Courtney Hooker

Yes, I am familiar with the weather situation. We had clear skies for the ceremony and then it rained during our reception. They had to move us inside, which while that wasn't ideal it was fine. They moved us within an hour and managed to save our centerpieces. During that time my guests just hung out in the lobby bar. If it is windy during the ceremony make sure you ask your wedding coordinator to anchor the alter. I've heard of it flying away.

I used Norma from Ultrafemme. She and her stylist Moses by far exceeded my expectations. I am super picky about my hair and makeup and was very nervous, but Norma is so professional, friendly, and fantastic. One of the best decisions I made in regards to my wedding. You won't be disappointed.

To piggy back on this, just so you know the breeze terrace is no longer available, as it is under construction (at least it was for my August 4 wedding at Cancun Palace/Hard Rock. We chose the garden terrace and loved it.

yes. August 4

Hi Melanie,

Feel free to send me a PM and I will be able to answer these questions. I just got married August 4 and have tons of pictures posted on the Palace Resort Bride Facebook page. I am not on this website very much anymore so let me know.

Courtney

I wanted to share some of the pre-planning ideas with all!

Courtney’s Pre-Planning Hard Rock Cancun

Turquoise parasols for guests: Luna Bazzar

Maracas Tags: Made on Vista Print

Door hangers for guests that says “Please do not disturb, we were dancing the night away at the wedding of Courtney and Corey: Etsy seller melinayingling

Cocktail Menu: Eat, Drink, and be Married with His, Hers, and Ours cocktails: Etsy Seller fromtheheartinvitations

Custom Shot Glasses: Etsy seller Factory 21 (hard to see, but it says Cancun, Mexico 8.4.2012 and then our names and a starfish on the front

Guest Book: Etsy Seller ModernShabby

Itinerary: Etsy Seller: iDoArtsyWeddings

Tags for Hand Fans: Etsy Seller: FromtheHeartinvitations

Hi Ladies,

I realize that there are not a lot of Cancun Palace/Hard Rock Cancun 2012 Brides unified under one thread. There are few of us so I think it would be great to stick together and share our experiences, as many things have happened over the past couple months with the resort and its rebranding.

Personally, I have found the Miami coordination stressful, frustrating and unprofessional. It has been a horrible experience so far. However, I have heard that it all comes together when you get there, but at what cost? For me to lose my mind before it? Lol.

I have heard mixed things about the rennovations. A couple things I do know for sure are the following:

1) The Breeze Terrace is now obsolete. You can no longer book the Breeze Terrace! According to the new wedding planner (Janessa Lopez), you can't book the Breeze Terrace because they are ripping it apart and expanding the balconies on the third floor. They are also taking down The Steak Restaraunt (which is also on the third floor), so if you have reservations/plans to have reservations, don't make them! 

2) Maggie is no longer working at the Palace Resorts. My intuition tells me she's been fired. She was completely disorganized, unresponsive, and made things up on a whim. It had to have gotten to the point where they couldn't tolerate the complaints anymore.

3) As of today (June 26), construction is pretty bad. I hear of guests complaining of construction non-stop as early as 9AM. Still no word on what areas are worse than others, but as soon as I know, I will fill you all in. The current wedding coordinator who replaced Maggie (Janessa) was there this past weekend. She has been very responsive to my emails and can fill you in on what the place looks like.

4) Some little reminders:

--For ceremony, bring a CD! No iPods are allowed

--Steaming your dress at the Cancun Palace/Hard Rock is $79

--I hear it is really impossible to use your resort credits to book room upgrades (they are always conveniently "overbooked")

-- There will most likely be multiple weddings they day of your wedding (there are 3 the day of mine) and they give priority of locations to who has the biggest wedding party. I heard this from Maggie so who knows how accurate this is.

This is all the info I have for now. Let me know if you have any questions and let's try to keep everyone in the loop!

Best

Courtney

Hi Ladies,

I realize that there are not a lot of Cancun Palace/Hard Rock Cancun 2012 Brides unified under one thread. There are few of us so I think it would be great to stick together and share our experiences, as many things have happened over the past couple months with the resort and its rebranding.

