Dreams Tulum Resort & Spa All Inclusive

Finally time for my review....I haven't even done my planning thread yet!

Thank you to all you former brides, future brides, moderators etc for the posts on this site. I got so many ideas, inspirations and encouragement from you all. It really was a site where I spent large parts of my day.

Here goes!

We just arrived back from our 2 week vacation, which began with our wedding at the DT resort. I have to say, I had a growing amount of anxiety in the weeks leading up to our departure. I had read a few not-so heartening reviews from other brides, plus I started to feel the anxiety from the responsibility of having chosen the resort for 41 guests. Well.... the wedding turned out AMAZING. There were certainly a few things that were not perfect, but I can handle that! The following is my review... I hope that it helps some of you other brides-to-be make your final decisions a little easier!

*Travel

Westjet- Prince George to Vancouver. They made space for my wedding dress with no problems at all.

We stayed at the Fairmont Vancouver Airport that evening as our flight did not leave until the following morning. Somehow our reservation had been mixed up and we were booked at the downtown Fairmont, but the staff was quick to remedy the issue and had us up in our room quite quickly.

When a group of us went down to the restaurant for dinner, the chef found out that we were getting married and sent out a complimentary amuse bouche for all of us at the table. Very nice and unexpected! We finished our dinner decided to head to the lounge for a few drinks before bed. The staff there brought us our drinks and then surprised us with a plate of delicious chocolate covered strawberries and a congratulations banner on a piece of marzipan. What a great way to start our trip!

On the way home we were upgraded to a deluxe room at the Fairmont, a card from the staff congratulating us on our wedding and more chocolate covered strawberries.

Air Canada Vacations– Vancouver to Cancun – Awesome service. My husband Jand I were given upgrades to Executive class. 1^st row, so we had loads of room. I had lots of space for my dress, and we had a brilliant flight of pampering over to Mexico. Part way through the flight the flight attendants made an announcement to the plane that we were heading to Mx to get married and everyone cheered. Pretty funny!

Once we got into the airport, we made it through immigration and customs quickly. No problems with any of the decorations, etc that we brought along with us. We made it out to the transfer bus they had included in our package and the guys were very organized and had us and our luggage all on the bus without delay. We made 3 stops on the way to the resort. 1 to drop some guests off at their resort...and  2 to pick up more beer J

Check in

The last few miles before the resort I started to feel really nervous that maybe the resort wouldn’t live up to all of our expectations. I needn’t have worried, we arrived at the DT lobby and were all met with cold glasses of sparkling wine. Check-in was really quick and painless. We all decided to meet at the World buffet for dinner since we figured that would be easiest for all of us to find seats and get our food quickly.  After a quick dinner we  went back to rooms to check things out. All the luggage had been brought to the rooms for us and the rooms were sparkling clean.

Rooms

Out of our group we had a wide range of room types, some Garden view, some Ocean view, some Junior suites, some Ocean front, etc. Because everyone had booked different types of rooms we did not expect to be in the same buildings. It really does not matter. The resort is very well laid out and you can walk anywhere in a matter of minutes.

My friend had an issue with the sheets in her room being stained on one of the beds and called housekeeping. They were in her room in a flash, changed all the bedding, and she was very happy with their service. The following morning, the front desk called and offered them a complimentary upgraded room for the trouble. They took it, because they ended up with a MUCH better view.... plus it was free J

Housekeeping

All of our rooms were cleaned on time each day, and had turn down service every evening with chocolates and the next days weather report and activity schedule in a newsletter. The kids loved the towel animals in the room as well. Our bathroom toiletries were always well stocked...the only thing I would suggest is to bring CONDITIONER for your hair!! I forgot mine, and there is none in the room.

Resort and staff

Loved the staff, and the resort was beautiful. Never a speck of garbage anywhere, it seems like they maintain the grounds and buildings 24hrs a day. All the staff that we encountered always made us feel welcome and catered to our every need or wish. I would suggest tipping... they do not ever expect it, but work SO hard for such long hours, and I know that they are not paid what they are worth. Loved the pool and beach drink and food service. Entertainment staff was always getting things going. Some of the activities were a bit cheesy and silly, but we certainly laughed alot!

Restaurants

I wish I could give more info here, but we were always so busy.... or drinking so much that I can’t give a play by play on the Restaurants. I know we never had a bad meal... the fish dishes were usually fantastic. The food is not 5 star, but is good nonetheless.

Spa

We had the couples massage and it was fabulous. We have gone to a few world class spas since we have been together, and the massage ranked up there. The spa is decent to look at, but I can honestly say that I didn’t leave the cold at home to go sit inside a building during my holiday JQuite a few of our guests booked various spa treatments and all of them were happy with their experiences. More on the wedding day spa experience in a bit.

WEDDING

First and foremost.... My wedding day was PERFECT! I would do it all over again in a second!

Like most every other bride, I found that communication between the wedding department/coordinator and myself slow and vague alot of the time. All of the details were confirmed in good time, but it felt a little odd to feel so removed from the actual planning process.

Most of my communication was done through Aurora until the last month when I began communicating with my actual wedding day coordinator Anabel. She is very nice, works very hard. For example. The day I got married I heard there were 2 other wedding. For the record I did not see either of them happen, the Dreams wedding department is quite well organized . All of my decorations and instructions were handed in during our meeting and it was put up exactly as I had requested.

Spa– I had a French polish done the morning of the wedding and my nails looked spectacular JSorry, I cannot remember the name of the technician who did them.

