Grand Sirenis Riviera Maya Brides??

[Oilersbride]

I think it is such a crap shoot when trying to figure out when to organize the packages. if you do it too soon (because of the 90 day window for getting everyone booked with a great group rate) some people might not be able to figure out if they can go yet ... but if you wait you might get stuck with a high rate!  When did you request that people RSVP by ? We are getting married November 12 (11/12/13 courtesy of my fiance) and we fly out November 6 - with our RSVP requests to be in by September 30.  It's only giving us a month to order our wedding favors ordered and here before we leave (we want to do travel mugs) - does anyone know what kind of buffer might be good for ordering over and above who we have confirmed by our RSVP date? We are flexible with people coming down last minute as I completely understand someone might be able to score a wicked deal through an online sale or something the month before. Right now we have 33 confirmed guests including ourselves and the wedding party - I just don't want to be stuck with 10-15 extra mugs if no one books post RSVP date .... but I also don't want to look like a jerk saying you don't get a party favor because you decided to come after the RSVP date.... 

[Janelle0308]

Originally Posted by Leelou2000 

 

I'm from Ottawa getting married at GS May 2014 and we got our group booking with Air Canada Vacations - because we are going off season and have people coming from Ottawa, Toronto, N-B, N-S, and Calgary, we needed the cheap connectors. I am working with a travel coordinator with Flight Centre who has been AMAZING. She specializes in destination weddings so she knows what she's talking about and was able to get the best quotes given what we were looking for and great advice on what resort to choose. Our price was 1300 from TO, 1315 from Ottawa, 1350 from Quebec city, and between 1400-1430 from Calgary and N-B. Someone went to book past the 90 days and found the rates went up 200 per person!

Same thing happened to some of our guests as well.  Most are flying from Winnipeg with AirCanada Vacations and a couple from Ottawa and from Calgary.  Went to book and it was up a minimum of 200$.  We were previously warned about this so people knew beforehand - sucks as a surprise though! From Winnipeg, during spring break its 1800 including tax and same from Ottawa. Not sure what it is from Calgary though.

[Leelou2000]

We had to plan it way ahead of time because we had to secure the long weekend in May - in order to accommodate my fiancé's sister who is a teacher and wanted to come (who has since said she's on the fence, but that's a whole different story lol). We have 35 ppl booked now, and depending on what's going on in people's lives, we are going to have anywhere from 50-80 ppl - a huge group! But from here on out, I'm telling everyone to book separately because they can get a cheaper deal that way and I don't want people throwing away money because they couldn't commit so far ahead. Because we are having so many, we are going pretty cheap with wedding favours - getting these cute sandal shaped bottle openers and I will paint our initials on them in our wedding colours. So if we end up with 10 extra, itll only cost us about 25 nucks, no big deal you know? I am going to ask people to confirm with me by end of March (for a May wedding) whether they are coming or not, so that we can plan what meal we will have, seating arrangements, etc.

[yasminlkerr]

Hi girls,

 

Can any previous brides help - we are getting married in less than 2 weeks now (eek!) and I had stupidly made the assumption that there would be WIFI connectivity at the ceremony locations (near the palapa). My Grandmother is unable to make it to Mexico with us but we had arranged for one of our guests to link up to her on Skype so she can watch us get married & almost be there with us!

 

I decided to do a last minute check about the WIFI and have been told there is none, I have replied and asked if there is anything that can be done (but still awaiting a response) - does anyone have any experience with this? I'm sure it must be a problem for many brides not having family members be able to make so they must have something they can do! My worry is they'll come back to me and say there is but its hundreds of dollars! I'm desperate to figure something out as my Grandma will be so upset if we can't link up, and so will I :-(

 

Yasmin

[Chantel]

Hello Everybody!

 

I am looking for advice from past brides and those who have already traveled to the Grand Sirenis on where to have our rehearsal dinner? How does the rehearsal dinner process work - do we pick our top 3 locations and a night and they do their best to accommodate our group? Is anything else included in the presidential package when it comes to rehearsal night? I am thinking about requesting the Italian, Japanese, and the El Rancho as our options - are these good choices?

