Drtracy's MP Review ~ long and pic heavy

[drtracy]

So, I’m going to post my wedding review before my planning thread but I finished this one first.

Fair warning that this is long and pic heavy but I wanted to cover as much as possible. This site was wonderful in my planning process and I hope to pay it forward…

 

Airline – Jet Blue: A

 

We love the airline itself b/c you get more leg room and each seat has its own TV! While they don’t have any hanging closets the flight attendant laid my dress in its own compartment so that it didn’t get squished. We also had the same flight crew on both legs of our journey and they were so excited for us they gave us free drinks (wine). Jet Blue is also one of the few airlines that still offers snacks which was an added treat. As many airlines had been cancelling flights to Cancun at this time we were happy that neither our flight in nor out was cancelled. We had a slight delay on the way home and some bitch flight attendants but that was only on one leg of the journey and was soon forgotten. Another nice bonus was that we each got to check one bag for free and then it was only $20 for our extra baggage.

 

Cancun Airport – B

 

The airport was fine but they did take our temperature when we arrived. I give it a B simply b/c DH and I both pushed the green light but they stopped us anyway to look through our bags. I had one suitcase full of OOT stuff and it took a while to explain it to the customs people. One girl was giving me attitude but I had my receipts and showed her my wedding dress (seriously!) and finally got the nod.

A word to the wise, have your transportation settled before landing in Cancun and head straight to your pick up point. We were asked at least 15 times on our way out the door if we needed a ride. Several people will just walk up and try to help you with your bags, definitely don’t let them (unless of course you really do need a ride).

 

 

Airport Transfer – American Express: A

 

We were late in arriving but our shuttle was still there without a problem. He was sad that he had put the sign down with our name on it so he ran back to get it to show us. It was kinda funny. The shuttle transfer was fine and we were the first to be dropped off and the last to be picked up on the way to the airport so that was nice.

 

Check in – Moon Palace Golf and Spa Resort: A

 

What’s not to love about getting a cool towel and a flower when you arrive? While we weren’t offered drinks right away most of our guests were. Due to the flu we were able to get into our room right away (the resort was only at 20% capacity when we arrived). All of our guests were in the same area of the resort and my MOH and her husband were right down the hall! The bell boys were great with our bags, I did feel guilty b/c we were on the 3rd floor and there’s no elevator so they have to carry the bags up all the steps.

 

Resort: A++

 

Okay, I know that I’m supposed to be sad about the flu thing and trust me it was an incredibly stressful week leading up to the trip, but it may have been a random blessing for our group. The resort is AMAZING, so beautiful and huge with a ton of employees milling around. The pools are gorgeous and the view from our room was spectacular:

 

The pool Nizuc Side

 

View from the room

 

As I mentioned about the flu, the resort ranged from 10-20% capacity the whole time we were there. Because of this we had the most amazing service imaginable. I have no idea what the resort is like when it is busy but we had an entire section of the pool to ourselves, with the swim up bar and the best bartender (more on him later). We never had to wait for a table at the restaurants; they would seat our large groups with no problems. Servers and employees were always at our beck and call b/c they had nothing else to do! The only time there was ever a crowd was during the entertainment at night. The rooms were kept impeccably clean and the mini bar was always full. People must have been in and out of our rooms continuously b/c our toilet paper was always refolded. I know, this was weird but we’d leave for an hour and someone would have been in and refolded the TP. This was happening to everyone and we were laughing about the people that must be living in the bathroom. One friend even left a dollar on the TP to try and tip the folder, the TP got folded and the dollar was still there when we got back. So funny! Our first night out we went to a show and when we returned our bed was remade with a rose sitting on it and the sound system had romantic music playing. The towels were also periodically folded into hearts. The night before our wedding DH’s mom and the hotel staff worked at decorating our room and there were kissing swan towels, rose petals, and they came in and started the bath right before we got back to the room, very romantic!

 

 

[drtracy]

Food: B

 

I wish I could grade each restaurant individually b/c some were incredibly good and deserve A+’s but there were a couple that were just okay.