Personally, I have found the Miami coordination stressful, frustrating and unprofessional. It has been a horrible experience so far. However, I have heard that it all comes together when you get there, but at what cost? For me to lose my mind before it? Lol.

I have heard mixed things about the rennovations. A couple things I do know for sure are the following:

1) The Breeze Terrace is now obsolete. You can no longer book the Breeze Terrace! According to the new wedding planner (Janessa Lopez), you can't book the Breeze Terrace because they are ripping it apart and expanding the balconies on the third floor. They are also taking down The Steak Restaraunt (which is also on the third floor), so if you have reservations/plans to have reservations, don't make them! 

2) Maggie is no longer working at the Palace Resorts. My intuition tells me she's been fired. She was completely disorganized, unresponsive, and made things up on a whim. It had to have gotten to the point where they couldn't tolerate the complaints anymore.

3) As of today (June 26), construction is pretty bad. I hear of guests complaining of construction non-stop as early as 9AM. Still no word on what areas are worse than others, but as soon as I know, I will fill you all in. The current wedding coordinator who replaced Maggie (Janessa) was there this past weekend. She has been very responsive to my emails and can fill you in on what the place looks like.

4) Some little reminders:

--For ceremony, bring a CD! No iPods are allowed

--Steaming your dress at the Cancun Palace/Hard Rock is $79

--I hear it is really impossible to use your resort credits to book room upgrades (they are always conveniently "overbooked")

-- There will most likely be multiple weddings they day of your wedding (there are 3 the day of mine) and they give priority of locations to who has the biggest wedding party. I heard this from Maggie so who knows how accurate this is.

This is all the info I have for now. Let me know if you have any questions and let's try to keep everyone in the loop!

Best

Courtney

Beautiful wedding! Unfortunately, they are not letting brides book the breeze Terrace anymore. I just spoke to both Maggie and Yesenia today! Devestating!

Originally Posted by UK Bride 

 

Hi Courtney,

 

How are you? I have been reading your post on here and cannot quite believe what they are doing to us all. I am so angry about it.

 

I booked our wedding last year (in April 2011) and paid the initial 300 US. We arrive August 11th 2012 for 3 weeks.

 

 Then our group all booked with the travel agent in the UK and I went ahead and bought bridesmaid dresses to match the Amber collection. 

 

Since then absolutely everything has changed and I had to find out about everything from tripadvisor. When I email Yesenia she is so unhelpful. No one has informed me about the change in the wedding collections or the change to Hard Rock. Now they say that I can't have amber collection because I did not pay a deposit on that particular package!!! NO-one said I had to pay a deposit!! I was told that I would organize all that with the wedding coordinator closer to the wedding.

 

What are you doing about a wedding package? are you having the complimentary one? Have you seen all the changes to the hotel? I think they have removed the jacuzzis from the guestrooms. It is so far away from the theme that I wanted for my trip/wedding.

 

Devastated.

 

Please write back and let me know your thoughts,

 

Best wishes,

 

Liz,

 

Manchester, England.

Hi Liz!

I am so sorry I have not responded to you. I have been so swamped with the wedding and this school year ending.

We have had so SO many problems with the Cancun Palace/Hard Rock. All of these problems stem from the Miami office. I think we all share the same frustrations, so hang in there!

We had a couple friends book through a travel agent, and we just got an email saying that those rooms will not count toward our room nights which was NEVER told to us. If I were you, I would double check because apparently the room nights only count if you book them through your (overpriced) group link. We are now in the process of battling to get these people approved and linked to our wedding party. In addition, when I asked for an update on our guest count/hotel nights, they missed over half of our reservations! So, something else you will also want to check on. They are so disorganized and not responsive over there and don't count on them to have things correct.

From my understanding, they still have the older packages. If you have in your contract that you signed up to get the Amber collection package, then they must honor it. As long as you refer to the contract, they really don't have a choice. I had the Diamond package and put down a deposit, but after looking at what was included I decided to go with the complimentary package. I wanted to make sure the fabric for the old complimentary was still available (I loved the white fabric on the chuppah), and Yesenia called the hotel and they said they still have it and that it wouldn't be a problem. So, be persistent! If its what you want, you need to make it happen!

