cake. What I got was a cake with the ribbon but the small beads where actually big globs of icing around the cake. It still looked pretty but not exactly what I pictured. I think that if you have a specific cake in mind you might want to bring in a picture for the baker. I guess I was not too upset because I had a beautiful cake for our at home ceremony.

 

We sat down for dinner where we had the Caesar salad, Lobster Bisque and the Dreams Trilogy. A lot of my guests complained that the bisque was too fishy. I love seafood so I did not notice that. I was not too crazy about the Dreams Trilogy. I am not too fond of steak but I tried a small piece of it. Let’s just say that it was not the best cut of meat. I found mine to be very rubbery. I mostly ate the seafood that it came with. Once we were done with dinner we cut the cake and had coffee. Some people liked the chocolate cake but I hated it. I love chocolate but this was not real chocolate!! The other half of the cake was vanilla and I could see that many people preferred the vanilla.

 

I also wanted to mention that if anyone is really attached to their Coca-Cola you might want to bring some with you. The soda that is bottled in Mexico has a very different taste. This applies to all the sodas. I was told that they use sugar cane as a sweetener rather than using the sugar that is used in the U.S. My husband went through Coke withdrawal during the days we were there He totally hated the taste of the soda!!!

 

Hopefully I covered everything. If anyone has any questions please feel free to contact me. All in all our experience at Dreams was very positive and I would highly recommend this resort to anyone who is looking to have a destination wedding. They really cater to you. As a side note, they post the next day’s activities and announcements in all the elevators. The day that we arrived I noticed that our names were on the list of the people who were celebrating their honeymoon or anniversaries. My husband swiped a copy from one of the elevators so that we could have as a keepsake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dc22173]

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[MarieSam]

Diana you look AMAZING!!! Looks like your wedding day was wonderful, I love the colors you chose. Congrats and best wishes

[*Jen* OPPRN]

OMG you look aawesome - the pic's are gorgeous - can't wait to see more!!

[nickicolb123]

so pretty! I really like how you had your reception set up

[imapepper]

Diana!!! AMAZING! I am loving the pics! Congrats. We are having the same colors for our wedding! I wish you many years/decades of happiness

 

Amma

www.ammaandlester.com

6-27-09

[~*petals*~]

Wow-- your pictures are beautiful! Congratulations on a wonderful day!!!

[SIMBASIM]

Great review. You are a beautiful bride! Thanks for the tip on the desert trade for an upgraded cake!

[nic123]

Diana you look beautiful. I love your dress and the reception setup. I noticed you didn't wear your veil during the ceremony. Is it really too windy for it? This is the only thing that bums me out about the gazebo. Otherwise, it's perfect!

 

Congrats on your wedding!

[~*Kathy*~]

Great review and pics, thanks so much for sharing! I loooove your dress, it looked perfect for a DW! Congrats!!