Azul Sensatori Brides - POST HERE!

[sam33]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Katie_2010 aw Ash, thanks so much for posting all that. I'd definitely be interested to hear about the food please!! We are in the process of a major complaint to the TA and hotel about the mis-selling of the package and photographer issue, amongst several other things. The result could be anything...but if they don't sort out the issues, we will at least be moving hotel and company, if not country as well....Cuba's sounding quite tempting at the moment! I've had a major stressful weekend with it all and this planning has officially become horrible, stressful and draining and I don't want to do it anymore. something needs to change ( interesting as well about Carrie- you're comment about there not really being a sea view - we're paying quite a bit more money for a room which apparently is a sea view room!! this will be something else to go on the complaint email!!

Hi

Im really sorry to hear you r having problems with the hotel. We had a similar problem as yourselves. with photographer and decorated venue among many issues.
Our TA (Who are brilliant),have been fighting our corner for us but they were not getting anywhere fast, not their fault.
We had decided that after 8 weeks of no answers to make the big decession to change venue.
We changed venue and within 15hrs had the date confirmed, photographer booked and wedding package organised, i feel so relieved and excited.
This was the best decesion we made.

I do hope you manage to get things sorted and your wedding is still on course for the Azul Sensatori as i am sure it is a beautiful resort and your wedding will be perfect.

By the way we have been to cuba, it has beautiful beaches and clear blue seas just perfect, however it is very third world.

Would be intrested to hear your views on how your getting on

[AshManahan]

Here's the skinny on the food (haha nothin skinny because I gained 3 pounds in 6 days).

What is interesting is that during the day you will have to eat a buffet. There is no a la carte at all. This changed from our last visit. I think I will break this down by meals, what to eat, what not to eat. Also, I am a total food snob so take this with a grain of salt. I don't cook and my job affords me the pleasure of eating 5 star meals at least a few days a week, but give me a gross McDonald's Big Mac and I am happy!

 

Breakfast at Spoon is really your only option. They have everything you could think of, especially if you are creative. I managed to make Eggs Benedict on a bagel believe it or not. The potatoes in general tend to be mushy or undercooked. The pancakes were crunchy on the edges (my 7 year old is the official pancake tester).

 

Lunch--

Beach Barbeque. DO NOT eat the cheeseburger. For that matter, I urge you to stay away from most red meat unless you like dry, chewy and flavorless. Oh, and overcooked. The hot dog is okay. I'm neutral on everything else, but Mayo on a table in the hot sun makes me weary.

 

Spoon lunch and dinner are somewhat similiar. They have a grill that you could get simple chicken breasts at. Pretty good stir fry and a pasta station as well. There was some type of curry pork that I liked a lot. Good selection of veggies.

 

Zocalo--I love it here, but I am a big Mexican fan. You can make your own cesear salad. Great jalepeno poppers. Fabulous chicken in mole sauce. The buffet changes daily.

 

Dinner--Le Chique is still great. I liked everything except the tuna sashimi. For me, raw fish has to be top notch in terms of quality. It just wasn't there for me, but the sauce covered the taste for the most part.

 

Sienna---First off, I live in Chicago and work in NY so no one will wow me in terms of Italian, but I can suggest some good things and some really bad.

The good...stuffed chicken with spinach and cheese was outstanding. Fusilli bolognese, carbonarra, mushroom risotto, and minnestrone soup were nice as well. Don't go near the Osso Buco, Pork, or Filet. The tomato and mozzarella was like watery tasteless cheese and not so ripe tomatoes. The mashed potatoes were instant. Also the waiter warned me not to eat the fish.

 

Zavaz--I was fairly disappointed in dinner. I enjoyed the tomato soup. The crab cakes were aweful, one was actually frozen!!! The calamari almost made me puke. I think I must have blocked our entrees because I can't remember what we ate. I do remember that each time my FH and I had something gross we would smile and say, "here honey have a bite" and would make the other eat it so we would both suffer!

 

Drinks were outstanding, just tell the bartenders how you like them, for example if you enjoy your alcohol and order fruity drinks, tell them "not too sweet" and it will be great. You have to have the Crazy Monkey and Mango Margaritas!

 

Have a good night ladies!

[Jenna20]

Hi Ladies,

 

I have been considering Azul Sensatori for my wedding. I'm curious to know if any of you looked at Azul Fives, and if so why you chose Sensatori? Both seem like beautiful resorts. Any information would be great!

[Anon101]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AshManahan Here's the skinny on the food (haha nothin skinny because I gained 3 pounds in 6 days)...

Thanks for the info, but you have me shaking! You said don't eat the meat and don't eat the fish -- with a few awfuls and gross's thrown in. Please tell me you are exaggerating a bit and I shouldn't be petrified that we have 75 guests coming...omg, the food sounds disgusting. I am going to throw up.

