Newbie: Playacar Palace March 2013

[Renewedbride]

I haven't seen this view of the resort before. Cool pics! Unfortunately, this resort no longer allows outside vendors. Well they do but it's a $500 fee.

[newlyengaged13]

Just wondering if anyone out there can give some insight on what the nightlife in the resort is like?  

[alanak]

Hi everyone,

 

I got married at Playacar Palace on April 27, 2013. We were there from Wed April 24 to Wed May 1. We had 48 guests total. I need to write a full review still, I have been so busy since I've been back!

 

Let me start by saying I am from Toronto, I am a wedding & event planner, and I am a perfectionist type A personality. I have been to numerous AI's, traveled all over the US & Europe & Caribbean, so I can compare this resort to quite a few others.

I have nothing bad to say about the resort or the experience - overall I was SO happy, we had the day/week of our dreams. Only thing I will mention is.. this is not a vacation for the bride and groom (especially considering we had 50 guests!) It was so much fun but even with 8 days I really had zero time to relax lol!

 

To answer someone's question - there is really no nightlife at the resort. There is a bar next to the lobby open till 1am, and one night they had a DJ in there, but usually it was just a quiet bar. We had over 30 friends join us, and one brought his own DJ equipment down with him, so we had a lot of room parties and they even let us set up in the bar and play music till 4am one night! The resort is literally next to downtown Playa del Carmen, and no joke NEXT to Senior Frogs, so if you're good with going off the property, there is a lot of clubs/bars nearby. I found everything very safe, we went into town a bunch of times and all was good.

 

I will write a more thorough review soon, but here is some info/tips.

 

We had a 2 tier cake, 1 was vanilla 1 was chocolate, people actually LOVED the wedding cake and said it was amazing. It got totally sweaty though, but luckily the photographers can photoshop that!

 

We had a few private dinners, we chose the Roman, BBQ and Cajun buffets. BBQ was by far the best, I wish I chose it for the wedding (I was scared it would be messy to eat but it wasn't), Roman was pretty good and Cajun was our least fav but still pretty good.

 

We had a welcome dinner at the South Solarium, rehearsal dinner at MoMo Terrace, and the wedding ceremony was on the beach at 6pm, cocktail hour at South Solarium, and reception on the beach. It's so funny - once you actually see the resort you see how close together everything is - there really isn't much of a difference between South Solarium and MoMo Terrace.

 

6pm was perfect for a beach wedding because starting around 5ish the sun sets and goes behind the resort - so we were not in direct sunlight at all.

 

We had the reception on the beach because we wanted to stay late - we ended at 1:30am and then had an after party in someones room!

 

I used Premium Flores (Flowers) as our florist (the resort prices were insane for flowers), DJ Doremixx (we didn't have Ivan/Doremixx himself, we had a different DJ and he was great - they included the lighting and balloons which were super fun), and Styling Trio for make-up (my hairdresser was a guest at the resort!). The resort tells you strict policy no outside vendors, then they say fine but $400 fee per vendor. I just PUSHED and FORCED it for free - I would make like I was already speaking to the florist for months, or say you gave a deposit already, etc. and get it in writing that you are allowed to use them with no extra charge. Only fee I paid was $250 for the DJ - but I still saved over $600 by using Doremixx vs. the resort DJ, even with that fee! Laura from Premium Flores was amazing, she is really nice and great to work with, and her prices are wayyy more reasonable than the resort. Adrian from Styling Trio is the nicest guy, and did a great job! Love that they use airbrushing - stays on really well in the heat! He had a team so other people did my bridesmaids make-up, and were great.

 

My contact from Zuniga (the resort decor company) was Lily, she is so sweet and answered my million questions. I used a lot of decor from the resort (lounge furniture, bamboo structures with lanterns, chuppah with chandelier in it, dance floor, tiffany chairs, custom wedding sign, tiki torches, etc) everything was set-up great, they did a really good job. I did not choose a package - being a wedding planner I personally would not be okay having a wedding that looked like a ton of other people's (no offense to anyone choosing a package, just for me personally I would not like that), so I custom made my entire wedding from scratch and it all worked out great. 

