LuckyGal4

Hey Lori!! I got married at TheRoyal in Playa and actually just got back fom Cancun where we stayed at The Royal as well.. Seeing how I have been to both I thought I might be able to help you just a bit! For starters I think that the water in Cancun is def more crystal clear but I love the atmosphere of Playa better! If you stay at The Royal in Playa you literally walk out of the resort and you are on 5th Ave where they have shopping, bars/restaurants, and clubs. It was so nice not to have to take a taxi! In Cancun you have to take about a 5 min cab ride to the downtown area which isnt bad but if you have a group, it is much easier to walk! We got married in Playa last June, half of us stayed at The Royal and the other half stayed at The Gran Porto. If you are going to have people stay at both, Playa is prob better as it is easier to go back and forth between the 2 hotels as they are closer than the 2 (Royal/Gran Caribe) in Cancun. On the other hand, I thought that The Gran Caribe in Cancun was better/nicer than the Gran Porto in Playa. I did see the chapel at The Gran Caribe and it is VERY pretty! The background was absolutley amazing... We got married on the beach in Playa and the scenery wasnt bad their either. As far as the pool situation, the Royal in Cancun has a much better layout than Playa. Yes it is one big pool but they have certain sections so it makes it feel like there are several differnt ones. There are 2 pools in Playa one is more of an activity pool with the swim up bar and the other is more relaxing! As far as the pools go I think I would have to say Cancun is better!! The beaches were about the same but it is def more rocky in Playa than it is in Cancun! I have never stayed at the Barcelo Maya Palace Deluxe and when we were looking for a place I wanted an all-adult resort. Thats why we decided on The Royal cause we could stay there and then our guests with kids would be right next door and we would still have access over there. The El Dorado Royale in Playa is suppposed to be so so pretty ( i think it is a little pricey) Also the Valentin Imperial Maya is supposed to be good as well!! Ok with all that being said... I would def choose Playa over Cancun! Maybe its because thats were we got married but I just absolutley feel in love! Oh and FYI use a travel agent!! I was sooo happy I used one, she took a lot of the stress off of me Please let me know if you have any questions. I have tons of pics on my page and if you want to see some from Cancun let me know and I will post them!! Good Luck! Kelli

Cannrein I was told the same thing the problem was my wedding was right in the middle of summer and the resort was %100 booked so there were no oceanfront rooms to upgrade us too! The did however offer us the Presidental Suite for 3 night for $430.00 Now, I am not sure if they really didnt have any oceanfront rooms or they just told us that to get us to upgrade to the Pres Suite.. Although my TA did tell us that the resort was at full capacity when we left. Hope this helps!

Thanks ladies!! I cant tell ya'll how much I LOVED The Royal! Agm04 we may be there for your wedding... We got married 6.23.12 and we are planning on going back on our year anniversary!! If yall have any questions please let me know! Thank you BTW Jamielynn, having the heart there made me feel like my dad was with me Oh and please borrow anything! Hope yall both have an amazing wedding!

Hey ladies, so I got the rest of my wedding pics back and thought that I would share all the photos with everyone. I created a shutterfly account so you should just be able to go directly to the link and view the album! Hope you all enjoy http://weekendwiththeburneys.shutterfly.com/pictures#n_5

Jordon--- I had my hair done at the Spa at RPD... Zupita did my hair and she did such an amazing job!!! I have long hair so I wanted half up half down curled. She did just that and Im pretty sure she used a whole bottle of hair spray which was fine with me cause my hair didnt fall at all!! My 5 bridesmaides had their hair done there 2 and they were all very pleased with it... I did not have my make up done so I cant help with that but there was a girl getting her's done while I was there and it looked pretty! I just took like 3 differnt pics all the same concept and told her to create something out of the 3 I didnt do a trial, I felt kinda nervous but everything turned out just fine.

You are most welcome!! Oh and trust me everything seems like a BIG BIG deal when you are at home planning but its not like once you get there. Everyone is so excited to be at such a beautiful place that the little things really dont matter as much as we make them out to be Try to stay cool, calm and collected everything will be fine!!

Jen-- Well its kinda a funny story, but I am ptetty sure that I didnt have any!! Maritza my off site wedding coordinator had sent me a pic of this box filled with sand, a candle and rose petals but when I had met with Zulma my on site wedding coordinator she told met that she had never seen that pic or center piece before. So I said ok well what do you use for the standard centerpiece then? She told me it was some sort of lantern thing, so I said ok thats fine. Well when I started looking at my pics, I noticed that the only thing on the tables where the sashes that I had asked her to put on the tables. So I thought centerpieces were a big deal but apparently not if I didnt even realize they were not there until I got back from Mexico!! lol we had a flower centerpiece at our bride and groom table, that came standard with the package so that was nice! I mean I am telling you that day/night goes by so fast and the things that you think are a big deal dont mean anything once you get in that moment! It was the best day I have ever had mainly bc I tried not to sweat the small things and just rocked on

Shan--- I am not sure I will see if I still have my paper work or if I can find it somewhere on the dress. I will def let you know!!

