Royal Decameron, Panama

[panamania]

I find you really have to dig with Julia. Just ask question after question. My travel agent has a gal that can speak spanish so I get them to phone her. I've attached some pictures that she sent me of Club Med. I found out after some digging that if you want circle tables you have to rent them. Also, I was only shown the menu too.

 

 

Good luck to those with big days around the corner!

[CND_Redhead]

from what I was told it's just the sound system. We are in charge of running it and bringing music.

I'm downloading our playlist to a couple i Pods as well as CD's just in case!

Cheers,

[JR14]

FYI - in case you haven't been to the resort, the have old school regular cut room keys on a string and NOT room keycards

*sharing this in case it factors into what kind of room key holder/tip holder/keychain thingamagiggy you might get!  

 

i'm thinking of giving vertical zipper holders on carabiner clips + maybe even little LED keychain lights in my OOT bags, because the resort is really HUGE and it can be very dark at night

 

For those of you who have been here before, I was wondering how the hotel nightclub/disco was?  *I didn't have a chance to go when I visited with my mom..... in retrospect it would have been pretty fun(ny) if my mom and I went to the club together that maybe I should have asked her! LOL

[panamania]

Key chains are a great idea! We're doing luggage tags and a bunch of beachy things. I am wishing I had thought of that!

 

JR14 - you and your mom should had definitely done up the club

[JR14]

LMAO!!  That woulda been hella funny!!  I wish I coulda checked it out... I swear the resort was so huge that even when we tried to look for it in the daytime we couldn't see where it was!!  If anyone's been, pls let us know what its like

[JR14]

Hi Ladies!! 

I just hit the jackpot when it comes to finding tourist and travel info for Panama!!  I read in another thread that there was a local Jamaica tourist board where you can ask for tourist booklets for free, so I thought maybe I could find something for Panama.  My google search lead me to a site where there are free ebooks on pdf!!

 

This should come in handy for anyone wanting to put together some Welcome info brochures.... HECK why not just print these???

 

Hopefully you find these helpful! So I thought I'd share....

 

 

 

This first one is especially good for Canadian brides!!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Panama Research.pdf

Panama04.pdf

panama-city-preview.pdf

panama-4-getting-started.pdf

[JR14]

Hi Jen!!

I know you're down in Panama already but I wish you and your FI all the best on your BIG wedding day!!!  2 more days and you're a MRS!!!!  

Can't wait to hear all about it when you get back!!

 

Originally Posted by CND_Redhead 

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to put a quick shout out 'cause I'm very excited!
My FI and I were in last week and booked our wedding week Jan 24-31st 2011 to the Royal Decameron, Panama.
The WC just got back to me and we've confirmed our Wedidng Date

Jan 26th, 2011 at 5pm on the BEACH!!!!!
Yeah!!!!

[panamania]

JR14 - those books are KILLER! We had looked at including little travel books in the welcome package but they were just too much...now we can!

 

Also, I don't know if you're planning a group excusion or anything. I wasn't going to until we found a group called panama roadrunners. They'll escort your whole group to all sorts of unique locations in private vehicles. No giant coaches and a bunch of extra tourists! The pricing looks really reasonable. My sis e-mailed and the wrote back right away, and sounded really professional. They also have killer feedback on trip advisor. Normally I try not to trust everything on Trip Advisor, but they have such good reveiws it's hard to avoid. There's normally some negative tucked in there!

 

www.panamaroadrunner.com

 

JEN - I second JR14's sentiments. GOOD LUCK! I am sure you're having an absolute dream of a time. Can't wait to hear all about it!

[Panama Bride]

Hey Everyone,

 

We're baaaaack!!! Thanks for all the well-wishes, we had an awesome time in a beautiful country...Now, since I know we've all had a hard time finding info, I'm going to post everything for you....it will be long so skim through if you have to!

 

Airport Transfer - they screwed this up royally. They told FI and I that our group of 32 would all be on the same bus. Negative. We were split up on 3 different buses and had a heck of a time trying to track everyone down once we arrived. If this happens to you you are best to go back in the airport and make the Nolitours reps give you a list of everyone's room numbers. Seriously.

Arrival - Julia met us right out front and we had a special check-in desk. She takes you on a golf cart right to your room and she will set up a time to go through everything with you. (Our room was gorgeous by the way and they had champagne and fruit waiting for us).

