Barcelo Bavaro Palace Deluxe

[MissJali]

Hi T!!! Congratulations and Welcome back! Thanks for your review! Glad to know your baby is ok and the centerpieces worked out!!! I figured I'll have to designate someone to fill them up with sand LOL.

 

Questions:

1. Did you bring your own table cloths as well as the napkins? If so, where did you get them from?

2. Did you feel the need to have your phone turned on in case guests who didn't travel with you called? My FI is bugging me on this and we still have 9 months to go!

3. How did the airport transfers fare up? Any complaints from your guests? Did the majority of your guests arrive on the same day?

4. How did you get the welcome bags to everyone?

 

 

I'm sure I'll have more questions later but I can't think of anymore right now!

[trivera5521]

So I have Susana as my WC, and have heard she will not be there....so did the things you reserved/discussed with Susana take any like showing of emails, records keeping to have Marlene agree? I would say that 95% of the things I discussed with Susana, Marlene knew about. Such as selections of cakes and stuff like that. I didnt have anything out of the ordinary. The only thing that was not honored was the cost of the second chair sash. I would say to have readily available your email chains. Marlene has been monitoring all the emails so it appears shes on it.

 

Would you say the Lobby Bar is a good and fun place to meet up for the first night just to welcome everyone? Is there food there (snacks)? The lobby bar (Bar Carey) is a beautiful bar with a nice white piano in the center.  It however does not have food/snacks. If your looking for a nice spot to meet that has food I would suggest Strikers. Its a 24 hour sports bar that has a full bar and serves buffett food, wings, pizza, salad bar, ribs, fries, etc. We had our welcome party here since it was the only place that served alcohol and food and could accomodate our group of 45 for no additional fee. Additionally, they have pool tables and a huge theatre type screen with leather seats that plays the games in a back area. It worked out perfectly. I arrived early and had the waitress pull some tables together for us and just held down the spot until everyone arrived. It also has outdoor seating, not a big area but its available. Its located directly across from the casino/night club.

 

Did you ever eat at Hoya 19? We tried to have lunch here but the wait was always atleast 20 minutes. Its a really nice ala carte restaurant that overlooks the golf course. Its located about 5 minutes from the main area.  We did however have breakfast here and the service sucked! It took entirely too long for us to get our food.

 

Did you guys do any excursions? Anything fun on resort that shouldnt be missed? We did a speedboat and snorkeling excursion. Awesome! It was alot of fun and the snorkeling was amazing! We even saw a baracuda...dont think I hauled ass that fast in all my life LOL. We also took the lil kids to the Manati Zoo, was also an excursion. They had a dolphin and sea lion show, with a few other animal shows. I wasnt impressed. The pool area for the shows seemed run down and they didnt have animals that I would expect in a zoo. Mostly birds and reptiles, nothing exotic and nothing big like elephants, lions, giraffes. It was definetly no Bronx Zoo thats for sure LOL. They have the dance lessons on the beach everyday at 4:00 which is nice, as well as water polo, volleyball stuff like that. We also utilized the free Kyacks and those pedal boat things. They have a big calendar of activities in the main lobby that lists everything they have going on. I will upload that pic tonight. The shows in the theatre are quite entertaining, of course some better than others but its everynight at 10:00 nice thing to do.

 

For the day of and decorating, do you leave it completely to them and dont have any family or yourself helping decorate anywhere? Just want to make sure I am where I need to be. The day of I did nothing in terms of decorating nor did anyone in my family. I went the day before and did another run down of what I wanted and where I wanted everything. As well as filled up the centerpieces. Ramona took pictures of everything and I left that day feeling confident they knew what I wanted. I really wanted to keep the wedding day to myself and not burden fam/friends with tasks although they were willing. It all worked out.

 

Did you guys get vouchers upon checking in? I see online where you can get coupons for the spa/waterpark etc, but my TA wont confirm it. Upon checking in every room is given a coupon book. This contains the vouchers to just about everything, water park, spa, golf, upgrades, etc. Just FYI the internet cost is $12 a day and you can have up to 2 users on it. They also offer it in 15 minute incraments, ie: 15 minutes for $3 and so on. Guest services has computers that you can use if you dont have access on your phones. And if your in a jam you can also print things here. The golf was rather expensive, although it says a free round with every room. They dont say that each person has to rent the cart for $40 and the clubs for $40 so it averages about $80 pp for a round of golf which was steep. The course is beautiful and well kept. Oh and in terms of the water park for the kids, there is the one you pay for (Pirate park) $10 per day with voucher but there is also 2 others that are free. Served its purpose and the kids didnt know any difference.

