Secrets Maroma Beach Review - 7-11-2009

[newyork6156]

Hi everyone! Our wedding at Secrets Maroma Beach was awesome! I would definitely recommend this resort, but like with anything there were bad points and good points. So let's get to it...

 

 

Email Correspondance with Cecilia (WC)

It was fine in the beginning when we were making general decisions, but once it started getting closer the communication seemed to really start to break down. That is why we left our food decisions and the exact location of our reception until we arrived there on Wednesday July 8th. Cecilia was good with getting back to me through email and we even spoke on the phone once or twice.

 

Airline

We took JetBlue. They have no spot to hang your wedding dress. We ended buying an inexpensive carry on garment bag from WalMart online. So we just stored our wedding attire overhead. I didn't trust letting it out of our site! :-)

 

Getting through customs with all our welcome bag items

Well I read to bring receipts for all welcome bag items incase asked to see them. I did bring them, but we were never asked about anything. It was fine.

 

Airport - Resort Transfer

We used CancunTransfers thanks to the referral from Simistar and they were GREAT. On time both ways...very easy and private so no stops at other resorts...WELL WORTH IT!

 

Check In / Guest rooms

Easy! Received cool towels and sparkling wine. No free upgrade though. We were in Building 14 on the top floor. All of our guests that arrived on Thurs. were upgraded...so my husband decided to ask again and now they said they could do it. We decided not to move though b/c I had already unpacked ALL our stuff and I had too many other things on my mind to have to pack everything back up again. Our room was fine. It wasn't so close to beach/pool, but honestly for the first couple of days I was back and forth to the main blding planning things, meeting our guests, etc that I liked our location. I also liked being on the top floor, best view. Everyone really loved the guest rooms. They are just beautiful. Most of our guests arrived on Thursday, with a few coming in on Friday so we put together our welcome bags Wednesday night and gave them to the front desk area. They held them on a table behind them and gave them out as the guests checked in. No problem, no extra cost. I didn't have the bags put in their rooms b/c I figured some would be getting upgrades due to low occupancy at the resort.

Also - The room descriptions say DVD/CD players and I doubled checked to make sure the DVD players play CD's, but they DON'T play copied CD's. I made a few mixes for my friends and they didn't play. :-( Just a tip.

 

Mosquitos

I would absolutely request that you and your guests be located on the left side of the resort (I think it's the north side - bldgings 12, 14,15,16,17) If you are on the other side you will be right along side the jungle and the mosquitos seemed to be worse over there. Only one of our guests ended up on that side and they had bugs in their room every night. I think it happened when they got turn down service b/c they leave your door open when they are inside. Anyway most of the rooms have a little bottle of bug spray and the shop there has AfterBite which seemed to work well for some of our guests that got bit. We didn't have any problem with bugs at our welcome dinner on the beach (there was a great breeze, but not too strong) or our ceremony on the beach (which was in front of blding 27 at 5:30pm). We started to have a problem with bugs at the cocktail hr (on the patio outside world cafe) at around 7:45 (it was from 7- so we all just went into the reception room a few minutes early.

 

Cecilia - Wedding Coordinator

She is very sweet, but needs some more experience in my opinion. We met with her at 4pm on Wed. July 8th. We sat and went over all the food, flowers, set ups, and just double checked everything on our contract and made any corrections. I highly recommend making a checklist of all the details you want to go over with Cecilia. Then it was time for the location decisions...what a mess. The ceremony would be on the beach with the rain back up being the ballroom....fine. Now for the cocktail hr and reception, I originally wanted to be in one of the restaurants for a private event. Let me preface this by saying that last yr we did a site visit there when it was still under construction and were told that we could have a private event in one of the restaurants, this being one of the many reasons we picked this resort. In our inital emails with Cecilia she said she thought that the restaurants wouldn't give us enough room for dancing and DJ set up. This is why she suggested we just wait and look at them when we arrive. So now I show her how we could set up the tables in Portofino to accomodate everyone and still have room for dancing (we only have 26 people). Cecilia decides to tell me that the music pumping through the ceiling speakers cannot be shut off for the dj b/c it would shut off all the music in the 3 restaurants along that side of the main blding. Why didn't she tell me that before?? Also, I come to find out a day before we leave that different CD's play in each of the restaurants and I truly believe if I picked their brains a bit more I would have found out that the music could have been shut off in that one restaurant for us. I also believe Cecilia probably really just didn't know what she was talking about as she was only used to having receptions in a few select locations and this would have meant "thinking outside the box" for her. Anyway, not to make an already long story longer, we ended up having our cocktail hr on the patio outside The World Cafe and the reception dinner in the Red Room in The World Cafe. They closed the entire restaurant for us that night, but we still just used the one room b/c I felt we would have gotten lost in the entire restaurant with only 26 people. If you really want more details about the ballroom and the bit more trouble we encounted with that, just send me a PM. :-)