I also had my hair and make-up done at the spa. I was very leary as I never have had my make-up done and been happy with it. I really like a natural look and always feel like they load up the face like a mask. Well... I loved my make-up. Rosly did it according to a photo that I brought. I wiped off the lipstick she applied though, and just put on some lip gloss instead. I don’t know what she did to my eyelashes.... but they looked MILES long. AWESOME!! Rosly also did my hair, an amalgamation of 2 photos that I brought, and I couldn’t have been happier with how it turned out. My 12 yr old daughter, and my best friend also had their hair done and both turned out lovely.

Flowers– Loved my bouquet. It was precisely what I requested. I wanted one pink rose in the center to symbolize the baby girl that my FI and I had miscarried a year ago. It was done perfectly. I then felt like I had all my kids with me on this special day.

The MOH and jr bridesmaid bouquet were very pretty as well. Much smaller than the photos made them look, but not an issue in my mind.

The flower girl basket was nothing more than a decorated easter basket. I HATED it JBut, one of my sisters came to the rescue! We found a white fabric bag that I had brought with some toiletries, took the flowers and ribbons and flowers off the basket and made a new petal bag for the flower girl. It was perfect! It is a funny story for all of us now...phew!

DJ– we had DJ Bijan from Mayan Vibes do the ceremony and reception. He was fabulous. All the songs I wanted he made sure he had, his response to emails, etc was immediate. Prices were great, and he was very professional. The reception was the best time ever. We danced the whole time.

Ceremony – it was a lot more religious than I realized it would be. Not an issue for me, but my FI (husband) does not believe in God, so it would have been nice if it could have been a bit less church-y...but not a big deal. It was beautiful. We had flowers for the path to the canopy and it looked very pretty.

Photographers-  Just used the resort photographer, and very happy with them. We had almost 400 photos taken. My dad ended up buying the whole package because he was so happy with them. We also had so many guests taking photos that we knew we would end up with more than we could possibly handle.

Cocktail hour and reception– Because it was threatening rain that day (still was a gorgeous day) Anabel offered us the Himitsu restaurant for our reception, and the ‘courtyard/bar area’ between Himitsu and Gohan for our cocktail hour. SO HAPPY! It was perfect. The Mariachi band played during the cocktail hour, hors d’ouvres were delicious. We had 2 signature cocktails that were passed around...yummy! plus the regular bar service.

Reception room looked awesome. The crew did a super job with the decorations we brought. I loved having the private space! I stole the idea of having tequila bottles and shot glasses for our centerpieces. Best idea EVER. What a fun, fun, fun party!

Food was great.  I have no idea what the cake tasted like Jbut it looked pretty.

All in all, the wedding was perfect. Dreams really does weddings well and it is such a great resort for all ages.

The things that annoyed me

- how the resort (all resorts in Mexico) nickel and dime you for everything.

- the exorbitant prices that they charge for various items because it is for a wedding

- inflexibility to extend reception time without paying huge extra fees

- only allowing 1 choice for each course in the meal

At the end of the day, for me, those are not things that I will remember. My friends and family all had such a fabulous time, and cannot stop talking about the fun. That for me is worth every single penny.

OVERVIEW: We were married at Dreams Tulum Monday, June 28th, 2010 with a total of 51 guests. Anabel was our wedding coordinator though we corresponded with Aurora leading up to our arrival at Dreams Tulum. It rained for 3 out of the 5 days our guests were there due to Tropical Storm Alex but the rain held off for the wedding day (though we had TERRIBLE winds) and we had great weather for the 4 days we remained at the resort post wedding.

SUMMARY OF OUR EXPERIENCE: C

The best lesson we learned is that things are what you make of them. We had a lot of really negative events take place, but we stayed as positive as possible and believe that was our saving grace. I’ll explain in each section what went wrong (and went right) but I do want to thank all of you ladies for the help and advice leading up to our wedding! JIf we were to go back in time, we would have chosen a different resort, but for those brides-to-be already committed to Dreams Tulum, you’ll have a wonderful wedding and a terrific vacation so please do not fear! 

WEDDING COORDINATOR: Anabel: B-

During our 8 day stay at the resort, we witnessed at least 2 weddings a day. The department seems way overworked and could just be nicer overall. I think that was one of our biggest complaints, that the resort’s customer service was NOT up to par. Anyway, we corresponded with Aurora for a year leading up to the wedding but when we arrived we found out that Anabel would be our wedding coordinator. It was tough because we felt like we had to start from scratch to go over all the details we already went over in emails with Aurora. In fact, we didn’t even see Aurora until the very last day of our stay. Dave and I joked that she wasn’t real but just a fake email address they had to make up to write back snarky replies to brides ;)

Leading up to our wedding, we had to keep reminding Anabel of everything, and leaving written instruction. She was nice enough, and very professional, but just didn’t do a very good job. My biggest advice would be to keep all your emails and correspondence with everyone and print it to bring with you for your stay. We had to refer to our emails A LOT when negotiating for items and prices (which I feel like we shouldn’t have to do 2 days before the event). Anabel said she understood and wrote down all of the things we asked for but when the day came, many things were done incorrectly or not done at all :( (all of which I’ll highlight in the upcoming parts). Oh also, ask for whatever you want. If you’ve read (esp on here) that brides get something that you’d like, ask for it. The worst they’ll say is no, but likely they will accommodate it. For example, we wanted our reception to go until 10:30pm because we paid for the DJ until that time and Anabel allowed it, though she kept bringing it up as though she was doing us a humungous favor. 