Clarissa--- Thank You!!! To answer your question, the starfish came with the package. I did not request it, they just had it set up that way! I was kinda shocked when I started walking down the asile and saw them And yes it will be here before you know it, one day someone asked how long till the wedding and I remember saying like 94 days and then all of the sudden I was telling people 5 days!! I seriously did not know where the time went, good luck! Mae--- At first I had wanted a later wedding time but 4:00 was the only slot they had. But I think that 4:00 was fine bc we were done with the reception by 9:00 and then it was nice to have everyone go change and then meet us in the lobby before we went out on the town!! Trust me, the time flys by so fast so 3 hours between the 2 may seem like a long time but you would be suprised how fast it goes. Also if I thought there was gonna be extra time were people didnt have anything to do like before dinner or something I would always say lets meet in the Lobby Bar for some drinks It worked out perfectly!! October will be here soon, good luck!!

OK so now that I have given my review on the wedding aspect of The Royal, I thought I would give a review about the resort itself! It is a beautiful place and the people there are SOOOO amazing! Restaurants: We didnt eat at all the restaurants but I can still let you know about the ones that we did eat at. Let me just say that the food there was really good. I dont think I had one bad meal the whole 10 days we were there!! Pelicano's:This is on the edge of the hotel closest to the boardwalk. We ate there for breakfast and dinner. For breakfast we had this grilled chicken with eggs and a pesto sauce, it was really good. For dinner we had fried calamari which is OMG delicious. We also had lobster which you have to pay like $20 extra but it was worth it. This is Pelicano's, I would def put this on the list to try! Ok so with our wedding package we got a romantic dinner for 2 on the beach. You go here to meet and then they take you to the beach. WE got beef with mashed potatoes, clam chowder, ceasar salad, and chocolate cheesecake. I am so glad we did this!! It was very romantic and it was nice to sit down by the beach and have your own personal waiter. Here are some pics of that. Sry the beef doesnt look that good cause I had already cut it up.The soup was good but a little fishy for me. Spice:This was our favorite place!! WE would eat breakfast and lunch there almost everyday. Ate dinner there twice. it is more of a buffet but I like that cause I can pick and choose what I want. I am one of those people who like to see what I am puttin on my plate. Oh but we did get lobster there one night. On Wednesday's they do a lobster spexial and it is totally worth it. At lunch I would get the chicken penne with alfredo sauce and it was very yummy!! Sorry I dont have a pic of this place TAPAS & PINTXOS: This is next to Pelicano's and the food is good but it is very very tiny portions. So I would suggest maybe getting a little meal there and then later doing an acutal dinner. I mean dont get me wrong I thought the food was good but I was hungry 30 mins later. We got steak and shrimp and it was good again just small portions! 24 HR. ALL INCLUSIVE VIP LOUNGE: This place def came in handy for those late night cravings. It is not alot of food to choose from but the chips in there are so good. We would make nachos with meat and cheese. Pretty tasty esp after a day full of drinking So believe it or not, those are the only places we ate at! lol we really didnt care about the food, we just wanted to hang out by the pools or beach all day and then head to the lobby at night to watch the shows. I did have some of my guests say that they DID NOT like MARIA MARIE but that the Chef's Plate and EL MEDITERRÃNEO were good. Sorry I cant tell you anything else about the restaurants. Alright so moving on... I am gonna tell you a little bit about the pool areas! This is where we hung out most of the trip. We love to just relax in the water and esp loved having people bring you drinks. Speaking of this I want to let everyone know that a few dollars goes along way down there. We took like $200 is one dollar bills so that we could make sure and tip. These people work so hard down there and dont get paid much. They all work 6 days on and 1 day off, and let me tell you they are hard workers. We had our 1 waitress that waited on us everyday, her name was ELIZABETH and she was amazing! She works all around the pool areas, if you can find her, order from her she is so great! Over at the swim up bar was my man Jeeyson!!! Oh he was so funny and had such a great personality. His birthday is this month so we made sure to give him early birthday present $$ from his friends Kelli and Trey from Texas! And then there was Tony, he was at the bar with the swings. He was so funny and always had the best toasts, not always appropraite but very very funny! The area where the circle is, is where they do the daily pool activites too. They have a very fun team that gets out there everyday and has some sort of activity for everyone to try. SEXY OMAR is super nice and kinda cute too They do water arobics, dancing lessons, superwomen and ironman competitons. If you want action this is def the place to be. If you look at the chairs to the right of where me and Trey are standing, those are the best!! They are little loungers that sit in the water so you can jump in the pool when you get hot or lay out and still be able to splash water on you!! Oh the activity team also has sign ups for nightly adventures to the Coco Bongo. We went one night and let me say it is an experience!! Im glad we went but will prob never go back, it is sooo crowded in there! Nightlife: B So the only reason that I give it a B is because I wish there was more than just the nightly show in the lobby. The shows that they put on are so much fun and entertaining but they are over at like 11ish and if you dont want to go downtown then you dont really have any other place to dance and party!! Friday night is the best, it is the decades show and it is just so fun to watch them fly thru the air! They do also have a bar in the lobby and a few waitresses but the service isnt as good as it is down by the pool. Here are a few pics. We would get one of the couches and hang out and watch it. We went downtown a few more times at night. Once to The Blue Parrot always fun and then we went to a new one that I had never been to before call Coco Maya, it was a really neat place to. Our course we also went to Senor Frogs one day just because I love sitting there and being able to look out into the beautiful water. Durnig the day in the lobby is where you book your adventures. We did the Xplorer and it was alot of fun. WE went ziplining, rafting and swimming thru caves and got to drive some ATV's. The park is only like 10 mins from the resort, so thats not too bad. This is the only adventure we did but that was fine with us as we really just wanted to relax. Ok well I guess that is about all I have, I have a few more pics of when we where leaving but other than that I hope yall have enjoyed all the reviews. The Royal is such a great place for weddings, honeymoons, or just a vacation! I think we are planning on going back in Janurary Remeber not to stress out too much everything will be just fine. I dont even remeber the small things now and kinda think that it was a little ridiculous that I freaked out a few times haha oh well I guess all girls do!! Thanks for reading and remebber to pass on your reviews to help other brides!! view from the lobby! this is the ceiling in outside when you drive up to the resort. The Asiana restaurant thats right out the front of the resort that we never got a chance to eat at! Looking over to the sister resort The Gran Porto Real. If you read earlier I was talking about a balcony off the front of the resort. Well that is it where the umbrellas are. It was such a cute little spot a perfect place for friends and family to meet for cocktails! The Lobby, this is literally where you get out of the shuttles and walk up to. You can cdheck in on the left and the right. so prettty! So sad, this was our last pic at the resort, lol the funny thing is that we were at the pool all morning/afternoon and we got out 20 mins before our shuttle cam and then changed in the bathroom!! We hated to leave but on a plus note they let us take our Coors Light with us Thanks again everone please let me know if you have any questions!!! HAPPY PLANNING FOR ALL YOU BRIDES OUT THERE!!

