DREAMS TULUM brides please post here!

[Krystalranee]

I have a question for you all. When they state "20 Guests" does that include children? THANKS!!!

[B&J2008]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rabbitnow SNeen and Bleek you guys are sharing a wedding day - that's soooo sweet... The prices though are crazy---I am getting married in October (the 7th) and the prices are 1/2 - we just have to risk getting hit by a hurracaine - small price to pay (NOT) But it just worked out to be the best month for us. - Do check on line anyway though.

Hey Anna, we are getting married four days after you on 10/11! How long will you be there? It seems like the time is flying by. ONly a little over 6 months!

[amy706]

I wrote this to Sandra a couple months ago:

Do the kids count against the final count of guests? I was assuming they do not since they wont eat much or drink obviously:) I think we'll have 8 kids.

She responded:

THEY COUNT FOR THE SEATING , WE HAVE SPECIAL MENU FOR KIDS IF YOU WANT AND THE PRICE FOR THEM IS $20 USD

[Krystalranee]

Thanks! I appreciate the information.

[neen]

so here's another kids question...all of our nieces and nephews are staying off-site, but will be attending the wedding. do we have to purchase day/night passes for them to attend? is there a child day/night pass rate?

[AmyInMI]

My school schedule is interputing my forum time!! I have so many posts to catch up on!! Here are the answers to some of your questions!!

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by ccarmany23 Hello everyone. I am going out to in May to look at DT and some other hotels in Cancun area. I will try to take pictures for everyone of the Seaside Grill, Ballroom, and around the resort and post for us all. Hooray, I can't wait! Will anyone else be at DT around May 13?

We are getting married at DT on May 10th and will be there through the 14th.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by SBlake This is the first I heard about not having music at El Patio! That won't work. I've just sent an email to sandra and landy, they really should tell you that before you reserve!!

We have been booked for over a year now with plans from the beginning of having our reception here and we JUST found this out ourselves, less than 2 months before our wedding. According to Sandra, it was a recent decision by the management due to an increase in the number of complaints of people who were dining at the El Patio and were distracted by the music of the wedding receptions held nearby.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by neen I think you're allowed to have music as long as you rent out the whole restuarant for the $750 fee. As Amy was saying, they don't allow music if there are other diners inside the restuarant because it disturbs them, but if its closed down for your event, you should be able to whatever you want in terms of music.

I am pretty sure that because Dreams is building the new ballrooms/convention center that they will start doing away with reserving of the restaurants for wedding receptions. This is another complaint that Sandra mentioned because people were not able to visit these restaurants because they were constantly being closed because of receptions.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by niels408 Has anyone been able to obtain pics or details on the new "convention center/ballroom"? I am not sure where to have or where we are able to have our reception yet (were having @ 70 ppl) and want music and stuff for sure!!! Also where are most of you having your welcome dinners at DT?

I will be able to take some pics of the ballroom/convention center when I am there in May for you.

[SunBride]

Hello ladies, I'M BACK!!!!

 

I have so so much information for you, but I'm going to have to ask you to be patient. I just got back at 11pm last night, and I got to bed at 1:30am and then got up at 5am to drive my sister to the airport for her connection flight, and now I'm at work with only 4 hours of sleep. Tonight will be a write off as I'm so tired, but my goal is to write an insanely long review of the resort and wedding by Sunday, and post all my pictures by then too (I have hundreds, including about 100 of the wedding and 100 of the resort, these are just my family's pictures not the professional ones which I will get in a couple weeks).

 

For now I'll say that the resort was absolutely fabulous, the food and the service were amazing. The service for the wedding was amazing. We used the free package, and yet I was made to feel that we paid thousands of dollars to them because they worked so so hard to make things right. Landy worked really hard to get the gazebo decorated the way I wanted (a bit different than the normal way) and to get me flowers I liked (talked to the florist for like half an hour while I stood there saying what I wanted and didn't want based on the florists' ideas). My family were all completely blown away by the service and how beautiful the wedding site was.

 

So I used the free package and had a civil wedding and all I paid was 150$ for the blood test (no tax added like I think the info booklet says) and 50$ judge's transportation. Both paid in cash with the proper change. The only other things I paid for was getting everyone's hair done (150$ + tip for 4 people, this is with the 15% wedding discount, which was applied to all 4 people since I was paying for all of them). Also Landy asked me for 5$ tip to pay the guy who set-up the speaker system and played our songs at the ceremony (no charge, just this 5$ "mandatory" tip). When I went to pick up my marriage certificate I tipped Landy 40$ for her services and 5$ each for the two men who set up the ceremony site. Even though we had some substitutes (no boutonnier for the groom, no flower arch on the gazebo, but we got two bags of petals and also flower arrangements for the aisle; and smaller flowers on the gazebo) and even though I asked for a more complicated gazebo decoration (I brought my own tulle for them to do this) they didn't charge me anything for the substitutes or the for the extra work to decorate the gazebo! They also didn't charge for me to change from vanilla or chocolate cake (included free) to Tres Leche, nor to have a small two tier cake (my request) instead of the small one tiered one I was suppose to get in the package. I got a flower bouquet different than the ones shown in the flower document Landy had sent me and didn't get charged extra for that either. I also requested that they have the beach cleaned around the gazebo (they always pick up garbage like straws in the sand, but I wanted the seaweed/coral raked up) and said I would pay the guys like 20$ each to clean it but Landy said I didn't have to pay. I couldn't believe they didn't charge me for any of this, it's the complete opposite of other people saying they were nickle and dimed for everything at other resorts.