OUR ACCOMODATIONS: F, then once changed rooms: A
When we arrived we asked if our room could be upgraded, which it was. Even though we brought 51 people to their resort, they said they could only upgrade it 1 level, fine, whatevs. We got to our room at 3pm and found that the phone and the thermometer were broken, and there was no bottle opener. We called and reported these and the concierge said they would be fixed asap. When we got back to our room that night to go to bed, everything remained broken which meant 1. We couldn’t call to check up on our house and dog and 2. It was FREEZING cold in the room and there was a terribly loud clicking noise that kept us awake all night. We had to sleep with pillows over our heads. In the morning we went back down to the lobby and again asked them to fix these things. They said they would change our room and for us to pack up our suitcases by noon and they would be taken to the new room. We went back to shower and pack. It was freezing so we opened up the screen door to let warm air in. This created a thick line of moisture on the tile floor. As I stepped out of the shower and into the hallway, I took a face plant into the floor. I fell so so so hard that I now need a root canal because my front tooth turned gray L Many tears and blood filled towels later I emerged to find a REALLY swollen lip, a huge cut under my chin, and a gnarly black and blue bruise on my chin. I was devastated. Our wedding was in 2 days and I knew this would not heal in time. My cut bled for about 9 hours and we called to inquire about a doctor. They said I would have to pay $150 USD to see a doctor. TOTALLY RIDICULOUS since the only reason I fell was because our thermostat was broken and they hadn’t done anything about it in time :(

We had our first wedding planning meeting with Anabel that day, my brain was nowhere near where it should have been because I was so so upset. She didn’t seem fazed. She didn’t ask how I felt, she didn’t try to make me feel better, no empathy, nothing. In fact, when we reported the accident to the concierge we had the exact same reaction. No one in the resort said anything nice, calming, or empathic about any of it. That’s the part that made me most upset :(

Eventually that day (probably to cover their asses), they “upgraded” us to the honeymoon suite, which I give a solid A. The honeymoon suite was really lovely. Two balconies, a large Jacuzzi, a nice divided room with couch, and a walk in(ish) closet. A really lovely room. Doesn’t make up for a broken face 2 days before the wedding, but a lovely room nonetheless.

SPA: B-
Because things kept going wrong, I went to the spa in order to confirm my appointments the day before the wedding. GOOD THING I DID. Apparently they didn’t have the appointments in their calendar. Luckily I brought my printed out email correspondence with Claudia, the spa concierge, and they were able to fit our party in. However, there was another wedding going on that day and we would only get 1 hair stylist and not 2, which slowed us down considerably. In fact, we had to leave 1 of my bridesmaids at the salon while the other helped me with my dress (there were only 5 of us total getting hair done: 2 moms, 2 bridesmaids, and me). Trinidad did our hair and she did a fabulous job. I loved how mine came out and so did the girls. Too bad having only 1 hair stylist put us behind schedule and we had to rush for the rest of the time, something I did NOT want before my wedding :(

FLOWERS: D-

Oh my gosh the flowers were dreadful! Not only did they fall apart as a carried them (and almost stained my dress) but petals kept dropping the entire night. The bridesmaids bouquets had the same problem. We used orange Mexican lilies (those are the ones that fell apart). The other flower in the bouquet that was so awful it was funny, was a large yellow flower that was PAINTED yellow. Literally, painted. But the worst part of it was that the paint was coming off because of the heat. They were terrible, but pretty hilarious.

CEREMONY & RECEPTION SET UP: C

Even with very particular instruction (and photos), things were not set up as arranged. We brought 2 large spools of orange tulle for the canopy and only a little bit was used. To be exactly, only ¼ of 1 spool was used, the other was unopened. When I asked Anabel about this the next day, she said it was because of the wind. In fact, everything that wasn’t set up as arranged she blamed on the wind. I do not think putting 1 light bulb into the lanterns rather than the 2 we discussed (and brought with us from the states) was because of the wind. There were other things not set up as discussed, but frankly I can’t remember anymore. None of the candles we brought (3 large centerpieces per table and lots of tea lights) were lit, but I imagine that really WAS because of the wind.

RESORT PHOTOGRAPHER: A+

Oh my gosh, if you get a chance to work with Teo from the resort photographers, do it! He’s WONDERFUL. We only used him for a few hours during the reception because we brought our own photographer for the event, but we absolutely adored Teo and he took some really great and fun photos of everyone!

DJ Doremixx: A+

Hiring DJ Doremixx was one of the smartest decisions we made overall. We were planning on renting the sound system and using our ipod but once we priced it out, we realized how ridiculous the sound system charge was. Aurora quoted as at $750 to use the resorts sound system for the ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception. This was literally ONE speaker and a microphone. However, for just $880 we had Ivan and two other guys from Doremixx for the entire day (ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception). He was amazing, professional, and really nice. He came down to meet with us the day before the wedding and discuss details. We gave him a song list (which was incredibly obscure because we like pretty random music) and he had everything on the list! He stuck to the list and did not play anything we didn’t like or request. He was really wonderful and a very smart decision on our part. He brought so many fun things (glasses, balloons, glowsticks) which make for really fun photos and dancing! We really loved Ivan! 

BEACH:B
Well, there was kinda a hurricane. Our wedding week took place during Tropical Storm Alex so the red flags were up on the beach the entire time and we weren’t allowed into the water. However, the wind made the heat tolerable and laying out by the beach was nice :) We snuck in a couple of times and the water was really rough. The scariest time was during our Trash The Dress photoshoot when I literally thought I was going to drown. The dress got so heavy and the ocean wanted to eat me alive :) But it made for amazing photos!

FOOD & RESTAURANTS: A

The food on the resort was wonderful! I think it was my favorite thing about Dreams Tulum! Really great food.