Thank you!! No it is different, I got the both of them from David's Bridal but the TTD one was only $99.00 well worth it

Hey ladies posted my review http://www.bestdestinationwedding.com/t/80173/planning-my-big-day-at-the-royal-in-playa-del-carmen/20#post_1792337 I am gonna do a more detailed one about the actual resort as I think it is also helpful to know certain things about the place you are staying! Hope you enjoy let me know if you have any questions!

Hey everyone been back now for a few weeks and just getting around to posting some pics! I had uploaded some of my bridals a few months ago but I thought that I would put a few up from the wedding!

Thank You!! Yes we had a blast already ready to go back!!!

OK so here are my OOT bags, I didnt want to spend a ton of money on them so I got the bags on sale at weddingkot.com for like $2 a piece. No they are not fancy but they did their job. I wish I would have figured out vista print cause it would have made my life a bit easier. Im not sure if I would even do OOT bags if I had to do it over again! They were a pain and I had to take a whole extra suitcase to carry all the stuff. I dunno the guests did enjoy getting something but I am think now that maybe I could have just given them a credit at the SPA or something. Nevertheless here are my OOT bags. Ok so I got all my stuff from tons of different stores. I shopped at Wal-Mart, Target, Dollar General, Doller Tree, Big LOTS, and Sam's... The little white first aid kits were prob my favorite, I got them at Wal-Mart for .97 a piece! This was just a rpough draft, it was before I reprinted them and had them laminated. This was the mess I had in Mexico!! I was telling Trey just throw shit in bags and lets go!! lol we were running late so I was just trying to get them done and get out the door! I took these before we left so the ziplocks looked a little different but you get the point! This is how I carried them to Mexico I put everything in a ziplock and then put it inside one of those Fed-Ex envelops so they wouldnt mess up. It worked like a charm BTW. Schedule of Events, attached to the bags. Wedding Day timeline, attahced to bags. Our welcome letter to show how much we really appreciated everyone coming so far to watch us get married!!! Oh also tied onto the bag. Guess that is everything that I have for the OOT bags. I really really really wished I had done the vista print thing but there again I was so busy at work at everything else that I just had to do it on my own. If you have any questions about the bags please let me know! Thanks ohshitkitlabel.docx OUR timeline.docx

OK so now onto the TTD... We did ours the next day which was Sunday, My photographers camera lens kept fogging up so we didnt get a whole lot of good shots but I still loved the way these came out!! Oh BTW my photographer is a friend of mine and Treys so we just paid for their trip to Mexico and then she took the pics for free. It was a win win deal for the both of us!! And I got my TTD at Davids Bridal fro $99.00 and we didnt go anywhere to take them, we just stayed on the beach between The Royal and The Gran Porto!

OK so thought you might want to see a pic of the beach set up... The only thing in this pic that I brought for the ceremony was the pink sashes. Everything else was provided by the resort. This is a standard setup. The next one is my precious niece and nephew!!Here are just a few more, sorry I just loved everything and wat everyone to see I lost my dad a few years ago so I had my momma walk me down the asile!