 

I asked Landy to clarify the new policy related to renting out restaurants now that they have the ballrooms (Convention Center), and she said from now on the only restaurants than can be rented for a private reception are the seaside grill and El Patio. You can no longer do a private reception at the other a-la-cartes (Portofino, Bordeau, Himitsu, Gohan). The cost for the private reception at these two places is 700$ or 750$ (can't remember). If you have the Ultimate Wedding package you can also have your reception on the beach at no additional cost. I wasn't able to go inside the convention center because it was locked and the tables weren't set up, although my photographer did take a picture of it (I didn't have my camera with me when we walked by) which I can post when I get my professional pictures. I forgot to ask Landy about what the "terrace" is. I'm guessing maybe the area known as "the plaza" which is an open area between all the restaurants and the Sugar Reef bar, this is where they have all the evening entertainment (although that's probably not the location, because then it would interrupt evening entertainment). The other area it could be is behind the El Patio, the area looks very similar to "the Plaza", i.e. a big open area with buildings all around. That is where they had the mexican fiesta on Tuesday night, but that is the only time they ever had anything in that area.

 

For the 1st dance, we planned on going to the Disco but we got there and there was not one person, and we were only 10 people, so not enough to get a good crowd, and it was very dark and they had a disco ball going and it wasn't realloy a nice atmosphere for a first dance so since I could tell the parents were uncomfortable we just left and went to bed (I didn't care - we are currently taking dance lessons and will do a nice dance at our at home reception in a few weeks). What I wish we had planned instead was just to take the ipod dock station from our room (you would require batteries to do this) and do our dance next to the pool, or even right in front of the lobby. I wouldn't have bothered asking Landy/Sandra's permission to do this, just get your group together there after dinner and do it! Both locations would have been beautiful for a first dance. I actually wanted to do this after we left teh disco but our parents were already walking back to their rooms and I didn't want to go chase them down to come back.

 

The seaside grill is a great place for a wedding dinner (this is where we were) since it's open air and right on the beach (many pictures to follow). There would be no way of having something semi-private, the restaurant is in the shape of circle, and it's all open with no walls (well, one wall behind, where the kitchen is, the other 280 degrees of the restaurant is open). We didn't have a private reception and it didn't matter, we had one long beatiful table for the 10 of us and it was perfect for us (although I can see that if you have a large group and are taking up most of the restaurant, you might find it weird to have a few tables of strangers, honestly I wouldn't, but I can understand why others want private receptions).

 

There are the two pools seperating El Patio and the Seaside Grill, so although they are only a 3 minute walk apart, you won't hear music from one at the other.

 

In terms of the question about travellers cheques, you can exchange them at the lobby (you need your passport, which was a pain because when I forgot it had to go back to my room). You can only get pesos for them, and they gave me 10.3 pesos per american dollar. The exchange rate was 10.3 whether you gave them american travellers cheques or cash (at banks it's a slightly worse rate for travellers cheques). The current rate right now (I just googled it) is 10.6, but that's the official rate, not the bank rate (which is always worse) so 10.3 is actually a fair rate I think.

 

You can pay for stuff everywhere with US dollars, but the rate stores and even taxis use is exactly 10 pesos, so you are better off exchanging your money at the hotel, although the difference is so minor it's not worth it, everyone just pays with US dollars. (i.e. shirt in store costs 120 pesos or 12 dollars, so you are actually better off taking your 12 dollars to the hotel lobby, and exchanging it at the rate of 10.3 you will get 123.6 pesos, then go pay for the shirt in pesos, and you have 3.6 pesos left. Totally not worth the hassle though). One time I had a taxi give me a very unfair rate, (taxis have set rates to go everywhere, but the set rate is in pesos, most of them us a 10 exchange rate to convert to US dollars if you want to pay US), the set rate to Tulum Ruins is 70 pesos, so should be 7$ and although we and our family all paid our taxis 7$ to get there, another taxi wanted 10$ to bring us back, so luckily I had pesos with me and just paid the 70 pesos instead.

