Susanandmo Review - Dreams VM 5.24.09

[Susanandmo]

Vacations For Less, Inc – Teresa Stauring: A

It was great working with Vacation For Less. My point of contact was Teresa Stauring. Teresa did an excellent job booking our rooms and the rooms of some of our guest A few of our guest also booked their rooms thru travel sites on the web and got a good deal when they paired it with their flights.

 

She also booked our accommodations for our honeymoon. She is extremely fast at responding to emails (at all times of the day and night).

 

Ground transportation prices are too high from the airport to the resort, if booked thru Vacation for Less. I suggest catching a cab upon arrival or dealing directly with a tour company in PV.

 

Celebration Bridal & Fashion – Las Vegas: D

 

I purchased my wedding gown from Celebrations Bridal and Fashion here in Vegas. My first two visits to Celebrations were great. When I finally found a dress and paid for it totally everything drastically changed.

They never called me to inform me that the dress was in. I called about three times and then I decided to call again a month before the wedding (because I was starting to freak out) and they responded like if it was no big deal “yah it’s been in a while, you want to get a fitting?”

My fitting was during prom time and it seemed that all the staff working were high school girls. They had no interest in helping me…and to top it off, the person that took care of my alterations pinched her finger and got blood all over the back of my dress (not exactly what a bride wants to see done to her dress a month prior to the wedding).

The bustling on the dress sucked! It kept coming down during the reception…

 

US Airways: C

 

We flew with US Airways from Las Vegas to Puerto Vallarta and then from Cancun to Las Vegas. We will never fly US Airways again. The tickets are very cheap, but you’ll end up paying in the long run. They charged passengers leaving the US for all baggage, but returning in Mexico they allow one bag per passenger free (not sure what it that about). They charge $7 for a blanket pillow and earplug… and if you only need a blanket, they still ask for the full $7. You pretty much pay for everything except water and soft drinks. No snacks (no peanut/pretzels), nor movie (monitors on aircraft) were provided even though we had a 4 hour flight from Cancun to Phoenix.

 

Mexicana Airline:A+

We used Mexicana Airline from Puerto Vallarta to Mexico City to Cancun. No charge for baggage, the service was beyond belief! Great full meal provided, snacks and drink (including alcohol at no additional charge). We loved the service so much that my DH tried to tip the flight attended and he refused the tip. We’ll be booking our future trip to Mexico with Mexicana Airline.

 

 

Puerto Vallarta Tours: A

 

Transportation shuttle we used from the airport to the resort. Great service and hassle free.

 

Café de Olla: A+

Since the resort is in Nuevo Vallarta, we wanted to provide our guest with a night out. Our outside WC (Prisar) suggested this restaurant and she arranged for a bus to take us all to Café de Olla, located in the Zona Romantica in PV. This restaurant is amazing and I highly recommend it! It has lots of great décor and a fun environment. When we arrived they had a veil, flowers, balloons and pins for my husband and I to wear. The owner’s wife wanted to surprise us :0)

 

We ordered platters with seafood and steak and we eat it feast style. Everyone was so full and satisfied with the food. The margaritas are strong and delicious (one per person was enough and a couple of people had two and they were wasted…).

The guacamole is the best I ever had. My husband is from Jalisco and he couldn’t stop talking about the guacamole. Imagine he doesn’t eat seafood, yet he ended up eating about 5 lobster tails :0)

 

 

Dreams Villamagna: B

The resort is super new and super pretty. If you stay at this resort I highly recommend that you request rooms in the higher floors (6, 7 or ocean view. Some of our guest that stayed at the lower floors had issues with water leaking from the roof in the shower area (from the room above) and issues with the light fixture in the shower falling down while someone was taking a shower... This was very bad!!!

 

The Villamagna has lots of inconsistency in service (food, drinks, rooms service)… We also noticed that some rooms had certain items that other didn’t have such as DVD, slippers, robes, etc… We really didn’t care, but if that’s something that you are interested in just make sure you request it.

 

The first night that DH and I got to the resort, the food was OK; however, once the resort got busy the food was nasty.

 

I think this resort is great for the bride and groom and guest to stay in if you are having your wedding elsewhere. Even though, I had a great time at our wedding, I don’t think that the grounds have the adequate set up for a wedding (NO gazebo - NO shade structure - Too much sand in reception area).

 

WC (from the Dreams Villamagna): F

Eventhough she is a very nice person, she needs a career change or LOTS of training. She is not organized, not professional and has very poor communications skills in English and Spanish. She doesn’t reply to emails on time, gets overwhelmed extremely fast, doesn’t listen and has very poor retentive skills.

