Grand Velas Riviera Maya

[hanaefaith]

Hi brides! Are there any of you getting married at Grand Velas Riviera Maya? I am very interested in booking my wedding here for next March 2015. Anyone have any info concerning pricing, packages, etc.?

[nattiegams325]

Hi brides! Are there any of you getting married at Grand Velas Riviera Maya? I am very interested in booking my wedding here for next March 2015. Anyone have any info concerning pricing, packages, etc.?

I called them the other day. I talked to their wedding office and it was very difficult to understand her accent :-/ and the language barrier I believe is why I never got the email she said she was sending me related to all the packages. I told her I was looking for about 40-50 people and she said the wedding package would be about $7,500. She offered me a site visit rate of $360/pp/night but I think it'll just be too expensive for guests so we're going to pass. It is such a beautiful resort though! Maybe for the honeymoon :-) Here's the website in case you didn't see it - http://www.velasweddings.com/

[hanaefaith]

I called them the other day. I talked to their wedding office and it was very difficult to understand her accent :-/ and the language barrier I believe is why I never got the email she said she was sending me related to all the packages. I told her I was looking for about 40-50 people and she said the wedding package would be about $7,500. She offered me a site visit rate of $360/pp/night but I think it'll just be too expensive for guests so we're going to pass. It is such a beautiful resort though! Maybe for the honeymoon :-) Here's the website in case you didn't see it - http://www.velasweddings.com/

 

Yeah, that's the only thing that's stopping me is the cost to stay for my guests. Have you decided where you want to have your wedding?

[nattiegams325]

Yeah, that's the only thing that's stopping me is the cost to stay for my guests. Have you decided where you want to have your wedding?

I'm actually headed to Riviera Maya next month with my parents and sister to go on site visits. Were staying at Dreams Riviera Cancun, but we're going to look at Moon Palace and the Barcelo Palace too as of now. I had read in another forum on here that Grand Velas really doesn't negotiate prices for guests at weddings. :-( it seems like $550/night is the absolute lowest I've seen for them. That's way too much for guests. Oh well. Anyways I'll let you know how the site visits go!

[nattiegams325]

Yeah, that's the only thing that's stopping me is the cost to stay for my guests. Have you decided where you want to have your wedding?

I just got my quote for Jan/Feb 2015 (2 weeks after talking to them on the phone): Here are the prices:

 

WEDDING COLLECTION INFINITE YOURS

40 Guests all booked at Grand Velas Riviera Maya $7,790.00 USD

50 Guests all booked at Grand Velas Riviera Maya $8,840.00 USD

 

ACCOMODATIONS

Wedding Group Special Room Rates valid for JANUARY 6TH /FEBRUARY 2015 (minimum 15 Suites reserved per 2 nights)

(Prices go from single to double to triple occupancy)

ZEN SUITE (Jungle View) $513 USD $342 USD $285 USD

ZEN POOL SUITE (Jungle View and plunge pool) $623 USD $415 USD $346 USD

AMBASSADOR SUITE (Ocean View) $746 USD $497 USD $414 USD

AMBASSADOR SUITE (Ocean View and plunge pool) $767 USD $511 USD $426 USD

GRAND CLASS SUITE (Ocean view & Private plunge pool. Minors 12 years and older are welcome) $788 USD $525 USD $438 USD

[BDABeachBum]

I'm very interested in this site as well for our 2015 spring wedding (haven't decided on date). I've sent an online request to the WC but haven't heard anything back yet. Nattiegams325, is that the price they quoted you per person or per room? I really want to go somewhere luxurious but don't want to break everyone's bank and have everyone complaining that they had to spend so much to come to my wedding. What did you think of the other places you visited? I love the look of palms trees on the beach and can be seen next to the beach ceremony in pictures which a lot of places don't have, except for the adults only resort and Grand Velas seemed like a good compromise...

