Married or going to be married at Grand Palladium Punta Cana?

[kitty25967]

Not too be mean because I've heard she is wonderful once you get there, but I believe she has told everyone different things OR she is confused about what we are asking and she is giving us incorrect answers.  She didn't mention anything about minimums for a beach party (which we have over 20 anyway) and I THINK she has reserved it....still unclear to me but I hope that she has because I already have a deposit for DJ Mannia down with dancefloor set up.  Also, she told me that there can be no speeches or toasts at a "semi private" dinner and to have a "private" dinner you must have 40+ guests.  They also will not budge on the "menu options" even after I was willing to pay more to have at least 2 entree options.  Geez...for $1000 you would think you could get at least 2 entree options for guests especially at an "all inclusive."  I will look through my emails and send you our conrespondance to see if it is the same thing she has mentioned to you guys.  She STILL hasn't confirmed that we have a private dinner even though we have discussed it and I've told her I wanted a private dinner since we booked the resort.

Originally Posted by chell44 

Hello ladies! Just wanted to let everyone know, I was talking to Carolina today and she did say that to have the beach party you must have a minimum of 20 guests. I know we all discussed it before and people were in a panic, just passing along the info

[richarsd]

 I do remember her saying that you need min. 20 for the id.beach party and min. 20 for a private a reception...I have the wedding "extras" document directly from the resort pertaining to the 2011 season. Kitty if you want it (for confirmation purposes when you get down there, send me your email and I'll pass it on). My TA confirmed this info as well and she does lots of wedding planning for the GP. And it's true from what I was told as well that technically you cannot do speeches or dance at a semi-private dinner...I can see the no dancing (I mean there's other guests and servers walking around) but really, who's gonna actually stop someone if they begin making a speech at the table? Try not to worry too much about the (lack of) confirmation regarding the private dinner...I'm not meaning to be rude when I say this but I'm pretty sure that you ponying up $1000 is not going to be rejected, especially in the DR
 

Originally Posted by kitty25967 

Not too be mean because I've heard she is wonderful once you get there, but I believe she has told everyone different things OR she is confused about what we are asking and she is giving us incorrect answers.  She didn't mention anything about minimums for a beach party (which we have over 20 anyway) and I THINK she has reserved it....still unclear to me but I hope that she has because I already have a deposit for DJ Mannia down with dancefloor set up.  Also, she told me that there can be no speeches or toasts at a "semi private" dinner and to have a "private" dinner you must have 40+ guests.  They also will not budge on the "menu options" even after I was willing to pay more to have at least 2 entree options.  Geez...for $1000 you would think you could get at least 2 entree options for guests especially at an "all inclusive."  I will look through my emails and send you our conrespondance to see if it is the same thing she has mentioned to you guys.  She STILL hasn't confirmed that we have a private dinner even though we have discussed it and I've told her I wanted a private dinner since we booked the resort.

 

[roxy1122]

Hi kitty & Richarsd:

 

I have the email confirming that for a private reception dinner I would need 40 or more guests. Now I am getting confused but more brides on here have also confirmed that the private dinner is 40+ guests, not 20. I write to Carolina in Spanish mostly and she gets back to me fairly quickly and she confirmed that it is indeed 40 or more guests for private reception and 20+ for the beach party.

[kitty25967]

Ok, well then maybe you can read this correspondence and tell me your take on it.  She still hasn't sent me the menu (even though I guess I've pretty much gotten it from this site though not detailed), she hasn't answered me on how many other weddings there are on that day, I still don't have a "real" confirmation on if the beach party is confirmed...she states "reserve" but follows by it must be 20 people, so do I have it for that evening?  I have told her over and over again that I want a private dinner...I don't mind the $1000 I just want confirmation so I can plan accordingly I think that is fair enough and other brides don't have an issue with this at there resorts...Notice that she is emphasizing the 40 people again for a private dinner which shouldn't be a problem for us, but what if you have 38?  I'm just frustrated.  I took some names and info out, but here are some of the messages regarding the dinner... (she did attach the wedding extra services to the last message which she has already sent to me a couple of times before) (We currently have 43 guests booked)

 

Carolina -

   & I are working on getting our menu cards printed for our dinner reception.  We would like to have a private dinner in La Uva and need to know the menu options which are available to our guests so that we can proceed with the menu printing.  We are expecting around 40 guests who have already booked.  We are all staying in the Royal Suites Turquesa section.  I look forward to your reply.