 

Dreams VM charged my bank account WITHOUT my authorization two months after our wedding for items that I had already paid for. They did not contact me prior to debiting my account. Dreams VM got my bank account information from a transaction that I paid for with my debit card during our wedding.

I had to go thru a huge hassle with my bank in order to dispute the charges and Dreams VM send information/paperwork to my bank that wasn’t consistent with the unauthorized charges.

 

If you have your wedding the Dreams VM I recommend that you pay cash as much as possible, get your receipts and upon check-out triple check with them that all is paid and accounted for and that your account won’t be charge for random wedding related items two months later…

 

Wedding Site C

Reception Site A

DJ A

Food A

I was very impress that the food for a private event was very good! (I can’t say the same for the food in the resort during our stay).

 

Prisar: B-

Outside WC

Slow responds to emails the months prior to the wedding, but good better as the wedding got closer. I was a “laid back” bride and now I wish I would not have… There were a couple of items that were not properly tended to. I won’t get into details, but please be sure that you stay on top of the details that matter to you, else they will be missed. I felt that since our wedding was at a smaller budget, it wasn’t given the proper attention.

 

Prisar was great with the decorations, local vendors, flowers, fire dancers make up & hair stylist and restaurant recommendations.

 

Mandala & Hilo Dance Clubs PV: A

Mandala was great and very well decorated. They accommodated our group in a private area. Some of our guest found it to be on the pricey side for drinks ($4 for a bottle of water). It was a blast and the DJ played all of our requests.

 

Hilo was tons of fun too!

 

Cake A+:

Recommended by Prisar

Not sure from what bakery, but was was yummy! We all loved the fact that the bottom portions of the cake were fake, but very well decorated with icing and only the top layer was real cake :0)

Lipstick Salon PV A++

Recommended by Prisar

This salon is a small locals salon and they do amazing work! I loved my make up and hair!

 

Fire Dancers: A

Recommended by Prisar, so I don’t know their names…

Everyone loved them. It was a great way to end the wedding celebration

 

Grand Velas – Riviera Maya: A+++++

This is the best resort that we have ever stayed in. We absolutely loved it and we are already starting our plans for our next visit. Everything was awesome starting from the food, the service, the drinks, the pool, the beach outstanding. My favorite thing at the Grand Velas was the SPA! OMG beyond belief.

 

 

Selvática – Riviera Maya A+

This zip line tour is the Trip advisor #1 attraction in Cancun and boi were they right… This place is great and the staff was amazing. The group that went prior to us had about 30+ people and they didn’t look very happy; however, we were fortunate to be in a small group of 6 so we had the time of our lives.

 

X-Caret – Riviera Maya A-

This place is amazing; we just thought that it was a bit disorganized. Be prepared to spend all day at this park, because there are tons to do (we swam with the dolphins, swam in the underground river, eat like champ at the delicious buffet and watch three of the shows. I highly recommend staying for the closing show which is a Mexican folkloric dance of different regions in Mexico… It’s funny, plus you’ll enjoy it if you are into music and dance. The performers are great.

 

Excellence Playa Mujeres B-

The resort was OK. The breakfast buffet at Barcelona was great and the food at spice, but besides that we didn’t like the food at the other restaurants, nor food service. We observed several times the bar staff in the lobby being rude to guest (I’m not sure what that was all about).

There were a lot of SUPER huge mosquitoes everywhere at night and even though DH had bug spray all over him, the SUPER huge mosquitoes feast on him, he had a couple of marks from the SUPER huge mosquitoes weeks after we returned home. Maybe it was a seasonal thing, but it left a bad impression on us.

 

Isla Mujeres A

Great place to just go relax, eat, explore and have a good time. We rented mopeds to get around the island and it was great. We travel via Ferry to the island, but they are tons of little boat available to transport to and from the island.

 

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

 

Thank you,

Susana

[msmoodyr]

Your pictures were soo pretty!! My FI found the same vendor on Ebay for the suit ..and your pics sold it ...

[darya12]

Thanks for the review

[Susanandmo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by msmoodyr Your pictures were soo pretty!! My FI found the same vendor on Ebay for the suit ..and your pics sold it ...

Thank you! Glad I was able to help...

[Ginalyn]

Thank you for your honest review. This will be very helpful to future brides!

[H&F]

Thanks Susan! Sorry about all the hiccups you ran into.

[Sandy]

Thanks for taking the time to post this...very helpful!

[ClintsGurl09]

Thanks Susan for the post.

[lip0213]

Thanks for the review!

[alkoch]

Thanks for the review - Do you still have the contact information for the transportation you used?

 

thanks!