Beaches ~ Turks & Caicos Roll Call!

[butterfly913]

Hello Ceproto I love your pictures, it came out beautiful and congratulations. I'm love all the info but. I did not know what BTW means.I want to have prof pictures taking. That would be fairly affordable and I rec'd info from Tropical Imaging about a Beaches Special they have for $1950 for 3 hours. Can you please give details about your photographer. I can't decide if I should go with Beaches photos or Tropical Imaging. Thank You

[urmysunshine]

Another great review to get us all excited even more!  Thanks for taking the time to post this!

 

Originally Posted by ceproto 

First, let me start by saying it was truly the best Wedding/Honeymoon that we experienced from beginning to end.  I would love to share with you guys our opinoins on everything

    1.  Travel-  We live in Raleigh so we flew from Raleigh to Charlotte, NC then on to Turks.  The plane ride was nice and quick and everything went smooth.  We had several guests coming from NYC and they took American out of JFK as it was direct and there flight was smooth also. If you don't have a TA would highly recommend it.  You can do this on your own for sure but Leslie's knowledge of the place was worth everything in GOLD!  I will glad PM you here Info if you need it   2.  Arrival-  We arrived on the island and everything was very organized, customs cans sometime be a pain but it went well as there were only 2 planes that landed.  If 4 planes land at the same time look out you can wait up to 1 hr to get to hotel.  Very small airport Our friends had butler service room so we hoped on there private car and went to resort. If you have regular or concierge service you will be driving in one of there air conditioned vans...no biggy there   3.  Check in-  This went extremely smooth, they had taken our luggage to our rooms we were located in the PARROT CAY Concierge Suite ROOM 614.  If you are in this village (section) I would recommend room 620.  It is the room directly above.  Both rooms have views of ocean but the upper one is a better view.  You will see pics of the room here https://picasaweb.google.com/Michael.Cannella/WeddingPhotos?authkey=Gv1sRgCOfumsqq4LzJDg&feat=directlink NOTE one thing.  All of our guest were in the Caribbean village and some rooms had ANTS,  after going to the front desk they were automatically upgraded to Italian village no question asked. Once you get there the Italian village is the best! 

  4.  Resort-  The resort is BIG!  It will take you a day or 2 to get acclimated to everything and where it is, so be patience and explorer.  As far as cleanliness We give it a 9/10.  It is very clean all the time and they do a good job keeping the grounds tidy.  Make sure you check out every village/lazy river/shops/wave/restaurants   5.  Food-  We thought overall the food was good but some of it was salty.  Our favorite restaurants are Sapdillo's and Le Petite Chateu and Kimono's.  I would highly recommend that you make reservations when you get there for these restaurants, unless you have butler service.  The week we were there they were extremely busy, so things were hectic. The brick oven PIZZA is out of this world and if you want a late night snack Bobby Dee's is a great dinner  There are plenty of restaurants and plenty of food to enjoy so take your time.  Kimono's, which is hibachi was awesome!   6.  Wedding-  We had Patricia Reid and if you don't have here for your WC then request her!!  It is a MUST, and if asked tell here Charity and Mike told you to do it  She really goes out of her way to make sure everything is special on your day!  She worked with us on everything and was wonderful.  On your wedding consulting day which was 2nd day we arrived get ready to spend some time going over everything and I mean everything.  We had our rehearsal dinner on the French Village Pavlovian, which was very private.  Our ceremony was on beach which was awesome.  We had a 1 hour cocktail hour and reception was on adult jacuzzi.  We also decided to do the calypso band for 2 hours which worked our really well and they were good.  One of our guest, that had the butler we really go to know him and he is one of the fire dancer and decided to do it for us for FREE!    Like Lizdee said they will take tips at the end, especially when they do something like that! We ended up doing our own table arrangements.  Take a look at the photos all those tables arrangement cost us about 75 buck for everything.  We ended up bringing some on carry on and some in suite cases.  Flowers there are ridiculously priced!  I got one rose and it costs me 28 dollars  We ended up going with beautiful beginnings and did some minor upgrades.  Do not be nervous about anything Patricia, if you have here will make sure everything goes smooth.   7.  Photography-  As you will read they are lack in this department, but there is one photog that works for them called PATRICK!  He is very good and he took about 400 photos (professional) for us and you will see some of the prof. photos on the link but he was recommended by our TA.  So if you bought a package which we did, BTW they will run promo's throughout the year make sure you take advantage of them we got a steal for photo's)   8.  Island-  The beach and surroundings are gorgeous, one thing we were told we have to do but didn't have time was go to CONCH SHACK, it is an island must so were were told.     9.  Check out-  Check out is by 11 am. They have a departure section which has showers/AC/sitting.  Most flights leave in afternoon so the most you are waiting is 2 hours or so.      All and all everything turned out so well!  We were so happy with everything. If anyone has any questions please just shoot me email and be happy to answer them     -- 
Michael Cannella
919.339.3029

 

 

[ceproto]

ButterFly913,

By The Way (BTW)  Sorry for acronym.  The photo dept there is quite big and we were told by our Travel assistant that Patrick was the best and it turned out he was.  He really thinks outside the box with the pics.  For us the 1 hour photo shoot was great and it was long enough for us to get all photos in.  Tropical Imaging's photo's are beautiful!!!  From what I hear they do a great job and it shows.  But our package was a promo package which included, Thank you cards, Full CD of Images, (1) 5X7 photo's(prinited) and a full 20 page COLOR book of all the photos, kind of like a collage, and 50 magnets for $800. (I believe what you are paying for is the release of all those photos they take, which you will receive a letter from them so you can print yourself)  For us the budget was tight on photo's so it worked out awesome! 

[butterfly913]

Hi Ceproto

 

Thank you so much the info really helps with our decision making.

[caroleandchad]

Does anyone know if the BB package gives you the option to have a round flower bouquet? Also, does it include the chairs on the beach? I read somewhere that it doesnt and that would be an extra cost if you upgrade from the BB package?

[Kendall]

I believe you have the option to upgrade your flowers on any of the packages if you chose.  That's my understanding, at least.  I know some of the girls in other threads have spoken about getting different flowers to carry.

[Brandy]

Yes, you can upgrade your flowers, not sure about the chairs though, our package comes with chairs

[ceproto]

Kendall,

 

That is correct   The BB package doesn't give you round flowers and it doesn't include the seeting so you will have to add it  

[Michelle-2]

Just curious, what room type/category are people going with?  They have so many different categories that it drives me crazy!!!  I have the Governor's Honeymoon Suite booked,  I just don't want to be disappointed.  Hate to pay all the extra money if it's really not worth it.  The pictures always look great, but sometimes in person, it's different.

[Brandy]

Im in the basic room, Im sure your room will be better than mine LOL!

Hopefully I get an upgrade!