Ror review 4/29/09

[tmemise]

Hi everyone! Here is my review and I hope it helps all the new brides (or grooms) going to the ROR.

 

Airport- We booked our trip through Sunquest and our airplane for departure from Toronto was Skyservice and to be honest this was the worst part. For those of you that are using them please please pack light. Skyservice has a limit of 20 kg per person! Even if you have two bags they must total 20kg and 1 carry-on @ 5 kg. This was a huge problem for us because we have 2 baby girls (3yrs & 8mths), myself and my wife. There was no way that we could have only had one bag each so we had to pay $380 dollars for overweight, after moving some things to friends and family to carry for us! This was not part of the budget and really upset my bride due the lack of help Skyservice was giving. The plane was full and the seats were so tight, the most uncomfortable plane ride I’ve ever been on. Food was awful and my party was spread all over the plane.

 

 

MoBay Airport & Bus Ride[/b] – The MoBay airport was nothing I expected after never being there and 20+yrs since I’ve been to Jamaica. It’s very nice, clean and small - lol. Getting through customs was fine but when we got outside it was pouring rain and our bus was not close by. Our porter tried to get the bus to come close to the pickup area (which is a complete mad house and crowded) but was not able to, so, we all made a run for the bus and got soaked in the process. The bus ride is an 1hr 30mins long along the coast and it was great trip. They pointed out little things along the way and we were able to see a lot of the other resorts along the way. Some of the resorts are beautiful (Iberostar Rose Hall and Grand Bahia, to name a couple) and others, were not so great, (Starfish, Sandals MoBay). The bus made a stop at this great little place for food, drinks and restroom break, which everyone enjoyed.

 

The Spa- I’m not a spa type of guy, but I must say this was an enjoyable experience. I recommend the “Hot Stone” massage! Me and my bride both did and she also got the “neck,back & shoulder” massage. She got her hair braided in Toronto, but they styled at spa, which looked amazing.

 

ROR- Ladies (and gents) this resort is in one word…AMAZING! The ROR is HUGE and I can’t stress that enough. For any brides that have family coming that can’t get around that well please request rooms close to the elevators. We had the JR Suite, which was nice but we had some phone and fridge issues that they fixed quickly. We were lucky enough to get the room upgrade on the Monday and let me say the room was perfect. The beach, pools and the grounds are spectacular. The resort is constantly being cleaned by staff day and night.

 

Food/Bars & Entertainment – Disco is good place to hang out once the entertainment is done at 11pm, however this also depends on the group your with. One night we went it and NO BODY was in there and other night it was full. The disco is not that big, but since not everyone goes it works.There are bars all over the resort, and for the most part, there isn’t a drink they can’t make. The sports bar and Blue mountain bar are open the latest. We’ve all read that only those that stay in the suites have access to the special restaurants, this is debatable. You have to wake up early to line-up to make a reservation (7am). We saw some group members who were not in the executive suites book at the “special” restaurant so all I can say is that if you are not in one, and you want to eat there, wake up early and give it a try. Also, you should you know that you can only make a reservation the day you want to book it, not prior to as some people may be used to and you are only allowed to book a max of 6 ppl per person/room. For example we booked a reservation for 30 people at the Mamme Bay Steak House our last night there, however to do so 5 of us had to line up to make the reservation and for a group that large we had to have the 9 pm slot as the 7 pm had 2 wedding receptions happening and could not accommodate our group. For the “special” restaurants there are either 2 or 3 time slots available depending on which one you are going to. You should know that at these restaurants you have to arrive on-time and you only have approximately 1 hr 15 min to eat depending on what time you made your reservation for. Our favourite place was the Jerk Hut (open 12-3 everyday) and St.Annes. The entertainment was hit and miss. Some nights it was fun and entertaining and other nights it was like watching train wreck. They have activities throughout the day which are listed on a board in the main foyer for everyone to see.

 

Spa – I’m not a spa type of guy, but I must say this was an enjoyable experience. I recommend the “Hot Stone” massage! Me and my bride both did and she also got the “neck,back & shoulder” massage. She got her hair braided in Toronto, but they styled at spa, which looked amazing.