Our Wedding Day Menu:

Cocktail Hour: Smoked salmon on melba bread, Mushroom stuffed with cream cheese with black truffle, Caviar on pastry

Reception Dinner:

APPETIZER: Azteca Fried Tortilla with Shrimp and Cream

SALAD:  Grilled veg with balsamic vinegar

ENTRÉE: (a) Grilled Flank Steak with Slightly Spicy Adobe Sauce (b) Chicken Breast with Spinach and Cream Cheese Topped with Pepper Sauce

DESSERT: Milk Mousse with Chocolate Sauce

The wedding food was great! Everyone was really impressed by how delicious the meal was. The cocktail hour food was lacking. Anabel said they had 10 plates of food but there is no way that is true, we ran out within 20 minutes. The cocktail hour service was terrible. In fact, our guests had to go to the closest bar to get their own drinks which shouldn’t happen. We told her this after the fact and they took off the additional 21 people that we paid for in the cocktail hour, which was nice. 

WORLD CAFÉ (BUFFET): B

The buffet was decent. We had to eat there a great deal because it was the only place that seats a large number of people together. The breakfast and lunch are great but dinner is a bit lacking.

PORTOFINO (ITALIAN): A  

Delicious food! Terribly rude manager the night we booked a table for 12 (called in advance, they said it was okay, showed up and they were not able to accommodate us and split us up into 2 tables even though the restaurant remained almost empty the entire time we were there).  However, we had amazing service when Dave and I returned there to eat just the two of us. The mussels were delicious, as were the pasta dishes (we tried the gnocchi and ravioli, yum).  

EL PATIO (MEXICAN): B-

My husband didn’t like their food; I didn’t like their snail slow service. We only ate lunch there, they were not open for dinner a lot.

COCO CAFÉ (COFFEE SHOP): A

Delicious frozen coffee drinks, sandwiches, cookies, cupcakes, snacks, martinis! GOOD STUFF!

BORDEAUX (FRENCH): A-

Food was pretty good. We had lots of courses and they were spaced out nicely and served in style.

SEASIDE GRILL (SEAFOOD AND STEAK): A

We LOVED this restaurant. Not only because it is where our wedding was held, but also because their food was wonderful and had a nice view of the beach. The filet mignon was delicious!

GOHAN (SUSHI): A-

The food was good, great sushi and fast service but it was SO SO unbearably hot in the restaurant we thought we were going to pass out. Everyone in the place kept asking for them to open up the doors, which they kept ignoring. Until finally we all made a stink and they did.

ROOM SERVICE: A+
We loved this feature. Especially for breakfast. And especially when my face was broken and I wanted to hide. The food was excellent and it came very quickly.

BARS AND DRINKS: A

The drinks were great! A lot were a bit too sweet for my taste but I just ordered double ___ and they came out perfect. For example, my drink of choice was a double pina colada which is double rum and it was delicious! Also, GREAT bloody marys :) Also, here are two secrets I learned a bit late: 1. You can order champagne at the bars for free, as many glasses as you want but they make you pay if you want a bottle of champagne. So if you want champagne for a group, just order x amount of glasses rather than a bottle. 2. You can specify the type of tequila, otherwise they give you their rail tequila, which isn’t that great – but specify Jose Cuervo and you’re all set! :)

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here are some more photos for anyone interested: http://theportwalls.shutterfly.com/wedding

and this one is my favorite:

As I'm copying this over, I'm realizing how bloody long it is. Sorry for the length, but for fellow Type A-ers, here you go!

Travel Agency

After our first attempt with a typical storefront travel agency was slightly disastrous, we found the online travel agency iTravel 2000 and were assigned Sandra Momesso to handle our group bookings. She was super quick to get back to everyone and was really well organized, not to mention her prices came in a few hundred cheaper than our first travel agency quotes.  None of our group of 16 had any problems with her at all and I’d definitely recommend her.

Flights and Transfers

Since we had people travelling from different locations, Air Canada Vacations was the only carrier we could all use from our different gateways. There was no talk of an upgrade for us – it seems AC has pretty much done away with any group benefits they used to have. Also, on both of connector flights, they had me and the hubby sitting 6 rows apart, which we thought was a bit odd.

Our land transfers were included with our package. It was a smidge disorganized getting us all on the bus, but we all to the resort with our all our bags, so that’s what’s important. Dreams Tulum is right at the end of the highway stretch, but we were all so excited that the drive seemed to go by pretty quick. There were plenty of cold Coronas on the bus ride, which probably helped. There were two stops in Playa del Carmen before us, but our return shuttle was just our group, no stops. The Air Canada check-in in Cancun was terrible though, so leave make sure you check-in at the kiosk at the airport and do the bag drop off line, not the regular check in line.

Check In

Our first reaction driving up was “Holy crap, this place is gorgeous and SUPER clean.” When we unloaded our bags and went into the lobby, we were all told to have a seat and they would bring all of our paperwork to us. We got our champagne within 5 minutes of arriving (followed by some tequila shots to get the week started). Some rooms weren’t ready yet and it was a bit confusing about what we were to do in the interim, but most of us just went to grab some lunch. Once we finally got our keys, no one really directed us to our room, so we had to wander around to a few buildings and ask some staff before we found our room.

Rooms

We had reserved a Premium Oceanview Junior Suite and got room 6316 which was dead centre of the dolphin pool with a great view. The room was beautiful and whenever we were on the balcony, we’d always see people from our group passing by, which was really handy. The fridge never got very cold, but that seemed to be a pretty common complaint. It was cleaned every day, our mini fridge was restocked and we had turn-down service every night. If you want a quiet room, this might not section of the hotel for you. The noise from the pool throughout the day and the nightly shows could be heard in the room, though not too loudly. It never bothered us because we were normally out of the room for most of the day and early evenings.

There were a few room issues in our group. Another couple had a small spider infestation, and were moved after insisting with the front desk. Another couple booked an oceanview room and only got a sliver of the ocean. Some people got 2 double beds when they requested kings, but no one really was upset. Everyone was very pleased with their rooms.

