Leigh17

Love it! Great job, Maggie! Yes! I live a few blocks from it & had never noticed it. I found them because they were doing a tasting at Costco. All of my guests loved the cakes. We chose a white cake with raspberry filling for the bride's cake & for the groom's cake we chose a chocolate cake with cinnamon & mocha flavors. They were both a big hit!

We ordered the cakes for our AHR from World Catering & Cakes (I-10 & Silber) www.worldcateringhouston.com The cakes were delicious. We set up an appointment for a cake tasting there, & they had about 10-12 cake flavors for us to try.

I promise I'm going to get my review up soon. Hopefully things will slow down after my AHR tomorrow night, & I'll have time to write a review in the next week or so. I just wanted to let you guys know that I received my professional pictures (Moon Palace Photographer--not David Pena though) & my DVD today. Both are fabulous! The DVD is more than I expected it's 25 minutes & shows before the ceremony, the procession, the full ceremony (with no music during the main part of the ceremony so you can hear the preacher's words & our vows), the champagne toast, our exit, and a good portion of our photo session on the beach. I thought it would be more like a montage of highlights from the ceremony, but I really like that it's the whole thing (especially since as the Bride you miss the first half with all the processions before yours). Also, it's all sort of a blur as it's happening, & it's nice to listen to the preacher's words again. I highly suggest adding the DVD. It was definitely worth it for me.

Quote: Originally Posted by angelov321 I love your pics!!! Quick question, did your one bridesmaid with her hair down have any problems because of the wind? In the pics she seems like she wasnt bothered, but you never know. She never mentioned it being a bother (I'll try to remember to ask her this weekend at the AHR). She also had her hair done at the salon (it was only partly down), and the salon puts a ton of hairsparay in it. But it was very windy. I was glad my hair wasn't down. We had to tuck my veil into the back of my dress during the ceremony to have it not blowing in my face the whole time. The pictures on the beach were a little difficult with the veil blowing all the time too, & I almost took it off. But from the pictures I've seen so far, I'm glad I kept it on.

Quote: Originally Posted by skadow Did you post pics of your wedding? I'm still waiting on the professional ones (we left before they were ready). I had to pay $65 for shipping so I would have hoped to have had them in a week, but they should have been ready (at the resort) last Tuesday & I still don't have them. My AHR is this weekend, & we had planned on showing the DVD there. It never occurred to me to ask how long the shipping would take since there were two weeks between my wedding and AHR. The upcoming AHR is also why I haven't had time to post a review yet. Hopefully I'll have time to work on it next week & the following weekend. Feel free to visit my shutterfly site to see the pictures I've posted so far: Message

I wish they had come up with a way to make other contestants want to appear to be the saboteur (like on The Mole--anyone remember that show?). It doesn't seem like it would be that hard for the contestants to figure out who the saboteur is when there's only one person throwing the game. On The Mole, you wanted people to think you were the mole so they would answer the questions incorrectly & get kicked out of the game instead of you (so everyone did suspicious things to make it look like they were the mole). On BB since in the first sabotage almost everyone was sitting on a couch next to someone there are only so many suspects. If you were sitting next to someone & that person didn't move, then they can't be the saboteur. It seems like they could have come up with a better way to do the first sabotage instead of having almost everyone in the same room sitting nect to each other. I agree that it would be better if the saboteur were kept secret longer.

Quote: Originally Posted by angelov321 For the recently married brides: did any of you take advantage of the vacation dollars? Did any of you use the dollars to go on excursions and tours? If so, did you find that it was easy to book? Im just curious because many of my guests want to go swimming with the dolphins and do the water park and I feel like this promotion is so good, everyone will be taking advanatge of it at once and there wont be enough availability. Thanks ladies! We just got married at Moon Palace, and we definitely took advantage of the Vacation Dollars there. We played golf 3 times, went ziplining and to Tulum (others did other excursions as well). I think all of my group were able to get in the tours we wanted although we had planned to do Tulum on one day & had to do it on another because it was already booked. We booked our excursions on the day we arrived. You should see if your WC can put you into contact with someone that could book tours ahead of time (I don't know if that's possible or not). We booked golf ahead of time by using the email address on the course website. My biggest suggestion in regards to the Vacation Dollars is BOOK YOUR SPA (& YOUR GUESTS' SPA) APPOINTMENTS AHEAD OF TIME. It was very hard to get into the spa to spend our $300 Vacation Dollars. With everyone getting the free dollars, the spa gets booked up fast. We were booking on Sunday (the day we arrived) & the only appointments for the week were Thursday & Saturday (maybe Friday too, but our wedding took up most of that day). I know there's a contact at Moon Palace to book ahead of time (I had booked my hair, makeup & nail appointments), so I'm sure you can get an email address for the Aventura spa from your WC or the Miami office. I hadn't thought of booking my massages ahead of time because we'd never had any problems booking once we arrived--the Vacation Dollar promotion has changed that. Overall, we LOVED the Vacation Dollar promotion & were able to take full advantage of it.