I am doing the complimentary package and coordinating with the decorating company (Zuniga) for the ceremony and reception. I was fortunate in that I got 3 outside vendors approved (florist, DJ, and photographer). I organized EVERYTHING by myself. Don't count on Maggie to do anything for you. She is unresposive and will not contact you until a week before your wedding. She will make promises and not keep them. If you PM me, I can give you Lily from the decorating company's email. She is a JOY to work with and is always very responsive. I found there prices very fair (I also live in Los Angeles, where these things are naturally expensive). I got the following from her:

Ceremony:

Shepherd Hooks with pink and purple roses for entrance

Silver Sashes for chairs

Starfish with turquiose ribbon for back of chairs

Chandelier for Huppah

White platform for aisle

My florist is decorating the huppah with white roses and purple magenta orchids. I bought orchid petals for the aisle.

Reception

Tiffany Chairs

Table linens

Lounge furniture

Cocktail Tables

Napkins

Silver Chargers

To be honest, what you can do is just get the complimentary package and rent all of the amber collection stuff from the decorating company. That is where they got ALL the decorating stuff for the old packages anyway. I did the math and the hotel upcharges for the items. Get a quote from Lily and I guarentee you it will be cheaper then the Amber collection. Remember, you can't bring ANYTHING from the ceremony to the reception. So, you are spending $1500-$2000 for only a few minutes. Consider allocating your money elsewhere.

Once again, Maggie is not helpful. I did all of this myself by directly contacting the decorating company.

I also found it helps to get my fiance to call them and yell at the people in the Miami office. Groomzillas tend to have a higher impact for some reason. If your man can, write out a list of concerns, and have him call and fuss at them. 

Feel free to PM me with any questions (I don't check the forums that much). It will all be OK! All the other brides say that once yuo get there, its smooth sailing! 

I will be on my honeymoon in Playa Del Carmen the day of your wedding!

Best

Courtney

Hi Ladies,

I am getting married August 4 and am having similar angry feelings as you all have. What is even most upsetting is that I had to find about the rebranding through the blogs. I think it is horrible customer service that our wedding coordinators would not even mention this to us during booking (hotel rebranding takes years, so I am positive they knew about this when we booked, which is annoying)!

I called Yesenia several times with no answer (typical). My fiance turned into Groomzilla and finally got a hold of her. I spoke with her and she said that they sent an e-mail to all the brides "notifying them" of the rebranding. I call bull s**t, but thats what she said. I let her know that if I wanted to get married at a Hard Rock, I simply would have gotten married in Vegas. I also was upset because our guest CAN NOT travel to other Palace Resorts after the rebranding is made official. So, no going to Moon Palace, Sun Palace, etc when it turns into a Hard Rock. Complete and utter nonsense!

While this is frustrating for us all, we were able to use this as leverage to get some things we were not getting. Yesenia was actually polite and understanding, which was extremely refreshing. I recommend you call her (she made me feel better about the situation). I was literally about to switch to the Beach Palace.

From what I hear, the rebranding is very minimal. They are transforming the lobby and making some guest rooms nicer. At the end of the day, you will still get married on the same beautiful beach and on whatever Terrace you like.

If you have any additional questions, PM me and I can give you more details.

Best

Courtney

Hi Nikki,

What food buffet did your choose? Also, do you have pictures of your hair and makeup? I am still trying to decide if I should get my Hair and Make Up done there

I would love to hear if anyone knows of a salon. My hotel is making me pay an expensive day pass for my vendors, so getting my hair and makeup done at a nearby salon would be ideal... Any suggestions?

I would love to hear if anyone knows of a salon. My hotel is making me pay an expensive day pass for my vendors, so getting my hair and makeup done at a nearby salon would be ideal... Any suggestions?

Hello,

I was wondering if any of you used the Cancun Palace Resort Spa for hair and make-up. If so, how did you like it? Were you able to do a trial? What were the costs?

I would hire an outside vendor but since they are so nasty about the outside vendor policy, I am thinking I might just resort to the hotel for H&M, but if they aren't good, I will need to figure it out!

Thank you!

Courtney

Hi CP Brides!