Resort and Staff

I cannot say enough about the staff! Everyone was extremely pleasant, always smiling and always happy to help. There was a waiter at the Seaside Restaurant that knew us by the 2^nd day and had our afternoon snack/drink order down pat. Niecy, the beach waitress, was a dream. She would appear every 15-20 minutes to take empty glasses and new orders and to banter with my father-in-law and the best man. She knew our entire group by the end of the week! Our cleaning lady was very pleasant and the room was always spotless after she left. And if you tip, you get towel animals every night.

As for the resort, I really liked the layout of the resort, which made it easy to locate people throughout the day. It was the perfect size for us – not a mega resort but still lots of space and lots of amenities, and it wasn’t a huge party report (also a bonus). The staff works really hard to keep the resort so clean and well manicured. We saw staff picking up seaweed daily and they have a sand grooming machine that is out every morning (we called in the sand zamboni).

Guest Services

We didn’t deal a lot with guest services, but another couple in our group was on their honeymoon and arranged a candlelit dinner for one evening. We also had one guest with a gluten sensitivity and the resort provided her with a form letter to give to all the restaurants so they wouldn’t give her anything that would make her sick. 

Entertainment

I’ll be honest – I didn’t really worry too much about the entertainment and I didn’t participate in a whole lot, especially during the day. The two moms went to water aerobics daily, and my mom also did a few dance lessons. We went to bingo one night (my mother-in-law won – warning, the prize is a tequila shot), and saw the drummers another night and the fire dancers on our last night there (both were REALLY good). Another night, they had a football game set up on the beach big screen with snacks at the Barefoot Grill (we went over to grab some popcorn). They also had movies on the beach a few nights as well. We didn’t go to the dance bar, but a few guests went one night and stayed until it closed. Our favourite spot was the Sugar Reef – we had our table almost every evening and it was a great spot just to hang out with the group.

Transportation & Excursions

We arranged for a van to take us to Playa Del Carmen to Shop for the day through the concierge (I think it worked out to less than $20 return each) and then again for our trash the dress. We also just used the concierge to arrange for a van to Xel Ha which is only about 10 minutes away (and well worth a day trip). Other guests went on tours through the Air Canada Vacations rep. 3 people went on a catamaran ride and snorkel to the Tulum ruins and 1 person went on the Chichen Itza excursion. The big hit was the full day trip to Coba though – 10 people went on the day we did our trash the dress and they all loved it. It was a trip to the ruins, shopping, kayaking, hiking, zip-lining, rappelling, a cenote swim, and a Mayan feast (although the food was right at the end, so people were SUPER hungry). They all raved about the tour guide and highly recommended it. They even had my parents doing tequila shots!

Restaurants

Oh the food, the food. I cannot say enough about the food. I don’t think I ate a bad mean the entire week. I was back 3 weeks and I was still get emails at work in the morning from friends saying “Breakfast buffet???” One guest was stomach sick for 1 day out of all 16 of us – and then she was back up and running around the next day.

Room Service

We ordered it one night and we were not big fans of the fruit tray or the chocolate cake. I found the overall selection a bit lacking, but most people were ordering club sandwiches and French fries when they were too tired to go to supper and no one had any complaints. It took approx 30 minutes for our order to get delivered, which seemed the norm for the group.

World Café

We went there everyday for breakfast – so good and a really wide selection of food. The wait staff was excellent and attentive. I went for lunch and supper once each and it was just okay.

Barefoot Grill

Right by the Dolphin Pool, we grabbed lunch here most days. Basic burgers, hot dogs, pizza, etc, but it was good and quick.

Seaside Grill

We ate here almost every afternoon for snack, and I found the waiters here the most attentive. Supper it switched to steakhouse – really good. Another couple tried the cheese fondue and went back again just to have it a second time.

Portofino

Really good Italian, I found there was a wide selection of choices, but a bit of a wait time for food to arrive.

Himitsu

We really liked Himitsu, went twice in the week. We had to wait what seemed like forever the second time to get our food, but it was still really good.

Bordeaux

For some reason, we decided to order room service instead of going here – mistake! Everyone that went loved it. Apparently, the duck is really good.

El Patio

We didn’t eat there, but others that did gave mixed reviews. However, it’s probably the most gluten-free friendly spot at the resort.

Gohan

None of us are sushi people, so we all took a pass.

Wedding Coordinator

I think in the span of a year I went through all of the wedding coordinators at one point or another! I’m pretty Type A, so I found planning a wedding away without complete control a challenge.  I didn’t have any trouble at all booking the wedding itself, but found it hard when I would send 14 questions to the coordinator and have to wait a week to get a response. This is normal when your wedding is so far out! There can be up to 3 weddings a day, and all the coordinators work their butts off to make every wedding special. About 3-4 months before the wedding, we were sent the big planning package, where we actually picked things out. After that, the response time to e-mails went down to 24-48 hours, which is how they normally operate. The closer the wedding, the more immediate a response!

I knew a few weeks before arrival that Anabel would be our coordinator at the resort. There was a letter waiting for us when we checked in with our meeting time for the next morning. When we showed up, Anabel was very nice and had everything under control. Everything she reviewed was right, all our pre-selected options and all the prices on the bill. There was a small change to our venue - we had been confirmed for a beach reception near the Maya Diving side, but the Thanksgiving Day party bumped us back over to the Seaside Grill beach side – but she brought us over there and assured us it was going to be much nicer. That was super reassuring and at that point, I pretty much relinquished all control. I left our decorations with her and didn’t think about a thing until Thursday. She came through big time  – nothing was missed and the wedding day was perfect. Ladies, relax – Anabel is awesome and if it’s in her hands, don’t worry about a thing.  