 

FRIDAY - JULY 10TH

They came to get my dress and his suit to press and gave my husband his own room for the night.

 

The Welcome Dinner (Bonfire on the Beach)

This event was GREAT! It was from 7-11pm. The set up was big round tables, a bar set up on the beach, buffet style (carribean menu) and some tiki torches and other lights. We used the Carribean Trio included in our wedding package for this night instead. They were Great, everyone loved them. The service was awesome. The staff were so attentive without being annoying. After drinks and eating a bonfire had been set up closer to the water, so we all sat around drinking and talking some more. Since we only had the Trio for 45mins. we had brought our own radio to hook our Ipod up to and played music around the bonfire. That way we didn't have to pay to use their sound system. It worked out great. They had set up mats around the bonfire but We started bringing our chairs over instead, which the staff then finished doing for us. The food was great, the service was great, the set up - great, music - great. A really nice relaxing night overall.

 

SATURDAY - JULY 11TH

 

The Wedding Day

The dress and suit were delivered back to my room perfectly. They do leave them out, so be careful your Fiance doesn't see it. I didn't have that problem b/c he was in a different room the night before and then went straight out to golf saturday morning. The weather was crazy. I woke up and went to the spa with my sister - the weather was beautiful. I came back to the room and took a 45 min. nap...woke up and it was completely cloudy with crazy wind and some sprinkles. Went to get hair / make up done at 2:30 still not good so we are scrambling to decide where everything is taking place. By the time I was done at the spa the weather was absolutely beautiful again and everything was back to it's original locations. When I got back to my room there were some flowers in the room with a bottle of champagne and fruit. I think the champagne was supposed to be for later after the wedding but I really needed a drink so my friend and I opened it! I really didn't want to walk across the entire resort in my wedding dress so I had asked Cecilia about getting a golf cart to take us around the front of the resort and she came through. Thanks Cecilia! So if your room isn't near the ceremony location make sure you ask.

 

The Ceremony (5:30-6pm)

On the beach sort of in front of Blding 27. I bought chair bows and also added flowers to the set up. If it's in your budget I would definitely add flowers for the ceremony. I only decided that when we arrived at the resort and I'm glad we did it. It would have looked really plain if we didn't. Also if you are planning on buying chair bows make sure you get enough for the ceremony set up and the reception set up...I was told they don't have time to move them from one set up to the other. Maybe it's a different story if your reception is going to be outside also, but for us being in a restaurant I had to bring double.

 

The Minister - Alex Monroy

He was wonderful. Very nice man. His V's do sound like B's. Simistar - I think you said this to me. Since my husbands name is Vinny it came out sounding like Binny. It was funny. I would request him.

 

Cocktail Hour (7-8pm)

The location was on the patio of The World Cafe (closed for us that night)

We used high top tables and low round tables. We upgraded our food from gold to platinum selctions. The service was great about getting drinks. It was fine that the guests had some time between the ceremony end and the cocktail hr start. We wanted to get our photos done and be able to enjoy the cocktail hr ourselves. Our guests went up and got a drink in the lobby bar (right above the cocktail hr location) and talked about the ceremony. It worked out fine.

 

Reception

Although not our 1st location choice, it turned out beautiful. We upgraded the food from gold to platinum and was buffet style. If you have a plated dinner your guests have no choice of food. You pick one entree beforehand.

