Wyndham Viva Fortuna, Grand Bahama Island

[LAtravelgirl]

Here is the photo of the car rental rates. We rented at the airport last time, so I do not know if they add on all sorts of misc. fees to these prices. The insurance alone last time nearly doubled the price of the rental we got last time. They also have bicycles at the resort, that are free, if you feel adventuresome.

Was the $40 they quoted you for a taxi, or was someone from the resort driving you?

[LAtravelgirl]

I was surprised when I found out the flowers would be artificial. They have assured me the bouquet would be real, but they did not send any photo samples of those.

[LAtravelgirl]

I found a couple of cakes online from a Viva Fortuna site, but they did not send them to me, so I do not know how old they are or if they are still options. They actually looked really good. Let me find the link and I will post it next.

[markandlisa]

Thanks for the pictures Marisa! The flowers look pretty, even though they are simple. Did she say whether we had a choice of these 3?

 

I spoke with Loyda today and they did not have any damage from Hurricane Sandy so that is a good thing. 

 

Here is the animation program she sent me: I had to zip it because it was too big, I hope you can open it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

she said we will be week 1 but some things may be different. It seems like they can't say anything "for sure" for some reason. I had asked what restaurant we would be in and she couldn't tell me that either

 

She also said: Nat is no longer there so it is a piano player she said, hopefully just as good. I would have also preferred the Calypso music but it is out of our control

 

About the car to the registrar , I'm really not sure what she was talking about with the $40, I figure I'll find out when we are there. I don't mind sharing if you guys want to go on the Monday 19th, that is the day we have to go. 

 

I am thinking of doing my own ceremony music as well, like prelude etc, but not sure how to handle having someone from there play it. Like every song will not have to play the whole length, so worried about timing etc....not sure what to do about it. 

 

I have concluded that I cannot control everything being a destination wedding so that be that! I am relying on the fact that they do weddings all the time so they must know what they are doing. i hope.......haha

 

 

Talk to you soon

Lisa

ANIMATION PROGRAM 2012.zip

[LAtravelgirl]

Yes, you get a choice of the 3 flower options. I will be choosing the tropical as my colors are orange and white. I am bringing chair sashes from home and some table runners,just to add some color to the dining room. I have been told we will be in Bambu, the Asian inspired restaurant. The room has blue uplights, and I hope I can switch out the gels to orange, but have not asked, yet. I am going to bring a few from home and cross my fingers. It is about half the size of the Italian restaurant. I asked and was told the appetizers are passed. The food is decent at the resort. I have been to other all-inclusives where the food left much to be desired. I might go with the set menu, even though our group is small enough to orger from the menu. I think there is something nice about the uniformity of dinner service. Are you buying more champagne from the resort? I know I saw people last time bring their own wine to dinner (the boxed wine the resort serves is not very good). The champagne was fair, they served it with Christmas dinner last year. I was thinking of picking some up at the liquor store once I get into town. My mom doesn't drink and is allergic to apples (which most places serve to non-drinkers), so I think I am going to try and fit sparkling pear juice or something into my suitcase.

When we were there last Dec schedules changed from what was posted in the main bar area, so I you learn not to get your heart set on something!

I know I need to let go and let things fall into place. I was good doing that until Sept when I finally got replies back from some questions and that's when I found out about the flowers being artificial. It took a few more weeks to get answers about the music, and that's when I found out about Nat. I am just concerned about the things I haven't asked about!

When did you book the resort for your wedding? Loyda says they do a wedding almost everyday. I think I saw one the week I was there.

As far as the music, someone must hit play and stop on their system, so maybe that same person can hit next and stop if we bring our own. Or maybe put the music on different cds. Did they say if it is a boombox type of system? I know they have large speakers down at the snack bar near the beach for parties, I hope they would use those so the music carries.

I know you said you are going to the disco for dancing. Is your teenage daughter allowed in? I can't remember if there was an age restriction. We have 3 nieces attending, 10, 16, and 17. If they are not allowed in, we probably will not go, either. We don't really dance, anyways, it just seems like the thing you are suppose to do at a wedding!

[markandlisa]

oh I totally forgot you have been there so you know a lot more than me on it haha... thanks for the information on the restaurants and regarding the disco...i have no idea if they have an age limit, my daughter is 17 and her friend is 17 and my son is 12. I would hope they would allow them in especially with their parents being right there and the specialness (haha I know not a word )of the day!!

 

I was not planning on ordering more of their champagne as it is really expensive........ do they allow you to bring your own wine etc? They let u last year? If that is the case I will hit a liqour store down there I guess, I don't drink wine but alot of my guests do........

 

 

We booked back in June of this year. I am thinking since it is Thankgiving week for the US it should be fairly quite at the resort....what do you think? 

 

She called the music device a small case, I was able to clarify enough to find out it is a portable cd player, so if I do my own music I will have to hope that the CD's I make will work in the player. 

 

I am also very anxious about everything to do with the wedding and I am a control freak to begin with but I am 11 days till I leave there isn't much time......