 

Also, my fiance and I are trying to make plans to meet our guests at a particular location once we get down to Mexico as a 'welcome night', but I don't think the resort has a bar catalogue, so we started to look for bar pictures on trip advisor to narrow down our choices and we found two locations that look like they could work - please see attached pictures. Is anybody able to answer some questions about these bars?:

 

1. What is the name of each location? 2. Where is each bar located? I think the one bar is in the lobby - which lobby - is it on the second floor? 3. What hours are each of these bars open? 4. Do either of these locations serve any snacks or food? If so, what kind of food? 5. Do either of these locations play music or have entertainment in the evening?

6. Approximately how many chairs are in each of these locations?

7. Is there another bar choice that you would recommend over these locations?

 

Thanks for your help everybody!

 

Chantel

 

 

 

 

[Chantel]

Hi Yasmin,

 

I read yesterday that you get free WiFi with the presidential package, so there should be WiFi on the resort ...

 

What were you able to figure out regarding the WiFi? My mom is ill and won't be able to make the wedding so I would also be interested in using skype on my wedding day to link her into the wedding.

 

 

Chantel

 

Originally Posted by yasminlkerr 

Hi girls,

 

Can any previous brides help - we are getting married in less than 2 weeks now (eek!) and I had stupidly made the assumption that there would be WIFI connectivity at the ceremony locations (near the palapa). My Grandmother is unable to make it to Mexico with us but we had arranged for one of our guests to link up to her on Skype so she can watch us get married & almost be there with us!

 

I decided to do a last minute check about the WIFI and have been told there is none, I have replied and asked if there is anything that can be done (but still awaiting a response) - does anyone have any experience with this? I'm sure it must be a problem for many brides not having family members be able to make so they must have something they can do! My worry is they'll come back to me and say there is but its hundreds of dollars! I'm desperate to figure something out as my Grandma will be so upset if we can't link up, and so will I :-(

 

Yasmin

[Chantel]

Oooh I just figured out how to insert photos so you don't have to download them! Here are the bars that I am referring to:

 

Bar #1:

 

 

 

Bar #2:

 

 

Thanks!

 

Chantel

 

 

Originally Posted by Chantel 

Hello Everybody!

 

I am looking for advice from past brides and those who have already traveled to the Grand Sirenis on where to have our rehearsal dinner? How does the rehearsal dinner process work - do we pick our top 3 locations and a night and they do their best to accommodate our group? Is anything else included in the presidential package when it comes to rehearsal night? I am thinking about requesting the Italian, Japanese, and the El Rancho as our options - are these good choices?

 

Also, my fiance and I are trying to make plans to meet our guests at a particular location once we get down to Mexico as a 'welcome night', but I don't think the resort has a bar catalogue, so we started to look for bar pictures on trip advisor to narrow down our choices and we found two locations that look like they could work - please see attached pictures. Is anybody able to answer some questions about these bars?:

 

1. What is the name of each location? 2. Where is each bar located? I think the one bar is in the lobby - which lobby - is it on the second floor? 3. What hours are each of these bars open? 4. Do either of these locations serve any snacks or food? If so, what kind of food? 5. Do either of these locations play music or have entertainment in the evening?

6. Approximately how many chairs are in each of these locations?

7. Is there another bar choice that you would recommend over these locations?

 

Thanks for your help everybody!

 

Chantel

 

 

 

 

[Janelle0308]

We are thinking of doing a welcome night kind of thing too but haven't thought so far ahead as to look at bar locations - maybe just tell everyone meet at a certain place at a certain time. I was also wondering about the rehersal dinner - when is that booked? Also when do you know for sure that you have the palapa booked? we have about 35 people attending.

[Oilersbride]

Hi Chantel

 

There are two lobby bars. We primarily were in the one on the riveria maya side - it doesn't have a lot of seating - big chairs mainly. I don't recognize that bar - but it is possibly from the beach side. I think the beach bar might only be open during the day but the lobby bars were definitely open in the evenings. They generally had music playing - live - and they didn't have food (I have never figured out where serves snacks after hours but the buffet serves until like 10 pm.) Sorry can't be of more help.

Originally Posted by Chantel 

Oooh I just figured out how to insert photos so you don't have to download them! Here are the bars that I am referring to:

 

Bar #1:

 

 

 

Bar #2:

 

 

Thanks!

 

Chantel

 

 

[MJKH]

Hi Chantel,

 

Are you living in Saskatoon right now? We got married at the GS in Feb/12 and I have all kinds of photos/photobooks to share if you want to meet up for a coffee sometime. Just send me a PM, ok? We could sit down with the resort map and that might help you out.