Jodimichelle: I'm glad you had a great time too. I'm working on my review, but I have my AHR this weekend so I probably won't get it done this week. The no alcohol ban for the elections was very annoying. One of my guests (a few days earlier in the week) mentioned that it was the law in Mexico not to serve alcohol the day before, the day of & the day after elections, but I couldn't imagine they would enforce it at the resort. We were just as surprised as you when we tried to get a drink at the bar Saturday afternoon. My parents had alcohol delivered to their suite from room service. I don't know why they would do that but not serve it at bars. I guess we were lucky that we left Sunday so the temporary alcohol ban didn't affect us much. We didn't go on a Honeymoon. I originally thought one week of vacation would be plenty, and we could take a Honeymoon in December. But once the 7 days were up, I was sad that my vacation only lasted a week. I didn't get near enough time just to hang out by the pool.

Good luck, Chelle! Hopefully your weather will be as good as ours was. The weather reports promised 60-70% chance of thunderstorms everyday for our stay (& Tropical Storm Alex was supposed to hit while we were there). It rained maybe a half hour each day for the first few days & really didn't interfere with anyone's plans. Everytime I've been to that part of Mexico, the rain showers come in & then leave quickly. Have a wonderful time!

We had the Mexican Trio play at our cocktail hour after the ceremony. I barely got to hear them though since we were down at the beach taking pictures while they were playing for our guests. Poeple did say they liked them. I don't think they stayed the full hour though, but it was nice to have the live music at the cockatil hour. Sorry I don't have any video of them.

You can get very small, clear rubberbands in the hair section of a drugstore or grocery store. Use those on each diaper and then use some bigger rubberbands to put the diapers together.

