barcelo maya colonial & tropical vs iberostar

[beck]

hello everyone, we are getting married this december and im having trouble picking the resort and package. we are deciding between the barcelo and iberostar resorts. i was wondering if anyone has stayed at barcelo colonial & tropical and had a wedding. this is all so new to me and i could really use some help! thanks so much

rebecca

[jajajaja]

I just vacationed at Barcelo Maya and stayed in the Tropical two weeks ago. I didn't get married there, but if you have resort specific questions I can maybe answer some.

[beck]

hi rachel, thanks so much. we are deciding between the tropical/colonial and the palace. the palace is much more expensive and im not sure if its worth it. what would you recommend? thanks

[jajajaja]

First, I would check in here: Unofficial Barcelo Maya - Index

because they have MANY threads on just that topic. However, word of warning (and I hope I'm not offending anyone that was married at Barcelo Maya or belongs to that site), I think they are OBSESSED with Barcelo Maya so if you are looking for objective, balanced opinions, you might not get them. But they have EXCELLENT information about the resort.

 

However here's my take and we have vacationed/travelled a lot:

Rooms- sufficient. However, beds were really hard (didn't bother me actually cause our bed at home is too soft), but a few in our party complained about it. BUT the sheets had that rubbery cheap feel and they didn't put anything on the bed other than sheets and the comforter- which I NEVER sleep with at hotels. It creeps me out. So we weren't as impressed with the bed.

 

Food- we thought the food was good the first couple of days but then we just got sick of it. They had little variety in the buffets/grills so I felt like we were eating the same thing over and over again. I'm a little pickier than my husband and even he complained about how bland and boring the food was and he eats everything. Breakfast was the worst because literally same thing every day. Dinners weren't too bad because you can mix up with the ala cartes- which weren't too bad. We really liked Capri (seafood) but felt the steakhouse and Italian were good, but nothign to write home about.

 

Alcohol- we debated doing Club Premium and in hindsight we would either do it or book at the Palace instead. Couple of reasons-

1. room location. We were in the VERY last room in tropical so we had to walk quite a bit to everything. Ok to burn off calories I suppose. But we didn't luck out on room placement and with Club Premium you get the ocean view rooms- which should be liberally stated. All rooms are off the ocean quite a bit... but still "ocean view".

 

2. Alcohol!! The alcohol is pretty poor. The only tequila they serve is Jose Cuervo so we didn't do any shots and actually ended up going to Sams and buying some nice brand tequila for like $20. I was suprised with the quailty because for our wedding in PV, we stayed at a Barcelo resort and they had much better alcohol selection. But for vodka they had smirnoff and rum I think they had bacardi. Not bad but when in MX, I like tequila!

 

Resort- GORGEOUS! Probably one of the prettiest and most expansive resorts I've been too. I didn't realize how large it was! I saw pictures but until you get there and walk it's another story.

 

Pool- perfect! Enjoyed many days here. LOVED IT!

 

Beach- Awesome. Snorkeling is really good here. We actually did an excursion to Xel-ha and a few days later decided to try snorkeling at the resort. We were completely shocked how good it was and it actually trumped Xel-ha in this area.

 

Bring bug spray.... they spray every night for mosquitos but I still got many bites! Just had to throw that in!

 

So to sum it up- for us, we said we would go back and try Palace instead. I was just disappointed with the food and alcohol. For some people it's not a big deal, but we like to eat and we really like to drink! lol