Gran Bahia Principe Akumal/Tulum/Coba - POST HERE!

[tropicalbride2011]

Could someone tell me if there are keycards for the rooms at the resort? I thought I read someplace in this thread that they use actual keys. I am starting to make purchases for the OOT bags and was thinking of lanyards with badge holders as one of the items to put in the bag. I figured they would be good to put money in as well for tips.

[nhedderson]

Hi!

Yes, they use actual keys, on a rope/string that you can put around your neck. Old School!!!

[Patourn]

I have just returned from staying on the Tulum side. We had keycards. The only actual key that we had was the bar key for the mini bar in our room.  

Originally Posted by tropicalbride2011 

Could someone tell me if there are keycards for the rooms at the resort? I thought I read someplace in this thread that they use actual keys. I am starting to make purchases for the OOT bags and was thinking of lanyards with badge holders as one of the items to put in the bag. I figured they would be good to put money in as well for tips.

[thaodao]

 

Hi girls! I’m back from my November 3, 2010 wedding at the Gran Bahia Principe Akumal.  To all the brides that are still debating which resort to have their wedding at, all I can say is that if you chose this one, you won’t regret it!  We had 66 guests not a single person had anything negative to say!  Everyone was impressed by the service, resort and professionalism of those who work there.  Ok, I’ll get to the review…

 

Check in/Front Desk

We arrived Sunday October 31, 2010 to the Golden Junior section at Akumal in the early evening and were promptly offered a drink while we waited to be checked in.  We got the best room in the resort with a beautiful ocean view, which was close to everything!  Martin at the front desk was awesome.  We saw him through out the week for miscellaneous stuff.  It seems like he is always there… and he always has a smile on his face! Martin was like our personal concierge!  He handled all of our guest’s requests and even set up a last minute scuba dive excursion for eight of us with no problem whatsoever – we even got our own private boat!  INCREDIBLE!

 

The Resort

It’s HUGE!  You’ll need to take the golf cart train to Tulum and Coba, they run until 3am!  You can eat and go anywhere within Gran Bahia Principe. Tulum has a great lobby bar that we frequented and Coba has a better buffet than Akumal - do some exploring.  I’m sure there were tons of things available at the resort that we missed.  Everything was super clean and all the staff was super friendly!   There are lots of activities you can do within the resort such as, snorkeling, Hobe cat sailing, windsurfing, kayaking, ect...  There were plenty of lounge chairs available and you don’t have to walk far to get a drink.  We loved the resort and I am sure a few of the girls in our group will be booking their wedding at the GBP.

 

 

The Wedding Coordinator

Eugenia is AMAZING!  She had everything under control.  In the months leading up to our wedding she presented all of our options to us and answered all of our questions.  She always responded to our emails quickly and addressed all of our concerns.  Upon arrival, Eugenia met with us and had copies of our email communications. She was so organized and it was easy to trust her with our big day.  All we had to do was make a few decisions and that was it.  She took care of everything else.  We brought our own paper lanterns for our private poolside reception and she took care of hanging them for us.  Eugenia absolutely made our wedding stress free and the best day of our lives!  We LOVE the service she gave us – First class!

 

The Wedding Photography- Arrecife Mexico Studios

Some of you may or may not remember our battle we had with GBP about using Claudia Rodriguez photography (an independent company) for our wedding.  At the time we booked, we were not informed that we could not use an independent photographer- GBP provided us with a form that indicated the photography was optional.  We were informed only 2 months before our wedding that our only choice was to use Arrecife photography (the resort’s exclusive photographers).  We were devastated!  Pictures were very important to us!

 

Arrecife promised to give us their VIP service and asked us to trust them.  We were tired of drawing all the negative energy to our special day so; we reluctantly agreed to use them.

 

*Fast forward to our meeting on-site at the GBP*

 

After our meeting with Eugenia, we were introduced to Roccio (manager) and Juan (photographer) from Arrecife photography.  Juan immediately set our minds at ease by showing us his portfolio and describing his artistic style.  We then found out that both Nestor and Juan were shooting our wedding!