I started working on my wedding review but decided I could get a restaurant review done faster, so I started with this & will now start working on my wedding review again. Overall, my entire group enjoyed the food & no one got sick on our trip. The website states that certain restaurants have dress codes, and they used to be very picky about enforcing them (so much so that on our last trip my uncle had to borrow pants from the restaurant to wear over his shorts when he didn’t want to go all the way back to his room). But they have given up on enforcing dress codes. The only limits now seem to be no wet bathing suits & no cut off sleeve shirts for guys. Otherwise, they let in anybody even to the restaurants that have a long pants dress code listed for dinner. Some of my cousins went over to Beach Palace in Cancun one day, & the dress code was enforced there & they couldn’t eat dinner there because the men didn’t have long pants. Sunrise Section: Lobby: Sunrise has the nicest lobby bar. It’s a semi-circular bar with stools all around it & there are also tons of table in the area with servers walking around to bring you drinks. My family & friends prefer this lobby, so we always stay on this side. The disco Andromeda is also located in the Sunrise lobby. A lot of people in my group spent late nights in the disco. Mo-Mo-No-Ha-Na: This Japanese restaurant that serves sushi in addition to a full menu of Asian food was one of my group’s favorites. We went here as a group one night & they were able to get about 20 of us in divided into 2 tables. The food service was a little slow (& I never even got my meal), but overall everyone was happy with the food and some of our group went back here once or twice during the trip. They are open only for dinner. La Gondola: We went here for breakfast one morning & dinner once. The breakfast is a buffet and has pretty much anything you could want—even lots of things you would normally think of for lunch (like beef & chicken tacos). In addition to the food set out on the buffet, they have cooks making things to order too like the previously mentioned tacos, omelets, smoothies, etc. We also went here for dinner one night. It is an Italian buffet at night, & we all enjoyed the food. This was one of the least crowded restaurants we went to, and it was no trouble at all to get a large table together. Along with the buffet, they had made to order pasta. This restaurant had some of the better desserts we had all week. Bugambilias: We ate breakfast here most of the time. The buffet is very similar to La Gondola. They have most of the same cooking stations as well. I had French Toast most mornings here made fresh at one of the cooking stations. The French toast was very good. We ate lunch here on our first and last days. It has a lot of Mexican food as well as many other alternatives as well. My favorite dish here was the station where you could pick out your vegetables then have them grilled for you with your choice of meat. I had chicken and vegetables with soy sauce and it was delicious. Palapa Fragata: I never made it to this restaurant but many of my guests had dinner here & enjoyed it. It’s a seafood restaurant, and my guests enjoyed the seafood here more than at El Caribeno. One couple in my group used part of their $750 Vacation Dollars for the romantic dinner at Palapa Fragata. They said it was pretty good. Palapa Barracuda: We didn’t make it here this trip. I’ve been here for dinner before & it was okay. Nizuc Section: Lobby Bar: This is a smaller bar area than at Sunrise. It’s usually not as crowded as Sunrise. My family just prefers the Sunrise bar area better, so we usually hang out on that side. None of my group (that I know of) went to El Manglar, Palapa Delfines, or Palapa Pelicanos. Sweets & Desserts: My hubby and I had great hopes for this place since it stated that is served crepes & we loved the crepes place at Aventura. We were very disappointed in the crepes and the desserts didn’t look that good either. We only went here one time. They just served one crepe (instead of the whole menu of crepes at the place at Aventura) & it was cold and just had some strawberry jam in it. Los Caporales: Five of us went here one night. We arrived about 8pm and they told us it would be a 1.5 hour wait. I couldn’t believe it would really take that long since it didn’t look that crowded and it was pretty late—but it almost did (1.25 hours). I had read great reviews on this site about the place so I really wanted to try it this time. They brought us some appetizers soon after we sat down (oftentimes at the MP restaurants they serve appetizers before asking what you want--and they're usually very good) & then they brought the extra appetizers we ordered, and then we waited quite a long time for the food (even though the restaurant didn’t seem that crowded). The food was good. I just wish the wait for the table & the food hadn’t been so long. I would recommend this restaurant, but I would suggest getting there earlier than we did. Arrecifes: We used our included reservation for up to 35 at the Brazilian steakhouse. We had a welcome dinner here the 2nd night we arrived. I kept pushing for other restaurants since our group hadn’t been very impressed with this restaurant last time, but there aren’t that many restaurants for a 10+ group (we had 22). I am happy to say that this time our entire group loved this place. The salad bar was great & the meat was pretty good. Some of the meat was a little overcooked, but there was so much variety that there was plenty of good meat to try. My hubby and I also went here for our Honeymooners dinner (a part of what they give you when you check-in at the Honeymooners desk). I think this is the only restaurant where the Honeymooners dinner is served. It was okay. They served us a salad, a cream soup, shrimp & steak, & then a dessert from the dessert cart. They have a special menu prepared with your new married name. Although for us, they got confused & printed up a menu that said Mr. & Mrs. [my maiden name]. Overall, I think we preferred the regular menu at Arrecifes. Grand Side: El Caribeno: We went here the first night because on our previous trip this had been our favorite restaurant. We got there about 8 pm and they told us it would be an hour to get our party of 20 seated (at a few separate tables). We went upstairs to the Rooftop Bar. The Bar was nice & served sushi which my guests enjoyed (I didn’t have any). We were buzzed for our tables in just under an hour. The appetizers they selected for us were very good. The appetizers were the best part of the meal. It took a long time to receive our meals but not nearly as long as it took my dad’s table to get their meals. We left before they had even received their food. We wanted dessert but we were so tired from traveling and from waiting for dinner that we passed on dessert at the restaurant & tried the dessert place at Nizuc instead. Overall we were disappointed in the entrees at this restaurant. It wasn’t bad though. It just wasn’t as good as we had remembered. Los Tacos: This was probably my favorite meal all week. The restaurant was hard to find, but I’m glad we kept looking. It’s at a separate pool on the Grand section from the pool where El Caribeno is. There are signs, but even the signs are a little confusing. It’s not a restaurant either. Just a few outdoor tables by the pool. I had the Pepe Special tacos and my hubby had the beef tacos. They were both delicious! They served guacamole and chips before lunch and it was great. The guacamole is very good at MP and served at almost every restaurant. I definitely suggest finding this restaurant for lunch. Golf Club Side: Bambu: We went here for lunch everyday that we played golf. It’s not listed as being open for lunch, and La Trattoria that was supposed to be open for breakfast & lunch never was open at those times. Bambu just has a hamburger/sandwich menu for lunch. My aunt loved her cheeseburger & said it was her favorite meal all week. I had the “Juicy Sandwich†each time. It was really just a grilled chicken sandwich on toast. It was good and served with French fries. None of my group ever made it to Bambu for dinner. La Trattoria: Unfortunately most of my group didn’t make it to this Italian restaurant this time. One couple went for dinner and enjoyed it. We liked it last time we went and had one of our best dinners here. Last time we also went here for breakfast & lunch every time we played golf but for some reason it wasn’t open at those times this time. Snack Bar: This was the only option for us to get any food for breakfast on the golf course side before golf. They just had cereal and a few pastries out. If you’re going to play golf early in the morning, I would suggest ordering room service before going out to the golf course. At lunch, the snack bar has chips, queso & guacamole out & you can order from the same sandwich menu that they serve at Bambu. Overall we had a great trip and enjoyed the food. Our trip was from June 27-July 4, 2010, and the resort seemed pretty crowded. I'm sure at other times of the year, you won't have to wait so long at the restaurants. In our previous trips, we have never had to wait as long for tables and for food.