 

We have the DJ with the MC as well, and I know you missed most of your reception (SUCKS!) but from a few past reviews it sounded like the reception was basically just dinner, toasts and a dance...I was hoping to have like two hours of dancing...and it sound slike your party was able to do that...did you opt out of things like father-daughter dance and toasts or was it just more organized with the MC so faster? We did entrances for us and the entire wedding party to different songs, we had our first dance, father/daughter and groom/mom as well as 4 toasts. With all that we still had about 2 hours of dancing, keep in mind we extended the reception though. I think that if we would have stuck to the 3 hour reception we would have probably left feeling like we could have used another hour of just dancing. The first hour and a 1/2 easily goes to all that dances, toasts, and food. Then you also account for the bouquet and garter toss as well as the cake and of course dinner. THe MC was full of energy and quite funny, I'm gald we had him as he was really on point in terms of timing and scheduling.

 

I know you brought two dresses with you? Any problems carrying them on? I rbought 3 dresses with me (Wedding dress, club dress night of the wedding and my TTD) all 3 I managed to get in one garment bag and had no problems. We flew JB there and US Air back and both were accomodating and allowed us to board first to ensure we fit the dress in an overhead bin. Unfortunately neither one of those airlines had closets but nonetheless laying it down worked perfectly. 

 

About how long did it take you guys to go through customs at PC airport? My FI keeps saying its going to take two hours, but I just cannot believe it!! No way, it was super easy. The longest part was probably waiting in line to pay the $10 entrance fee that is only accepted in cash. I would say in total maybe 15-20 minutes at most.

 

Okay, sorry I know that is so many questions! And I have more sadly hahah! My wedding is in three weeks and with Susana gone and a couple bad reviews im getting a little more nervous, so thank you for your review! Made me feel better. And your cake is the prettiest I have seen there! I was hoping to get that big bottom layer like you, but wasnt sure if they would be able to do it! But thanks again for all the info and you guys all looked wonderful!! Your son is just too cute! LOL thanks love, I would say that the bottom layer is foam, LOL. We learned the hard way when we went to do our cake cutting and were like WTF its so hard...they must use some serious fondant LOL. Needless to say we pulled the cake knife out and saw the styrofoam pebble things lol. We laughed it off and "gracefuylly" moved to the second tier that was actually cake. We brought our personalized glasses, cake serving stuff and monogram topper.

 

My pleasure to help you guys out so ask away =)

[trivera5521]

Thanks Reign!

 

A few questions:

• Can you share a pic of Bar Higuey during your reception, with table settings? I love your colors...curious how they all came together on the table. My colors were orange and Aqua 2 on the color sash which is pretty much turquouse (Malibu at Davids Bridal was an exact match!) They came together perfectly and I was very pleased. We opted to use the orange during the beach ceremony as the primary since the BM were in the blue dresses and then switched it for the reception and used the turqouise as the primary since my centerpieces were orange. I'm still waiting for the pictures from the photographer as the ones the guests took just didnt capture the reception and the table settings. I will FB stalk and see if I can find some. Same thing for the cocktail hour.
• I see you had your ceremony on the beach. I think I want the same thing (going back and forth b/w beach and rooftop) even though some are saying it's not very private. Question....did you say your cocktail reception was on the beach too? I hadn't heard of that. Was it a good location? Can you share a pic? If we do the beach ceremony I was thinking of doing the rooftop reception. But if the beach is a good option I'll consider it. Girl let me tell you if I could do it all over again I would do it exactly as I did it. The onlookers didnt bother us one bit and everyone was very respectful and no one photo bombed or anything. My cocktail hour was on the beach as well, literally sand and all. It was perfect. No one had to move and the chairs from the ceremony were set up already so I didnt have to pay extra for chairs. They passed alcoholic and non alcoholic tropical drinks with pineapple slices and we had the 4 choices of apps, chicken skewers, something with yucca and I cant recall the other 2 since we were doing pics so unforntaltey we didnt try anything. Everyone loved it! The rooftop is beautiful but honestly its soooo hot up there, no shade at all. Although the ceremony is late afternoon its still really hot and the ocean had such an amazing breeze  that it was so refreshing. Definetly cooled the guests down so much so that no one complained. My apologies for anyone who is considering this but the only spot I wouldnt have the ceremony is the beach gazebo. Its dead smack in the middle of the pool area. Since its circular every angle will have someone in the pictures. As opposed to the beach ceremony your backdrop is the beautiful ocean.
• Is that the caprese salad in the picture? Looks great! What was your dessert? Trying to decide b/w the creme brulee and chocolate forest cake (or whatever its called). Yes! The Caprese Salad and it was amazing! The shell was made of a like a parmesan cheese thing, just delish! We did the creme Brulee, I cant speak on it as I didnt try it but with that said no one complained about it either.