Our favorite was the Oriental restaurant MO-MO-NO-HA-NA – it was awesome, by far everyone’s favorite. They bring some sushi appetizers, then some fried appetizers that were all delicious. (I don’t like sushi but I tried one w/o meat and it was really good). I ordered my meal off the kids menu and it was still a huge portion and very tasty. Everything was so good that we really wanted to go back and eat there again but we only had one day left. The Mexican restaurant (Los Caporales) was also a favorite. The food was very tasty and they make your guacamole at the table, so fresh! You also have to try the Mayan Coffee, delicious even for non-coffee drinkers and the whole production (with fire!) is well worth it. We had our welcome dinner at Arrecifes and it was really good as well. A lot of meat but it was tasty and they have a good salad bar and desserts that are pretty yummy. They also let us toast with tequila so it was fun to see them bring out 32 shots. Palapa Fragata and Palapa Barracuda were just okay and room service was usually good but had a few hit or miss items. The service at each restaurant was phenomenal. Servers were very attentive and I really can’t think of a time when I wanted or had to wait on anything.

 

Drinks (AKA Best Bartender Ever, FRANCISCO!): A++

 

Yes, we love the bartender so much he gets his own rating. Because we basically had our own section of the pool area we also had our own bartender. Francisco was awesome, had made delicious drinks (I think I had a billion Miami Vices during the week). We liked him so much that we asked him to work the wedding reception. He changed his schedule (we had to also talk to his manager) and worked it. He was great. He would make us special drinks (the Tracy) and even made my friend a drink he called The Babymaker (they are TTC) it was hilarious. On our last day with the most of the group we inquired about drinks in coconuts that we saw on the other side of the resort. Francisco told us we had to go over there to get them. Being lazy none of us felt like leaving the pool. Well, best bartender ever noticed and went and got them for us. He had a bar hop retrieve some coconuts (they were still in their clusters) and proceeded to make us delicious drinks in these fabulous containers:

 

 

We all had our picture taken with him before we left. Too much fun.

 

[drtracy]

Wedding Coordinator: B-

 

I had to go with a B- here. I found out the day after I arrived that my original coordinator was no longer there (WTF?). So, I had to meet with Margarita Jiminez. She was new and I was the first bride she was meeting with. She basically just had all my emails with Nancy (my original WC) and we went back over everything. I’m pretty laid back so it didn’t completely freak me out but after our meeting we were supposed to go for our blood test. We went to the facility (it’s in the resort so that’s pretty nice) but no one was there. We had someone call around to find the doctor and finally about 30 minutes later someone showed up. Well, then the doctor said that he doesn’t do the wedding blood tests it’s someone that comes in from the city special to do it. We call around and find out that the person was never scheduled to come in that day. They asked if we could come in the next day at 11A. I got pissy on the phone b/c I had the letter with that day and time stated and we were going scuba-diving the next day and couldn’t make an 11A appointment. So, eventually they brought someone in later that day to do it. I’m glad they made the special trip in but it was very frustrating and wasted about 2 hours of our day.

The day of the wedding I had spa treatments all day and never heard from our saw the WC until 5:40 (the wedding was at 6). It was very frustrating b/c as soon as she showed up she wanted to get me out the door but I wanted to do a few things to my flowers and have a final toast with my BM’s and mom but we didn’t get to. I just felt very unnecessarily rushed right before the wedding. Also, she approached DH while he was waiting for me to sign off on the extra charges sheet, not the best time. Fortunately, DH told her that I had to do it b/c he didn’t know what was what, which turned out to be good b/c there were some things on their that I’d negotiated with Nancy to be free and Margarita didn’t know about them and had the charges on the sheet.

 

Spa: A-

Overall, my experience with the spa was great. I had a massage and an exfoliating scrub kind of thing. They both felt great and the shower in the room is a nice touch for after the scrub. The annoying this was that after my final shower (they have a great area where you can shower and get dressed before you leave) I wasn’t sure where to take my things. So, I left my robe and slippers in the shower stall. Before I even returned to my room they called to ask where my slippers were. It was very weird but kind of annoying b/c then I had to go back and forth with them about where I left them. Really, I need to take the $2 cheap slippers home with me?

 

Wedding Day: A

 

The horse and carriage was nice but b/c it was picking me up at my room, right next to the gazebo it seemed a little unnecessary. But, my dad and I had a nice little trip around part of the resort while everyone was getting settled into their seats. Everything seemed to go well and the minister did a really good job. I loved the fact that we were facing everyone and the minister stood back where everyone else was sitting. There was one small snafu with our poem, we were told we could pick one for someone to read and asked DH’s step-sister but the minister just read his own and kind of skipped that part. We cut our cake at the ceremony and when they brought it up I was pleasantly surprised, I thought it looked great.