We had the buffet set up outside the room in main restaurant area. This restaurant is used for the buffet style dining and we didn't want it to look so much like a kitchen when our guests came out to get dinner so we asked them how we could hide that area and they hung ceiling to floor curtains in front of the big buffet serving areas. Our buffet was set up on the pretty tiled wall with nice hanging lights above. The food was great and the service was great all night.

 

After the reception we headed back to our room and it was decorated with rose petals on the the floor and bed, a jacuzzi bubble bath was drawn for us. They also had the half empty bottle of champagne next to the bed...ooops! :-)

 

NOTE: It is always nice to have someone you trust check on how things are being set up. You may think you have been really clear on how you want things done, but somehow it still doesn't happen. The cocktail set up would not have worked out right without the help of my best friend, who happens to be an event planner. She said they didn't have the low tables set up at all and that they were just pushed out to the side (ugly). So she had them change it quickly. She also took charge of the reception room. She made it look beautiful!! She somehow had tea lights on the tables and big candles set up around the room (something I thought I would have had to pay extra for) She also made sure the tables were grouped correctly, etc. I believe they would not have had it set up properly on their own. It would have not been disasterous, but definitely not as beautiful as we imagined without her overseeing everything. If you have someone that can check on things for you it is a BIG help.

 

VENDORS INCLUDED IN ULTIMATE WEDDING PACKAGE

 

The Violinist - Karine Astrayan

She was great. A little late b/c of traffic, maybe 10-15mins. so no big deal at all. I'm really glad we decided to use live music for the ceremony. We were allowed to substitute our package photography for the violinist since we hired an outside vendor for photos. I originally thought we weren't allowed to do substitutions, but we decided to ask anyway. So I would definitely always ask for something you want, it's worth a shot b/c you just might be pleasantly surprised!

 

The Videographer - Miguel Angel Cantarell

Great guy. Did a wonderful job. Ceremony video was included in our wedding package, but we now wish we would have paid to have him stay for the reception. He delivered the video to our room maybe 2 days later. He is the one used in wedding package, but I would request him anyway with Cecilia to make sure.

 

Flowers

The bouqets and bouts were delivered to our room around 4pm.(I think) I used all white roses and it was included in my package. The flowers seemed very fresh and were lovely. I used all white roses for my MOH smaller bouquet and I was allowed to substitute this for the 2 corsages included in my package. I used pink and white roses in my centerpieces. I had to pay an upgrade fee for the 2 included in my package and an additional fee for the 3 extras I needed. I also paid extra for the flowers added to my cake and the flowers add to the ceremony site (which were supposed to be all roses and didn't end up that way) I had all the centerpieces delivered to my room after the reception. I was going to have them delivered to our guests rooms but I definitely couldn't remember everyones room number at the time. I only decided to do this at the end of the night and it was just easier to have them brought to my room. If you decide to do this before having drinks all night it is a nice idea to have them brought to your guests rooms. :-)

 

Hair/ Make up

I pretty sure her name was Alicia. She did a good job. I showed her a picture for my hair. It was definitely slicked back, but I guess it needed to be to not have any flyaways and my bangs were still mangaed to get in my face on the beach.

My sister didn't like her make up - it was really dark. I don't remember who did it, but I could see if she remembers if you want to know.

 

OUTSIDE VENDORS

 

Photography - Moments That Matter - Lori and Lincoln

I'm really happy with our decision to use them. They were just wonderful to work with....really nice people. I wrote a review about them here: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t33248

 

I haven't received all our photos yet, but they have a teaser video on their blog - it's a YouTube video, so you can find it there also YouTube - Moments that Matter Photography - Secrets Maoma Spa & Resort Mayan Riviera

 

DJ Bob

He is a nice guy and a very affordable price, but we have a few issues with him. We used him for the cocktail hr and reception dinner/dancing. You can find my review here:http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t26291

 

Outside Vendor Fees

It is usually $80 per person, but we ended up paying $150 for all 3 people (2 photogs and 1 DJ) Make sure to go to the front desk and have their day passes set up for them. Don't leave it up to cecilia. Just a tip -The front desk asked me for everyone's last name when setting up for their passes. I had to go online and find them, b/c I had been dealing with only first names the whole time! :-) Their day passes include food for them. Since we had a buffet, it was not a problem for them to eat at the reception, but if you're having a plated dinner make sure you check on food for them too.