 

Dear Tiffany:

 

Thanks for your email, I would like to inform you that unfortunately I can´t confirm you in advance which place will be available for you for the private dinner, this information will be reconfirm upon arrival, and because some services are subject to change, upon arrival, you have to pick the set menu for the wedding dinner.

 

At latest 1 month before your wedding, we will able to confirm which place will be available for your private dinner, which pally fro groups with more than 40 guests.

 

Regards from DR

 

Carolina Barragán Beck

Wedding Manager

PALLADIUM HOTELS & RESORTS

 

Playas El Cortesito, Bávaro, Higüey, República Dominicana

Tel: 809 221 8149, EXT. 2765,  Fax: 809 221 8150

weddings.bavaro@fiestahotelgroup.com

www.palladiumweddings.com

 

 

Carolina -

 

Can you please email the email options so that we may start asking our guests what their preferences are so that we will be prepared when we arrive.  We want our guests to have menu options for dinner as some will prefer beef and some might prefer chicken.  If there is an extra charge for having multiple options, please let me know.  I will also need to ensure that I have plenty of time to order the printed material.  So as soon as you have confirmed the restaurant, it would be greatly appreciated.  We would really like to have it at La Uva.

 

Can you please confirm that we will have a Private seated dinner, as well will be having our cake, toasts, and speeches at dinner?

Also, I have already hired DJ Mannia (as we discussed) for the beach party, so please confirm that we have a Private Beach Party set for the evening of May 28th, 2011.

 

Can you please let me know how many other weddings are taking place on our date?  I know that our ceremony time is 5pm (as you have confirmed previously), so I am working everything around that.

 

Dear Tiffany:

 

Thanks for your email, regarding your questions:

 

The dinner is not complete private, we arrange a special are just for you, but it will be other hotel guests at the same place and time as you. And for this is not possible to have toasts and speeches at dinner.  For a private dinner reception, the extra charge is US$ 1.000 and apply for groups with more than 40 guests.

 

The beach party is reserve, apply for groups with more than 20 guests.

 

About the menu, unfortunately is not possible to have more than 1 options, we make some exceptions for vegetarian guests or guests with allergies.

 

Regards from DR

 

 

Carolina Barragán Beck

Wedding Manager

PALLADIUM HOTELS & RESORTS

 

Playas El Cortesito, Bávaro, Higüey, República Dominicana

Tel: 809 221 8149, EXT. 2765,  Fax: 809 221 8150

weddings.bavaro@fiestahotelgroup.com

www.palladiumweddings.com

[kitty25967]

This is what I sent to her in AUGUST and have STILL not gotten ANY confirmations.  I have hired DJ Mannia.  Now let's hope I have a beach party for him to play at!

 

Re:  Wedding - May 28th 2011

...

From:	Tiffany ... View Contact
To:	Enc. de Bodas <weddings.bavaro@fiestahotelgroup.com>

---

Dear Carolina,   Can you please also confirm that we are reserved for a cocktail/hors'dourves session following the ceremony, then a private dinner to be followed with a private beach party with a DJ?   Thanks, Tiffany

 

[roxy1122]

Yes it is pretty frustrating that they don't have a system where you tell them in which restaurant you want your dinner and that is final. Is your wedding in April or May? Perhaps also because those months are the "wedding high season" it might be a bit crazier. I also asked her if we could have more than 1 dinner option for the menu and they also refused. Kitty if you like I can email you the menu that Carolina sent me, just let me know. I don't think you should have a problem with NOT getting your PRIVATE reception dinner, especially if you are paying extra for it! I think you just need to clearly tell her that you expect to have 40+ guests and that you want to do the private dinner for extra $. It seems she does not clearly get that in her response to you. Hope this helps a bit

 

 

 

[kitty25967]

Thanks girl! And yes, will you please send me the menu?  Is it in English?  I will PM you my email.  Thanks again. 