 

 

At the end everyone got a glass of champagne for a toast then they were asked to line up for us to walk through them coming out of the gazebo, it turned out really nicely.

 

Wedding Photographers (Print and DVD): A-

For the life of me I can’t remember our photographer’s name. I really want to say it started with an “R†but I truly can’t recall. He was very good and but he didn’t really seem to have a plan with group pictures. I knew of some that I wanted but I wasn’t sure of all the standards. I basically had to yell for people and come up with it on the fly which was annoying. In retrospect I should have delegated this to someone. Given a list of must haves to a BM and had her coordinate. When we got to just DH and me on the beach he was much better. I basically told him I trusted his thoughts on our poses; he got all excited and took some really beautiful pics. You can see them all with the link below but here’s one of my favorites.

 

 

The DVD turned out great. I was pleasantly surprised. If I can figure out a way to post it I’ll add it to my siggy links!

 

TTD

We did a TTD session with Cecilia Dumas. You can read that review here:

http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t43299

[drtracy]

Last One --

 

Reception: B+

The reception was a lot of fun. We had a private function on the Bugambilia Terrace and got the Mexican Buffet. The food was okay, not as good as in the restaurants but not bad. I got sad that there was no guacamole for the chips (their guac is great) so DH asked a waiter and they brought me out a huge bowl. I didn’t do anything fancy with the tables (i.e. I didn’t pay for any special options) and I thought they looked fine.

 

Here’s the buffet set up:

 

Tables:

 

We added the iPod speakers for dancing. It came with a sorta DJ, he basically just sat and ran the equipment. Or so I thought. I turned into an actual DJ sometime during the night. The dinner started with music that wasn’t on the iPod but it was good so I didn’t think anything of it (mellow dinner music stuff). Then, we did the dances which all the songs were from our iPod. About 30 minutes into the fun dance music I noticed that a song was playing that I didn’t recognize, it wasn’t on our iPod. The DJ just started playing some of his own stuff. I have no idea where he got it but there it was. I was a little mad b/c we worked so hard on our list of songs but everyone was dancing so it wasn’t that big of a deal. We did end up buying an extra hour of music so that we could dance until almost 10P. It was a good time and I think the only time I sat down is when all the men decided to serenade me.  On one note, b/c it was very dark outside many of the pictures turned out really dark as well. There were some lights but the only things that look really good are what you are actually aiming for (you can see the center of the photo but it’s really dark around it). As you can see in the picture of me being serenaded.

 

 

Excursions: A

Most people never left the resort but DH and I did go out a few times. We went scuba diving and on a lobster dinner cruise. I also went on a BOB which is a “Breathing Observation Bubble.†I don’t recommend BOBing if you get even a little seasick. Of the 5 of us that went only 2 of us didn’t get sick from it. My uncle puked while under water and my dad heaved over the side of the boat. I do recommend the lobster dinner cruise. It’s about 3 hours long, they take you out to a nice spot on the water and the food was good. There are free drinks the whole time and a really good jazz saxophonist plays during the trip. It was very romantic.

 

Entertainment

The MP entertainment was very good. At night they had a show at one of their two large outdoor theaters. Our favorites were the Michael Jackson show and the Fire dancers. We went almost every night and had a really good time. The disco at the resort also opens at 1030P every night. We went the night after the wedding and had fun. Of course, there was no one really in there so we had a disco to ourselves.

 

If I forgot anything or there is anything else you’d like to know please feel free to ask.

 

On a side note, I realize that the resort was very different for me as it may be for others as we were there at a low capacity (from 10-20% on different nights) but from what I’ve heard the resort never really has a crowded feel anyway. I’m just really glad we braved the Swine Flu for our adventure. As did another couple that got married on the same day as us whom we met at the bar…

 

[MsSunshine]

Congrats! Glad you had a great wedding

[fudgie]

Congrats! I am glad that everything worked out great for you! Thanks for sharing

[~*DiAnE*~]

Congrats!! Sounds like you had a great time!! Thanks for sharing

[Jen_S]

Congrats looks like a great time!!

[*Heather*]

Love the review Tracy! I LOVE JetBlue also, the personal tv's are the best. I also love the rubber duckie pic and the one with the other couple with your piggie noses! So cute!

 

Glad you had a great time, and CONGRATS ! You looked so beautiful!

[Erika J]

Tracy- Great review with lots of details!! Thanks for sharing!