Welcome Dinner

We did our welcome dinner the second evening we were at the resort in the World Café, as this is the only place you can do a group dinner without a surcharge. I confirmed in person at breakfast and it was all set up and ready when we arrived in the evening.

Photographers - Il Gruppo Digitale

Since we had Del Sol Photography booked for the wedding and the trash the dress (review to follow to go up shortly) we chose to use the resort photographer for the Welcome Dinner. He showed up and took 20 minutes max worth of photos. They were pretty typical posed pictures, and it was a bit of a struggle to pick the total included in our package. The ones that we felt turned out the best were all the ones where we didn’t pose like he wanted.

Spa

The spa is beautiful! I went with my maid of honor and another good friend on the morning of the wedding for a body scrub/wrap, which was amazing. We loved that the collected you from the hot tub. 

Elia did my hair and makeup for the wedding. I was a bit worried because I didn’t do a trial run, but it turned out fantastic. I really don’t know what kind of makeup they use, but it did not budge all night. Same with the hair – the hairspray is pretty solid stuff. My girlfriends also looked awesome and were really happy with their hair and makeup.

Since we had scheduled our wrap before our hair and makeup, we didn’t really have any time for lunch. They called room service for us and I was able to get a cheese tray and champagne brought in for an extra cost for us to snack on.

Wedding Day

We chose the Dreams of Love and paid extra for the following:

Bridesmaid bouquet

Rose petals for the aisle

2 extra centrepieces

Photgrapher Day Pay

Tiffany chairs

Décor set up

Arch setup (I supplied the material)

Paper lantern setup

Sound system for the ceremony and the reception (4 hours)

Extend reception by 1 hour to 10:30

The dress steam and suit press was part of the package. Both were picked up Wednesday and it was back in my room when I got back from the spa.

Flowers

Anabel and her assistant showed up pretty much right on time on the wedding day at 3:10 with my flowers. In the months prior to the wedding, this was my big stressor (I know, it seems so stupid now). I wanted fuschia, but not lilies or daisies. It seemed everything I thought of was either not available or going to cost me an arm and a leg. After probably my fourth inspiration bouquet e-mail, Anabel finally said “Why don’t we do roses and carnations?” Genius! It was one of the cheapest options available and the bouquets looked really full and it was exactly the look I wanted.

Ceremony

We had the symbolic ceremony on the beach by the Seaside Grill at 4:00pm, which was hte perfect time for pictures. Anabel’s assistant arrived at my room at 4:00 on the nose and said that everyone was in their chairs and it was time to go! When I got down there, the arch was done exactly how I wanted and everything was beautiful.

We chose to write our own ceremony and vows. I had sent it straight to the officiant (Kiko Flores) a few weeks beforehand, and he didn’t have any issues with it. He read everything perfectly and everyone could hear and understand him. Our ceremony lasted 15 minutes max.

We used the sound system for the ceremony and it was a bit windy and probably would have been hard to hear us, so I’m glad we got it. We also used it to play music for the processional (Vitamins String Quartet’s version of “Yellow” by Coldplay) and recessional (“Signed, Sealed, Delivered” by Stevie Wonder).

Cocktail Hour

Since we were off doing pictures, we didn’t attend the Cocktail hour from 5-6pm, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. We chose the shrimp, the smoked salmon and the mushroom appetizers and the champagne was apparently never ending. My dad cut my mom off after 4 glasses.  

Reception and Dance

I originally didn’t want to have our reception near the Seaside Grill because all of the pictures made it look extremely sparse. However, when we did our Monday walk around with Anabel, there were new palm trees that they had just put a few weeks prior lining the ceremony walkway and separating the reception site. It looked a thousand times better and the location worked great. It was off to the side, so there was no foot traffic at all – it really was our own private beach reception. We had a few extra centrepieces in the tables with the placecards and menu cards, as well as the paper lanterns near the (sand) dance floor. To make up for having to move us, Anabel also threw in 4 tiki torches and 12 paper bag lights, which was a very nice gesture that made it look even nicer.

The reception was from 6:30-10:30pm. The food was the best meal we had all week, and that’s saying something. We had the following:

Bruschetta

Mixed Italian Lettuce with Citrus Vinaigrette

Filet Mignon with Shrimp, Vegatable and Mashed Potato

Tiramisu

We had a tres leches wedding cake with vanilla filling – and I could cry just thinking about it, it was that good. Not the prettiest cake I’ve ever seen, but it tasted fabulous. We had cake boxes so once everyone had a piece, the waiters boxed every last bit up into boxes for people to take back to their rooms. I ate one box at midnight that night and the other box the next morning for breakfast – then regretted it instantly because that meant I had none left! When I got home, I emailed Anabel for the recipe, which she got me. J

Also, we had a special meal for our gluten sensitive person – which she also said was really good. The waiters were excellent – glasses never went empty. Around 9pm, one of the waiters ran over to get the nightly gluten free brownie and to also pick up a bacon cheeseburger and fries that I ordered for the hubby. He was so happy when it showed up!

The sound system worked great for us. We hooked up our iPad with our playlist and let it go. I think the waiters were trying to hold back from dancing – we tried to drag them out after we saw them tapping their toes but they refused. The sound technician showed up right at 10:25 and gave us 2 more songs before shutting us down.

Overall, this really was the wedding I dreamed about. I have nothing but good things to say about the resort and the staff. I'm so happy we chose this for our wedding and I'm so happy our closest friends and family enjoyed it as much as we did.