[Lindsay30]

I'm very interested in this site as well for our 2015 spring wedding (haven't decided on date). I've sent an online request to the WC but haven't heard anything back yet. Nattiegams325, is that the price they quoted you per person or per room? I really want to go somewhere luxurious but don't want to break everyone's bank and have everyone complaining that they had to spend so much to come to my wedding. What did you think of the other places you visited? I love the look of palms trees on the beach and can be seen next to the beach ceremony in pictures which a lot of places don't have, except for the adults only resort and Grand Velas seemed like a good compromise...

We went and stay @ Grand Velas during our site visit because it was our #1 choice. It is absolutely gorgeous. Seriously was our dream location, our style and we got a really good vibe from the place.  We were really hoping they would help accommodate us more and help with the rates but they didn't want to budge too much and the lowest they went was $410 for the Ambassador Suite and $285 for the Zen Suites per person, per night. I've heard they work better with business works as opposed to wedding groups.

When it came to the rooms, there was just a few mishaps...We didn't know before our arrival that the Zen section wasn't on the beach but was actually in the jungle. I guess I could have done my research more but I only paid attention to the Ambassador side when I viewed it online and never pulled up a resort map. We booked the Zen because of our rush to make our site visit trip and ended up in the jungle. The Jungle comes with lots of bugs and centipedes. There were many crawling about the floor. I tried to disregard it because I so badly wanted this to be the ONE! They give you spray in each room but it doesn't get rid of them entirely. We managed to move to the Ambassador Suites on the beach for our 2nd night since we were there to look for our wedding and they had availability and there we didn't have issues with bugs.

We thought our guests would want to be on the beach if they were booking a trip to Mexico for a wedding so we would have only wanted our guests to be on the beach side which was way too much to ask them to pay, so the bugs in the jungle wouldn't have been an issue for us but the price was just too much to ask.. The only other issue besides the rates were some of the restaurants. Some aren't open year round or daily. We actually made a reservation for one of the restaurants thru their website and when we arrived, it wasn't even open that night. We were surprised it would have sent me a confirmation if it was closed so we had to switch to another restaurant our first night there. Some of the restaurants are almost TOO fancy which we weren't sure our guests would enjoy. They do have an amazing breakfast buffet that turns into a full service restaurant at night which I'm sure most guests would be repeating customers. Aside from the Zen section, although pretty, not what we would consider for our destination wedding and some of the restaurants, the hotel is seriously gorgeous. It is a dream hotel, but the price really got us to look elsewhere so luckily we visited plenty of places while we were there for 3 days and found another resort. We're getting married at the Iberostar Grand Paraiso. It's Adults Only. It's almost too nice for us but our Travel Agent got us some really reasonable rates. We also saw Barcelo Palace, Dreams Puerto Adventures and The Royal, Dreams Riviera Maya and Mayakoba. Barcelo had too many weddings per day and we didn't like that. Dreams PA, the hotel was a little too old for us but good ceremony and reception options. Dreams Riviera Maya was pretty and the rooms were great but we thought it was almost TOO kid friendly. When we were standing by the gazebo where you can get married at there is a small playground next to it and the kids were screaming the entire time. I'm not sure how quiet it would be if kids are running around during the ceremony.  Mayakoba was amazing but it's not all inclusive and very expensive. We knew it wouldn't work for us but we couldn't NOT see it. The Royal was great but party central so it's what you think your guests would be okay with. My friend got married at the Casa Magna Marriott in downtown Cancun and it was one of the best hotels I've ever stayed at if you are giving Cancun a chance. Good luck with your decision! All the hotels are beautiful so I don't think you can go wrong.

[BDABeachBum]

Thanks Lindsay30! That's a shame that Grand Velas wouldn't work much with price at all...did you work with a travel agent to try and get the price down? I have the Iberostar as well and really like the Grand and figure that if we go there then families can stay at the neighboring Iberostar family friendly resorts, do you know if they will let children come to the ceremony if you hold it at the Grand? Also considering Azul Sensatori or Beaches as well but seems as you said about Dreams, almost too kid friendly. We would be going to a family resort only for one kid and I like Grand Velas because it didn't seem too kid friendly, but the price is pretty  high for guests....I wouldn't mind paying it for myself but I don't know how my guests would feel....

