April 2010 Brides

[taylorwd]

Nice teasers sasse75! Really beautiful everything!

 

Suzy, I LOVE the gazebo you got married in!!

 

We're doing an AHR but it's not until June 26th.

[caribbeanLover]

Michele this is for you.

So DH and I are talking about another vacation, don't know when, just looking.. so I decided to go look at reviews for the Grand Palladium in Jamaica (since we loved the one in PC so much) this is what I found, did you feel any of this?!?!

 

 

(from Tripadvisor)

We just returned from the Grand Palladium Lady Hamilton Jamaica. We stayed from April 21-28, 2010. We went for our wedding and had 19 guest that also joined us. Below are all the problems we encountered and some tips....

-could not get into the spa to get my hair done for the wedding.

-wedding planner could not even hook me up to get my hair done or offer free flowers for my hair.

-the wedding was at noon, no one showed up to pick me up for the wedding until 12:25, so I was 1/2 hour late to my own wedding-rediculous.

-house keeping didn't even have our room clean by the time the ceremony was done, so we came back to a dirty room after we were married.

-we stayed in a honeymoon suite (which is the most expensive room), and they cleaned our room last everyday (around 4-6pm).

-poor service all around

-the concierge or the shops on the resort never had change like $1's, $5's. So take plenty of change for tips etc.

-make sure you take a large insulated mug for drinks, they only serve drinks in small cups and it can take a while to get a drink.

-we had to wait 3 hours at the airport before we even left to go to the resort. which of course they never told us that we were waiting on other flights to arrive. we landed at 1:30pm and got to the resort at 5pm. the trip to the resort is under 1 hour.

-some of our party complained of stinky pillows.

-the airconditioning on the whole resort is terrible including our room. the men have to wear long pants to go to the restaurants (not the buffets), so they were constantly sweating during dinner.

-good luck getting a ride from your room in the golf carts half of the time. i couldn't tell you how many times we called for a ride when we were dressed up, and no one ever showed up.

-don't bother paying for the snorkeling trip for $16/person. the reef they take you to is kind of dead. just put a deposit down for the snorkel and mask and snorkel off of the beaches, it is way better and free.

-the bus trip to Negril was fun, but the shopping they take you to is a complete tourist trap and there are no good deals except the blue mountain coffee which was $16. on the resort it was around $30.

-don't worry about getting jamaican currency, everyone takes US dollars.

-good luck getting a drink for breakfast, most of the time we were finished eating before anyone got to us to ask us for a drink.

-if you want jerk chicken at the resort, be prepaired to wait about an hour unless you get there before they open. it's not that great anyway.

-it seems that things are getting more dangerous because when we left we got a local newspaper at the airport and the headline read.... 522 murders in the last 117 days.

-the resort was very safe.

-they give you 2 free red stripes/day, so if you don't drink them leave a note in your fridge for them to leave the 2 free ones anyway.

-if you want lobster, it is $30 each at any of the restaurants, but it is tasty.

-the honeymoon suite is pretty nice with an outside shower, and a huge jacuzzi tub. we had a porch with an ocean view that was beautiful.

-in general we had a great time with our friends and the resort itself is beautiful. for spending extra money and getting married, we had the worst service than the rest of our party.

-don't expect anything from the casino. it is not even a casino, just slots.

[hoyt75]

Dang! I was a trip advisor mongrel before we left and I just decided that it was kind of like watching the weather... so many opinions and the opinions just keep changing. I read a lot of good reviews, and a lot of bad reviews about our resort. We decided to keep our expectations low b/c it was Mexico and whatever happened, happened. It turned out to be amazing and the best thing we've ever done. I think trip advisor has a lot of great information on it, but you have to take it with a grain of salt (and tequilla!).

[caribbeanLover]

LOL!!!!!!! love it!!

 

Your right.. after reading reviews for weeks before I booked the wedding, then booked it and read for another month, I realized I didn't need to read them, there was to many good and not enough bad. People like to complain or just expect way to much out of a different country those people should stay home!

[taraappl]

Hey all... I know I've jumped on and posted a couple things since I've been back... just know that I have been popping in to try and keep up with everything that is going on too. I wanted to post how everything went on our trip.... remember I'm the girl with the crappy MOH? lol..... Well heres how it went.

 

We arrived on Saturday 4/17. We got there in the afternoon and it rained for the rest of the day which was fine because we were all pooped from traveling anyways.

