Travel Agent – TA Jill – A+
Jill was great to work with throughout the whole process. It was nice having someone else deal with our guests’ questions about travel so that was one less thing on my plate. The travel packets she sent us were great, too. We got a nice case to carry all of our documents in and several luggage tags for our baggage. I’m glad that I ended up not giving out luggage tags to our guests, so that’s something to keep in mind if you go with Jill! Overall, her service was great. She responded quickly to all of my emails, and helped us to deal with some travel issues (I’ll get into that later).
American Airlines – B-
While my DH and I didn’t really have any problems on our flights, one of my co-MOH’s arrived 6 hours after she was scheduled and completely missed the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. They boarded the plane on schedule then were forced to sit in the hot plane for 2 hours! Finally she said a man behind her told the stewardess that he had a heart condition and needed to get out of the heat so they let everyone off. They boarded a 2nd time to find out that the plane still wasn’t fixed, so they got off again. Finally, the 3rd time was a charm and they left the ground. I can’t believe the airline would do that to people, they weren’t even offered drinks!
One positive is that AA only recently changed their baggage policy to one free checked bag, and since DH and I booked our flight before the policy went into effect, we each could check two bags for free. Luckily, I was able to stuff all of our wedding stuff into just 4 bags to be checked so we didn’t have to pay any extra fees.
Some of my family flew with Continental Airlines. Their flight from Newark to Pittsburgh on the way home was cancelled. The lady at the counter told them that a notification was sent out so there wasn’t much they could do for them except get them on a flight the next day. My parents had to work so they had to rent a car and make the long drive home. I felt so bad since I didn’t hear of it until several days later. Jill called Continental and found out that the notification about the cancellation was never sent! She did get us a small refund, but I still can’t believe that the horrible customer service. I won’t be flying with them in the future.
Cancun Airport and Transfers – A-
Our plane arrived at the same time as 3 others, so it took us 1.5 hours to get through the airport. I think that seemed rather quick though when you think about how small the airport actually is. When I went through customs, they did stop one of my bags. Last time I was in Cancun, they didn’t scan our bags, we just went straight to the red/green light. This time, they scanned every single bag of every passenger. For the bag under question she just pointed to it and asked what was in it. I told the girl that it was favors for my wedding. You could tell she didn’t know much English, but she asked if they were like souvenirs. I said yes and she let me go. Then at the red/green light the guy asked me how much my favors/gifts were worth and I told him the value and that I had all of the receipts. He said that’s fine and let me press the light. Luckily DH and I both got green so we got through pretty easily. Just make sure to tell them that it’s your wedding and bring receipts along just in case!
We didn’t have any problem with the time-share people. Our transfers were with American Express and when they found out it was our wedding they sent us in a van by ourselves. It was nice to not have to stop at a bunch of other hotels, but that’s what happened to most of our guests. They didn’t seem to mind. One thing that really irked me was the American Express guy at Dreams Cancun was really annoying. He told all of our guests that they had to stop by at some point to give him their flight information. When they did, he kept trying to sell them trips and stuff. For instance, he apparently thought my mom looked like she wanted to go on a bar crawl. Finally I started telling people to not bother going to talk to him and sure enough they still got a call the day before the departed to tell them when the van would come to pick them up. My advice is to stay away from that guy, American Express should already have all of your flight information if you booked through a TA. Now the American Express guy at Dreams Riviera where we honeymooned was much better and actually quite helpful. He even recognized us one morning when we were in the lobby and came over to say hi. I guess it’s just hit or miss with these guys.
Wedding Coordinator Cecilia – A
While I really want to give her an A+++++++ but there were a few things holding me back. The biggest thing being that we had scheduled our reception for the Club Terrace and when we got there it was still under construction. I really don’t mind that we had to change our wedding location, I’m just mad that she never said anything about it even though she had emailed me a week before we left to schedule our initial meeting. The second thing was that we had scheduled our rehearsal at 5 pm on July 1st. It turns out that Claudia also had a rehearsal at 5 and she showed up on time with her people. We let them go ahead, and finally Cecilia showed up at 5:30! She apologized that a meeting had run extremely late. Again, I completely understand, I just wish someone would have told us so we could have stayed out of the heat for a little longer!