 

Some Misc. Notes

You get a champagne breakfast and couples spa treatment included in the ultimate wedding pkg. Make sure you set up these time/appts before hand and then double ck them with your blg conceige and spa when you arrive. We had our champagne breakfast set up for Thurs. morning to kick of the week for us. (we knew we would be seeing our guests for bkfast sun.) and set up a couples massage for Tuesday morning (after our guests left and the honymoon starts). Also don't forget about hair and make up appts for you and anyone else that wants it.

 

Tipping

I know you don't have to, but we did. You do get some better service and I just felt like it was the right thing to do. Bring enough singles! We ended up running out toward the last day or two and it's not that easy to get change. Oh and don't forget to tell your bank that you will be out of the country. I know that with our bank, if you don't tell them and try to make a purchase in Mexico with your bank card, they won't allow it to go through.

 

Taxis

It is so easy to get a taxi at the resort. We set up a taxi van to take some of us into the town of Playa del Carmen on Thurs. night. We paid $80 round trip. There were about 10 of us so it was really affordable. The van was about 15 mins. late picking us up from Playa and we were hot, tired, and a bit cranky at that point. but still worth it!

 

Also, my friend came by herself and needed a transfer back to the airport on sunday morning. She had hitched a ride in my parents private transfer on the way in. Instead of paying for the hotel shuttle, I got her a taxi, which cost about the same and didn't stop at any other resorts like the hotel transfer did.

 

The Spa

This is the most amazing spa I have been to...and I love spas!

Make sure to make your appts before you go so you can get the times you want. They have the most relaxing rooms and pool/ hydortherapy area for before or after your treatment. After our couples massage we spent a few hours by the private pool area. It was incredible and it turned out we were the only ones using it at that time! They have a sauna, meditation area, jacuzzi, etc. The staff brings you out cool towels. I just can't say enough about it. If your budget allows...don't miss it!

 

Excursions

We used edventure tours to book a group excursion for friday july 10th.

We did the Ziplines and Dos Ojos Cenote. It was really cool and everyone had a great time. It was a private tour, so it's only your group. You get transportation to and from the resort. You can make the day as long or as short as you want. We had to get back for our welcome dinner so we couldn't do too much. I would have loved to add The Jungle Place...next time! They were great about email reply.

Here is their website:"Edventure Tours, The best day of you vacation

 

Overall

We had a great time and will definitely be going back! The service was great and the resort is just gorgeous. It is not even a yr old so the flowers, etc still have to grow and fill in. The beach is amazing and so is the pool. I thought the food was great. Maybe one or two restaurants were just ok, but all the food was delicious at our organized events.

 

Eric - the general manager

He was always nice to talk to and good at easing our stress leading up to our arrival at the resort since we ended up hating our TA from destinationweddings.com. I have heard mixed reviews on them, but our TA was a nightmare! If you are thinking of using them and want to know her name just send me a PM.

 

 

Well, I hope this is helpful to future Secrets Maroma Beach Brides. Let me know if I forgot anything or if you have anymore questions! I'm sure I will add things as I think of them.

[ranaya12]

Hi NewYork; Congratulations on your wedding and thank you for the very detailed review of your wedding. It sounds beautiful!

We are currently waiting for Cecilia to confirm our date for us before we begin talking details. Do you happen to have pictures of the ceremony and cocktail reception? We are also planning on having our ceremony on the beach and cocktail reception outside followed by the reception by the pool. I would like to get a better idea as to how the two were set up.

Thanks a million!

Again, congratulations!!!

[inspiredfyre]

yay! Thank you for posting that, I think it greatly helps, you and simistar's reviews seem to be the only one's I've found! It's nice to know that generally mostly everything went well, even though you had to keep asking for it! I'm getting married there in November, and am also using destinationweddings.com. Who were you working with, if you don't mind me asking? I've had a few issues, but not so much anymore!

