Beach Palace Cancun Brides

tygrrlily · July 15, 2014

@@shmanderz - Sorry, another question. My coordinator is saying they only will provide round tables, but I've seen a lot of people here use the long rectangular tables, and that's what they said on our site visit here. Just wanted to dbl check to see if you had paid extra for those or if they were supplied. Thanks!

shmanderz · July 15, 2014

@@shan0487 @@shmanderz - Can you ladies tell me what type of table was used for your cake? I'm getting my tablecloths now, and my coordinator isn't helpful at all. Thanks!

The cake was on tall small square table that had wheels and they rolled it out to the center area when the cake was being cut.

As for the table layout, I was told they only had round tables by the coordinator but I asked Mario, my on-site planner about the Imperial table set up (1 long table) and he was able to confirm it for us and we had it for the welcome dinner on the palenque terrace.

When I was planning, my Palace Resorts wedding coordinator was not much help at all and took forever to get back to me but as soon as I was put in contact with Mario my on-site planner who was actually based out of Beach Palace, he was able to give me confirmation on everything super quickly. The Palace Resort coordinators are kind of useless for anything Beach Palace specific because they basically have to contact someone at Beach Palace to get answers to questions since they dont actually work at the hotel...but dont worry too much, when the 90 days to event time comes, your on-site coordinator gives you their full attention and things start happening much faster and you wil find you are able to get them to be more flexible with stuff. The first coordinator made it sound like "no they only have round tables' but then after talking with Mario he gave me a bunch of different options for table layouts and stuff. He even threw in colored napkins for the welcome dinner when I was told they only had white linens. There is lots of wiggle room so just make sure you talk with your on-site planner to get the real answer

shan0487 · July 15, 2014

I think it was a smaller round table..not sure on the demensions, sorry!

@@shan0487 @@shmanderz - Can you ladies tell me what type of table was used for your cake? I'm getting my tablecloths now, and my coordinator isn't helpful at all. Thanks!

shmanderz · July 15, 2014

@@shan0487 @@shmanderz - Can you ladies tell me what type of table was used for your cake? I'm getting my tablecloths now, and my coordinator isn't helpful at all. Thanks!

I found a pic that sort of shows the table they had the cake on for us. We were laughing because the cake wasnt cutting and the fondant was just pressing down under the knife. It was pretty funny.

tygrrlily · July 15, 2014

@shan0487@shmanderz - Thank you ladies! My off site is completely useless. I can't wait til we get our onsite coordinator. I am going to wait for most things, but I also want to start getting things organized/together. So I think I'm just going to plan with the assuming that they have them, and then rent there if we need to

My coordinator also seems to be pushing Gupo Grama to me a lot more, and they quoted me 2k for that complimentary white set up that other people received :S. Told her to go back to Zuniga and to ask them

NJBride2014 · July 15, 2014

@@tygrrlily did you meet your onsite coordinator when you went to your onsite visit?

We did and we have her email address, sometimes I'll email my off site coordinator and cc my onsite so that one of them answers me. My onsite sometimes takes over and I get answers and things waived that my off site coordinator previously said couldn't be done. Just a tip.

Edited July 15, 2014 by NJBride2014

tygrrlily · July 15, 2014

@@NJBride2014 - Thanks for the tip, Sandy. Unfortunately we're not sure if that is our coordinator onsite or not, she just introduced herself as one of the coordinators. But, we do have her email and I think I will definitely email her some questions about specifics to Beach Palace

lisajgarcia3 · July 16, 2014

I just saw your question about the cake and thought you might find my review useful. In the least, here are some things to look out for for your wedding (fyi… we had 111 guests with 4 events - welcome reception the night before the wedding, ceremony, cocktail hour and reception)… Here is my (in-depth) review. Sorry it's so long but I would've loved a post like this BEFORE my wedding!!!