Cecilia helping us with the rehearsal.
Besides that, she was great. While I tried hard to be angry and stern about the previously mentioned grievances, she just has this calmness about her that makes you relax. I was fuming when she showed up at 5:30, but within like 5 seconds I had completely forgotten about it! Knowing how busy they are (she said they had 60 weddings in June and 48 in July) I probably only emailed her 10 times from the initial email inquiring about our wedding date. When I did, she usually got back to me within a week and much faster as the wedding came closer. You really just have to let go and trust that everything will work out.
She also does her job well and knows what looks good. Our reception was absolutely beautiful, I couldn’t believe what she had pulled off. We did tip her at our first meeting, and while I don’t think we got a ton of ‘free’ things, she did add little things here and there to make things look nice that we hadn’t paid for. For instance, we only paid for 5 lights under the tables, but she had also put lights under some of the side tables as well, like for the cake and favors. We also only paid for 4 centerpieces, but she ended up giving us a 5th for our sweetheart table.
For trades, I didn’t use the flowers that came with the package since I had brought my own. I asked her to instead make some floral arrangements to go on the pillars of the gazebo and they looked great. I also didn’t have my hair done at the spa since my mom did it and instead they let me switch that out for one of my MOH’s makeup. Other than that, I didn’t really ask for anything else, although maybe I could have.
Flowers on the pillars.
Finally, after paying our bill and leaving for our honeymoon, we realized that she never took out our $500 deposit. When we emailed her about it, she asked us to send the information again about the wire transfer. While I’m annoyed that this was never confirmed despite my inquiring about it several times, she is trying to work it out with us. I don’t necessarily blame her though, it seems like there is a lack of communication between departments at Dreams. Hopefully we’ll get our $500 back soon enough!
Rehearsal Dinner – Paloma Bonita – A+++
I originally didn’t want to do a rehearsal dinner since I thought people would want to have as much time as possible to do other things while in Cancun. In the end, my MIL really wanted to do it, so I agreed and I’m glad I did.
Cecilia got me in touch with the public relations manager, Paola who set the whole thing up with us. She reminded me that Paloma Bonita does take reservations while none of the restaurants in the resort will. We had 37 guests, so just walking in to one of the restaurants was not really an option. Plus, we were all guests at the Dreams so we received 20% off our total bill.
While the restaurant is not air conditioned (and it was HOT that evening), the atmosphere was great. They have a mariachi trio in the evenings and since we were the largest group there, they spent quite a bit of time with us. My MIL even danced with one of the waiters! They also gave us the huge sombreros to take pictures with and everyone loved that. The best thing though was the food. They brought out assorted appetizers for each table so everyone could try a bit of everything. For the main course I ordered the Chicken Oaxaca and it was incredibly good. DH had the fajitas and he said they were decent. At one point, Paola came over and said hi. She even kissed me on the cheek, so sweet! I feel bad because I didn’t recognize her until she was leaving but I was impressed that she made the effort to stop by. Overall, everyone really loved it and I’m so glad we did it. I’m also glad that DH and I didn’t have to pick up the bill!
Paola saying hello.
View from the restaurant.
Mariachis
Wedding – A+++
My wedding was amazing from start to finish. There were little things here and there that weren’t quite right, but overall I loved it.
At 9 am I went down to the spa for a manicure. I tried doing my own French manicure and it was horrifying so I figured I’d splurge on myself a little. I had Doris and she was very sweet and did a great job. I think I also had her for our couples massage, so she really was a woman of many talents.
My french polish after a spa manicure.