Julia - I would strongly advise that if possible, you take a Spanish language course. It was quite difficult to understand a lot of what she was was saying. I know she didn't understand a lot of what we were asking for but she said yes anyways. She tries hard but there is a definite language barrier. Also, she's doing like 4 or 5 weddings a week which explains why it takes a while for her to respond.

Bar Fridge - do not make the mistake of paying for this as they do not stock it anyways.

Shuttle for Groom/Bride  - the shuttle that was promised for the groom/photographer never showed up so they ended up hiking to Lobby 3 and begging for one there. Ours did come but was late.

Ceremony music - we did give her a list of songs and numbers but the song I chose to walk down the aisle to was not the one that was played.

Ceremony - it's kind of a free for all cos you don't really practice...it was fine though. They do the entire ceremony in Spanish first which I didn't know so that was slightly confusing. Also, the officiants wife stands RIGHTTHERE to take pictures which was really annoying and distracting.

Pictures - Tell Julia that you want at least 2 golf carts to truck you around for your pictures. Otherwise you will have to walk everywhere and trust me, it is still hot at 5pm.

Reception - we had ours at Sushi Samba. From our room we could see that they were setting it up all wrong (even though I drew a diagram) so luckily I had friends that ran in and re-did everything. Also, the morning of the wedding (if you have paid for exclusivity). CHECK EVERY LOBBY. One of the lobbies still took reso's so we had randoms keep trying to walk in for dinner. The meal was absolutely delicious though - best one we had all week, it was like 5 courses and it was served so yay!

 

If anyone has any questions, just pm me...I probably won't be on this site as much anymore now that it's over!

 

Jenn

 

[JR14]

CONGRATULATIONS JENN!!!!  I totally didn't realize that you got married last week too!!!  Thanks so much for the tips and review of your experience, sounds like you encountered a few bumps in the road but I guess that's to be expected with a destination wedding, especially if there are 4-5 a week!!  I'm starting to get nervous for the possibilities of how things might turn out for me cuz I have close to 100 guests coming with me..... CHAOS!!!!  lol
 

Originally Posted by Panama Bride 

Hey Everyone,

 

We're baaaaack!!! Thanks for all the well-wishes, we had an awesome time in a beautiful country...Now, since I know we've all had a hard time finding info, I'm going to post everything for you....it will be long so skim through if you have to!

 

Airport Transfer - they screwed this up royally. They told FI and I that our group of 32 would all be on the same bus. Negative. We were split up on 3 different buses and had a heck of a time trying to track everyone down once we arrived. If this happens to you you are best to go back in the airport and make the Nolitours reps give you a list of everyone's room numbers. Seriously.

Arrival - Julia met us right out front and we had a special check-in desk. She takes you on a golf cart right to your room and she will set up a time to go through everything with you. (Our room was gorgeous by the way and they had champagne and fruit waiting for us).

Julia - I would strongly advise that if possible, you take a Spanish language course. It was quite difficult to understand a lot of what she was was saying. I know she didn't understand a lot of what we were asking for but she said yes anyways. She tries hard but there is a definite language barrier. Also, she's doing like 4 or 5 weddings a week which explains why it takes a while for her to respond.

Bar Fridge - do not make the mistake of paying for this as they do not stock it anyways.

Shuttle for Groom/Bride  - the shuttle that was promised for the groom/photographer never showed up so they ended up hiking to Lobby 3 and begging for one there. Ours did come but was late.

Ceremony music - we did give her a list of songs and numbers but the song I chose to walk down the aisle to was not the one that was played.

Ceremony - it's kind of a free for all cos you don't really practice...it was fine though. They do the entire ceremony in Spanish first which I didn't know so that was slightly confusing. Also, the officiants wife stands RIGHTTHERE to take pictures which was really annoying and distracting.

Pictures - Tell Julia that you want at least 2 golf carts to truck you around for your pictures. Otherwise you will have to walk everywhere and trust me, it is still hot at 5pm.

Reception - we had ours at Sushi Samba. From our room we could see that they were setting it up all wrong (even though I drew a diagram) so luckily I had friends that ran in and re-did everything. Also, the morning of the wedding (if you have paid for exclusivity). CHECK EVERY LOBBY. One of the lobbies still took reso's so we had randoms keep trying to walk in for dinner. The meal was absolutely delicious though - best one we had all week, it was like 5 courses and it was served so yay!

 

If anyone has any questions, just pm me...I probably won't be on this site as much anymore now that it's over!

 

Jenn