Grand Sirenis Riviera Maya Brides??

[calgarybride2015]

That's gorgeous @@emjay84 it looks fantastic. Did you have to pay extra to have the white curtains around the perimeter and at the center of the palapa?

 

 

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No they are included as are the flowers on it . If you wanted the white sheers to be another color it costs a fee.

 

I had Aranza she's on my FB now or id say to tell her hi from me!

 

 

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[TaraMarie33]

I brought 53 guests to the grand sirenis for my wedding and things were a disaster from start to finish.

You would think with a group of 53 people spending thousands and thousands of dollars on a wedding - we would have an above average experience, maybe even average. My whole group's experience and ours (my now husband and I) was waaaaayy below average. Our departure transfer were wrong, many people were charged twice at checkout for things, food was terrible, we were stalked to go to time share meetings, drinks were watered down, shuttles took 35 minutes when they said "5 more minutes", etc etc etc.

One of the biggest upsets was my rehearsal dinner. I had made a reservation with concerning (which took me almost 2 hours - organizing everyone's rooms, because they couldn't this an one a la cart) - and after confirming the reservation. I wrote it down and went to visit the Brazilian restaurant to speak to the head waiter. I confirmed my reservation with him (Edgar), even talked about where we would set up the table. On the day of the rehearsal dinner, I called concierge (pressed "0") and asked to be transferred to the restaurant for my reservation to confirm once again. The man on the phone said we would have two long tables - confirmed 9pm.

I told all of my guests not to eat - because we were having a great big rehearsal dinner, and at 8:50 we headed over to the Brazilian restaurant. We waited in line like everyone else, and when it was time to sit down we were told there was no reservation.

This was impossible. With all the confirming I had done, it had to be a mistake. Time now is 9:10, trying to figure out what happened. Meanwhile the host and Edgar as speaking poorly about us in Spanish, even so far in the end to call me names in Spanish... I can understand Spanish almost fluently, this they obviously didn't know. They had me wait 40 minutes for a "manager", none ever came. Then they continued to tell us that all the restaurants were closing, so we could go to the buffet for my rehearsal dinner.

I was furious. In any other situation at any of resort, someone would at least apologize for the mistake and try their best to accommodate a wedding party. They said they had no staff to serve us this late, no more food left, everything in the book.

Needless to say, we ended up eating French fries, fruit and rice for my rehearsal dinner. Not once did anyone apologize or take responsibility - and I'm supposed to now go into my wedding day happy with this resort? How? It only gets worse from here .. The wedding morning, charging my mother and I both for hair and makeup twice per room (four total charges for just the two of us) - when I was under the assumption that we had paid for it the day before. They asked us the pay for the wedding 4 days in advance - before anything happens, then AFTER charge us for all the extras. Why not just have us pay for everything all at once? We had to take time out of our days 4 separate times to pay for wedding things, all before the big day.

Another disaster - our wedding group was told we were moved to two different flights home. Although not the wedding departments fault, the hotel rep. was the one who let us know about this, which ended up being wrong information. My now husband and I had to spend hours also dealing with this.

At one point one of our guests ordered room service at about 9:30pm - free room service ends at 11pm. The food took 2.5 hours (came around midnight). Upon checkout my guest was expected to pay for everything he ordered because it came after 11pm, when he had ordered at 9:30pm. He ordered 3 meals - that's a sizeable "extra" when room service is free and took 2.5 hours. Disgusting customer service.

My wedding day was beautiful, but no thanks to the coordinators - thanks to Mother Nature and the beautiful sunshine. I had brought in my suitcase (and paid extra for baggage) all the candles and decorations I wanted at the wedding. After the wedding they gave them back, 38 candles untouched - why would I bring them and pay for extra baggage if you weren't going to use them at my wedding?

Wedding decorations and picture frames were broken when returned to me. I paid lots of money for a DJ at the wedding - I gave him an entire playlist and he still played music that was not on it. He disappeared for several songs at a time, he turned off the music completely during speeches and then was gone to turn it back on. His "DJ" booth was just an old MacBook. Songs were skipping left and right - even our first dance (where my husband was singing along to me with a microphone), the music skips twice. What was I paying for? I could play music off of my Mac and it WOULDNT skip!

These are only a few things .. There were 800 other issues that were so disappointing. We had to pay about $8USD per chair at the wedding - and when we saw them the wedding day, they were chipped and tattered and the paint was discoloured differently on every chair. These were my beautiful "upgraded" chairs I was talked into. Not the free chairs, the expensive ones.

We were also talked into renting 2 vans, and 1 golf kart for the wedding. I waited over 35 minutes for the golf cart to get my hair and makeup done, and our kart on the way to the ceremony was a half hour late - making my bridesmaids and I a half hour late to my own wedding ceremony. Why did I pay for 3 "vehicles"? We didn't even end up taking the one I rented .. It never showed. We took the resort shuttle to my wedding.