PROS:

- Treated our guests like royalty

- Resolved every issue we had relatively quickly

- Amazing food

- Comfy beds

- Lots of great entertainment around the campus

- Gave us lots of benefits for having more than 75 nights booked for our wedding party including:

o An extra $700+ credit on our room bill for exceeding 75 nights

o A free welcome reception on the beach

o A free cocktail hour during our wedding

o 2 free hours of service at our reception

o A free upgrade for our room (we booked Concierge and the Presidential Suite was available so they gave us the suite)

- Gave one of our guests the wedding booking rate (~$300/night) instead of the walk-in rate (~$500/night) even though the guest brought someone that wasn’t pre-booked

- The service staff (waiters, check-in desk (except for the guy with the gold tooth who was pretty rude to most of our guests), cooks (I became facebook friends with some of them because they were so nice!!), bartenders, ALL of the managers, the PR Relations Coordinator, Patricio (who resolved our transportation issue for us quickly and eloquently)… EVERYONE (again except for the guy at the front desk with the gold tooth) were ……. Absolutely……… AMAZING!!!!! Never been treated so kindly and warmly in our lives and if we come back it will be to check on all of our Beach Palace family…. WE LOVE THEM!!!

- Lots of options for kids entertainment including games everyday at the pool, a water slide, a kids room

- Convenient location including walking distance to bars, malls and nightclubs

- Bus stop in front of the hotel that goes everywhere!!

CONS:

- Welcome bags were a nightmare. We paid $3.50 for guests to walk into room and have our personalized welcome bag sitting in room waiting for them on their bed... we had to pay the fee regardless of the fact that guests were getting the bags in the elevator, front desk, you name it... or in some cases, not at all...

- The signs promised (signature drink sign on bar, etc.) were either VERY tacky (I’m talking an easel holding a bulletin board with leftover scotch tape and staples all over it) or weren’t there at all

o We had a signature drink at the welcome reception and they didn’t have a sign with the name of our drink and I had to tell the waiters what the name of the signature drink was

o Also at the welcome reception they had a used bulletin board (as mentioned) with two 8.5 X 11 random papers with our wedding logo. I had to go up to the room and get some tape and extra wedding paper I brought to fix the sign so I wouldn’t be embarrassed. Me and my bridesmaid fixed the sign while the guests were walking in... wasn’t too happy about that.

o No sign displayed at the pre-ceremony mixer stating our signature drink for the wedding. Also no sign at the entrance, as promised, with our wedding logo stating “welcome” to the pre-wedding mixer in the Sports Lounge.

If I would’ve known Beach Palace was going to fail at signage, would’ve brought my OWN SIGNS!!!

- We had to check our bill a few times before they got it correct throughout the wedding process

o Also a side note: We had a credit of $440 at the end of the event. You have to use credits on your bill within the hotel during the same time period as your stay. It's not "policy" to give you cash back if you overpay for anything.

- The transportation company was HORRRRRRRRRIBLE!!!!! Our contract said “TraficTours” would provide free transportation for all of our guests as long as they booked through the link on our wedding website (which Beach Palace set up). The link was charging our guests for transportation so the guests had to email Nicte-Ha from TraficTours to get their free transportation. Some of the guests tried to book their transportation a few days before they got to Cancun and Nicte-Ha told them they didn’t have any transportation left and they had to book two weeks before the wedding (which none of us were EVER told). My fiancé and I showed up to the airport and saw a Beach Palace van figuring that van was our transportation. The Beach Palace van said we weren’t on the list but took us anyway and charged us $52 on our room bill to go to Beach Palace. Luckily when we got there Patricio for Public Relations refunded us the $52 and said we took the wrong van and that TraficTours was providing our transportation… confusing!! We also emailed Nicte-Ha a few times before we left Cancun to make sure we had transportation to the airport and she never responded. OUR FLORIST ended up driving us to the airport!!! WORST company EVER!!!!! Make sure Beach Palace gives you BEACH PALACE transportation. Their contractors are worthless.