[scooby9c]

Hi Ladies, I hope everyone had a great weekend. I wanted to follow up on AshManahan's food reviews as well having done a site visit myself. I'm a little perplexed to hear they changed their policy on having the a la carte option for lunch and breakfast - that is very disappointing as the only reason I booked an all-inclusive is because they offered this option. We didn't want the traditional AI where the only option is buffet. I am definitely going to call the hotel and complain on this one. BTW ash -I'm originally from Chicago - so I totally agree with you on the Italian food at Sienna. There were some decent items on the menu, but I definitely would steer clear of any of the pizzas. Also most of the meat at the restaurants with the exception of le chique I would stay away from as well. Mexico has never been known for its beef. You are better off going with pork (carnitas) rather than beef or chicken. The fish is decent at some restaurants depending on how it is prepared (keep in mind that grouper and sea bass are really the only fish that are local). If they tell you mahi is fresh they are lying. My fiance and I are big foodies as well and his father is a charter boat fisherman out of Naples, FL so he gave us the skinny on the local seafood.

 

Spoon is definitely a great option for breakfast as well as Zavaz. We actually preferred Zavaz for breakfast. There were a lot of very good and unique options on the menu and it has a great view of the water and doesn't seem to be as crowded in the mornings. This was when you could order a la carte though - so I am not sure how the food is now that it is buffet. Spoon has a larger buffet though and lots of options for the pickier eater. Zocalo was our favorite for lunch - but we love mexican food. Spoon is also good for lunch. I was not a fan of the Tapas restaurant. To be fair our first time we tried it was the night we arrived. We had a huge delay in getting there and didn't sit down for dinner until 9 p.m. - so the food wasn't very warm and wasn't very fresh. We went back for lunch one day and it was a bit better - but if you are a big tapas eater you will be a bit disappointed. I found the food at Tapas to be very bland. It was very basic food in bite size portions - none of the flair you might find at a traditional tapas restaurant.

 

Le Chique is great and very entertaining - but if you have picky or less worldly guests you may want to warn them up front that this is more of a dining experience rather than a big meal. Its all based on molecular cooking - so be prepared for very small portions and lots of foam :-). They will most likely be hungry after dinner - but since its an all-inclusive we didn't find it to be an issue and we had the best time.

 

Something else you may want to warn your guests on is that the portions are very small at most of the restaurants. We found ourselves ordering 2 entrees at times. Not a huge issue of course since its an AI, but it took us a day or two to feel comfortable ordering so much food. We have already told our guests to eat up - sometimes they need to be reminded that they have already paid for everything.

 

Having said all that - for the ladies worried about your dinner for the actual wedding reception - Don't Be! The food on the banquet menu is very different and much more sophisticated. I was freaking out after we tried Tapas on our first night and then had lunch as Sienna the next day - I couldn't believe the place was touting itself as a five star dining experience. However after we had our food tasting I was a happy girl again. I had a similar experience as Ash - apparently we were the first couple to ever request a food tasting and they were less than prepared. As a result I was able to design my own food tasting - which was fun. We almost had to be rolled out of the restaurant afterwards though because we ate so much food :-). They gave us a private table in Spoon and the Chef sat with us along with the head waiter as we tried the food. He was totally willing to make small changes or mix and match. Our wedding coordinator told us that we had to either order off of the 09 or the 10 menu, and couldn't mix or match. This is not true though - the Chef was totally willing to accommodate us.

 

Our menu tasting consisted of four entrees, four hot starters/appetizers, two soups, three salads, 9 canapes from the cocktail party menu and 9 canapes from the white glove cocktail party menu, and three deserts as well as three mini cakes featuring the three flavors they offer for the wedding cake. They charged us $160.00 for this ($80 per person). They also will give you a wine and/or tequila tasting if you request it.

 

We found nearly everything to be very tasty and very well done. We still didn't love the beef tenderloin that we tried at our tasting. Although in the end we ended up going with the seared filet in shiraz wine sauce they are now featuring on the 2010 menu. I'm a little worried as we didn't get a chance to try it when we were there - but I'm hoping for the best. The tenderloin in the lobster sauce is what we tried at our tasting and it was not good at all. It was very dry and the sauce had no flavor. The rack of lamb was awesome though and we were going to go with this option, but we got so many weird responses from some of our guests that I switched it back to the filet. I think everyone would have liked the lamb - but we figured most people are expecting a filet option. Our other entree is the potato encrusted mahi mahi with the apple cilantro relish - except we are switching out the mahi for the grouper since it is a local fish. I'll be more than happy to give a review on any of the other items on the menus since we nearly tasted everything :-) if someone wants to PM me.