 

Wedding Day April 29th 1pm - The day was everything I imagined and more. My bride looked so beautiful. Before I go more into it I have to say something about Chandlyn and Nikki. These women are the best and my wedding would not have been what it was without them. They made us feel like we were the only wedding for that day. They took care of everything and anything we needed and more. I know some of you have said that you can’t hear back from her and I just would like to say that she does get very busy taking care of the brides that are on the resort and we have to remember that they do 3 weddings a day 6 days a week. So, all I’m saying is keep in mind their hectic schedules and be patient. On my first day I was able to catch her twice and told her of the concerns that BDW brides had. She understood and said it was hard to get to everyone in a timely matter but she does get to them. I recommended doing a website that gave a lot of information about packages and location and pics to help answer some of the questions we all had and I hope they do it. Now back to the wedding day. The weather was great and my bridal party looked fantastic. The beach gazebo was decorated with orange and white flowers and that made a big difference. The minister I found out was family which made the day even more special. We didn’t use Michael for pics because we found out one of the many guests that attended our wedding was a photographer and we decided to use him and he took great pics for us. However, we did book the videographer for 3 hrs from Photoshop which came out great. We did the private reception for 4hrs at the plantation and had the DJ play from 8:30 to 11:00. We were able to change the menu somewhat to suite our family and guest and everyone loved the food. Many BDW brides have mentioned that the staff is great and I agree with them totally! From check-in to check-out the staff made our stay there amazing. My bride handpicked the staff for our reception because of the way they took care of us during our stay.

 

Overall we had such a great time that I’m already thinking about my next trip there. I hope this helps any future brides with their plans.

 

I have posted the link that gives a visual tour of the resort and my bobsled ride but the second part of the resort tour is too long for youtube. If I can edit it I will post it. Enjoy for now

 

Happy Husband!

 

 

http://rorweddingapril29th2009.shutterfly.com

 

Bobsled ride

YouTube - BOBSLED IN OCHO

 

Visual tour of ROR

YouTube - ROR REVIEW

[kari]

Congrats!!

Thanks for the review. Sounds like a fab time!! I cant wait to go. Iam in countdown mode now....2 months till ROR!!

3 questions...

how much did the DJ cost? and did you bring your own music? and did you get to choose the color of your flowers for the gazebo?

Cant wait to see pics.

[tmemise]

Thank you.

 

DJ: It is $150/hour, however, we did what some past brides suggested and asked him if he could stay an extra 1/2 hour for $50. Total cost for the DJ was $350 ($300 to Chandlyn + $50 to the DJ personally).

 

Music: We did bring our own music and our own ipod with docking system with extra speakers, fortunately though, we did not have to use the docking system or speakers. Chandlyn has a sound system that has connections for the ipod, so we just plugged it in and played our own pre-selected songs. We did this for the ceremony and the first 2 hours of the reception, the DJ took over for the last 2 1/2 hours.

 

Flowers: Yes we choose our colours. Chandlyn advised us if the colours were available we would able to get them.

 

You can view some of the pics on the Shutterfly link at the bottom of the review.

 

Enjoy.

[~*petals*~]

Thanks for this review-- it's nice to hear from a groom!

[ukbride]

Congradulations! You both look really happy

 

Thanks for the review

[Helen_S81]

Thanks Maurice! It's great to have a ROR review from the groom's point of view. I checked out your pictures and you both looked lovely. Love that everyone is in neutral colours. I also checked out the video tour of ROR. What a great thing for you to have done for any future brides! Well thought out and executed!

 

Congratulations on your wedding!

[kari]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tmemise Thank you. DJ: It is $150/hour, however, we did what some past brides suggested and asked him if he could stay an extra 1/2 hour for $50. Total cost for the DJ was $350 ($300 to Chandlyn + $50 to the DJ personally). Music: We did bring our own music and our own ipod with docking system with extra speakers, fortunately though, we did not have to use the docking system or speakers. Chandlyn has a sound system that has connections for the ipod, so we just plugged it in and played our own pre-selected songs. We did this for the ceremony and the first 2 hours of the reception, the DJ took over for the last 2 1/2 hours. Flowers: Yes we choose our colours. Chandlyn advised us if the colours were available we would able to get them. You can view some of the pics on the Shutterfly link at the bottom of the review. Enjoy.

Thanks so much for the info. We werent sure if we should bring the docking system and speackers, its great they hve all the connections for it. I take it you liked the DJ if you asked him to stay extra long :-) is there only one DJ and if not who did you guys use?
Your pics are great!!

[tmemise]

From what i saw there are 2 DJs. Before the reception started i pulled the DJ aside and told him what type of music i wanted to hear and didn't want to hear.

[baj]

Congrat's and thank for sharing your review and pictures. Well expressed with your virtual tour.

[kris]

Thanks so much for you review...Sure sounded like you had fun on the bobsled ride ..haha. Thanks alot for the virtual tour too, it's so much better to visualize it. Thanks again and Congratulations