   

   

[trivera5521]

Thanks Katty!

 

1. Did you check out the kids club at all?  I keep hearing about a $10 for a "water park" do you know anything about that? As I mentioned they charge $20 per day for the pirates water park, however you can use a voucher and get it for $10 a day. Honestly this is one of 3 waterparks/areas of course its the biggest but the other 2 were also really good and served the purpose. The kids 2, 3 & 5 years old loved the free water parks and didnt know the difference. If there was no other option for the kids in terms of water parks then I would say splurge on the passes but considering they can have a similar experience for free save your money. The kids club is sooo cute and has tons of things for them to do, mini golf, a club, arcade, they do activities with the kids, I mean the whole nine yards. Kids I think 3-12 are under the supervision of the kids club crew and they take them all around the resort and do dance lessons and balloon animals, they even make jewelry! This was big reason why we chose this resort b/c its sooo kid friendly, having stayed there with children it def exceeded my expectations in terms of the activities for kids.

2. Did you get to check out the disco at all? Did I?! LOL it was our stomping ground nearly every night. Our entire reception headed to the disco afterwards and we partied to the wee hours. It closed at 3 am if I am not mistaking. The tangerine package comes with VIP access for the bride and groom but we never used it since it was only for us. We just stayed in the main area with our guests. The music is a wiiiide range of everything, of course somethings better than others but its a lot of fun. And strikers is right outside the club so you leave at any time and grab some munchies. =)

3. Did they charge you extra for the group dinner at Japanese restuarant? We didnt have a "group dinner" at the Japanese restaurant because our group was too big. We ate there and we were a party of 14 and no we didnt pay extra. Loved the hibachi it was so much fun and the cooks rocked! I think they can accomodate up to 15 per hibachi table.

4. Where did you get those bowls for centerpieces? I had 7 tables of 6 and I got the bowls from Walmart online. They were plastic and perfect to travel with. I brought most of my stuff back with me and will post it on here. Mostly on principle because they wanted to charge me $60 per table for the fishbowl centerpieces. No way was I gonna leave them so they can extort the next bride, f*k that LOL.

 

5. Do you happen to have Marlene's email address? Marlene Rejon [email protected]

[trivera5521]

Miss Jali thanks chicky! If possible I would def designate someone to fill em and then cart them back up the wedding office.

 

Questions:

1. Did you bring your own table cloths as well as the napkins? If so, where did you get them from? I only brought my napkins with me since the linens they had matched my blue perfectly. I actually brought the napkins new from a past bride that never used them after deciding to change her colors.

2. Did you feel the need to have your phone turned on in case guests who didn't travel with you called? My FI is bugging me on this and we still have 9 months to go! Well I will say that for us we kept the phones on airplane mode nearly the entire time b/c AT&T charges for incoming calls even if you dont answer them. We did however have to use our phones and since we didnt add the int'l plan the charges were ridiculous! It cant hurt to add the feature at the very least it costs roughly $20 if you dont use it. AT&T allows for free incoming text messages so for those who stayed at home we advised if they needed to reach us text us and if need be we can call them back. We split the internet daily fee with other family members since you can have 2 people share the code and it costs $6.00 each per day. We communicated with many via email.

3. How did the airport transfers fare up? Any complaints from your guests? Did the majority of your guests arrive on the same day? The airport transfers were perfect! I would highly recommend Dominican Airport Transfers (DAT). We had no complaints, everything worked out like a charm and their prices were unbeatable! I would use them for big groups of atleast 4 people. I paid $40 one way for up to 5 pax, however if you have 2 pax its still $40. So for groups of 2 I arranged through the resort for $15 per person. Since we covered everyones airport transfers to and from I had a running spreadsheet of everyones arrival and departure times and grouped the pick ups. Luckily many arrived on differnt airlines but within minutes apart so it really worked out!

 

4. How did you get the welcome bags to everyone? We handed everyones welcome bag out to them on Thursday night at the welcome party that we had at the sports bar, Strikers.