 

This is where I eat my words and apologize to Arrecife for causing such a fuss. The pictures are STUNNING!!!  I can’t begin to even tell you how gorgeous they are, but I would be happy to send you a few sample pictures (just PM me).  Girls, if you are worried about the resort photography and contemplating about bringing your own photographer, there is NO NEED!   Leave your photographer at home and trust Arrecife.  They know the resort, the lighting and have expertise to capture your special day and give you incredible pictures!  In fact, my friend (who is a director of photography for commercials) stated he was very impressed Juan and Nestor’s knowledge and technique and would not hesitate to hire them.  We ended spending more than we thought we would on photos- only because we could not decide on photos we didn’t want.  We ended up taking 90% of the photographs- they were worth EVERY PENNY! 

 

My advice to GBP brides:

 

• Don’t sweat it if the wedding coordinator doesn’t get back to you right away- she has it under control.
• Use Arrecife for your photography!  They know what they are doing and have the edge of knowing the best places to capture your special day. 
• Budget a little more money for your photographs.  We ended up spending a lot more than we expected, but when you see your photos, you won’t want to leave any behind
• TIP!  They all work so hard.

 

Hope this review helps, but if you want to PM me for some wedding photo samples, advice etc…  please do so.  Good luck!!!  You won’t regret choosing GBP for your destination wedding.

 

 

Take care,

 

Thao

[sposa]

Hello!

I am so happy your wedding went well.

I have booked for next  year but I havent heard from the coordinator herself.It is reasurring to see that a lot of people they go through the same.Regarding the extra pictures you bought from Arrecife,can I ask how much do they cost?I know I will probably want more than the 10 in the package.

Thanks!

 

[Patourn]

Hi everyone, I apologize for the delay in writing this...I'm still trying to get over the fact we had to leave and am struggling to return to "normal" life!

 

We (my hubby, myself and 29 guests) flew out of Toronto on Saturday October 23rd and arrived in Cancun around 12:15-12:30 Mexican time. The rest of our guests arrived later that day.  There were 62 of us in total! We had 3 suitcase between the two of us. Hubby got the green light, I of course got the green one! But it all worked out in the end I was carrying the smaller of the suitcases which was full of just my husband's clothing. So in the end it was just a 5 minute delay. We had a huge air conditioned coach bus for transport to the resort. Our first stop was a local 7/11 where we purchased beer which made the 90 minute trip fly by! We made 2 quick stops to drop others off at 2 other resorts and arrived at the Bahia Principe (Tulum side) at approximately 3:15. We were dropped off at the front entrance where they took our luggage and then transported via tram to the Club Diamond check in. Fernando was there to greet us with a big smile and many more Cervasa's. Check in went very smoothly and then we were transported via trams to our rooms. First tip...if you or any of your guests wish to book any of the a la carte restaurants make sure you do as soon s you get there as they fill up very fast! You are able to access all the restaurants at all 3 resorts so explore around and see what you like best!  The bulk of my guests stayed in Villa's 32 and 33. We did have some others scattered throughout the resort but there was no problem with this. We didn't get the Honeymoon suite, but I really was not heartbroken about it, for the amount of time that you are actually in your room, the junior suite was just enough for us.

 

The weather was truly amazing! we lucked out. It rained for the first 30 minutes that we were there and then for about 10 minutes the next day. Other then that there was nothing but golden sunshine! I did find out after wards that it rained at the gazebo site about 25 minutes before we were due to get married. From where we were getting dressed you wouldn't have know a thing and then by the time we got to the gazebo you wouldn't have know a thing! It was as clear as a bell...so to hear after wards that they considered moving it inside was quite funny!  

