Sandos Caracol Eco-Resort??!!

[shurbgatza]

Help...I need feeback....

Sandos Caracol Resort in Mayan?? We are looking at beginning of January 2011...prices are within our price range? should we book or wait?? any reviews on the hotel?

Thanks for any feedback

[Sandra Lue]

Wow you are in luck! I stayed there for a week at the beggining of this month while I was doing resort inspections. It is a pretty resort and I would say it has great value for its price. I tried to meet with the wedding coordinator but she gave me such attitude that I just gave up. I believe her name was Claudia (not sure) and I think she was from Argentina?

 

It has a nice beach. The front desk was responsive and helpful. I thought the food was average but always found something to eat. I ate most of the time in the italian buffet. The entertainment was mixed. I heard a wedding was going on while I was there but didn't witness it.

 

If I was to have my wedding there I would have it in the mediterranean restaurant. See if you can convince them to have the whole thing (dinner/reception) there. It has a cascade at the back of the restaurant, beatiful view to the ocean and it is secluded from all the noise/rooms. The food was not good at the restaurant or at any of the a la carte restaurants but the view was amazing.

 

The wedding that took place during my stay had their reception at the barracuda bar, which did not have any breeze and believe me when it is as humid and hot as it is in May, you want some breeze. And is right next to a little lake/stream of water...what I didn't like about that was that it smelled stagnant water.

 

Now let's go to the eco-resort concept. This means no paper towels in the public restrooms - it was hot in early May and I did not want more hot air to dry my hands. Also, no straws for your drinks...not important for adults but when you are traveling with children you need to tell parents to bring them.

 

The rooms were older but I am not picky. I had a cold room and that is all that matters...great a/c unit. My friends on the other hand had a room that was 81 degrees and they did not get moved until their 3rd night of complaining.

 

Whatever you do, STAY AWAY from the Brazilian restaurant because before you get a chance to have a bite of food...all of the mosquitos have eaten you alive. I am not kidding...

 

Overall, it is a GREAT resort for the money you are paying.

 

I hope this helps, PM me if you have any questions that I didn't cover.

[Sandra Lue]

I forgot to mention that is close to Playa del Carmen and although they offered a free shuttle, we never used it because the lines were long but you can pay a $10 cab ride (max 4 people per cab).

 

Also, they have another Sandos at the Playa Car area. Although I did not visit that resort, I visited the RIU which is close that resort and the ocean was the most beautiful ...BLUE TURQUOISE caribean blue you could imagine. Looking at that blue ocean would take your breath away.

 

Happy planning!

[shurbgatza]

Thanks so much for the feeback.....greatly appreciated!! Soooo hard trying pick a resort....;(.....

[Jennybell1]

I was trying to decide between Sandos Caracol and Sandos Playacar Beach and ended up picking latter. I found too many poor reviews on the resort. PLus my gf stayed there and she is so easy to please and she had some complaints. THe mosquitos were a HUGE issue there, bc you are more secluded and in a tropical forest. Plus she kept hearing about racoons attacking people. THere are a lot of wild animals bc of where it is situated andwith having some kids coming, I didnt want to chance that either.

The water park is amazing, however it wasnt enough to make me change my mind.

I have heard poor things about a few of the restaurants and although I take all the negatives with a grain of salt, I also noticed that there wasnt a lot of info on this resort. THat made me wonder too.

In the end i changed to Sandos Playacar Beach resort and there is a thread on here just about Sandos. It is very helpful and very close to the Caracol prices. It is a very big resort with lots to offer. I have flip flopped so many times on my resort, but eveytime I kept coming back to it. I found this resort offers so much more then the average resort for their wedding pkgs and they dont nickel and dime as much as the others.

 

My FMIL's sister in law and brother in law just came back from there and they loved it. The only issue is that you need to warn your guests to avoid the timeshare sales people. They are at both resorts. BUt there is info in the thread about that too.

 

If you have any questions, let me know, but like I said check out the Sandos Thread - there is a TON of info on it.

 

Jenn

[MayBride2010]

I haven't seen Caracol but I chose Sandos Playacar over it solely based on reviews and photos. I loved every minute of Sandos Playacar! I don't know how anyone could ever regret their decision to have their wedding there.

