Blau Varadero

[pkitch]

Thats really bad,did you get any good photos taken by a guest?

We are not having their photographer either but one of our guests is ok with a camera so she is doing most of them,the rest we are relying on other guests to take-photos are important but not so important to us to pay their dodgy professional to take them!

Hope you get some good ones-would you say that if that issue didnt happen it would have been good

[jackobelle]

I would say other than that issue, and them raising the price of the wedding package quite a bit AFTER we booked it was good. The resort was great for a group.

 

In hindsight, I would have maybe booked somewhere else. The Blau doesn't seem to be as "wedding friendly" as some other Varadero resorts - they seem like one of the only resort who doesn't set up chairs on the beach. Which might have contributed to the following problem:

 

There was a wedding a day after ours on the beach and the beachgoers were all crowded around the ceremony in their bathing suits trying to take pictures. There was a TON of them! There were even a bunch of people right beside the bride & groom between them and the ocean. So all the pictures would have a group of people in their bathing suits watching instead of the beautiful ocean backdrop.

 

I think that this problem was increased due to the fact that the wedding set-up is right at the bottom of the only set of stairs to the beach. The busiest spot on the Blau's section of the beach. I think that having it off to the side with chairs set-up like many other resorts do (or even better if they have a gazebo) would have encouraged less people to crowd around.

 

You might be able to ask them to set up the ceremony off to the side just past where the volleyball net is (to the right) as people aren't set up there in their beach chairs. It would be a bit of a walk for the bride though. If you really want a more private ceremony, I'd have it in the gardens then go to the beach for pictures. If you really want the beach, be prepared to be crowded by bathing suit people! (they were even asked to move, but they didn't - SO disrespectful!)

 

We actually really lucked out on that issue though. It was raining lightly and was cool the day of our wedding....not beach weather at all. We decided to have it on the beach anyway. We got a little wet, but we had the entire beach to ourselves, it was beautiful!

 

Everyone is going to send us a CD of the pictures they took, so I am sure we;ll get a few good ones, but it isn't the same as a professional.

 

Hope this information helped, let me know if you have any more questions!

[pkitch]

Thanks for the info,my other half is asking if hair dryers and straighteners work ok out there?

[jackobelle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pkitch Thanks for the info,my other half is asking if hair dryers and straighteners work ok out there?

You need a converter, I believe. The voltage is different. Although some rooms seemed to be different. My friend said in the bathroom there is a switch on the plug to change the voltage. Another friend used a converter. There are hairdryers in the bathrooms but they are not very powerful.

[andrewdolphin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pkitch Thanks for the info,my other half is asking if hair dryers and straighteners work ok out there?

pkitch, many Cuban hotels, including the Blau Varadero, use 220V sockets so your equipment will work, you'll just need a UK to US plug adapter.

Debbie's Caribbean Resort Reviews Forums - Electricity 201- List of Resorts/Hotels

[pkitch]

thanks for the info. One last question!! we were wondering what to do about music for the ceremony. Did you take a CD or hire some kind of musician?? Im thinking some kind of live music would be better. Do you know what is available?

[jackobelle]

They don't have a CD player or speakers on the beach. We wanted to use a microphone, but couldn't. They have a 3 person band you can hire. The price was 200 CUC for 30 minutes.

[pkitch]

ok,we have now sent about 10 emails to the blau and not had one reply,we have sent to sales,sales manager and reservations-has anyone had any success emailing them?

[jackobelle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pkitch ok,we have now sent about 10 emails to the blau and not had one reply,we have sent to sales,sales manager and reservations-has anyone had any success emailing them?

Have you ever gotten an email from them? The WC (she is at the sales email address) was usually very quick at replying. Maye try sending one from a different email address. We did have a problem where her emails were not getting to my work email so I switched to hotmail and everything was fine after that.

[pkitch]

Thanks,

they have replied to a different email address-it seems the one we used originally wasnt gettting through!!