- Ceremony cons: Did a walkthrough on Monday for a back-up plan in case it rained Saturday. Backup plan included: Mixer before ceremony in the Sports Lounge, ceremony in the sales office, cocktail hour in the Sports Lounge, reception in the ballroom. Setup was to begin at 10 am if it was raining. Got a call at ONE PM asking me what they wanted us to do and that they “couldn’t do the ceremony in the sales office and cocktail hour in the sports lounge.” After blacking out, screaming at the planners, having a heart attack, etc. etc. they finally followed the plan and began setup at TWO PM…. When they were supposed to have started at 10 am. The ceremony flowers had already been rained on so everything was wet and my guests were looking at the flower company move everything from outside to inside the sales office since they started so late. My bridemaids had to go downstairs to the sales office and make sure they took the sales signs down so that my ceremony wouldn’t look tacky. The ceremony began and the sports lounge couldn’t turn off the music for 20 MINUTES. One of the Beach Palace employees for some reason was holding the door open to the Sports Lounge so Alanis Morrisette, "You Oughta Know" amongst other NON-WEDDING MUSIC was blaring into the ceremony while we were saying our vows and the priest was talking. Another employee was texting during the ceremony so all you could hear were the tones of his phone going off. Meanwhile my planner stood around and did nothing about any of this. I was mortified.

- Cocktail Hour cons: That morning, the wedding coordinator told me the Sports Lounge was a public venue, they couldn’t place the tables and flowers we ALREADY BOUGHT from the floral company and they couldn’t close it off which I wasn’t told when we did our walkthrough that Monday. So I had to force them to have the tables and flowers we bought into the Lounge. We had a very FORMAL, BLACK TIE wedding so mixed in with our long formal gowns and tuxedos were guests with cargo shorts and flip flops. We ordered Mariachi for our cocktail hour so they were performing on the Sports Lounge stage and one of the guests (wearing very short, inappropriate shorts and a tank top) decided to dance in the middle of our guests wearing evening gowns and tuxedos to our formal Mariachi. Again... MORTIFIED.

- Reception cons: We had the entryway hallway leading to the ballroom decorated with ceiling high drapery, a few acrylic rectangle tables, an ice sculpture and champagne glasses personalized with our guests’ names and table numbers so that the entry to our wedding would remain formal and elegant. The wedding coordinator failed to tell me there would be a wedding to the right of our decorated hallway (our wedding was on the left of the hallway, theirs was on the right) so as my fiancé and I walked into our FORMAL hallway, “Baby Got Back” was blaring in the ballroom to the right of us. The guests from the other wedding were also drinking the champagne glasses in the hallway so some of our guests’ glasses were missing and they didn’t know where to sit.

Would I have a high-end event at this venue again?…. No. Would I have a casual mixer that I didn’t pay a lot of money for at this venue?…Yes. Would I stay here again - ABSOLUTELY!! Wonderful service, great food but I will never forget the terrible attention to detail for our wedding.

BEACH PALACE EXCURSIONS

WET N WILD/DOLPHIN SWIM: So much fun!! We took a boat to Moon Palace to swim with dolphins and they photographed our whole experience. You can’t bring cameras so be prepared to pay $35 for one single shot or around $70 for a CD of all of the prints. Wet and Wild had about 4 or 5 water slides and was just like being a kid again. I recommend the combo of both since I think Wet and Wild wouldn’t have been as cool without the Dolphin Swim.

CHICHEN ITZA: If you love history, you’ll LOVE this tour. We are huge history buffs and had tour guide who fulfilled our brains with knowledge on the 3-hour ride there. Although it was a long ride, we were blessed to have had such a great storyteller as our tour guide. The ruins were surreal and you could feel the history from the paths we walked… so cool!!

COCOBONGO: We went through Beach Palace’s PVP Nightlife to book a VIP section at CocoBongo for our group of 15. We were given a terrible spot (under the stage at the front of the ground floor) so we couldn’t see the stage and we were surrounded by “regular-entrance price” people. It was a waste and we would’ve been better off tipping one of the guys on the street. Luckily two of the girls we were with got on the stage that they allow people to stand on and those two were able to see the show. Everyone else just drank to make up for the terrible spot we had so it ended up being fine… definitely won’t make that mistake again though. If you have a group, tip one of the guys on the street then tip one of the waiters walking around inside the club to TAKE YOU to a VIP area. Beach Palace/PVP Nightlife doesn’t have the connections to get you a good spot inside of CocoBongo.

BEACH PALACE SPA: Got the Vitamin C Facial and the Citrus Massage then did the steam room and the vapor bath…. Absolute heaven and probably one of the best parts of my trip… even though my planner almost ruined it with a final bill meeting directly afterwards.

Hi i just saw your post about the cake and I think you might find my review useful. I just had our wedding there May 31st so, in the least, here are some things to look out for!!