My hubby says he hates it, but I know he secretly likes it! We'll be watching.

I carried mine on the plane & it got it's own overhead bin both going there & coming home. I didn't even have to have it steamed when I arrived. I just hung it in the bathroom & ran a hot shower. It worked great.

I got engaged in mid-March & got married at Moon Palace last week. It went by fast, but it's definitely possible (& in some ways even better because you don't have all the waiting time). I didn't get my first choice for the time of my wedding (it was at 11am), but as it turned out, I loved having it at that time & everything was perfect. Congrats! And good luck with your planning. You have more than double the time I had--it will be great!

Check out all the reviews on Moon Palace on this site & the Moon Palace threads...you'll find tons of information here. I just got married at MP last week & it was FABULOUS!

asbarrett: I didn't ask for a rehearsal (& I don't know if I could have had one), but at the meeting with my WC, she walked me through the whole cermony (on a piece of paper). She drew it out for me, and I took notes. She asked me what I wanted & made suggestions for how everything should happen. I felt very comfortable with how it would all work after leaving the meeting. Your WC will be at the beach before you are to help everyone process in the right order (her assistant will pick you up from your room). You can probably just talk everyone through how the ceremony will go after you have the information from your on-site meeting. I forgot to even talk to my wedding party about how it would work, and everything worked out fine because the WC was on-site to direct the whole thing.

It's doubtful that customs will even search your bags, but I don't think it's a problem as long as it's in your checked luggage. I wrapped my set in bubble wrap & put it in my checked luggage & it was fine. One person in my group of 18 that traveled together got stopped by the red light at customs, but the whole search took less than a minute. They lifted up a few things & that was it & they sent them on their way.

Quote: Originally Posted by Woodsylou Thank you for this, i'm not sure what to do. I don't want everyone sweating to death, but i really want a beach wedding. I think i'll wait until i'm out there and go down to the beach ceremony location at 4pm and see how it is. if it's too hot we'll see if we can change to a gazebo. i'm sure it'll be fine! sounds like you had a great time, what was your dress like? did you have a veil? did you use the hairdressers? there are so many things to think about, but im just mega excited and not stressed at all! i want to be there now!! also, the seaweed doesn't bother me (the smell might though!!!) i quite like the idea of the beach being imperfect! I'm sure everything will be great no matter what you decide! I'm sure they'll clean your stretch of beach very thoroughly as they did for the area where I was taking pictures. The smell is most noticeable after the seaweed has been piling up all night. At 4 it should be okay. I'll add a wedding pic to my siggy so you can see the dress. It was pretty traditional & I wore a petticoat and a veil. (I wasn't doing myself any favors with the heat.) The minister had my husband tuck the veil into the back of my dress for the ceremony so it wasn't blowing so much. I thought about taking the veil off for some of the pictures since it was blowing so much, but from the pictures I've seen so far, I'm glad I didn't take it off. I had Alberto do my hair & makeup at the Sunrise salon. I requested him based on other reviews & he did a great job! I saw him fixing another bride's hair the day before he did mine & he did a great job on her hair too.

Quote: Originally Posted by MrsC2be Thank you Fee*licious*, I think we only have the choice of Nizuc or Sunrise (when we booked I am sure the TA said Grand was more expensive so think we have only have the 2 choices... although can't be sure so if anyone know please let me know). Nizuc is sounding more like our kinda choice at the mo, do any of you other brides have any thoughts? x We've always stayed on the Sunrise side. I went into one of my guests' rooms on the Nizuc side to see how the rooms compare & they are pretty much identical. The rooms on the Nizuc side don't have hammocks on the balcony. We prefer the Sunrise Lobby bar and prefer to hang out there at night, so we like to stay on the Sunrise side. The Nizuc side is nice because it's in the middle between the other 2. Most of us were put in the 2nd to last building on the Sunrise side, and next time I go, I will definitely request NOT to be in one of the far buidlings if we stay on the Sunrise side. I measured the distance from our building (Pinata) to El Caribeno (a restaurant on the Grand side) with my GPS watch & it was exactly 1 mile from door to door (if you walk down the shoreline). The shuttles run regularly but oftentimes we just walked which makes for a lot of walking.