Here's our wedding day and trash the dress slide shows for the AWESOME Del Sol:

http://delsolphotography.com/blog/content/galleries/?gal=550

http://delsolphotography.com/blog/content/galleries/?gal=551

Dreams Tulum review

Firstly let me just say after all the hotels I have been in to in the world Dreams Tulum far exceeded all my expectations and more. Choosing a hotel to marry in, comes with a lot of pressures, especially when you are taking over twenty people with you to stay in said resort. Well I needn’t have worried it was an amazing hotel, and an almost perfect wedding.

Check in C

The airport passport control is a nightmare took us almost an hour and a half to get through it but once we were through it and on the coach the hour and a half journey to the hotel went really quickly. When we arrived we were handed a hot towel, a glass of bubbly and a friendly smile – perfect way to arrive.

The actual check in was very smooth and the staff were very friendly.

Rooms B

A few of our guests had problems with their rooms when they first arrived. They were in the older suites and complained of damp smells. However we complained quite heavily and the situation got resolved.

However our room and the rest of the guests room were amazing –totally gorgeous. We got upgraded to the preferred suites and I tell you what if you can afford it is worth every penny. A gorgeous four poster, marble whirl pool bath, a walk in wet room, a mini bar re-stocked daily and our room had the most stunning view of the gardens and fountains.

Resort and staff A

Firstly the resort is beautiful – gorgeous grounds and so clean. The staff are out cleamning, sweeping, dusting all the time. I saw a lady clean the glass doors on the lobby at least four times a day. They also have people going round collecting sea weed off the beach, making little sea shell shapes out of sand in the ashtrays and just generally making everything perfect.

The gardens are quite simply breathtaking, the fountains gorgeous and the beach is by far the best beach I have ever been on. Sand as far as the eye can see, lovely greenery and the bluest sea ever. There is even a giant water trampoline out in the sea which the boys in our party had hours of fun on.

The staff were always extremely helpful, friendly and happy to do anything they can to help you.

Restaurants and Bars A

I cannot fault any of these either. The World Café (buffet) was probably our least favourite – we went there on our first night and the selection was poor. We used this every morning and the selection was good, not as good as other hotels I have been to but good enough.

However the other restaurants were brilliant – in particular the Sea Grill – best Steak and Shrimp ever!!!! The food was excellent wherever you went and cocktail selection was endless. Little tip don’t just rely on the cocktail menu they provide there were lots of other delicious cocktails they could make that weren’t on the menu – Mudslide is lovely. The drink of the day was always a good way to find out about them.

You couldn’t book any of the restaurants but we never waited for more than 20 mins even at peak time and normally we had very large parties of nine or more. When we were a party of four we walked straight in.

Bars –we never really used the ‘lively’ bar and instead preferred to take over the lobby bar which we loved.

Highly recommend Coco Café too, the cakes and lattes in the afternoon were a must!

Spa C

I myself never used the spa except for my hair and make up on the day of the wedding. However other guests, including my mum used it and they all said it was excellent.

Summary

Dreams Tulum delivered in every single way – and deserves every single one of its 5 stars. The beach is stunning, the food was always good no matter where you went, resort gorgeous, people friendly and it was the best holiday I have had.

Wedding review

Packaging – Ultimate Wedding

Wedding Co-ordinator – Aurora and then Annabel A+

In the run up to the wedding I dealt primarily with Aurora until she went on maternity leave a week before we arrived. All the way along Aurora was helpful, patient and very swift in responding. I never had to wait more than 48 hours for a response to a question and as an event planner in life I probably asked more questions than most but she was very patient all the way through.

On arrival we met with Annabel, two days before the wedding, and she again was lovely and extremely helpful. Thanks to bestdestinationwedding I had already decided on the locations for the wedding and reception so we simply met her and talked through the day. I had opted to write our ceremony so she went through that, the flowers, the canopy set up and all the other finite details. I had sent through our cetificates (by email) ahead of arriving in Mexico and she had arranged for the translation.

She also tied the bows for the chairs I’d bought, plus put out all the table decs id brought with me free of charge, even though in the price list it is normally $5 per person. A lovely gesture which meant neither me nor my guests had to worry about doing it and could just enjoy the day.

One thing to note – as part of our package we received a free steam for the wedding dress. We were to be wed on the Thursday so at our initial meeting she asked me to leave the dress on our bed and it would be collected and returned to me.

Sure enough by 11am on the Wednesday it had been collected, however it never returned to be until 10am on the Thursday (two hours before our wedding) and that was only after we chased it. So as an advice to future brides try and do it the day before the day before.

Due to rain on the day our reception had to be moved indoors and so a number of the items we’d booked e.g Tikki Torches etc hadn’t been used however we met with Annabel after the wedding and she happily refunded the money.

Hair and Make up  A for the actual result / B for the service

I went to the Spa the day before for a hair trial and was totally delighted with the result. Diana who did my hair followed my wishes to the letter and kept checking all the way through down to the last few stands of hair.

I had my appointment booked for 8.30am as the wedding was at midday. However Diana never turned up until around 9.10am which put me well behind schedule I never got back to my room till 11am by which time the photographer was already there which didn’t leave me much time to chill or get ready. That said she did an amazing job with both my hair and my make up and I was really pleased with it.

I was quite relaxed about it all but I know some brides wouldn’t have been

Flowers - A

The flowers were gorgeous and everything I’d hoped for Aurora and Anabel had really listened to what I wanted and everyone commented on how lovely they were. They even re-used the flowers on our canopy to put on the table for our lunch at El Patio which was a nice touch.

I’d ordered some petals for my flower girl to throw and twenty mins before the ceremony started I realized I had no basket but Anabel came to the rescue and sorted one for me with no problem

DJ - B

I was advised on BDW to use speakers on the beach as due to the wind it is very difficult to hear the ceremony, a great tip!! So we decided to hire DJ Bijan to do both the ceremony and the evening and overall he was excellent he got our music choices spot on and got everyone up dancing in the evening.