Afterwards, my MIL came down to talk to me. Apparently DH had some sort of allergic reaction the previous night (he had his complimentary room so we didn’t spend the night together) and had to get a shot from the doctor. She said he was feeling better but still had some itchiness in his arms. We still don’t know what happened cause he’s not really allergic to anything that we know of. Anyways, she calmed me down and assured me that everything would be okay. The doctor gave him a prescription for an antihistamine. P.S. The charge for the doctor was $150. I couldn’t believe how cheap that was especially for a visit in the middle of the night! In the States that probably would have cost at least an arm and possibly a leg.
Anyways, I left for our room feeling a little better, but still worried. The ladies joined me in our 2-bedroom master suite (Jill can’t usually book that room, but she got us a sweet upgrade!) pretty much the rest of the day. My MOHs came up around 10:45 and I gave them their gifts. My mom came over around 11 and we ordered room service. At 12 my mom started doing hair and I like how everything turned out. The one thing I would change about mine is that my bangs started to come loose in the wind, make sure to pin those things down ladies! It wasn’t too bad but in some of our pro pics my hair started getting wrapped around my tiara and I didn’t like them as much.
Living room of 2-bedroom suite. Balcony is in the background.
View from our balcony.
Bangs going crazy in the wind.
More coming...
I really should have kept my mouth shut to begin with in order to avoid the complications, but it's a great topic so I said something snappy. Really though the question is as fraught with nuance as "What's the best grape for wine?"
So much depends on how coffee is roasted, ground and brewed. Each style tends to select for different qualities in the coffee itself.
That doesn't change much even as you narrow the focus down. Different high-end espresso machines, using fines ground to the same size in the same grinder, handle particular coffees differently -- and that's the best high end machines, like top level La Marzoccos, Brasilias, Astorias, and Nuova Simonellis. And that's just multi-group, coffee house style espresso machines.
There's even more of a variation with mid levels, and still more variation when you come to different brewing systems such as drip (paper or gold filter, how hot the water, quality of water, etc.) and press.
Then there's the way the coffee is roasted. Not just light or dark, city or full city, but the roast profile it takes to get there, the cooling cycle, the size of the roaster, the efficiency of chaff removal, the type of the roaster (fluid bed, radiant, contact-drum) etc.
Luc, I'm relieved to hear you grind before brewing. Grinding after leaves the coffee lumpy and the grinder wet.
Food, Fair Trade is definitely a very good thing and it's right and ethical to buy from growers and traders who adhere to "Fair Trade" standards at minimum. You're right about Starbuck's, too. Starbuck's tends to roast at too high a temperature scorching the exterior but leaving the center underdone. Oddly this isn't true about Starbuck's in all cities. Apparently their roast masters have enough authority that those who know their craft can pull it off. Starbuck's copied its roast profile from Peet's. Peet himself, and Peet's (the chain) usually get it much better. The coffee has a unique dark caramel character. Very good for a French press.
I like Blue Mountain, but don't think it's the "best." The "best" depends.
FWIW, most people prefer blends rather than singles for espresso. Me too.
It's said that the quality of a cup of espresso comes from the four (Italian) Ms. In order (and Italian) they're, Miscela, mano, macchina dosatore, macchina espresso. In English, that's the blend (including how its roasted), the hand (skill) of the maker, the grinder, and the espresso machine.
At the end of the day, choosing the "best" coffee, exotic or not, comes from an understanding of the interdynamics of your brewing method and tastes.
In truth, my current favorite blend is made from specific estate Brazilian, Costa-Rican, and Sumatran arabica beans, with about 10% Indian robusta for zip and crema; batch roasted to City; then allowed to rest for between three to eight days before grinding; immediately dosed into a portafilter overfilled to 18 gms; up-tamped using the tamper screwed to doser/grinder to about 20 lbs (more of a Euro than an American tamp); and immediately brewed at 202F - 203F. But without at least a decent espresso machine (decent as in $1.000 and up); a more than decent grinder; and a good roast master, none of this makes sense.
Also, what I said about TJ's Safari Blend is true. It's a very good cup of espresso with wonderful chocolate notes, I can pick it up whenever I want it, ready for the grinder right out of the can, with a day or so of age out of the roaster already on it.
Anyway, it's complicated.
BDL
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