My wedding is May 28th

[kitty25967]

Suggestions....Would there be a word other than "confirmation" use?

[richarsd]

Well now I am extremely concerned and trying to hold back on furious (I think this is my only bridezilla moment, lol)!! Kitty, you ask a good question - so what if you have 38 guests??? Because that is exactly what we have!!! Ok, so we have 43 people "booked" but 5 of them are friends of our guests who are sort of just coming along (because this is a vacation as well for our guests) but aren't technically wedding guests. All along, like for the past 9 months, we've been planning on the private dinner...I've bought some decorations, plan to have speeches, asked one of my relatives to be an MC, and also NOT booked the beach party specifically BECAUSE we were informed by both the resort (as I said before, they specifically write 20 minimum in their 2011 wedding brochure, which you can BET I'll be printing off and bringing down with me) and our travel agent. So I am trying not to freak out here but I think it's a little late for that. If I end up getting told when I'm down there that we don't have enough people I will literally go through the roof! I just sent an email off to my travel agent asking for her to confirm...I trust whatever she says because she is excellent and does a LOT of work with Carolina so I am confident she will sort this out. Stay tuned....

[kitty25967]

So the 20 people requirement is for the beach reception.  I think restaurant is 40 ???  But they ended up letting her have it with 17 after a bit of "back and fourth"

Originally Posted by Chicago 

 

Long review of my wedding at GP January 5th, 2011.

We booked our wedding at Punta Cana part of the resort. Mistake #1. We mainly chose that side because of our guests. We decided to stay 6 days at Punta cana and then move to Royal Turquesa for 4 days.

 

Check In at Punta Cana Lobby:  From the moment we got there it was off. The front desk 'supervisor' Faustino was extremely unprofessional. If you demand some basice customer service he will be such an ass to you. On the other hand if you let him flirt with you then its completely different service.  Some of my guests already arrived a few days prior and had a lot of trouble with their rooms. We already knew about this and requested to be put on the second floor due to a lot of mold in the rooms. If you did book or will book Punta Cana, first of all do yourself a favor and dont. But if your guests do choose it do not go into 2000 block first floor. My brother and parents had to change their rooms due to excessive mold issue. I have been to this country 3 times prior and all over caribbean so I'm familiar with the mold issue...it was fine until now. When I say mold I mean MOLD GROWTH in the shower, on the mattress....

So Faustino would just walk away as we stood there waiting to check in. He did not let us have a room until 4pm. Not to mention try to accomodate some of my guests who shared a room to have a two bed room. So they shared a bed!!! For 3 days straight they would come every morning to request a two bed room and they would not accomodate so poor people just gave up.

 

First impression of my JUNIOR SUITE at 2000 rm 2032. We come inside the room and  the pull out sofa is flipped. I mean pulled out stuck cushions gone and just crooked stuck in air. Interesting right? We pick up the phone to call front desk...not working. Finally 3 guys came in and for an hour hammered in that sofa to get it to go inside and we still could not sit on it. Some time later the cushions for it arrived. Not to mention that it was visibly filthy and moldy.

We contacted our Apple Rep and told her everything. I was mostly upset for my guests. She did work with us and was very nice but it is almost impossible to talk to their front desk staff including the managers. She managed to get them to listen once we actually took them into our suite and showed the filth on furniture and mold. The day before the wedding they decided to put us into ROYAL TURQUESA as a favor. Once we saw the room there  we were even more upset. I dont know what it was but it just got worse and worse. They put us in the lowest possible room there. It was the same room as our Suite as far as furniture type etc. but it was just a room while I had a Suite there. So we decided not to move because here I was paying for a suite to have more room for the wedding day as we take pictures and such. Just the whole experience with the managers upset us that we did not even want to move at all. We chose to stay in Punta Cana section and not to even move for the 4 days we paid for. I know we looked completely crazy but for 3 days straight they were driving us nuts that we just gave up and did not want it to ruin our vacation.

The pictures you see on trip advisor of Royal Turquesa with white linens and such...yes they do exist but not on the first floor which is what they gave us.