 

For the person who asked about how to eat free with 15 people, my understanding is the only free option for groups larger than 10 (we were 10 so free) is the buffet. This is actually not a bad option, our whole group ate at the buffet the second night and we had a large table off the the side and it didn't feel like we were at the buffet at all, it was all candlelit and we got excellent service from the waiter for drinks and clearing plates.

 

Ah yes, one last thing, I had emailed Raul Lerma the rooms manager ([email protected]) in advance to request room upgrades, as we all booked "deluxe gardenview" which are the basic gardenview. I was told only the wedding couple would get a free upgrade, everybody else could upgrade for half price (so 20$ per night per room to upgrade to Dreams suite gardenview instead of 40$, or 30$ per room per night to upgrade to Dreams suite oceanview instead of 60$ per night). I was told my fiance and I would get upgraded to Dreams Suite gardenview. I wrote him back and asked if we could get oceanview and he said "I can't make any promises but I will try my best". When we checked in we were given Dreams Suite gardenview, I asked if oceanview was available and she said yes but that we would have to pay to upgrade, that the free upgrade was to gardenview. I showed her the email and said that "try my best" implied to me it would be free based on availability. So she asked me to come back in half an hour since Raul was gone for lunch, when we came back Raul came to talk to us and he was so so nice, came around from behind the counter to talk to us and shake our hands, and then said "I can give you the dreams suite oceanview as you would like, or if you prefer I can give you an oceanfront honemooon suite" (I couldn't believe it, I had to clarify that it was free, which it was). I was so excited I almost started to cry, although in the end I didn't find the honeymoon suite to be that much better than a regular Dreams Suite (honeymoon suite has double jacuzzi instead of single, bigger living room area, and then the fact that it was oceanfront rather than just oceanview). Again I was very impressed that they upgraded us all the way from a hacienda gardenview to a honeymoon suite, definitely unexpected! None of my family got free upgrades (although we went back to get our room, we overheard other people getting them) and one person chose to pay the 20$ per night (140$ for a week) to upgrade to a dreams gardenview. The rest of my family thought that the hacienda rooms were fine, definitely not deluxe (more like what I would expect at a 3.5 star or 4 star resort) but nothing wrong with them at all (I don't understand how people on trip advisor say they are awful). The hacienda rooms are next to and behind the lobby, so about a 3-6 minute walk (depending on the building) from the beach and restaurants, versus the dreams rooms which run along both sides of the walkway from the lobby to the beach, so 0-3 minute walk to the beach depending on the building.

 

Well I gotta go because this was already way longer than I meant it to be (practically a review). Please wait until I post my review before asking a million questions, I think it will be easier than way since I will likely answer many of them in my review anyways.

 

Oh yeah, one last thing, you can't take wedding pictures at the Tulum ruins! I got up at 6am the day after my wedding (it was our last day, otherwise obviously wouldn't have picked the morning after our wedding) and got all ready and went to the ruins at 8am in my dress and they wouldn't let us in! They told me to change so I put on my bathing suit (there is a washroom at the entrance) with the intention of chaning back to my dress when I got to the beach, and then when I got to the 2nd gate where they stamp your ticket they told me to put my dress in a locker! (it was in my beach bag, but they knew, all the employees saw me walk in wearing my dress) so we just got a refund and left. The employees were nice and polite about it but very firm about not letting me in with my dress on (even though we were practically the only ones there since they had just opened) I was so disappointed because the beach is so amazing and pictures from the look-out point near the beach and on the beach would have been spectacular. Plus it had taken a lot of dedication to get up at 6am and do my hair and make-up. So we just went back to the resort and did trash the dress photos there. If I was to do it over again, I would arrive at the ruins in normal clothes with my dress hiding in a bag, and then I would change on the beach (I had brought a sheet to hide behind so I could change into my bathing suit so we could swim after the photos). All the employees are at the gate, there are none around the ruins or on the beach (at least I didn't see any when we had visited the ruins a few days prior) so I think we could have gotten away with changing on the beach. Plus if they had caught me we could have acted innoncent and pretended we didn't know and at least had had a few pictures. Another option is supposedly there is another public beach nearby, and you can maybe even reach the ruins from there.

[alin & mako]

Wow! Sunbride, you rock!! First the awesome newsletter and now this!! I'm even more excited about my wedding now!! I won't ask any questions until you finish posting stuff. Get some rest!

[neen]

Yea!!! Congrats! Can't wait to read your "real" review and see your pics! Welcome home!

[MsSunshine]

Wow this place sounds wonderful. Can you tell me what is different about this one from Dreams Cancun? Is it cheaper? do they offer more? do hey have their own airport shuttle? I heard that Tulum is about 1 hour from Cacun.

 

If they didn't have their own shuttle, how much did you have to pay from the airport to Tulum? I' trying to decide if I want to stay in Cancun or Riviera Maya. I have read posts about Riviera Maya's beaches not being great! Is that true? Thanks for your review