We got back from Riviera Maya last week. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed seeing my brother get married!
The wedding was held at the Gran Bahia Principe Tulum all-inclusive resort. The resort did a great job with the wedding. The ceremony and reception were very nice. There were different options for the bride and groom to choose for wedding pictures (although pricey considering the photographer didn't attend the reception). The reception was held by one of the pools, with a DJ and bartender provided, along with lights, tables and chairs. And, it was certainly nice to change out of wedding attire, throw on a bathing suit, and spend part of the reception swimming!! A great way to cool off, as it was HOT and HUMID in Riviera Maya!
There were a few issues that I had with the hotels - as there are three actual hotels within Gran Bahia (Tulum, Coba, and Akumal). First off, there was slim to none cell coverage. I never had cell service within the resort and those that did dropped calls left and right. Also, there was free wi-fi BUT only in the hotel lobbys. So, it made communicating with wedding attendees VERY challenging. You - well everyone but us - could call room to room...but that only worked if you caught people before they left for meals or the pool.
And, in our room, our room phone did not work. I could have dialed 911 (or the Mexico equivalent) all day long and all I would have heard was the dial tone. At 2 am on Friday night when a falling down, drunk woman banged on our door two separate times, for about five minutes each...it would have been nice to call the lobby and get someone to help this woman find HER room! But...with no working phone, no email, and no cell service, all we could have done was yelled and woken everyone else up!
There were a few other issues as well...
Upon checking in, we were told there was no where we couldn't go. Then, upon talking to family members there, we were told that we were only allowed to go to one sit-down restaurant during our four days at Gran Bahia. And, that one sit down restaurant had to go towards the wedding dinner. With a toddler, buffets were better anyway. But, isn't the one sit down meal something we should have been told at check-in?
We ended up splitting our meals between the buffet at Coba, the buffet at Tulum, and a snack bar at Tulum. The snack bar had decent chicken fingers and fries. And, you could order food from the bartender. My husband ordered chicken tacos one day and got some fried tacquito type food instead. Those that know him won't be surprised to hear that he left the fried food and walked away. Since when are tacos fried?
The breakfast buffet at Tulum was surprising. I couldn't find muffins. My husband couldn't find yogurt. And there was zero bacon.
All around, the buffet at Coba was MUCH better. A much larger selection for breakfast, lunch and dinner! The only issue we then ran into was the only time we could find fresh milk for our toddler was at breakfast. Aside from that, the waiters would pour out warm, condensed milk that smelled awful. We were told that the only place to get milk was at the buffet (but only breakfast) or we could buy it at the store. Not what you expect to hear when you are buying the high price for an all-inclusive resort!
Also, you can ONLY get bottled water in your room, when the mini-fridge gets stocked. No where else on the properties can you get bottled water. Instead, the waiters and bartenders assure you that the tap water is safe to drink. But, seeing as though two members of the 16 people from our group got sick with a touch of montezuma's revenge...the "assurance" fell flat. And, since my husband has had montezuma multiple times since moving to Mexico, he cannot be persuaded to drink water that doesn't come from a sealed bottle. Seems like...maybe bottled water should be more readily available.
But, for anyone that stays at the Gran Bahia...bring your Cipro (US antibiotic) or Treda (Mexican over the counter drug) with you, because buying it at the resort is a rip off! Those that got sick bought Treda (off my recommendation) and paid like $800 pesos - a RIDICULOUS amount, when off the resort property it would have sold for only $150 pesos, if that!
Sidenote: Treda is what a pharmacist recommended to me when Mike was sick in October, after our first trip to Mexico City. The instructions and warnings are all in Spanish and there is very little information that I could find online in English. However...the stuff seems to work!
Back to the resort...thesize of the resort has plus' and minus'. Plus, there is no need to book a separate excursion to see dolphins, as the resort has it's own pool of dolphins on the property. Of course, there is an additional charge to swim with the dolphins! Another plus is that there is a lot of options for swimming pools and quite a long beach stretching between Tulum and Akumal (Coba is not on the beach).
A negative to the size of the resort is that it is so big, the resort recommends that you take a tram to and from the various properties. I waited for the tram one night, got bit by a bunch of mosquitoes while waiting and finally gave up and walked from Coba to Tulum. It wasn't a bad walk once you found the side road and back entrance, near the dolphin excursion, into Tulum. But it wasn't well lit and I probably shouldn't have done it alone in the dark.
Another thing to note, each guest is only allowed ONE blue towel for the pool. You can exchange your towel all you want, but you only get one at a time.
Another negative, which the guys complained about mostly, was that there was only one choice of beer. I think that is probably pretty standard at all inclusive resorts...but maybe not??? And there was one choice of each red and white wine, which I heard was horrible - but slightly better at Coba than Tulum.
One other important detail to note for those that have kids...
When getting prices, my sister told a travel agent that I needed a quote for two adults and one two year old. She passed along the quote...which featured a cost for Annabelle. There was NO WAY I was going to pay $60 USD/day for Annabelle, when the kid barely eats.
When I looked directly at Gran Bahia's website, kids 1 and under where grouped together, then kids 2+. However, once you put in more details and get to the next webpage, kids 4 and under are grouped together (AND FREE), and 5+ is the cost of $60/day.
So, we saved ourselves $240 by booking thru the website. Good thing...as if I had to pay $60/day for Annabelle and couldn't get fresh milk for her more than once a day...I would have been extremely unhappy!!!
In the end, would we stay at the Gran Bahia Principe again? No. But, we aren't all-inclusive people (don't drink enough to get our money's worth) and we prefer smaller resorts, especially those with a kitchen in unit.
Here is a photo of Annabelle and my dad, along with "Coco" the monkey poolside at Coba! (The photo, purchased at the Photo Desk in Coba's lobby, cost $130 pesos - cash only!)
