Riu Palace Riviera Maya vs Gran Caribe Real

[katrina305]

I am new to this forum and I have narrowed my choices down (for now) to these two resorts. I am planning to go down to Mexico and stay at each resort for 5 days to get a feel for them. My main concern is the price for my guests. RPRM seems to be more expensive than Gran Caribe. I am working with someone from Destination weddings.com and she said that group rates are available, so I am hoping the RPRM will be a little cheaper. Has anyone booked RPRM with the group rate or had any experience with booking throught Destination weddings.com? Also, what is usually a good price to expect guests to pay for 5 days?

[Jackie439]

I am getting married at the Gran Caribe Real Resort in September 2010 and my travel agent is with Destinationweddings.com. I decided not to do a group rate because the group rate I received from the hotel seemed higher than the rates found online. Plus with a group rate you have to put a lot of money down to hold the rooms. We are in the booking stage right now. We sent out the save the dates last month, which we actually purchased from DestinationWeddings.com. The save the dates turned out great. They are a large glossy post card. I just uploaded my guest list and personalized the save the date with additional wording and a picture of us and they do the rest (printed and mailed for us).

 

Back to the booking stage. Destinationweddings.com offers a free stay for the bride and groom in the presidential suite if your guests book at least 30 rooms. I have been asking my DW specialists the details of this program (ie. how many nights free etc.) but she has yet to get back to me. I would suggest if you are not going to meet this minimum to just have DW as an option for people to book but tell people they can book wherever if they want. DW's hotel prices have been comparable to other online sites (sometimes slightly higher) but I have found their flights to be much higher than other sites. It's just been a little frustrating because people have been telling me that they found it cheaper elsewhere. Our DW specialist has price matched for people and that has worked so far. We haven't booked our flight yet but the hotel for 4 nights has been averaging about $800-850/couple for one room for labor day weekend.

 

I have been impressed with the communication with the hotel so far although Gran Caribe will charge you for every little thing so it can add up. This may be the case with all of these resorts though.

 

If you visit Gran Caribe Real Resort Cancun let me know what you think:) Good luck and Congratulations!!

[dana]

I'm getting married at the Riu Palace Riviera Maya in November 2010. I'm going through a private travel agent. There is a great thread on here for the Riu Palace Riviera Maya you should check out, it's 180 pages but answers so many questions. We do not have a group rate but for 5 days is about 700 dollars for the room plus air fare which is roughly 350-400 dollars right now. Good luck making your decision