Majestic Elegance vs. Dreams Punta Cana

[milakd]

We considered ME but changed our mind because of alcohol restrictions ( we are having around 70 people coming). Majestic was not responsive enough for us and we read that quite few people changed location of wedding last minute. The other drawback for ME is that you cannot book the resort less than 5 nights. We did not want to put that restriction on our guests.

Then we went for Dreams Palm Beach but there were too many complaints about people getting sick. Someone compared it to Vegas in Punta Cana.

We ended up booking in Excellence Punta Cana- 17 April 2011. They are cheaper than Dreams Palm Beach and better service than Majestic. The only drawback is that kids are not allowed so family and friends with kids cannot stay with us. We arranged for two of our friends to bring their teenager kids. They will be babysitting while the adults are at the wedding. Some of our family members are coming for vacation without kids. We have family/friends coming from Asia, Europe, South and North America. Everyone loves the resort. If you go to tripadviser you can check more information about. Good luck!

[islandbride8]

I have several guests staying at the ME for 3 nights and several staying 4 nights, so they do allow that.  The $5pp/hr is for beer/wine/champagne/sodas no hard liquor.  I'm not paying their crazy high prices for liquor.  We are having the included dinner at Asadito and liquor is included in that.  Our dinner is at 6:30 and reception from 8-11, so people can get a couple good drinks for free before the reception.  It's an AI so if people want to go get a drink or two that's fine by me (I'm sure I'll be sneaking off for a cocktail or two)!  We also plan on buying a couple bottles of liquor when we get there.  My WC said they will provide buckets of ice to keep the bottles cool at no charge.  Will probably just get 3-4 bottles and when they're gone, they're gone!

[fmichelle]

 

 

Originally Posted by milakd 

 

We considered ME but changed our mind because of alcohol restrictions ( we are having around 70 people coming). Majestic was not responsive enough for us and we read that quite few people changed location of wedding last minute. The other drawback for ME is that you cannot book the resort less than 5 nights. We did not want to put that restriction on our guests.

Then we went for Dreams Palm Beach but there were too many complaints about people getting sick. Someone compared it to Vegas in Punta Cana.

We ended up booking in Excellence Punta Cana- 17 April 2011. They are cheaper than Dreams Palm Beach and better service than Majestic. The only drawback is that kids are not allowed so family and friends with kids cannot stay with us. We arranged for two of our friends to bring their teenager kids. They will be babysitting while the adults are at the wedding. Some of our family members are coming for vacation without kids. We have family/friends coming from Asia, Europe, South and North America. Everyone loves the resort. If you go to tripadviser you can check more information about. Good luck!

Hey Milakd, I was going back and forth with all the same resorts and ended up choosing Excellence as well, I'm April 25th.  We upgraded ourselves with the Excellence Club so we could get the discount on the wedding package, dollar for dollar it made sense.  We've had some people opt out of coming because of the adults only issue, but a close friend is considering coming down with her in-laws, staying at another resort, then staying at Excellence with her husband at Excellence the night of the wedding (which also avoids the guest pass fee for us) while her two kids stay with her in-laws.  Any other creative ways you've figured out how to incorporate those with kids?

 

[milakd]

Hi Michelle,

 

I am sorry it took me some time to reply. My FI family was quite upset with us for excluding kids and somehow they forgot that this is our wedding and it is our choice. Anyhow, I have few friends coming that are leaving kids with relatives for 4-5 days- grandparents and sisters/ brothers. Another couple is staying in the Dreams Hotel which apparently is a little bit cheaper and only 5 min away. Dreams Hotel (not Dreams Palm Beach) has explorers club where they entertain kids, babysitters are also available.

 

We are struggling with ticket prices now. Apparently it is a peak time and cheap tickets are booked way in advance. Our guest are looking at 650-700$ /pp.

[Jess8312]

My fiance and I have been going back and forth between Majestic and Dreams for a few weeks now.  When sat down and crunched some numbers to have the private reception, dancing, decorations etc.  It came out to be well over $7000 estimating on 25-30 people.  We are strongly considering Dreams Punta Cana when reading wedding reviews on here, I saw alot better reviews on Dreams than on Majestic. Good luck with your planning! Congrats!