 

Also about the restaurants at Grand Velas are some of them closed all of the time? I've read that some resorts do this because of low occupancy or during certain times of the year for low season, but it seems like at that price none of them should be closed. Also, you said that you had made reservations before you arrived, I thought I had read on the website that you don't need to make reservations at this resort (Maybe I'm getting it confused with Azul?) which I really liked that you could go eat whenever you wanted. 

 

Thanks again for the info, its awesome that you got to go visit each place!  

Edited April 24, 2014 by BDABeachBum

[Lindsay30]

Thanks Lindsay30! That's a shame that Grand Velas wouldn't work much with price at all...did you work with a travel agent to try and get the price down? I have the Iberostar as well and really like the Grand and figure that if we go there then families can stay at the neighboring Iberostar family friendly resorts, do you know if they will let children come to the ceremony if you hold it at the Grand? Also considering Azul Sensatori or Beaches as well but seems as you said about Dreams, almost too kid friendly. We would be going to a family resort only for one kid and I like Grand Velas because it didn't seem too kid friendly, but the price is pretty  high for guests....I wouldn't mind paying it for myself but I don't know how my guests would feel....

 

Also about the restaurants at Grand Velas are some of them closed all of the time? I've read that some resorts do this because of low occupancy or during certain times of the year for low season, but it seems like at that price none of them should be closed. Also, you said that you had made reservations before you arrived, I thought I had read on the website that you don't need to make reservations at this resort (Maybe I'm getting it confused with Azul?) which I really liked that you could go eat whenever you wanted. 

 

Thanks again for the info, its awesome that you got to go visit each place!  

I'm happy to help. I don't want to persuade you from choosing Grand Velas because seriously it is my ultimate favorite when it comes to the look of it, the pool, beach etc.. It was just that price that got me. And same here, we would have paid it ourselves and we were actually contemplating secretly putting some down for each guest making it appear cheaper to them but that would have used most of our budget and we thought that some still may not have come anyway because the price still would have seemed too high. We tried prices through the hotel and our Travel Agent. The hotel was actually cheaper than the TA got us but it was still too high as I mentioned the prices above.

 

The Grand does allow children and guests staying at the other Iberostar resorts to come for the ceremony and reception. I was hoping to have my niece and nephew come to the wedding but my brothers entire family won't be there so that's why we made the decision to go adults only. A lot of our friends have kids but this sort of allowed them the option to bring them but be separate from us most of the time or make it an adult trip.

 

We saw the Azul hotels earlier in the year before we got engaged while we were on the 'work' trip down there and although it was pretty and a great size of hotel and they take such good care of you, we didn't like that they had Gerber Food and Hi-Chairs everywhere. It was too kid-friendly for us but everything else seemed great there.

 

I don't recall if some of the restaurants were closed @ Grand Velas the entire time we were there or if they just switch off days or operation. (We went the 2nd week of October) I'm sure you do not need reservations, we just wanted to be cautious because we were bringing along my mom and my fiance's parents and wouldn't have wanted them to see us unprepared When I found the reservation option on their website I just followed the instructions and received an email confirmation for the dinners we reserved and when we arrived were told the restaurant was closed. They did switch them for us which was nice. Btw, we were 1 of maybe 5 groups there. It was really slow which questioned why they wouldn't budge on the price when our wedding was going to be in June or July on a Monday.

 

I think every hotel we saw had some great perks. It's tough because I would stay at any of those hotels on a vacation but it was a lot tougher choosing one for the wedding.

 

Hope you find exactly what your looking for!

[AllieH]

If you like the Azul properties, but are concerned about how "kid friendly" they are, what about looking at El Dorado Royale/Generations Riviera Maya? They are sister resorts to the Azuls, all owned by Karisma Resorts.

 

EDR has the luxury that it sounds like you want, plus being adults only. Generations is next to EDR, and is set up for families. Adults staying at Generations can still access the amenities and restaurants on the EDR side. It's really the best of both worlds.

 

Let me know if you'd like additional information about EDR/Generations. While Generations is brand new (opened in February 2014), I'm hoping to get more insight while we're visiting EDR (again) this summer.