 

I stressed and stressed about choosing a resort and I really regret it now. Wherever you go will be wonderful if you choose to have a good time

[shurbgatza]

so we have decided on sandos caracol....u read good reviews and bad reviews...but the feeback i have received is good enough for me! The wedding co-ordinator is very good at responding back which makes me one happy girl!! The only thing i don't really understand is she asked me if i wanted a judge or minister to perform the ceremony?! we are getting married before we go therefore are having a symbolic ceremony...the only difference she said is the minister is more religious...i like the idea of a minister and don't mind a little religious does anyone know how religious it is? or should i just go with a judge? Help!!

[kingshead]

I chose Sandos Caracol as well. I wish there was a thread like the awesome one there is for the Sandos Playacar! Seems harder to find the Caracol brides! I have been emailing Karina who has been awesome in answering my questions. So far this is what we've come up with as a plan but looking for feedback!!!!

 

We're having our ceremony at 4pm. I think we're probably booking the mariachi band and the finger food for in between the wedding ceremony and dinner. Then for dinner we're thinking of the steakhouse for one private sitting (6-7:30) for $400 us. We're still figuring out what happens next...we definately want to DANCE for sure but don't know where the best place to do this is.

 

I'm going for a fuschia, orange and purple tropical look and probably will end up bringing some decorations.

 

I'm all for "going with the flow" but it's been kind of nice finding out some details and I'm having so much fun planning it out! Maybe the Caracol brides should start a new thread called "Sandos Caracol Brides" or something like that and all post any info. Not sure how this whole thing works yet though. Any thoughts?

 

Rebecca

[becky86]

Hello!

I was recently married at the Sando Caracol, If you have any questions about the resort or the wedding please don't hesitate to send me an email!

 

Here is a lil info about my day!

 

My wedding day was very low key and organized! We didn't get married until 5pm. Our day basically went like this:

 

We made hair appts. right after we arrived as they only have one hairstylest on a day. My bridesmaids had their appts starting at 11:00, 12:00pm and I was at 1:00 my hair took about an hour and a half. After that I went back to my room where my sister did my make up, We got dressed and by this time it was about 4pm. We then went out and we had brought our own photographer so she took a bunch of photos of me and my sisters and me and my dad. The golf cart picked us up a little after 5 (you have to keep rememebering that its mexican time!) We got to the wedding site, Karina met us, she qued the music, and everything went very smoothly after that!

 

After the ceremony what we did is: family photos, and photos of the two of us, in the beach and a few around the resort. While we were having photos took we hired a Mariachi band to come play for an hour which was fantastic! we have some wonderful photos taken with them!! We also ensure there was a bar set up and we had finger food brought out which was $5 a person...great idea as our dinner wasn't until 7:45.

We had reservations at the Steakhouse, which was awesome! The steaks were HUGE and everyone is still talking about the dinner! After that, we had the reception on the terrace which is just off the Mexican Restaurant, here we had some speeches, cut the cake, had the first dance, and then partied! We were there until 11pm, and after that some people headed to the disco, but didn't last too long, and other's went straight to bed!

 

It was a very low stress day, which is exactly what I wanted!

 

As for the boys, it was even less stress for them! They hung out on the beach all day until they headed back up to the bestman's room to get ready, they were down on the beach for 4:30! So even easier for them!!

 

 

We met with Karina the day after we arrived and we went through her binders, chosing the meal, flowers, arch decorations, dj or no dj, I gave her our ipod the day before the wedding with the order of music to be played. The flowers arrived at our room about an hour before the ceremony and they looked fantastic! I wish I could have brought them home!

 

I know how difficult it was to plan as I couldn't find anyone that had gotten married their before us!

 

Oh, if your wondering we had the Mexican Riviera Legal package.

 

 

Becky

[kingshead]

Thanks for the great info! Sounds wonderful. I have a couple questions if you don't mind.

 

Was it worth the upgrade to the riviera package? Were the flowers for the arch and aisle extra? Did you have to pay extra for the cake decoration? Were the bouquets super expensive? I am considering bringing silk flowers because I found a lady on etsy who makes beautiful tropical destination wedding packages(will specialize with your colours) and ships right to the resort for a reasonable price....but if it's not much more, I'd definately rather fresh! I was thinking of doing bouquets & bouts in silk and fresh for arch and decoration. Any advice?

 

I saw your pics from the facebook link and they are fantastic! You look beautiful...love your dress. The flowers you chose for the arch are stunning!

 

Again...thanks so much for the info. It is greatly appreciated.

 

Rebecca

 

p.s. how is the waterpark?