I dont want to seem like a bridezilla but I do not think I would return to this resort again. They use the nicer sections of the resort to spruce up ones such as Punta Cana and give it 5 stars while its barely 3. False advertising so be very careful which section you choose.

 

Resort Grounds: Absolutely amazing! I have been all over carribean and particularly in DR. They have one of the best kept grounds and its hugeeeee!   Just walking around the resort is relaxing. AMAZING!

 

 

Food: As always very good food. If you're picky stick with the buffets. You can switch back and forth between Punta Cana buffet and the Bavaro. I would definitely recommend checking out the Brazilian and Japanese restaurant. You do need to be there right before 6pm to make a reservation. They dont take them prior. Also the Spanish restaurant was very good. We tried getting into the Chinese but it was booked the last night.

One restaurant that I did not enjoy was the Arrefice (seafood) but you cant always win. Overall great food!  The serving staff goes above and beyond. Fantastic people.

 

Beach: As always it is breath taking. Clean and plenty of private little nooks to hide and relax. On the days when the weather was exceptionally nice of course the lounge chairs were scarce. You do need to get up earlier and go to the beach to claim yours. Beach is always my favorite part and refuge from the moldy room.

 

Wedding: Since my wedding was during Carolina's vacations I did not get to meet her. Instead I met her lovely assistant Kenya. One thing I want to mention ladies. Keep all your emails with Carolina, do not delete. This will come in handy if you had any special requests and some confusion comes up once you arrive. With them everything gets confirmed once you're there so I did have some trouble explaning that I will be having a beach reception with only 17 guests instead of 20 that they request. I had my travel agent confirm this with their apple rep prior to coming and still when we came they gave me a tiny bit trouble only because Carolina wasnt there. But nothing major.

Kenya made sure she had all the details. We gave her our sand ceremony kit and little details.

We were having the ceremony at the gazebo and then a dinner reception on the beach a la carte. I cannot say enough about the wedding. Even though we had a rough start with the room and all the wedding made us forget it all.

LADIES DO NOT WORRY!! They will take care of you as much as you request. If you want to have a private dinner reception on the beach with special requests they will go above and beyond. We were really impressed. From the ceremony to the very dinner.

We had a DJ starting at dinner until we were done. I must say that the servers were some special people. We loved them!  Such professionals, more so than the front desk. Kenya stopped by to check on us and I could not believe she pulled it all together. FABULOUS!

 

PHOTOGRAPHER: I know a lot of brides here always ask about photographers. I have a friend who is a freelance photographer himself and when I was choosing mine he helped me. I came across Jorge Alloco. Let me tell you. This guy is a real professional. Google him and check out his website/profile.

His work is amazing and he has real good equipment. We met with him the day before to go over what we'd like and from then on we went gaga over the pictures he's taken of our wedding. I do want to say. What you pay for is what you get. I have seen weddings done at the resort with the resort photographer. You can do that yourself. They only have a camera with one lens all the time. If your at all knowledgable about photography once you see their photographer you'll know. Jorge is a real sincere person and extremely interesting. He has extensive resume of his work. It all comes down to how important your wedding pictures are to you. Another thing I forgot to mention. He also has a guy with him who does videography. We used him as well and definitely were happy that we did.

I know Jorge will be posting some of our wedding pictures on his blog as he does with most of his brides (with signed consent of course). If you're interested in seeing our photos please check out his blog    http://jorgeallocco.blogspot.com/  he should be posting ours in a few days. Alma & Muamer 01.05.11.

 

CONCLUSION:  LOVED IT! If I could come back to this resort and get married every time I would. Their Wedding services exceed their customer service as far as front desk. Punta Cana section is not at all 5 STARS...absolutely not. BAVARO and Palace are much better which is where my parents stayed prior to our wedding and we went with their review. Avoid unnecessary headache and go to Palace or Bavaro. Our guests admitted the same thing. They would have rather paid more than to have their kids inhale all that mold.

Have fun planning your wedding and once you get there let them take care of you. I know its hard to believe it  (it was hard for me even) but it turns out 10x better than you expected.

 

If anyone has any questions I'd be glad to answer as best as I can.