My husband and I got married at this hotel in June 2012. In a nutshell, we were both very very satisfied with our experience. We ended up having 128 guests stay at the hotel, and everyone was very happy with their experience. Following are the four aspects that were important to me when deciding on where to get married. 1. beautiful beach 2. responsive staff/wedding planner (lis cruz) -
[email protected]; 3. high quality food 4. homey/welcome hotel environment 1. Cancun generally has beautiful pools and beaches. But some hotels are close to coral reefs and therefore have much more seaweed than other areas. This hotel was great and did not disappoint at all. There are more waves here than in the riviera maya area but the water is also much more beautiful than riviera maya. The pool was also great, they had a kids pool area, and they had food just outside of the pool and a bar inside of the pool. Get the coconut ice cream from the pool restaurant, its amazing. But, if you don’t want a rough beach, then being in Riviera maya may be better. RM is much further from the airport though. 2. We had a short engagement, so we didn't have a lot of time to pick a hotel. And since so many hotels in Cancun are 4 and 5 stars, we had a hard time shortlisting. We went to Cancun to shortlist the hotels two months before we got married, and we ended up going with FAC because the hotel wedding planner, Lis Cruz was very sweet, helpful and quite responsive - especially about 4-6 weeks before the wedding. People generally say that its very hard to get in touch with the hotel prior to the wedding, so this was a great and pleasant surprise. She was always willing to work with us and to accommodate. And the staff everywhere are really great and friendly. Many of our guests constantly commented on how well the staff treated everyone. 3. Our families are foodies - so we wanted to make sure that the food was above average. Sometimes all inclusive hotels have average food, but this was not the case at FAC. I don't remember having a meal that I did not like. The cevicheria had amazing fish, seafood, fish tacos, and ceviche for lunch. The asian restaurant, although I didnt eat there, was apparently amazing for lunch as well. We went there for dinner twice and it did not disappoint. The Mexican restaurant was great and so was the buffet that was open all day. We tended to go there for breakfast each day, but not much more since the other restaurants were so good and were outdoors for lunch and dinner. 4. We went back and forth regarding what types of things we wanted in a venue. We liked that most of the hotel is covered but open air. It was hot outside, and it was kind of hot inside due to the humidity, but I would not have changed this. We were in cancun and being indoors and inside AC the whole time may have taken away from the reminder that we were in Mexico. A couple of comments: 1. They do not have an onsite club and other hotels do have that. The main lobby area had music until 11 or 12am each night, but this didn’t take away from our experience. I actually really wanted a hotel with a club, but ultimately we decided that if people wanted to go out and dance, they could hop in a taxi and go. No one complained about this and no one cared. Everyone hung out at the main lobby bar until it closed at 1am. 2. The hotel has some items for purchase (food items). We did not use any of these and so we didn’t pay for food or premium drinks…and didnt care because the food and drinks that were included were great. 3. Some people mentioned hard beds and others didn’t, including us. We also spent very little time in the room. 4. People participated in yoga each morning and they loved it. We never went to the nightly shows, but I heard that some were okay and others were pretty decent. They also have a kids club, and I don’t know anyone who went there, even though we had at least 10 young children at the wedding. They just hung out at the pool with everyone else. 5. Two of the kids have serious allergies and the hotel accommodated these requests. Some wedding comments: 1. we contracted the photographer through their vendor. we got an amazing deal from the vendor. he ended up quitting. the hotel replaced him with Daniel Gastaldi <
[email protected]>, another one of their vendors, promised us that we would be happy and we were. Daniel was amazing and the hotel assured us that we didn't need to worry about finding another photographer. 2. we bought flowers from them, but only mine. we bought the half bridal bouquet, which was big enough and it was much cheaper. 3. She works with you. Get the main stuff out of the way in the contract if you can, but if not, shell help you out and not at a crazy cost. 4. dj vendor through them was very expensive. we went with dj mannia and our specific djs were DJ was Armando Patiño and MC Samuel. We had special requests cuz we are Indian group so we needed Indian and Western music. They were amazing....couldnt have asked for more. They also provided us stuff at the last minute when our numbers shot up. We paid for it, but they had it. Info Mannia Cancun <
[email protected]>
All in all, wedding in Cancun is an amazing decision. Do it. Just take it easy, go with the flow, and when you are upset about something, just look outside....and see the beach, your guests smiling, and know that they are there for you and your spouse...oh, and they have an open bar.