lmazz729

Some of the room problems were simple, like no umbrella or bath towels. One room had a leaky roof, and another had an A/C issue. The reservations were not always correct either: no jacuzzi when it was paid for, and doubles rather than a king-sized bed. These are not major things, but the number of them added up to an annoyance. Also, things don' t get fixed very fast either. Our toilet backed up and wasn't fixed for about 24 hours. None of this mattered in the long run. The resort, the beach, the food, the sun and ( most importantly) the wedding, were beautiful and special. My daughter and son in law had their perfect wedding. Everything was beautiful and extremely well-coordinated by the Romance team at the resort. Everything was exactly the way they wanted, and celebrated with a group of people who traveled very far to share it with them. I am posting the things that can (not necessarily will) go wrong.

So glad I finally got the hang of this. I tried to post the pictures but I guess you can't unless you pay the $30 to be a supporter. Sorry about the confusion about the rehearsal dinner. We asked Lauren before the final payment and she told us it was $15 extra per person over 20 people. When we got to the resort we didn't ask Miguelina, we booked the "Terra" ourselves through the lobby reservation desk, as well as the "Luna" the night before. Either way, you get a great dinner with all your guests! I also appreciate what Janet said about "island time" but when guests are complaining about their rooms to you, you tend to get upset. I don't want to make it sound like that's all that happened, but it was more than half of the guests, including the groom's parents.

The wedding rehearsal was on Friday at 5 PM. The rehearsal dinner was at "Terra" the steakhouse, because the reception dinner was the seafood buffet. We didn't get a separate section, but had 4 large round tables towards the back. The steaks were wonderful, and we got a giant platter of potatoes, corn and mixed vegetables for each table. This and Luna were the largest capacity, and could seat our 35-37 people without taking up the whole restaurant. We also ate at the Chinese restaurant Qi, when we had 14 people. This place had the largest servings ( good if you have big eaters). "Romantico" had the smallest portions and the slowest service. Interesting food, though. We never got to the Japanese Restaurant "Sakura" because it was too small and we had too many people. For breakfast, the buffet "Ciel" was excellent, and we usually did the lunch buffett at "Luna". It was really very good, especially for resort food. Since the resort was full that week, we sometimes had to wait on line for a meal, but not more than a few minutes. The part of the trip that I was most worried about was the wedding itself. That part was perfect. Miguelina and Elizabeth set up everything exactly the way my daughter planned, down to the ribbon on the canopy and the petals in the aisle. The food was excellent ( get the shrimp and avocado hor d'oerves) the Oriental lanterns looked pretty and the Carribean Celebrations people set the reception tables perfectly.The ceremony was planned on the beach in front of the gazebo, and the wedding party walked up through the gazebo and down the beach to the canopy. The hor d'oerves tables were set up beside the gazebo, and the servers passed glasses of champagne. My daughter had a civil ceremony, but it ended up being such a hassle of paperwork that I would suggest doing it at home. The judge was going to come on Saturday morning for the legal paperwork and signatures, but didn't come until Monday morning. A family friend of the groom read the ceremony that the bride and groom put together. That was much more meaningful to us all. The reception was set up down the beach outside the Gabi Club bar, which was closed to all but the wedding party. I am attaching a few photos that friends and family took, as we do not have any of the HDC photos yet. weddingpics.docx

Okay, I'm going to try this again... My daughter was married at PPC on Saturday January 7th. I wanted to let you all know the pros and cons so that you can make plans and be prepared. As everyone has said - this is a huge resort! The trolleys run about every 5 minutes, but very often go the entire circuit, rather than getting you where you want to go. After day 2 I opted to walk places because it was more direct. All the maps I was able to find beforehand did not have the legend. We got the general layout, but no specifics. I will attempt to upload the map we got at check-in, somebody please help me with this! Since this is a Carribbean resort, everything is slow. Check-in, service calls for problems with the rooms, transportation from one place to another, etc. Be prepared. Also, of the 38 guests and wedding party members, probably 20 had some problem with their room. Reservations were not correct or the room itself had an issue. Unless everyone has an International plan on their cell phone, it is also hard to keep track of everyone, especially if they all come in on different days. We arrived on Tuesday, and has guests arriving until Friday. Most of the guests were checked in by Thursday, so we planned a dinner at the seafood restaurant "Luna". We did not arrange this ahead of time, as Lauren said that any reservation for over 20 people would be an extra $15 per person charge over the 20. The restaurant reservation desk in the lobby booked the reservation and arranged a "set" menu, which a few people ignored and ordered off the menu. We had our own area and own wait staff. The food was excellent, and the service was outstanding.

JohnM I do not have any information about the outside vendor fees for 2012, as all our plans were finalized last November. I had several unsatisfactory e-mail messages from Lauren( and my daughter was less than impressed during the planning call) because she never gave any advice or made any suggestions. If you can get around the costs, I would highly recommend HDC photo as they are very reasonably priced and the pictures are outstanding. Perhaps you can book a room for the photographer as a guest to get around the costs, as was previously suggested.

Hi SarahNBobby and all Ladies; This is my first post, but I have been following this thread for months. I came across it when researching information about Arrecife. I am the mother of the bride, and my daughter was married at PPC last Saturday, January 7th. We chose HDC Photo, and the pictures are spectacular! We had Rodrigo as the photographer and he was professional and very nice. The CD of all the photos was ready on Tuesday before we left. I tried to post a very long review on Wednesday, but had trouble getting the post submitted. I am trying again.

Hi SarahNBobby and all other Ladies; This is my first post but I have been following this thread for months. I stumbled on it when investigating Arrecife for my daughter's wedding on January 7th. Yes, a week ago. She had been extremely busy finishing her coursework for college graduation, working part-time and doing a part-time internship. I helped with much of the research and planning, but the final decisions were made by her and her fiance(now husband). She ended up using HDC photo, and the pictures are amazing! I will try and upload some. I attempted to submit this on Wednesday, after writing a very long post, but it never went through. I am going to try and get it through now to see if it was the length that was the problem.