 

Sunday was beautiful and so was the rest of the week. My MOH was staying in a room by herself and she quickly took to my step daughter Kelsey (14). However as the week would go on I caught her many times saying things that were totally inappropriate in front of Kelsey. MOH and Kelsey got stuck driving a golf cart in the downpouring rain one day and we saw them drive by and we made fun of them a little bit about it as they were going past us and she shouted, "Stop making fun of me or I'll SH*T on your face". Yup... that was the last straw. I pulled her aside after she got into the lobby and told her that she was a 27 year old woman who is supposed to set a good example for others. She is a nanny for Christ sake. I asked her if she would ever talk like that in front of her nanny kids? She obviously said no and I said well its no different here. She is a child. She apologized and that was that. Then we quickly realized our beach was a topless beack which I didnt realize. Nothing I read about it mentioned that at all. Oh well. No big deal. As soon as my MOH found out about that, she BEGGED me to let her run around topless. I said absolutely not. I have a ton of guests here and the last thing I want is for them to see you exposed. Those were just a couple of the things that happened with her.

 

Tuesday we realized that in Mexico you cannot sign over a check to someone. We had written a couple cashier's checks to ourselves because we couldnt wrap things up quick enough before we left. We were waiting on a couple vendors to find out who we were supposed to write that check out to. So.... we had a bunch of useless checks. We also had written a cashier's check out to our coordinator. We wrote it out to the business name thinking that would be just fine. Well it wasnt. It turns out we were supposed to make the check out to her personally because that is the name on the checking account. Nightmare. We solved it in a couple of hours though which was great. My dad ended up wiring us the $$ and we got it taken care of. I then cancelled the checks and paid him back when we got home.

 

The day of the wedding was perfect. I couldnt have asked for a better day. My hair was awesome and I had been in the sun for a few days and was sun kissed. The entire day was truly magical. If you have time, check out my pictures. I'm still waiting for my photo's pictures to arrive. They should arrive today so I'm super excited for that. Click see older posts to see most of the pictures I posted myself. My mom posted a bunch of videos that takes up an entire page. http://ourislatrip.shutterfly.com

 

Overall, everything went well. We totally didnt budget for enough money and some stuff got thrown on our credit card. Our hotel was lovely and we couldnt have asked with better weather. I've been keeping up and it sounds like everyone for the most part had a great time too.

[caribbeanLover]

Sounds like I'm not the only one who had drama. Which no offence I'm kind of glad I'm not the only one who did. If it was I'd feel like it was only my group who were nuts, and drama lovers!!

 

So glad you had a wonderful/beautiful ceremony. Came down to everything being worth it all!!

[jk1101]

Quote:

Originally Posted by caribbeanLover Michele this is for you. So DH and I are talking about another vacation, don't know when, just looking.. so I decided to go look at reviews for the Grand Palladium in Jamaica (since we loved the one in PC so much) this is what I found, did you feel any of this?!?! (from Tripadvisor) We just returned from the Grand Palladium Lady Hamilton Jamaica. We stayed from April 21-28, 2010. We went for our wedding and had 19 guest that also joined us. Below are all the problems we encountered and some tips.... -could not get into the spa to get my hair done for the wedding. -wedding planner could not even hook me up to get my hair done or offer free flowers for my hair. I booked my spa appointments online about 2 months in advance as was recommended. i'm going to guess this chick did not - my girlfriend did get a facial the day of the wedding without booking in advance - who knows? -the wedding was at noon, no one showed up to pick me up for the wedding until 12:25, so I was 1/2 hour late to my own wedding-rediculous. We were all picked up on time - if you called for the carts sometimes they came and sometimes we waited - they are definitely on island time there...lol -house keeping didn't even have our room clean by the time the ceremony was done, so we came back to a dirty room after we were married. they were not up on the room cleaning thing although on our wedding day they cleaned it while we were out and we came back to a bubble bath with rose petals and rose petals on the bed spelling out I <3 you with champagne and fruit. They didn't replace towels all the time...the place has 1800 rooms - I imagine it's tough to keep up with these things -we stayed in a honeymoon suite (which is the most expensive room), and they cleaned our room last everyday (around 4-6pm). -poor service all around -the concierge or the shops on the resort never had change like $1's, $5's. So take plenty of change for tips etc. I was prepared with TONS of singles - my MIL had to get change a few times - you needed to go to the front desk to get it, not the shops -make sure you take a large insulated mug for drinks, they only serve drinks in small cups and it can take a while to get a drink. My Giant 42oz cup was the biggest hit of my OOT bag - so glad i did that - the drinks were tiny and yes you had to wait but really, you're on vacation, RELAX, walk to the next bar if you have to, there were like 13 of them -we had to wait 3 hours at the airport before we even left to go to the resort. which of course they never told us that we were waiting on other flights to arrive. we landed at 1:30pm and got to the resort at 5pm. the trip to the resort is under 1 hour.that's not really the resort's fault, is it? -some of our party complained of stinky pillows. -the airconditioning on the whole resort is terrible including our room. the men have to wear long pants to go to the restaurants (not the buffets), so they were constantly sweating during dinner. yes, the AC wasn't very good in some of the rooms or the restaurants - i'm usually cold so for me it was great - a bit hot for the men wearing pants - my parents room was very cold - people were taking the covers off the thermostats to mess with them but it wasn't boiling hot - -good luck getting a ride from your room in the golf carts half of the time. i couldn't tell you how many times we called for a ride when we were dressed up, and no one ever showed up. -don't bother paying for the snorkeling trip for $16/person. the reef they take you to is kind of dead. just put a deposit down for the snorkel and mask and snorkel off of the beaches, it is way better and free. Agreed - we snorkled every day -the bus trip to Negril was fun, but the shopping they take you to is a complete tourist trap and there are no good deals except the blue mountain coffee which was $16. on the resort it was around $30. -don't worry about getting jamaican currency, everyone takes US dollars. -good luck getting a drink for breakfast, most of the time we were finished eating before anyone got to us to ask us for a drink. -if you want jerk chicken at the resort, be prepaired to wait about an hour unless you get there before they open. it's not that great anyway. they made it constantly from 12-4pm - you have to wait when they make it but it was very good -it seems that things are getting more dangerous because when we left we got a local newspaper at the airport and the headline read.... 522 murders in the last 117 days. That's on the whole island, not just around grand palladium Look at a map - it's actually very big -the resort was very safe. -they give you 2 free red stripes/day, so if you don't drink them leave a note in your fridge for them to leave the 2 free ones anyway. In your room fridge - it's free from every bar all day, just not in the bottle -if you want lobster, it is $30 each at any of the restaurants, but it is tasty. REALLY?? I didn't know that -the honeymoon suite is pretty nice with an outside shower, and a huge jacuzzi tub. we had a porch with an ocean view that was beautiful. -in general we had a great time with our friends and the resort itself is beautiful. for spending extra money and getting married, we had the worst service than the rest of our party. -don't expect anything from the casino. it is not even a casino, just slots. Yes that kind of sucked

People like to complain. I could have complained about lots of stuff but really, the place was gorgeous and I GOT MARRIED!!!!!
The food was delicious and I pretty much had a buzz on every day all day.
People go there expecting US (or Canadian) 5 Star service and they have to remember, you are on an ISLAND that is almost like a 3rd world country in places. When you drive through parts of jamaica, DR and Mexico, they are POOR, dirt poor - and there attention to detail and their sense of urgency is just different than ours. People need to re-effing LAX and stop being so dramatic.

I stopped reading trip advisor a while ago for my resort too Tara.

I do check it for other places - we're going to Virginia next weekend so I do like to see if EVERY report is bad, it's a sign, and now Expedia and other sites have ratings too - you can't get away from it. But this chica should have made her hair appointment in advance...they tell you to.

Ok, I'm done.

[katie424]

Good call on Trip Advisor reports! While it is impossible to avoid a few mishaps or expect an absolutely perfect experience, part of traveling is being in a new place, where things may not always be as you expect it. I could not believe the reports I read about our resort. It freaked us out a little and we had to ban reading reviews after a while. Some people have nothing better to do than complain right? I mean c'mon, look at the beaches in these beautiful tropical paradises we all visited, is it really that bad?!?

 

Take it with a grain of salt, and tequila, is a perfect saying Tara!!! Love it!

 

Luckily - with Trip Advisor and this website, I think we can all shine light on the honest truth about these resorts!

Hope vacation location and resort hunting goes well Tracy!

[SuzyQ76]

I posted a not so short review on our resort - it has some pics too!

Still trying to catch up on all the happenings here on our thread! Looks like it might take a while!!

 

Hoping all are doing well as Married Ladies!!

 

And as for trip advisor reviews - they had me scared sh!*less, but I'm so glad I didn't listen to MOST of it!!

 

Complainers will find anything to complain about...but it's all in how you handle everything!!

 

The link to my review, uh hm, novel, lol is in my siggy!

[hoyt75]

You did a great job on your review suzy! You've def given me a bit of boost of motivation to write my own! Thanks