Any Gran Bahia Principe Runaway Bay Brides out there?

[kerrij]

WOW!! there are so many GBP brides now!! Sorry i've been MIA for a while...but i do check back and try to help answer questions...i know it's hard when you don't know what to expect and no one who's been married there is around to answer...so i try to come back often!!

So excited for you girls! i want to come to all of your weddings!!! heck, i wanna move there! lol

 

 

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Originally Posted by StephAli Hi Mekanabr,   I decided on the sunshine package b/c its not much different then the blissful and is cheaper. I went through a travel agent to book everything and what we did was increase the price by $35per person so that it helps cover the additional plates...after all the flights are paid for the travel agent will refund me the "extra" money and I will bring that with me to the resort and give that money to Beverly....or put it on my credit card....I also confirmed that the date I wanted was available first, b/c I knew we wanted the specific date. Once she said that it was available I told the travel agent(s) what resort I wanted and then waited for them to get back to me...then I went with the best price! Hope this helps! Good Luck with the move!!!!

Hmmm...I'm not sure if charging your guests an extra $35 is wrong/sneaky or if it's absolutely BRILLIANT!?! hahah i kinda wish i had thought of that because you don't really get any wedding gifts yet you still have to pay for all the guests meals, which im sure 99% of them don't even know that we pay out of our pocket for them still. but i prob would have felt bad doing it...unless i told them all that that extra charge was goign on there.

 

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Originally Posted by jennypenny23 StephAli- What is your ceremony date?? I have Feb 1st @ 3 pm booked with Beverly   The thing that I am wondering about now (and maybe kerrij, you can clarify) is the thing about the "Gold Club" bracelets... I have a friend who went to this resort last year and she was saying that there are WAY more benefits if you upgrade to "gold"... I heard that you are then guaranteed the ala carte reservations, get the room safe for free, and room service?? I don't know if there is anything else or even if it is worth upgrading... We are planning on asking TA about this...   Also- we really hope we get to stay in a really nice room!! Did any other GBP Jamaica brides have room upgrades? And how did you go about securing or 'requesting' them

I read after this post that someone said absolutely upgrade....i fully DISAGREE!! soooo not worth the extra money! (IMO i've always been a penny pincher too though) Bride/Groom get upgraded to Gold upon arrival, or after meeting Beverly...but we didn't even get use of our package, so i'm gald we didn't apy for it. yes you get an extra dinner reservation and you get your dinners prebooked BUT we didn't go to any of them...we always joined in with other people from our group. or we hit up the awesome buffet. the room isn't an upgrade other than up higher and ocean view, but you can get that anyway if you just ask. all rooms have ocean view, some are just partial though. the room themselves apparently are all the same, no suites or anyting which i was sooooo disappointed with. the one thing i did like was room service...which we used once. it's a super limited menu...was nice to have the option though but not worth $120/person or wahtever it was, i'd rather put that money towards first class which was the same price, and that's what we did for our flights! and the lounge thing was just free internet in a room...who wants the real wordl when you are in JAMAICA!! hahah aaahhhh!!!

 

oh and your own area of the resort for gold members??!! never saw that or heard about it...no idea where it would be. but you'll want to be with your guests anyway!

 

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Originally Posted by jennypenny23 I am so excited about how many GBP Runaway bay Bride-to-be's there are now!!! Looking forward to sharing plans with everyone over the next couple of mths!! Our group rate is secured until June 16th so we will have our full guest list by then!! woohoo!!

Congrats!!!

 

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Originally Posted by sunchick31 So I've just returned from our wedding at GBP and this place is absolutely amazing! I am so sad that it's over because I would go back and do it again in a heartbeat! Beverly, the WC, is amazing and an absolute sweetheart! She took care of everything for us! The day couldn't have been more perfect and it's all thanks to her! We had a beautiful, sunny day and she was there with us every step of the way. We had our supper at the Grill Restaurant & the food was delicious! Everyone loved it! We also decided on the reception in the Gazebo where we got married and I would highly recommend that! It is definitely worth it! We brought all of our own music and had the place rockin'! All of our guests said it was the best wedding they have ever attended. I will recommend bringing your own photographer if possible. We didn't do that but luckily we had a few friends with professional cameras. I would have been rather upset if we didn't as the resort photographer didn't show up until the ceremony was over and then he only spent maybe a half hour with us! Luckily we also had a friend with a video camera who captured all our special moments. This resort is absolutely beautiful & spotless! Our room was overlooking the pool & the ocean as were most of our wedding guests' rooms. We couldn't have gotten better treatment! All in all, I would recommend this resort to anyone who is looking for a place to get married! I was so sad to leave it & cannot wait to return for our anniversary. Good Luck to all you future GBP brides! You are in for a treat!