 

For the bulk of the trip, we all hung our or should I say took over the main pool. We did the Mayan Ruins on the Friday and had a great time. We took a taxi for the 20 minute drive, the beach there is absolutely stunning.  Our taxi driver waited the 2.5 hours for us and drove us back. As others have already previously mentioned...tip, tip and tip....and you'll get the service you want for sure. We had guests that did zip lining, scuba diving etc. and all had nothing but awesome things to say. I wish we had Had some more free time to do stuff like that but when you are there for your own wedding you are a bit Prue-occupied.

 

We met with Jazmin our wedding coordinator on Monday which by luck was also y birthday...yes ladies it was a week long celebration. She was just amazing, I can't say enough about her. The minute that I shook her hand I knew that we would be taken care of. We went through everything that I had emailed her over the past year and a bit and she had everything laid out just as we had discussed. She was super organized and I knew that we could trust her with our big day! It was also at this meeting that we gave her our guest favors, guest book etc.  She then arranged that night for myself and all 60 of our guests to eat at the Akumal buffet and that was just awesome!

 

We had 10 pictures included in our wedding package. And like everyone site at the resort they were taken by the Arrecife photographers.  We had Nestor who was really great and easy to work with. We took the 10 from our package and then ended up taking 4 others. We actually had a friend of ours take the bulk of our photos. I'm not sure how we were allowed to...I'm not sure if it was because we had booked well before Arrecife took over, but Jazmin was on board from the very beginning. Had we not have someone taking them for us I would have been extremely happy with the ones that Nestor took. I just found them very expensive....15 dollars US for each additional picture. My girlfriend's husband ended up getting the exact same shots and they were just as great!

 

We had our wedding meal at the Gran Tortgua....and it was simply amazing. The food was spectacular, and the service was amazing. We couldn't have asked for a better time. We had a huge salad buffet with all sorts of other goodies thrown in. And then the servers brought everything you can think of meat, bread around on these huge swords and carved them right there at your table. We had a 3 layer tier cake and it was chocolate and yummy! We had our dinner from 6-8 and then we had a private poolside reception from 8-10 with DJ Bijan. For those of you that have him booked you will not be disappointed. The reception site was decorated beautifully all buy the hands of the resort. I did not bring anything extra for the reception.

 

My advice to all of you out there planning, DO NOT STRESS! I know it's very hard and sometimes it takes a while for the wedding coordinators to get back to you, but they really, really do know what they are doing!! And they will help you out in any way to make it the day of your dreams! We had 62 guests go and they all say it was the trip of a lifetime. And we couldn't have asked for anything better then that! Enjoy yourselves and it will be the day of your dreams.

 

Feel free to write or PM me any questions, or if you need advice etc!

 

Patricia

[nhedderson]

Originally Posted by nhedderson 

 

Hi!

Yes, they use actual keys, on a rope/string that you can put around your neck. Old School!!!

 

 

I stayed at Coba November 2009 so i am not sure if COBA changed to key cards or not.

 

Thanks!

 

 

[tanyam]

How much do you recommend I put in my budget for photographs? I have absolutely no idea what is an appropriate amount so if you can give me a ballpark around how much it will cost to use the resort photographer I would greatly appreciate it

Thx!

[mannixrox]

This is a questions about the wedding packages that you were offered. I did recieved a list of the packages and the prices from eugenia when we booked, however i was looking at the official webiste and found a completelly different list of prices for the wedding packages than i was quoted http://www.bahiaprincipeusa.com/BP/Resorts/Resort/Bodas/Akumal  is the link that i found. How much were your wedding packages??

Thanks

Jen

[Patourn]

Hi there!

 

We paid 1350 US for the middle package....I believe it;s called Blissful Love.

 

Hope that helps!

 

Originally Posted by mannixrox 

This is a questions about the wedding packages that you were offered. I did recieved a list of the packages and the prices from eugenia when we booked, however i was looking at the official webiste and found a completelly different list of prices for the wedding packages than i was quoted http://www.bahiaprincipeusa.com/BP/Resorts/Resort/Bodas/Akumal  is the link that i found. How much were your wedding packages??

Thanks

Jen