The worst part of it all was that no one took responsibility for any of these issues. Not once was there one apology, not one supervisor or manager that ever spoke to us, (outside of the wedding office) and when they finally offered us something ... It was a chance to sit in the spa pools for free. What a joke. I just spent literally thousands and thousands of dollars (we didn't do the free wedding, we upgraded every single thing) - and brought 53 people here, and at one point they told us "you are only 53 people, if you didn't stay with us another 53 people would have booked, we are sold out".

Ridiculous. Unfortunately this is a resort who does not care about customer service, or you as an individual at all. Their vision is to fill every seat, and charge them as much as you can. They didn't even offer us free wifi, but asked us to use it to show picture examples for the wedding.

The whole week was horrifying. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. If God forbid you do have any problems during your stay, they will laugh at you and talk about you in Spanish - then say there is nothing they can do. If there were a 0 stars option I would've given it that rating.

[yycbride2016]

@@TaraMarie33 I'm sorry to hear your experience was so horrible. I'm getting married there in 5 weeks and was wondering a few things?

- who was your wedding coordinator?

- when you say they didn't use the decorations you brought, did you not tell them how you wanted them? Or what went wrong? I'm bringing a fair amount and I'd hate for it to not get used.

- was the ceremony and reception as you expected (minus the dj?)

 

Again sorry your experience was so upsetting for you. No ones wedding day should be so stressful. Here's hoping they improve on their mistakes in 5 weeks.

 

 

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[nkavanaugh]

@TaraMarie33 like @@yycbride2016 said I am so sorry your experience was so stressful, do you have any pointers for those of us going there? I have the presidential package mostly because my parents really wanted a rehearsal dinner so it would be really disappointing to have an experience like yours, totally unacceptable when like you said we are paying for those services! Like @@yycbride2016 I bought décor that matches my vision of my wedding and if I bring it all down and it goes unused I wont be pleased! Did you give the DJ an IPod or IPhone with music on it? I am wondering if that's the best route to go now. I hope once you see your pictures and some time passes you will only remember the good about the experience, no bride should have to feel that way leading up to and on her wedding day! 

[acw271011]

@TaraMarie33  I'm so sorry your wedding experience was such a disappointment for you. No bride should have to go through something like that. Have you investigated raising it higher up than the resort, like a head office?

 

As @@nkavanaugh said, I do hope somewhere you can find some good memories of your wedding and that you have some beautiful photos to look back on.

[calgarybride2015]

Awe Hun I'm so sorry to hear you went thru all of that. So disappointing

 

May I ask who your WC was? You mentioned a lot of issues that the WC should have been a part of (rehearsal dinner) or handled herself (decor) and makes me wonder what went wrong there.

 

Some of your 'minor' irritations I had too. I didn't get any special things like wifi or such for bringing 45 people. I tried the bride card more than once with no luck but let it go since my wedding went off just fine.

 

I feel for you and I hope you can move past it and remember you still married the love of your life.

 

 

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[emjay84]

Those white curtains in the middle are always there but then hanging lit up laterns are extra ($10 each)

 

 

Married Grand Sirenis on November 7, 2015

[Caddya]

I was just assigned a wedding coordinator!!! Yay!!! Her name is Aranza Arvizu. Have any of you worked with her? So excited/ scared! It's so real now!

 

 

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@@yycbride2016 I met Aranza when I visited the resort in December - got to chat with her a bit - seemed very nice, down to earth - hopefully she will make your day one to remember  

@@Caddya No way! Our wedding is on May 25th, 2016

@@AlexC That's crazy! We were going to go with the 25th but I believe the Palapa wasn't available on the Wednesday. So how's planning coming along? Have your guests already booked their flight tickets or not yet? 

[vivitazy]

ho boy, im feeling so nervous now after reading the bad review. im so sorry this went so badly for you Tara, 

here it is T - 65 days before the departure !!! 

i was going for the gold package and getting a DJ for the reception, but now i dont know if its worth it, 

im also trying to fill out the silver package and adding a private cocktail after the reception at the restaurent., 

 

this is getting really stressful now.. it was so far away and now its so close,

 

anyone else getting married there soon or anyone else who didnt have such a bad experience?

thanks

Viviane

[yycbride2016]

@@Caddya that's good news to hear! I'm looking forward to starting communication with her.

 

@@emjay84 thanks. Shame the lanterns aren't included too. They are so pretty.

 

@vibitazy I'm getting married there in 34 days. I'm not worried about how things will go. Even by reading that review it still sounds like the actual wedding was good. Others have used the dj had had no problems, I'm not too concerned about that. If you are you could contact love and lace (rental company) and rent her sound system where you can just hook up an iPod to it.

 

We are going with the free package and doing all the upgrades (private beach/palapa reception).

 

You think it's stressful at 65 days?! Try 34 hahaha.

 

 

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