Quote: Originally Posted by Woodsylou Hi Ladies your help is invaluable! I'm getting married in just over three weeks and im sooooooooo excited! girls - what has the weather out there been like recently? also - does anyone have any idea 'roughly' how hot it would be for a beach ceremony at 4pm? is there a sea breeze? I am just worried about my guests sweating to death! We just got back on Sunday, and the weather was great while we there. It was very windy since Hurricane Alex was in the Gulf, but the wind kept it from being too hot most of the time. I'm from Houston though, so what seems not too hot to me could be very hot to others. We were so worried that Hurricane Alex was going to hit during our stay that I was just happy to not have completely rainy days. It rained a little (never more than 30 minutes or so during the day) almost everyday, but it never interfered with our plans. It was very hot for our 11 am wedding, & I would say 4pm will be very hot as well. We had ours in a gazebo & I'm very glad we did. First of all it was nice to have shade & secondly, the seaweed was extraordinarily bad last week (I'm guessing from Hurricane Alex). They run the tractors all day to try and clean it, but it was never clean (they did run the tractor across the area of beach we were taking wedding pictures on a few extra times & were able to make the beach look pretty good for our pictures). At night after they stop running the tractors and up through the morning when they start running the tractors again, the smell of the seaweed gets pretty bad. I've been to MP before & the seaweed has never been that bad. Hopefully it will get better in the next couple of weeks. There will definitely be a sea breeze, but it will still be hot for your wedding. I had palm fans on all the chairs to help keep the guests a little cooler. The fans were definitely appreciated. My husband was wearing a seersucker suit & linen shirt (which are both pretty light weight) & he was sweating through the jacket. I was constantly wiping sweat from my brow & my chest. We had a cocktail hour on a terrace behind the gazebo (with umbrellas for shade), and then we moved inside for our reception. The whole thing was amazing & everything was perfect. I'll be writing a review soon & posting pictures, but feel free to post questions & I'll try to answer them. It might be a couple weeks before I get my review up because I still have my AHR to finalize. It's on July 17th. Good luck to all the rest of the July MP brides! Your wedding there will be an amazing experience!

My wedding was AMAZING! Everyone had a such a great time. I only wish we were here longer. Everything has been great. Maggie, good luck finalizing your resort. I'm sure you can't go wrong with either one. I'll let you guys know when my review is posted & we should meet up after Betty's wedding at the end of July. Good luck with your final preparation, Betty.

I'm here right at MP right now & just to let you know the beach is piled very high with seaweed (especially at night when they stop running the tractors). I think Alex (the storm) has a lot to do with it. The water has been very rough the entire time we have been here. It's just beginning to settle down. The tractors run all day to clean up the beach, but right now they can't keep up with the seaweed. I've been here before and although there was some seaweed on the beach the tractors that come by were able to clean it up--that's not the case this trip. But that being said, I wouldn't change a thing about my MP wedding. We got married in a gazebo and it was wonderful. We went down to the beach to take pictures & the tractor was there to clean a stretch of beach just for our pictures. They were able to get the area pretty clean & I'm sure they would do that & more for a wedding that would be taking place on the beach. I can't say enough good things about my MP wedding and will start working on my review once I get home on Sunday.

Good luck to all my fellow July brides. Our wedding was yesterday, and it was wonderful! Everyone had a great time. I'm so glad I had a destination wedding. I couldn't imagine it any other way. My only complaint is that the week has gone by way too fast! We leave tomorrow for home. Good luck with your final planning!

We're at MP now & having a great time. And Chelle you are very smart to book your spa appointments ahead of time. We arrived yesterday & arranged our spa appointments when we got here, and it was not ideal. First of all it took a long time (especially since there were about 10 of us arranging different packages to use our $300), second we couldn't get appointments until Thursday (which means all of us had to get fit in Thursday & Saturday (since the wedding is taking up most of the day Friday & we leave Sunday). Since everyone (staying the 5-7 nights) gets the $300 credit, the spas are booked solid. I booked my nail appointments and hair/makeup appointments ahead of time but didn't really think about booking massages, etc. because I hadn't had trouble booking those upon arrival the other times I've been to Palace Resorts. I'm afraid my guests that arrived today & are coming later in the week & also leaving Sunday might not be able to use their spa credit since there might not be any available open appointments. And about hydrotherapy...we took advantage of it last time we were at Aventura Palace & we loved it. It's a nice relaxing start to your massage. I'll definitely be using it before my massages on Thursday & Saturday.