 

Have to run, talk to you soon

Lisa

[LAtravelgirl]

We did not bring our own wine last year, we drank cocktails after trying the wine. Every once and a while we would try the wine with dinner. It almost tasted like it had sat in the sun or something.  I saw the boxes, it was Franzia, which is a decent boxed wine here, but maybe with bad storage habits it turns there.  I remember seeing people in the buffet restaurant with bottles of wine, maybe they bought it at the Viva?? I don't know. When I first started researching info on having a wedding there many third party travel agencies had it listed "no corkage" but that info could have been out dated as it was not on their site. $20/bottle is pricey for it tastes more like a $3 bottle.

There is one beer on tap, and it's decent, lighter than I prefer, but on a hot day is ok.

One bit of advice: bring large cups! In my welcome bags I am giving personalized tumblers with lids and straws. The bars serve the drinks in small, I think 6 oz plastic cups. So unless you like going back and forth the get more drinks, I highly recommend bringing a larger cup. On other forums on this site people have said they have picked them up at the dollar stores and I know Walmart has them. Some brides give the fully insulated ones, I see others found the traditional travel coffee cups.

I know there is a liquor store near the airport, but in the opposite direction of the resort. It is connected to the Sands Brewery, if you can find that on a map. I am sure there are others downtown, I just wasn't looking. There is nothing walking distance to the resort.

[markandlisa]

Hi Marisa, 

 

Thanks for all the info you have provided on the resort I also read about the small glass sizes so I have included travel mugs in my OOT bags as well. 

 

Did you decide if you are doing your own ceremony music? I'm going to email Loyda and ask her. I'll let you know what she says

 

Is there really nothing in walking distance to the resort? I didn't think it was that big......I know the Gardens are about a 25 min walk but are there not any stores near the resort or down closer to the Lucaya? 

 

Talk to you later

[LAtravelgirl]

We did not go to Garden of the Groves, so maybe there are more things around it. Loyda might be able to answer. I didn't realize it was that close! We went downtown, Port Lucaya, and did shopping for trinkets at the little stands. The International Bazaar had half of the shops empty. Freeport is still recovering from the last hurricane a few years ago. We went to the perfume factory, which was interesting and didn't take long to go through. By the time we made it downtown the straw market was closing up for the day. Hours I think lend themselves heavily to cruise ship schedules. Rand Nature Center and Lucayan were nearly empty, as well, but then again, we went to Lucayan Park on Christmas Day. My parents drove to the east end one day to the lighthouse.

The nice thing about the resort being secluded, is the beach is very private. From the beach, the locals that work there pointed to a restaurant you could see from the Viva, so there very well might be more in the direction of the Garden of The Groves (the restaurant was to the east on the beach).

 

I would like to do music before the ceremony, as a prelude while everyone is taking their seats and then music when I walk down the aisle and different music when bride/groom exit (I've joked I wanted "Boss of Me," but I will probably choose a more traditional song. It sound like Loyda has the one song for the bride walking in? I have such a small group, but I would still like it to feel like they are coming to a ceremony. I wonder how old there system is, and if we bring CDs that we put the music on, rather than purchased CDs, if they will play. I know when the writable CDs first came out, thy would not play in all systems. I wonder if we can plug an iPod into their system?

 

As far as it being crowded it's hard to say. It is only a 45 minute plane ride from Florida, so I don't know if people go there live us in Los Angeles might head to Vegas or San Francisco for a long weekend, or not. I know our planes are completely booked straight through and on return.
 

[markandlisa]

Hi Marisa, 

 

Got some more info from Loyda:

 

 

I had a question about the ceremony music again. You sent me a link for the music that I will walk down the aisle to, but is there music while my guests are waiting for me to come. Normally we only play CANON D SONG while you will be walking down the isle, however if you want any other song or music please bring your own CD and when we meet we can arrange with the do the other that you wants things to be dome.   Prelude music....Maid of honor music, Bride music, signing the license music, and finally us walking back down the aisle as a married couple? As I just mentioned normally the music is Just while you are walking -- and that the normal DJ responsibility, but if you really one more music which I do not think is necessary you let me know and I can talk to him. are you sure you need music whole signing the license? remember that is a 20 minutes ceremony... so everything happened kind of fast.   Do you know where I will stand beforehand so people will not see me? How far of a walk will it be in mins, basically I'm wondering if I make a cd of my own music to play, should I have 1 song on a different cd or would the person doing the music be able to start a different song.......also how long each song should be etc...... I will take care of that, don't worry...we will see the detail when you get here please.   Some other questions:   I was also wondering if you know how far (walking distance) the International Bazaar and Lucaya Marketplace are from the resort? 6 miles away (10 minutes in taxi)   Some of my guests are wondering if they can bring in their own wine to the restaurants or do you charge a corkage fee? 5 US$ to open the bottle ...    Is there an age limit for the disco? I am hoping to go there after the dinner to celebrate with everyone, including kids. No age limit      So that is that, I think I'll just go with the music they have, even though my mom has said she isn't happy with just that.    It seems a lot like Cayman Islands, we have been there twice, it is where he proposed I would have loved to have my wedding there but they don't have any all-inclusives. But it seems to be the same with the shops, open when the cruise ships are in.    As for the wine, I'll probably buy some from the liquor store for my guests for the dinner. I'll wait and ask what it is like beforehand but if they say it's bad than I'll purchase some for the wedding from a liquor store.   Wow I can't believe your plans are booked solid, I don't know how to check my plane space, did you check yourself or did your travel agent?   Talk to you soon Lisa