 

As far as the drinks - they are great. We were very disappointed to find that they only have two beer options and that they have a very limited tequila menu at the AI bars. I found it strange that you can get top shelf vodka and rum, but not top shelf tequila in Mexico. We are purchasing a few bottles of higher quality tequila for our welcome cocktail reception though. Also, if you tip your bartenders they are very generous in their pouring :-).

 

I'm still trying to figure out how to post pictures from our visit - can't seem to figure out the photobucket process yet.

 

Sorry these messages seem to be so long winded - hopefully the info was useful to some of you.

[MrsVaughn2B]

I am disappointed they changed to a buffet for breakfast and lunch as well. Breakfast I can probably deal with but I was excited to try different things for lunch and dinner. I am not a big buffet girl anyway. Because AS was one of the only resorts that did not do the buffet is one of the reasons i was attracted to it. I am going to call my TA and question if they are still marketing themselves to be al la carte.

Does anyone know if Spoon is a buffet for dinner now too?

[scooby9c]

I just wrote a email to my WC at Luxe asking why I was not informed of such a major change in policy - we'll see what they come back with. I'm also about to send in my final payment now that I'm 3 weeks out from the big day :-). If any of you ladies who are still in the planning stages are interested, I listed some of the prices I was quoted. We made some minor adjustments - particularly to the bouquets as I thought $180 was a bit outrageous. Hopefully if they come back at you with higher pricing you can use this as a negotiating point:

 

Bridal Bouquet: purple and white roses, callalillies, and orchids: $300.00

Bridesmaid bouquets: pink and orange roses: $50.00

Matron of Honor Bouquet: assortment of pink, purple, yellow, orange and green flowers: $180.00

Fabric/Sheers for Altar: $75.00 per sheer.

Flower petals for aisle: $100.00

Floral Chair Corsages: $33.00

Chair Bows: $4.00 each

Uncovered additional chairs: $9.00 (they just changed this from $12 to $9)

Large vases with mixture of flowers (orchids, dahlias, roses, lillies, tulips) in purple, pink, orange, yellow, and green: $420.00 (these are going at the base of our gazebo and then moved to the entrance of zocalo terrace where we are having our dinner reception)

altar corsage of purple roses and orchids and greenery: $300.00

Altar corsage of just purple roses and greenery: $60.00

Large Cylinder Vases with floating orchids and floating candles: $35.00

square pave Centerpiece of mixed tropical flowers (dahlias, roses, orchids, tulips): $145.00

Table runner: $5.00

Chair Bows: $4.00

Single Long stem roses for chairs: $10.00 each

Single Pieces of Bamboo: $10.00 each

Floating candles for the pool (dozen): $200.00

Orchids for hair: $20 each

Tiki torches: $7.00 (note that you can't move them from site to site).

maracas for wedding favors: $6.00 per pair

Three tier square cake with green ribbon and orange orchids ($20.00 per orchid)

I have also asked them to price out a sunset catamaran cruise and the quotes were outrageous. I'm workign with another vendor now to see if we can go through them - much more reasonable.

 

Hope this helps :-)

[scooby9c]

Hi Ladies,

 

I'm attempting to post some pics of the property that I had with me on my work computer. I'll see about posting some more that I have at home. Just a few snaps of the property in general. Hopefully this works - still trying to figure out the whole photobucket thing....

 

 

 

 

 

[scooby9c]

and a few more...

 

 

Zocalo Terrace

 

 

[~Katie~]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sam33 Hi Im really sorry to hear you r having problems with the hotel. We had a similar problem as yourselves. with photographer and decorated venue among many issues. Our TA (Who are brilliant),have been fighting our corner for us but they were not getting anywhere fast, not their fault. We had decided that after 8 weeks of no answers to make the big decession to change venue. We changed venue and within 15hrs had the date confirmed, photographer booked and wedding package organised, i feel so relieved and excited. This was the best decesion we made. I do hope you manage to get things sorted and your wedding is still on course for the Azul Sensatori as i am sure it is a beautiful resort and your wedding will be perfect. By the way we have been to cuba, it has beautiful beaches and clear blue seas just perfect, however it is very third world. Would be intrested to hear your views on how your getting on

Thanks for your post Sam.

We heard back from our TA today and they have said they can't do anything about the package as the hotel won't but they (the TA) will waiver the £35 pp change fee and let us change the hotel/destination free of charge.

How has it been for the hotel you've changed to? was there a big difference? and where did you change to? (sorry about all the questions!)

and yep...started looking at Cuba but kinda gone back to looking at alternatives in Mexico now. just so wary because I don't want to find myself in the same situation again...

soooo stressed!