 

 

* * FYI Girls I made an amazing contact while at BBPD. His name is Sydney and he handles excursions and also works for DAT (airport transfers). He went out of his way to accomodate our group and got us discounts on tons of excursions.  He checked all my flights to make sure everyone was arriving on time and departing on time. He really was awesome! If you guys are planning excursions I would say to wait until you get there becuase you can def price negotiate if you have a group. LMK if you want his info!

 

Oh and one more thing before I forget. Many guests were looking for shopping like those outdoor flea markets or bazars, the resort is sooo expensive. They charged a guest $27 for a bottle of sunscreen and $24 for bug spray. Anyway if you walk to the end of the beach there is just that an outdoor shopping area, its about 10 minutes down the beach. There was a lil kid selling peanuts or something and one of our guests took out a $10 to give him a few dollars and he grabbed it out of her hand and took off with it. Just to keep that in mind, this was the only thing that happened that was even remotely "dangerous" but to be aware.

[Bjeantil]

Thanks T for the review and the answers to all the questions!!! I'm sorry to hear about what happened to your son and glad he is doing better but shame on Marlene for not extending the reception..smh But overall, I'm happy that everything went well. I have a meeting June 24 an I guess ill be meeting with Marlene since susana is not there. :/

[Bjeantil]

And of course you looked beautiful!!!! Thanks again for your review!!!

[nykat57]

Thanks Katty! 1. Did you check out the kids club at all?  I keep hearing about a $10 for a "water park" do you know anything about that? As I mentioned they charge $20 per day for the pirates water park, however you can use a voucher and get it for $10 a day. Honestly this is one of 3 waterparks/areas of course its the biggest but the other 2 were also really good and served the purpose. The kids 2, 3 & 5 years old loved the free water parks and didnt know the difference. If there was no other option for the kids in terms of water parks then I would say splurge on the passes but considering they can have a similar experience for free save your money. The kids club is sooo cute and has tons of things for them to do, mini golf, a club, arcade, they do activities with the kids, I mean the whole nine yards. Kids I think 3-12 are under the supervision of the kids club crew and they take them all around the resort and do dance lessons and balloon animals, they even make jewelry! This was big reason why we chose this resort b/c its sooo kid friendly, having stayed there with children it def exceeded my expectations in terms of the activities for kids. 2. Did you get to check out the disco at all? Did I?! LOL it was our stomping ground nearly every night. Our entire reception headed to the disco afterwards and we partied to the wee hours. It closed at 3 am if I am not mistaking. The tangerine package comes with VIP access for the bride and groom but we never used it since it was only for us. We just stayed in the main area with our guests. The music is a wiiiide range of everything, of course somethings better than others but its a lot of fun. And strikers is right outside the club so you leave at any time and grab some munchies. =) 3. Did they charge you extra for the group dinner at Japanese restuarant? We didnt have a "group dinner" at the Japanese restaurant because our group was too big. We ate there and we were a party of 14 and no we didnt pay extra. Loved the hibachi it was so much fun and the cooks rocked! I think they can accomodate up to 15 per hibachi table. 4. Where did you get those bowls for centerpieces? I had 7 tables of 6 and I got the bowls from Walmart online. They were plastic and perfect to travel with. I brought most of my stuff back with me and will post it on here. Mostly on principle because they wanted to charge me $60 per table for the fishbowl centerpieces. No way was I gonna leave them so they can extort the next bride, f*k that LOL. 5. Do you happen to have Marlene's email address? Marlene Rejon [email protected]

Thanks T! If you're looking to sell those fishing bowls please let me know. I live in Rockland county so we're not too far.

[natalieblev]

Thanks so much Tamara for your answers. I feel so much better about the customs thing, although my stubborn FI probably still wont believe it isnt that bad! He went to St Lucia last year and i guess it was over two hours so he just cant believe it! But it gives me a better idea of when people will actually be showing up cause we will be there a day early to get settled before guests arrive.

I might change my welcome cocktails to strikers since there is food...maybe we could meet earlier...cause I figured eveyone would have their own dinner plans, but honestly I feel like that first day everyone is just going to drink all afternoon and probably not make it to an actual sit down dinner. So who knows! Gotta figure that out!

 

Still no word on anything about susana. I just cannot believe they didnt send out an email that said hey im leaving see ya! Oh well, hopefully soon! 

Anyways thanks again! Sounds like it really isnt too much to worry about! 

[natalieblev]

Heard from Susana today. She is back to working fulltime and done with her leave.