Hi Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!! soooo excitign for you!!! wasn't it just the BEST!!! i loved our wedding too!!!!!!

And YES the disco music was awful! people even still say how bad it was!

we took our own ipod and had a play list and plugged it into the DJs system.

[soontobemrsdow]

Kerrij thanks so much for coming back to us wondering brides here and congrats on your wedding! lol...I've had a hard time keeping in touch with beverly but since we're still so far out I'm not too worried but maybe you can answer my question then about the gazebo reception i hear everyone talking about. How exactly does it work? You have to pay extra for it and extra to bring some booze down there?

 

Also i saw everyones bringing their own ipods which I plan on doing but how did it turn out for your ceremony music? I'm worried they wont change the songs when needed/they'll play the wrong ones, you know. Not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things but still important.

[tris]

Hi Kerrij! Thanks for returning to help us all! Hehe.

 

Do you have any other wedding pictures that you could share? I'm having a really hard time finding much at all from GBP weddings.

[kerrij]

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Originally Posted by soontobemrsdow Kerrij thanks so much for coming back to us wondering brides here and congrats on your wedding! lol...I've had a hard time keeping in touch with beverly but since we're still so far out I'm not too worried but maybe you can answer my question then about the gazebo reception i hear everyone talking about. How exactly does it work? You have to pay extra for it and extra to bring some booze down there? Also i saw everyones bringing their own ipods which I plan on doing but how did it turn out for your ceremony music? I'm worried they wont change the songs when needed/they'll play the wrong ones, you know. Not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things but still important.

ya i had a hard time getting contact from Beverly too. at first she was really good at responding but then she just quit. i ended up just making a list of Qs and calling and talking to DeshonJay/the assistant.

The gazebo...you get it for 2 hours, i forget the price, $400 maybe? including the DJ. to have booze there you need to hire the bartender, which you do through beverly when you sit down with her at the resort. (so exciting just thinking about it!) i think it is like $15-20/person...but worth it because the bars are waaaaay too far from the gazebo. but i wonder if you can just buy a couple bottles of booze and some pop and take it down?

Ipod for ceremony music...i just hired the steel drum band which in my mind is THE way to go! you're in jamaica...why not make it feel even more like jamaica...i even chose the song i wanted them to play, they can play so many. i had pachelbel canon d for me walking down the aisle and One Love by BobMarley for our signing song (we had One Love engraved in our wedding bands) it was worth every dime! i think $400? but i do believe you can request beverly have a speaker system for your ipod...there is something there already because they use a mic for the ceremony. and maybe ask a friend just to keep an eye on the ipod and have them change songs as needed?

Sorry guys i would LOOOOVE to post more pics of the wedding...but i am only ever on the computer at work and our work just blocked us from all the best websites, including ones like photobucket, so i can't post pics now. If you want to check out all my pics...feel free to look for me on FB...let me know you're from here and i'll accept your friend req, and you can go look at ALL my wedding pics and of the resort and stuff! kerri jones mccrady

Beverly IS WONDERFUL!! and i know it's so hard not hearing from her...but once you get there everything is done in like 20 mins and you'll be wondering to yourself, why did i even worry about any of this before?!! she'll do pretty much ANYTHING you want!

[kerrij]

I told Beverly she really should have the hotel put up a wedding website for her for the GBP and have all this information on there so she doesn't have a million brides asking a zillion questions. it would be sooooo helpful!

[akua420]

thats a good idea kerrij, it would be great if they had all that info up on a website. Its frustrating playing the waiting game to get your answers!!!

[mekanabr]

Thanks for all the info Kerrij, I'm going to friend you on FB to check out your pics!!!

[AshleyL]

Thanks Kerri! I was feeling a little worried today because all the latest review on Trip Advisor for GBP are terrible. I started to look at photos and now I'm getting excited again! Maybe the bad reviews are because it's the low season right now? Lots of comments about it being under staffed...

[akua420]

AshleyL - I know! the tripadvisor reviews scare me! And everywhere shows it being a 5 star resort except Expedia and Trip Advisor, its like 3 1/2, so my aunt is giving me a hard time complaining about how she doesn't want to stay at a 3 star hotel, and how I should get married in Mexico beacuse I could stay at a nicer resort for free.

 

I told my mom to tell her not to come. My mom wouldn't tell her that though, hahaha.

 

You do have to take the reviews with a grain of salt, it seemed like most of there complaints were either stupid, or just bad luck. I'm crossing my fingers. But if the hotel sucks, whatever we'll just sit on the beach and explore, we'll be in Jamaica so I'm not going to let ANYTHING get me down !

[tris]

I try not to let reviews scare me. Especially since most of the complaints are about the front desk staff... I mean, that's not why I go on vacation. Some people just complain for the sake of complaining. My travel agent loves the resort, and 2 couples I know that have been there both loved it as well.