I was wondering if any of you used the Cancun Palace Resort Spa for hair and make-up. If so, how did you like it? Were you able to do a trial? What were the costs?

I would hire an outside vendor but since they are so nasty about the outside vendor policy, I am thinking I might just resort to the hotel for H&M, but if they aren't good, I will need to figure it out!

Thank you!

Courtney

Hello,

I was wondering if any of you used the Cancun Palace Resort Spa for hair and make-up. If so, how did you like it? Were you able to do a trial? What were the costs?

I would hire an outside vendor but since they are so nasty about the outside vendor policy, I am thinking I might just resort to the hotel for H&M, but if they aren't good, I will need to figure it out!

Thank you!

Courtney

Has anyone used Adriana Salmon at Smile Market or DJ Erik Sabagh? These are the vendors they are offering at the Cancun Palace. Any thoughts???

These pictures are beautiful! The infinity terrace is amazing.

I agree with you in that I am finding myself getting very anxious over the details because of the lack of communication. Whenever I ask someone from Miami a question, I feel like it takes a whole week to respond. I am glad I am not the only one!

You mentioned you hired a photographer... did you use the one through the hotel? My concern is that the hotel overcharges and I am not sure who the photographer is. Also, I noticed a no outside vendors message in the contract. Looking at the forum, it looks like other palace resort brides say you have to add an amendment to the contract stating that you are allowed to use the outside sources, otherwise they have to pay a "displacement fee" which I hear is upward to $500. Have you heard about this? I thought we could just pay for a day pass for our vendors, but I guess its not the case. 

Have you heard recommendations from any DJS? I hear the ones they prefer cost a lot of money, and then here they try to discourage you through this displacement fee to hire outside of the hotel. I hear DJ Doremix and DJ Mannia are the better ones.

Let me know!

Thank you

Courtney

Hi Ladies,

I am getting married August 4 2012 and am very excited I will be at the Cancun Palace. I had a couple of questions/concerns and am hoping someone could help me answer them.

1) Do they every book 2 weddings on the same day? I noticed on the contract that the reception places were "subject to availbility", which pretty much freaked me out. Am I going to be having to fight for the terrace of my choice?!

2) Has anyone had the Diamond Collection? Any concerns/suggestions? Any pictures?

Thank you so much! I love this forum

Courtney

Hello Ladies,

I will be getting married August 4 at the Cancun Palace. I was wondering if anyone knew anything about the resort photographer. How were the services and were you happy with the pictures? Would you mind sharing them?

Thank you!

Hi Ladies,

Does anyone have any pictures of the Diamond Wedding Collection (preferably at the Cancun Palace)? Its so difficult to find pictures of this collection, and I would like to see a real wedding!

Thank you

Courtney

Thank you for the feedback/advice it was helpful. I was guessing it would be extremely hot but we are going to get parasols and hand-held electric fans for our guests

Have you picked what locations you will have your reception/cocktail hour yet? Its always hard to make these decisions without seeing the place.

Congrats on your wedding date! I hope we get to see some pictures  

Thank you for such a great review. You gave me such great ideas.

I had a quick question. On the contract I noticed that you are NOT allowed to bring "outside vendors". I notice though that everyone brings at least a couple of suitcases full of things, so are the talking about just food and beverage, not decor? I ask because I am bring my own table linens and most of the decor and wanted to make sure it was allowed.

Also, regarding the subermisble floralytes, did you put those in and turn them on after you filled the vase, or before? Do they just sink to the bottom?

Hello, 

We are booked for the Cancun palace July 4 for our wedding. We have chosen the Diamond package, but has anyone seen the new 2012 collection by Colin Cawie? We are now thinking about switching to the Elegant Ivory collection. It is really beautiful!

Also,  on the contract I noticed that you are NOT allowed to bring "outside vendors". I notice though that everyone brings at least a couple of suitcases full of things, so are the talking about just food and beverage, not decor? I ask because I am bring my own table linens and most of the decor and wanted to make sure it was allowed. Thank you!

Anyone know what the weather is like in August as well? I am guessing very hot (I just hope it doesn't rain).

Feel free to e-mail me at [email protected]