 

To be honest, I saw up to 5 weddings a day there, and one day there were 2 beach ceremony's going on at the same time, and both were the complimentary package, so at either end of the beach you had the EXACT same looking wedding happening. I loved that mine was totally MINE and looked completely different than the other ton of weddings going on during the week we were there.

 

I saw the pearl shimmer collection, the purple one, and the complimentary - they look exactly like they do in the PDF, so you don't have to worry, they look nice in person.

 

My WC was Carolina, she is really sweet and nice and did a great job. I gave her a 12 page document with exactly how I wanted everything set-up (I brought a lot of decor down with me, signs, starfish seating cards, etc) - I had 2 suitcases and 5 carry-on suitcases full of decor!

 

As for the resort itself, it is lovely, perfect size - you could always find your guests, we are so happy we chose a smaller resort for the wedding. What you read about the staff is true - they are SOOO nice, always looking to help you, the service we received was like nothing I have ever experienced at an all-inclusive. The food was very good for an AI - Italian resto is really quite good, the buffet was always good, Asian resto was good (sushi was pretty decent considering you are in Mexico!), the teppanyaki was not so great, although 2 nights before I went a bunch of our guests did it and said it was amazing, they had a different cook than us though. 24 hour room service was used A LOT - after the wedding I think we ordered 12 cheeseburgers, 12 club sandwiches, 12 pizzas, fries, etc. and it came really quickly!

 

The drinks were great, they make amazing mojitos! Whoever writes that they water down the drinks - I don't know where they get that from, I drank a few double mojitos one night and got really drunk lol! There is a liquor dispenser in every room - stocked with bottles of vodka, tequila, rum and whiskey. Along with mini fridge full of water, pop, beer and juice.

 

Each room has a hairdryer AND a FLAT IRON which was amazing - no need to bring your iron with. They give you CHI bath products - the shampoo, conditioner and body lotion were great - no need to bring that either.

 

We used l'escape (a Canadian destination wedding planner/travel agent) to book all the travel and through them it was WestJet Vacations  - for the person on here who asked, we had enough people to get the free private events, so you don't have to book directly through the resort. We had other guests book on expedia, etc. who couldn't come for the full 8 days. The free private events is so worth it - like I mentioned we had the welcome dinner, rehearsal dinner, cocktail hour and wedding dinner all for free. I think it's ridiculous that all these resort want you to pay for it anyways when it's an AI!

 

The resort credits were great - we got a couples massage and it cost us $28 (the new spa is SOOO nice), we did the Tulum excursion and it cost $7.60 per person, you could even buy wine at the Italian resto to bring home with credits (we upgraded wine with credits too, the house wine wasn't very good).

 

I have more to say but this is already really long, if anyone has ANY questions please feel free to private message me, I can give you my email addy it's quicker and easier for me to respond

 

I will try to come on here as much as I can to answer questions and help out.

 

Good luck! I think this is a great resort to have a wedding at, all our guests loved the resort too.

[lynz797]

i am getting married at Playacar palace this nov....do u have any tips or suggestions for me? I have never been there. There will be 75 of us so i am noot sure where to have the reception?

 

Thanks,

 

Lindsey

[lynz797]

can i get your private email address pls?????

[lynz797]

Hi,

 

I am also getting married in nov 2013.....org was on the 13th but its been changed to the 18th at 4pm.....we think we are going to use a colin cowie wedding package but now i am not sure ....woud love to connect with you

 

Lindsey (vancouver,bc)

[Suze]

Hi Lindsey,

 

Congrats to you and your hubby to be. I am also getting married in November 2013 at Playacar Palace. Just wondering what day you are getting married? I am staying there Nov. 2 – 16 and getting married on November 7^th .

 

I thought that it was crazy to hear that there was 5 weddings one day and two done at once. From what I heard from the resort they said that they run every two hours.

[Suze]

I was wondering if you could tell me if the Hair Salon is on the resort? I saw some previous posts that makes me thinks the Salon isn't on the resort. 

[prisp]

Hi,

 

Did you end up having your wedding in Playacar Palace in March? I am wanting to have a March wedding 2014 and was wondering how your experience was. Were there a lot of spring breakers? 
 

I hope to hear from you soon!

[prisp]

can you send me pics of your event? [email protected]