 

What things can you hold off until you arrive to make appts for, or order, and what things should I do in advance, like the spa apts? It is just me and my fi, though, so I suppose I don't have to worry about as much as most do!! Thank you for your advice about the buildings! I hope you post more pictures soon, i can't wait! Congratulations on being newlyweds!

[Kits55]

I can't wait to see the pictures from the ceremony and reception. What a difference between the allowances that were made for your wedding vs mine. I guess with some things I maybe should have pushed harder it sounds like. I was in building 17, and also asked for the gold cart so I wouldn't have to traipse across the resort. Cecilia said she would ask, I asked her again, and nothing happened. I finally had to carry EVERYTHING to my mom and dad's room and get ready there. They were in building 24 I think. We definitely didn't get all of World Cafe to ourselves even we also had our reception in the Red Room. We didn't get to have our beach bonfire due to high winds BUT it sounds like you got WAY more than what was described to us. And you got to substitute in your wedding package, no way!

 

I also had Alicia, my hair wasn't "perfect" but close enough to not care at the time. I also loved the spa. We used the couples massage and upgrade to make it be an hour and a half, woooonderful!

 

Thank you for the review...it totally refreshes my memory!! I am motivated now to get my own review written and posted!

 

I am glad to hear that you also liked Mike Cantarelli...I LOVE our video

[sperger]

Congratulations as a MRS! Thanks for posting.

[Blkatz]

Congratulations! post some pictures when you get a chance!!

[newyork6156]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ranaya12 Hi NewYork; Congratulations on your wedding and thank you for the very detailed review of your wedding. It sounds beautiful! We are currently waiting for Cecilia to confirm our date for us before we begin talking details. Do you happen to have pictures of the ceremony and cocktail reception? We are also planning on having our ceremony on the beach and cocktail reception outside followed by the reception by the pool. I would like to get a better idea as to how the two were set up. Thanks a million! Again, congratulations!!!

You will LOVE it there!! I do have pictures of the ceremony on the beach and a few of the cocktail hr. I will post them below. I'm still waiting for my professional pics, but these should give you an idea...I hope!

Quote:

Originally Posted by inspiredfyre yay! Thank you for posting that, I think it greatly helps, you and simistar's reviews seem to be the only one's I've found! It's nice to know that generally mostly everything went well, even though you had to keep asking for it! I'm getting married there in November, and am also using destinationweddings.com. Who were you working with, if you don't mind me asking? I've had a few issues, but not so much anymore! What things can you hold off until you arrive to make appts for, or order, and what things should I do in advance, like the spa apts? It is just me and my fi, though, so I suppose I don't have to worry about as much as most do!! Thank you for your advice about the buildings! I hope you post more pictures soon, i can't wait! Congratulations on being newlyweds!

Awww, that's so romantic...just the two of you!

Well, I have to say I think you can actually decide so much when you get there and it's so much easier than trying to communicate what you would like through email! I swear, deciding the flowers over email almost put me over the edge! :-) It depends on how many days before you are arriving. We got there on Wednesday and the wedding was Saturday. I had read somewhere that you should decide your flowers a few weeks before if the type you want has to be ordered and shipped in. Mine were basically roses and some gerber daisies. I decided the flowers, all the food, and all the locations when we arrived there.

I was also told that they only have ONE wedding a day, but some of my guests did see an only bride and groom ceremony earlier the day of my wedding. Maybe they just mean not more than one larger wedding??
But there was a corporate dinner also going on the night of my wedding and they almost got in the way of where I wanted my reception...long story...but I guess I would be careful about the location part. Oh, I keep forgetting that it's just the 2 of you...so I wouldn't worry too much.

The Spa appts definitely make ahead of time....sooo good!

If you plan on doing any excursions you can book them with the conceige...they suggest a day or two before you want to go.