However unfortunately for him the resort had a power surge just before our wedding which blew the mics. This meant most of our guests couldn’t hear the ceremony despite our planning.  A pain, but there was nothing to be done, and it wasn’t anyones fault and to be honest it didn’t ruin our day  - we knew what was being said J

Ceremony – A because it was perfect/ C – because of the ceremony mix up

The ceremony was perfect. The Judge says it in Spanish and then Anabel repeated it in English. They got everyone’s name right and all went smoothly.

The only downside was somewhere along the way they had got the ceremonies confused and instead of doing the ceremony which we’d written – including two readings and our own vows – they just ended up doing a bog standard ceremony with normal vows.

Now some brides would have been extremely upset by this, even ruined their day. We wrote our own ceremony to lengthen a bit as we had heard the normal ceremony is very short. however to be honest it was such a lovely hot warm day that actually had we been out in the sun for any longer I think our guests would have died. (we were under the canopy so were fine!)

We were a bit gutted that we didn’t get to say our own vows but to be honest the day was just so perfect I cant complain and we made our friends do the readings when we did the speeches and I think we are going to frame our vows at home.

Photographer – Resort D/ Videographer C/ Sascha Gluck A+

As part of the package we got a photographer for an hour and a videographer. As we had hired our own photographer (more about him later) we decided to use the photographer for our cocktail hour.

I have to say I am very passionate about photography and getting good pictures was very important to me hence why we hired an external photographer and boy am I glad we did.

Although very friendly and more than happy to let us pose for group shots and did try to instigate some couple shots of my hubby and I, I have to say I was very disappointed with the result. They were just very basic and no real angle, or artistic direction behind them. However they were ‘free’ and we did get to choose 50 prints two days later as our first wedding pictures they were still nice to have.

The wedding video was a bit cheesy, but lovely to have. It was hard to hear a lot of the ceremony due to the wind but I think that may have been due to the lack of microphones. Its really nice to have it as a memory.

We spent a long time researching photographers, photographs are extremely important to me and marrying in such a beautiful place I wanted to be sure we chose a photographer which could capture it and our wedding perfectly. After looking at many, many websites I stumbled across Sascha Gluck’s (Cancun Photo’s) and just loved his work instantly. Upon contacting him he was friendly, professional and happy to accommodate all our requests. Although slightly more than we wanted to pay Sascha was worth every penny and more.

On the day of the wedding, he was here there and everywhere, in the sand, climbing trees - nothing was too much effort to get the perfect shot. Although we had only booked him for four hours because we had booked him and his assistant a room at our resort, he was happy to split the hours however we wanted. We used him for two hours pre and during ceremony, another hour for sunset pics, and then finally to come back in the eve for the first dance and to snap some fire dancers we had booked. He was so flexible and definitely stayed longer than we had actually booked him for.

We had booked a trash the dress for the next day, and although getting up at 9.30 the day after the wedding seemed like the last thing we wanted to do once we were up we had so much fun, and Sascha was so good, fun and efficient the time just flew past! Before leaving for Mexico I had sent Sascha a collection of his photos that I particularly liked just so he had an idea of the style I liked and bless him if he didn't try and recreate every one for us. In short Sascha was everything I could have hoped for and more, and definitely worth every penny. Although we haven't had all the pictures, the ones we have seen so far are just stunning and everyone I have shown has said they have never seen such impressive photos. I would recommend Sascha on every level and am so excited about seeing the rest of them.

Lunch/ Cocktail hour and reception – A

As our wedding was at midday we wanted to do everything we could to lengthen the day so we decided to pay extra to have a lunch in El Patio. This was the first time we had all eaten in there and it was great they were very attentive the food was great – four courses!!! – and the waiters kept topping my champagne up!

After this the ‘boys’ had decided they wanted to get their speeches out of the way early so we all moved to the Coco Café, found a quiet area there and did them there – it was perfect.

The Cocktail hour was great, I chose the Lobby terrace and it was great location. We had the Mexican Trio during the cocktail hour and they were great fun and people started boogying then!! The canapés were ok, not my kind of thing but nice to have a nibble while we were drinking copious amounts of champagne!

We had opted to have the reception on the beach, but at around 5pm the heavens opened and we had 20mins of torrential rain so DT moved our reception into the Seaside Grill. I was delighted!!! I had wanted to have the reception in there but with only 20 guests we didn’t meet the 50 people or more rule. So they set up one long rectangle table for us with all our lovely decorations set out for us perfectly, the DJ was set up too and had created a lovely dance floor next to the table which our guests took full advantage of. 

The food was the best food we had all week and our guests mirrored our thoughts. We had

APPETIZER:  Shrimp fried quesadilla

SALAD: Asparagus Salad

ENTRÉE: Surf and Turf

DESSERT: Vanilla Puff Pastry Cake

All were delicious. Even my mum who hates steak couldn’t stop raving about how amazing the steak was. Highly recommend it!

Fire Dancers – A

After dessert we had paid extra to have a team of fire dancers come into to entertain our guests. They were amazing and although expensive well worth the investment.

Cake - A

Following advice given to me on BDW we opted for the three milk cake with strawberry filling. It was really yummy, very odd mousse like consistency but the nicest cake I have ever eaten. I wanted to keep eating it but my dress wouldn’t allow it!!!

Summary - A

Although with all weddings there were a few hiccups, mostly they weren’t at the fault of the resort. For us the wedding was perfect, everything we wanted it to be and if I were to do it again I would do it all the same. The staff, especially the co-ordinators, work so hard to make the day perfect for you and with a backdrop like Dream Tulum it can’t fail to be a stunning day.