Is anyone getting married at Gran Bahia Principe Esmeralda?

[ebli23]

Hello!

 

I am trying to get some opinions on the Gran Bahia Principe Esmeralda.  We are planning our wedding for June/July 2012, but I would love to see some pictures or reveiws of this location.  Anyone with any info, please help!  Thanks.

 

Liz

[jennifer1975]

I got married there last in April and I have nothing but great things to say about this resort and staff. Everyone and everything was fabulous. I had some very experienced travellers with me and they were extremely impressed with the resort. I would highly recommend getting married here to anyone!

[sebitasalejo]

I just got married there on Feb 19th. Wedding coordinators are very accommodating not only with wedding stuff, but also with regular hotel issues here and there. I had my reception on La Barcaza, so I can't speak about their menu. In general the food was decent in the buffets and I think pretty good at the theme restaurants. 

I was extremely frustrated because my guests were spread all around the hotel (which is massive) and getting in touch with them was impossible. That was partly my fault because I did not give the WC my guest list on time. You probably wont have any problems with that because Ambar is in its own area and it is not as big. It is really pretty BTW. Well, unless your guests are staying in different parts of the hotel (bavaro, punta cana). Actually the WC helped us with everyone's rooms #s and also coordinating so that at least once we could all meet at the same buffet to have dinner. For some reason my guests were given different color bracelets, which determine where you can eat and what pools you can use. 

 

One thing I did not like and was a huge deal for me was the lack of communication as well as orientation toward guest satisfaction. I should highlight this DOES NOT apply to the WCs they were excellent to work with.

Many of my single guests were sharing rooms to minimize cost and requested two beds via the travel agent. Three of the rooms actually had one bed instead of two (not nice if there are two guys staying in the same room). The people at the front desk asked my guests to come back the next morning to have their rooms changed. They were never changed despite going to the front desk three times in a day. They gave up. Just one of them, who happens to be short tempered, got his way because he apparently made a scene. How bad to have to get to that. The hotel blamed the issue on the travel agent, who sent my friend proof he had requested two separate beds.

 

The same lack of communication actually affected me personally and I will likely not go back any GBP because of this:

My wedding present from my best friend was going to be the photographs. We emailed on of the WCs since they say you have to pay $500 if you are hiring a photographer other than Arrecife, which I guess has some type of agreement with the hotel. The WC said as long as my friend was my guest and was staying at the hotel it was fine. We left it at that.

At the hotel we talked to a Jackie from Arrecife and she simply said we either prove with documentation that he is part of my family (same last name) or pay the $500. Telling her he is one of my guests, is booked at the hotel for three nights, and has been my best friend for 12 years did not work. She said to me they (Arrecife) check this site (BDW) and told her the bride who is getting married there on Feb 19 is bringing her own photographer. Talk about big brother.

What really hurt (and still does) was having to ask my best friend, who made it all the way to Punta Cana to take my wedding pictures, to put his camera away. Jackie said to me that in the past they have stopped ceremonies to ask people with professional cameras to stop taking pictures. To me that sounded like a threat and, who would want to have their ceremony stopped and be embarrassed in front of everyone?  I almost wanted to pay the $500 and be done with it, but decided not to give them my money. This is the best part: the ceremony is over, Arrecife people accompany us all the way to the lobby where my friend figured he could take some shots, he is asked to put the camera away. He is told by some lady that she knows he does this for a living and that he has been in Punta Cana three times. Nothing further from the truth. He is the photographer of the president in our country and that was his first trip to the Dominican Republic EVER. 

 

Sorry for venting. Again, the wedding coordinators are excellent, and actually the people that you have day to day contact (service staff, restaurant staff) are quite pleasant. The ones that seem a little snobby are the ones at the lobby and reception but who cares, luckily you just deal with them twice. 

 

 

[Rosieanne]

We are planning our wedding for Feb 2012 at the Esmeralda. I have stayed at the Royal Golden 3 years ago but it that part of the resort had not been built yet. Are all the suites the same at the Esmeralda or do you have the option to upgrade for the wedding couple? 

[Aphrodite]

I'm getting married at the GBP Punta Cana - it's all in the same location.

We are getting married on November 11, 2011.  I will post up some pics after the day

[Rosieanne]

Thanks! I will look forward to seeing them! Good Luck with your wedding planing a well, it is a beautiful resort.

[ebli23]

Yes, I would love to see any wedding photos as well!  Does anyone know if I stay at Esmeralda, is that where I get married, or is the location at another resort?  I also have some info that the people at Gran Bahia sent me, which I just have to find and I'll post some more info on here as well.

[kar948]

hey!!

 

we are getting married at the esmeralda in January 2012... We had same experience with photographer.. you need to know that it is not written anywhere in the contracts or information packages etc that if you bring a professional photographer you will have to pay $500.

 

I was really upset about it because our photographer is coming and paying for both her husband and daughter as well.. thats around $3000 the resort wouldn't have if we were not bringing her.. and the worst part is we asked to make some sort of a deal where we would pay that $500 and maybe they would throw in some sort of room upgrade or my wedding hairstyle or something as a good gesture and they outright refused.. we have just decided theres nothing we can do really other than pay it and move on.. it just sucks because we are bringing a group of 50 people with us and that is a considerable amount of cash, you think they would want to keep us happy...

 

Anyway, other than that I am still very excited.. it's very cold where I live and I cant wait to bask in the beautiful dominican sun!! I will post again after wedding maybe with some pictures and tips!

 

In the meantime anyone getting married there soon, or recently having been married there, let us in on your experience