If you want anyone in particular officiating the ceremony or playing live music at any point, I would definitely request them beforehand to make sure they are available.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kits55 I can't wait to see the pictures from the ceremony and reception. What a difference between the allowances that were made for your wedding vs mine. I guess with some things I maybe should have pushed harder it sounds like. I was in building 17, and also asked for the gold cart so I wouldn't have to traipse across the resort. Cecilia said she would ask, I asked her again, and nothing happened. I finally had to carry EVERYTHING to my mom and dad's room and get ready there. They were in building 24 I think. We definitely didn't get all of World Cafe to ourselves even we also had our reception in the Red Room. We didn't get to have our beach bonfire due to high winds BUT it sounds like you got WAY more than what was described to us. And you got to substitute in your wedding package, no way! I also had Alicia, my hair wasn't "perfect" but close enough to not care at the time. I also loved the spa. We used the couples massage and upgrade to make it be an hour and a half, woooonderful! Thank you for the review...it totally refreshes my memory!! I am motivated now to get my own review written and posted! I am glad to hear that you also liked Mike Cantarelli...I LOVE our video

oh no, that stinks about having to carry everything to your moms room. I had asked cecilia about using a room in blding 27 to get dressed or getting a golf cart and I was really surprised that she took care of that without me reminding her. I decided to just use the golf cart instead of the room b/c when she came to tell me about the available room I was already in about to get ready mode and didn't feel like thinking about what I would need to bring over to the other room.

About getting some allowances - My husband is a salesman and REALLY GOOD at negotiating things....not me! That's why I say just try asking for what you think you want...cecilia was really good about negotiating with us. example: when we wanted to upgrade our food to platinum choices she gave us a price and my husband just asked if that was the best she could do and she came back with a better price. It was that easy. We asked about substituting some things that we weren't using in our pkg for things we really wanted and she said ok. What's the worst that can come from asking...she says no. Cecilia has some flexibility when decisions have to be made. My husband actually was briefly annoyed that I accepted the 1st quote she gave me for adding flowers to the ceremony set up when we were there (he was in the bathroom) oops. :-)

About the spa - I actually went back and got the 1 1/2 hr massage by myself later that week!!! I couldn't resist!

We LOVED our ceremony video as well! I can't thank you enough for telling me his name...I wouldn't have thought about I should request. THANK YOU!

[mich999]

Great review - I'm sure it will help many future brides!

[newyork6156]

OK, I was going to wait until I get my professional pics back...which should be soon...but I remember how badly I wanted to see pics so here ya go!

I'm also still waiting for some of our guests to put their pics on our share site.

As I get more and better pics I will post them.

 

First some welcome dinner bonfire. I don't have any of the actual bonfire. I will post them if I get any from our guests.

 

 

 

 

 

Next, the ceremony location

 

 

 

beautiful backdrop

 

 

 

 

I have a bunch more, but I need to go eat some dinner...I'm starving!

I'll post more later.

 

Also, if you go to the video I posted a link to in my original post under photography you can get some idea of the reception area.

[newyork6156]

so I received some more of the bonfire.

 

you can see the pretty lighting that was set up and where the actual bonfire is set up in the background of some

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can't say enough good things about the Carribean Trio...so good.

 

 

The sun was just setting so pretty in this one

 

I know you want to see more pics of the cocktail hr and reception. I promise I will post them soon.

 

I can't stress how good the service staff were at each event. My husband asked for an extra place setting at the welcome dinner and we watched the guy actually RUN to go get it. At the reception some of the guys went back onto the patio to smoke a cigar and the staff even followed them out there to get them drinks.

 

I feel like I was a bit hard on Cecilia in the original review. She definitely did drop the ball a few times, but did come through a few times also. She just needs an assistant to help her...it's way too much work for one person. Sometimes I felt what I was saying was falling on deaf ears b/c it just never got done, but I think she is just overwhelmed. This really shouldn't be an excuse though and I hope that help is hired for her and the "bumps in the road" that I and past brides have encountered don't continue.

 

oh and something else I forgot to add in original post...the cake.

I gave a picture of the cake I wanted and it didn't turn out nearly as pretty as the picture. And it wasn't a difficult design or anything like that. I saw the picture on here from a wedding at the sister resort Secrets Capri. The cake wasn't that important to me so it didn't bother me too much. just something to note...if the cake is important to you make sure you double and triple check on it when you arrive at the resort.