Which would you choose: Royal Plantation or Half Moon (rose hall) resort?

[luckiestdestiny]

I'm getting married the last week in may 2012! (weekend wedding!)

Originally Posted by gingerpeach 

luckiestdestiny when are you getting married?

 

[gingerpeach]

 

 

Originally Posted by luckiestdestiny 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey Ginger peach...do you have any pics of your wedding? I would love to see. Also how many guests did you have (and which plan did you go with... or even how much did you end up spending approximately.if you don't mind.  Also wondering if you were nickel and dimed. Meaning I was emailed packages and other price points. Are they pretty straight forward or were there surprise costs)

 

One thing I'm wondering about the staff. From what I hear at royal plantation there are butlers but there are only butlers in the villas at half moon.  What makes the staff at half moon exceptional in your opinion (examples...or just general nice greetings, etc).

 

Thanks so much for any insight you can provide to help me imagine what my guests and I will experience if we go to half moon.

 

 

 

Originally Posted by MissSimone 

 

YAY I'm so glad I found this thread. I've been searching for more info about Half Moon on this site for over a year! I'd love to see your pictures also ginger peach! Hopefully you can do a review or something later on. I have soo many questions. First of all, how many people were in your group? I'd like to invite about 100 people and i wonder if Half Moon is going to be exciting enough for 20-somethings. I know my older family members will love it but I want everyone in my group from the youngest member to the oldest to have fun and feel like there's lots of things to do at the resort. Any insights you can share Ginger Peach would be MORE than appreciated.

 

Hello Miss Simone

I had 60 guests and my plan was al la carte, as i fell outside the 50 person package. that is not the say that you are limited to 50 but they have 10, 20 30 and 50 person packages- i guest that is based on their experience of numbers of guests for destination weddings. For 20 somethings it might be a little slow but it depends on the person and the type of experience they are expecting. Will all your guest be staying at half Moon? Half moon don't have waterparks but they have water sports, a dolphin lagoon, horseback riding not to mention the use of bicycles or carts to get around the property.We tried both cart and bicycles and it was so cool. Costs of these depend on your plan. There is a games room and pool table a few bars of course. I would suggest working out whose staying at Half moon and if you want you could get creative and design some games to be played on site. Overall remember you won't be able to please everyone. Of course there are other activities but half moon is not like other boutique resorts.

 

Feel free to ask any questions if I can help I will. andrea Smith master wedding planner and Tashane were amazing, I am sure that if I cannot answer a question they will be sure to help.

I have added 2 photos not sure if you can see...waiting on our professional pics so hope quality ok.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MissSimone]

Hi Ginger Peach, 

 

Your pictures look great. Did you get married on the Oleander Terrace? That's what it looked like based on your pictures. I don't want to get married on the beach and I love the view from the Oleander Terrace. I plan on perhaps telling my 20-something guests to stay at another resort, possibly the Hilton Rose Hall, and just have the wedding at Half Moon and bus people over. I wonder if they still have that 80% rule though where 80% of your guests have to stay at Half Moon or your pay a fee? Did you use the Half Moon vendors or did you bring your own?

Thanks again for all your help.

[gingerpeach]

Miss Simone, yes it was the Oleander terrace. I definitely did not want to get married on the beach so the terrace was a good compromise. I did take some shots on the sand though which were amazing..

Yes the rule still exists so we had to pay a fee, only 3 of our 60 guests could afford to stay at Half Moon. we had family from the US, Barbados, the UK and friends from Trinidad and St Lucia so people stayed at Hilton Rose Hall, Sunset Beach, Holiday Inn(which is right next door to half Moon) and a few stayed at the Rui Montego Bay. As guests were traveling at different dates and times it was hard to even try to get them all to stay at one place and thereby make some savings for them, i was getting stressed so gave up on that idea.

 

We used Half Moon's vendors as the fee for using outside vendors was ridiculous- that said I wanted a stress free wedding so not having to source saxophonists, DJ, cake baker, florist or photographer made it easy for me to just go with Half Moon's preferred vendors. we used Michael Saab for the photos, we saw his work and of the three photographers listed he was the best. Expensive but soo worth it.He is also great to work with made me laugh the entire time I am sure my mouth is wide open in half the pictures (LOL)

Hilton Rose Hall is a lot busier hotel but they have activities, entertainment in the evening etc. there is also the Strip for those who don't like hotel entertainment which can be corny to some.

Let me know how your planning is going, happy to help...

 

[Kelly K]

I have been to both Royal Plantation and Half Moon.

 

I prefer Royal Plantation...we did not have butler service but didn't need it...it seems we had the place to ourselves.  We were a group of 10 and we went in June 2008.  We hung out on the beach furthest from the restaurant.  If you are going out the lobby towards the beach---go to the left of the pool.  It had trees and couches and hammocks as well as beach chairs and umbrellas.  They had waiters come with drinks and you could order lunch on the beach and they came and set it up for you.  My boyfriend and I learned to windsurf and they were there to teach you at any time.  I also set up tennis lessons (all included).  The only downfall was the pool is small and there were flies all around it and no pool bar.

 

My boyfriend's family LOVED Half Moon---we were there June 2011.  They are golfers and got the golf plan and loved the course and the caddies.  We aren't golfers but found a place the has kiteboarding about 20 minutes away and they picked us up and dropped us off three days to kiteboard.  I was learning while my boyfriend kiteboarded.  It was great.  The pool is better at Half Moon but the resort is bigger and it's not as intimate as Royal Plantation and windsurfing and tennis lessons are not included in the AI plan.  They do have a nice pool and good pool bar.  We stayed in Hibiscus Suites right near the pool and overlooking the beach. We rode our bikes to the shopping area and it's like a ghost town...maybe b/c we were there in low season. 

 

We are looking to go back and get married in 2012 and have guests stay in the villas to save money.  I thought the restaurant prices were ridiculous but we were on the AI plan so we didn't pay.  No way you could eat at the restaurants for $140/day which looks like the premium for the meal plan each day.  I didn't see insie the villas but they look nice on the website and they all have pools and two golf carts, a cook, butler and housekeeper.  There is a comissary on-site but we never went in to look at prices of food.

 

Good Luck!